Why around 90% of people who try, fail in Internet Marketing?

Well the first mindset to change is to realize that IM in itself is not a business. It's simply a tool that can help you to market and sell your business. Marketing is making people aware of your brand but Selling online or offline is what produces income.

It seems to me that most newbies to the world of IM don't have a business or product to market or sell. They enter the game and then go looking for something to sell. So that's what not to do.

On the to do side:

Find a passionate niche to focus on

Create products or provide a service that addresses the wants and needs of said niche

Then use both online and offline marketing to build a list of prospects.

Then offer/sell your services/products to them.

Rinse and Repeat.

Of course all of the above will require the necessary skills and focus to pull it off and since you can't be an expert in all things it really helps to leverage the time, talent and knowledge of other people.

Just make sure you treat them well. Build solid relationships and always deliver what you promise.

Cheers,
Steve

Well internet marketing is a tool to achieve success (money) so that you can do what you really want. I think most people would agree with that.

But unfortunately people get quickly caught up in "what about the newest google update, am I safe?"

"Am I safe from the FTC?" "What if..."

And these questions reflect a misguided focus. What do you really want? This is your life, get serious about what you want!

I think the two biggest issues leading to failure in IM are:

1. Lack of consistent effort

2. Shiny object syndrome.

People give up far too soon when they don't see results.

Then they hop from one thing to the next: an approach, a product or service, and when it doesn't immediately pay off, they leave.

I invested months in developing a reputation before I tried to sell a darn thing. Months! How many nights could/have YOU have sat at the computer, diligently working away...while your significant other complains in the background?

Succeeding in IM takes staying power. Yes, you do have to learn new tricks and change up your game...but a lack of consistent effort and jumping from thing to thing--messing up your focus--will result in failure.

Offline business failure rate is high too as a percentage. IM is more people just because it has a lower entry cost, just like MLM or Network Marketing.

These are the things that most business owner minded people do that many non-business owner minded people don't even think of:

First, evaluate yourself. Can you take the time, effort, investment, loss of ability to do other activities, and risk so that you can build a successful business?

What are your strengths and weaknesses? How much do you have to invest? Is that enough?

What are you passionate about? Now, do research to see if there is a profitable market that you can reach with your skills, assets, time and money and on a set timeline.

Once you find something that fits that criteria. Do research to determine what is the problem this market has that you are a solution to. Research your competition. Position yourself to stand out from your cometition in quality, price or some other special way.

Create a plan that has certain benchmarks by date.

Get a team to help you with the things you don't do well or don't like to do.

Prepare and set your open date or launch date.

Market.

Provide great customer service.

Of course, this is just a very broad overview.

The Small Business Administration has a free multi page questionaire to go through to help you decide if you are suited to be a business owner and then questions to answer to help you create a thorough business plan and much more. It is many questions and many pages, but this would give someone an idea.

One reason people fail is because of a lack of passion. They like the money but no passion or desire to spend hours staring at a computer screen.

Too much freedom makes many people inefficient. The internet allows us to choose our work.

Do you have much freedom in your day job? For most of us, "no," is the answer; and that is why we are able to do a lot of things at work. Each day, you are expected to do a certain task or tasks. If you do not do it, you will be reprimanded--or fired.

With freedom comes the opportunity to procrastinate. Failing to do your most important project is procrastination. In working IM, you must figure out what you need to do, and then do it. Example; if I need to do some particular task related to my blog, that may be my most important project. If I then spend a lot of time doing stuff on Twitter, I am procrastinating--even as I am doing something.

If you were at a regular job, you would be pointed to your most important project. As an independent, working on a huge media source (the internet), you need to isolate your most important project, and do it.

Few people possess that skill. If you do not possess or develop that skill on the internet, you will fail.

The first reason is that in any area in life the great majority will be unsuccessful and
only the small group will succeed. Take any area you like, be it business, sports, education,
entertainment. To be better than the others is hard, and to be mediocre is easy, and
so the most will always be in the lower echelons.

Another reason, tightly connected to the first one, is that people want to succeed
but are unwilling to make the effort. They don't want to do the work necessary, make
sacrifices, endure the hardships, get up after falling. They either don't want it bad
enough to make the effort, or have the deadly mindset "I may be poor but at least I
don't work".

Third reason, and it especially applies to IM, is not taking action. It is so easy to get
lulled into false comfort of "learning", reading, watching videos and such, feeling that
you are doing something worthwhile. All that is nothing unless put into practice.

In summary, here are my reasons:

1. By default, the great majority will always fail, and only minority will succeed
2. People are unwilling to make the effort and do what needs to be done
3. People are not taking action

That is 100% true, procrastination is huge in IM.

Taking MASSIVE ACTION is hard for some people to do really, they see something else or they get an email and end up paying attention to whats in the email instead of doing something that would benefit their online business.

Yeah Warriors, Inconsistency, Shiny Object Syndrome, Procrastination, Not putting Efforts, Not taking Action... All of them really do contribute to the failure. The one trait we should develop is Self Discipline for that is the one thing which will make all others go fine. Let us discipline ourselves to achieve our Goals by taking ACTION... and by getting rid of all those reasons you have shared...

Important thing to do: Limit yourself to a half hour on the Warrior Forum per day, educate yourself a little bit, and then more importantly go take action on something that advances your internet business. WF is a great resource but this helps to avoid the shiny object problem.

kaniganj, you are absolutely right. I am facing the 2 issues you've mentioned. I need to stay away from all the distraction and focus what is right for me plus take massive action as most of you all guys are saying.

To me the answer lies in the question you posted:
they TRY!
You either do it or you don't do it! There is no try. No 'try' has ever led to success.

"The person who gets the farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare." -Dale Carnegie

The way I see it, the way you think and the way you live are connected, some people try to market to people without trying to understand them, those same people I bet my money that they face the same problem in their personal life marketing their point view to people around them, I will stop here. If you can understand people you have pretty much covered most of this job.

Well I think this is a MAJOR reason, people got into the business to make money. Most small business owners got into their business because they loved the...product.

nice share

My points are;
1) Most of the time they come up with lack of knowledge and try to start earning big amount from the beginning.
2) Lack of patience, and tolerance limit in failure is low. After failing few times, many just give up working.
3) Failure to judge proper way of starting and selecting proper niche.
These may be wrong, but my findings.

My points are;
1) Most of the time they come up with lack of knowledge and try to start earning big amount from the beginning.
2) Lack of patience, and tolerance limit in failure is low. After failing few times, many just give up working.
3) Failure to judge proper way of starting and selecting proper niche.
These may be wrong, but my findings.

1. IM isn't a business in itself. You need a product or service that you can sell. Developing and selling your own products is much easier than mastering affiliate marketing.

2. I honestly don't think that most people who try and fail at this work all that much. Reading forums and blogs isn't work... Buying ebooks isn't work. Spending hours and hours on Facebook isn't work.

Very helpful thread! Many have shared their opinion about the things to do and things not to do in internet marketing. Those posts will help me how to be a better marketer .

I think that success-rate is applicable in all of life and not just online life...
But that's just me.

I think why a lot of people fail is that they don't follow through on a strategical developed plan...

"I'm gonna make 10k month" is not a plan, it's a goal and a lofty one at that. Now there is nothing wrong with high expectations but you need a well laid out plan to help you get there.

Taking action and executing this plan is the another area where a lot of people fall away.. It takes persistence, determination and unyielding belief in what your trying to achieve that will get you over the finish line.

Unfortunately a lot of people neglect these and so just become another part of the 99% failure rate and food for the Guru's latest shiny objects..

From The Empire Strikes Back:

Luke: I don't... I don't believe it.

Yoda: That is why you fail.

Mark Pescetti

Hard question...

Probably because they don't have a goal and a definite plan of action.

Also, persistence, hard work, discipline, the willingness to go the extra mile, unslept nights...

But I think a S.M.A.R.T. Goal and a step-by-step plan in reaching the goal are the key to success (in any venture, not just internet marketing).

Procrastination.

Fear of putting all of your effort and and end up failing. Which means you have no excuse to fall back on. It's very scary. It's easier for someone to give it 20% and hope for the best and when they fail they say, "oh well, i tried". This is why sports is the ultimate reality television, it's why it's the best drama because it's happening live. Real people going 100% full passion. That same 100% passion got them noticed in high school, got them accepted in college, and eventually got them a gig as a pro.

Lack of planning - should speak for itself

Lack of focus - I fall victim to this. I have ADD (it is NOT a disease) but rather I think differently and can get easily distracted. For me (not in all cases), if it doesn't interest me or something more interests me I snap focus my attention in that. On the opposite spectrum, if there is a passion. I will spend every waking hour of my life learning, getting better and going after a goal (hyperfocusing). I have to find ways to work around getting myself to focus (I refuse meds).

As for regular people as to why they can't focus, I can't really say...? Too much in life? I dunno.

Hopefully that helps.

Really great thoughts Warriors! Discussions here would be a 'manifesto' to the Noobs.

Agree with you, this is partly due to having over consumption of information, and not having the ability to fit everything together. This also contributes to the inability to focus on one particular part of a business at a time.

People need to start small, and gradually grow. That means before trying to run, they have to walk.

The mistake people do is not understanding properly what the "small" thing is they first need to focus on, and how to grow from there.

They are simply unable to identify what are the actual requirements, instead they focus on earning money immediately.

To be successful in anything you do begins with a vision followed by the setting of goals followed by a plan of action to achieve those goals.

I find the that the most important quality is belief. If you do not believe in your ability to achieve than you might as well not start your journey. You have to have a strong belief in your self or you will quit when there are obstacles to overcome on your path to SUCCESS.

Enjoy the Journey

90% of marketers fail because they come into the field believing that ludicrous hype spewed by those who want to sell to them that you can run a business with absolutely no education, skill, or experience. To put it more succinctly - they have absolutely no grip on reality.

To have a goal is fine - but no matter how well you visualize and no matter how many affirmations you chant - you have to be willing to face the reality that you need some freaking knowledge of what you are doing to be able to do it. It can be learned through trial and error, but few have the money or the tenacity to hang with something long enough to make it work for them when they have to figure it out basically on their own, step by step. And they have to figure it out on their own eventually. You can have "mentors" and you can read all the literature, but eventually, you, all on your own, have to be able to congeal the stuff in your head well enough to use it efficiently. That's a lot to ask of people who thought they could just start pressing buttons to become rich.

Um........did they leave that out of the Secret? hmmmm. The guys that promoted that one were extraordinary marketers.

It's exciting to feel that you can make money on the internet, and in large amounts. Thinking about being able to create your own destiny is an a huge rush. Disappointment sets in when the rush slows down and you realize that you have so much more to learn than just putting up a website and waiting for customers to come pouring in. I think that is the critical moment for those who stick it out and those who quit.

Such an informative thread

The IM space seems to attract a lot of people who have no business background. That's not always a bad thing, for a certain segment who have the right mindset anyway. But for most, it's a prescription for trouble. It was the same in the early 90s, when the popular (non standard) business opportunities were real estate investing, MLM and mail order. The same problems were present back then but the Internet exacerbated them. Yes, the Internet can be a great tool and has opened up new business models but it is even easier to fall into the killer death loop of start, switch, start, switch.