Making Money Online - Part I (Ignore The Noise)
Posted 12-01-2008 at 09:11 PM by Rod Cortez
Updated 12-02-2008 at 11:45 AM by Rod Cortez (Adding content, correcting grammar / spelling)
Updated 12-02-2008 at 11:45 AM by Rod Cortez (Adding content, correcting grammar / spelling)
Hey there,
If you really want to learn how to make money online then my first series of blog posts are going to give you quite a brain dump of nearly ten years worth of experience, challenges, and mistakes, so you can literally cut your learning curve by 80 to 90%!
What inspired me to write this blog was that a Warrior contacted me a few days ago and told me that all the advice I had been giving out in the Warrior Forum over the past several years had helped him earn his first million dollars. I was completely floored. Secondly, a lot of newbies come to this forum feeling frustrated, ovewhelmed, and in a state of uncertainty. I remember feeling that way back in 1999.
The year 2009 will mark my first decade of being involved with Internet Marketing, hereafter referred to as "IM". Over the years I've spoken with over 104 Warriors by phone or by Skype. Some of them were new to the business (a.k.a. "newbies" or "noobs"), some had been at it for years, and some of them were well-known marketers. Each came to me with their own set of challenges.
I want to focus on how you can really start making money online and I guarantee it's something you're probably not going to want to hear. So to soften the blow I'm going to use myself as an example. But first, keep in mind that success in any business starts with mindset. I've seen way too many forum posts and articles where people preach that you have to take action or "massive" action. That's only part of the equation. If you take massive action with a faulty or misguided mindset, all the action in the world is going to get you no where. If you don't believe me just look at the number of posts people make who have been at IM for month or years and haven't made any real sustaining profits.
Nearly ten years ago I bought my first IM product geared at newbie IMers. I read the large two binder set, perused the CDs that came with it, and began working my business plan (which was a simple outline). Six months went by and I had not earned a single dime! It took me 18 months to earn a consistent $1,000 a month income when it should have only taken a couple of months (or less).
If you want to make money online you can make it doing all kinds of things:
* Sell advertising
* Sell traffic
* Sell your own products
* Affiliate marketing
* Sell your service
* Drive traffic to CPA offers
* eBay / Auctions
* Online investing (stock trading, forex, etc.)
The list goes on an on. Over the years I've seen the same questions asked over and over again in the Warrior Forum by newcomers and veterans alike. The answers to their dreams are so close to them and they can't even see it. Why? Because they are affected by both internal and external noise.
Internal noise are those thoughts that keep you up at night. It could be negative thinking, over-thinking, or any thought patterns that are keeping you from taking meaningful, consistent action. External noise is anything from the outside that keeps you off your focus. This could be a forum post, product launches, received broadcasts from other marketers or non-IM niche e-zines, the latest marketing / product / system/ insert your favorite IM distraction here, family, friends, significant others, the media.......okay, you catch my drift.
Aside from my faulty mindset at the time, the single biggest reason why it took me so long to make money online was because I was not focused and allowed both internal and external noise to keep me from effectively executing any kind of marketing plan.
For those of you hoping for a step-by-step blueprint, I'll share one in a later blog post, but believe it or not, this one is far more important. You're about to get something 100x more potent and powerful and I'm not kidding. With over twenty years of business experience in different industries and 9 years of IM experience in different niches, I bring certain distinctions to the table. Some of this you will read and think "I already know this", but be honest with yourself and ask if you really are DOING it.
In every single case where someone was failing in business or IM they were violating one of these principles / concepts.
The first reason why I did not make money for six months in IM was because I could not turn off the external noise. I bought e-book after e-book, infoproduct after infoproduct, and I literally put myself in a state of overwhelm because I did not know where to begin. This set off my internal noise. I began over-analyzing everything. I couldn't sleep at night. I would try something and it wouldn't work and I would allow the noise to get to me.
I see people in forums waste energy about who's the "best" guru, what's the "best" method, what's the "best" autoresponder, and in some ways I don't blame them because there's a TON of misinformation out there. They're not sure who to trust (by the way, trust no one, ever. Do your own research; I'll explain why in another blog post).
So the first step to making money online is to learn how to ignore the noise. Yes, you should spend time in marketing forums. Yes, you should by a couple of infoproducts or as many as you need to figure out what you really want to do. But make sure you have a written set of clearly defined goals. I cannot emphasize this enough.
I'm going to use myself as an example again. When Chris Carpenter's "Google Cash" method came out, I bought it at the advice of a well-known affiliate marketer. I bought it, it seemed pretty simple, and I tried my hand at Pay-Per-Click marketing (PPC) for the first time. I lost a couple grand during my first week. Was it the e-book's fault? Absolutely not. I ignored a couple key points in the e-book because I thought I knew better and I was proven wrong.
Did I give up? Nope. I went ahead and purchased Perry Marshall's e-book / PDF document that dealt with Google Adwords. It took me 2 months and some more money but I finally got the hang of it. I finally started making some money. I took a website that had a 1:600 ratio (one sale for every 600 clicks, a very horrible conversion rate) to a 1:264 ratio (not great but much better). Today that website has a 1:72 ratio in a hotly competitive niche. There's something to be said for focused, hard work and paying close attention to what's working and what isn't working.
For two months this website lost money but I keep fine-tuning the sales copy, then switched to a sqeeuze page, then back to a sales page again, tracked and tested keyewords, until I found an optimum mix
I realized that while I could have learned PPC marketing on my own through trial and error, GC and Perry's e-books shortened my learning curve. Now here's the deal......did I go and purchase another product? Did I allow the noise to get me? No, I did not. I decided to take what I learned in PPC marketing and go into other niches and to scale it up. Once I mastered PPC marketing (and yes, I'm still learning) to my satisfaction it was ONLY then that I went on to the next thing.
Okay now, I'm not suggesting that you dive into PPC marketing, because it may or may not be right for you. I just wanted to share one of the many stories during my IM journey to illustrate a point. I could also share about article marketing, creating a network of blogs, using other forms of paid advertising, TV and cable TV advertising, radio publicity, press releases, joint ventures, and forming strategic alliances. The point I'm making is that it's critical to focus on one thing at a time in the beginning or you will become frustrated and overwhelmed.
Most people reading this blog post will already have enough information on their hard drives or in their home to earn them a 5, 6, or even 7 figure annual income if they only learned to focus, ignore the noise, take massive action, and pay close attention to what's working and what's not working.
If you can ignore the noise your chances at making it will increase by ten fold (again, I'm not kidding!).
In Part II I'm going to share one of my 22 blueprints that I use every single day to make passive income (it's passive once you set it in motion).
Stay tuned...
RoD
If you really want to learn how to make money online then my first series of blog posts are going to give you quite a brain dump of nearly ten years worth of experience, challenges, and mistakes, so you can literally cut your learning curve by 80 to 90%!
What inspired me to write this blog was that a Warrior contacted me a few days ago and told me that all the advice I had been giving out in the Warrior Forum over the past several years had helped him earn his first million dollars. I was completely floored. Secondly, a lot of newbies come to this forum feeling frustrated, ovewhelmed, and in a state of uncertainty. I remember feeling that way back in 1999.
The year 2009 will mark my first decade of being involved with Internet Marketing, hereafter referred to as "IM". Over the years I've spoken with over 104 Warriors by phone or by Skype. Some of them were new to the business (a.k.a. "newbies" or "noobs"), some had been at it for years, and some of them were well-known marketers. Each came to me with their own set of challenges.
I want to focus on how you can really start making money online and I guarantee it's something you're probably not going to want to hear. So to soften the blow I'm going to use myself as an example. But first, keep in mind that success in any business starts with mindset. I've seen way too many forum posts and articles where people preach that you have to take action or "massive" action. That's only part of the equation. If you take massive action with a faulty or misguided mindset, all the action in the world is going to get you no where. If you don't believe me just look at the number of posts people make who have been at IM for month or years and haven't made any real sustaining profits.
Nearly ten years ago I bought my first IM product geared at newbie IMers. I read the large two binder set, perused the CDs that came with it, and began working my business plan (which was a simple outline). Six months went by and I had not earned a single dime! It took me 18 months to earn a consistent $1,000 a month income when it should have only taken a couple of months (or less).
If you want to make money online you can make it doing all kinds of things:
* Sell advertising
* Sell traffic
* Sell your own products
* Affiliate marketing
* Sell your service
* Drive traffic to CPA offers
* eBay / Auctions
* Online investing (stock trading, forex, etc.)
The list goes on an on. Over the years I've seen the same questions asked over and over again in the Warrior Forum by newcomers and veterans alike. The answers to their dreams are so close to them and they can't even see it. Why? Because they are affected by both internal and external noise.
Internal noise are those thoughts that keep you up at night. It could be negative thinking, over-thinking, or any thought patterns that are keeping you from taking meaningful, consistent action. External noise is anything from the outside that keeps you off your focus. This could be a forum post, product launches, received broadcasts from other marketers or non-IM niche e-zines, the latest marketing / product / system/ insert your favorite IM distraction here, family, friends, significant others, the media.......okay, you catch my drift.
Aside from my faulty mindset at the time, the single biggest reason why it took me so long to make money online was because I was not focused and allowed both internal and external noise to keep me from effectively executing any kind of marketing plan.
For those of you hoping for a step-by-step blueprint, I'll share one in a later blog post, but believe it or not, this one is far more important. You're about to get something 100x more potent and powerful and I'm not kidding. With over twenty years of business experience in different industries and 9 years of IM experience in different niches, I bring certain distinctions to the table. Some of this you will read and think "I already know this", but be honest with yourself and ask if you really are DOING it.
In every single case where someone was failing in business or IM they were violating one of these principles / concepts.
The first reason why I did not make money for six months in IM was because I could not turn off the external noise. I bought e-book after e-book, infoproduct after infoproduct, and I literally put myself in a state of overwhelm because I did not know where to begin. This set off my internal noise. I began over-analyzing everything. I couldn't sleep at night. I would try something and it wouldn't work and I would allow the noise to get to me.
I see people in forums waste energy about who's the "best" guru, what's the "best" method, what's the "best" autoresponder, and in some ways I don't blame them because there's a TON of misinformation out there. They're not sure who to trust (by the way, trust no one, ever. Do your own research; I'll explain why in another blog post).
So the first step to making money online is to learn how to ignore the noise. Yes, you should spend time in marketing forums. Yes, you should by a couple of infoproducts or as many as you need to figure out what you really want to do. But make sure you have a written set of clearly defined goals. I cannot emphasize this enough.
I'm going to use myself as an example again. When Chris Carpenter's "Google Cash" method came out, I bought it at the advice of a well-known affiliate marketer. I bought it, it seemed pretty simple, and I tried my hand at Pay-Per-Click marketing (PPC) for the first time. I lost a couple grand during my first week. Was it the e-book's fault? Absolutely not. I ignored a couple key points in the e-book because I thought I knew better and I was proven wrong.
Did I give up? Nope. I went ahead and purchased Perry Marshall's e-book / PDF document that dealt with Google Adwords. It took me 2 months and some more money but I finally got the hang of it. I finally started making some money. I took a website that had a 1:600 ratio (one sale for every 600 clicks, a very horrible conversion rate) to a 1:264 ratio (not great but much better). Today that website has a 1:72 ratio in a hotly competitive niche. There's something to be said for focused, hard work and paying close attention to what's working and what isn't working.
For two months this website lost money but I keep fine-tuning the sales copy, then switched to a sqeeuze page, then back to a sales page again, tracked and tested keyewords, until I found an optimum mix
I realized that while I could have learned PPC marketing on my own through trial and error, GC and Perry's e-books shortened my learning curve. Now here's the deal......did I go and purchase another product? Did I allow the noise to get me? No, I did not. I decided to take what I learned in PPC marketing and go into other niches and to scale it up. Once I mastered PPC marketing (and yes, I'm still learning) to my satisfaction it was ONLY then that I went on to the next thing.
Okay now, I'm not suggesting that you dive into PPC marketing, because it may or may not be right for you. I just wanted to share one of the many stories during my IM journey to illustrate a point. I could also share about article marketing, creating a network of blogs, using other forms of paid advertising, TV and cable TV advertising, radio publicity, press releases, joint ventures, and forming strategic alliances. The point I'm making is that it's critical to focus on one thing at a time in the beginning or you will become frustrated and overwhelmed.
Most people reading this blog post will already have enough information on their hard drives or in their home to earn them a 5, 6, or even 7 figure annual income if they only learned to focus, ignore the noise, take massive action, and pay close attention to what's working and what's not working.
If you can ignore the noise your chances at making it will increase by ten fold (again, I'm not kidding!).
In Part II I'm going to share one of my 22 blueprints that I use every single day to make passive income (it's passive once you set it in motion).
Stay tuned...
RoD
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