What REALLY Is The Biggest Obstacle Facing Marketers?

TL,

That's definitely a big part of this problem.

I think the other fundamental issue is that most people who try to start a business online haven't the faintest clue about the most basic concepts of selling. Or they just don't want to do it.

If you can sell, or are willing to pay people to do it for you, you'll at least make some money. Without one of those, no business model will help. Without a proper business model, you're severely limited in what you're going to achieve, even if you can sell.

The people who say they've made no money at all just don't know how to sell, or aren't even trying to sell. The people who say, "I've gotten to a certain point and can't get past that," are stuck with no business model, or a flawed one.

I think the question has to be refined a bit to be useful to any specific circumstance. Definitely a good question to explore, though.


Paul

that is because most emails are geared in the im niche. I never heard mention of infomarketing in different niches until this last year.

I have planned and researched and spent hours and months learning. What do you think my first product is going to be about? At least the first product I am qualified to say anything about because of my research and studies?

Exactly what my problem was - I like to try everything but I really had to learn to focus and let go of alot of what I was doing. Really detailed planning is what has got me to where I am today - yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily. I have to literally write down what I'm going to do each half hour of the day so that I can balance everything properly. I'm still over ambitious in what I strive to get done but my time management has improved greatly over the past year or so.

There is a lot of truth in what you said. Let us not forget that most people that get involved in IM do so because of promises of get rich quick. Therefore, they buy their products and when they learn it requires work never look at it again. Some are easily swayed to the next big thing and overnight success. Inexperienced marketers do not recognize that it is all hype. In this day and age they need to believe in something. To believe that it is possible to achieve the life they desire to create.

I will be blunt at this point. I think by now that those that have seen my posts know that I don't sugar coat anything and call it like I see it(maybe I should take a college course on tact).

Many that get involved in IM are just lazy and don't want to work. They think it is just sit around in your pajamas and check your pay pal account.

I do have my lounge pants on when I am working,lol. But only because I get out of bed grab my coffee and fire up the computer before going to work. Then I change when I get home while the computer is loading.

It is a lot of work. Especially when you are trying to get everything pulled together and you don't have a lot of instruction.

If I had heard of WF 4 years ago, I would no longer have a job. How do I know?

In the short time I have been a warrior, I have read posts that got me ranting, I have read posts that got me thinking, and I have read posts that I have learned from. You don't get that in your inbox.

Through one of my rantings I have made a couple of contacts. That is what it is all about. Contacts that are willing to exchange ideas and opinions.

I will succeed. I will share my knowledge as I gain it. I hope to be a valuable contributor to this forum and pray I never forget what it is like to struggle to learn something with out guidance.

Look into PLR articles or books that relate to your niches. A good book with PLR can provide you with several different articles plus content for your site.

I'm not sure to be honest. I have a BA in IT, which at least means that I can handle the tech side of things. However, I've been doing this full-time for about 3 months now and have only made $38. Now, I am still pretty excited about that $38 since as someone stated, it CAN be done.

I am able to focus, and I don't buy a ton of products, actually very few from only people that I trust. I don't have a normal job, nor have I since 2001. I have been self-employed for the last 7 years and have made a good run of it.

It seems to me that everyone that talks about noobs and what they are doing wrong always says, "change your mindset," or "just keep at it," which is fine, but they always make it sound like you work it until one day everything just CLICKS. Is this really true?

Once I made my first sale, I started shifting my other efforts towards that method. That was now a month ago, and nothing quite yet. I am not deterred, but I'm also not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Riley's mankini. I can't get it out of my head. I am to the point where I roll up into a fetus position and cry myself to sleep.

When I look at successful marketers online (depends on your definition of successful, is it quitting your day job? Making $500 a month? $5000 a month?), I notice they usually have a few things in common.

Let's define a 'successful' Internet marketer as someone who is making at least $500 a month online. That's enough to pay off the bills if you work a day job. That's what most people want anyway.

But the truly successful people I know have these characteristics:

- They hate their day job and will do whatever it takes to quit it.

- They do not stay in 'panic stations' mode for long.

- They are analytical people. You see all these new personalities like Rich Jerk, Tim Ferris. You think these people really are beach surfer dudes? It's just a persona. In my opinion, if you are the guy without critical thinking skills, you can NEVER succeed online.

- They treat this thing seriously. Some people are actually embarrassed to treat Internet marketing seriously because of social stigma.

- They have a focused and structured way of learning stuff. For example, dedicate a time block to learning banner advertising, and nothing but that during that time. No instant messaging, forums, email. Just banner advertising strategies. Then CRITICALLY THINK about it. How will you make it work?

Allen

When the obstacles are bigger than your determination you're in trouble.

Martin

This is true, especially of people who have been employees from the beginning of time - like me . Back in the '60s, I was trained to do as I was instructed which meant I didn't have to think about anything but doing those particular tasks I was given in the best, most expeditious way I could. After 40+ years of this, it's not so easy to suddenly become an independent thinker... insofar as work goes, anyway.

So the question would be, how do you retrain yourself to drop old habits and training and become a new person who needs a new mindset? It's a struggle, especially when you really don't know exactly what changes must be made. Exactly what is that entrepreneurial mindset that replaces the old one, what does it "feel" like, and how do you make that adaptation?

My personal belief regarding why people can't seem to move ahead - and what can we do to help them along - is this.

Basics like building a web site are much easier now that Wordpress allows you to load the program to your own server and use it as your web page editor. For someone just starting out, it's not that difficult these days to get past this initial stage. No SEO required as we once knew it.

Adding content is probably the next most difficult task, especially for people who feel handicapped when it comes to writing. Even this can be overcome by spending a few dollars for someone to rewrite PLR or fresh articles.

Finding products isn't all that difficult either because you can begin as an affiliate. Everything is provided for you - sales letters, banners, graphics, emails and other promotional material. Some of the better affiliate programs even include excellent instructions for beginners on how to market as an affiliate.

Now, here is what I consider to be one of the root causes why people don't succeed.

They lack marketing skills. Marketing is difficult, even though it sounds pretty straight forward (submit articles, buy PPC ads, create blogs and ping them, etc.). You have to know how to address your audience so they are convinced that they should visit your site, read your content and buy the product.

While it might be called marketing, it's really selling. You are selling yourself, your business concept, your approach, and your opinions - and to some degree, the affiliate product. Not everyone can do this successfully. If you don't get this right, you won't make sales.

The final element is having the ability to know what you're doing wrong and how to fix it when what you are doing isn't working.

This is not easy to do, especially if you believe you are doing what is required. Here's my example.

Several years ago, I read the Super Affiliate book which advises that the best way to beat the competition is to build a site with quality original content based on your chosen niche. Focus on SEO - namely, relevant keywords spread throughout the site without spamming. Since reading that book, I've learned much more about SEO and now am ranking 1, 2, and 3 for my main keywords - one of those is a super-high competition keyword with over 80 million competing sites. Yet I'm not making sales on a regular basis.

So this goes to the second part of your question - what problems are you having.

I do not know what's wrong. I am getting clicks for my keywords - although barely enough to register. I've changed the site numerous times and my current one, I believe, is the best yet. Launched about 3 weeks ago. Nothing much changed but, my CB sales have stopped completely since then.

Another problem I and others have is knowing the best ways to market our sites. In my case, I post a few articles on the major article databases and make a sale, but if I do not consistently post an article every day - if I get busy with some other aspect of my business instead - or take a week or two off - my sales stop. There is no residual benefit from the articles that were posted.

This has become a lengthy comment, but I think I've covered the pertinent points.

The only final point I would make is in reference to the idea that if you make a sale, at least it proves it can be done. For the most part, I agree with that but on the flipside, if that's all you get, it might as well be none. It's important for people to get consistent sales at least every few weeks or so, otherwise faith dwindles. That's when the temptation to switch direction becomes too great - leading to a setback, rather than an advance.


Sylvia

I used to run such a course at a local university in their continuing education program. It was called Internet Entrepreneurship.

It ran for 6 weeks for 1 night per week for a total of 18 hours of instruction. My students loved the program.

I loved teaching it even though I made more money with my online activities than I did by teaching it. One of my students said my information was better than a recent weekend seminar he had paid $10,000 for. (My 6 week course was about $400)

Most online "courses" tend to be videos and ebooks you download and view yourself. Useful, but not quite the same as a course with a live instructor and assignments.

You can get live coaching, but Internet marketing superstars like Russell Brunsen and Yanik Silver charge about $15,000 for their coaching programs so it is out of reach for many beginners.

There may be a need but are people willing to pay for it? How much would you pay a month for such a program?

Steven,

You raised some great points my friend! As have the rest of the posters in this thread...Allow me if I may to float another idea.

As we all know, the world we know as "Internet Marketing", has been a game of of shadows so to speak for some time now. With people hiding behind aliases, domains, emails and proxies. Every time we turn around there's a "New Guru of the Week" with a flock of followers pimping his product(s) to the hungry and often desperate novice marketers online.

I believe that part of what is transpiring is of our own making...we have bred an atmosphere of greed and mistrust in which the novice marketer often looses his/her faith in our industry and in the people and leaders in it.
Since energy, whether it be Positive or Negative attracts "like energy"...when novice marketers go through their days filled with frustration and cynicism, it simply is impossible for them to attract "good and positive" outcomes.

True Leaders...must take action to help remedy this trend...we must all reallize that there is "No Lack"...there is Plenty of Abundance for us all out there. Just because I may share an idea or strategy that enables someone else to receive 100k next month, doesn't mean that there is less for me or anyone else to receive...there simply is no shortage! If we all can embrace that position (especially leaders), then slowly but surely the nature of our industry will change. Gone will be the times of Dog eat Dog...hording of knowlege...shady dealings based on a fear mentality, and finally we will see this Great Industry become what it was meant to be...I for one can't wait!

+1 I totally agree. You have to watch out for scams, because there is plenty of them out here on the internet

Steve,
After working with several other people I have summed it up to one word ...

motivation

I have come to the conclusion that people like the dream to become wealthy or free from the day job but lack the motivation to make it a reality. Most are toast in 1-2 months 3 tops even if they were making a few bucks. People want instant gratification ...

As long as the job pays the bills most people can just feel comfortable following that path or use it as an excuse to not make it on their own.

The very very biggest thing that stops people making money online is well how do you say it "YOURSELF"!

The number 1 criminal thing people do online is jump from one thing to the next to the next, let me tell you, you can make money really quick online and yes people do, BUT these people have probably been online quite a while, and / or being tutored by some of the big guns so they can promote / push a product that shows even a noob can make money.

BIGGEST thing you must do is "TAKE ACTION" you probably hear it all over the net but its so true. I suffer from analysis paralysis sometimes and its frustrating when I have sat at my pc for 5 hours and got NOTHING done, so best thing I do is to write daily goals down, these goals should take no longer then 30 - 40 mins each and then work down them.

It works for me

How did you learn how to ride a bike? Practice.

How does someone learn how to play the piano? Practice.

Basketball? Football? Cooking? Scrabble? Yep...practice.

Not directed at you personally...just an observation===> Why on earth would anyone think that learning the extremely complex process of convincing total strangers to give you money through a communications medium fraught with scams, fraud and identity theft be something you can learn how to do in a month or less?

I know overnight successes happen, but still...I'm just sayin'...

I am glad to see someone else understands the difference

I think you might be on to something there. I think my email can wait when I get up in the morning.

Wow, this is a great thread.

I have been "trying" to make money online for about 3-4 years now with no real succes. By trying I mean sometimes I will buy an ebook and really apply what it says for a little while and then I usually get distracted and buy another ebook or try some other method before I see any success with the first method. But most of the time I just dream of starting a real online business and never do any real work, I just get preoccupied with school and other things.

The main reasons why I think I haven't made any real money online yet are: lack of focus, lack of motivation, not believing it's possible, and confusion. I also think its because I haven't found a business model where I can use my strenghts and that I am passionate about, mostly because I don't know what my strenghts or passions are.

Lately I have been wanting to try article marketing/bum marketing even though I hated english and really don't like writing. I chose this business model because it doesn't require any investment. I have bought an ebook on it and done keyword research but am stuck on actually writing articles. So far I have only written one. I think this is because of my lack of motivation, my lazyness, and mostly because I'm not really passionate or interested in writing.

I tried google adwords a few months ago and ended up spending $80 and making 1 $30 sale, so I decided to save up some money before I try that again. I also just ordered your WSO on hot trends and tried it with 2 hot trends but didn't make 1 cent yet.

One of the other major problems I am having is just making my first few dollars quickly. All I want to do is make like $5 or $10 quickly with just a little bit of effort and then build upon that. I don't want to spend months building a website and driving traffic to it and wait months for any results even if it made alot of money. I would rather make a quick $10 then wait a month and make $100 because that first $10 would motivate me to keep going.

Ok, thats my rant.

As far as I'm concerned, it's information overload from "too much, too fast." People just starting out are subject to information overload, resulting in lack of focus. This in turn leads to lack of action.

They have several questions in their mind. They are not sure what needs to be done first, which route to take and whether a particular method works or not. Finally, with so much advice floating around, they are confused who they should listen to.

What helps is clearing the hard drive in the brain and focusing on getting just one thing done at a time.

No single plan of action can help all.

I used to spend hours online reading, reading and reading some more. I ended up being totally confused and things only fell into place when I started focusing on one plan.

It's important to reduce random information intake and focus on systematic intake. Newcomers should first make a note of all the workable options that are available and choose, based on their interests and skills. Coaching can be provided after taking into consideration each person's skill set.