You're not making money, cuz you're not trying!

Very true. As much as forum browsing is interesting, it is also very addictive! I limit my time to 30 minutes - twice a day! Under Doctor's orders!

There's no way that anyone could have made $1k per day working just 20 mins even back then, UNLESS they were either basically outsourcing their entire operation or using paid advertising on a massive scale. The IM salesletters tend to twist and bend the truth to where almost everyone falls for the half-truths contained within them, and it's a sad and unfortunate fact that the majority of newbies fall for this sort of crap hook, line and sinker.

Paul

This is true, I always find myself drifting off into a movie, or getting caught up in and IM conversation. The truth is that if you don't focus on building your business then it will never get built, and you will never make money.

yea I've been in a few businesses and realized they were clunkers. I moved on and found what was best for me. I'm sure there is more out there to discover as well.

This is the "cold water in your face" reality, right here. "Just take action" is akin to "do what you love." Really bad advice if you "just take action" on a lousy plan, or when "doing what you love" is something without a market of buyers.

Platitudes make us feel better. They're uplifting. And sometimes they play nicely with reality. Sometimes, though, they don't. The trick is embracing the former and ignoring the latter.

John

I wasn't trying to throw cold water on your OP here. I'm 100% with you on the sentiment of taking action. But we owe newbies better than just making broad blanket statements on this forum. So Neil and I were just qualifying your otherwise excellent suggestion.

And I don't agree that you should follow a lousy plan stubbornly until you make it work. That's throwing good effort after bad. Investigate, look for plans that work (which you determine by the preponderance of positive feedback and success stories), and emulate those. One of the worst things a newb can do is concoct a plan willy-nilly and spend weeks or even months "taking action" on it just because it's what he likes doing. Unless he's looking for something to do without respect to making money doing it. Nothing wrong with that, then.

I could'nt agree more and I belive one must stick to one metod at a time and concentrate on it.
Spending time reading emails and forums is no work its education. There is enough money out there to be made for everybody

Im completely new to internet marketing and have been trying to make money online for 5 months now with no luck atall. The problem i have is i dont know where to start? i dont want to be cheeky but could any1 tell me how they made there first 10 bucks online? and if that was the turning point for them to go on to succeed in IM.

I'm sorry to be the devil's advocate, but although I agree with your sentiment, I also feel that these platitudes are too wishy washy for most people to act on responsibly or to really mean anything.

For example, you say a lousy plan can't be lousy (meaning it's good, as long as it's a plan.)

Well, what if you came to me asking how to make a quick $50k this month, and I replied... "go rob a bank. here's the vault codes, here's a shotgun, here's your security pass, here's where to park the car..."

Would that still be a good plan? Assuming you don't get shot or arrested, and that you have no morals or guilty conscience, then sure, it's the perfect plan, right?

I know this metaphor is taking it a bit far, but the point remains... just trying to act on any old plan is futile.

Sure, trying is great, but trying alone means nothing... just like trying a "good plan" means nothing either.

The answer is to formulate a relevant plan that you can execute and predict a certain outcome... and then try without fail to achieve that goal.

Then fix the inevitable problems, set backs and complications... then continue with your plan.

When you do that, you're not really "trying", rather "executing."

They say that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Usually attributed to Confucius, I believe. Unfortunately, history lost four very important words - "in the right direction"...

If you head out in the wrong direction, you may eventually circle back to your starting point, but the only way you would reach your destination is blind luck.

Say you wanted to walk from the Pacific to the Atlantic. You set off from Malibu, trying your darnedest. But you end up walking in circles until you're ready to collapse.

You grab a nearby stranger, and ask them how far it is to the Atlantic. "Dude" they say. "You're still in California, man!"

"But I've been trying to get to the Atlantic for days. I'm about to collapse..."

"Dude, you're still in Malibu. You must not have been trying very hard..."

Instead, what if the stranger said, "Dude, get on this highway and follow it towards the sun until your shadow disappears. Rest a bit, then follow your shadow until the sun goes down."

With that feedback, you could eventually go from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

Better yet, the guy says "Dude, hop a plane to Panama, and go to the west end of the canal. Follow the canal, keeping it on your right side. The next big body of water you see will be the Atlantic."

Trying isn't everything. Knowing when to quit trying, regroup and do something else is important, too

In fairness to the OP, though, to complete that journey of a thousand miles Confucius talked about, you still have to take that first step.

One of the better quotes I've heard on this came from a project management instructor I had once:

"Doing things right is no substitute for doing the right things."

I'm not trying to rub anyone the wrong way here but I don't think some of you guys are understanding my point.

I understand that you have to have the right plan in place. I know that you must be educated.

I don't believe the right plan will just fall from the sky....I don't think knowledge will just pour into your brain from nowhere...lol.

How do we obtain the right plan? How do we get the knowledge we need to be successful?

Everything stems from effort. Effort is indeed the building block. Without effort you have nothing. Nothing at all. Therefore, I'm still standing behind my belief that effort is indeed everything.

Effort enables us to learn, Effort allows us to seek the right plan/product....we must take action....action is effort.

I started this thread because I know there's people out there who was guilty of the same things I was guilty of....sitting there wondering where's the money? You have a good plan, you even have the education...but you sit there and read the forums all day, checking stats and emails.....but where is the effort that you actually put into your business? You put more effort in forum posts, chatting and checking emails than you do writing articles or whatever you're trying to do.....that's why you don't make the money you think you should make....use your time wisely.

I cant sit here and not post anything on here due to the fact that i am new. I am not making much doing IM however i have just started.

I know there will be a lot of learning. the biggest thing i have done is exactly what this thread is all about.

TAKE ACTION.

i have learned and failed and tried again. i think i know about what i am doing now and haven't been spending as much time on here as i did when i first started out.

I think it will take time for any newbie to learn enough to get going but at some point you will haev to catch on and make moves to make money

My 2 cents:

1. Work. It takes hard, consistent work to succeed at this. Don't throw up a great site, do some on-site SEO, then expect 24 hours of off-site SEO to bring a traffic avalanche. Pump some off-site SEO toward your site every day you live and breathe.
2. Flexibility. If after all the hard work, the payoff is too low or even zippo, don't keep repeating what isn't working. You know...the old definition of insanity: to keep on doing what isn't working, each time expecting a different outcome. So if you've worked hard and given it a decent chance to succeed...yet it ISN'T succeeding, stop immediately and re-assess. What should you change? What can you "tweak"? What are you NOT doing that those succeeding are doing?
3. Focus. Don't be distracted by TV, surfing the Net (especially Facebook, friends and neighbors), or even scads of time on the good old WF. And focus also means not jumping from one I.M. option to another. If you're focused on Facebook, then don't try simultaneously to focus on Amazon or CPA or list building or Adsense or....you get the idea.
4. Attitude. If you're going to do this, refuse to listen to naysayers. And the biggest naysayer is inside your own head. If you think you can't, you're right. If you think you can, you're also right. A few years ago, I fought a three-year battle against aggressive cancer. I knew it could beat me, but I wasn't about to give that dragon an inch or live in fear and be intimidated. I would focus totally on fighting back and living.
5. Learn. Internet Marketing isn't a solo endeavor. The more you network with others...especially those who are succeeding...the better your results. And don't be in too big a rush to become a "guru" or confine your learning to what they say. You can learn amazing things from absolute newbies if you keep your ears on.
6. Give. The nature and one great goal of I.M. is to generate profits...to bring in money. But the way this universe is set up is that the more you give, the more you get...and the more you try to get, the less you have. You've heard it a gazillion times, but it's true: Help enough people to get what they want, and you'll end up getting what you want.

OK...maybe that was more like 6 cents.

Bill, you didn't rub me the wrong way, and I did get your point. I just didn't buy it when you said 'trying is everything' and I don't buy it when you say 'effort is everything'.

Intelligent, directed effort coupled with observation and thinking are indeed essential. But brute effort isn't everything.

Say someone starts out with article marketing. They really, really try, straining with the effort. But their articles suck, the resource boxes are uninspiring, maybe even nonfunctional.

If trying and effort were indeed everything, that person could be assured of success just by continuing to pump out crappy articles. We both know that isn't likely to happen.

Heck, maybe we just need to redefine effort to include pauses for analysis and identification of the reasons for a lack of success. Include focused learning and skill improvement. Include thinking. Add all those to brute effort, and we might be getting somewhere.

Lest you think I'm arguing to pass the time, I do agree that many of the people throwing up their hands in surrender have never put up a real fight to start with. There was a fellow awhile back who claimed he'd been working on IM for three years without making a penny. A closer look revealed that the guy had put up two thin websites and submitted 6 articles. He wasn't really trying, he was playing at being an "Internet Marketer'...

We're getting closer, Bill. I can agree with this, especially the back half.

But like a solid building, the foundation is only part of the whole. You also need walls, a roof, etc. To make those work, you need good materials and some directed skill in using them.

Raw materials + skills + planning - effort = failure

Effort - raw materials - skills - planning = failure

Effort + raw materials + skills + planning = eventual success, barring some external force.