Not cut out for marketing...can I still make a living online?

What are you willing to trade? If you don't want to spend time, you'll have to spend money. If your approach is "I won't 'supply' anything to do this" - no, it won't work.

I know a man who does that - lives in Atlanta area during the summer and in the Florida Keys/Miami during winter months. He is a talented artist...are you?

I do understand what you are saying and it makes sense to a point. If you are minimalist 'hippy' (someone actually uses that word now?) you might sell festival guides or home crafted musical instruments or a specialized craft item you've created...

You don't have to sell 'things' people don't want....and try to talk them into buying those 'things'.

Instead sell info or 'stuff' people are looking for....

Freedom: travel blogs, 'best places to live cheap', ways to cut costs to
live a simple 'at home' lifestyle, etc.....write books about low cost living, low-stress living,

Nature: best low cost campground, free camp sites, trail guides, organic gardening, growing and preserving herbs, preserving home grown foods.

Love: you got me on that one - dating, boy/girl stuff, getting ex's back (why would you want to do that a second time?) doesn't interest me..so no ideas about it.
(see what I did there?)

Music - music for meditation, folk music, home made musical instruments for children, selling old time instruments or parts to them that may be hard to find.

IF you decide to work online you have to put yourself into it - you need to 'sell' but it can be things you know people WANT/NEED to buy.

I don't believe that - I think it's only out of your comfort zone. You want to earn money online but seem to think 'marketing' is a dirty word. You'll need to resolve that in your mind.


If you sell products/info that people you know will want to buy...you are providing them with a service....not forcing advertising on them. There is a difference.

If you have a hobby or a craft - why not work in that niche and sell products you believe in?

How can you sell something If nobody knows it exist?

Selling at festivals is advertising unless you just like carrying artwork around town for the heck of it.

From what I've read here I agree, marketing probably isn't for you. Do something else that you're interested in.

Even the hippie painter does/did marketing. It may not seem like it now, but at some point in time, they were discovered by presenting their art somewhere that people could see it. Marketing does not necessarily mean a sales pitch. It is getting your products out there where they can be discovered. It could all very well be word of mouth at this point for that artist but there was nobody talking about them until they put themselves out there somewhere to be seen.

You cannot possibly make money online if people don't know about your site. There is no "build and they will come" scenario with websites. So, you are going to have to do something in order to have people find the website. You can do that in a variety of ways - advertising, social networking, SEO - but it all is still marketing to different degrees.

I've never known of any way of making money (online or offline) that you don't have to trade time for. Even the hippie artist knows that the paintings don't paint themselves and that she sometimes has to go places and present the art so that people can see it.

Unfortunately, you sound like the ideal prey for people who sell the "no work, push button money making machine" scams. We've had plenty of people who succeeded with our course and plenty of people who didn't. The thing that always seems to separate those who do from those who don't succeed is the level of commitment and amount of work that they put in. The 80/20 rule exists for a reason.

first, you are focusing on the wrong thing. first focus on the know like and trust factor and you will find your clients.

Put some Faith and trust. Then you can find real Clients

This is a very famous story. I will reveal the characters in a minute.

Two friends start a company. One is only 16 years in age we will call him B and another one is senior about 20 years in age. Let us call him A.

Now B find and idea to build a product that he feels would be required by a lot of people. A agrees with B.

So B and A work together and develop the prototype of the product. This product is a bundle for another product already available in the market and selling well.

So they decide that they would go and market this product to this existing company and ask them to promote their product along with their product.

But B is very young. Looks like a kid. No one would take him seriously. That is what he feels. So B ask A to go to the company and do the presentation.

Bill tells Allen, "You look mature and senior, they will take you more seriously." So Allen went to this company that built the first computer Altair 8800. He give the presentation of the software they had built on top of Altair 8800. And his presentation was successful.

By now if you have not guessed the names of these folks. B Stands for Bill Gates and A Stands for Paul Allen. Now don't ask my why I did not use P. Because B and P would have been confusing and tongue twisting.

What does this have to do with your question?

Everything.

You see we are all carved out differently by the one and only GOD. So we are good in some skills and then we are bad or horrible in other skills.

Just imagine if Micheal Jackson had to make his music and also go out and sell his music. He would have remained unknown pop star of the world. The world would have missed his moon walk and the only moon walk we would have known is the one that Neil Armstrong did on the real moon.

Coming to the Point.

You don't need to be good or great in marketing to start a business online.

I am going to repeat that again.

You don't need to be good or great in marketing to start a business online.

I will give you an example.

Think about a general store. You know everything they sell at the general store. The person behind the counter does not have to sell you anything. When you want paper clips you will go and find it on the shelf or ask the man behind the counter. He does not have to sell you the paper clip. You just walked into the store and bought the paper clip because you wanted it.

There is a very important Lesson Here.

You can just build a general store. You can keep updating this general store with products. These can be affiliate products. But you arrange the general store in the way that people can come to it and find the product they want. Does Amazon ring a bell?

You are overwhelmed by now.

I know that you are thinking I am talking about Microsoft and Amazon and all the big guys what happens to this little guy like me. I don't have a friend like Paul Allen who will do marketing for me. I don't even have brains like Jeff Bezos to build an Amazon. Then how can I get started.

Here is the perfect solution.

1. IDENTIFY THE RIGHT PRODUCT:

Find a system instead of a product. Imagine if you were selling a Car. You are not going to do all the Marketing for the Car. The car manufacturer does that.

In the same manner there are affiliate products that are systems. These systems have the complete process of selling. So you don't have to do anything. You just need to learn how to find the traffic by placing ads on Google or Bing or Facebook or Media or Solo Vendors etc.

2. BECOME PART OF THIS SYSTEM.

Usually such systems are not free. They require you to become part of the System by paying some fee for Partnership or Franchise or Training. Once you pay this fee you can also drive traffic to these systems. With the methods I mentioned above.

3. SEND TRAFFIC

50% of people of approximately 3.5 Billion People use the Internet. If you are selling a product that has commission of $10 and you want to make $1000 every month then you will need to find the 100 people who need this system. As I mentioned you don't need to market. The marketing is already done by the system. You just need to place your ads in such a way that people go and see the marketing which is already in place.

If you have a system that can give you commission of $100 per product sold then you just need 10 people every month for the same system to make $1000.

Now the only cost you need to figure out is your Advertisement Cost. Yes you will need to spend some money in advertisement.

Example of a Promotion I did Online.

For e.g. I did a promotion on Bing Ads for 1 Month. I spent $216 in that I sold about 47 units of $18 commission. So I made $846 commission. My profit for this campaign was $846 - $216 = $630

This was purely using advertisement to run the campaign.

If you can figure out how to do advertising and you figure out for every $1 you spend can you get $2 or $3 or $5 or $10 back. Then you don't have to do any marketing.

Please understand that Advertising is a Static form of Marketing where you generally don't come in touch with the Customer.

You place the Ads. The customer clicks on the Ads and visits the Product Website. The Product Website Markets to this Customer. The Customer Buys the Product. You get a commission from the sale of the product.

You are no where in picture.

CONCLUSION:

If you think you can do it OR if you think you cannot do it. Either ways you are right. By Henry Ford.

Please understand that not everyone needs to have all the skills. In fact any individual is able to use only 1% of knowledge he has. Some people are able to use 5% of the knowledge they have. They are quite rich and affluent in the society. And very few can use about 20% of the knowledge they have. They are the millionaires and billionaires of the society.

So make a list of skills and talents you have. Then you identify how you can use these skills and talents on the internet.

Internet is a vast ocean. There are more than millions of ways to make a living on that. You just need to use one for yourself.

Hope I am able to help you. Best of Luck for your success.

Stay focused, Stay Rich.

You could also learn Photoshop, or create music, software, etc and sell it on Graphicriver, (or one of its subsidiaries) or eventually Creativemarket.

Both of these platforms require you to Show only the product and demonstrate its assets.

And they don't require cheesy sales tactics, so if you do the same product over and over, you just cut and paste the tech, side of it, and then upload the whatever.

So it is like selling guitars at a market with a sign saying, "second hand, one owner, $20 bucks, no strings attached, (lol)".

Instead of....

Buy this Slightly used, in excellent condition Wonder of the Pre modern Age, blah, blah...

Option B is selling, or probably what is p*** you off, the first is just describing it, nothing underhanded in that.

You are starting from the wrong perspective. You need to have a good product or service, then be worrying about how to offer it to people. If you just want money then you are asking for a job and there are plenty of those.

Create something of value then help people find it

Marketing is about cultivating and managing an image. I spent over 20 years in the record industry - back when there actually was a record industry - and many musicians would claim they wanted nothing to do with selling or the unsavoury business of manipulating an "image". They didn't want their artistic credibility tainted by the tawdry machinations of commerce and marketing. What most of them didn't realize, but what all music industry executives well knew, was that the rejection of an "image" was in itself an image - and usually a lucrative one. While, no doubt, some of the buyers of those paintings at the festivals you mentioned were motivated purely by the art, still more were buying into the idea of an independent artist outside the system, and what owning that piece of art said about them and their perceived image of themselves.

Like it or not, we all have an image of ourselves we try to cultivate.

I've yet to meet an artist who didn't want others to view, hear or experience their work. Selling copies of your art is validation that what you create is appreciated by someone else and not just a work of self-indulgence. It has value. Once you accept that, the process of letting people know about your work is just that - a process. It's nothing to be precious about.

You are worrying without any big reason. You can always improve the aspects you are weak at.

I have only one question? What do you have to offer the world, other than a sense of entitlement that dictates that you should not have to abide by the laws of commerce that everyone else is obliged to adhere to?

Honestly, you just come across as incredibly lazy and unwilling to do anything, at all.

This is the real key.

Ethical marketing is all about connecting people who already want something with the means of getting that thing.

Your hippy artist friend understands this already. People who buy their paintings want something unique and appealing to them to decorate their home or office. Your friend provides that, for a price. And they understand that people likely to be attracted to their work also attend the various festivals, and such.

You could do worse than sitting down with this painter and discussing your concerns.

"Marketing" doesn't mean turning yourself into a boardwalk pitchman or medicine show snake oil salesperson. If you can sell a product, your own or as an affiliate, that you truly believe will make a difference in peoples' ;lives, marketing is very simple and transparent. You simply do things (like exhibiting at festivals, as your artist friend does) that put your product in front of people looking for what your product offers.

Hate to put it like this, but if you can't get past your reluctance to market, trading time for money is the only other way to make money without leaving home.

I thought this looked familiar - so perhaps the question the OP needs to answer is this:


Has ANYTHING changed since you you posted the thread below 3 years ago? If so, what changes have you made? What have you done to improve your job prospects? What have you DONE to build an online presence or income?



https://www.warriorforum.com/main-in...ey-online.html

True - and to be fair to the OP there are others who post the same problems over time and never seem to get past those same problems. Not unusual.


That particular thread had a lot of good advice in it - some wakeup calls - and three years is a long time to be stuck in the same place.


If the basic problem is 'I do't want to work and don't see why I should have to do something I don't want to do' - there isn't much you do to help.

In my view, you have to wear many hats just to get through life on a daily basis.

Of course 'passive income' appeals to many people - they use it as a buzzword but it doesn't exist until long after you've done a LOT of work online...if then.

Dave's idea above is one that's been mentioned to you in previous threads....you can walk away from the computer when you want as long as you spend enough time there to get the writing work completed.

The ability to write well in English - and type quickly/accurately on a keyboard - are useful skills that can be highly profitable...but you need to apply them.

No matter what you try - you WILL be out of your comfort zone Deal with it - give it a shot.

No, Gaia, l paid a team in India, that created some WP software for me some time ago; it costed me $130 and phew l think 6 weeks all up, and it made $1,300 all up, which sounds great, but most of that went to affiliate's, so l made a few hundred all up, for a H*ll of a lot of effort.

As for Photoshop work, yes a lot of effort also, (6 months minimum to learn it, a year or more to get good at it).

But in GR, you just create and submit, and earn more over time. It does have a review team, but their high standards only helps you to achieve more.

But you could also try Photodune, or take pictures and sell them, (obviously easier said than done) but if you have a camara, it is a relatively quick startup business.

You could also consider Fiverr, but that has a earning ceiling and it has to be effort for money.

The previous options are creating a Portfolio of an ever increasing product range, where you only need to work on the product, they take care of traffic and order issues.

This obviously takes time, effort and maybe some money, but once you do one product it will earn for years or indefinitely, (l did a wedding flyer years ago, and it keeps selling).

To answer your question which was

My answer is no. No, you can't.

I can or other people can. But you can't. Because you won't. You have too many excuses, too many reasons, want too much freedom (without earning it), etc. etc. etc.

I don't have to look up your posts from years ago. I remember the storyline very clearly.

You were set on the AWAI research program, right? Why didn't you finish that? You were convinced that was the answer because you loved to surf the internet.

In a class for children years ago, I learned this saying that has stuck with me. I forget the exact setup but it was something like a child's mother asked him to pick up his toys. The boy defiantly said

This applies to you from everything I've seen.

Until you make a decision and stick to it, your lack of success is simply because you don't want to have success because you think your case is special in some way.

And, spare me any "how dare you" or similar comeback. What I have written here is absolutely true even if it may sting a bit. How do I know? Because early on I made tons of excuses and didn't listen to anyone trying to help me either. I had to work hard to overcome that character flaw.

Mark

Go back and read Pat's story. Better yet, shoot him a message and ask him how long it took him to achieve "passive income" and how much work he had to do up front.

Ask him how much he still works to maintain that "passive" income. Earlier today I watched one of his YT videos, and he mentioned that over the last several years he's done over 400 videos and 1300 podcast episodes. That's on top of two traditionally published books and countless blog posts.

In return, he does get a pretty good "passive" income. But he does a hell of a lot of marketing to keeps those income streams going.

So unless you can get past the roadblocks between your ears, I'll go back to the last advice I gave you in that three year old thread...

Find yourself a sugar daddy.

Sounds like some deep limiting beliefs you need to purge GG. Consider meditating daily. This helped me expand my awareness so I could feel all the fears I lived by for so many years. After feeling the fears, I released these energies and proceeded from a more clear, calm, empowered space. After letting go your limiting beliefs you can succeed in any online niche.

The minimalist movement is very popular right now. This is your chance to jump on that band wagon. Don't think about what hasn't worked and why you shouldn't - just do something.

Take that passion about anti-consumerism and start a blog. Post videos about why you don't buy into advertising and you only consume what you need. Tell people how you survive on a small income. Many people are wanting to downsize right now and want information about the lifestyle.

Instead of using your beliefs as an excuse not to succeed, use them as a way to propel you forward.

You can build a mailing list of like-minded people or a Facebook group. Eventually share books or products that you feel have helped you. Yes, it's marketing but it's also helping people find what they're looking for. I'm not sure it will be a high paying audience but I know there are things this group are willing to pay to learn.

It will eventually get boring. Then it's up to you to find ways to keep motivated. I find that eating, paying the rent, and visiting my grandbabies are great motivators.

It will be work. Doing anything of value usually is. It also takes time. Stucking with a project is often the hardest part.

All we can do is offer you ideas. What you do with them is up to you.

Rose

There are many ways to make money online.

You just need to find one that matches your skills.

Marketing is a great way to do it, but there are other ways. But with that in mind, why couldn't you just write content for websites you own and then sell ad space? it's pretty straight forward and you can just focus on the content of the websites.

Hey,
After reading this thread, and your thread from 3 years ago and all your replies, it just looks like you are stuck in a cycle.
Its not that you can't do something, but deep inside you want to prove to the world that nothing will work for you, and so your mind finds some way to sabotage and create the result that is running as your auto-pilot program.

There is never going to be a job or business where all you do is things that you love. The marketplace does not give a crap about what you love, rather it is selfish and wants what it wants. If you want to make money while being able to travel etc, look at where people are spending money, look at how you can add value with any skills, knowledge and experience you already have, and create a solution. This solution could be a blog, podcast show, books, courses, physical products, distribution systems (eg. an ecommerce store).

Even though you deny it, from reading your responses, it seems that you have internal issues with beliefs that are deep seated that you consciously belive that there is nothing wrong, but your unconscious mind is where the trouble is.

If you have not already read them, 2 books that really helped me understand my own cycle of self-sabotage and is helping me work through it are 1. Psycho-cybernetics by Dr. Maxwell Maltz, and more recently 'How to Make Lots of Money for Anything - Fast' by Stuart Lichtman.

I would suggest reading through my post at this link on books to read that will help you understand your mind, mindset, how to empower yourself to succeed, work with your strengths and also how an online business works --> https://www.warriorforum.com/main-in...l#post11372395

There are a couple of other posts by others on this forum that you'd find useful as well:

1. https://www.warriorforum.com/main-in...l#post11379633

2. https://www.warriorforum.com/main-in...l#post11380060

3. https://www.warriorforum.com/main-in...l#post11381263

Also, having followed the 'multi-potentialite' movement, there are flaws in the thinking as well, and those who promote it are banking cash while you are living in fantasy land. The true multi-potentialite/polymath goes deep into a few different areas, and finds ways to create solutions by combining or borrowing elements.

No one gets paid for just existing, you can still exist that way if you want like tribals do. Go out, hunt, fish and live day to day that way, but if you want to live in the modern world and have modern comforts, finding ways to add value to others is the 'modern' form of hunting, and we get paid in cash to then exchange for what we want - freedom , travel, etc.

To make money online or offline, you need to find a way to add value to the marketplace. You don't have to love the work. There are people who hate pets, who have businesses catering to pets and pet owners. There are people who don't care about 'survivalists' but know that it is a rabid market and have businesses that sell to them.

At 45, i'm sure you would have picked up a variety of skills and life experiences that you can use to add value to others. Introversion and social ackwardness are not excuses to hide behind. Again, you are hiding behind the stories that you keep telling yourself and the self-image that those stories have created for you, and getting the results that that self-image is capable of getting.
To change the results, you need to change, till you are ready to change, there is not a whole lot anyone can do for you.

I wish you all the best, and I hope that you use the creativity that you have used to create stories and excuses, to create value and have the freedom that you desire.

There is a lot of opportunity, and lot of potential in todays world, the question is how are you going to use that to add value and enrich yourself in the process?

There are a lot of things I'd like to point out in your post, but I'd like to keep it simple and focus on the important things. Firstly, when you say you can't and when you say you can, both are true as it will depend on what you chose to believe. The mind is actually a limiting factor for some people and for some they have totally dominated the way they chose their lives to be because of something as simple as "mindset". It's actually not wrong to refuse to do any kind of marketing as you can just go and find someone to do that for you, that is something you can call as working smart. However without the resources to do this yet, you will need to build up and start investing in learning the basics. For this one I suggest you try watching videos from the YouTube channel, Minority Mindset.

Part of the problem - as I see it - is this:

You're asking the question, "Can I run an internet business without marketing?" on a Marketing forum.

We all believe strongly in the power of marketing or we would not waste our time here discussing and learning new methods. So you're asking us to help you do something that we don't honestly feel is possible.

Perhaps another forum where people believe they've built their businesses without marketing could offer more of what you're looking to find.

Even in my ghostwriting business I had to do a lot of marketing in the beginning. Not so much these days since my clients come from referrals. But I couldn't have got it off the ground without letting people know, "I'm here, I write well, and I'm willing to write what you need." In other words - marketing.

And though I love what I do, I can't say it's perfect. The pros far outweigh the cons which makes me happy. I'm afraid a search for perfection would leave me stressed and eternally looking without ever accomplishing anything.

I hope you find what makes you happy, pays the bills and leaves enough for travel

Rose

If you know how to market and advertise, you can outsource your work. It will cost more money, but you are no longer being the creative one, you are simply getting someone else to create a piece of the puzzle you need.

However, you cant make money online unless someone purchases something from you. Therefore there will always be a need to market and advertise products or services.

If you have something valuable to offer then there is NOTHING wrong with exchanging that value for a different typ of value: Money. It's a simple value exchange.

I used to be stuck in that mindset myself for a long time before I realized that I am limiting myself by thinking this way..

You have a lifestyle and interests, start sharing that with likeminded people and offer value in someway and monetize off of that! Start getting out of your comfort-zone and challenge yourself, it's fun!

Good luck,

I think it's about your mindset, you can't be successful in something you don't believe Find your passion and brainstorm with yourself or your friends how to monetize what you love doing.

I think you need to be around the right people and mentors.That will smooth all the process!