How many times did you have to fail to finally succeed?

Too many.

In fact, I think I might be able to create a course on how to fail successfully... without fail.

Yeah way too many to remember. You win some and you lose some, but failing helped me learn more about business and which way to approach to earn more money.

Its gonna takes as many times as it takes in order to succeed, put it that way. Some people think it will take such and such amount of failure in order to succeed etc. Fact of the matter is, there is no written rule.

I remember when I started to whole IM thing 3 years ago, I screwed up and failed so many times! I had to go to the drawing board so many times in order to see what worked and what didnt. I guess only time will help.

I break things down into little projects or steps so as not to have the "Big Picture" become too overwhelming.

As a result, the failures are just minor setbacks. I look at it as more experience.

Unfortunately, experience is something that you don't get until right after you need it the most

Take failures as a learning step towards success but:

Follow a proven plan & work consistently, you will get success for sure.

That's my story

I wish you all the best.

Cheers
Ciel!

My early online success was with ebay. I got burnt out with that so tried blogging. I setup a tech blog in Jan 2008 with adsense ads and by Jan 2009 had made $20. In Jul 2009 I started building micro-niche adsense sites. Jan 2010 I had finally made $100 from adsense. Still not too exciting until I saw a post by Chris Gunthrie May 2010 on how he had made 40k in one year promoting amazon products. I took his tips and re-vamped all my micro-niche adsense sites to promote amazon products and slowly (real slow in fact) the sales started coming in. Of course not without an entire year of manual backlinking, writing my own articles cause I couldn't afford to pay any writers and less than 4 hours of sleep every night. Flash forward...I'm finally seeing some real results. My amazon earnings have consistently been about 1k every month since Jan. Its a good feeling until it's time pay the bills. Good luck to you.

I'm one of the lucky ones.. started late summer last year and the first idea worked... this month will be my first $3000 adsense month.

In year 2003 I sell locally made products to ebay and made money, after 2 yrs products from china came and that ended my ebay income. I tried electronic repair shop which also failed. In 2009 I tried PTC, at first it was very promising, I actually earned a few hundreds, now most PTC's are scams, it's only good for 2-3 months.

Now I'm trying internet marketing and slowly learning. So far this is what I learned:

1. Make your own own ebook, software or service and promote.
2. Make article or outsource then submit to article sites.
3. Affiliate if you dont have a product and promote.
4. Backlinks to high PR forums, blogs, profiles.
5. Make a video and submit to video sites.
6. Social bookmarking
7. SB, AMR, PGoblin, BLM softwares are the best.
8. Outsource thru Fiverr. Other gig sites are not okay.

What else guys? Any suggestion?

Thanks,
Arnel

You mean some people stop failing? Not me. I fail probably 3 times a week, easily. The trick is learning how to take the lesson from the failures without letting them affect your self-esteem or your drive to succeed. Much easier said than done, but it can be learned. Never let anyone tell you this working for yourself gig is easy. It's freaking HARD most of the time. Takes determination, self-discipline, and psychological armor. Not nearly as many people are up to the challenge as like to think they are.

A lot of times, but I glad I did, learn from mistakes

I have been reading one of rich dads books called before you quit your job. He mentions failing and I was just reading about this last night before I went to bed. Basically one learns faster the more they fail. He got a sales job and was the worst salesman at Xerox so he worked after his day job in the evenings and learned about rejection. Eventually he got good at sales and was the top sales person. He went through a period of 6 months with great income which is what I did with ad sense. Just reading this book is motivational and combined with some psychology classes I have taken I have a plan and the determination to stick to it this time.

I'm just getting back into internet marketing, but this time I am going to hire a virtual assistant to build back links. In the past I have done well with adsense ($2000-$3000 a month), bulk emailing, and adult back in the early days. Now I realized the swings is just part of what entrepreneurs go through. Being self employed is not a steady flat paycheck.

I'm going to look at everything in an optimistic way this time. If I'm not making money right away with my assistant than I will look at it as a good deed to employ someone and eventually know sales and income will come.

I failed and failed all the time, i never ever got ahead despite of my trying hard but still i am hoping that some day i may succeed.

I've made too many to count, still make them every single day.

I failed for about three years straight. Then all at once everything just seemed to fall in place. So anyone that is tired of failing just keep going and eventually it will pay off.

As soon as I succeed I'll let you know!

Perseverance - Abraham Lincoln
He failed in business in '31. He was defeated for state legislator in '32. He tried another business in '33...it failed. His fiancée died in '35. He had a nervous breakdown in '36. In '43 he ran for congress and was defeated. He tried again in '48 and was defeated again. He tried running for the Senate in '55...he lost. The next year he ran for Vice President and lost. In '59 he ran for the Senate again and was defeated. In 1860, the man who signed his name A. Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the United States. The difference between history's boldest accomplishments and its most staggering failures is often, simply, the diligent will to persevere.

they say if you fail you ______ again . and also if its easy for you its easy for everyone

Failures is part of life.

But what people usually forget is to do a "lessons learned" session afterwards.
Well that applies for success also.

Doing the same failure twice is like epic fail

Anyway remember when I bought my second domain name, which was to be used to generating some pure inet cash.

Couldn't get the .com name I wanted, so got a .cc instead (Like 3 times the annual cost)
It took me 3 years to make anything good out of that stupid domain name.
But its generating lotsa cash now though. ;-)

So out of failures comes success, if you keep trying..

----------------------
Hi,

I am sure that there are thousands of people who have "failed''.

What is failing?

What is the specific problem that you have right now?

Making money is difficult. Keep it simple and don't make the mistake to start ten's of projects. Focus on 1 and just start.

Let me know what the problem is and I will try to help you.

Kind Regards,

Amin

Great idea for a thread!

I would like to ask though, what if success in any professional realm means sacrificing part of your personality? For me this is the most immediate concern as I feel that I have a personality that is not naturally suited to compromise and in business this is one of the most important attributes it seems.

At the moment I work in construction as an assistant quantity surveyor and seem to have real trouble accepting criticism. I don't feel I'm paid nearly enough to warrant the kind of treatment I get and I've known for a long time now the type of person my boss is and is never going to be and how this all might end for me if I can't just accept the abuse (as I see it). I've lasted over a year so far in part-time work, now it's full-time; spending 9-5 with the boss right next to me is meaning we both get under each others feet. I suppose this is a rant of sorts and I know I should grit and bare it until I finally reach a stage where I have accumulated enough experience to apply for a better job but whilst I'm here right now it's agony. Plus I've already failed at plenty of physical jobs in the past and found those even worse.

Fortunately, I didn't count it. As I guess, more than 100 times.

still failing now,but you gotta fail your way to success.

Andrew

I've been trying to succeed in internet marketing since 2006. I've had ups and downs but mostly downs.

There's that famous quote by thomas edison:
"I have not failed 10,000 times. I have successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work."

I think if you fail on your own terms and learn from it can only make you a better person. I used to find myself getting discouraged when I read about someone making ten times what I make each month and they only started six months ago.

After awhile I start laughing at every failure and keep on keeping on. Just don't give up.

To many to count, it took me 7 months to make a dime, but it was all worth it!

JJ

Heck, I'm failing even as I type this post!

failing is part of success so don't ever get discouraged about failing over and over and over. The next time might just be your success.

nice question, it reminds me about the quote " Failure is the secret of success"
and that inspired me in IM.

What a great post! In my opinion this is the most important thing in IM that separates those that make it and those that dont. You just have to keep sticking at it. Look at some of the guys making a solid 6 figure income on this forum. They have been members here since 2003, 2004, 2005 etc. That tells you that if you just hang in there you will crack it.

I honestly believe that if you hang out here for the next 5 years, and take massive action, you have to make money.

Too many times. I am always trying things. Some simply don't work. However things that have worked for me usually work very well or can be scaled to work very well and cover any failures many times over.
I'm sure a wise man once said those afraid of failing can never succeed!

Rich

I used to often failed in everything i did. But i never lost hope. I kept on trying until i finally had my first hit (small business) offline.

WOW, that is definitely true we may fail, but the success comes from getting back up Being persistent and tunnel vision focused on the end result ~ that being attaining your dream until it has become a reality!!!!

I'm constantly messing things up. My biggest failure to date is building a huge list ... and not for lack of trying. I keep plugging away because I'm sold on the fact a list is an integral part of a long term business. Soon I'll get it.

IM is like buying stocks. Read Peter Lynch who says you only need 3 home runs in your life as long as you bet the farm each time. Easier said than done.

In IM, you need only a few or even one successful model and then build on it ... rinse and repeat as warriors say. In other words you don't need to hit the ball out of the park with every effort. On the contrary, you need only succeed a few times and run with those successes.

Awesome post!

To answer your question I would say:

how many times does someone have to fail to reach success?

As many times as it takes.

I have far more failures than successes - learn from them and move on and don't make the same mistakes again.

I like the quote that about 2000 years ago Confucius said: "The more you know, the more luck you will have."

It is ALL an element of luck but just like Poker you can manipulate the odds the better you play.

Chris

Waaaaay to many to remember. But, I think we could all agree that what you learn from any failure is another piece of puzzle that will eventually lead you to success.

Saw a profound statement a few weeks ago that if you haven't created over a hundred websites, you are still a novice.

Neal Walters

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that's why I succeed." - Michael Jordan

Yep... that is about right

I failed exactly 864 times. But on the 865th time, I struck gold.

Maybe you want to read my sig link.

Try and try and try again.... failure is the quickest way to success.

Thanks mr Thomas Edison, you are one smart persistent man.

I couldn't recall how many times I failed since there are too many to try to recall, but those times that I failed, I keep on thinking and asking the question if I would have the possibility to succeed with all those times that I failed. I mean, could I possibly reach success if all the time I end up short or a failure. But friends always told me not to be discouraged with these failures since we are given lessons by these experiences to help us improve for the next time.
As what Michael Jordan has stated as posted by fellow warrior Shannon, despite all those misses and failures, one should not give up and continue what he should be doing. That what makes Michael Jordan successful and attained championships, facing the pressure and challenging one's self, in the end he became one of Basketball's most influential and popular figure.
Never be discourage when experiencing failures, take it as a challenge to improve the next time.

Oh gosh, let's see... I still have folders with my old IM endeavors and it's interesting to look back at them to see how much I've learnt.

Put it this way... for children to learn how to walk, they need to fall down. Imagine if a child was too afraid of falling down... they would never learn to walk! To succeed, you first need to fail. Failure teaches you *a lot* and the key is to jump right back up and keep persisting.

And to answer your question... my failures/attempts. As you will see, much of my failures were the result of me not finishing things and hopping from one thing to another (bad), while others I tried really hard at and got nowhere:
1. Discovered Internet Marketing in 2007 (went to a free 3 day seminar in Melbourne). Set up a website that sells you a copy of the website for $7. Zero sales.

2. Decided to get into Adsense. Never launched the site.

3. Started writing my own eBook in a niche I'm sure no one would have bought from. Didn't finish the book.

4. Spent months writing an eBook in the health niche... it was 11 pages long, yeh, I hate writing. Priced it at $7. Made a couple of sales but gave up since I had such a difficult time getting traffic.

5. Spent months writing a second eBook... this one 20 pages long. Zero sales.

6. Tried the product Easy Licensing Pro. Made $80 with one partner, zero sales with the others. Decided it wasn't for me and gave up.

7. Tried Google Adwords with affiliate marketing. Zero sales. Later got my Adwords account permanently banned even though I wasn't even using it and had nothing running.

7. Made a couple of authority wiki sites with ads (both affiliate and Adsense). Zero sales.

8. Tried dropshipping on eBay. Sold a few thousand dollars worth of stuff a month, yay! Too bad the eBay fees, returns, etc, actually meant I was making well into the negatives every month.

9. Researched and researched another way to approach dropshipping on eBay. Did all the keyword research, found a good supplier, did everything by the book and spent months preparing it. Finally launched! Zero sales.

10. Now we are into 2011. Remember that 11 page health niche book I wrote near the start of my trying out IM, failure number 4? This time I expanded on it and in a short amount of time had a 200 word eBook that I hardly wrote a word of, plus all the bonuses. A full package. My first site with Clickbank. Made a sale within 2 days! Immediate refund. Made another sale a few months later. That's it, hopped onto something else.

11. Tried getting into affiliate marketing, making Google sniper-like sites. Couldn't even get onto the first page of Google, let alone any sales.

12. Throughout these different things, I tried various different ways of getting traffic. These included:
* SEO. Fail.

13. * Adwords. Fail.

14. * Microsoft Adcenter. Fail.

15. * Twitter. Fail.

16. * Writing articles. Fail.

17. * Forum marketing. Fail.

18. * Video marketing. Fail. Probably more but can't think of them right now.

19. Tried selling gigs on Fiverr. Zero sales.


20. IM attempt number 20 is quite recent but is seeing success! By now I had learnt a lot about Internet Marketing and what works for me personally, as well as what works for other people. I went back to that health niche system I created. This time researched PPC some more and tried it again (Microsoft Adcenter since I'm now banned from Adwords).

I have been making consistent sales and spending far less (both time and money) than what I was spending on free methods, quite ironically. I am now expanding this by creating more websites (more digital, and trying ecommerce), increasing my conversions and am about to try other PPC methods such as Facebook PPC.

As you can see, a lot of my failures were probably avoidable and that was my fault. I've gone back to what I was pretty much originally doing and could have seen success a lot sooner. Oh well, it's happening now. NOT ONCE did I ever think I could not do this, every time I jumped back up and tried again.

I'm still failing, and loving every minute of it. Because each small failure is a victory- I've learned something! Actual success is getting closer with every mistake!

Then again.. I don't really see any of my ups and downs as failures. When I am making a decent income I will look back and say i never failed. I simply learned the hard way hehe

I failed a bunch. I still fail every day. Failing is not really failing, though. It's more like taking a journey. If you're driving form here (Atlanta) to San Francisco, and you get to Saint Louis, that's not a failure. That's progress. The issue is this. You don't want to do the equivalent of driving around in circles. Goals help keep us from doing that.

opportunity lies within every failure, don't be scared to fail! it's part of the process, and an essential one as paradoxical as it sounds.
On topic, i lost count. Successes outweigh the failures by many times

I just recently had my first success. I made $120.00 writing a few articles. There isn't anything automated about it, but it felt good to make some money online instead of losing it.

Failures always there so can't blame if we don't succeed to something we aimed to reach...but we become strong because of failures. Its life after all no one is perfect, thus failures really are possible

Not to be too philosophical here, but IMHO after many, many failures...and with the silent expectation to encounter at least a few more failures in the future, it's my belief:

"Humility Is a Powerful Teacher, and Failure is a Powerful Tool as BOTH Demand Our Attention!"

Another words, I no longer ignore the lessons learned from either!

In fact, they are strong attributes to reaching success once one acknowledges & accepts his/her own fears (i.e. ignorance's, weaknesses, limitations, etc...)

*For it is then, knowledge can be acquired to supersede and prevail over them!!!