I've finally taken ACTION! Follow me, newbies...

Newbie here. Actually, I'm not what you call a "complete" newbie to IM since I've been dabbling in online moneymaking activities for the past few years. I've made a few hundred bucks but they're nothing to write home about. My former interest was blogging and despite my lack of knowledge and planning I was able to make some money posting affiliate reviews on my personal blog.

Since then I've fallen into hard times which started when I "foolishly" decided to quit my low-paying job. I was so cash-strapped that I wasn't able to renew the domain name of my personal blog, and my small source of income went down the drain. Later on, my web hosting account got suspended and whatever websites and projects I had were put on hold.

Being a college undergraduate, my opportunities to find financially rewarding jobs are limited. Besides, I hate the idea of working for someone else and making that person rich from the fruits of my labor. So I threw caution to the wind and settled down to a stay at home profession.

Realizing that I lack the knowledge and skills to make my mark in IM, I looked for courses and tutorials that can help me achieve mastery of the various aspects of IM. With the meager income I got from freelance writing and web design jobs, I purchased a few e-books and video courses. Although I learned new tricks from my investments, I still thought that I lacked enough knowledge to start an IM business.

So thus began my crazy search for that "magic" system that I hope will make me a master and guru of IM. Months and months went by without taking any action on my part. My notebook (the paper one ) is filled with admonitions such as "Start My Online Business On August 1, 2010." Obviously, the date passed by without any action. I spent countless hours looking for free and paid e-books, courses, videos, tutorials, etc. I felt that I wasn't ready to jump into the shark-infested IM waters, so to speak.

Whenever I got a new payment on my Paypal account, I immediately thought about what new system or tool I was going to buy. I couldn't care less that my shoes need to be replaced and my T-shirts are fading. I had to buy that magic secret formula for online riches!

An epiphany came in the form of an unexpected event. My estranged father, who left us more than 20 years ago, suddenly contacted us and needed our help. It turned out that he had glaucoma and is now blind. To make a long story short, we had no choice but to accept him back into our lives despite the emotional baggage that our parents' separation brought us. I would be a hypocrite to say that I have totally forgiven him. I know that forgiveness takes time and slowly but surely I have found it in my heart to forgive him bit by bit.

My father's sudden return to our lives means that my family's finances are put to the limits. I realized that all these needless time-wasting looking for magic systems won't help me support my family. I needed to take action!

My dream is to have my own steady source of income so that I will no longer be dependent on my siblings. I also want to build or buy my own house so that I can live independently on my own. My father's unexpected return meant that we can no longer afford to pay for our apartment's rent. Next month we will be moving to a much cheaper apartment while we await my sister's housing loan to be approved.

I'm not sharing my story just to gain sympathy or whatever. I'm sharing this because I want to let newbies who are reading this to stop being too hung up with systems and get "paralysis by analysis" in the process. I've been a victim of information overload (God knows how many MB of videos and e-books I have on my PC right now), and I know how hard it is to start taking action when you have this disease.

I'm not saying that you should stop buying courses and systems. We need to know the latest techniques and methods in IM. What I'm saying is that you should take action while at the same time learning new things. Knowledge without action is nothing. Who cares if you have not yet mastered how to build a mailing list or how to build backlinks? You don't need to master one thing before you can start working on it.

Did I master HTML before I started making websites? Hell, no! I started with Frontpage and then slowly learned the basics from there. It took me a lot of time before I was knowledgeable enough to make websites through hand coding only. I believe the same can be applied to Internet marketing. You don't need to be a genius at linkbuilding, web design, e-mail marketing, etc. to start your online IM business. Just do it, and you will learn new things along the way!

My advice for fumbling newbies out there:

• Stop reading or watching whatever e-book or video you have right now, and TAKE ACTION! Just do it (as the Nike slogan goes)! Whether it be installing Wordpress, writing a few articles, building a Squidoo lens, or building backlinks. Trust me, once you get started, there's no turning back!
• Continue your education but do it outside your work hours. If you're like me, I spend 8 hours per day working on my sites but at night, I bring out my printed e-books to read and learn a few things. I don't include my education in my to-do list since I treat it as a leisurely activity.
• Keep your expenses to a minimum. Avoid expensive tools with monthly payments as they can get costly, until you are earning a consistent income. Be a spendthrift -- at least early on. With a little research and patience, you can uncover cheap tools that perform as well as more expensive ones. Look for coupons and discount promos as much as you can. Hey, I got a 90% discount with my web hosting, and I worked hard for it.
• Always remind yourself of your goals and dreams. If you have a hard time reminding yourself of your goals, write it down and place it in front of your workplace. My current situation is always a reminder for me.
• Minimize distractions. Distractions and temptations are always around us especially if you're working at home. Friends may call and invite you to lunch. Your Farmville farm may be needing some watering every now and then. Go ahead, give in, but place limitations. We need some fun once in a while but make sure these distractions don't eat up a lot of your time. If you find yourself getting distracted, think about this: "This is useful because..."
• Don't quit. Many times I thought about getting a real job because I don't have money to date my girlfriend. But I always remind myself of my dreams. Just stick to it and you will soon achieve your wildest dreams. I mean, after suffering one failure after another, what are your chances of achieving success on the next try? This is not a lottery with a one-in-a-gazillion chance. You actually have your destiny in your hands, and your chances of achieving success gets higher after each failure!

In concluding, I would like to thank my fellow Warriors for their help and inspiration. Special mention goes to Xray who gave me two domain names as a gift so that I can get started. Without his free gifts, I would probably still be reading e-books and watching videos without doing anything worthwhile.

Please feel free to post your comments or PM me.

Regards,
Loy