How Long Before Your Efforts Pay Off? How Did You Keep Yourself Going?

1 - I told my self that success was just around the corner. I have always believed that I was 1 idea away from being successful.

2 - I wish that I stuck to a single plan in the beginning and followed through with it until I was successful. I was pretty much running from idea to idea with no set goals.

3 - It will never be what I want it to be because I keep settign the bar higher. The trick is to set the bar low at first and then keep raising it. It is very very hard to make $1000 a day as a newbie. Focus on makign $10 a day, then $20, then $50, 100, $150, $200, and so on. You can walk anywhere as long as you do it one step at a time.

It probably took me 4 months of trying methods and tweaking until I tried out from-scratch site flipping which now brings me in my full time income (cough, shameless plug for my free ebook in my sig ). I kept going just because I knew the rewards would be so fruitful when I finally did find myself making money. Looking back on the beginnings, I wish the first thing I had tried was Site Flipping but I learned a lot during my first 4 months. As for #3, I don't live on the beach and work at my oceanside mansion, but I make solid money doing something that is not that tough to do. I love it.

Good luck missmiss...keep on persisting through it.

The key to achieving your goal is perseverance and motivation! Of course you cannot learn all there is to know about internet marketing right off the bat, it takes years of trial and error to get the perfect combination for success. I know that when you fail it's very disheartening, but you have to keep your main goal in mind! And know that every time you fall, you're THAT much closer to succeeding! If it helps, keep a picture/graph/model (that links either directly or indirectly to your goal) in your work area, so that anytime you start to lose face, simply glance at it and remember what you're working for!

Never forget your goal!! Persevere and you will succeed!!

Megan Elizabeth

Wow inspiring stories. Love them. Great advice. Sadly I didn't have a per day goal. Will implement one now.

Thanks for the words of encouragement and for reading this.

keep em coming

Been at it for a little over 4 months and still nothing. I've been getting close, but I realized I targeted keywords that were a little more competitive than I thought.

I'm starting over, but I've learned quite a lot in these 4 months. I'm definitely not giving up.

Well let me start off by saying your in a good position to succeed. I think many or most of us really started to succeed when we had no choice. Your back is up against the wall, and you are fighting for your survival. You generally need to hit the bottom before you can go up.

Your questions:

1. I have nothing to lose, don't sleep until you succeed.
2. Probably when I started focusing and stopped screwing around jumping from one idea to the next, is when things blossomed.
3. I wouldn't call it success until I can work 1-2 hours a day. I would never give myself the impression "I arrived and made it"

Best advice. Forget if your family or friends think you are crazy. Apply yourself, stay focused, take massive action. Don't give up.

Hey mate,

I know how you feel. Was in your situation a few months back and to be honest its very challenging at first but once you have the right mind set you should be right.

Peice of advise - Keep your CREDIT dard far away. Assign a precise budeget for IM just like you would for a brick and mortar business.
Avoid the "spending plague" that most newbies have.


1. What did you say to yourself to keep going in the beginning?
Follow one course until you make your first $. Work yourself off until you get that $.

2. Looking back on your beginnings, what do you wish you would have realized sooner?
I wish I had hired a full time writer and invested more money into article marketing.

3. Is it (your internet success) all that you dream it to be?
Its getting there - no doubt about that.

Dennis

It takes perseverance and tenacity to really make it in IM. Probably the best advice I can give you is to pick and choose a time-tested and proven method in IM (a good choice when starting out would be providing services like article writing, website set up, graphics, etc - not the most glamorous but there's always a need for these in the internet marketing community) and keep doing it persistently and intensively until you see some tangible results - whatever you do, do NOT become affilicted with the "shiny object syndrome" and jump from system to system whenever you start feeling discouraged and unmotivated. The real key, as you mentioned above in your original post, is to keep chugging along - those "small, insignificant efforts over time" are what will ultimately make you a success in this field, just like any other!

I suggest you take a step, then look for the next step. Do it 1 thing at a time - Don't go off on tangents and say... Ohhhh this is going to be helpful and go get it.

When you need to learn about how to create a product - get a product on it

When you need graphics - get software or get someone to do it

When you need a site to promote it - Get hosting, and set it up

Need a salesletter? Try your hand and if it sucks, borrow a copywriter

Need traffic? - Go and try out market samurai on trial, visit the Dojo and learn how to use it. Then write your articles and start building links. That's just the tip of the iceberg, you can get traffic faster through other methods and there are plenty.

The biggest hurdle I overcame was getting distracted by all the eye candy out here.

Take it easy, and do everything in small steps and you'll get there soon. When I had this realization money started coming in within 2 weeks. I got my product up, gotta site and salesletter, and started driving traffic.

Simple as that

- Dean

1. Back in 1999 I wrote down EXACTLY what I wanted to accomplish. I wrote down my main short term goals on an index card as well as my long term goals on another index card. I would read those index cards everyday.

2. Gosh, I could write a book about #2. It took me 18 arduous months to earn a consistent 1k per month. I look back and I realize that a lot of things were holding me back:

a. I had a big ego. I was a professional who had his own business. I thought I could pick up this whole IM thing easily......I was wrong.

b. I never stuck with anything. I jumped from one thing to another, never building any momentum.

c. Horrible implementation: I would buy an infoproduct and wouldn't use it to it's full potential. I would skim through it, try a thing or two and when it didn't work I was convinced I was scammed. It wasn't until I ate some humble pie that I was able to go back and go through all the infoproducts that I owned, re-read them, and just stuck with what they were trying to teach me. The sales started coming in.

d. I put the TV away. It was almost like magic. When I stopped watching TV my business blossomed.

e. Changing my social circle: this one was a biggie. I never truly realized how my friends and family were affecting me until I went to a Tony Robbins seminar back in 1999. He pulled our group aside and impressed upon us how critical it was to seek out people who "got it"; people who were getting the results that we wanted to make sure we included them in our social circle. Also to spend less time with people who were not supportive of our goals.

This was very hard for me to do, but I managed to do it. Most people didn't understand why I was doing it because they just didn't "get it".

f. I discovered the power of coffee.

3. Yes, it's everything I imagined and a whole lot more. The biggest thing for me is the people that I have met and befriended as well as the freedom. If I had known it was this great of a feeling I would have worked 100x harder.

Anyone can achieve this, it's a matter if they are willing to pay the price.

Good luck,

RoD

Rod that's some great advice too. The TV is garbage, period. You'd be suprised how much free time you have when you cut it out of your life.

I do watch an episode every once in a while but I would never sit around waiting for a show to come on.

Rock on for coffee About to go make some myself.

- Dean

In answer to your questions:

1) I told myself that I would be successful no matter what! I kept plugging along until I made a few sales on Clickbank. At that point, I knew I was going to be successful!

2) I wish I would have realized sooner that I needed a plan to be successful. There is a lot more to Internet marketing than writing a bunch of Ezinearticles and hoping that they stick. I also wish I had started offering services and selling products much earlier in my IM career.

3) It is all I dreamed it would be! I love being my own boss! I don't have anyone telling me when I have to be at work or what I am supposed to be doing. With that said, I probably work harder now than I ever did when I worked full-time.