[HELP] I've got enough time but still finding it hard

[Hari]

I've been doing internet marketing for more than a year now. I've read around different forums and tried different things. Though I made some money, it is not consistent or enough to quit my day job. I'm passionate about living my life as an internet marketer.

I am pretty good at SEO and can optimize my landing page or website (On page and Off page) and easily dominate Google for specific keywords. However, here are the set of problems im currently facing:

1. Not able to find a proper niche. Any ideas? I work with clickbank as well as some affiliate networks.

2. I lack motivation - I read motivational/success threads in this forum which keeps me pushing for a day or two after which it just dissipates.

Any help from you guys would be highly appreciated. I've made up my mind not to give up on something here after. I just need to find my niche for now !

Thanks in advance.
Regards
Hariz

[FBisMoney]

The best niche is one you are passionate about. If you are not motivated it's really hard to succeed as an affiliate because there will be disappointments and downfalls. I recommend setting small goals and rewards for reaching them. That's what I do. I break down a large goal into smaller pieces and reward myself a little bit each time I accomplish a goal. Could be taking myself and my g/f out to a nice dinner, renting a hotel room to relax for the weekend, something along those lines. Has to be big enough to motivate you to accomplish your goal and continue to drive you forward.

[Graham Maddison]

Hi Hariz,

Just sent you a pm

[actionplanbiz]

I Feel You on this. im just starting to lack motivation when marketing on the internet. im even lazy to check my PPC campaigns. lol

and whats worst is i just lost my job yesterday. soo. i dont know. i just got to keep trying i guess.

[tecHead]

mm, I can feel both of you; and everyone else who goes through the proverbial "WTF am I really doing, here?!"

(Thanks actionplanbiz for keepin' it real).

First, let's talk about the harsh reality of it all...
Yeah.. its a b*tch. You're basically walking into a situation where you'll find very little if any offline support from your support-base, (family, spouse, friends), if they don't already understand what it is you're trying to do. And most don't.

If you're low on funds, or worse, out of work.. it makes things even harder because the amount of time you need to spend never seems like enough; with very little if any return on investment. Not to mention those that look to you for financial help and/or support tend to get impatient with you because understanding what it is you're doing, (or trying to do), is beyond their imagination really. Even with all the hype surrounding the Internet, right now.

You'll be hard tested to find anyone you can actually TALK TO about what you're so involved in. If you DO find someone genuinely interested in hearing and/or learning more about what you're involved in and trying to do, more times than not they're wanting to plug you for information rather than supplying you with a good sounding board to bounce ideas off of.

Its a very very lonely road you're on. No doubt.

Now, lets talk about the positive reality of it all...
Anything worthwhile is going to be hard to achieve. Anything that promises great rewards is going to kick your a** all over the place and challenge you on a regular basis testing your fortitude to see if you really want it.

Do you? Look in the mirror and actually look yourself in the eyes and ask... "do I really want this?"

Now, if the answer is yes, I do.. then, (maybe not what you wanna hear but), you gotta suck it up and bite the bullet. Because, you're gonna get your a** kicked, period. No ifs, ands or buts, (only butts heh) about it.

BUT, (pun intended)... think about this.

There's something else that a LOT of people are doing that has many of the same qualities that I've outlined above. The only difference is, enough people have done it to fruition for people who are not doing it to understand the benefits. Even the government gets involved with it and will allow you to go into debt doing it. There's reported 6.6 billion that goes unused every year worth of grants available for it; its so well accepted.

Can you guess what it is? Yup... being a Student at a College/University.

You study your a** off for a minimum of 2yrs with NO compensation outside of a couple hours of work study; (and a lotta people are limited there due to restrictions on their financial aid packages). You get your a** kicked every 6wks or so with mid-terms and if you fail any of them you gotta start all over again in that course. If you don't maintain a decent GPA, even IF you pass all your classes with a C average you're probably not gonna find a decent job once you're done... and the list can go on and on...

BUT, (no pun this time), you look at it as something with prestige. Working to get that piece of paper; that degree. At least 85% of society looks at it as a major accomplishment and a very worthy goal; even with all the job insecurity in the world, right now.

What you're doing right now is basically the same thing. Yet, its better.

How?
Well, once you're at a point where you can whip stuff off without even really thinking too hard about it because its just second nature; you're not working FOR anyone. You're working for yourself; major job security.

You're able to create your own hours, (granted you still gotta have discipline); but, you're pretty much in control of your own destiny more so than ever before at that point.

You have the respect and admiration (and humility) from all your support-base, (family, spouse, friends... remember the ones that gave you a hard time?).

You're in the hard knocks University of Internet Commerce; (not just Marketing); working on your accelerated Masters Degree. Treat it as and Think of it as such.

"Success is awarded to those that have the fortitude to stay the course."
~Dean Whitter

Stay in school!
PLP,
tecHead

[winebuddy]

Stfu,

Just about every niche that has paid adwords ads on it is producing income - for somebody anyway - so all those niches are aok and will work. But you have to work them right.

As far as the motivation...

Here's a tip that I have used to keep me going through to the end of a project.

VISION

What I do is try to get a picture of the entire "system" or process or product BEFORE I ever start working on it. I have to know how it ends before I start and be able to SEE, or at least have a very good idea of, the end result.

If I can't see the end of a product or sales funnel system, I don't start it.

Here's the thing - if I can envision the end, then I know what the finish line looks like and then I know what steps it takes to get there.

When I start on the item (product, system, etc), I always keep the end result in my mind and know what I am working towards. That helps keep me motivated to get there. And the closer I get to realizing the initial vision, the MORE motivated I get - not less.

Hope this helps

[Steve Crooks]

Hi Hariz, I wrote about the problems with self motivation on my blog if you want to read it.

Originally Posted by stfu

I've been doing internet marketing for more than a year now. I've read around different forums and tried different things. Though I made some money, it is not consistent or enough to quit my day job. I'm passionate about living my life as an internet marketer.

I am pretty good at SEO and can optimize my landing page or website (On page and Off page) and easily dominate Google for specific keywords. However, here are the set of problems im currently facing:

1. Not able to find a proper niche. Any ideas? I work with clickbank as well as some affiliate networks.

2. I lack motivation - I read motivational/success threads in this forum which keeps me pushing for a day or two after which it just dissipates.

Any help from you guys would be highly appreciated. I've made up my mind not to give up on something here after. I just need to find my niche for now !

Thanks in advance.
Regards
Hariz

[Love2Blog]

For me the motivation always lies in the money and freedom, whenever I make a commission it pushes me forward and reminds me that this business works.

Niche research is a big pain, what I have found is that it takes lots of hands-on testing. Research popular products on Amazon and eBay Pulse and see what is selling. Also use common sense, whatever is popular at the time will convert well, then find the best keywords, which are low competition and have enough searches to be worth it. I try to go for very low competition kw so that I do not have to spend months trying to rank for the terms.

Focus on product keywords often times you will find good long tails and use the long tails as site wides.

Also, while some only have a couple of big sites, I find that making smaller more detialed long tail sites that are easy to rank and having lots of them brings more money and less hassle.

Don't give up!

Good Luck!

[Peter Clarke]

Find a mentor who is prepared to invest time in you. Teach you, guide you. push you.

[scrofford]

Originally Posted by tecHead

mm, I can feel both of you; and everyone else who goes through the proverbial "WTF am I really doing, here?!"

(Thanks actionplanbiz for keepin' it real).

First, let's talk about the harsh reality of it all...
Yeah.. its a b*tch. You're basically walking into a situation where you'll find very little if any offline support from your support-base, (family, spouse, friends), if they don't already understand what it is you're trying to do. And most don't.

If you're low on funds, or worse, out of work.. it makes things even harder because the amount of time you need to spend never seems like enough; with very little if any return on investment. Not to mention those that look to you for financial help and/or support tend to get impatient with you because understanding what it is you're doing, (or trying to do), is beyond their imagination really. Even with all the hype surrounding the Internet, right now.

You'll be hard tested to find anyone you can actually TALK TO about what you're so involved in. If you DO find someone genuinely interested in hearing and/or learning more about what you're involved in and trying to do, more times than not they're wanting to plug you for information rather than supplying you with a good sounding board to bounce ideas off of.

Its a very very lonely road you're on. No doubt.

Now, lets talk about the positive reality of it all...
Anything worthwhile is going to be hard to achieve. Anything that promises great rewards is going to kick your a** all over the place and challenge you on a regular basis testing your fortitude to see if you really want it.

Do you? Look in the mirror and actually look yourself in the eyes and ask... "do I really want this?"

Now, if the answer is yes, I do.. then, (maybe not what you wanna hear but), you gotta suck it up and bite the bullet. Because, you're gonna get your a** kicked, period. No ifs, ands or buts, (only butts heh) about it.

BUT, (pun intended)... think about this.

There's something else that a LOT of people are doing that has many of the same qualities that I've outlined above. The only difference is, enough people have done it to fruition for people who are not doing it to understand the benefits. Even the government gets involved with it and will allow you to go into debt doing it. There's reported 6.6 billion that goes unused every year worth of grants available for it; its so well accepted.

Can you guess what it is? Yup... being a Student at a College/University.

You study your a** off for a minimum of 2yrs with NO compensation outside of a couple hours of work study; (and a lotta people are limited there due to restrictions on their financial aid packages). You get your a** kicked every 6wks or so with mid-terms and if you fail any of them you gotta start all over again in that course. If you don't maintain a decent GPA, even IF you pass all your classes with a C average you're probably not gonna find a decent job once you're done... and the list can go on and on...

BUT, (no pun this time), you look at it as something with prestige. Working to get that piece of paper; that degree. At least 85% of society looks at it as a major accomplishment and a very worthy goal; even with all the job insecurity in the world, right now.

What you're doing right now is basically the same thing. Yet, its better.

How?
Well, once you're at a point where you can whip stuff off without even really thinking too hard about it because its just second nature; you're not working FOR anyone. You're working for yourself; major job security.

You're able to create your own hours, (granted you still gotta have discipline); but, you're pretty much in control of your own destiny more so than ever before at that point.

You have the respect and admiration (and humility) from all your support-base, (family, spouse, friends... remember the ones that gave you a hard time?).

You're in the hard knocks University of Internet Commerce; (not just Marketing); working on your accelerated Masters Degree. Treat it as and Think of it as such.

"Success is awarded to those that have the fortitude to stay the course."
~Dean Whitter

Stay in school!
PLP,
tecHead

Awesome post and really helps! Thank you!

[EaglePiServ]

>>I've made up my mind not to give up on something here after.

Well, there. You've said it - that's the motivation part taken care of. Now you're 50% of the way there.

You don't mention which niches you're looking at, or how competitive they are, or what keyword research you've done, or how many articles you've posted, or how you're monetizing your sites (if you have any) or anything specific for us to offer assistance or advice.

The answer to "How do I find a proper niche?" is........ta-dahhh......Google.

[Hari]

Thank you guys. I appreciate all your inputs :-)
I'll soon succeed in what i want!!

[Charann Miller]

I think you need to have a clear plan and purpose of what you want to achieve.

It's pretty easy to run out of steam if you don't know where you're going or what your outcome will be.

If your outcome is to make 5 sales in a week then map out how many articles you need to achieve the amount of views that lead to conversions and then see it through.

Break up your bigger long term goal into little achievable daily goals, hitting the mark for these each day is as important as the overall goal because this will keep you focused and in the game long enough to achieve the bigger picture plus it gives you a sense of accomplishment which keeps you motivated and in the right mindset.

Once you focus, make a plan and then act on it and absolutely stick to it, you'll get there and what better motivation than seeing something actually coming to fruition, proof is the best motivator.

I believe this applies to anything in life, everything takes effort whether it's losing weight to gaining a new skill you have to be consistent and see it through until you get the results you want.