Sometimes it's hard to keep going...

Do what I do, go to realtor.com and browse for your dream home. Once you find a few homes, you will log off the site motivated...

Sounds to me like you need a business plan, with goals as you go along. I would also diversify your income streams, so set up some websites, do some email marketing, Facebook, CPA, Clickbank, Amazon, PPC etc. I have money coming in from a few different places so if one income stream dries up there is always another. Try getting a plan together and use some MindMap software to help you visualize what you need to do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlbaqUTUWok.

Anyways, I keep going because of my surroundings. My best friend Luke Aiono (look him up), is the guitarist for hip hop legendary Nas. Truthfully, going into the music career is considered above and beyond "crazy" in this day and age. Especially when you do "Gigs" for famous artists and not just being a "music teacher" or some sort.

Anyways, I used to watch this guy. He lived in my house for a couple of months cause his grandma had kicked him out. No one supported him, and thought that he was just like anyone else trying to make it into the music industry. Well, I witnessed everything. This guy would literally play the guitar 8+ hrs a day non stop. He would watch YouTube videos constantly, learning. And what do you know? His skills brought him to where he is today, along with his personality. HIS POSITIVE attitude played that role as well. He never gave up.

Brandon,

The video documentary below is my story. It was produced by the Asia Pacific Development Center on Disability of the United Nations. They give this video documentary away as DVDs in conferences about the role of ICT in providing gainful business and employment opportunities to people with disabilities around the world. The video documentary below was uploaded to Youtube by a good friend, Thomas Ng, founder of Genashtim Innovative Learning and former Asia Pacific CEO (for more than 25 years) of Asea Brown Boveri, the world's largest power engineering firm. He's my co-board member in DigiBridge, a foundation that aims to provide gainful business and employment opportunities to people with disabilities in Asia (initially) and hopefully around the world...


The first link in my sig below is a written material about how my wife and I started our now 6-year old, 150-manpower strong ICT outsourcing company. Without capital. Without previous expertise. Without eyesight. The second link in my sig below is my own narration of how I turned totally blind, permanently,last Nov 2003, and how I built our company from scratch, with my wife, a few months after this incident of senseless violence...

I would lie if I say to keep doing what you are doing now and don't stop because when you do the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, that's called "INSANITY".

It all depends on what you are promoting. If you are promoting one time commission programs then you are going to struggle for years to come. That is what I did for a few years and could never figure out why my income never went up.

I sold over 3000+ one time commission work at home programs in the past 4 years and now I have $0 residual income. Note I said "residual" income.

You need to work with these types of programs.

That is your key to success right there.

Don' let anyone steal your dreams.

Hey all,

Thanks for the awesome tips and advice. Marx, your story is amazing and certainly makes me re-think my "struggles".

Maybe connect with your local SCORE office and/or SBA.

Just keep on trying. As long as you make a sale, whether it is big or small, it is still a sale. Sometimes, things are just taking long, but we don't really know what is waiting for us for tomorrow.
Also, evaluate yourself whether you are still enjoying what you are doing. In my opinion, the amount that you spend is just the second thing, the important thing is, you enjoy what you are doing and you are happy with it.
I am sure that each and everyone of us has our own struggles when it comes to business. But I do believe that we all have our own time, some just get their targets earlier than the others. Thumbs up for the picture!
Moreover, don't take the words of your family and friends as discouragement. Take it as a challenge instead.

That is an excellent representation of IM and entreprenuership, Do not give up!

Hey everyone,

Thanks again for all the words of encouragement. I think my main problem is that I need to manage my expectations. I do have fun in this business, and we do make sales....however, I think I just get impatient and want more results now.

Having said that I'm not new to this. I'm about 4 years in. We've done a lot and I have quite the funnel and brand set in place.

I think it's one of those things where we've sacrificed sales on the front-end to build an actual business. I was never interested in just making "sales" online...I wanted to build a business.

Thanks again

Brandon

Make sure you take some time for yourself once in awhile.

Away from the internet, business, and just living life.

Doing some cardio 3 or 4 times a week really helps me take my mind off things and helps me to focus on what I needs to do.

cheers!

Are you focusing on just ONE goal?

Set up mini goals on the path to your overall goal. Feeling a sense of accomplishment is key to persevering. If you get frustrated because you are not meeting your overall goal it can be discouraging, but if you can feel a sense of pride for reaching a milestone along the way it can make all the difference. I wrote a blog post on this topic:

How to Stop Being Lazy and Become Motivated | Anticareer.com

I can relate. The first thing is that people who aren't in the Internet Marketing world won't understand, so skepticism from family members and friends is to be expected. My parents still thought I was wasting my time when I had 18 employees and was making $100,000 a month. They still don't understand it despite my explanations.

The next thing to do is to look at your business & make sure you're doing all of the basics. Whenever a pro team starts losing, they go back to their basic strategy.

The basics are what produce 80% of the results. Here are the basics that if you look at them, you can boost your business fast. In my opinion, it's next to impossible to succeed without doing all of these things:

1. Are you running split tests? You should be split testing your opt-in pages, product price, and email copy. If you do so, they'll improve regularly. It's very easy to do, most people skip it because they don't realize how it's one of the most important things you can do.
2. Are you building a list? I'll assume that you are, but I continue to see people promoting a product without building a list. You're seriously limiting your growth without building your list every step of the way.
3. Are you cultivating a relationship with that list? Frequency of emails depends on you & your niche. Emailing them some tips or good content once a week, or every other week is a smart thing to do. For every 3 pieces of content, you can send a promotion. This is the basic formula most successful marketers follow.
4. Are you advertising? the fastest way to grow a business is through advertising. You need to keep adding new people to your list or it'll wither and die. PPC on Google & Facebook is a minimum that you should be doing. You have to track & split test each campaign so you keep the profitable ones and ditch the losers. You can also try increasing your package price to afford more expensive advertising.
5. Make new offers to your list. Develop new content that you can sell regularly. Sell a sequel package to people who bought your first product. You can do this every few months...

These are the 5 most basic things you should be doing to keep growing.



Every project is fun in the beginning, but you get tired midway through. Take a rest and then get back to work. It's not going to happen unless you MAKE IT HAPPEN. It's totally up to you.



I'd be happy to help with more specific tips or even explain the next step if you want to ask more specific questions to me directly within this thread

My signature quote "In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure."

Just keep going.... and remember free marketing is sometimes the best... if you need any help always feel free to PM me

I think your problem is you underestimated the necessary costs. Remember when making a business always overestimate rather than underestimate.

Dont listen to anyone not related to IM, they just dont know what they are talking about, I have heard these things earlier too, and they were not right. Never give up!

Brandon,

There are more comeback stories that could possibly be listed in the forum. I personally find this fact based story from Hiten Shah (Kiss Metrics) motivating. He talks candidly about the # of failures he had before he finally found his success.

Hiten Shah's Soapbox

If you do not keep getting your desired results, try something new, but keep trying.

Cheers,

James

If were listing movies watch 'Touching the Void'... an amazing inspirational climbing movie.

Are you following your passions and promoting products you feel strongly about? Personally, I find that I can sell something a lot better when it is a subject or product I love and believe in. Also, try to come up with new ways to promote your products. Add a contest on your site (that can be a lot of fun).

Allow the naysayers to motivate you to go the extra mile and don't let them get to you. Think about the reasons why you're in IM in the first place and try to recapture that same zeal you had when you first began.

Keep going, don't stop now. You been here way to long to quit now, don't quit on yourself nor your family man. You have a reason to be living, you need to make the best of it.

There are times when the entire universe seem to be conniving against you and all your efforts, but do not let all this bring you down. Sometimes, these are all just a big 'test' for you, and like that funny cartoon, you'll never really know unless you give it a try. There are times when life is tough, but remember, these all shall come to pass.

just believe in your goal

try to seek what you forgot

and .. never stop .. never give it up

I’m working online since 2007. My field is not internet marketing. My business is always passing from ups and downs. There are better periods, and lower periods. I had to start offering a special service instead of focusing only on sales because I saw that the public preferred to have ready-made solutions that to work a little bit, and study my lessons.

Internet users don’t want to work, or even think. They want to click on a link and see all their problems being magically solved, the same way that everyone who wants to make money online is looking for a magical button that they can push, and make millions.

You have to get adapted to what the public wants, and beat all the competition you find online, which keeps getting worse because always more and more people are opening their own online business.

On the other hand, the best spots are already taken by the big companies, which have enough capital for unlimited promotions, and also have many business partners.

You have to focus on simplifying everything for the public, and on doing things that will help you be respected and trusted, among all your competitors.

Hey Brandon, once things start to really crank all those people will reverse what they have said about you wasting your time. Also bear in mind that people will relate to things according to their own perspective on life and the limitations they place upon themselves and project some of this onto you. That's their problem not yours. Keep going you will break-through. If the plan isn't working, change it. You can do that anytime you like and it can be a liberating experience.

I've been working online for years and I get it. Goodness... I've had my sister in law who has NEVER had a job and has two kids with no baby daddy's telling me to get a "real job"... It took all my might not to go off of her. I've worked fast food before and the most work she's done is have babies with guys with no money. Ugh..

Anyways... I agree with the others... people who aren't working for themselves don't get it.. they most likely never will. No matter how much you make... no matter how you try to prove it to them.. it's just pointless. Don't focus on them -- focus on yourself instead.

Here's my advice, have focus and have a plan of action. Don't spend money on things that won't make you money -- determine in advance if those things will even work before you invest in them. Know what you need to do to get to your goals and just do it. Keep moving forward.. and leave those rude people in the dust.

I've always done service based work and now I'm planning for baby number two -- this means passive income is a must. It's hard because I'm use to marketing daily, promoting daily and managing my team daily. I still have to keep moving forward even when it seems impossible. Faith and determination are my driving force.

Good luck.. we all know you and everyone who is struggling can do it! So keep moving forward and please come back and tell us your success story when you get there

Hey Brandon,

I have faced similar situation like yours. Most tougher time is the discourages from our love one especially, parents, wife, girlfriend & close friend.

What make me keep on moving is my faith. I believe in something I believed in. I don't bother too much other people said. Fail or success is my result. No one need to take the responsibility but me.

- Jackson.

Hi there,

Just don't feel discourage of what they say or don't entertain them. Because at the end of the day, you are still responsible for making money to earn a living. Just continue what you have done and try to do some more research about your business.

There might be some information and skills you don't know that other internet marketers have. So don't lose heart. It's good for you that you make some sales. Others don't. Count your blessings.

I checked out the book, it's a good one!

What I use to motivate myself:

A background of Liam Neeson in "The Grey" where he's sitting asking God for help and then waits for a brief moment and says...

"**** it, I'll do it myself."

If you're the believing faithy type, praying is nice and all, but the only thing that's going to get you anywhere is you.

Gotta start believing in where you can go, and what you can do, then do everything in your power to get there.

If that's not working, maybe you're asking the wrong questions/going in the wrong direction.

Gotta examine what you're doing, and see where you can improve.

The best feeling in the world is when you succeed online and tell the doubters including family and friends where to go. So make that your goal that you will succeed to show those people who laughed or doubted you. All the best!

That's nice and all - but there's running a business, and running a charity. At the end of the day, without sales you are "out of business".

I agree with this insight.. while you can't pick family, you can pick friends.. this is why I encourage people to start socializing with others who have embody what it is you desire.

Hang out with people who raise your game to a new level.

I've heard this quite a lot, and it's very often true: take your 10 closest friends.. average their income.. it will usually be nearly equal to your income. I see this same thing pan out all over the place - whether it's being overweight, etc.