The longer time goes by, the more I give up hope...

14 years ago

In my opinion you have tried too many things without sticking to the ones that worked for you.

I don't mean to sound harsh but how can you try becoming an IM guru for 2 years, telling other people how to succeed in IM, while you have made hardly any money yourself?

In my opinion, what you should do is take the one method that has worked for you, and that seems to be article marketing, and rinse and repeat. Once you've found a way to make money it is mostly about scaling it up. Re-invest some of the money you make and outsource some of the work to writers. With article marketing there's only so much you can do yourself.

And don't forget to grow a list at the same time, let people opt-in on your website before sending them to the offer. And a list does work in other niches as well, not just IM.

Hope this post didn't sound too harsh, I certainly didn't mean to.

Thanks
1 reply

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Ernie Lo 14 years ago

Thanks for the reply Michael..in response to your post..

Yes I have tried a few things but I always spent a good deal of time on 1 thing at a time, so that isn't the problem...however my problem is I don't spent enough time on a website once its launched...

To be honest I feel a little scammed by the gurus....

- They said build a list and 1% will buy.....nope not even close to 1% considering only a small % ever see your emails...
- They said believe in yourself and never give up etc...still hasnt worked for me
- They said you need affiliates....I got a whopping 150 and my launch still flopped.

Of course I'm not perfect and I did things wrong, but surely "if you throw enough mud on a wall....a good deal should stick to it"!

I'm not here to cry or make excuses...I just want to know what I can do now to make even $5-10 a day online and maybe what niche..coz I'm so puzzled and stuck on ideas...I'm guessing thats the million dollar question everyone wants to know.
- Thanks
- 3 replies
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- johnng 14 years ago
  
  Could it be the way you sell to your list? I noticed every time I tried to sell to my list, a few percent will unsubscribe. But keep building your list, they will be replaced.
  The only other problem must be your method of choosing your products. The only reason they won't buy your products because they don't want them. Must concentrate on experimenting with your methods of product selection!
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  
  John Ng
  http://www.homeworkers.me
  
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- Dan C. Rinnert 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Ernie Lonardo
  
  - They said build a list and 1% will buy.....nope not even close to 1% considering only a small % ever see your emails...
  
  Being somewhat of an expert at building non-responsive lists (I have a list of 3500+ from which I don't think I've ever gotten a sale), the key is to make sure you're building a list of prospects, not freebie seekers. This is something I sometimes think a lot of marketers don't point out enough.
  
  A big list or even a big audience doesn't necessarily translate to sales, and it won't if all you've attracted is people looking for free stuff. Some seem to think that the freebie seekers can be converted with the right pitch, but, I think, that more often than not, the freebie seekers are just looking for freebies and aren't looking to buy no matter how good your pitch is.
  
  The trick is avoiding attracting them.
  
  - They said you need affiliates....I got a whopping 150 and my launch still flopped.
  
  One quality affiliate will do better for you than 100 non-quality affiliates.
  
  And, how are you counting those affiliates? For example, if you're on ClickBank, I think anyone that sends traffic your way will be counted as an affiliate. That doesn't necessarily mean anything. I run ClickBank's HopLink Ads on my site, so I'm probably an "affiliate" for a dozen people. But, I don't actively promote those links. I don't write articles for them. I don't do anything really. Mainly, they are there in the hopes that someone clicks and buys something. But, on those ads, I'm not really a very useful affiliate because I'm not doing anything specifically to promote a merchant. It's more or less the luck of the draw.
  
  I have a product, for example, where I have 100+ affiliates. I have made as many sales myself as all the affiliates combined. And I haven't done a whole lot of promotion. So, those affiliates must be doing even less than me. I think it's relatively easy on ClickBank to get a quantity of affiliates. It's attracting quality of affiliates that is most beneficial and also the hardest work.
  
  Who would you rather have as an affiliate? 100 people that may just be running HopLink Ads or one person like Mike Filsaime or Steve Wagenheim, who you know will be promoting the heck out of your product?
  
  [ 2 ] Thanks
  
  Signature
  
  Dan's content is irregularly read by handfuls of people. Join the elite few by reading his blog: dcrBlogs.com, following him on Twitter: dcrTweets.com or reading his fiction: dcrWrites.com but NOT by Clicking Here!
  
  Dan also writes content for hire, but you can't afford him anyway.
  
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- Sandycmy 14 years ago
  
  Hi Ernie,
  
  I,m doing pretty well offline with physical products ( Actual Trainings on LMS) --
  when it's online mine is similar to you .
  
  I definitely see that you can do a lot --- some missing link
  
  Could you pls share your thoughts and lessons learnt here
  
  http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...dont-miss.html
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  Master Content writing. Master Product Creation. Celebrate Online Success. Learn Today > Content Writing Course
  
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Buildingfutures

14 years ago

Ernie, I was there with you right around this time last year.

But you gotta snap out of it. This attitude will not fly and it won't help you with anything you want.

Read this thread, its an oldie of mine. Here and just take a look at all the fantastic ass-kicking that I got for a thread like this. Maybe someone's post there will motivate you, maybe you'll want to not be like me, either way, its there.

In response to your question, there are a lot of niches, and there are countless ways to start in them. Go check out the niche blog thread in the War Room, from 0-$250 a day with Niche Blogs. That should be somewhere for you to get started.

If not, why not just make a blog, fill it with knowledge and then flip it on flippa? It makes sense to put all that knowledge to good use.

I wasn't in the War Room when I made that post I linked to, but now I am. If I ever get down, I just go look at some badass ideas and get the juices flowing again.

Do I act on them? Hell no, that would be way too many projects at once. But it gets my mind off the ones that have had problems, and I can come back to those problems with a clear head.

Trust me my man, 2010 is going to be a badass year for the likes of us, just take a breather, and make a plan.

Hell, just don't do IM for a month.

IF you have ideas during that month, write them down and come back to them later, but take a break. I took a break the entire year of 2009 almost, and it was worth it. I've got more work done in the past month than the past year of IM.

We can all make money, maybe you just need that break to figure out what you can do to make it.

-Sean

[ 3 ] Thanks

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juzanobo

14 years ago

As they were always saying, 80-20 rule. Creation of website will only be 20%, 80% of the time is the marketing/promotional stage.

Thanks

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tryinhere

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Ernie Lonardo

After trying
Ive tried
Ive tried
I started
I tried
Don't know what to do

....

you should never try anything, you either do or you do not.

Thanks
2 replies

Signature

| > Choosing to go off the grid for a while to focus on family, work and life in general. Have a great 2020 < |

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Taylor French 14 years ago

Originally Posted by tryinhere

you should never try anything, you either do or you do not.

Hey, that's my line!
- Thanks
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rahulchandra 14 years ago

Originally Posted by tryinhere

you should never try anything, you either do or you do not.

That's Yoda's line from Empire
(You altered it a little, I'll give you that)

But if you never try anything , you'll never
learn anything new.

Ernie,
I feel your pain..

And honestly all I can say is
don't lose hope man!

Keep trying...

You have come a long way,
share your experiences
I am sure people would gain
immense knowledge from
where you went wrong.

May be you can learn what went wrong
yourself, and fix it...

All the best!
Rahul
- Thanks
- 1 reply
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- tryinhere 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by rahulchandra
  
  That's Yoda's line from Empire
  (You altered it a little, I'll give you that)
  
  never watched the star wars stuff, and some body else said it was theirs, i will leave them and yodo fight over it, for me i think it cam from a book i read many years ago in regards talk language or management or one of those type books, in that when people use the term try it really means they are giving them self an out, " oh i TRIED that and it did not work"
  
  So in essence you do or you do not but you never try, or allow an out, more a mind set thing
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
  Signature
  
  | > Choosing to go off the grid for a while to focus on family, work and life in general. Have a great 2020 < |
  
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  CDarklock 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by tryinhere
  
  never watched the star wars stuff, and some body else said it was theirs
  
  Somebody with a picture of Yoda as their avatar.
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  
  "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
  
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AgencyScripts

14 years ago

Dude - do what you love to do.

I was in your spot (we all have been, either with IM or something else). When I
first read the ebook from Mike F. butterfly marketing I went and made a list of
all the sites I wanted to make. From photoshop tutorials, cg tutorials to movie
reviews - I spent ALOT of time just designing them and never doing anything
with them, it was good to better my skills - but I didnt earn any money...

I fell in love with marketing. That's why I did over $35,000 in sales in december
alone... I worked hard, and I love what I do.

Instead of flipping sites, or doing something that "may seem like a cool idea", do
something YOU LOVE to do.

Me and my brother wanted to do a site about flipping site, and do all these things
for it. We sold and flipped a fair amount of sites for $,$$$ each, but it sucked
talking about site flipping all the time... We just didn't really love it, haha.

Doing designs and working on my goals for my clients and learning great marketing
from Dan Kennedy, and others then I started to do really well. I love doing that, and
I love watch marketing videos, and reading marketing books.

As Gary V. says in his new book "crush" if your true blue passion isn't business dev.
go do something else...

Good is the enemy of great, and like is the enemy of love.

Do what you LOVE to do, and make sure you believe its possible. (it is)

You may also need to get out of the IM crowd for a bit to clear your head, because
this may not be where you should be.

I suggest you not even come to the WF for a week or two, read a few books, figure
out what you would do if you didn't have to make money, and figure out how you
can do that to make a profit - or just go to school, and just be happy as whatever
you want to be.

For example I love music, and one of the projects I will be doing this year is a site
helping bands in Canada do better marketing, and grow their band online.

If you ever need help with any thing just PM or email me!

[ 6 ] Thanks
2 replies

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Ernie Lo

14 years ago

Thanks for the post, sounds very motivating

I PM'ed you.

@ Free-Spirit - thanks for the offer but I can't do article writing anymore since I suffer from carpel tunnel.

Originally Posted by Dylan Jones

Dude - do what you love to do.

I was in your spot (we all have been, either with IM or something else). When I
first read the ebook from Mike F. butterfly marketing I went and made a list of
all the sites I wanted to make. From photoshop tutorials, cg tutorials to movie
reviews - I spent ALOT of time just designing them and never doing anything
with them, it was good to better my skills - but I didnt earn any money...

I fell in love with marketing. That's why I did over $35,000 in sales in december
alone... I worked hard, and I love what I do.

Instead of flipping sites, or doing something that "may seem like a cool idea", do
something YOU LOVE to do.

Me and my brother wanted to do a site about flipping site, and do all these things
for it. We sold and flipped a fair amount of sites for $,$$$ each, but it sucked
talking about site flipping all the time... We just didn't really love it, haha.

Doing designs and working on my goals for my clients and learning great marketing
from Dan Kennedy, and others then I started to do really well. I love doing that, and
I love watch marketing videos, and reading marketing books.

As Gary V. says in his new book "crush" if your true blue passion isn't business dev.
go do something else...

Good is the enemy of great, and like is the enemy of love.

Do what you LOVE to do, and make sure you believe its possible. (it is)

You may also need to get out of the IM crowd for a bit to clear your head, because
this may not be where you should be.

I suggest you not even come to the WF for a week or two, read a few books, figure
out what you would do if you didn't have to make money, and figure out how you
can do that to make a profit - or just go to school, and just be happy as whatever
you want to be.

For example I love music, and one of the projects I will be doing this year is a site
helping bands in Canada do better marketing, and grow their band online.

If you ever need help with any thing just PM or email me!

Thanks
2 replies

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Gary Thompson 14 years ago

Hi,

[QUOTE=@ Free-Spirit - thanks for the offer but I can't do article writing anymore since I suffer from carpel tunnel.[/QUOTE]

It looks like you made some good headway in article writing so it might be worth continuing with -

Bear with me, I understand you have carpal tunnel, but here's a suggestion;

Buy a digital dictaphone with a bundled version of "Dragon natually speaking" voice recognition software. ( FYI - I use an Olmypus V5500PC DNS)

You can then record your article on the dictaphone, download it to your PC and the software will convert it to text. The only typing you're then doing is basic editing.

I use it regularly and it saves me a huge amount of typing. It's not perfect but it is very good and the voice recognition improves the more you use it. I recommend giving it a try.

Focus on your strengths. If article writing worked for you, stick to it and get really good at it. The cash will come.

JT.
- Thanks
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Rod Cortez

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Ernie Lonardo

Thanks for the post, sounds very motivating

I PM'ed you.

@ Free-Spirit - thanks for the offer but I can't do article writing anymore since I suffer from carpel tunnel.

Easily solved - grab a copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking. I have CTS also and that solved my issue. Now my team and I can crank out serious amounts of content with our voice.

From reading your OP and this last post, you're way too quick to quit something instead of finding a work around. If it's making you money, such as article marketing, instead of quitting it and losing all the momentum you've gained, try to figure out a way to make it work. Here's another way to do it, find one or two good article writers, buy articles from them and submit them yourself or hire someone to do it.

Secondly, I come across Warriors like yourself all the time here in the forum and at seminars. You're unfocused, you try this and that, yet you're going about it a very unstructured, unfocused way. It's time to take a step back, take a breather, and then spend some serious time on what ONE thing you want to focus on.

Lastly, be prepared to work your a$$ off.

RoD

Thanks

Signature

"Your personal philosophy is the greatest determining factor in how your life works out."

- Jim Rohn

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cgcmarketing

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Dylan Jones

Dude - do what you love to do.

I was in your spot (we all have been, either with IM or something else). When I
first read the ebook from Mike F. butterfly marketing I went and made a list of
all the sites I wanted to make. From photoshop tutorials, cg tutorials to movie
reviews - I spent ALOT of time just designing them and never doing anything
with them, it was good to better my skills - but I didnt earn any money...

I fell in love with marketing. That's why I did over $35,000 in sales in december
alone... I worked hard, and I love what I do.

Instead of flipping sites, or doing something that "may seem like a cool idea", do
something YOU LOVE to do.

Me and my brother wanted to do a site about flipping site, and do all these things
for it. We sold and flipped a fair amount of sites for $,$$$ each, but it sucked
talking about site flipping all the time... We just didn't really love it, haha.

Doing designs and working on my goals for my clients and learning great marketing
from Dan Kennedy, and others then I started to do really well. I love doing that, and
I love watch marketing videos, and reading marketing books.

As Gary V. says in his new book "crush" if your true blue passion isn't business dev.
go do something else...

Good is the enemy of great, and like is the enemy of love.

Do what you LOVE to do, and make sure you believe its possible. (it is)

You may also need to get out of the IM crowd for a bit to clear your head, because
this may not be where you should be.

I suggest you not even come to the WF for a week or two, read a few books, figure
out what you would do if you didn't have to make money, and figure out how you
can do that to make a profit - or just go to school, and just be happy as whatever
you want to be.

For example I love music, and one of the projects I will be doing this year is a site
helping bands in Canada do better marketing, and grow their band online.

If you ever need help with any thing just PM or email me!

Bravo, this is an excellent post.

Thanks

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StevenR

14 years ago

My question to you is "what did you learn from 'trying' all of these things?"

Why didn't list building work for you?
What went wrong? Why were your members non-responsive? With an opt-in list of 3,000 people you should have been able to clear $3000 per month (relatively easily in my opinion - for what it's worth, I do that number with lists half that size).

If you had 140 affiliates for a product launch, how come only 5 sales?
Was it your copy? Was it your product? Did your affiliate actually send out a promo?

If you've already seen some success with article marketing, why didn't you continue? (I know the answer to this, but thought I'd ask anyway).

But more importantly, how could you have leveraged that business model?

This business is all about repeating mundane tasks (in my opinion). Then using leverage to get it more profitable.

All the best,
Steven

P.S. When I stopped trying... it worked out a lot better for me.

Thanks
1 reply

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Ernie Lo

14 years ago

Hi Steve,

To clear something up I made a mistake in my original post, I made $700 from Article writing, not Article marketing.

Originally Posted by StevenR

My question to you is "what did you learn from 'trying' all of these things?"

Why didn't list building work for you?
What went wrong? Why were your members non-responsive? With an opt-in list of 3,000 people you should have been able to clear $3000 per month (relatively easily in my opinion - for what it's worth, I do that number with lists half that size).

If you had 140 affiliates for a product launch, how come only 5 sales?
Was it your copy? Was it your product? Did your affiliate actually send out a promo?

If you've already seen some success with article marketing, why didn't you continue? (I know the answer to this, but thought I'd ask anyway).

But more importantly, how could you have leveraged that business model?

This business is all about repeating mundane tasks (in my opinion). Then using leverage to get it more profitable.

All the best,
Steven

P.S. Out of all the business models you've "tried", what resonated with you the most? Perhaps you ought to look there first.

P.P.S. When I stopped trying... it worked out a lot better for me.

Thanks
1 reply

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StevenR

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Ernie Lonardo

Hi Steve,

To clear something up I made a mistake in my original post, I made $700 from Article writing, not Article marketing.

Fair enough... but how could you have leveraged that? I could come up with a lot of ideas just based around your modest article writing successes.

Here are a couple of ways you could have leveraged this:

- Hire more writers as demand increases (in other words, you market services and have others write the articles)

- What other services could you have offered your clients? (you already had a list of buyers, what other services do you think they would have liked?)

This is a business... in my opinion, you don't have to do something you like. You do something that's profitable... at first.

Once you have a profitable business you can start moving towards areas that resonate with you.

All the best,
Steven

[ 1 ] Thanks
1 reply

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>>> Proven Niche Manifesto Volume 2 - Tested & Proven Niches & Keywords <<<
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Lady

14 years ago

Originally Posted by StevenR

Fair enough... but how could you have leveraged that? I could come up with a lot of ideas just based around your modest article writing successes.

Here are a couple of ways you could have leveraged this:

- Hire more writers as demand increases (in other words, you market services and have others write the articles)

- What other services could you have offered your clients? (you already had a list of buyers, what other services do you think they would have liked?)

This is a business... in my opinion, you don't have to do something you like. You do something that's profitable... at first.

Once you have a profitable business you can start moving towards areas that resonate with you.

All the best,
Steven

StevenR
good stuff on getting started thanks

Thanks

Signature

Best Wishes Lee

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Michael Oksa

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Ernie Lonardo

After trying Internet Marketing for several years, every website/project Ive tried has met with major failure, always making less than it costs to set up. I spend so much time designing and planning sites, but once they are launched, I just never stick with them during the marekting stage...

So, you learn how to reduce start-up costs, or increase profits.

- Build a list but hardly anyone bought from me

Find out why. Also, you say "hardly", does that mean some people DID buy from you? If so, find out why, and do more of it. Create a second list for buyers, change your message, build an even bigger list to increase the size of the pool, etc.

-Did a product launch with hype, got 140 affiliates, thought i was set for life, come launch day 5 sales

Cool! That's 5 sales that NEVER would have happened if you hadn't set up an affiliate program. Again, figure out WHAT WORKED and do more of it.

Ive tried many things and the only one that I did good in was Article writing, which made me about $700, but this got real old real fast)

I hear ya.

However, what part didn't you like? For example, if you don't like the actual writing, but don't mind doing a little proofreading, why not outsource the writing part, and proofread? Charge a bit more per article to increase profits. This way you are making something.

I started a web directory a few years ago and made about $200 but then the database got deleted and that was that....

BINGO!!! Dude, with all due respect, why the #%$& do you say "and that was that"? RE-FREAKING-BUILD. Yeah, it sucked, but you know how to do it, and I'm guessing you learned a few things a long the way that would have made it easier AND better.

I tried becoming a IM guru for about 2 years and did autoresponder marketing gew a list to about 3K but my list barely bought from me

Those jerks! Can you believe they wouldn't buy from someone with your attitude? Even if you tried to portray a positive attitude, there's no way the "real" one didn't come through in some way.

Ive spent countless hours thinking of crazy new online business ideas and even some traditional ones, but I always get stuck during my keyword research/massive competition and don't know what niche to start.

Just start one. THERE IS NO PERFECT NICHE!

I always thought about buying a site from Flippa thats making a little but of revenue and just concetrating on marekting the site and improving it...but I never see a site for sale that I like...

Then skip it.

I know this sounds pathetic, and I admit I am partly to blame but after all these years I thought I would of made it by now.

No, you are not partly to blame. You are COMPLETELY to blame, or I should say your piss-poor attitude is to blame.

I have a lot of skill and know I can make a success of this...I want this so bad to work for myself online, but it just seems to get harder and the longer it takes, it seems like it will never happen..

Why do you think you can make a success of it? What do you need to do differently? Obviously what you have been (or HAVEN'T been) doing hasn't worked. Nothing will change ifyou keep doing the same things. You've learned a lot along the way. What POSITIVE things have you done? I've read about a dozen in this post already. Focus on the positive. Build on the positive. Grow up, man up, or whatever you want to call.

Even if I had a site making just $200-$300 a week I'd be happy for now...

Based on the bulk of your comments, I don't believe that for a second. You may be happy for a little while, but as soon as anything went wrong...well, you get to decide how to fill in that blank.

Don't know what to do

....

I do! I will tell you EXACTLY what to do. Read AND apply what you learn in Think And Grow Rich. Don't come up with excuses not to. If you've already read it, read it again. Don't wait until tomorrow, start NOW!

Here is a non-affiliate link for a direct PDF download of the book that has the power to change your attitude, and your life.

http://www.whitedovebooks.co.uk/dml/...ndGrowRich.pdf

Consider it my New Year, and New You gift. I've always considered you one of the "good guys".

You need a good kick, and I hope others let you have it. You deserve good things, and I look forward to hearing about your continued success.

Stop giving up so easy when something goes wrong, and...

Read, or re-read, Think And Grow Rich.

http://www.whitedovebooks.co.uk/dml/...ndGrowRich.pdf

YES! It's that important! (That's why I linked to it twice).

All the best,
Michael "Telling It Like It Is" Oksa

[ 16 ] Thanks

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"Ich bin en fuego!"

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sailor4528

14 years ago

Well guys, this really is a cheer-up!

I got into this IM gig about 3 mths ago, but have been in IT for 20+ years. No contract/job for over a year, have been fitting washrooms and doing some private teaching (<$100/week).

IM Progress so far
- unique products 1
- 4 websites
- 7 blogs
- sales $60
- costs ~ $300

Now, I am worse than broke (really really broke, big big loans outstanding).

I have had a poster on my wall for many years

"If you want to succeed, then double your rate of failure - Tom Watson, Founder IBM".

So why am I in IM ?

1. I can accelerate my rate of failure and hopefully strike a rich seam soon
2. Low cost of entry (if you have basic skills)
3. Really cheap and easy scaleability
4. Low Low marketing expenses
5. Easy campaign set up
6. Easy access to big markets, worldwide
7. Easy to measure the competition
8. Easy to tweak campaigns (and products if info based)
9. Great tools for realtime performance measurement
10. Easy to project an image way way beyond your reality

Most of these points address a basic business problem - you can have the best moustrap in the world, but if you don't market it properly then you get nowhere!

I didn't take more than a few minutes to write out that list. The marketing is easier than ever, with all the potential of exponential cross-linking.

My problem is that I don't really want to get into physical product fulfilment, so finding really good e-products is important.

My gut feeling is that the affiliate marketing scene has peaked, and that vendors are cutting margins. Article marketing looks ok, but there's major competition on all topics. The lead author on Ezinearticles has 20,000+ published articles. I'm just starting. One other poster basically said stick to what you know - I'm still looking for what works for me, but only writing articles when I think I've got an original viewpoint or new angle.

Remember that saying - 'a consultant is someone who knows more and more about less and less, until he knows everything about nothing'. Well, I can see that niche marketing is going that way, till niches are so tightly defined that you have 100 IM's chasing 100 customers worldwide.

I'm going to dig out some of my William Gibson books (he's the guy who coined the term 'cyberspace'). Remind myself what his ideas of the future were.

In the meantime I'll keep my workrate up. Plenty of ideas, not enough time, but hey, it's all b####x and then you're dead!

Just realised I've written another article right here! Thanks for the motivation!

Sailor4528

Thanks

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WD Mino

14 years ago

Hi Ernie,

With all of the things you have to offer build a membersite. you could easily turn those things you tried into a product . you could easily offer coaching for those who wish to learn to write. you could easily do an awful lot but with all due respect GET OVER IT and Get on with it.

no one is going to do it for you. figure out what you offer as a solution to a problem research the niche make sure it is a profitable one and launch.

no one said it will happen overnight but man alive you can do an awful lot and if you deliver it through a membersite your set and it will allow you to well... I won't carry on I charge money for this stuff but all I will say is you need to take what you do have. what you yourself are passionate about and produce a viable solution to a noticeable problem. membersites are the perfect business model I highly suggest looking into it.
-WD

Thanks

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zainuri72

Banned 14 years ago

[DELETED]

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RocksIT 14 years ago

"thanks for the offer but I can't do article writing anymore since I suffer from carpel tunnel."

sorry man, all i hear is excuses... (not that i'm not in the same boat quite a bit, we all are)

but to keep up with Article marketing,which you were successful at.. which you should...

get a cheap headset with a microphone for $7.99 and download Dragon Naturally Speaking

its expensive to buy, although there are sites, namely warez-bb where you could download/install it for Free...

Rusty
- Thanks
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kelvin yeo

14 years ago

Ernie, what happened to that online card game product you were talking bout some time back? > http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...rs-trying.html I really thought that was quite inspiring and that you would build something solid from it.

Thanks

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CMCarlin

14 years ago

If you try to read between the lines of much of the advice given here it's that you should start being more solution oriented and think of in terms of what has worked and what hasn't. Stop coming up with excuses and think in terms of 'how can I fix this and move forward'.

You've obviously found things that HAVE worked for you but YOU, yourself, seem to be your biggest defeat. In other words, you are your own biggest enemy when it comes to seeing success.

At this point not amount of IM advice can help you I think (since you've already been exposed to a ton of it already). I think you need to re-group and figure out what it is that you want and how you may be holding yourself back.

Be. Do. Have.

Be the person you need to be, to do the things that you need to do, to have everything that you could ever dream of.

I second the idea of reading Think and Grow Rich. Wealth comes from within.

[ 1 ] Thanks

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CDarklock

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Ernie Lonardo

I know this sounds pathetic, and I admit I am partly to blame

Partly?

Who else is to blame?

Thanks
1 reply

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Taylor French 14 years ago

Originally Posted by CDarklock

Partly?

Who else is to blame?

I'm guessing he's probably blaming the 140 affiliates who signed up and only made a grand total of 5 sales, as well as all the people who DIDN'T buy from him, DIDN'T click his ads, DIDN'T make him any money, etc.

It's easy to do that. I did it myself for a long time. I was bitter and resentful of my potential customers simply because so many of them didn't buy a damned thing.

But once I learned to get over that whole "entitlement mentality" that so many people suffer from, my attitude started to change. I feel like a fool that I was just expecting people to hand me money. But hey, I was young and stupid.

It's easy to blame everyone BUT yourself, but once I learned to stop expecting people to buy everything, I learned to improve the quality of my offerings and my business improved accordingly.
- Thanks
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Taylor French

14 years ago

Don't give up! I have been at this a long time, too. I've only started making really good money at anything other than freelancing in the last year or so. If you give up now, you'll never know what could have been.

[ 1 ] Thanks

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DragonLee

14 years ago

Hey Ernie,

There is a lot of sound and excellent advise given above.

I'd just like to add that hard work is also crucial for achieving success. And as always, whenever you encounter a problem, the WarriorForum community is always there to help you out.

All the best.

Thanks

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Michael Silvester

14 years ago

Dude,

You need a good kick up the ass.

Stop jumping from one thing to the
next. Sh*t man...you've made sales
right?

Keep doing what you've been doing to
generate those sales and dont flake
out and get caught with the next shiny
object.

Stop being a pussy man...

You could have worse things than carpel
tunnel. You could be dead!

A good copy of Dragons Naturally speaking
will solve that for you.

Seems to me, you start stuff and don't
finish it.

Launching a product is just the beginning,
not the end.

I know you've got a birthday coming up and
your probably contemplating life and what
you havent achieved.

You need some tough love mate.

What are you doing with the stuff that
you have already started?

Sorry to be harsh bro....but it has to be said!

Take Care,

Michael Silvester

[ 4 ] Thanks

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Steve Powers

14 years ago

Since you have experienced so many things,I think you're still a competent guy.But maybe you are lack of patience.Try to focus on one thing and develop it with devotion.I'm sure you can do it well.I like Jack Ma's sentence:Today is difficult.Tomorrow is still difficult.The day after tomorrow is beautiful.But most of us die in tomorrow evening.

Thanks

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Sparhawke

14 years ago

You seem to be absolutely brilliant at f**king it all up.

Congratulations.

Most people never get to that point and simply carry on doing what they are doing wrong.

Why don't you write a comedic narrative of everything that goes wrong in your daily life and then sell people that, or sell them stuff that will cheer them up for a moment?

Everyone is going through a rough patch right now, by emphasising with them and putting your a5s on the line you will tell them that it is okay to be a disaster area at some point.

Have you ever heard of Tommy Cooper?

He was a British Magician, one of the magic circle (elite magicians club) who was famous for always bolloxing up his act and actually making things go wrong, so people would know exactly what pitfalls to avoid. Simply do the exact opposite to him and get success. He died on stage in front of millions of viewers who thought it was a joke, but that is not the point. He was well known for if it can go wrong, it will go wrong spectacularly.

Theres your million dollar idea for you devised without any payment nesesary. Simply start a blog and do all your usual stuff and advise peopel to do the exact opposite everytime. Setting up a free blog will cost you nothing but time but if you are engaging you will get your readers.

Thanks

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Joseph Then

14 years ago

Hey Ernie,

I was like you too, till I decided to throw away everything (PPC, CPA, Affiliate, Products, etc) and concentrate on one money stream... JUST ONE MONEY STREAM, Adsense.

Why? Because Adsense is making me good money so I just need to replicate that. The moment I reach my $100+/day goal, I'll look at other marketing models.

Take a look at what you have done so far, which one makes you the most money with the least effort? (Or the effort that you are willing to put in?)

Take that money stream, set a target, work on it for 6 months, see what you've got.

P.S. One thing good about being focus on one money model is that when you look at WSOs, you seem to filter out a lot of unrelated WSOs and tend to buy those that will help your current project. For me, I have been buying all those related to niches, backlinks and SEO because they will help build my Adsense empire. WSOs on CPAs, PPC, eCovers, etc. are totally ignored by me.

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Ernie Lo

14 years ago

Hi Joseph thanks for that piece of advice, its simple but exactly what I want to do, focus on one simple thing and work on it and not give it up.

Knowing what niche to pursue is what I'm trying to figure out, but whatever it is, I'll do my best not to screw it up like the other projects Ive tried.

Originally Posted by Joseph Then

Hey Ernie,

I was like you too, till I decided to throw away everything (PPC, CPA, Affiliate, Products, etc) and concentrate on one money stream... JUST ONE MONEY STREAM, Adsense.

Why? Because Adsense is making me good money so I just need to replicate that. The moment I reach my $100+/day goal, I'll look at other marketing models.

Take a look at what you have done so far, which one makes you the most money with the least effort? (Or the effort that you are willing to put in?)

Take that money stream, set a target, work on it for 6 months, see what you've got.

P.S. One thing good about being focus on one money model is that when you look at WSOs, you seem to filter out a lot of unrelated WSOs and tend to buy those that will help your current project. For me, I have been buying all those related to niches, backlinks and SEO because they will help build my Adsense empire. WSOs on CPAs, PPC, eCovers, etc. are totally ignored by me.

Thanks
3 replies

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kelvin yeo

14 years ago

Ernie, since article writing is something you can do well, one suggestion is to use it to test the niches you're looking at. Just write say 10 articles per niche, direct link them to relevant clickbank products, and submit them to some directories. If the sales come in, then that niche might well be a money-maker.

Originally Posted by Ernie Lonardo

Hi Joseph thanks for that piece of advice, its simple but exactly what I want to do, focus on one simple thing and work on it and not give it up.

Knowing what niche to pursue is what I'm trying to figure out, but whatever it is, I'll do my best not to screw it up like the other projects Ive tried.

Thanks

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Michael Oksa

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Ernie Lonardo

I'll do my best not to screw it up like the other projects Ive tried.

Come on, Ernie! I see we still have to work harder at getting through to you.

So, you WERE trying your best to screw things up before? Of course not!

Again, there is no perfect niche.

Obstacles will come up.

Things don't always go right.

How much of Think And Grow Rich have you read so far? Just in case, here's the link again...

http://www.whitedovebooks.co.uk/dml/...ndGrowRich.pdf

Read AND apply that book and you will find your attitude changing. THAT'S what you need. You don't need the right business model, or the perfect niche - you NEED a better attitude.

All the best,
Michael

p.s. Seriously, read that book...ASAP!

Thanks
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Joseph Then 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Paul McQuillan

Find one thing and focus on that until you get it to where it sells.

Yeah, if you are one that cannot focus and tends to diverse to different niches, maybe you should follow me and do Adsense.

Just spend about 1-3 weeks on a new niche (setup website, write articles, etc), make $1-2 per day on that niche and just move on to the next niche...

Works well for me.
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MarkAndrews IMCopywriting

14 years ago

[DELETED]

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Intrepreneur 14 years ago

How much traffic are you getting per day? If it's not more than 5000 I can see there being a problem with your efforts.

More Traffic = More Freedom to Turn that Traffic Into Cash.

Now whichever way you do this is up to you but if it were 5000+ visitors per day you have plenty of room to test test test until something profitable happens.

Thinking of this.. It appears that with 5000 visitors most give away a free report and it works for them. I think differently and aim to give away cash and high ticket items in order to build trust and do this often. That's my thinking but you need those massive amounts of visitors before you do anything with them.

But you may already have your 5k visitors and if you do, that's plenty to start building your empire... just do it differently than before. What can you give them instead of what you're giving them now?
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Steven Wagenheim

14 years ago

Ernie, we've known each other a long time. You know I've always had nothing
but nice things to say about you whenever we've interacted here and I
think you're heck of a nice and decent guy.

But your attitude sucks!

Let me tell you something my friend.

My first 5 months of doing this crap, back in 2003, I made $28.

You think YOU'RE a failure???

If you looked up failure in the dictionary back then, you would have seen
a glossy photo of me with an arrow through my head holding a portrait of
General Custer next to the definition.

I was more clueless than a hamster on a wheel.

But I didn't give up. I yelled, I screamed, I absorbed every bit of knowledge
that I could and then I yelled and screamed some more when THAT didn't
work.

I went into freelancing, just like you did, and made some nice money
writing articles for people. I forced myself to write about stuff that I
didn't give a sh*t about. But I did it because I knew I had to do it to
survive.

In other words, I sucked it up and dealt.

Then, after about a year of doing that, I realized that there were people
out there like me, who just wanted to make a few bucks online and I
then realized that freelancing was the way for them to go.

And then, through a lot of research, I realized that most of these people
didn't have a freaking CLUE how to get into the business. So after a swift
kick from somebody who told me that the only way to make any REAL
money was to create my own products, I did just that...a complete guide
on how to break into freelancing writing articles and included all these sites
that paid for submissions. Sure, some paid peanuts, but these people were
happy to make anything.

I priced the product dirt cheap and it took off like crazy...selling 200 copies
a month for a year.

Ernie...I was a NOBODY back then. Nobody knew me from Adam, but they
knew a product with value when they saw it.

From there, everything just snowballed.

Point is...I could have given up after 5 months and $28. But I didn't. I
worked hard, and even though as a freelancer I was only making like
$14,000 a year, I didn't care. I was grateful for it. I knew eventually it
would lead to something else and get better.

Ernie, last year I went into semi retirement, spending most of my time in
the recording studio cranking out power pop tunes.

I never in a MILLION years thought that would EVER happen.

Out of boredom (yes, I love what I do) I have gone back to full time work
this year...and loving every minute of it.

Ernie...it's not rocket science.

Give people something that they REALLY want...something that fills a
burning need in them.

Offer it at the right price.

Market the hell out of it.

No, it's NOT more complicated than that.

Again, your attitude stinks and I, more than anyone here, am terribly
disappointed in you. I expected better from a guy who always struck me
as a winner.

Maybe I was wrong.

Well, now it's YOUR turn to prove me that I was right in the first place.

There is only ONE person who can fix this mess that you're in.

YOU.

I think you can do it.

Hell...I KNOW you can do it.

You're not an idiot.

But maybe I was one for believing in you.

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King Shiloh

Banned 14 years ago

The words of our wise fathers are words of wisdom.
Sir Steven, you have summed up everything like a grand-master.
I think Ernie must have changed his ATTITUDE by now.

Ernie, you really need just a bottle of chilled water to refresh yourself.

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Ernie, we've known each other a long time. You know I've always had nothing
but nice things to say about you whenever we've interacted here and I
think you're heck of a nice and decent guy.

But your attitude sucks!

Let me tell you something my friend.

My first 5 months of doing this crap, back in 2003, I made $28.

You think YOU'RE a failure???

If you looked up failure in the dictionary back then, you would have seen
a glossy photo of me with an arrow through my head holding a portrait of
General Custer next to the definition.

I was more clueless than a hamster on a wheel.

But I didn't give up. I yelled, I screamed, I absorbed every bit of knowledge
that I could and then I yelled and screamed some more when THAT didn't
work.

I went into freelancing, just like you did, and made some nice money
writing articles for people. I forced myself to write about stuff that I
didn't give a sh*t about. But I did it because I knew I had to do it to
survive.

In other words, I sucked it up and dealt.

Then, after about a year of doing that, I realized that there were people
out there like me, who just wanted to make a few bucks online and I
then realized that freelancing was the way for them to go.

And then, through a lot of research, I realized that most of these people
didn't have a freaking CLUE how to get into the business. So after a swift
kick from somebody who told me that the only way to make any REAL
money was to create my own products, I did just that...a complete guide
on how to break into freelancing writing articles and included all these sites
that paid for submissions. Sure, some paid peanuts, but these people were
happy to make anything.

I priced the product dirt cheap and it took off like crazy...selling 200 copies
a month for a year.

Ernie...I was a NOBODY back then. Nobody knew me from Adam, but they
knew a product with value when they saw it.

From there, everything just snowballed.

Point is...I could have given up after 5 months and $28. But I didn't. I
worked hard, and even though as a freelancer I was only making like
$14,000 a year, I didn't care. I was grateful for it. I knew eventually it
would lead to something else and get better.

Ernie, last year I went into semi retirement, spending most of my time in
the recording studio cranking out power pop tunes.

I never in a MILLION years thought that would EVER happen.

Out of boredom (yes, I love what I do) I have gone back to full time work
this year...and loving every minute of it.

Ernie...it's not rocket science.

Give people something that they REALLY want...something that fills a
burning need in them.

Offer it at the right price.

Market the hell out of it.

No, it's NOT more complicated than that.

Again, your attitude stinks and I, more than anyone here, am terribly
disappointed in you. I expected better from a guy who always struck me
as a winner.

Maybe I was wrong.

Well, now it's YOUR turn to prove me that I was right in the first place.

There is only ONE person who can fix this mess that you're in.

YOU.

I think you can do it.

Hell...I KNOW you can do it.

You're not an idiot.

But maybe I was one for believing in you.

Thanks

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Ernie Lo

14 years ago

Thanks again everyone for your input, I do appeciate it. As much as I'd love to respond to each and everyone of you, I'd just feel like I'm making more excuses...

I know my attitude sucks and it needs to be changed.

Steven, you know I respect a lot and thanks for trying to give me a kick up the butt I do need it

.

I did feel embarrassed to make this thread, but you know sometimes things get you down and you don't know what to do/who to turn to.

I could try and defend myself and list more reasons why thinks didnt turn out right, but the bottom line is it's still my fault I know and as much as It would be great to turn the clock and make different choices...that can't happen.

But I do know I need to concentrate on one thing at a time and plan my website/idea more carefully before jumping in..and of course not giving up when something goes wrong..easy to say...,I guesss I'll have to prove it

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Ernie, we've known each other a long time. You know I've always had nothing
but nice things to say about you whenever we've interacted here and I
think you're heck of a nice and decent guy.

But your attitude sucks!

Let me tell you something my friend.

My first 5 months of doing this crap, back in 2003, I made $28.

You think YOU'RE a failure???

If you looked up failure in the dictionary back then, you would have seen
a glossy photo of me with an arrow through my head holding a portrait of
General Custer next to the definition.

I was more clueless than a hamster on a wheel.

But I didn't give up. I yelled, I screamed, I absorbed every bit of knowledge
that I could and then I yelled and screamed some more when THAT didn't
work.

I went into freelancing, just like you did, and made some nice money
writing articles for people. I forced myself to write about stuff that I
didn't give a sh*t about. But I did it because I knew I had to do it to
survive.

In other words, I sucked it up and dealt.

Then, after about a year of doing that, I realized that there were people
out there like me, who just wanted to make a few bucks online and I
then realized that freelancing was the way for them to go.

And then, through a lot of research, I realized that most of these people
didn't have a freaking CLUE how to get into the business. So after a swift
kick from somebody who told me that the only way to make any REAL
money was to create my own products, I did just that...a complete guide
on how to break into freelancing writing articles and included all these sites
that paid for submissions. Sure, some paid peanuts, but these people were
happy to make anything.

I priced the product dirt cheap and it took off like crazy...selling 200 copies
a month for a year.

Ernie...I was a NOBODY back then. Nobody knew me from Adam, but they
knew a product with value when they saw it.

From there, everything just snowballed.

Point is...I could have given up after 5 months and $28. But I didn't. I
worked hard, and even though as a freelancer I was only making like
$14,000 a year, I didn't care. I was grateful for it. I knew eventually it
would lead to something else and get better.

Ernie, last year I went into semi retirement, spending most of my time in
the recording studio cranking out power pop tunes.

I never in a MILLION years thought that would EVER happen.

Out of boredom (yes, I love what I do) I have gone back to full time work
this year...and loving every minute of it.

Ernie...it's not rocket science.

Give people something that they REALLY want...something that fills a
burning need in them.

Offer it at the right price.

Market the hell out of it.

No, it's NOT more complicated than that.

Again, your attitude stinks and I, more than anyone here, am terribly
disappointed in you. I expected better from a guy who always struck me
as a winner.

Maybe I was wrong.

Well, now it's YOUR turn to prove me that I was right in the first place.

There is only ONE person who can fix this mess that you're in.

YOU.

I think you can do it.

Hell...I KNOW you can do it.

You're not an idiot.

But maybe I was one for believing in you.

Thanks
1 reply

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Rod Cortez

14 years ago

.....
I know my attitude sucks and it needs to be changed.

But I do know I need to concentrate on one thing at a time and plan my website/idea more carefully before jumping in..and of course not giving up when something goes wrong..easy to say...,I guesss I'll have to prove it

If you take these two things to heart that you wrote today, you will be blown away at what you can accomplish in 3 to 6 months.

RoD

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amaechi007 14 years ago

Boy!! I think you've gotten enough bashing already.lol. I really think everyone here has your interest at heart.

I suggest you take time off. Read some self help and motivational books. If you can afford it, go on a holiday. You'll come back refreshed.
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tryinhere

14 years ago

"I think the windscreen is clean now", These must have been the self spoken words as a man in his twenties i suppose climbed down of his transit truck bonnet after polishing the windscreen for about 20 minutes.

I was there picking up my daughter as she finished work late, it was on dusk and this guy only had a old worn cloth, dampened by the bottled water supply to clean the windows of his home, that was now located in the suburban shopping center car park.

Don't look at what you have got wrong so far and don't look at it as bad, you still have a roof, the inter-net and a PC connected and while you have that you have opportunity, and your position is a lot better than some.

Thanks

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GoGetta

14 years ago

Ernie,

Seriously, I would stop concentrating on making money!

It may sound strange but it works. When you build a list forget about money and focus on VALUE, the money will follow!

When starting a project, start something that excites you and interests you, forget about money and it will surely follow if you continue to market!

This is not some magical advice but what worked for me!

VALUE is key, delivering VALUE is key and the MONEY follows!

Good luck mate!

GoGetta

[ 2 ] Thanks

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Nick Brighton

14 years ago

Ernie,

I notice that you posted a similiar thread like this back in April last year. Sorry that things haven't improved...

You spend a lot of time on this forum, and I recognize you from your input. I think you KNOW what you're doing, but you've got a mindset issue.

You need to be able to take stock and adjust, instead of just give up.

You built a list, you got partners, you've got a business in the wings...but because you sent the wrong pitch or attacked it with the wrong angle, you threw in the towel.

I don't blame you...it's easy to do, and I've done it many times with multiple "micro niches".

But my advice is start looking at what is selling. Put your own twist on it and stop following the "gurus" with such discipline.

Your cup needs to be empty, before you can fill it with juicy and sexy ideas to make something that sells well, sell even better.

The problem is, you're probably like me - you have tons of ideas but each one of them has a little voice attached to it saying "that won't work" or "you've failed at this one".

The reality is, you're sat in the freezing cold driveway of a warm banquet. The only reason why you're freezing your asse off when everyone else is partying, is because you think you've got the wrong address.

Well my friend, take a couple of days off, come back and look at what everybody else brought to the party...

...and add your own flavour, and get on the dancefloor!

And if you don't pick up a date? Well, go ask a different girl.

If you fall over on the dancefloor? Pick yourself up and go tell the DJ to play a different song.

/end of metaphors

P.S - WHilst you reflect, ask yourself...do you REALLY want to be at the party at all? If the answer is yes, and it's for reasons beyond money, then IM is for you...but you just need to find your OWN way into it.

P.P.S - You said you found success with articles? Why not leverage that into a business? Who says you have to do all the work? You could be "chief editor" and take a nice commission of every order

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MichaelHiles

14 years ago

Well one thing is certain.

If you give up, you'll never be successful.

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jitterbug978

14 years ago

Well I really hope you don't give up. There are so many different ways to make money online.. sometimes it can just be overwhelming. I remember when I was first starting I had almost given up several times. My family even convinced me I was wasting my time. Now they are envious of my ability to make money sitting in front of a computer. I haven't had a real job for several years now and I don't ever intend to again. I hope you too can find something you are not only good at, but something you enjoy doing!

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sandra.IMqueen

14 years ago

here's the issue, you are in IM niche. You cant just make money with any product. It has to be really very very good. Check yourself, did your product stand out in crowd? In my opinion if you are offering something valuable, wso section alone can fetch you lot of money.

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Nick Brighton

14 years ago

I forgot something from my earlier reply...

Do you work a full time job as well?

The reason I ask, is because many folks don't see this as a necessity, more a dream.

My biggest results came when I quit my job and forced myself to make money from an online biz. It's when you HAVE to make money from this stuff or you're eating meals from the Salvation Army and living in a box, when things seem to kick up a gear all of a sudden...

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GeorgR.

14 years ago

but I always get stuck during my keyword research/massive competition and don't know what niche to start.

this is amazing since i could churn out a site literally every hour when i do my daily market samurai niche research. So many keywords and niches, the day has not enough hours and i am already a workaholic with too many sites.

How you can say you don't have an idea and "too much competition" is beyond me.

For example, just coming back from cbengine i got another few niches where i thought i could makes sites for....and i just finished one a few hours ago.

I am also puzzled by your statement "article marketing got old"....so you started AM..made some cash...and then just left it? What you need to do is take whatever you see which works and then expand on it.

If you see article marketing made you $700...hire a zillion of writers and increase volume and you will make this ten fold. You can not just start something..and then let it rest and hope that the money will come in automatically. You ALWAYS have to do something and push more and harder.

Same with your sites...every single site needs content, maintenance, backlinks, bookmarking..etc..etc...over months and months. You need to be dedicated. You cant just build a site in one day..and then hope it will auto-pilot in money. This will rarely happen. If you want traffic from google and want to rank a site high..its constant work.

Thanks
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Hanz 14 years ago

Sorry to hear about your troubles. IM is a complex game and requires focus. Plus you must always be optimistic in IM. I haven't made much money either thus far. I created a site which went online in mid July '09 and I'm still sitting in the 20th page of Google for keywords. But I'm still hopeful I'll get to the top pages and I'll keep working at it. I guess the key here is to keep working away till something sticks. You obviously had a disastrous product launch the first go-round. But why not try another one? Something different?
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Steven Wagenheim

14 years ago

Originally Posted by GeorgR.

this is amazing since i could churn out a site literally every hour when i do my daily market samurai niche research. So many keywords and niches, the day has not enough hours and i am already a workaholic with too many sites.

How you can say you don't have an idea and "too much competition" is beyond me.

For example, just coming back from cbengine i got another few niches where i thought i could makes sites for....and i just finished one a few hours ago.

I am also puzzled by your statement "article marketing got old"....so you started AM..made some cash...and then just left it? What you need to do is take whatever you see which works and then expand on it.

If you see article marketing made you $700...hire a zillion of writers and increase volume and you will make this ten fold. You can not just start something..and then let it rest and hope that the money will come in automatically. You ALWAYS have to do something and push more and harder.

Same with your sites...every single site needs content, maintenance, backlinks, bookmarking..etc..etc...over months and months. You need to be dedicated. You cant just build a site in one day..and then hope it will auto-pilot in money. This will rarely happen. If you want traffic from google and want to rank a site high..its constant work.

Hey George, if you have such a great system for cranking out sites like
that, you should come out with a book on it. I think it would help a lot
of people.

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Hanz

14 years ago

Ernie, you said you made $700 from Article Writing? Well you're well ahead of me because I don't even know where to start when it comes to article writing. LOL! Heck I'd hire you to tutor me in getting started with article writing. I think you're a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for. We must learn from failure and keep going forward. Have faith.

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Scott Ames

14 years ago

It's good to blow off steam. Now that you have suck it up and make it work. I would suggest getting a mentor to push you to do the things you already know how to do, but for some reason don't do them.

The mind is complicated. One person experiences something bad and is destroyed another person experiences the same thing and is inspired to change it. Read Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor E. Frankl

If anyone makes a living at IM that means you can too. You just have to change your mindset and model what works.

By saying this I am in no way saying I have life worked out to perfection. I have my own struggles and ghosts too, perhaps not the same ones you have. The point is you can change anything, do anything, achieve anything if you really want to. That's not saying it will be easy but it will be worth it.

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Bev Clement

14 years ago

Ernie, sounds like you're not ready to run a business, because you're not prepared to take on the responsibility. You have a typical employee mindset where you can run to the boss when a problem happens.

If you can't make it online, then get a job and see how happy you'll be then. You have tasted IM, but guess what ... you haven't had enough failure to motivate you to make it work.

If you knew how many writers who are starting out would be glad of $700 for article writing. If you see that as a failure, could it be because you quit and didn't want to carry on.

I wrote some articles for a warrior and that showed me the potential of writing both online and offline. Did I stick to writing articles? No! I have written various things which article writers don't talk about.

What would have happened if you had continued and then had someone ask you to write ... Oh! Yes, you couldn't do it because you didn't know how, and it was the first time you had done it. Google is your friend and is always a writers' friend, because you can find how to write for different projects.

You see, I wasn't experienced when I wrote my first article. I wasn't experienced when a warrior asked me to write on a topic I had no knowledge on.

I wasn't experienced when I built my first affiliate site (and you don't want to see what it looked like). I wasn't experienced when I tried various things to make money. I wasn't experienced when I tried some experiments to see what would happen.

I took the risk, and was able to make some money out of all of them, because if it wasn't working then I didn't totally bin it but reworked it. It's called testing.

It's decision time for you, do you really want to have a business online or not? If you do then you will keep on failing because that is what you believe and also with an employee mindset you will always need a boss to make the final decisions.

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cma01

14 years ago

Ernie,

It sounds like you've started on the path to success several times, but left it to start over again. Maybe you need to look at your mental attitude towards money and success. Are you sabotaging yourself?

Pick one thing and do it until you're done. If you pick a niche, promote it and promote it and promote it until the sucker is making money. Just make sure you start out with good keywords that attract buyers and keep at it until you're ranking on keywords and converting your buyers.

Sean,

Thanks for posting the link to your post from last year. This has got to be the funniest thing I've read in a long time.

You need a serious change in focus, desire, and work ethic. Because the truth is, I know some brain dead half retarded dudes that are making a very respectable income on the internet and I'm positive you are probably 5 times smarter then they are. - Jason Moffat

Thanks

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Daniel Brock

14 years ago

Your mindset is something I think ALL marketers have faced at least once in their career.

There's going to be times when you feel beat up like you do now. I constantly beat myself to hell every single day over my business - 'am I wasting my time, will it work, what if I do this wrong, what happens if...'

Eventually you have to fight those feelings and ford your way through.

What I think you should do is focus on the traffic generation. I have done the same thing you do - spend all this time working on this super AMAZING idea and then after all the time you spend it finally comes together and you give up on it.

The way I see it, you can keep trying and make it through, or just give up.

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sal64

14 years ago

Lose the IM myth immediately. Sure it sounds easy etc, but that's what marketers want you to believe so that you buy their stuff.
Identify what your core strengths are and work on them first. For example, if you can write articles, why not set up a service and promote on the WF? It may not be your passion, but hey.. it's cashflow. Then, as work grows, build a team to do it for you.
Choose one thing and stick to it.
Stop buying the latest "hot" method (if that's what ure doin).
Forget niches for now... try and create a product or service using your skills that people cannot live without, or that will be in demand.
Last but not least... stop worrying about the money. Yeah sounds dumb, but this is what turned my business around.

Focus on a means to help people, then help as many as you can by doing everything you need to do inorder to achieve this. The money WILL take care of itself.

Take it as you will. Good luck.

Sal

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Liam Hamer

14 years ago

I've felt similar to this on more than one occasion since I've been in IM, but at the same time I have a steely determination that I WILL succeed and reach my goals - you can too

One piece of advice I'd give is not to underestimate the power of organization and having goals. Write everything down, set targets and work out exactly how you are going to reach those targets. The best of luck

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MikeHumphreys

14 years ago

Alot of people have pointed out that your attitude and mindset stink and I agree 100%.

If I didn't keep a positive attitude, I wouldn't make it through my daily 19 hour days. Between parenthood and running my two businesses (copywriting and info-product) I have a lot of irons in the fire all of the time.

My favorite mental food source is the late Jim Rohn. Jim Rohn International

Here's one of his quotes that seems appropriate for you:

"Don't wish life was easier, wish you were better."

Maybe it's my own bias but I've yet to meet a successful online marketer who didn't have the ability to write a decent sales letter on their own. If you have tried a lot of things where you didn't make any sales, then without looking at you tried specifically, I'm going to guess that your sales copy was bad.

If you want to do stuff like Adsense or CPA, having better copywriting skills will help you because you'll be able to write better headlines and link descriptions.

When you want to study the latest and greatest marketing idea, study copywriting instead.

Here's a good starting point: the late Joe Robson's ebook Make Your Words Sell. Make Your Words Sell!

I bought it when it first came out and now it's available for free.

MYWS was/is was quite good for beginners and immediate marketers to learn how to write a good sales letter. After that, hit the copywriters forum here and read the sticky thread on recommended reading. Borrow some of those from your local library and read them cover to cover.

Then revisit your existing sites and improve the sales copy. You should start to see some better conversion rates come your way.

Good luck,

Mike

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Steven Wagenheim

14 years ago

Originally Posted by MikeHumphreys

Alot of people have pointed out that your attitude and mindset stink and I agree 100%.

If I didn't keep a positive attitude, I wouldn't make it through my daily 19 hour days. Between parenthood and running my two businesses (copywriting and info-product) I have a lot of irons in the fire all of the time.

My favorite mental food source is the late Jim Rohn. Jim Rohn International

Here's one of his quotes that seems appropriate for you:

"Don't wish life was easier, wish you were better."

Maybe it's my own bias but I've yet to meet a successful online marketer who didn't have the ability to write a decent sales letter on their own. If you have tried a lot of things where you didn't make any sales, then without looking at you tried specifically, I'm going to guess that your sales copy was bad.

If you want to do stuff like Adsense or CPA, having better copywriting skills will help you because you'll be able to write better headlines and link descriptions.

When you want to study the latest and greatest marketing idea, study copywriting instead.

Here's a good starting point: the late Joe Robson's ebook Make Your Words Sell. Make Your Words Sell!

I bought it when it first came out and now it's available for free.

MYWS was/is was quite good for beginners and immediate marketers to learn how to write a good sales letter. After that, hit the copywriters forum here and read the sticky thread on recommended reading. Borrow some of those from your local library and read them cover to cover.

Then revisit your existing sites and improve the sales copy. You should start to see some better conversion rates come your way.

Good luck,

Mike

Mike I agree 100%. When people ask me what the most important part
of running a business is, I tell them communication in all forms. That includes
copywriting, ad writing, article writing, even the responses you give to
people in your emails.

If you can't communicate with people professionally on some level, you
can't make sales.

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grrbtn1959

Banned 14 years ago

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Hanz 14 years ago

Ernie, how about writing an ebook on how you made $700 through article marketing? Because I still can't figure out how people are doing it. :confused:
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stefanjames

14 years ago

Hi Ernie,

Before I made it big online I FAILED time and time and time again!! But the key to making consistent money on the internet day in and day out is CONSISTENCY.

It sounds to me like you are jumping around all over the place the same way I was. This will not make you the money you want. You need to stick to ONE PROJECT at a time and put all your time and effort into it! Only then will things start to brighten up and you will begin to make money!

This is what I did. I put ALL OF MY CONCENTRATION into one product which was an affiliate product at the time and concentrated on DRIVING TARGETED TRAFFIC EVERYDAY. I didn't care about making money at that point because if you don't GET TRAFFIC YOU WILL NOT MAKE MONEY!

So with that said I hope this advice can help you break the barrier that you are going through my friend. Always remember a HUGE percentage of everyone in this forum has gone through what you are going through

There is a light at the end of the tunnel for you my friend. Keep pushing!

Thanks

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exclusive1

Banned 14 years ago

[DELETED]

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Hanz

14 years ago

Originally Posted by exclusive1

Hello Ernie from Down Under.

I'll be brief. I love the fact you're an entrepreneur. Trying different things...looking for ways to make money online. Bravo! But, you sound kind of negative. Cheer up mate. Be patient. Success takes time. Be consistent and persistent with your marketing. Focus on finding a product/service/opportunity you really like and stick with it. Don't get side-tracked.

Ernie...NEVER GIVE UP!

My suggestion to you is this. Why not try "Internet Network Marketing"? It's really popular right now. Use your Internet Marketing skills and build a Network Marketing business online! This is what I do. I have been job-optional for about 18 months. This will allow you to be your own boss, really utilize the concept of leverage and make a true residual income. I promise you this, it's easier than the other things you've tried.

If you want to find out what I'm involved in now, send me a message.

Best Wishes,
Brad Marcus

Can you expand a bit on the internet network marketing concept?

Thanks

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digigo

14 years ago

keep trying mate... not all dreams will come true.. but my advice is, you should focus.. focus.. instead of being jack of all trade, you become master of one field... I know this advice is very generic.. like directory.. you can build the best directory.. and there sure is money to be made there... then article writing.. it is a whole industry.. pick a subject.. becomes an expert..

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master

14 years ago

Hi, Ernie,
unfortunately, you are not alone. Some people can say loudly about their failures like you did but some one try to play "successful over week".How many times you see such statements like "One day I woke up and BOOM!!!! Started to make money".These are fairy tales for kids. Every success has a long chain of failures behind.
Just don't give up! Your success is waiting for you behind the next corner!

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DennisM

14 years ago

Ernie,

You're a War Room member. Allen (our forum owner) gives you a PLAN right in there! It's really simple, you write these small, little reports in a bunch of niches and simply build lists in all these niches. You can then sell to them forever.

Without giving everything away here (for you folks who won't pony up for a War Room membership) you follow Allen's model and offer 100% commission on all these reports but YOU get the BUYER on your list.

Now that you have BUYERS on your list it will much easier to sell to them later because they're not afraid to open up their wallets.

Go back to the War Room and read EVERYTHING from Allen. It's a real eye opener how something really simple and idiot proof actually WORKS.

Don't over complicate.

Don't give up brother!

Dennis

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kevinfar

14 years ago

Keep at it mate. We all face obstacles that we can either fight and get over or just give up altogether.

As Dennis said, make use of your war room member, pick one way of making money and stick with it.

Persistence is the key and then is amplifying what works for you on a larger scale.

Kevin

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PMB

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Ernie, we've known each other a long time. You know I've always had nothing
but nice things to say about you whenever we've interacted here and I
think you're heck of a nice and decent guy.

But your attitude sucks!

Let me tell you something my friend.

My first 5 months of doing this crap, back in 2003, I made $28.

You think YOU'RE a failure???

If you looked up failure in the dictionary back then, you would have seen
a glossy photo of me with an arrow through my head holding a portrait of
General Custer next to the definition.

I was more clueless than a hamster on a wheel.

But I didn't give up. I yelled, I screamed, I absorbed every bit of knowledge
that I could and then I yelled and screamed some more when THAT didn't
work.

I went into freelancing, just like you did, and made some nice money
writing articles for people. I forced myself to write about stuff that I
didn't give a sh*t about. But I did it because I knew I had to do it to
survive.

In other words, I sucked it up and dealt.

Then, after about a year of doing that, I realized that there were people
out there like me, who just wanted to make a few bucks online and I
then realized that freelancing was the way for them to go.

And then, through a lot of research, I realized that most of these people
didn't have a freaking CLUE how to get into the business. So after a swift
kick from somebody who told me that the only way to make any REAL
money was to create my own products, I did just that...a complete guide
on how to break into freelancing writing articles and included all these sites
that paid for submissions. Sure, some paid peanuts, but these people were
happy to make anything.

I priced the product dirt cheap and it took off like crazy...selling 200 copies
a month for a year.

Ernie...I was a NOBODY back then. Nobody knew me from Adam, but they
knew a product with value when they saw it.

From there, everything just snowballed.

Point is...I could have given up after 5 months and $28. But I didn't. I
worked hard, and even though as a freelancer I was only making like
$14,000 a year, I didn't care. I was grateful for it. I knew eventually it
would lead to something else and get better.

Ernie, last year I went into semi retirement, spending most of my time in
the recording studio cranking out power pop tunes.

I never in a MILLION years thought that would EVER happen.

Out of boredom (yes, I love what I do) I have gone back to full time work
this year...and loving every minute of it.

Ernie...it's not rocket science.

Give people something that they REALLY want...something that fills a
burning need in them.

Offer it at the right price.

Market the hell out of it.

No, it's NOT more complicated than that.

Again, your attitude stinks and I, more than anyone here, am terribly
disappointed in you. I expected better from a guy who always struck me
as a winner.

Maybe I was wrong.

Well, now it's YOUR turn to prove me that I was right in the first place.

There is only ONE person who can fix this mess that you're in.

YOU.

I think you can do it.

Hell...I KNOW you can do it.

You're not an idiot.

But maybe I was one for believing in you.

Ernie,

You have to love this forum. There are sooo many who have the experience and wisdom to tell you to "keep your chin down and your head up" Keep fighting man! You will only lose when you refuse to grow and learn. Learn from all of this great advice and move forward. You have made money before so you know this can work and it is more than theory. Stick with it. Obstacles are merely opportunities for greatness to emerge. Dig deep, stay focused and take action. You know you have people behind you that believe in you. Now you just have to convince yourself.

Continued Success,

PMB

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jamawebinc

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Ernie Lonardo

Ive tried many things and the only one that I did good in was Article writing, which made me about $700, but this got real old real fast)

I started a web directory a few years ago and made about $200 but then the database got deleted and that was that....

You don't see a possible market and product with these two stories right here?

I've been doing this for about 10 years and I don't know how to make money writing articles.

You have done it and have a story to tell about how you did it.

Why can't you make something like "The 10 steps I used to make $700 from home writing articles"

You give the 1st and maybe 2nd step as your freebie in exchange for a person's contact information.

You write followup autoresponder emails that do things such as...

-- Make sure they got the information
-- ask them if they used it or have questions about it
-- tell them benefits of getting your product and the remaining steps
-- etc.

Then you get your opt-in page in front of people who would be interested in it, and track your stats

Do not blame others for your lack of success. I understand your frustration, and this is probably why you are placing blame - but it will get you nowhere.

When you get all frustrated and disgusted like that...stop, breathe, maybe have a drink, and re-focus...

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kyhell

14 years ago

Ok I read this post yesterday and ill be honest after reading it, it pissed me off. I waited 24 hours to respond as to allow myself enough time to adequately sugar coat my initial thoughts. (I am however fearful that 24 hours may not have been a sufficient amount of time.) Your problem my dear friend, from what I can gather is that you lack the patients to succeed. There is no free lunch. I repeat there is NO free lunch! It takes time and patients. Your failures have become road blocks for you rather than stepping stones.

My advice to you is this find something, stick with it, learn it ,live it and tweak any limited success until it becomes a major success.

And at the risk of sounding arrogant setting an earnings goal of $200 - $300 a week is a complete waste of time. Your time should be far more valuable than this ,what this tells me is that you are possibly going into every venture in your long list of failures with unreasonable expectations and when those expectations are not met you deem it a failure.

Take what isn't working and work it!

I would like to apologize if I am coming across as crass as this truly is not my intent.

I do wish you the best of luck and pray my words have not fallen upon deaf ears~ kyhell

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Steven Wagenheim 14 years ago

Originally Posted by kyhell

you lack the patients to succeed

I didn't realize Ernie was going into medicine.
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- Ernie Lo 14 years ago
  
  Hahha that gave me a laugh
  
  yeah but your right, I do lack patience, another problem is I think whenever I release a website I sub-conciously expect it to fail so I don't keep at it, and we all know the starting phase of a new site is the hardest part to get going.
  
  My only hurdle now is choosing what niche to go down, but when I figure it out, I'm definitely going to take the advice given here and focus on on the one project and be patient of course, cant wait for the day I make a new thread telling all you guys I finally "succeeded"
  
  Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim
  
  I didn't realize Ernie was going into medicine.
  
  Thanks
  
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Karomesis 14 years ago

Originally Posted by kyhell

Your problem my dear friend, from what I can gather is that you lack the patients to succeed.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.:rolleyes:
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- kyhell 14 years ago
  
  i so deserve that thank you!
  
  Thanks
  
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bravo75

14 years ago

Has anybody ever considered the fact that some people are just not cut out for this kind of work? It really is not for everybody. I am not saying the guy who started this thread isn't but for a lot of people making money online will always be a pipe dream no matter how hard they try.

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danalingga

14 years ago

You should build your reputation first before try others thing in online. What i learn from making money online is all about reputation.

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Sparhawke

14 years ago

It is not just you though, the internet is changing from a place where we all used to talk together on forums with interaction with other people to an internet where we all have to make facebook/twitter pages to get some kind of validation that we are not all useless and that we must have a false sense of popularity.

If one person makes a facebook page driving people to buy a has been bands album in order to topple Cowell's dominance, 2 weeks later you have 5,000 doing the same...

You have to figure out before everyone else what would be wanted ahead of time, this is not easy and of course you will get it wrong and stumble on occasion...just look at themilliondollarhomepage...that guy had an idea and ran with it, we could all be there...and he makes money off it still!

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â€œThinking is easy, Acting is difficult

And to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world ~ Goetheâ€

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deltafox 14 years ago

Hey Ernie,

I think your post was very honest and you were brave to post it (as well as letting off some steam I'm sure). Along with everyone else's "You can do it" pep talk (which was necessary but now you need to TAKE ACTION), here's some practical advice.

Whatever you've been doing, stop it. It's not working. Start over by going after "low hanging fruit." Don't compete in big markets right now such as Dog Training or Make Money Online. Here's an example plan you can follow:

1. Go to Amazon bestsellers:
Amazon.com Bestsellers: The most popular items on Amazon.com. Updated hourly.
Find out what's selling. Write down some keyword ideas.

2. Download a trial of Market Samurai. Test out your keyword ideas to find one with minimum 1000 searches a month with LOW competition (maximum 30,000 competing sites). Learn keyword research here: Noble Samurai Dojo

3. Make a ONE PAGE wordpress site. You don't need a big website. Put 400 words of content on your page with your keyword used 3 or 4 times, with the TITLE tag, H1 tag, and first sentence containing your keyword. This is sufficient for on-page SEO (if you can find your exact keyword as your domain name, that's even better, but not necessary). Put some Amazon products on your page linking back to Amazon with your affiliate code.

4. What matters THE MOST is backlinks, or getting links pointed at your site. This is the MOST IMPORTANT step of anything you do. Submit your site's RSS feed and your page's RSS feed to various RSS aggregator sites. Put links in profile pages on high PR community or forum sites. Spin your 400 words of content and put them on five Web 2.0 properties. Ping and social bookmark your site, profile pages, and the Web 2.0 pages using SocialMarker.com. Write an article and submit to ezinearticles.com and goarticles.com. See this thread: http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...ack-links.html

5. Your site will start to rise in the rankings for your one keyword, if you researched it correctly, and it has LOW competition. Hopefully some traffic will convert to buyers. Meanwhile, don't just wait. Make another site.

6. How long does all this take? Not long, after you learn to do it once. How much does it cost? 10 bucks for the domain (free if you use a free blogging platform or Squidoo instead of your own wordpress blog). You can bang out 5 such one-page sites a week. Put additional energy (more backlinking) into the sites that make sales. Any sites that do get traffic but no sales, sell the websites.

As a reasonable estimate, SOME of your sites can make about a dollar a day. Some will be duds. Let's say you build 20 sites and half of them make $25 bucks a month, on average. That's 10sites x 25dollars = 250dollars per month.

Month 2, build 20 more sites. Month 3, 20 more sites. Month 4, 20 more sites. Within 6 months, you can be making $1000 a month easily. This is a realistic but conservative estimate.

If you think this is too little money, that is one of your problems. You have to start somewhere. Making a STEADY, repeat STEADY, $1000 a month by this summer is not trivial -- it can pay your rent! Outsource the work and get more efficient at building sites. Invest in backlinking services and software. Learn how to get more and better backlinks. Add keywords and pages to your sites that are winners. Within a year, there's no reason you can't have 100 small sites making $3000 a month without much maintenance.

If you are dedicated or devoted full time to this (or know how to build sites fast), you should be able to make much more than this. Once you have a steady passive income, you can even quit your day job. Start branching out into other things you are interested in, like PayPerClick marketing.

This plan is basically the same one I followed. There are hundreds of thousands of products and niches on Amazon (alternatively you can use eBay or Commission Junction), so I'm not worried about competition. You don't have to follow this plan. But make your own step-by-step plan.

Don't even spend time worrying about making a goodlooking and pretty site or optimizing your page to get high CTR. Getting backlinks to your site and getting a smattering of traffic that increases slowly every day should be your focus. Once you have steady traffic, you can make money.

Here's the core points:

1. Focus on one thing. Stop buying ebooks or trying to make $15000 a month quick.
2. Make a LITTLE bit of money with it.
3. AUTOMATE it as much as you can, or outsource. This is really key.
4. Do the same thing again and again, and again and again. Your little money multiplies.
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Sparhawke

14 years ago

Someone tells you to use Hubpages to make sure you can get sales first rather than spending money on a useless page first Ernie since it is free and then scale it up with a paid site if it makes money, should be able to help you out

http://www.warriorforum.com/mind-war...ay-season.html

Thanks
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â€œThinking is easy, Acting is difficult

And to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world ~ Goetheâ€

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deltafox

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Sparhawke

Someone tells you to use Hubpages to make sure you can get sales first rather than spending money on a useless page first Ernie since it is free and then scale it up with a paid site if it makes money, should be able to help you out

That's great advice Sparhawke! Find your winning keywords and buy a domain for it only when you see sales.

One thing to avoid though, you don't want your entire network of "money sites" to consist of Web 2.0 sites, which can disappear with a poof literally overnight. So you want to buy domains at some point.

Thanks
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Sparhawke

14 years ago

Originally Posted by deltafox

That's great advice Sparhawke! Find your winning keywords and buy a domain for it only when you see sales.

One thing to avoid though, you don't want your entire network of "money sites" to consist of Web 2.0 sites, which can disappear with a poof literally overnight. So you want to buy domains at some point.

Its not my advice, I pinched it off Neil V lol

But if you are tired of spending money on domains without even knowing if you can convert anything it is a good way of testing the waters for free...if you get a sale or twenty you can then consider buying a dedicated site for it

Thanks

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â€œThinking is easy, Acting is difficult

And to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world ~ Goetheâ€

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Allurre

14 years ago

Don't even consider giving up.

What you now have that others don't is accumulated mileage in the experience department.

You should narrow down your focus to one niche that you have greatest expertise in, and make sure it's a highly profitable one.

The key is to distinguish yourself.

Thanks

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deltafox

14 years ago

One more thing, if you are not making much money at this time, yet you are spending more time reading forums and investigating new products than actually working on your business, you need to rearrange your priorities.

Find a project you think will work and do it full blast. Come back to reading forums, buying new tools/ebooks, and checking out new ideas after you have accomplished your project, whether successful or not.

Reevaluate only after you are done with a project. In other words, don't switch gears in the middle of a project to go chasing some new idea. This leads to information overload and you will never get anything done.

Thanks

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ed123

Banned 14 years ago

[DELETED]

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Sparhawke 14 years ago

Originally Posted by ed123

I have made more money from twitter than anything else! It's easier than you think! Check out these 5 steps to twitter profits! How to Make Money on Twitter

How the hell do you get a 101% conversion rate??!
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â€œThinking is easy, Acting is difficult
And to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world ~ Goetheâ€
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lisag

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Ernie Lonardo

After trying Internet Marketing for several years, every website/project Ive tried has met with major failure, always making less than it costs to set up. I spend so much time designing and planning sites, but once they are launched, I just never stick with them during the marekting stage...

- Build a list but hardly anyone bought from me

Sorry to do this to you, but it's for your own good:

My favorite quotes from Thomas Edison:

I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

Many of life's failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

Nearly every man who develops an idea works at it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Now get back to work! There's money out there with your name on it.

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-- Lisa G

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Hanz 14 years ago

Ernie, have you abandoned this thread? I was asking you for details on how you made $700 through article marketing. If you don't mind sharing...
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- Ernie Lo 14 years ago
  
  No I havent abanded the thread, I'm reading it a lot actually Sorry missed your question.
  
  I made $700 from writing articles. not from article marketing, was a typo earlier.
  
  Thanks for the great advice again everyone, don't worry I aint a quitter (well you know what I mean:p), just need to do things differently.
  
  Originally Posted by Hanz
  
  Ernie, have you abandoned this thread? I was asking you for details on how you made $700 through article marketing. If you don't mind sharing...
  
  Thanks
  
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yoessan

14 years ago

What I have learned is that you have to do what you like, and you have to have some knowledge in it.

Otherwise you'll lose interests fast, and can't really compete with people who have more knowledge than you.

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Gary Smith

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Ernie Lonardo

I tried becoming a IM guru for about 2 years and did autoresponder marketing gew a list to about 3K but my list barely bought from me

Why did you try to become an IM guru? Was that something that you really wanted to be or were you just trying to be like some other people because they seemed to be making a lot of money. Take some time to decide who YOU really want to be. Make a plan and stick to it. Don't accept failure as an option.

I know this sounds pathetic, and I admit I am partly to blame but after all these years I thought I would of made it by now.

That's wrong - you're wholly to blame

. Accept that and learn from your past mistakes. Being able to take 100% responsibility can be a very liberating experience. It kind of cleans the slate so you can move on without beating yourself up about past failures. You failed...so what? Welcome to the club

. Millionaires like Joe Vitale and (the late) Jim Rohn failed miserably before they became successful. I bet that if you asked around you'd find plenty of stories from fellow warriors who were living in cardboard boxes a few years ago.

In case you're wondering - I made the same mistakes in that I tried to emulate other people's success by trying to be like them. The good news is that you can totally scrap that, come up with a new plan and move forward with renewed enthusiasm.

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Gary Smith

PHP Developer and aging geek

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AprilK

14 years ago

Hi Ernie,

I am not one of those lucky few who can say I have been some what successful
in this IM business, and am somewhat in the same boat you are.

Honestly, I was thinking myself of posting a "poor me, fed up, thinking of throwing
in the towel" type post, but you beat me to the punch... ;}

I obviously can't give you any words of advice, (at least any smart ones that would
help you to build a residual income...lol), but I can say a few words that may lift your spirits...

First off...Im jealous...

Yes, that's right. I've been trying this IM game for a few years myself...and like
yourself off and on. I've probably started a million projects, and have had even more
ideas floating around in my head...but have yet to make a dime...ok maybe 4 bucks
with adsense....but I dont count that...

I myself thought I would have made it by now....I have a project/membership site
that I have been working on which seems like FOREVER(over a year...ugh)...but I
keep running into many obstacles to get it off the ground. I bought the software,
which I had to wait years for it to come down from its $1495 pricetag (I could
have cried when it was being offered for a mere 30 bucks!)....and now that I have
it...I feel stuck and overwhelmed.

Point is...YOU had ideas and seen them through, YOU had success from them,
YOU build that list of 3 thousand, YOU not only made $700 dollars but $200
dollars to boot on top of that!! YOU have had success from your EFFORTS.
Sure you may have not stuck with things during marketing, but you completed
you're project, seen them through to the end. YOU stuck with it!!!

If I could only know what it is like to taste just some of the success you have
had, I would drink it in and want some more. It would motivate me to move
forward and never look back.

Everything you said you have "dabbled" in seems to have brought you some
sort of result you wanted. So in that sense I am envious. You say, "I only
made $700, I ONLY built a list of 3000, I ONLY brought in 140 affiliates..." Are
you kidding me???? Thats great, I only wish!

But I think there is one thing I have that you seem to lack, and I think its
the only thing holding you back....and that's PASSION.

You see, I had my "a ha" moment. I know what my calling is in the IM world...
now I am working to bring it to life. When I am working on my project, I find
myself smiling, joyful, and sometimes giddy. Sure, Im not there yet, but I
know my idea is simple, unique, and its in a niche I have experienced and can
really help people in. I really have a PASSION for what I am doing, and even
though I feel hopeless, and very envious of those people who throw a site
like mine together in a few weeks, I know I will overcome my hurdles, if I jump
high enough. (Or find the right JV partner with a lot of friends...lol)

So you see Ernie, you have the talent, the experience, and the drive to make
it in this business....now you just need to have your own "a ha" moment.

So...sit down and think about it. What project will bring you joy, and a smile
to your face? When you find it, it won't seem like work, or a job, or some other
mundane task you get bored of. It will become your PASSION, your "baby", so to
speak. You will love it, nurture it, watch it grow. And even though you put in long
hours and feel like you don't know what you're doing some nights, you know
its rewarding and well worth it.

And BTW, being a "Guru", isnt something you try. It's something you achieve
once you have proved you are an expert and very knowledgeable a particular
niche which you are PASSIONATE about.... ;D

All the best to you,

April

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JohnB23 14 years ago

This goes for anyone who's giving up hope in im or anything online.

-The internet is a *ridiculous* resource to reach people around the world who may like to have what you sell or promote. Never forget that. Even if your copy sucks. Even if you lack passion or motivation. Even if you self sabotage yourself. There are still tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands....millions of people, and you have everyday to reach them.

I was watching some drawing videos the other day by mark crilley, an author of a manga/japanese anime book series, on youtube. The guy has a ridiculous number of subscribers (200,000) and channel comments. Imagine 200,000 people following you, waiting for you to upload your videos. And he's only been posting videos for a few years, doesn't even have that many videos, less than a 100.

He has these great drawing videos, then at the end he promotes his book. Its not internet marketing, but the internet is an unbelievable resource to reach people *if* you have something of value that people want.

-To me, the internet stares you in the face everyday, an infinite number of people waiting for what you have to offer. The question is, what do you have to offer them?
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The longer time goes by, the more I give up hope...

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