Does your market even know who you are?

People just don't want to work. Maybe 1 in 100. The rest don't belong as their own bosses, or lack the commitment, or don't want to learn or do anything.

MAYBE you'll convince a newbie on the fence here, so the post is worthwhile.

But posting here is kind of like talking politics: everyone's mind is already made up.

BTW read your IM book a couple weeks back and liked it a lot.


This could be misconstrued.

I'm sure you're not saying, "Sell newbies the glimmer of hope via the next great shiny object."

Newbies, get serious. Learn some solid business fundamentals. Get a real plan together. Work the plan. Stick with it longer than a few days.

Great post.

I would only add that it may be much easier for someone just entering this world to focus on solving a problem out in the real world.

An IM business does not have to be about how to manipulate search engines and social media. There are lots of real people with real problems that have nothing whatsoever to do with how to market themselves online.

If you can solve some of those problems, and market your solution online, the pool might be a lot less crowded.

So why should that bother you so much?

All these threads where people are so concerned about people failing
just don't make sense.

True and if more new marketers focused their marketing mindset on that one fact the end result is potential for success. Especially in a highly competitive market.

Real world example.. in my own little world of internet marketing the large majority my own products always have room for cross market products and I always incorporate and include both the product owners or high end affiliates of the cross market products. When I launch a product to my target markets there are lists of product owners and affiliates of those cross market products that are a big part of the launch. In short.. upsells.

In part, that differentiates my own product launch compared to the other guy. Why is what you said so important to me? Because the mindset creates multiples streams of income be they long term or short term.

What a fantastic thread from someone who gets it!

I agree 100% that there are probably tens of thousands of people who attempt to become Affiliate Marketers every day. They think it's all sugar and spice and everything nice -- until a couple of weeks go by and they are no farther than when they started.

That's when they come into the WF and ask for help. They don't just ask a specific question about how to fix a problem on their blog, or how to write an interesting headline, or where to get some good graphic design work done, either. In other words, something we could actually help them with. Instead, they come on here and start a thread basically asking people to lay out a step-by-step blueprint about how they can make X amount of money before next week!

I'm amazed at how many people expect that someone is just going to lay a magic golden egg at their feet. When they don't get the responses they expected, the next step is to start buying up shiny object after shiny object and when that doesn't work they usually just say that "you can't make money online," and quit. The worst thing about it is that one of those shiny objects they bought was probably a really great product but it required them to do some work and they never took action so of course it must have been the vendor's fault that it didn't work.

I sit in my office sometimes and just have brainstorming sessions about what product I should review next or what my next blog post should be about or how can I learn about other viable income streams to add to my business plan, etc. Sometimes, though, I'll get sidetracked and there is an unrelated question that will nag me for a few minutes. The other day I kept asking myself why people believe it is so damn simple to extract money from their computer.

It all came down to two different theories. The first was that this business attracted lazy people who were always looking for the next "get rich quick" scheme (those people DO exist by the millions). The second was that it came down to well-known authority figures, top product creators, and other "gurus" in the MMO/Biz Opp niche who are always beating the whole "work 30 minutes a day laptop lifestyle" drum.

Whatever the answer is, I wish people would understand that starting and running an online business is not easy at all and I don't think I've ever worked for just 30 minutes a day since I started my business in 2008. In fact, myself and another marketer were having a mastermind list building conversation on Facebook at 3:30 this morning! The sad thing is happenings like that are not uncommon! It's also not uncommon for me to work 10-12 hours a day 6 days a week when I'm working on a new project.

My advice to newbies is that if you don't work well on your own or you get distracted easy then working from home is probably not for you. If you are a person who doesn't want to sit in front of a computer for at least 12 hours a day for the first 1-2 years then I wouldn't start an online business. If you are someone that gives up easily or is not able to quickly adapt to change and also to disaster then this is not for you. Lastly, if you honestly believe that there is a "get rich quick" scheme somewhere out in the world that actually works and you just haven't found it yet, then Internet Marketing is DEFINITELY not for you.

"Find one problem

Solve the heck out of it.

Sell/market your solution and stick to it!

"But Eric, I'm Not An Expert At Anything!"

If you take "one problem" and laser focus on solving that one problem, very quickly you'd be an expert at that one thing. For example, if you focused on "how to get YouTube traffic" and just focused on that as a way to solve the problem of traffic....

You'd get very good, very knowledgeable, and become an expert at that FAST!"

WOW that does make sense and makes the idea of becoming an expert in one area less intimidating.

Of course I flunked Calculus in college so I don't think I will ever become an expert in that!

Now just gotta figure out how to find the problems that need the solutions.

So true Mr. Louviere, I like how you just dropped some gold right at our feet without even trying.

The problem is that most people don't want to do any form of work at all. Work here includes learning.

If you're not willing to put in time to learn and to implement what you learned, how then are you gonna make good money?

Focus is another good point here. Most newbies want to learn SEO, copywriting, affiliate marketing , product creation, conversion rate optimization etc etc all at the same time.

They don't know that this is the shortest path to frustration and failure.

Focusing on one thing gives you an edge over 95% of other newbies...

I just wish newbies reading this will take this advice... Because if they do, more people will be able to succeed at making money online.

Ken

This is soo true. I have to show myself to the world. Do portfolios.

Well, I guess the real reason is people don't understand this Internet Marketing thing is not just a 'Thing'. It's a Business like anything else!

And in Business you need to solve problems that will people will pay for. I mean that's how the Business works and it's been like this for centuries and it will be like that.

There are no magic pills, just pure Magic Principles that people need to understand. But most of the time, people have this urge to complicate things.

I guess that's why Newbies fall in the trap of 'Get Rich Quick schemes'.