In ‘Internet years’ I think I can safely call myself a seasoned professional. I have been working online for a long time now; time in which I have know many people come and go.
While I hate to use the term ‘Make Money Online’ or even ‘Internet Marketing’ given the bad reputation that they both have, this industry is not for the faint hearted.
Sure you can pretty much pick a URL at random and you will hit a fancy looking landing page which promises to teach you the secrets to making your dreams come true by working online. Indeed, as I always say, there are a million ways to make a dollar online. The problem is, there are also a million conflicting reports about how you should go about it.
The truth is: You don’t have to be a genius! Really, you don’t. But all too often I see people crash headlong into getting started that they fail to plan correctly for success, and we all know that failing to plan is planning to fail.
So, how do we avoid failure from the start? Well, I know I said you don’t have to be a genius, but it doen’t hurt to take a lesson or two from one. Ladies and Gentlemen…
*Disclaimer, while the following quotes are mostly attributed to Einstein, I cannot guarantee that they are all his words. That being said, they do make my point, and are probably attributed to him because wise words somehow seem more believable coming from someone intelligent. Just roll with it!
At this point, you will be forgiven for thinking that I am crazy, but hear me out. You see I like my quotes. It only takes one great line – form a book, magazine, online article, tweet etc – to change my day. I especially love reading a great quote when the timing is appropriate. Take this one for example, which was floating around Facebook this morning:
Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.
~Albert Einstein
Accept this fact: we are all different, and fantastic in our own way. Now apply it to Internet Marketing and you will find that what works for one will not work for many.
I get questions about this all the time, when folks ask me why such and such is making all this money using {insert appropriate method here} and they just cannot seem to make it work. They have ‘followed the system’ and everything! As I said before, there really is a vast array of opportunities out there, but you will not be suited to all of them.
I see people fail because they are doing things that are not right for them. Failing that, they are hopping from one method to the other, without really taking the time to see if one is working or not. You know who you are!
If you are doing something that you don’t enjoy, because someone else is ‘killing it’, STOP! Take a step back, re-group and attack another method. Do something you enjoy, or else it will soon become a struggle. If you are a fish… don’t try climbing trees.
Cue Einstein again:
A little knowledge is dangerous. So is a lot.
I’m going to hit you with a string of quotes to re-enforce this point.
Another key reason for failure is information overload. Are you in this camp? Too much reading on how to do things, too little time spent doing. Do you talk a good game, but never actually play? There is such a thing as too much information, most certainly if your reading is preventing you from taking action.
Any fool can know. The point is to understand.
Anyone with half a brain can spend a day learning buzz words and then talk the talk. But do you actually have any substance of your own to back it up?
A huge problem with the Internet has always been the amount of regurgitated nonsense that bloggers keep posting. The ‘I read it on this guru’s site so it must be true, therefore Imma tell all my followers to do it too!’ crowd. The fact of the matter is:
If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.
Learn it, practice it, do it! You will understand infinitely more through doing than through reading. Enough said on that one, I think.
How about this as an idea: Instead of reading all the guru sites and then re-hashing stuff on your own blog, you spend a little time trying new ideas of your own. Yes, it is ok to think for yourself in this industry — in fact I strongly suggest you do.
As Einstein said:
It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.
Yes, you will make mistakes along the way… but what is the worst thing that can happen? You lose some free time and $4 for a domain name registration. Big deal, now you know definitively if the idea works or not.
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
I cannot stress the importance of trying something new. Being driven by your own ideas is a great way to ensure that you are doing something that you enjoy. Sure you will have plenty of ideas that don’t work, but you have to keep working at it. The Internet is hard work, especially when you are starting out, but:
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
That’s right, more often than not, success is just that little bit further down the road from the point at which you give up.
Too many people give up because of the simple reasons addressed in this article. Don’t be a quitter, but more importantly don’t keep bashing your head against the wall fighting to make money from something you don’t enjoy doing. There is a word for that… JOB!
I assume the reason you are trying to make it online is so you can free yourself from the shackles of your day job. Therefore you need to stop seeing this as work, and more as a ‘hobby that pays’.
The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking.
If what you are doing is not working then something needs to change.
Whereas most people would jump from one formula to the next, this may not be the best solution for you. Try changing the way you think about what you are doing. This simple trick might be all it takes to get you on the right track. Remember, just because it works one way for one person does not mean that it will work that way for you, but this does not mean a total change is needed, more so a slight shift is all.
What works for me? Well..
If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.
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