It’s just over 6 months since I started my internet marketing journey and my efforts to make money online, and what a six months it has been. There have been high, lows, frustration and eventually some success. It’s been one hell of a learning curve and just recently I have taken some time to step back and evaluate exactly what it is I have learnt, and how this can help you. It’s a well quoted statistic that 99% of people trying to make money online fail.
So why is this?
I think one of the problems lies in the difference between what people are promised by the “gurus” and the reality of building a successful online business. There are a number of myths (or if you were to be harsh, lies) consistently told about how easy it is to make money online. In this post I want to highlight some of these and offer you to truth behind the myth. It is essential to your success that you understand this, especially if you are just starting out. Understanding the reality of what it takes to succeed online will save you time and money. So let’s start……..
Myth 1
It’s Easy To Make Money Online!
This is one we hear all the time. You will see this repeated on every sales page you read. But is it true?
Now I am at the stage where I am actually making money online I feel I can answer this. Recently I have had some success with affiliate marketing through various methods. Was it easy to get to that stage? No. Is it easy now? No.
The most important fact you have to accept when trying to make money online is that there is NO PUSH BUTTON SYSTEM. Period. This is a REAL business. You wouldn’t consider setting up a conventional offline business as an easy proposition. You would expect to invest lots of time and money in the business. You would have to consider your stock and inventory, advertising, marketing, support system, staffing and many other factors. Making money online is no different. You should not think of what you are doing as trying to make some money online but understand that you are building a real business. Only by building a real business are you going to reap the rewards you are so often promised.
If you believe the hype and think this is going to be easy, I’m sorry to tell you it isn’t. But it is possible. You need a strong work ethic, determination and most importantly PATIENCE.
Success comes from the process of repeated actions and it is important to understand the process. Try not to over estimate how fast something will happen and under estimate what you need to do to make it happen. There are many ingredients to success and one of them you can’t remove is TIME. Once you understand and appreciate this process and stop trying to fight or beat the system, you can have anything you desire.
As my mentor Alex Jeffreys says, “It’s simple, but it’s not easy!”
Myth 2
You Will Be Sitting On The Beach While An Automated, Push Button System Sends Floods Of Money To Your Accout!
If only this one was true, wouldn’t it be great 
I was watching a presentation from a highly successful, if relatively unknown ppc marketer the other day. This guy is making $30 to $40, 000 profit per day on his campaigns. At the start of his presentation he mentioned some books he recommended you read. One of those was The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris. I have to agree, this is a fantastic book and one of my favourites.
The amazing thing was that he went on to say how we all aspire to be working the four hour work week but he was no way near this stage but working towards it. How can this be? Here we have a highly successful marketer earning millions and yet he’s not able to live the push button dream.
The reason is because he owns a real business and as I stated already, this is what it takes to make your fortunes online. A real internet business involves the setting up and maintenance of a full marketing system and funnel, branding, customer support, lead generation, relationship building, testing, tracking, conversion optimizing, hiring of staff or outsourcers and many other activities. Do you really believe this can be achieved sitting on a beach while you sip a cocktail and check you emails once a day? Of course it can’t.
We all want to believe it, I wanted to believe it and you shouldn’t feel bad for believing it. You have been marketed to by some very clever people. You know it’s not true but you still want to believe it. Turn the tables and instead of consistently being marketed to by the gurus look at HOW they market to you and apply this into your business.
As you progress you will be able to automate many aspects of your marketing system. But the reason for doing this is to free up your time to concentrate on the money making aspects in your business, and unfortunately, they don’t take place on a beach!
Myth 3
Starting An Online Business Requires Little Investment Of Time and Money!
This is another well used myth in Internet Marketing sales copy. By a domain name, $9. Get some hosting, $10 and your set. That’s all you need and the money will come rolling in. While it’s true that starting and running an online business is considerably cheaper than an offline venture, sorry to be repetitive here, but this is a REAL BUSINESS. I know I keep saying it and hopefully you will realise why. If you can just shift your thinking from trying to make a quick buck and concentrate on building a business you will get there much quicker.
If a domain and hosting were all you truly needed than that would make myth 1 true. So you have a domain name and hosting but can you set up a website? If not you will either have to learn, an investment of either time or money or you will have to pay someone to do this for you. You are going to need traffic to your website. Yes, you can achieve this through free methods but it takes up much of your time and it’s important that you put a value on this because it’s not free. If you value your working time at $50 per hour and you spend 4 hours a day on free traffic methods then that’s a cost of $200 per day. You also have the option of paid traffic such as ppc but as well of the cost of advertising you will also need to invest time in learning how this works.
Now you are getting visitors to your site you will need to capture their details so will have to invest in an autoresponder. If you want to make the most of Web 2.0 marketing you will need screen capture software, camera and other tools. There are lower quality free versions of these tools but if you are serious about your business you will want to invest in the best tools for the job.
The biggest cost of all though will be your education. We all know this. That is why we buy so many products! But no $27 or $197 ebook or program is going to provide you with the path to riches. The one thing we all need is guidance and direction and the only way to achieve this is to get some coaching and a mentor. I realised this quite early on, after spending more money than I care to remember on the next great big thing. If you really want to build a successful online business than please invest in a coaching program and get yourself a mentor who can push you in the right direction. If it wasn’t for the help, guidance and occasional well needed kick up the butt I have received from my mentors Alex Jeffreys and John Thornhill, I would have probably given up a long time ago.
Final Thoughts
I hope covering some of these myths has helped you in realising what it really takes to start building an online business. It isn’t easy but nothing worthwhile ever is. Don’t consider all these things as too hard but as worth it, because it is. Most importantly of all, TAKE ACTION. This really is the key. Nothing happens until you take action. Keep learning, get the information you need and apply it immediately before moving on to the next thing. Whatever it is that you are trying to achieve with your online business, it will require an investment of time and money. Accept this and remember it’s worth it! Build upon your success, learn from your failures and you WILL get there.
To your success!
Mark
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