How Do You Know When To Quit?

Welcome of the forum.

Quitting before you even start would be really sad

Giving up without even making a plan would also be really sad.

There are plenty of discussions on the forum about how to start... how to make a plan... how to deal with information overload. It's important to realize that you're not alone, not at all, in feeling overwhelmed and baffled.

Joining the forum is a perfect step in starting to calm the raging storm of too much stuff to think about.

You need to come up with some kind of criteria you'll use to evaluate all the claims about which form of marketing is the best.
You'll need to evaluate different opportunities and strategies, and pick what might work for you.
You'll need to focus your activity on one particular approach, step by step.

What's the best plan for you? It might be different than my plan, or the plan of any of the next 100 forum participants.

The ideal plan for you should be adapted to your own situation in life, and your own personality.

For example, there are some strategies for people who love to write, and others that are great for people who like to talk in person to groups.
Other strategies are great for people who like to be on the computer all day working on their business, and still other strategies for people who want to spend the minimum amount of time on their business.

So, how about taking a break for a few days from all the information about marketing, and talk a bit about your personality and goals? Then your fellow forum participants can help you choose a plan that works for you.

Regards,
Allen

How much time are you giving each of these projects to work? Unrealistic expectations could derail you quick.

You can make money with Adsense and Clickbank products.

While books are nice and they do provide tips the real knowledge comes from applying it and seeing what works or doesn't work for you. Then you modify it and keep pressing forward.

This is not an easy journey but it sure is fun.

Let me ask you a question, "If you take a road trip what is one of the first things you do?" You plan your trip..the routes you will take. You have to do the same with your business...develop a plan.

Not everything will work but you still have to work it.

I was having doubts too. Until last week, when I began making sales. You need to stick with it. Fine 1 product that you especially like, and stick with it. I used Bryan Zimmerman's ebook The Newbie Workbook. What I did was read the book, grab the things I felt were going to be the most useful, then begin implementing them. The good thing about the newbie workbook, is that it is a checklist that walks you through the process. (I am not affiliated with Bryan Zimmerman, I am just talking about his book, because it is the only product that has made me money.) You are not going to make easy money over night. It takes some hard work. I thought that once I got my site up, the cash was going to start pouring in. It didn't. I stuck to it, and after about a month, I started making money. So the best advice I can give you is to find a product (or just read around in this forum) and stick to it. Eventually, you will see yourself making some money.

Matt

On your own it's tough. You may start with something that works
right away and then you may not. Outside of using a coach/mentor
you are on your own and subject to the marketing messages. We've
all been there.

Close to 10 years in this business and I've seen Warriors who made
it big right away and others who struggle to the finish line. A couple
things strike me about those who have made it to guru status:

They ALL used other people's efforts, money or influence.

Other people's efforts: affiliate marketing, list building
Other people's influence: networking (seminars)
Other people's money: borrowed, begged, stole ...

I once bought a $250 software product that made me over $10,000
and I also bought a $3000 product that was suppose to the do the
same job as the $250 product, just better, and it bombed!

Sometimes you can't tell what will work or not until you work it.
In the mean time you are getting a valuable education.

-Ray Edwards

A good book on this topic is "The Dip" by Seth Godin.

Fabian

I know how to quit if I can resolve my own problem. And if I really know how to start with new things.

You know when to quit when you check your credit card or Paypal and realize you've paid a whole lotta money for peanuts....

Quit? whats that? some new type of soap? Seriously, PICK ONE THING AND FOCUS. If you decide to do CPA for one week, do it for one week. I decided to do just that. So I got accepted and only focused on that until I made consistent profit. Then add another stream. One thing at a time.

I also have the same problem. Hopefully, I can also use your advices. *fingers crossed*

Hi BigCashDetective,

Don't quit just yet!!! I know some days can be very overwhelming and you feel like you have so much information but you don't know what to do with it, so it will produce
results. There is a learning curve that all new IMers go through than can get tedious but you need to stay at it. Like anything else, if you want it bad enough, push through the tough days and stay focused on why you started this in the first place.

I can recommend www.chrisfarrell-online.com for beginners starting out. I have been using and learning from his FREE material for a few months now and it has made a huge difference for me in learning how this all goes together, what I need to be concentrating on right now, and so. Having someone help you through the process of putting all the right pieces in place to build on, is esential when starting out.

So hang in there...keep pressing forward. This forum is a great place to get connected and get ideas. It also can be a bit of overload. The key here is to focus in on what you need help with right now and LEARN IT then move forward. Really...Chris Farrell can help you...check him out. Hope the helps......

It's interesting that I've seen at least two threads in the last couple days about "hanging it up" and leaving Internet marketing.

I think the problem is that too many people are mistaking strategies for business. Strategies are the things you use to promote your business -- and that's where the real potential for profit (or lack thereof) lies.

Unless you are selling something people actually need or badly want -- and you've established that there is a market willing to pay for it -- even the most effective strategies out there will fizzle out in short order.

I'd suggest ignoring strategy and "how to make money" guides for now, and just focus on setting up a viable business -- finding a market, coming up with a product, and setting up a website that functions properly for you.

In other words, the only surefire way to make money is to sell people something they want, and that takes research on your part (keywords, competition, etc.) That's where your focus should be. Once you know that, then you can figure out how to market it.

Shawn probably hit the nail on the head with this one. i.e. "the real knowledge comes from applying it "

If you've spent $1500 on products that teach you how to do stuff, how much time have you spent just stone cold focussing on what you learnt and actually taking ACTION ?

It's a hard question to be honest with yourself about for some people.

I'm not by any means a 'guru' or even successful, but I would tell you that there's one thing you should quit, at least for now: spending money.

I've spent about $40 on two firesale items more because I wanted to donate than because I've wanted/needed something. I spend my time learning how to sell things, what sells, and such for free.

I learned SEO by writing articles for Associated Content. I learned about keywords and such there, too. I get a bit of cash, but better than that, I learn how to write something that people can find.

When I felt successful at that, I put what I learned into practice on a free blogger blog to see if I could sell stuff. Is it professional? No. Am I making a living? Not yet. But I'm making a bit of money and learning while you spend money and make nothing, and clearly aren't learning much either, or you'd have made some money.

I took what I learned from those two things and put up some (again, free) Squidoo pages to see if I could build a profitable mini-site. I figure, if I can make enough money to cover the cost of domain/hosting I can legitimize buying and building my own site.

Every month my income has grown, and trust me - I celebrate every 40 cents I make from a sale. I'm not making a living - but I'm making more than I made 12 months ago - I'm making more than I made 1 month ago.

And, with the stuff I've learned about how search engines work, how to find out what people look for, and what sort of problems people want to solve, I've finally come up with what I am fairly certain will be a profitable idea for a first legitimate, professional web site. I'm in research/planning stages now and when I've got that all settled and the site in place, I'm fairly certain it will be nicely profitable and might even attract the attention of people who pay lots of money for websites.

I'm not saying you should do what I've done - but you should definitely stop doing what you've done. It's not working. If you can't make a dime on a free site, you shouldn't spend a dime on a 'system' - because you'll fail.