The end of Internet marketing (for me)

Dont think that "U build and they will knock Ur door".
Keep up cold calling...... use CG, YP and use odesk, freelancer, elance and more...
It will take time....I got my 1st response after 4 months and 100's of letters.

Thnx

Keep on knocking...keep on pushing.

Jim Rohn said "Work harder on yourself than you do on your job..."

You said you are good at cold calling. I would have to disagree. You said you have called many places and no luck. That would indicate that you aren't afraid to call, which is good. But it boils down to one of 2 things. Either you haven't called enough places (which means your estimation of what "a lot" is... is wrong) or you have indeed called a lot of places and they haven't been persuaded by your pitch. In which case, you need to work on yourself and become a better salesman on the phone.

It's a hard sell. You need to do your research before you start cold calling. But, as always, persistance pays.

Yeah it's hard to tell without knowing how your conversations are going. All I can say is that I don't think many businesses would be interested in buying fans or anything like that. Offer a free consultation or evaluation so you can essentially collect a lead that you can follow up on. Other than that, you seem like you may be a little scattered in your efforts. Find out exactly what it is you want to do, and what you will offer.

You are doing too many things. 6 months is short in IM years and if you've made $500 already! Why, that's more than some people have made in all their IM years.

What I think you need to do is settle down. Pick one thing and devote 6 months to that single thing. Quit looking for a quick fix and think about building a business.

Follow One Course Until Successful (FOCUS).

I also think you are giving up too early. Go over your strategy and find out why the people you've called aren't convinced by your offer. You'll need to be honest with yourself here, especially about your capabilities. If the skills you have are not enough, learn some more. Keep up the fight and you'll achieve your goals. Good luck!

At the moment my online business revolves mainly around SEO, ranking websites in Google and then driving traffic to it which leads to sales.

I'm actually expanding my business this year, but for me that is a good place to start. It's a little slower, but it doesn't cost as much as PPC (although some investment is recommended).

Your doing Ok, don't give up.

Maybe concentrate on learning sales copy and selling techniques.

e.g Dont cold call a business and say - want a website? -
go in to the business if you can, meet the owner, ask how business is going and then say I can get you more customers etc.

Or perhaps continue down the route thats made you money in the past, building sites and flipping them?

Post your services on "Warriors for Hire".
You can do this along side your website but you just get sales much faster with the thread because you already have thousands of people looking at it everyday.

I agree with some of the responses here. There is no easy button in IM. It is best to pick one thing and work it. Once you have that under control, move onto the next thing.

As far as your cold calling is concerned. I recommend going over your sales pitch with a trusted friend and have them give you feedback about it. Chances are pretty good that your pitch is too weak to convert prospects into buyers.

Dude marketing is the most challenging profession. and Online marketing is like the sea. you have to find the buyers in the sea.
let me ask you something, how many of us know about your services? None.
So start knocking people like others said. for knocking use your marketing capacity, like Forum posting, offering your services at a cheap rate. after getting a few offers you can get some testimonials and that will be the 1st hike in your income. buyers need trusted services. so try them out.

Mike, first off if you made 500$ in the first 6 months you're already ahead of most ppl here who are just starting out. In my first 6 months I lost twice as much as you made.
The key is too keep pushing and keep pushing hard like everyone said above.
Now that being out of the way what first worked for me was JV-ing with guys who already knew the game. I made some money that way but more importantly I learned a TON!
If you're good at creating mobile websites, you're in a good start out position. If I was you I wouldn't try to make it on my own, but try to get a firm that's already doing good and has a large client base to give me a chance to work for them and create mobile websites.
You may not even start out there but at the lower positions - but it's still a great chance to progress from there.
Good luck

Use some reciprocity and people will come back to you.

For example I give my offline clients a free trial run of my servcies, they see the potential and want more. Because I gave so much value for nothing they feel like they owe me something once the trial is complete.

Can you work out some kind of free trial for one of your products/services? of course it has to give real value but it mustnt be something that takes you a long time or costs you money.

Not every person will reciprocate but many will. For example I know that 10 emails finds me one free trial and every 5 free trials makes a sale.

So I send 50 emails and on average I get a client. Yes the trials take time but landing one client is worth the effort many times over.

Get a system in place and you will be putting people in the free trial pipe at one end on a regular basis and popping out clients the other end on a regular basis.

If you give up you have just wasted 6 months of your life!

Plus, you have done alright. In my first whole year I only made about $150!

It is hard to tell what you are doing right or wrong, but I have to question this-

Mate, seriously, you cannot call this a product or service. This is a questionable practice, very spammy looking and should not be offered to any legitimate business owner. That put a doubt in my mind about rest of your offers and I think many will react the same way. It devalues everything you are offering, even if they are top quality and legitimate.

I would review all the offers and make sure there nothing "fake" or shady in those. Then start calling again. Can you bring some wow factors to any of your offers? Think about it. I know all businesses are offered websites, mobile sites etc. several times a week. Is there anything you can do to stand out a bit. That might help.

At least you can easily pick up the phone and make those calls. Many people can't do that. So that is a big positive. You can also team up with someone who has a high converting offer and take care of the cold calling side of things. Just an idea.

Since you are doing something rather than just thinking about it, I am sure you will start getting those orders soon.

Cheers

Tanvir

Sounds to me like you need to work on your conversion rates.

I know that me telling you that doesn't help you any, but it is true none-the-less.

If you need money, then you will probably have to get a real job if you can.

IM is a long process for most and most end up in failure, but if you are serious about it, then you will need to focus on the following while you work your day job to put food on the table:

1 ) Find a real product that has real value and that you know works and that you believe in.
2 ) Build a website around the niche in which that product is a real solution. (It sounds like you did this already?)
3 ) Use that website to build a list of laser-targeted leads.
4 ) Deliver real value to that list and sell that product to them via email...not on a distracting website loaded with ads and other distractions that dilutes their attention.
5 ) Split test steps 2,3 and 4 to increase your conversion rates on all of them.

That's really what IM is...

You mentioned selling services...that is actually a part of steps 3 and 4.

Its a long process. I am sure that some newbies "knock it out of the park" on their first try, but they are the exception, not the rule.

For your business to start selling, you have to start building a reputation which is tough.

The catalyst to this whole process is building a targeted list of leads and building a relationship with them.

Mark

You should put a listing in Warriors for Hire section on Warrior Forum. Works for a lot of people here.

Focus on something and don't keep jumping ship. Make a consistent number of cold calls a day. Your results are great btw. (if you really started as a complete newbie 6 months ago)

Looks like you have some talent. Like several people have mentioned above, don't scatter your energy jumping from one thing to the next. Focus, get a game plan, and use your existing talents.

You will be on the right track if you keep going. Be patient.

There are currently 32 million results for SEO company and this is the pond you have decided to swim in. Let me get that straight, 32,000,000 DIRECTLY competitive sites.

If you counted these sites at the rate of one per second it would take you 370 days without a break to get through them. This is the level of competition you face.

Now look at it this way, the only decent gauge of the success of an SEO company is first page on Google so in my eyes there are only 10 of of 32M that can claim to be a success.

Meaning you have got to place yourself in the top 0.00003% of your peers. Are you that good?

Most people don't read the numbers right and just pick something out of the air without realizing they are going up against experienced pro's. You need to refocus, pick a niche (SEO is not a niche as proved by the numbers) and either master it or position yourself as the go-to guy for your niche. This is actually a lot easier than it sounds and I personally know of a lot of people who in positioning themselves as the masters of their trades (however small their trade may be) are earning a lot more than even the best SEO experts I know.

You said that you flipped a website. You can continue in this direction and make a full time income.

You also said:

Here is what I'm good at

- creating mobile websites
- creating websites (wordpress)
- cold calling

You can set up a wordpress membership site, or create a paid theme, and sell it.

As said above, pick an idea, and create a real online business around it.

Regards,
Franck

You made $500 flipping ONE website. My suggestion,
rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-rinse-repeat-

Alberto

Thank you guys for all of the good tips and support. I really appreciate it and I firmly believe that I Have talent and that i should start using it! I will come back one day with my results

You can create mobile websites, you can create wordpress websites, and you are good with cold calling... These are all things people would pay YOU to do for them.

Do you have a warrior for hire thread yet? Set one up and offer to do this for people. It doesn't have to be long-term or anything, but a month or two of this should be enough to get you back on your feet.

First, I think, everyone can learn that things you're great at in a week.

But, don't give up. Scale your knowledge. Turn online, don't be lazy, set your goals, meet some new ppl, invest some money..

I can remember, the best knowledge I got is from spending money, no matter if that was profitable or not.

Hope you'll be better and you'll start earning. Don't be these weak and lazy 99%.

Regards,
Haris.