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Why Some Make $5000+ a Month & Some Make Barely Anything...

by Chris Munch
19 replies
What separates the struggling 70% from the successful 10%?

(those other 20% are just doing okay)

I've been chatting with many bloggers, webmasters and internet marketers (successful and unsuccessful) over the years. I have found:

(note: most of my money is made from blogging and outside of the internet marketing niche, mostly consumer orientated stuff, so my views may be a little skewed as a result of my bi model)

- Most have been doing it for a long time. Usually two years or more. I don't think I've ever met anyone personally making decent money who's only been involved in online ventures for under a year. But the time doing it doesn't always bring success, other qualities seem common too.

- Before they started to make money they never had (or lost) the obsession with wondering if they could make money. They either just went out a did it for fun with a strong passion for their niche, or knew in their own mind they could make money from this if they tried hard enough.

- They are not obsessed with SEO and recognize that content is what matters in an online publishing business. They have a much better understanding and focus on providing value than those who struggle with blogging.

- While not obsessed with SEO, they'll most often have a good understanding of the main principles.

- They are not looking for the next SEO trick or get rich quick scheme. These are just distractions. Instead they focus on building a real and sustainable business rather than jumping from trick to trick. Sure they may use tricks and advanced strategies to help their business, but they see them for what they are, and not money making traffic, pumping miracles.

- They've stuck with one idea or one site, and focused heavily on that, rather than jumping from one idea to the next. Typically they have spent over a year developing and promoting one site as their main project.

- The ones pulling in the biggest cash have typically outsourced some areas of their business, usually writing.

- They know their niches well. If they now own multiple sites, there is usually one key site which was their first success, and they know the niche of this site extremely well.

Does this describe you?
Have you noticed other traits of successful online entrepreneurs?
#barely #entrepreneur #failure #make #make money #month
  • Profile picture of the author Jay Lange
    I often wonder myself what separates a successful individual from one who is not.

    One thing that always sticks in my mind is a line from the movie Wall Street with Michael Douglas (Gordon Gecko) and Charlie Sheen (Bud Fox).

    They are driving in Gordon's limousine and come upon two men standing on a street corner. One dressed in a nice suit, the other down on his luck and apparently homeless. Gordon says to Bud, "Look at that, you mean to tell me the difference between this guy and that guy is luck?!"

    I think that line is very indicative of what it takes to be successful in ANY business! Some people will do whatever it takes and others won't...perseverance! Refuse to lose and absolutely NEVER, NEVER, NEVER give up.

    Excellent post!
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    • Profile picture of the author dannyadams
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by dannyadams View Post

        Ready for the cat to come out of the bag?

        The people who concentrate on the CONTENTS of a product, most likely will fail. Not because the content isn't good, but because they don't give it the right amount of time.

        The people who forget about the content and figure out HOW the product is sold usually become successful if they stay at it.

        Don't concentrate WHAT is the in the product, concentrate on HOW the product was brought to your attention and HOW it was sold.
        Danny, you can't ignore the contents of a product unless you're content with a churn and burn, medicine show type of business.

        It's one of those yin and yang things. Or heads and tails if you prefer. Can't have one without the other.

        You can have the best product in the world, but if no one wants it or knows it exists, you have nothing.

        You can have the best sales and marketing in the world, but without a product that people want and are happy with, you got a headache.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jamian
    The key is passion and consistency.
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  • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
    Chris,

    Originally Posted by ChrisTew View Post

    What separates the struggling 70% from the successful 10%?
    Er..is it their inability to do math?



    Otherwise, good post.


    Frank
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    • Profile picture of the author scrofford
      Originally Posted by Frank Donovan View Post

      Chris,



      Er..is it their inability to do math?



      Otherwise, good post.


      Frank
      I think the OP meant 30% instead of 10%. But in reality that's not even correct. If you apply the 80/20 rule, it would be "What Seperates the Struggling 80% from the successful 20%?
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      • Profile picture of the author Chris Munch
        Originally Posted by scrofford View Post

        I think the OP meant 30% instead of 10%. But in reality that's not even correct. If you apply the 80/20 rule, it would be "What Seperates the Struggling 80% from the successful 20%?
        Actually it's because there is about 20% in between who are doing okay, not struggling, but not hugely successful, just in-between.

        Those percentages are actually based on something real, although a small sample.

        I didn't really explain that well though
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  • Profile picture of the author KevL
    Completely agree with this. I spent a long time initially doing the opposite of many of your points, and didn't make a penny.

    I think your most important point is about focussing on one system & sticking to it - and not getting distracted. There are so many distractions for the new web marketer, new systems, new methods, new "secret strategies" and so on.

    Cheers

    Kev
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  • Profile picture of the author mikeevee
    Originally Posted by ChrisTew View Post

    - They've stuck with one idea or one site, and focused heavily on that, rather than jumping from one idea to the next. Typically they have spent over a year developing and promoting one site as their main project.
    All of your points are excellent. And spot on!

    The point above is key. The more you rely on the opinions of others the more your brain becomes a spaghetti of "great ideas". We are all guilty, but the successful IMers focus their effort on one venture, developing it online, offline, and with persistent focus.
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  • Profile picture of the author DrewClement
    Could it not mean that 70% struggle, 10% are successful and 20% lie somewhere in the middle?

    It is not always such a cut and dry/set line between success and failure, right?
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  • Profile picture of the author PPC-Coach
    Absolutely true.

    New online marketers have zero patience. They think they put something out there once and if it doesn't work, then THAT type of marketing doesn't work and it's never the fact they barely scratched the surface of the effort required.

    It takes a lot of time to make a lot money. If you're constantly tricked by those morons posting huge numbers and making it look like you just have to buy their product to make the same, then you're on an endless treadmill of failure.

    Start small, stick with it and eventually you'll be making good money. It doesn't happen overnight. You can compare it to a movie stars earnings. Look at Tom Hanks. How many crappy movies and tv shows was he on before he started making $20 million per movie? How about Brad Pitt? Look at any of them, they all struggled early in their careers making crappy movies, doing crappy tv shows then after 10 years or so started getting known and commanding more money.

    We're constantly bombarded with B.S. from marketers who are making us believe it's easy and anyone can do it, the truth is the exact opposite. It's a tough haul and only a few will make the really big bucks.
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  • Profile picture of the author honestkyle
    This thread really inspired me since I've been at the Internet Marketing game for 1 and 1/2 years now without my big break. But... before that, my thinking characteristics fell right into the categories that ChrisTew laid out...

    I always thought about having my own business and being rich.

    I didn't know what it was going to be in, but I knew that if I tried and never gave up, I would eventually land there.

    For instance, before IM, I was in the eBay business. Suffered some major losses. Then, I tried Hubpage and Squidoo marketing. Failed again. Then some free blogs. Bombed.

    Now, I know I jumped around awhile, but the thing I've been working on recently is a blog that I've devoted three solid months to with advanced techniques that I would only learn after over a year of scrounging for information.

    Even now, I'm still convinced that I'm going to be rich someday and on the backburner...

    I'm going to completely revamp my 401K.

    I just started reading the amazing book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" (highly recommend) and I've gotten into Stocks, Bonds, Mutual Funds, beefing up my 401K, and investing in as many strong assets as I can while guys my age are wasting their dough on beer pong tables and X-boxes.

    Great thread!
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    • Profile picture of the author discrat
      Great Post. A lot of stuff that holds true. Although I will say that most of the successful IMers I have met did NOT start with just one Site. They started with multiple Sites , sometimes dozens of them, and worked them consistenly over time.

      I found that many of these successful entrepreneurs realized the importance of NOT putting their eggs in one basket.

      So I have tried to adopt a similar Model over the past 2 and half years and it seems to work out good and makes sense.
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      • Profile picture of the author Chris Munch
        Originally Posted by discrat View Post

        Great Post. A lot of stuff that holds true. Although I will say that most of the successful IMers I have met did NOT start with just one Site. They started with multiple Sites , sometimes dozens of them, and worked them consistenly over time.

        I found that many of these successful entrepreneurs realized the importance of NOT putting their eggs in one basket.

        So I have tried to adopt a similar Model over the past 2 and half years and it seems to work out good and makes sense.
        I think that is true for some IM'ers, but the more I study how some of those guys started out, it was often concentrating on one project and doing it for a long time that gave them their break.

        One project does not necessarily mean one site, for a CPA marketer for example they will throw up lots of sites for lots of niches, but the business model is pretty much the same throughout and they concentrate purely on that business model and mastering a single source of traffic like Google Adwords.

        I struggle to find an example of someone who's successful in this industry who hasn't made their success by becoming a specialist in a certain arena. Be it mastering one niche and building a blog in that arena, mastering CPA marketing through Google Adwords, or mastering the creation of MFA sites - there's always been some strong focus there on one business model.

        The advice I hear time and time again from gurus is concentrate on one project at a time. I've never heard a guru say the opposite.

        I used to justify doing lots of projects saying it was better to have hands in more pies, multiple projects kept me interested & motivated, it gave me a wider knowledge set and many other bull**** excuses. But at some point I had to admit I was wrong when all the insanely successful people were saying the opposite.
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        • Profile picture of the author addice
          I also agree that this is an excellent post.

          But while most of the Internet marketers earn their money after they hit a year or two, I'm sure there are people who actually earn by less than a month?

          Also, I believe that most people keep the one project and work on it because of the word focus. But does focus really mean that we only work just on one thing? Say, I have a project regarding to email marketing, do I just mainly focus on that?

          What does "focus" really mean to you?
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  • Profile picture of the author anions
    Good try. While I do believe persistence is very important to be successful in business, I feel the OP is full of gross generalizations
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  • Profile picture of the author jack_turner
    awesome post Chris, I particularly like what you said about picking a topic and working on it for a year or two as their main site.

    I have a friend who runs an offline newsletter in a really competitive niche, he pretty much worked on the newsletter for free for a year and spent thousands in direct mail shots to build a member base before it became a viable business.

    But he knew his area, wrote with passion, and it paid off. He's now making quite a good living from it, and has a small office in central london with a team of full time writers and editors.

    Jack
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  • Profile picture of the author thebitbotdotcom
    Originally Posted by ChrisTew View Post

    What separates the struggling 70% from the successful 10%?

    (those other 20% are just doing okay)

    I've been chatting with many bloggers, webmasters and internet marketers (successful and unsuccessful) over the years. I have found:

    (note: most of my money is made from blogging and outside of the internet marketing niche, mostly consumer orientated stuff, so my views may be a little skewed as a result of my bi model)

    - Most have been doing it for a long time. Usually two years or more. I don't think I've ever met anyone personally making decent money who's only been involved in online ventures for under a year. But the time doing it doesn't always bring success, other qualities seem common too.

    - Before they started to make money they never had (or lost) the obsession with wondering if they could make money. They either just went out a did it for fun with a strong passion for their niche, or knew in their own mind they could make money from this if they tried hard enough.

    - They are not obsessed with SEO and recognize that content is what matters in an online publishing business. They have a much better understanding and focus on providing value than those who struggle with blogging.

    - While not obsessed with SEO, they'll most often have a good understanding of the main principles.

    - They are not looking for the next SEO trick or get rich quick scheme. These are just distractions. Instead they focus on building a real and sustainable business rather than jumping from trick to trick. Sure they may use tricks and advanced strategies to help their business, but they see them for what they are, and not money making traffic, pumping miracles.

    - They've stuck with one idea or one site, and focused heavily on that, rather than jumping from one idea to the next. Typically they have spent over a year developing and promoting one site as their main project.

    - The ones pulling in the biggest cash have typically outsourced some areas of their business, usually writing.

    - They know their niches well. If they now own multiple sites, there is usually one key site which was their first success, and they know the niche of this site extremely well.

    Does this describe you?
    Have you noticed other traits of successful online entrepreneurs?
    I nominate this post for post of the year...simply awesome!
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