Feeling burned out from so much IM garbage and failures

If you want to be successful, stop following courses and start doing. Better yet, get to work. And if you think following courses is your work, then you've got an even bigger problem.

Quit wasting your precious time on meaningless fluff when you should be working.

You're reading courses without realising that the vast majority of them are generated and propagated by ordinary people with no more expertise than they have.

Here's a revelation: the vast majority of these WSOs are designed to accomplish just one thing: get like-minded people to click and follow. It's as dog-eat-dog as selling jellybeans. Think about it.

Here is a link: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/find-by-...bcat=marketing

I don't dabble with the drop shipping because you can bank or bust a lot. So I can't help you much there. If this is what you've focused on, then yeah, it's very expensive. You probably just got suckered in (no offense) a course that makes it sound like drop shipping is just a go-to business that has zero risk.

Offline Marketing definitely works, but it requires a butt load of hustle. Same with the SEO arbitrage. So, I'll ask what have you done in these two areas?

With Youtube/Affiliate Marketing, what were you sending traffic to? Do you still have your site up? Where is your Youtube channel? Let's check out some of the videos and work together improving the process.

Without knowing the specific details, it sounds like you are jumping around from one thing to another.

7 months isn't that long, especially when you consider how many different things you have listed.

I would focus on 1 - for example, affiliate marketing (cpa offers) and work on that and stop jumping around. I would even take it a step further, start with 1 traffic source (example - facebook ads, ppc, ppv, etc) and 1 niche and focus on that.

Keep in mind, not every campaign will be a success, you need to try multiple things.

No.

You still don't get it.

Money isn't the problem. Right now you're thinking like a gambler with a credit card addiction.

If you want your own business, you have to start thinking with your own head (free).

You are spot on Rory, I have learned a couple skills really well but am finding it hard to make money with them .,.my skills are SEO and Facebook advertising...

writeaway Yes, I know. The traffic is the hardest part when it comes to obtaining

Only problem with your simple method, is finding the traffic to send to your landing page opt in form. ...

Thanks JohnMcCabe You really put it all into perspective man, i appreciate the nudge. I have spent way too much money on courses and you are right i dabbled into each one expecting high hopes and huge returns from the promises made by the "gurus" but in the end they were the sharks out for blood. I am sure some of their tactics work but the way i see it is i have learned an immense amount of information over the past 7 months even if i havent made any money yet. Only time will tell what i do with all of the ammassed knowledge that i have learned. Thank you!

That is solid advice oppyeaunome , great reply i really enjoyed reading it and you are totally right. I was at the point that this is one huge online scam but realize now that it is about how you sell. I believe college is one huge scam that people believe they need but in reality unless you become a doctor or dentist or lawyer or anything specialized requiring you to know and remember a lot of information . Every position is expendable and can be replaced but i do know that once you find a proper mentor willing to show you the ropes on how he does it , then it can properly help you jump the learning curve. I was always after the right mentor, but those are hard to come by because those guys are not the ones selling dreams and courses. Thanks man.

What kind of value can I provide for my community offline? Where I can get 2,000 people to pay me $5 per month.

This post is right on the money. I happen to know Tiffany (not personally, but through her products), and I can tell you that she puts out real quality, unique stuff, and I'm guessing that's a HUGE part of why she's successful.

Tiffany said that we are all like snowflakes (meaning we're all different), and no path is identical. Well, I couldn't agree more with this evaluation.

You might decide to get into the same exact business as mine, or hers, or any other marketer's that you admire, and that's fine, but your road to success will never be the same road as another.

In the end, you may be able to achieve what another person has, or even better, but your path to that goal will look much different than another persons. You might work more hours, or less, and in that case it might take you more time to reach your goal, or less if you are a faster worker, etc.

This brings me to the subject of finding a mentor. A lot of people feel that getting a mentor will be their "fast track" to success. A mentor is surely a positive thing, don't get me wrong. However, I didn't have one, and many other successful people never had mentors, either.

A mentor can show you the steps to take, but they cannot take the steps for you. And you may or may not agree with a mentor's particular behavior in regards to their work habits or how they obtain their goals.

What I'm getting at is having a mentor is great, but that alone won't get you where you want you to be. In the end, it's YOU who has to crawl, walk, and then run. YOU have to put in the time and do the work.

Finally, I would just reiterate that you don't need to buy course after course or pick up every single shiny object some marketer emails you about. I think that self discovery is far more valuable than learning something from a course. Why? Because it allows you to have an amazing sense of accomplishment, and with that comes confidence. Once you have confidence that you can teach yourself, there's nothing you cannot learn or do.

I see so many people struggling with Internet Marketing and I believe it's because there is just so much to learn a person gets overwhelmed. It doesn't help that there are just so many marketers pulling you in every direction. It's like they're sitting on your shoulder and whispering in your ear that their way is best. It can maddening! Block all of it out.

The best advice I could give to somebody suffering from "information overload" is to sit down in a comfortable chair and turn everything off so you have complete silence. Close your eyes and clear your mind. Imagine that you are sitting at a desk with a pencil in your hand and a BLANK piece of paper in front of you. In your mind, take the pencil and write down EXACTLY what it is you want to achieve. Make it simple. only one or two sentences. Be specific. Something like "I want to make my first affiliate sale from Clickbank within the next 30 days."

Then, open your eyes, get a real pencil and paper, sit down at your desk or kitchen table and begin listing the steps you need to take to achieve your first goal. If you need to do a little research, that's fine, but at the beginning stage you shouldn't need to.

One thing that is important when setting a goal is that you need two basic components; what you want to achieve, and the time in which you want to achieve it.

For example, if I were to start an online business from ground zero, my goal sheet might look a little something like this:

GOAL #1: To make one affiliate sale from Clickbank within 30 days.

ACTIONS TO COMPLETE GOAL:

1. Open a Clickbank account.

2. Select a niche and corresponding product.

3. Contact the vendor and try to obtain a review copy of the product (most will comply if you ask correctly). If you have to buy it, well, consider that an investment.

4. Go through the product with a fine-toothed comb. Know it by heart.

5. Buy a cheap domain from GoDaddy or Namecheap (Budget $5-$10).

6. Buy a hosting package (Budget $5-$10 per month).

7. Open an autoresponder account (look for one with a free trial, Aweber, GetResponse, MailChimp, Constant Contact, etc).

8. Install WordPress on domain and apply necessary settings (optimize with proper plugins, etc - Use YouTube for this info - TONS of WP tutorials there).

9. Set up a list for my blog/website in my autoresponder account and add opt-in forms to my blog. Put one at the top of sidebar, one at the bottom of each post/page, and one of either a pop-up/slide-in/litebox, etc.

10. Write first product review about chosen product (at least 1000 words + images + on-page SEO optimization). If you know how to make a decent review video, go for it (NO sales page screen capture videos). If you aren't video savvy yet, that can be a future goal.

11. Set up social media accounts for my website/business on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest & Google Plus.

12. Share a link to my review post on my social media accounts.

13. Interact with others in my niche on social media (at least 30 minutes per day). Post in Facebook groups, Twitter, Google +, etc. Be genuine and DON'T SPAM!

14. Write 4 more articles about my chosen niche (at least 500 words with images). Look through Q & A sites for questions people are always asking and write articles that answer those questions well. Be helpful & don't try to sell. Share links to my articles on my social media pages.

15. Join the top 2 forums related to my niche and post good content and help people. Add blog link to forum signature after making 25 good posts on each forum (spend 15 minutes per day in each forum).

16. Rinse & repeat steps 2,3,4,10,12 & 14.

17. Begin to learn about traffic generation. How can I get targeted traffic to my blog? How can I SEO my blog? Learn on-page SEO first.


Or something like that. Get the idea? That's just a rough draft off the top of my head, but hopefully you can understand the concept.

The idea is to have a clear action plan with specific goals to achieve.

If you achieve your goal, great. If you don't, DO NOT be too hard on yourself. Simply set a new goal like "Make my first Clickbank sale within 60 days." Then, look over your action plan again and decide if there is anything you might need to tweak to help achieve your new goal. By now you will be at least 30 days in, and you should have a general idea where you are falling short. I can tell you right off the bat that your toughest tasks are going to be traffic generation & SEO. If you need to work on those, simply add that to your second goal, so your second goal would be:

"Increase traffic by 10%, work on SEO until my review post moves up in the search engine rankings by at least two pages, and make my first Clickbank sale within 60 days."

Once you hit your first goal, or part of it, it's time to set a higher goal.

Let's say you achieve part/all of your goal and get your first Clickbank sale within the first 60 days. Your new goal could be:

"Increase traffic by 10%, work on SEO until my review post moves up in the search engine rankings by at least two pages, and make my SECOND Clickbank sale within 90 days."

If you hit another part of your goal, let's say the traffic part, then you change your goal again, let's say:

"Increase traffic by ANOTHER 10%, work on SEO until my review post moves up in the search rankings by at least two pages, and make my SECOND Clickbank sale within 90 days."

If you hit your SEO goal, then you change your goal again to reflect that, and raise the bar on the SEO part, like this:

"Increase traffic by ANOTHER 10%, work on SEO until my review post moves up in the search rankings by at least two MORE pages, and make my SECOND Clickbank sale within 90 days."

Do you see where I'm going with this?

What you are trying to do is slowly raise the goal bar each time you hit a part/all of your goal.

In this way, you ALWAYS have something to strive for, and you will ALWAYS be moving forward.

As your goals change, your action plan may also change as well. It's up to you to decide whether or not you need to change your action plan to align with the goals you need to reach.

Just remember, you can change your action plan whenever you want, but NEVER change your goals until you hit one/all of them. If you keep changing your goals before you hit them, you will lose sight on your set goals, and NEVER hit them! In essence, you'll be running in place and not moving forward, and you always want to be moving forward.

It's also important that you do not set your goals so high that it takes you an overly long time to reach them.

You want to set "bite sized" goals for yourself. You want to make it so that you CAN reach your goals without making it TOO easy, if that makes sense. The reason for this is because when you hit a goal, you are going to feel a sense of accomplishment. Over time, you will get "addicted" to the good feeling you get when you reach one of your goals. I actually feel an adrenaline rush when I achieve a hard goal. This is going to act as positive reinforcement to KEEP you striving for higher goals. In other words, challenge yourself, but don't make it impossible to hit your goals. That's counterproductive.

Now, you are probably wondering how you are supposed to complete some of your goals if you don't have the knowledge required.

This is where research comes in.

Anyone who wants to be their own boss and run their company has to have a few qualities. If you know you don't possess these qualities, it doesn't necessarily mean you cannot start your own business, but you will need to acquire these skills first. The good thing is that EVERYONE already has these skills, they just need to learn how to activate them, or "tap in" to them.

You need to be a self-starter, highly motivated, able to work without supervision or someone constantly telling you what to do (initiative), able to learn/teach yourself, and know how & where to find the information you need.

Luckily, finding the information is EASY. Just go to Google or YouTube. Nowadays, it really IS that simple. I recommend video learning, as it provides two forms of reinforcement, which are hearing and seeing. Reading would be the third important factor in learning, and if you can find reading material that's great. The ideal way to learn any skill online would be to combine all three. So you read, hear, and see something being done.

Lastly, anything really worth achieving is NOT going to be easy. If it was easy, everyone would do it.

No matter what, NEVER lose sight of your goals and NEVER give up.

Now, does that mean you should push everything else in your life aside and focus only on starting your online business? Of course not!

You may need to work a full-time job, especially if you have others who rely on you.

You might only be able to put in an hour or two every day because you have other responsibilities, and that's fine. There is nothing wrong with that. That's life. That does not mean that you shouldn't try.

Look at how many single moms are out there working a full-time job, taking care of their children, and going to school at the same time. It's great to have inspiration. Let something like that be your inspiration.

I'll leave you with this: YOU can achieve anything you want to in this life if you want it bad enough and you are willing to work hard enough to get it. It's not going to happen overnight, but with determination and drive, it WILL happen.

Damn, I could have turned this into a WSO (just kidding)