2013-1995=18 yrs of life wasted on IM. Plz read and give me some advice.

164 replies
Hi, I taught myself computer programming at age 9 (I'm 26 now). I've made $1000 off the internet, and I've probably spent ten times that out of pocket.

I've been trying to get rich off the internet since I first knew it existed. So far, no luck. I've only lost money but I'm not one to give up easily.

I did the information overload and no action thing for a long time.

Than I started taking action but I had a terrible web hosting company (1and1) and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't build a website.

Than I hired a web designer who was shocked by how difficult it was to use 1and1 and told me I should go to HostGator so I did and WOW what a difference. I fired my web designer at that point because I could do everything he could do myself.

**I fully believe that if I had had a HostGator account 5 or 10 years ago I would be a millionaire today, bc I would have BUILT SITES THAT WORKED, AND BUILT THEM FAST, and GOTTEN THEM TO RANK ON GOOGLE.***

Now of course its a million times tougher to rank a website.

A almost couldn't even BUILD a site with 1and1 but if I had HostGator years ago I would've had no problem in that area... I would have been using WordPress instead of Front Page and wouldn't have been hand-coding and FTP-ing my sites page by page because more than one page uploaded at a time would "crash" the 1and1 website and it wouldn't upload right.

I would have made EMD sites TEN YEARS AGO, and made tons of money zipping people to affiliate links BUT...now it's so much tougher to rank a site.

Article marketing seems dead. EMD seems dead. And being a ClickBank Vendor and getting affiliates -- tried that once (in my dark ages when I managed to get a site to upload with 1and1 but it was 100 times more work to make it happen than it should've been bc 1and1 sucks and I eventually got burnt out).

That vendor site is no longer around and would've been a much more impressive site if I was using WordPress and CPanel, but you can view my old site at The Guide to a Safer Identity

I just launched a website development tutorial (basically it's for people that don't know anything about coding) it is websitemadebyyou.com this is the site I'm mostly interested in getting advice on but I just mentioned the other site to show that I'm a step ahead the 99 percent of people who don't ever take action of any kind. But I still have a problem. The almost-no-money-problem. I've taken PLENTY of action; yet I get NEGATIVE RESULTS. I loose money.

Despite what I know (and I know a lot but I have SO MUCH INFORMATION OVERLOAD IN MY MIND)...its way tougher to make money now that I actually can build a site because of how many people can build sites easily.

I'm not a "get rich quick online" mindset-ed person. 2013-1995=18 yrs. Obviously I've been at this for quite some time, yet to no avail. What's the point this long and no results?

Am I on track building my web development tutorial? I figure if I get a t-shirt that says "learn how to make your own website at www.WebsiteMadeByYou.com" and wear it all the time that the site will eventually take off, and since it PROVIDES VALUE, maybe people will follow the steps in the tutorial and generate me some HostGator commissions (and BringTheFresh commissions)?

I know if I hadn't missed the "EMD band-wagon" it'd be so much easier to get volumes of traffic and make money now that I'm using HostGator and finding it so easy to build websites, making websites is the easy part but getting traffic to them I've ALWAYS FAILED AT THAT.

2013-1995=18 years of my life wasted trying to get rich off the internet only to go broke instead :-(

I have $1000 life savings. Pretty depressing.

I feel like I should have quit trying to make money years ago and just worked a job even though I know having a job is a terrible way of making money.

Internet marketing is harder to succeed with but if you do make it you wind up a lot better off. What does it take to make it these days online?

Apparently -whatever that is: I don't seem to have what it takes to make it online.

Of course...most ppl when they quit...they quit when they were on the verge of success.

Am I complete failure? Should I just give up trying to make money online?

Sick of having no life and no money and "trying" to get rich from the internet.

This is a very serious post.

I'm aware of the information overload problem...that's my biggest problem, but how to be successful despite that? Anyone who's "been there and done that" if you can offer me some well-thought-out advice I would really appreciate it.

I feel like giving up, but I still don't want to, but I don't want to waste my life like Ebeneezer Scrooge, I don't want to be obsessed with getting rich and never actually get there or get there when I'm so old that life has passed me by and I'm senile and all that ####.

Thanks,
Matt Roberts - the ultimate internet marketing failure :-(
-At least I have the guts to admit it.
#advice #give #life #plz #read #wasted #yrs
  • Profile picture of the author DanielPedersen
    I will suggest you build one website, any niche can be good. You say you don't want a make money fast guide, i will give you a way to make money that in 2-4 years can make you a decent income online.

    Build a website around a niche, weight loss, financial, home design, etc.

    Make 1-2 articles a day and try to include a keyword with 100-200 searches a month. If you have time you can create 10 articles a day. But just try to build a website based around quality.

    You will succeed with this plan.

    Edit: People seems to misunderstand me, i do not say he can just write and write every day and make money just by doing that. He needs also needs to:
    • Make an email list and try to promote his own product or an affiliate product
    • He needs to focus on social marketing, engage his reader to follow him on twitter and be a fan on facebook

    I can see why you people are disliking my strategy, because if he focus on search engine traffic he will get it with this method, but he also need to make the most money out of his visitors.

    * And some of you give him the advice to learn how to sell, how will he able to do that if he has no traffic. Ofc he can buy it, but his last savings $1000 should IMO not be used on PPC, instead he can start out one year for just $150-200 and nothing more.

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    • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
      Originally Posted by DanielPedersen View Post

      I will suggest you build one website, any niche can be good. You say you don't want a make money fast guide, i will give you a way to make money that in 2-4 years can make you a decent income online.

      Build a website around a niche, weight loss, financial, home design, etc.

      Make 1-2 articles a day and try to include a keyword with 100-200 searches a month. If you have time you can create 10 articles a day. But just try to build a website based around quality.

      You will succeed with this plan.
      Daniel, I will try out your advice, but it won't be easy. I want to get rich but what I want more than that is simply to be able to live a decent life where I don't have to go to work for someone else for the rest of my life.

      I'd like to not have to worry about bills, food, rent, gas, etc. If I could make $50k a year from the internet I'd be very happy (but ecstatic if I got rich - though it's NOT a necessity).

      I've held jobs most of the time and done internet marketing in addition to the regular job but the tough thing for me when trying to apply a strategy like you've suggested is Writer's Block.

      I can write 50 pages in a single day...but I can't do it consistently.

      Writing 1 to 2 articles a day I could COMMIT to it, yet still not be able to do it. I could STARE at the computer after a few months of doing that and lock up and not be able to write anything.

      I started a self development blog way back when I was using 1and1 for hosting (that's why I hired a web designer because I couldn't get the blog to do what I needed it to do with a really crappy web hosting company) and I wrote 126 "Steve-Pavlina-Style" (LONG) articles in three months but than after that I got severe writer's block and just couldn't put words to paper even though writing is easy for me in general (it's NOT after doing it day after day for months as a "have to do it" kind of thing).

      I've gotten better at it but to be consistent for so long will be a huge challenge but I know it's worth it. Figuring out a way to conquer writer's block and being able to write consistently like that for that much time I can see that making money.

      If I write that long that consistently I'll be really good at writing and once people know my site exists they'll want that value that I could provide them.
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      • Profile picture of the author Brandon Tanner
        I'm all for perseverance and determination, but if you can't make something work after 18 YEARS, then maybe it's time to try something else. No offense, but running an online business isn't for everyone. And it's damn sure not for anyone whose business relies on SEO to succeed!

        My advice would be to get a regular job (at least for now) so that you can pay the bills, and then you can keep trying IM on the side IF you still want to.

        And if you're the independent type and would rather not have a boss, there are a lot of offline opportunities out there too, so don't think that you have to be "online" to work for yourself. There's plenty of offline businesses that you can start with very little money (ie lawn maintenance, auto detailing, painting houses, just to name a few).

        But if you're down to your last $1,000... you need income NOW. So do whatever you have to do to start generating some income ASAP. Take whatever job you can get for now. It might not be what you want to do, but at least you will be generating income. Then once you have some steady income in place, THEN you can start thinking about your long-term business/career goals.

        Good luck!
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    • Profile picture of the author TheSalesBooster
      Originally Posted by DanielPedersen View Post

      I will suggest you build one website, any niche can be good. You say you don't want a make money fast guide, i will give you a way to make money that in 2-4 years can make you a decent income online.

      Build a website around a niche, weight loss, financial, home design, etc.

      Make 1-2 articles a day and try to include a keyword with 100-200 searches a month. If you have time you can create 10 articles a day. But just try to build a website based around quality.

      You will succeed with this plan.

      Nothing against you Daniel, but I hate this kind of advice.

      He's been sitting around for 18 years and hasn't done squat. Now your telling him to sit around and write articles all day.

      Here's the honest truth about internet marketing. A lot of people here need to wake up, because this kind of work is NOT a real business.

      You're all competing against thousands of other people on the internet. Everyone is trying to get their slice of the pie. You wonder why so many people on this forum run in circles and never get anywhere?

      Because they don't put on their big boy pants and take this seriously.

      This isn't the early 2000s anymore. That kind of half ass'd approach to internet marketing isn't going to work anymore. If you really want to succeed you gotta go out there and take control of your future. Learn something that's going to be useful and that's going to benefit you in the future...

      Better advice would be to tell him to go pick up a damn marketing book and learn how to sell. Writing articles all day on a niche website isn't going to do a damn thing for him. That goes for all of you who sit there slaving away writing articles for your blog or website thinking your going to hit it big! Yea you and 100,000 other people who are doing the same thing...

      Learn something beneficial, think outside of the box and grow a damn pair. That's how you're going to succeed. Or you can follow Daniels advice and be back here making the same post a year from now.
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      • Profile picture of the author Intrepreneur
        Originally Posted by TheSalesBooster View Post

        Nothing against you Daniel, but I hate this kind of advice.

        He's been sitting around for 18 years and hasn't done squat. Now your telling him to sit around and write articles all day.

        Here's the honest truth about internet marketing. A lot of people here need to wake up, because this kind of work is NOT a real business.

        You're all competing against thousands of other people on the internet. Everyone is trying to get their slice of the pie. You wonder why so many people on this forum run in circles and never get anywhere?
        Very baseless argument. VERY.

        Tell Pete Cashmore this and he'll laugh at you.

        As will David Risely

        As will Darren Rowse

        As will MANY, many others.
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        • Profile picture of the author TheSalesBooster
          Originally Posted by Intrepreneur View Post

          Very baseless argument. VERY.

          Tell Pete Cashmore this and he'll laugh at you.

          As will David Risely

          As will Darren Rowse

          As will MANY, many others.

          Yea because every person who writes articles doing internet marketing is going to get as big as mashable...

          You have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than becoming the next mashable by writing articles for internet marketing.

          It's all about improving your chances for success. Are you going to write articles like 95% of the broke internet marketers out there. Or are you going to learn a skill set that's actually going to help improve your chances at success, like learning how to sell.
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          • Profile picture of the author Intrepreneur
            Originally Posted by TheSalesBooster View Post

            Yea because every person who writes articles doing internet marketing is going to get as big as mashable...

            You have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than becoming the next mashable by writing articles for internet marketing.

            It's all about improving your chances for success. Are you going to write articles like 95% of the broke internet marketers out there. Or are you going to learn a skill set that's actually going to help improve your chances at success, like learning how to sell.
            The three I mentioned didn't start out writing articles for "Internet marketing", they just followed a proven system.
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            • Profile picture of the author TheSalesBooster
              Originally Posted by Intrepreneur View Post

              The three I mentioned didn't start out writing articles for "Internet marketing", they just followed a proven system.
              and that would be?
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by Intrepreneur View Post

          Very baseless argument. VERY.
          Entirely, obviously.

          I was going to say something, earlier (and should have done), but decided that - the way the thread was going - WebsiteMadeByYou would have no difficulty identifying that "view" as the opinionated, ill-informed stuff it is, anyway. However, you're quite right to challenge it, actually - even if only for the benefit of other readers. Thanks.
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    • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
      Originally Posted by DanielPedersen View Post

      If you have time you can create 10 articles a day. But just try to build a website based around quality.

      You will succeed with this plan.
      With all due respect, Daniel, this is horrible advice.

      These two things contradict one another. If you are blasting out 10 articles a day, they really can't have a lot of quality to them, can they?

      Think of the content you publish on your website as a stick of Juicy Fruit gum.

      You put a stick into your mouth and you chew on it, savoring the flavor. The visitors to your site will also. Leave that stick in too long, chewing the same old gum will cause it to lose its flavor and you'll spit it out. The returning visitors will find your site just as flavorless as that gum and spit it out, not wanting to return.

      But when the flavor has been savored, you put in a fresh piece and begin to savor that sweet flavor again. So when you put a new piece on your site, visitors will savor the flavor too.

      What happens if you put a whole pack of that juicy fruit in your mouth all at once? The juice begins to seep out of your mouth and dribble down your chin because it is too much for your mouth to hold and you end up looking like a drooling idiot. Throw 10 articles a day on your site and you will look like a drooling idiot too. That's too much all at once.

      You need to add content strategically, equally metered out over a span of time. This way you keep the fresh flavor going without overwhelming and prevent the loss of flavor as your site sits too long and loses all of its flavor.


      Terra
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

    the ultimate internet marketing failure :-(
    Not "the ultimate", because you're in enormously good company: there are many thousands - perhaps tens of thousands - of people in your position, and worse.

    The thing that "calls out to me", reading your post above, is that you seem to equate "becoming successful" with "ranking well on Google". Which probably makes nothing much I can say of any interest/relevance/help to you at all, to be honest, because that's a perspective I've never shared or believed in at all.

    I do appreciate that at one time (before my time) it was perhaps a good thing to be able to do ... it certainly doesn't seem to be, now: "rankings" happen to be a minor side-benefit of the traffic-generation method I use, so I've built up many sites which actually rank very well for multiple assorted keywords of low-to-medium and medium competition, but that kind of traffic is still no good for me anyway, really, so I regard it as "kind of academic").

    Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

    Should I just give up trying to make money online?
    I don't know - sorry.

    I suspect the answer to that might depend on the extent to which you're willing to "forget most of what you thought you know" and acquire different skills and perspectives? And people vary hugely in their willingness and ability to try that. Personally, I suspect your best chance, if you really want to continue, is to close your ears and eyes firmly against any advice with the word "keyword" in it (because the kind of traffic it can produce, even with luck and skill and technique and on a good day and with a following wind, isn't much good anyway - and besides, you've tried all that, and it didn't work for you and I'm not surprised at all). But I might be wrong, too, of course.

    Meanwhile, does anything in this thread help you (if you need that kind of help)? http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...desperate.html
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    • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      Not "the ultimate", because you're in enormously good company: there are many thousands - perhaps tens of thousands - of people in your position, and worse.

      The thing that "calls out to me", reading your post above, is that you seem to equate "becoming successful" with "ranking well on Google". Which probably makes nothing much I can say of any interest/relevance/help to you at all, to be honest, because that's a perspective I've never shared or believed in at all.

      I do appreciate that at one time (before my time) it was perhaps a good thing to be able to do ... it certainly doesn't seem to be, now: "rankings" happen to be a minor side-benefit of the traffic-generation method I use, so I've built up many sites which actually rank very well for multiple assorted keywords of low-to-medium and medium competition, but that kind of traffic is still no good for me anyway, really, so I regard it as "kind of academic").



      I don't know - sorry.

      I suspect the answer to that might depend on the extent to which you're willing to "forget most of what you thought you know" and acquire different skills and perspectives? And people vary hugely in their willingness and ability to try that. Personally, I suspect your best chance, if you really want to continue, is to close your ears and eyes firmly against any advice with the word "keyword" in it (because the kind of traffic it can produce, even with luck and skill and technique and on a good day and with a following wind, isn't much good anyway - and besides, you've tried all that, and it didn't work for you and I'm not surprised at all). But I might be wrong, too, of course.

      Meanwhile, does anything in this thread help you (if you need that kind of help)? http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...desperate.html
      Alexa thanks for the long well-thought-out reply!

      You caught me: I do seem to equate success with ranking on Google, but I know there are other sources of traffic it's just that a lot of them cost money that I don't have to get momentum. I don't dare rely on "luck" trying to make things like Viral YouTube videos. Facebook marketing - friends don't like getting advertised to, etc.

      ***I'm 100 percent open to forgetting what I've learned so far because IT ISN'T WORKING.*** No one's ever said to me anything like "close your ears and eyes firmly against any advice with the word "keyword" in it" but I am in complete agreement with you. I've never had ANY success with keyword marketing whether it be through "article marketing" (articles on my sites or articles on article directories). I've never had any "keyword success" in getting a page one ranking for a "high traffic keyword."

      I hate the keyword concept and I hate SEO, I hate all that ####. I just don't know what the alternatives are for getting tons of people to my websites (and more importantly people that are INTERESTED in what my websites have on them...interested enough to buy or become repeat visitors).

      You mentioned you don't rely on Google for traffic and you get lots of traffic to more than one website. How do you do it?

      My ears and eyes are open to any new methods, but I am going to close them to "keyword advice."

      I wish I had blocked "keyword advice" out years ago. It's such a distraction from what I really SHOULD be focusing on.

      It's a distraction from where real success is.
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

        You mentioned you don't rely on Google for traffic and you get lots of traffic to more than one website. How do you do it?
        I do this: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post5721774 (it doesn't need any real/significant money, or even necessarily a long time, to build up a real, asset-based business that produces real and growing income ... but of course it does need skills, knowledge and a lot of hard work).
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    • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
      Alexa, also meant to say thanks for the link to the advice for when you are desperate. I have skimmed through it and found some good nuggets of wisdom.

      Getting *rich* isn't the most important thing, it's being able to enjoy life, getting rich would provide the means by which to live a way better life but simply having a wage-or-two equivalent from not having a "job job" is what is most important. That'd be enough to live very well, and over time possibly (though not necessarily) get rich.

      There's no particular reason that the non "job" income has to come from "internet marketing", making money with the more "cash flow generating" methods people posted from that link you gave me is a lot better than having no money at all by wrongly-believing that shooting for the stars and missing and hitting the moon is better for shooting for the ditch and making it...because in REALITY shooting for the stars is so unrealistic it often LEADS to the ditch instead of the moon, and shooting for the road (basically living comfortably) isn't as likely to cause burnout, or financial ruin and may even lead to the moon when unexpected.

      ^^^Hope that makes sense?
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      • Profile picture of the author TheSalesBooster
        Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post


        There's no particular reason that the non "job" income has to come from "internet marketing", making money with the more "cash flow generating" methods people posted from that link you gave me is a lot better than having no money at all by wrongly-believing that shooting for the stars and missing and hitting the moon is better for shooting for the ditch and making it...because in REALITY shooting for the stars is so unrealistic it often LEADS to the ditch instead of the moon, and shooting for the road (basically living comfortably) isn't as likely to cause burnout, or financial ruin and may even lead to the moon when unexpected.

        ^^^Hope that makes sense?
        I understand what your trying to say... but you've been trying for 18 YEARS to make money on the internet. And with that kind of mentality I can see why you haven't made any yet.

        It sounds like you're afraid to fail again. What you should of done in those 18 years is look back at why you didn't succeed and learn from it, but instead it seems to me like you basically closed yourself up and now your just full of self doubt.

        In this business you have to adapt or you fail. You aren't adapting. You're just stuck in limbo, throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping a noodle sticks. Maybe this internet stuff isn't for you. Maybe you should focus your efforts on offline efforts doing something you actually WANT to do.
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  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    Success should never be measured by Google rankings.

    Even if you get the Google rankings, you will continue to fail, UNLESS you have a website that is capable of generating sales and a profit for you.

    What successful people know is that success is measured in profits, and once you have a system that will generate profits, you can get your traffic from literally anywhere.
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    Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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    • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
      Originally Posted by tpw View Post

      Success should never be measured by Google rankings.

      Even if you get the Google rankings, you will continue to fail, UNLESS you have a website that is capable of generating sales and a profit for you.

      What successful people know is that success is measured in profits, and once you have a system that will generate profits, you can get your traffic from literally anywhere.
      You're right: Quality over quantity. The only sites I ever stick around on are the quality ones, yet I've been producing VOLUME instead of quality; not producing anything anyone would want to stick around for.

      I don't care at all where my traffic comes from - I just need it, but since I don't have much value to offer people now I probably couldn't even convert it to profit anyway.

      Making something of value and THAN getting traffic makes more sense than going for traffic before providing value. Value, not volume (which has been a great source of time-wasting for me in the past: I made huge volumes of effort, did everything-and-anything out there to make money...article marketing, Adsense, affiliate programs, but I never actually BUILT VALUE, I just built "link-connections to potential money", and no one ever clicked on my links because no one ever saw value on my various sites/articles/etc.)
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

        I don't care at all where my traffic comes from
        You might want to re-think this, to some extent, too: I care very much where mine comes from. I have a mortgage and bills to pay every month, and search engine traffic just isn't adequate for me.
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        • Profile picture of the author Nigel Tan
          Than I started taking action but I had a terrible web hosting company (1and1) and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't build a website.
          **I fully believe that if I had had a HostGator account 5 or 10 years ago I would be a millionaire today, bc I would have BUILT SITES THAT WORKED, AND BUILT THEM FAST, and GOTTEN THEM TO RANK ON GOOGLE.***
          The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it. – Jordan Belfort

          The problem is with your mindset. Not with your ex-designer or 1and1 or anybody that came in your way.

          Anyway I wouldn't get into building a site and start getting all into SEO if I were you. It will only get you more frustrated. There are TOO MANY methods to making $$$ online but don't get all excited and jump around from one method to another. It won't get you far. This industry rewards the specialists, not the jacks of all trades. (can't remember who said that but yea it's damn true)

          If you hate SEO with a passion (like I do), get a job and start setting aside some cash to LOSE with paid traffic. Pick 1 traffic source / 1 niche and FOCUS on that for at least 3 months. (eg. I'm gonna lose $2k on facebook promoting 1 dating offer before I call it quit). At the end of the 3rd month, you will learn lots about the traffic source and the offer AND it's hard to not make anything out of the EXPERIENCE you gained.

          I'm gonna end my reply here and let you figure out the rest. If you're thinking "shit, I don't know what to do to start running campaigns on facebook" and not do anything.....then you better off being an employee.

          Don't give up man. give yourself one year and some cash to give IM another shot. Give 100% of your effort on one method (be it emailing, SEO or paid traffic). You will be amazed at the results. #I was in your state many many months ago, but I'm doing so MUCH better just by being FOCUSED. Gd luck.
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          • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
            Originally Posted by Nigel Tan View Post

            The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can't achieve it. - Jordan Belfort

            The problem is with your mindset. Not with your ex-designer or 1and1 or anybody that came in your way.
            This, a thousand times over. You're never going to make a dime until you get your head around the fact 1&1 did not prevent you from making money. "Missing" the EMD bandwagon is a crock. Five years from now you could look back at something happening today and say you missed it.

            You've made $1000 in 18 years?

            Maybe if you tried to provide real value, instead of thinking about EMD's or promoting garbage ClickBank identity theft products you would have an asset making money.

            On your website you're promoting a ClickBank product about how to make millions online, including $169,388.67 in 8 weeks.

            My advice is to see a shrink, check out the Mind Warriors subforum, read some books by Anthony Robbins and others. There is an old interview, Money and Power, by Allen Says who built this forum, you may want to check out.

            You also need a swift kick in the butt and to QUIT MAKING EXCUSES. There have been a thousands sob-story posts in the forum over the years. Claiming you couldn't make a website that gets traffic because you were using 1&1 instead of HostGator ranks among the lamest.

            Do you realize there are forum members who are blind? Forum members in dirt poor countries with no electricity except from at the cafe where they log into the net? Forum members who can barely read English?

            If they can succeed you can too.

            .
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            • Profile picture of the author DanielPedersen
              Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post


              Maybe if you tried to provide real value, instead of thinking about EMD's or promoting garbage ClickBank identity theft products you would have an asset making money.

              .
              Excatly what i was trying to say, maybe because I am from denmark i sometimes have a hard time to write my point i easily gets misunderstood. I need to spend 3 hours to make the same quality, as i could do i danish in just 30 minutes.
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    • Profile picture of the author androifield
      Originally Posted by tpw View Post

      Success should never be measured by Google rankings.

      Even if you get the Google rankings, you will continue to fail, UNLESS you have a website that is capable of generating sales and a profit for you.

      What successful people know is that success is measured in profits, and once you have a system that will generate profits, you can get your traffic from literally anywhere.
      I agree! I forgot the name of this marketer. He said the formula to making money online is:

      "traffic + conversion = money"

      A lot of people focus all their energy on generating traffic for low-quality sites or products. I think we must always create (or find, if you're an affiliate marketer) quality products before we look for the traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
    I think that you really need to decide exactly what you want to accomplish and how to set about accomplishing it. I say that because you seem conflicted.

    I'm not a "get rich quick online" mindset-ed person.
    And

    I've been trying to get rich off the internet since I first knew it existed. So far, no luck. I've only lost money but I'm not one to give up easily.
    Sick of having no life and no money and "trying" to get rich from the internet.
    I don't want to waste my life like Ebeneezer Scrooge, I don't want to be obsessed with getting rich
    It's a good thing that you are tired of trying to get rich because with that having been your main focus, you were doomed for failure. If instead you focused on helping others with a problem, seeing a need and fulfilling it, giving the people value and what they want/need over what you yourself want, will lead you down the right path.

    You obviously have a lot of experience so just change your mindset from "me" being top priority, "me" benefiting, to "clientele" benefiting from what you can offer, and you'll be taking the first steps down the path of success.

    Terra
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  • Profile picture of the author John Atkins
    If you're good at programming then you can make plenty of money as a freelancer.
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  • Profile picture of the author Victor Edson
    You said yourself that generating traffic has been where you failed.

    Start there.

    If that's what failed... fix it.

    The greatest part about working online is you can take a step back and see what part has failed, and for you.. it seems that traffic has been at least one of those reasons.

    I'd also like to add.. the 'build a website' niche is a tough one. Everything you need is so available for free, there are even people who will set up a site for you for free, just to get the $50 hostgator commission.

    I bet you've accumulated some skills that are in demand though.

    You say you can create websites, your writing isn't too awful(I'm sure it could be more positive, lol), and there's bound to be more that you've learned along the way that you could sell as a service.

    Services are hot.

    You won't get rich over night, but you can definitely build yourself a long term business.
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  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    It sounds to me as the typical "shouda, coulda, wouda" lament...

    I don't know how it was in 1995 because at that time I used to work with a humanitarian mission in war zones and just heard about the "internet thing". (My satellite phone had the size of a carry-on suitcase...) But soon after I went online at the turn of the century/millenium I've heard about that bad host quite a lot.
    When something doesn't work - we try new ways.

    You could have used WordPress only since 2003 - they just recently celebrated their 10th anniversary. I discovered it in 2004 and used it ever since...

    Actually, for long time I didn't know almost anything about those things that you find on an "internet marketing" crappy site
    I was just helping people (for free) with their WP related issues and they started to offer me paid jobs. And the happy customers were telling about it everyone and sending more customers.

    Interestingly, before that I've never thought about "making money online". It just happened. I worked a lot, made websites and themes and in the meantime started to look around: what other ways are out there to make money sitting in the front of the computer. Then I made my first product: a collection of my free tutorials related to WP. Gave it away for free and started to build my first list.

    Later I started to make small report/ebooks adressing specific aspects of working with WP. People were buying them... because they trusted my expertize. Then I made bigger products (and services).

    No, I am not a millionaire. Maybe one day...

    P.S. I took a look at that site of yours teaching website making. Sorry to say but doesn't inspire trust: despite its title/domain name it doesn't talk about ME... but it throws in my face a huge affiliate banner that makes money for YOU. Furthermore, what is your USP? Why should someone read your 'lessons' when there are thousands and thousands of similar sites/blogs teaching the same thing. What is the skill, knowledge, experience in your case that stands out and differentiate you from the rest?

    (And whoever is using 4 different fonts in one post while publishing through a CMS - should not "teach" people about website-making! Sorry.)
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  • Profile picture of the author Intrepreneur
    Instead of building sites... Learn why websites become succesful.

    80% of VC investments don't return anything.

    You've got to find which do.

    YOUR BIGGEST SOURCE of inspiration? - Interviews of the successful website owners.

    Good luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author pdrs
    what sort of programming do you do? As someone above mentioned there is a ton of work for decent coders and while it might not pay the greatest at first if you build a rep you can make some really good money and look at hiring a few people to come on board and help you out etc...

    Teaching people how to build websites... not saying you don't provide value, but there is literally a thousand places anyone can go to learn this, not to mention wix, weebly, wordpress, tumblr, etc... etc... It's not something I would spend any serious amount of time on but then again if you're incredibly passionate about it, maybe you'll make some traction.
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    RemoteControlHelicopterReviews.(com/net) - Up for sale! No reasonable offer refused. Great branding for a super hot niche!
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    • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
      Originally Posted by pdrs View Post

      what sort of programming do you do? As someone above mentioned there is a ton of work for decent coders and while it might not pay the greatest at first if you build a rep you can make some really good money and look at hiring a few people to come on board and help you out etc...

      Teaching people how to build websites... not saying you don't provide value, but there is literally a thousand places anyone can go to learn this, not to mention wix, weebly, wordpress, tumblr, etc... etc... It's not something I would spend any serious amount of time on but then again if you're incredibly passionate about it, maybe you'll make some traction.
      What sort of programming do I do?...I DID Visual Basic, but I was completely self taught (at 9 years old). No one taught me coding standards I was "winging it" and thus it took me a lot of trial and error to make things happen. Technology advanced faster and now Visual Basic is out of date. If I took classes than I would be able to keep up but being self taught and having had to have jobs and pay bills my internet marketing efforts and programming and stuff is done as EXTRA HOURS and I've just never had the time/money combo for lessons.

      I can't teach myself C - I've tried, not smart enough to teach myself that (but I am smart enough to learn it if I took lessons).

      I can code HTML and I can figure out how to make things happen with PHP code in WordPress themes and plugins (but I'm not able to code a whole theme or plugin I'm just able to reverse engineer what's going on and how to make things happen when needed).

      As far as teaching people how to build websites goes, that is not meant as a teach-internet-people-how-to-do-it kind of plan but more like a "have the website online, and tell people I meet in real life about the site so they will check it out and follow the tutorial...and I'll get the hosting commissions - plan."

      I've been unsuccessful with internet marketing but figured why not have an online site that I can market OFFLINE? If it makes some money great, if it makes more, even better. And a website making tutorial with screenshots step by step - sure they are all over the web, but most people don't like the effort to find the information, if you have a good tutorial (not saying mine is but I hope it is) and tell people (who ARE website-illiterate and not likely to know about the tons-of-places you mentioned nor how to find them) who you know need websites that your site can teach them how to make their own site, naturally they'd be inclined to check it out, and if they tell their friends and their friends tell their friends it equals an expansive money source (and value get's delivered).
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      • Profile picture of the author seasoned
        Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

        What sort of programming do I do?...I DID Visual Basic, but I was completely self taught (at 9 years old). No one taught me coding standards I was "winging it" and thus it took me a lot of trial and error to make things happen. Technology advanced faster and now Visual Basic is out of date. If I took classes than I would be able to keep up but being self taught and having had to have jobs and pay bills my internet marketing efforts and programming and stuff is done as EXTRA HOURS and I've just never had the time/money combo for lessons.
        A lot of computer classes, from what I can see, and earlier, are NOT as good as you think.

        I can't teach myself C - I've tried, not smart enough to teach myself that (but I am smart enough to learn it if I took lessons).
        Tell you what! With regard to C? Why don't you try what is considered *****THE***** book! Small, and considered THE bible: The C Programming Language: Brian W. Kernighan,...The C Programming Language: Brian W. Kernighan,...
        If you THEN can't succeed, you might as well give up on C. 4.7 stars. 301(5) out of 375. 15(<3) out of 375!

        I can code HTML and I can figure out how to make things happen with PHP code in WordPress themes and plugins (but I'm not able to code a whole theme or plugin I'm just able to reverse engineer what's going on and how to make things happen when needed).
        Well, that is a good way to start.

        Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author KenThompson
    Hey Matt,

    Wow, what a post. We share some similarities but are a universe apart in many ways.

    I cannot state in stronger terms that you really should start with what's in your head. Life and business are inextricably linked and influence each other. Let me speak directly and with compassion that probably will not be apparent in my words.

    Banish all that is negative in your mind. Refuse to entertain it, don't speak it, and do not write it. Do not give it any energy, whatsoever.

    Forget about all the seemingly negative experiences: the lack of success and all the things you wrote about. You must do this if you want your future to be different.

    Focus on what you want. Focus on that which is positive. And you can make use of the past by changing your perspective on it. You were very lucky to have had such a hard time. Did you know that? You can choose how you want to use your experiences. Many people fail to realize that.

    It is your choice and your responsibility to yourself. Do not ever feel sorry for yourself in any way, shape, or form. You must stop that.

    Enough of that...

    You're a programmer, fine. Determine your strengths, knowledge, expertise, etc. There is a lot you can do with your programming expertise.

    Some people have made a lot of money by creating and selling apps. Did you know that? You can do this for others and make good money. You can do this for yourself and make money.

    You can be a freelance programmer.

    You can make cool plugins and sell them.

    I do not recommend trying to make money by teaching others how to program. I say that for many reasons.

    It does not matter where you are right at this moment. It doesn't matter if you only have 1000 life savings. (Avoid or be extremely careful when it comes to buying WSOs. Trust me on that.)

    Your entire life is influenced by your perspective. Your actions follow your perspective on everything.

    There is nothing wrong with you. The sooner you start believing that, the sooner you will get the hell out of your way.

    Ken
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    It is NOT about skills.

    It is about SELLING.

    Have you identified a niche to serve? Are you marketing to them? Do you have a great offer?

    I made money with a lousy webcam to shoot my vids, no editing skills and so basic html & wordpress programming skills that I used to deliver my content in one long page instead of a nice format. Just about nobody cared. They loved the content.

    I was marketing to and serving a niche. My lack of technical skills did not matter to them. Think about this in relation to your own situation.
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  • Profile picture of the author george b
    Jeez, that was a 100 miles an hour post!

    It seems to me like you are just going through what you think are the "right" steps.

    Your not enjoying it and you don't seem overly passionate about it, it seems.

    Settle down on one project and work your ass of everyday on that one thing until you start to see a return!

    Imagine if you had started a blog 18 years ago and posted one useful post every 2-3 days. Im pretty sure as long as that site was relevant and useful you would be rolling in the doe!

    Stick like shit to one project and dont give up!

    George b
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

    What does it take to make it these days online?
    You need persistence, an email list, a good product, a good squeeze page, some good content... and a marketing plan and traffic plan for converting your prospects into customers. The more opt-in leads you get, the higher your chances are at getting sales online. You should probably and test small niches with PPC... other than that, do lots of free marketing, and take your time online. I know it's been stressful for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author TeamBringIt
    Get a mentor, plain and simple. You need someone, to guide you and show you the ropes! 18 years, is a long a.. time! Don't waste another 18 years, get a mentor..as soon as you can and bust your a.. and make it happen.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brian Tayler
    1995. Wow. The days of Mosaic web browser.. IRC chat rooms... And AOL "before" it had Internet (only had internal "channels" and chat rooms"). Prodigy. CompuServ. Sure brings me back...

    Only advice I can offer as someone who WAS around in 1995 is... Don't get stuck in the past. Things are MUCH different than they were back then.. Hell much different than 2-3 years ago. Remember Reese's Traffic Secrets course? It was gold at the time. Use those tools today... And you'll find they'll hurt more than help.

    Don't get wrapped up in something that worked before. Stay focused on new tools and what is working now... *BUT* with a healthy balance. Don't get into information overload like you did before. Research ONE THING that is working for others and you are passionate about... Become an expert in THAT area and stick to it and NOTHING else for at least 3-6 months.

    1995 was SUCH a different environment. Marketing principles and core ideas stay the same... But minus that you have to stay above the curve. As a programmer you would understand that. I was a CGI boy (perl) if I didn't learn PHP I'd be screwed. How many successful cobalt programmers you know now Adays. Flash programmers? C (procedural) that didn't learn C++ or C# (object oriented). You get my point I hope. The tool and method matters... But not if outdated.
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  • Profile picture of the author DanielPedersen
    Yearh i see alot of you people not do not like my advice, but with all respect, what most people are failing at is focus. This is not a get rich quick method, and why would he become the next Darren Rowse or someone. I have Severel websites that makes anywhere from $500-$3000 per month just with this strategy.

    I could have written a big ass guide on everything, but this was just a starting advice. He also needs to focus on building up a Email list, focus on social marketing.

    But really most people just need to stick to one thing. And build up a solid website.

    I know there are alot of competion to get people to visit you from seach engines, but with 2000 articles targeting long tail keywords you will have a good chance to get somewhere. It depends on how you are able to write your article.

    Nothing comes over night.

    @MissTerraK

    I know it is hard if not impossible to crack out 10 high quality articles a day by yourself, but most people will be able to manage around 4-5, Also a quality article dont need to be more than 200 words sometimes, if he has a website based around evergreen content and some reviews, guides and news he can manage to make 4-5 quality articles a day.

    He can also outsource the articles when he has time. As he said he is not into the "get rich quick". I think he wants to make $4000-6000 a month in 4-6 years. And if he follows this plan he can do it.

    With 3 article a day on average he will have 5000-7000 articles after that time and he will have a great chance to succeed.

    Just my point of view. Other methods will also work, there is not only one strategy.
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    • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
      Originally Posted by DanielPedersen View Post


      @MissTerraK

      Also a quality article dont need to be more than 200 words sometimes, if he has a website based around evergreen content and some reviews, guides and news he can manage to make 4-5 quality articles a day.
      Hmmm,

      I can see where we differ in our views even more, here.

      I wouldn't consider 200 words a blog post, let alone an article. Perhaps a snippet...

      Think about this. 5 x 200 words = 1,000 words. Why on earth would you write just 200 words 5 times on your site? Why not take your time and compose a quality intriguing piece that covers all the information with a smooth flow from one point to the next.

      Personally for me, reading 5 200 word pieces would be a very choppy read. I don't think I could cover any one point or idea in just 200 words. I'm afraid if I came across a website built that way, I'd leave and not come back, as I'd hardly have time to become compelled or interested in just 200 words.

      Other than what I've said above, I'm speechless.

      Terra
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      • Profile picture of the author DanielPedersen
        Originally Posted by MissTerraK View Post

        Hmmm,

        I can see where we differ in our views even more, here.

        I wouldn't consider 200 words a blog post, let alone an article. Perhaps a snippet...

        Think about this. 5 x 200 words = 1,000 words. Why on earth would you write just 200 words 5 times on your site? Why not take your time and compose a quality intriguing piece that covers all the information with a smooth flow from one point to the next.

        Personally for me, reading 5 200 word pieces would be a very choppy read. I don't think I could cover any one point or idea in just 200 words. I'm afraid if I came across a website built that way, I'd leave and not come back, as I'd hardly have time to become compelled or interested in just 200 words.

        Other than what I've said above, I'm speechless.

        Terra
        If think you missunderstood me, not all articles need to be 1000 words long, or 500. Some times 200 words with a picture or two is all you need. I totally agree with you that filling a website with 200 words article is not a good idea.

        And what i mean with quality is simply just that people reading it will get something out of it, so if a person on another blog writes a 5000 word guide, it is okay for you to have a 200 words blogpost that links to his article. Because that way you will still give value to your reader.

        He can also make a series called tips of the day, sometimes a small tip to increase CTR on a website can be explained in just 100 words and 1 picture and still be quality, because the info it gives.

        I hope you see my point. Not all articles needs to be 1000 words to deliver some value.
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  • Profile picture of the author daddykool
    Matt, wait until you have been doing it 25+ years :-)

    Ok, here you go..

    1) Join AMAZON affiates program [free]

    2) Register an exact match domain name for ONE single product that is in the up & coming or best seller lists on AMAZON, if you cannot get the EXACT domain, get something like: YourProductReview / YourProductTips etc etc [$8]

    3) Put a SIMPLE graphic of the item you are promoting with lots of on niche keywords in a HAND written write up or article and a link to your AMAZON affiliate product, on the DN in step #2 [free hosting]

    4) Promote your page in forums, on youtube, on twitter, any where you can and at all times.. in hand outs etc etc [all done by you in your time.. so free]

    5) When you get a sale of the item in step #2, re-invest the money and rise/repeat the above!

    Might only be $5 a day to start after a month of step 4, but multiple that by X100 and you will not be an "internet marketing loser" for much longer! :-)

    *****

    Oh and as Brian has said [the only warrior who has ever used all his contact icons!] think of the past as the future... if you get stuck you go forwards not back!
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    LAUNCHING VERY SOON > PRE-REGISTER NOW FOR A WSO THAT EVERY WARRIOR NEW & OLD CAN MAKE $$$ FROM! LIMITED PRE-LAUNCH SPACES - PM or email: JVSuperstars@gmx.com TO RESERVE A PLACE & LOCK IN A SUPER LOW LIFETIME PRICE! *** NEVER TO BE REPEATED PRICE ONLY AVAILABLE ON THE WARRIOR FORUM & OUR VERIFIED JV AFFILIATE PROVIDERS! ***
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    • Profile picture of the author Brian Tayler
      Originally Posted by daddykool View Post

      *****

      Oh and as Brian has said [the only warrior who has ever used all his contact icons!] think of the past as the future... if you get stuck you go forwards not back!
      Not sure how to take that lol.

      Hey maybe I should write a WSO and show how you too can use all the social icons! I even was one of the first to use the blog function and wrote one of the first war room member posts. Essentially this all proves... I'm very good at wasting time.
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  • Profile picture of the author Texo
    Well for one there's no way you've been at this for 18 years if you're only 26. I'm 25 and can barely remember 1995 and if you were selling products on the Internet at age 8 in 1995, something went wrong with your childhood.

    You shouldn't give up though. I've seen a common theme among successful people: they never started out for money, they started out to build a product/offer a service/create something useful/etc. Perhaps finding an unsolved problem in a small niche and offering services or products based around that could work?
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    • Profile picture of the author Brandon Tanner
      Originally Posted by Texo View Post

      Well for one there's no way you've been at this for 18 years if you're only 26. I'm 25 and can barely remember 1995 and if you were selling products on the Internet at aged 10 in 1995, something went wrong with your childhood.
      I didn't even catch that, but unless that was a typo on his part, that would actually put him at 8 years old when he claimed to have started marketing online. If he really did start that young, then yeah, something was definitely wrong with his childhood. No one should have to work until they're at least 9.
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      • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
        Originally Posted by Brandon Tanner View Post

        I didn't even catch that, but unless that was a typo on his part, that would actually put him at 8 years old when he claimed to have started marketing online. If he really did start that young, then yeah, something was definitely wrong with his childhood. No one should have to work until they're at least 9.
        Not a typo.

        I didn't start making money until 7th grade but I DID start ATTEMPTING to make money online 18 years ago.

        My Dad is the best Dad I could ever ask for but he worked 80 hours managing super computers at the corporate office of a major grocery store chain and came home to do more work on the computer. He wanted to spend time with me but barely had the chance to, even when he was home we didn't really spend time together, and I was an only child.

        Kind of a Cats in the Cradle situation.

        I don't blame him at all, he was supporting our family.

        My dad told me I should enjoy being a kid when I had the chance but I didn't listen. Now it's too late. I've turned out just like him, only he had a job that paid well, he didn't have the entrepreneurial side that I have (got that from my Mom's side of the family).

        He was stubborn and so I am, though I am really working on it because I know it's a major self-defeating weakness. My dad working 80 hours a week actually got him some where. Me working all the hours I've worked on the internet plus a job in one of the most employee-un-friendly-and-actually-dangerous-industries hasn't cashed in yet.

        I might have been better of just working and saving up and starting a brick and mortar business eventually.

        I didn't really have anyone to socialize with nor the social skills to do so, thus: I pushed myself to make something of myself.

        I suppose since money was so important to my dad I got that in my head at a young age and kind of wound up like him chasing the dollar yet since I started when I was way too young I missed my childhood, and my teenage years. And I skipped over many developmental experiences by trying to be an adult BEFORE being a kid. Those experiences would've no doubt been very helpful to me.

        I have the ambition to succeed and have always been extremely driven, but being driven without being focused = not successful.

        It takes ambition + focus to get success.

        I read the dictionary cover to cover in 1st grade. For no apparent reason.

        Some people are just different. I'm one of them.

        Smart, but not smart enough to apply my smarts. I literally had an IQ test at one point and at that time I was a genius, but some of the smartest people in the world also happen to struggle the most.

        Smarts aren't always a blessing, sometimes they can be a curse.

        I spent 18 hours a day for several years "trying to get rich" but never succeeded. Since I was young of course I didn't have money to invest, nor did I have a credit card to make online purchases. I didn't have resources as an adult that I have now that whole 18 years.

        18 years as an adult I would've made more progress, but I've only been an adult for 8 years and those 8 years are tough enough as it is transitioning into adulthood and paying bills and stuff let alone juggling internet marketing.

        As a kid I wanted to be like my Dad, now I have my own personality and computers aren't a part of it, but I've been chasing the dollar so long and learned so much I know that autopilot-residual-income makes so much more sense than working 40 to 80 hours a week for the rest of my life like most people do. Brick and mortar businesses take money to start up, and I don't HAVE the money to start and succeed with a brick and mortar business (residual autopilot income AFTER the business is well established and a management structure is set up).

        Internet marketing is the only potential way of making that residual income that I know of without HAVING MONEY TO INVEST TO BEGIN WITH.

        My parents are 50 or 60 ish now...still working. A lot. And so are most people that age.

        I don't want to be working when I'm that old.

        I may have failed for 18 years and definitely do regret trying to be an adult when I was a kid but if I am successful in the next couple of years than I will be able to RETIRE AT 30, that sure beats retiring at 50 or 60.

        So as much as I've failed I'm actually ahead of some people since I've learned so much and been willing to fail for so long that I've got to be close.

        Plus since I've realized I need the outside opinions...which I've never requested before, maybe this is a turning point.
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        • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
          Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

          Not a typo.
          I have the ambition to succeed and have always been extremely driven, but being driven without being focused = not successful.

          It takes ambition + focus to get success.

          I read the dictionary cover to cover in 1st grade. For no apparent reason.

          Some people are just different. I'm one of them.

          Internet marketing is the only potential way of making that residual income that I know of without HAVING MONEY TO INVEST TO BEGIN WITH.

          My parents are 50 or 60 ish now...still working. A lot. And so are most people that age.

          I don't want to be working when I'm that old.
          If you're actively reading around here on the forum, you'll likely come across that phrase "it's about the mindset" many times. I would say there is something like an "attitude" which can make one a good marketer while others don't have it.

          Don't get me wrong, when I started I also made many mistakes where it subsequently took (many) years to actually realize them as mistakes or that my mindset, back in those times, was entirely wrong and guaranteed to end up not having success in "making money".

          I see you have good things speaking for you, this is motivation and dedication and then sticking to something. This is *very* good if the motivation is a genuine one and not only a motivation "to make money", but the motivation to make something where you have an idea/vision and you don't want to stop until you have success with it, REGARDLES of the 'obstacles' you might find on your way.

          Like you I started out as a software developer where I associated "making money online" first with coding and making sites. I think this is a logical step most have been at some point: Internet <--> websites, you get the idea.

          But as I said earlier in a post there is a danger that you "over-focus" on this element where you might end up working "furiously" and entirely sunken in your work...but overlooked one other, major factor in IM that is that *anything* you do must be done with an eye how the work you put in will yield you a return, aka "Work put in vs. money made." I can tell you that coding/software developing is a trap (see my other post) with some very few exceptions. Of course knowing HTML and PHP etc. is all nice and good and it helps big time. But no "serious" marketer today would waste their time anymore on this. Do you think that the "gurus" who release some software today or a new product with a complex membership site etc. did all "the work" by themselves? Maybe a few did, but must did not.

          It's called internet marketing for a reason. The reason is that the marketing aspect of it is the essential part of it. You are the one marketing a product, not the one writing the 300 pages ebook or coding the membership site. Why? Because it's your time not wisely used if others can do this for you, as simple as that. "Wisely" would be if your focus is on finding clients and marketing your idea/service to them. If you, say, find 20 clients today which would seriously be interested in getting a new site done, you should do that instead. You make them a good price, a price which doesn't need to reflect your work BUT what you pay others to get the work done. Heck you could even get some clients to pay you in advance. You could make JVs and partnership with others where you talk with them about this and then share resources, work etc. You MARKET your service with whatever means you can there where the demand is.

          But you do NOT sit down and by yourself do the coding, spend a few weeks and then deliver one website to a lucky client and then do the same thing over. If you do that...who is finding the clients? Who is advertising your business? The critical "money making" part there is missing because you could as well put an ad up somewhere offering your service as a coder/designer and on occasion deliver a site if you get a client who came across your ad/service. But this is NOT a solid business business model, it's more like asking around randomly in the neighborhood whether you can walk some granny's dog for $5 and then somehow try to live from this. Do you see what I am saying? It's all about smartly and effectively making use of your time, money and resources.

          Take the $100 from your savings or find some other way to get $100 and get yourself someone reliable and 'cheap' who can do the design work. (This is ALSO what your job as a marketer should be, to know where to look for such people, to build connections and so forth) and then market/sell THIS, not your own work. Start low, find a client and sell such a site for $300, $200 in your pocket. Rinse & repeat. Client wants this or that? Your job is to talk to the client, write down what they require. Communicate, establish connections with clients.

          Now you have a little more money already and you have the client's list of what they need. SOMEONE out there will be very happy to do this for peanuts - but this is not you. Again..rinse & repeat. You build your portfolio, get more clients, word of mouth marketing might also happen,, etc...etc... At some point you have a few people designing and delivering sites for you 24/7, you have never even touched the code because you don't need to, you have better and more important things to do. You do the marketing/delegation and smart use of the money you made.

          The knowledge of how you will get a custom site delivered to you for $100 and the knowledge about where to market your service and get clients interested will be 10000x more worth than coding/design knowledge to actually make a site. You can not see this from a coder's/designer's perspective because this is not your job as an "internet marketer" - as a coder/designer you will 95% just end up working for someone else who will profit from your (hard) work.
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          • Profile picture of the author Brandon Tanner
            Originally Posted by GeorgR. View Post

            I can tell you that coding/software developing is a trap (see my other post) with some very few exceptions. Of course knowing HTML and PHP etc. is all nice and good and it helps big time. But no "serious" marketer today would waste their time anymore on this.
            With all due respect...

            Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat???

            I have been both a "serious" marketer and a "serious" software developer for several years now, and I can say without question that combining those 2 skills was by far the best thing I've ever done, career-wise.

            If you can develop quality software applications that meet the needs of a lot of people, AND you know how to market them correctly... the sky is the limit.

            Of course you can get the same end result by outsourcing everything, IF you have the money to invest, and IF have already built up good relationships with quality coders and marketers who know WTH they're doing (which takes a *LOT* of trial and error), and IF you know how to manage them correctly. Those are BIG if's though... bigger than a lot of people who are new to outsourcing realize.

            I have done a LOT of outsourcing in the past (and I still do), but I also enjoy doing some things myself (such as coding, and some of the marketing). And if you're one of the rare breed who enjoys coding AND marketing, and if you're smart about it, I can tell you with absolute certainty that it is more than worth it.

            @ Matt (WebsiteMadeForYou) - I've read all of your posts in this thread, and you come across as very sincere, if not a little mis-guided (thinking that you're going to retire in a couple years, after having made NO money in the past 18 years, is "mis-guided", to say the least). I still recommend that you get a regular job for now (or some source of steady income), ASAP.

            But if you have legit skills as a software developer, I would try to transition over to doing that full-time as soon as possible, if I were you. Forget building websites and writing articles, and forget doing freelance work for others.

            Instead, develop quality software applications that you can sell on a mass scale to others. I've been doing that for a while now, and I'm telling you... with the skills that YOU already have, that's what you want to focus on.

            And you need to get rid of that "victim" mentality ASAP, and start taking full responsibility for your actions and their outcomes. There's nothing wrong with making mistakes and learning from them -- we all do that. But you can't blame others for your past failures. Your success is not determined by others -- it's determined by YOU.

            PM me if you want - I've got some advice and ideas I'd be more than happy to share with you. But don't PM me if you have the mindset that you're going to be retiring in a couple years with boatloads of cash - that's just delusional, and I'm not willing to help you unless you're serious about this.

            This isn't the lottery, where you magically wake up one morning with more $ than you know what to do with. This is real work -- it takes a lot of time, dedication, and effort to build up a successful business, and you need to be committed to it for the long haul.
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  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    If you measure success only in terms of money, you will only be setting yourself up for disappointment. The sad truth is money is NEVER ENOUGH. Instead of measuring your success in terms of money, ask yourself if you are living to your fullest potential.
    Watch this video and pay attention to the audio near the end to understand the full meaning of what I am trying to say

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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
    So you think that simply with a "better" hosting company you would be rich now? Why is that?

    You made several mistakes, but I am not sure whether you actually realize them. The first that you think that YOU needed to "code" the sites, eg. spending hours of learning/HTML coding and all it would have required was a "good" hoster and you would be well off now.

    Wrong.

    The right mindset is to give someone from Pakistan or India $50-$100 and have THEM make a site for you. This sounds "brutal" but this is the reality. If you think you would go anywhere as a coder/designer I think you are wrong. This was maybe 15 years ago but not today.

    The second mistake is trying to sell web design knowledge to clients. Again, you are wrong. Why should they have an interest in "building" sites?

    Some might, but the majority would rather have an interest in MAKING MONEY and not sitting down and learning "to make sites".

    Again, what you do, you take $50 or $100 and let the "work" do by someone else. You do not get rich by working (only in RARE cases ) but by delegating work and having your people/team where you know that investment X will give you back investment X*Y.

    Please..think about it? What looks more appealing? "How To Make Your Own Website" or "How To Make A ***ton of Money?" You focused on a less essential part of the entire thing because "making a website" is not the essence what ultimately will YOU or others make money. It's simply true.

    Possible outcomes:

    A) You are the nerdy coder/designer who works 40+ hours/week for change, competing with 3rld countries. Much luck!

    B) You have a company with 10+ designers which WORK FOR YOU, your job is to find customers and get orders for sites which you will refer to your "guys" who do the actual work. You then laugh and take the money to your bank each week after selling the sites to your clients. (After you paid your guys, of course).

    Now think hard whether A) or B) will be better and which business model has a better potential for expanding
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  • Profile picture of the author Nicole Nahi
    ..."I fully believe that if I had had a HostGator account 5 or 10 years ago I would be a millionaire today..."

    LOL! and If I had met my mentor 2 years ago, I would be now driving a Rolls-Royce! Who knows what other hurdles you might have encounter along the way
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  • Profile picture of the author kkll78
    Hey. There is a lot above. My input would also be to focus on one thing and perfect it. Make a website in your niche and market it. But, make sure you set up a good sales funnel to stay in tune with your customers/leads.
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  • Profile picture of the author elmo033057
    This kind of reminds me of the movie "Rudy" wherein the protagonist is telling his mentor (a priest) that he has done everything he can, including praying everyday, to get into Notre Dame. ( Which, by the way, would be only his first step on his way to the football team.)

    Rudy went through his whole laundry list: working a job, busting his ass on his grades, physical training, sleeping in a maintenence room that he had to crawl into a window to get to each night, etc.

    "Why should I continue going through all of this crap if it doesn't produce results?"

    The priest says, "I think you'll find that it will."

    Rudy kept at it and became the only player to be carried off of the field on the shoulders of his team mates in the history of the school.

    Hey, if you want to really get inspired, read about the humble begginings of Bruce Lee. He had to live in a hovel with his family while being a waiter at a resturant.

    Sylvester Stallone was in debt up to his eyeballs AFTER the success of Rocky and Rambo due to the costs of the films.

    It is just the way it goes sometimes. You will learn the most from your failures. Donald Trump lost everything during his illustrious career. He passed a homeless man on the street at one point and told him that he (the homeless man) was richer than he was!

    Anyway, keep on trucking and don't ever give up on your dream.

    ELMO
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    • Profile picture of the author jorgesil
      Start with a product first, and then build your website after that.

      This is where most people fail, in my opinion.

      It's like going down to your local mall, spending all kinds of money opening up a shop without really knowing what you're going to sell.

      Internet marketing is still sales. You've still got to have a valuable product or service that people want.

      You've still got believe in your product enough to look people in the eye, and mean it when you suggest that they should buy it.
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      • Profile picture of the author Chris Silvey
        One thing I pride myself is my ability to reverse engineer anything of interest

        First of all I want to discuss your site first. Ease of navigation is critical. You need to put a blog roll/menu in your sidebar. It has to be in front of their face.

        2nd - Your site is a tutorial site. There are tons of them out there, but the ones that really make it do the following.

        1. They personally brand their site. They have a profile pic and bio.
        2. They have a friendly tone.
        3. They also do video tutorials and also bring traffic and revenue from YouTube.
        4. The most important thing. They always do a referral, be it to a related product to the post or to a resource page. This is where they make money.
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  • Profile picture of the author AvusBlue
    Hey man, I've been nothing but failures. You just need to KNOW you are going to make it and not THINK you are.
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    • Profile picture of the author IamBaksi
      There are days when I read posts on the WF and I just want to give the OP a hug. I'm not going to pretend I know how long failing for 18 years is. I don't. But I know that somehow, some way you'll make it eventually

      I just want to affirm you on one point. From your post it seems that much of your failure is attributed to technical stuff (Hosting as you have mentioned). As such, I feel that you have the potential within to achieve success online. When it comes to questions like 'Should I still try and make it online?' I tend to be a little cautious in answering. I don't know you personally, which doesn't put me in a right position to advise you on this. I don't want one comment of mine to change your mind which could potentially screw you over, you know? You have to make that decision yourself, bud.

      But anyway, moving on. If you do decide to stick with making it online, you might want to consider changing your course of actions. It seems that you want to try to earn money from ranking websites no matter what. I'm not quite sure about this. In fact most newbies first impression of IM is almost always 'I'm going to create a website and get rich.' Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that there is no money to be made in ranking sites, there are a lot of people getting rich just by ranking sites alone. Personally I feel that is just a tougher route. You sure you want to work your butt off only to be outsmarted by Google engineers? Ranking sites as I see it is a volatile trade, one which there is a lot of uncertainty. Whether in stocks or in IM, uncertainty is never a good thing. As you've said yourself, EMD have made ranking sites much harder. You never know what Google is going to do next to make it EVEN harder for you.

      You have so much in you bro. It doesn't take a normal person to struggle for 18 years and still not give up. You've said you are an action taker. Great! But here's the thing, don't take action on things that are not actionable. If that even makes any sense. Don't overwork yourself on things that are so much harder to achieve. Play the game that is easier for you.

      You should sit down for a day and just think about what your next step is. It may be that you decide to offer programming services or web development. Or you could choose another method not involving ranking a site altogether. It's up to you. But for me, Listbuilding was what I stuck with.

      Take care dude and all the best

      On a side Note: I don't get why some of you are bashing the OP here. You don't even know him, his background. Why judge and criticize? There's a noteworthy difference between giving someone else a wake-up call and being a jerk. And if you just want to get your sig out there on threads like this, shame on you.

      Caleb Prince
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  • Profile picture of the author 5dollardiva
    I totally totally feel you. I notice that your main emphasis is in making money and getting rich, and believe me I get that. However I noticed when I changed my thinking to 'how can I help someone' my whole online success magically appeared. Today I have a website that is plain as can be. I never try to rank, ever. I only try to write articles/blog posts that help people. Because of this I have gained followers that opt-in, and I continue to send messages where there is no campaign. I only broadcast. There are some other "secrets" that I use and one major one. If you'd like to private message me I'll send it to you.

    Best regards and good luck,
    5DollarDiva
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  • Profile picture of the author DanielLee
    The thing is, you never really know when you're on the verge of success. In all these years you must have amassed quite a lot of knowledge on internet marketing. I personally think you should stick with it. You can continue working on the IM side of things whilst working a job. Why give up your dreams?
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    • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
      Originally Posted by DanielLee View Post

      The thing is, you never really know when you're on the verge of success. In all these years you must have amassed quite a lot of knowledge on internet marketing. I personally think you should stick with it. You can continue working on the IM side of things whilst working a job. Why give up your dreams?
      Why give up? Exactly...

      I don't plan on giving up!

      After all these years I know a lot, and I'm capable of a lot, re-forming and getting more focused, and who knows? Maybe I will succeed.

      If I don't, than I don't. I certainly won't waste another 18 years of my life with internet marketing as my main focus that's for sure, but part time in addition to having a job yep you bet.

      Most Americans work until there over 65. They may "have a house" but they don't even really own it until they are almost dead.

      They have spending money but not much. And 65-26(the age I am now)=39 more years of being Just Over Broke (from relying on a JOB as a sole income). Yeah, thanks but no thanks. That is not for me!

      I will be retiring (from having a job working for other people) by the time I'm 30. That's only four years away. I don't know how I will make it happen but I'm going to do it. With internet marketing or with some other method. I will find a way.

      One things certain: by coming on Warrior Forum and asking for advice like I have done I have thus done something I never have done before. I've asked for help. I've admitted that I am not going to figure it out all on my own. I've basically asked people to review my failing points. I've never asked for constructive criticism before and I really needed it. A lot of mistakes have been pointed out by a lot of people. Some I saw myself, and some I didn't.

      But by asking for the constructive criticism I have an opportunity I didn't have before. The opportunity not to repeat the same screw-ups.

      The opportunity to identify what went wrong so I can turn it around.

      I think having recognized that it was time to stop being too stubborn to ask for advice itself reflects a huge shift in my mindset which I certainly needed.
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  • Profile picture of the author GyuMan82
    OMG sometimes I really hate Warrior Forum because it ends up being a big ol circle jerk.

    People give this guy what he needs, a slap in the face!!!

    You guys give him all advice about what he needs to do when anyone who has experienced any bit of success knows that his problem is not in his method, it's what is going on between his ears.

    OP put the big boy pants on and accept responsibility for your failures.
    Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

    "I fully believe that if I had had a HostGator account 5 or 10 years ago I would be a millionaire today, bc I would have BUILT SITES THAT WORKED, AND BUILT THEM FAST, and GOTTEN THEM TO RANK ON GOOGLE."
    Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

    I know if I hadn't missed the "EMD band-wagon" it'd be so much easier to get volumes of traffic and make money now that I'm using HostGator and finding it so easy to build websites, making websites is the easy part but getting traffic to them I've ALWAYS FAILED AT THAT.
    Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

    I feel like I should have quit trying to make money years ago and just worked a job even though I know having a job is a terrible way of making money.


    WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!?!

    You need to fix what is in your head. Stop talking about the past, stop blaming others for your failures.

    Successful people accept responsibility for their actions. Successful people learn from their mistakes.

    It's not your methods, it's the way that you think. You need to reprogram your brain.

    Here is a graphic for you: (YOU ARE EVERYTHING ON THE RIGHT)




    I'm not going to coddle you like the rest of this forum, because that's not what you need.

    You need to look in the mirror and start to make some changes.

    If you're not making money online, get a damn job like the rest of the world.

    Then if you still want to try to succeed online, do it in your spare time until you figure it out.

    If you were as hard working as you say, you would have gotten a job years ago instead of making diddly squat all this time.

    As someone who I guess somewhat has "made it" (6-figure income through IM) I can tell you it wasn't easy.

    I waited tables at busy ass restaurants for 7 years while I worked on my IM career. F&$#en 8-10hr shifts, come home at midnight exhausted covered in sweat and food, bang out my IM projects for another 6-8 hrs, go to sleep and do it all over again. This was my life for years.

    My hands are covered in cuts and burns from my work in the service industry, and I can't even type for 30 minutes straight before my right arm goes numb from the carpal tunnel I've developed writing thousands of articles over the years for my sites.

    I paid my dues, you need to pay yours.

    So put the big boy pants on and get to work.
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    • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
      Originally Posted by GyuMan82 View Post

      OMG sometimes I really hate Warrior Forum because it ends up being a big ol circle jerk.

      People give this guy what he needs, a slap in the face!!!

      You guys give him all advice about what he needs to do when anyone who has experienced any bit of success knows that his problem is not in his method, it's what is going on between his ears.

      OP put the big boy pants on and accept responsibility for your failures.







      WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!?!

      You need to fix what is in your head. Stop talking about the past, stop blaming others for your failures.

      Successful people accept responsibility for their actions. Successful people learn from their mistakes.

      It's not your methods, it's the way that you think. You need to reprogram your brain.

      Here is a graphic for you: (YOU ARE EVERYTHING ON THE RIGHT)




      I'm not going to coddle you like the rest of this forum, because that's not what you need.

      You need to look in the mirror and start to make some changes.

      If you're not making money online, get a damn job like the rest of the world.

      Then if you still want to try to succeed online, do it in your spare time until you figure it out.

      If you were as hard working as you say, you would have gotten a job years ago instead of making diddly squat all this time.

      As someone who I guess somewhat has "made it" (6-figure income through IM) I can tell you it wasn't easy.

      I waited tables at busy ass restaurants for 7 years while I worked on my IM career. F&$#en 8-10hr shifts, come home at midnight exhausted covered in sweat and food, bang out my IM projects for another 6-8 hrs, go to sleep and do it all over again. This was my life for years.

      My hands are covered in cuts and burns from my work in the service industry, and I can't even type for 30 minutes straight before my right arm goes numb from the carpal tunnel I've developed writing thousands of articles over the years for my sites.

      I paid my dues, you need to pay yours.

      So put the big boy pants on and get to work.
      There's a lot you don't know about me. I do blame myself more than you know for my failures. But when I say I have no doubt I would've been successful if I had HostGator earlier it's not that I'm blaming them for the sake of having an excuse it's a FACT that I COULDN'T GET MY WEBSITES TO UPLOAD WITHOUT SPENDING ALL DAY TO UPLOAD A SINGLE PAGE AND IT NEVER CONSISTENTLY WORKED. 1and1 was messed up and sometimes pages would load fine in my browser in my computer but when uploaded the pages would look like this:

      3rd qtr of pg here
      1st qtr of pg here
      4th qtr of pg here
      2nd qtr of pg here.
      ^^^^How could I be successful on the internet with this problem?

      I did everything I knew to do but if you simply cant make your website work than you can't make money with it.

      With HostGator, I can point and click and make WordPress sites (way easier than what I needed but at least FUNCTIONAL whereas 1and1 WAS NOT).

      With 1and1 it was like fighting a war trying to get my websites to upload correctly. That's definitely not my fault.

      And there's so much you don't know about me and you just assumed:

      You say I should get a job already and not have wasted all this time not having one if I was making so little money.

      I have only been unemployed for a couple of weeks.

      I drove half a million miles in a 18 wheeler in the last few years. Wasn't able to do internet marketing on the road so in the 18 years from start to now I didn't actually have 18 years of time to work on stuff.

      I've only been an adult for 8 years.

      And most of those 8 years I was working in the most corrupt industry ever.

      Truckers have to pay tolls out of pocket. Loading bars/loading straps, door locks, new headlights, all kinds of stuff. Supposedly we get reimbursed. LOL.

      "Supposedly we get reimbursed"...if you only knew what I've been through you would understand why I haven't been successful. I'm ready to move on, I'm ready to change my ways but as far as having excuses go? If everything you do is met with resistance it's going to take a long time to get anywhere.

      Trucking companies get away with so much stuff because without trucks America stops. The conditions long haul drivers go through is absolutely abusive.

      Yet I stuck with it for a while. I saved money. But after a year or so of LIVING IN THE TRUCK, that the companies I worked for OWNED, and them not caring at all about me, well it's a lot tougher than a regular job where you go home every night and take a shower and all that. I've made sacrifices. Huge sacrifices. I know what it is to be tired beyond belief. Which is why I don't have a job. I "quit" over the road trucking making a good judgment call.

      I "quit" more than one time because when I ran out of money I simply wasn't able to get a job that paid the bills before my savings were depleted but I could snap my fingers any day and have an over the road job the very next day because trucking companies are desperate for qualified drivers because their poor treatment drives drivers away from them.

      Driving 80,000 pounds down the highway TIRED is FREAKING INSANE. So I don't allow myself to do it, when I get to the point where continuing to work is unsafe I "quit" so I won't be guilty of causing an accident that would most likely be a fatal one.

      But that's where the general public doesn't understand... trucking companies THREATEN YOU, if you don't do things there way you're out of a job. That's untrue of course - just a scare tactic - an abusive one - but just a scare tactic. They need drivers because there are very few people that will put up with there crap.

      I only did because by not paying rent at all whatsoever when I lived on the road I was able to save money, but of course when you get burnt out on the conditions you wouldn't understand unless you've been through it; it's simply not safe to continue with that job until you take time off from it and recharge your batteries/your health, and get un-tired.

      If I had the money I'd buy my own truck - it's what I'm passionate about (not internet marketing - but the ideal with internet marketing is PASSIVE INCOME once established).

      If I had my own truck I wouldn't expect myself to push myself into bad situations that put my life, my license, and other people's lives at jeopardy (whereas when you work for a trucking company they don't care about you at all, all they care about is there bottom line and they have really good insurance so it's cheaper for them to put drivers in situations where they might screw up their life and other people's lives by rolling over or jacknifing etc.)

      I've delivered to NYC about thirty times in a tractor trailer truck. Before that I worked on a farm. I know what it is to bleed, sweat, and I have calloused hands. So in no way was I being lazy or unmotivated.

      There are people that always say "its the way you think stop making excuses" and all through my life while people have at times said things like that to me THEY THEMSELVES MAKE EXCUSES FOR THEIR LIVES NOT GOING ANYWHERE.

      I've done more than enough to be successful and have something for myself by this point in my life.

      I've delivered LITERALLY over a billion dollars of freight.

      I've hauled thousands of loads, and not every load is a load of toilet paper and groceries. Some times trucks contain antibiotic pills and "get it up" pills. 2 pallets = $30 million dollars.

      I've contributed to society. I've sacrificed years of my life sleeping in places where you had no access to food/restroom.

      Truckers get almost no respect.

      You park at Walmart, you go to sleep. You wake up and go in (and haven't had a shower for a while) and people look down on you. Even though you just delivered inventory for that store that they just bought. They look down on truckers yet if we didn't make the sacrifices we made they would have nothing.

      I don't have a job now. I refuse to go over the road again and put up with those unsafe working conditions, but as far as me making excuses - no way.

      I've done everything humanly possible to get somewhere in life. How could I have known before I got into trucking how corrupt trucking companies are and how they would make all my work pointless?

      I couldn't have known that.

      I have 500k accident free miles. I'm going to keep it that way. So thus I'm not on the road and I am in the process of getting a local job where I only will have to work 40 hours a week. Trucking is why I have no money. Not internet marketing. Trucking drained my bank account because the industry is so scam-filled you wouldn't understand unless you've experienced it yourself.

      Internet marketing wasn't the source of my poverty it just hasn't been the source of wealth or the means by which I can quit my job and than buy my own truck because that's what I want (just not with dispatch cracking a whip).

      Internet marketing's not possible or even legal when driving over the road because you are expected to work every single hour that you can legally work by the companies. They really don't give a #### if you need to sleep. So you push back, you take the time you need to sleep anyways, but they push back on you. Since you live in THEIR TRUCK, they have so much control over you until you quit. Truckers are regulated for safety reasons to protect the general public from getting FLATTENED BY HUGE VEHICLES.

      I have worked for a handful of different trucking companies, tried to make my passion work. Didn't work, won't ever work unless I own the truck, but without being able to make the money for the truck by working as a trucker since it clearly doesn't work: I've resumed internet marketing efforts and will have a 40 hour a week job soon that gives me plenty of time to do internet marketing in addition whereas over the road sure does not.

      In the past local jobs as a cdl holder didn't pay the bills (now it's different I've gotten my debt down to where I can live on 150 a month plus food plus rent).

      I've paid off most of my debt through trucking, farming, and in general working my butt off.

      I appreciate your view point, I understand that making excuses is self defeating, but some times some people go through #### that is no fault of there own.

      When I was 9 years old I spent every minute of every day when I was home researching internet marketing and programming.

      And I did that for a long time.

      I took action when I could.

      But until I was 18 I didn't have a credit card, couldn't make online purchases.

      Simple things like paying $45 to become a ClickBank Vendor were more complicated. Simple things like buying paid traffic - had no means to do it. Simple things like buying the software that would've helped me to upload my sites to 1and1 wasn't possible until I was 18.

      Front Page & 1and1 and me just werent working out. Maybe other people have succeeded with it consistently, I didn't. But I damn well did my best, and if I hadn't met the ridiculous resistance to simplicity that 1and1 happens to be than I would've made way more progress. There is no doubt about it whatsoever.

      I had the drive to succeed. That's never been an issue.

      I have taking mountains of action. That's never been the issue.

      Only results. That's the issue. The lack of them. Not the lack of action, or sacrifices, or doing this and that and that at the same time.
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      • Profile picture of the author Texo
        Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

        ...
        I fully believe that if I had had a HostGator account 5 or 10 years ago I would be a millionaire today ...
        Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

        ...
        I would have made EMD sites TEN YEARS AGO, and made tons of money zipping people to affiliate links ...
        Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

        ... I don't seem to have what it takes to make it online ...
        Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

        ... I literally had an IQ test at one point and at that time I was a genius ...
        Good god man, listen to yourself. You sound like the world's greatest victim! I'd like to give you some kind words, but they won't help you. You need a kick up the ass and maybe a slap in the face too!

        First of all get your feet firmly on the ground, quit whining about what you don't have and focus on something from now (right now) until the day you die. If you don't love it, it ain't happening... unless you have iron will, nerves of steel and brass balls.

        Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

        I have $1000 life savings. Pretty depressing
        I have no savings at all. I won't be saving anything this month either, or the next. I currently live on a 2-day a week job (it pays well by the hour). I'm not depressed by it, in fact I see it as an opportunity to use the 5 days a week I don't work to try and make something happen for myself. I'm very optimistic about my free time, not worried that I don't have enough work to fill the other 3 days a week.

        Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

        but the ideal with internet marketing is PASSIVE INCOME once established
        Passive income? I don't know too much about Internet marketing myself right now, but that sounds like horse shit to me. Internet marketing is not the property business of the Internet... you'll need to continually work at it, you won't be able to sit back and watch your assets grow year by year like you can with other businesses.

        I'm not going to give you any words of encouragement, inspiration or wisdom. I've seen loads of "inspirational" videos, quotes from famous people, motivational speeches, etc. and they're all a bloody waste of time. Bollocks to those videos. After you watch them you start feeling inspired, motivated and ambitious, then before you know it you've got your mind on what's for dinner and have forgotten all about it. There's no two ways about it, you act or you don't; or as Master Yoda put it:

        Originally Posted by Master Yoda

        Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.
        The problem is, you have to know where you want to be in order to get there. It's no use saying "I want to get rich with an online business". I want that too, so does everybody else here. What business? How will you utilise your skills and abilities? Alan Sugar once exclaimed that many people would ask him for advice saying they wanted to start a business, to which he'd reply "what can you do?" or words to that effect. They never had an answer.

        Perhaps I can give you an example of something that seems to be going in the right direction for me that may help get you on your own path. I set up a Facebook page for Android fans a few weeks back and got some advertising campaigns running to get the word out. I'm posting mostly snippets of articles that I produce on my website, and I'll be honest: I don't know how I will monetise it at this point, but I'll obviously start with adverts.

        Since June 19th I've been able to get 5300+ targeted fans through Facebook advertising, and I'm paying £0.001 per like with one my best performing campaigns. I can generate over 1,000 likes a day with £2.00 ($2.98US), here's proof (my FB page is here):



        So you see, it's certainly possible to have things go in your direction with a little self learning and perseverance. If your goal is to be successful with a website in "some" fashion, it doesn't matter what... you need traffic. Social media, forums, e-mail lists, SEO, offline marketing, etc.

        Stop whining about what you haven't got and start MAKING it go right.
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      • Profile picture of the author Ttrain
        Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

        If I had the money I'd buy my own truck - it's what I'm passionate about (not internet marketing - but the ideal with internet marketing is PASSIVE INCOME once established).
        Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

        I've hauled thousands of loads, and not every load is a load of toilet paper and groceries. Some times trucks contain antibiotic pills and "get it up" pills. 2 pallets = $30 million dollars.

        I've contributed to society. I've sacrificed years of my life sleeping in places where you had no access to food/restroom.

        Truckers get almost no respect.
        Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

        Trucking drained my bank account because the industry is so scam-filled you wouldn't understand unless you've experienced it yourself.
        Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

        When I was 9 years old I spent every minute of every day when I was home researching internet marketing and programming.

        I haven't commented on here in a while, but from your posts there seems to be so much opportunity in front of you that I'm amazed you haven't been successful already!

        First of all, you have the PERFECT niche. You have years of experience with a group of workers that are obviously struggling. Do you think your the only one that is unhappy with the "scam-filled" trucking industry? I'm sure there are 1000's of people that are dealing with the same things right now. I'm also positive that they've googled or tweeted something related to their frustrations. All you have to do is get in front of their problems.

        If you know how to program and you have a large amount of experience in what you "passionate" about, then It should be easy. You've already shared your story here. Put it into a marketing video, build a funnel, and sell a product.

        Once you've built a a strong following, and earned some money. Go buy your own truck! Use your platform, get someone to invest in you, and start your own trucking business.

        If the current practices are really as bad as you say they are, than it shouldn't be too hard to find people that would gladly come work for you if you promised to treat them with more respect.

        You could become the "middle man" of sorts, and transport goods for other companies. Maybe 10 years from now you would be the biggest thing out there!

        I honestly feel that if you just look at what you already have, you could easily be the next success story. Sh** I can almost see the headlines now. "Trucker goes from nothing, to running a multimillion dollar business. Overnight"

        Only it won't have been overnight, you would have spent 18 years of your life to get there, but people will look at your success and think you got lucky, and you'll laugh knowing they couldn't be more wrong.
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    • Profile picture of the author tpw
      Originally Posted by GyuMan82 View Post

      If you're not making money online, get a damn job like the rest of the world.

      Then if you still want to try to succeed online, do it in your spare time until you figure it out.

      If you were as hard working as you say, you would have gotten a job years ago instead of making diddly squat all this time.

      As someone who I guess somewhat has "made it" (6-figure income through IM) I can tell you it wasn't easy.

      I waited tables at busy ass restaurants for 7 years while I worked on my IM career. F&$#en 8-10hr shifts, come home at midnight exhausted covered in sweat and food, bang out my IM projects for another 6-8 hrs, go to sleep and do it all over again. This was my life for years.

      My hands are covered in cuts and burns from my work in the service industry, and I can't even type for 30 minutes straight before my right arm goes numb from the carpal tunnel I've developed writing thousands of articles over the years for my sites.

      I paid my dues, you need to pay yours.

      So put the big boy pants on and get to work.


      I agree.

      In my last job before finally being able to leave the job world behind, I was working 60 hours a week from January to November, and working upwards of 90 hours a week during December.

      I was working in retail sales at the time.

      During most of the year, I was working 60 hours a week on the job, and I was working another 30-40 hours a week online.

      During December, I was working at least 90 hours a week, but I still managed to keep working my online business while working those obscene hours at my job.

      I actually earned more money online than at my job for 18 months, before I quit my job. I wanted proven stability in my online income before I cut my safety net.

      I've always worked hard to accomplish my goals. And, I always kept a job -- for as long as I needed one -- to ensure that I would have the money I needed to take care of my family and to have the tools and resources I needed to grow my business.

      I needed the job before I started making real money online, and I kept my job longer than I wanted to keep a job, and I am glad I did both.

      It took me roughly 5 years to cut my safety net after I made my first sale online. I had actually cut my safety net earlier, but 9 months after, I took another job. This time around, I have been flying solo since March of 2005.

      Maybe it is because I have a family and three kids, but I didn't have the luxury of working for peanuts until I could make it big. I had to keep making a living wage, until I could replace my job income with a reliable online income.
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  • Profile picture of the author Big Money
    You have not wasted your time you have more experience than you know what to do with. I would suggest getting with a community of like minded people or consider getiing one individual that can take that experience and guide your steps a bit and help you to be successful.

    There was a guy with his own lawn care business. he went to work Friday and on Monday he was turning in his notice to his employer because over the weekend somebody who was in poor health gave him $10,000 worth of contacted business. It can happen just that fast! Hang in there
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeff Willy
    Hey mate!

    I'm also 26, but you are a lot better than I am because you started internet marketing at the age of 8, while I am still learning on how to play Super Mario and Pacman with my Nintendo console, and also no personal computer (since my dad and mom are so "traditional"), and no idea what internet marketing is all about. Please always remember that you can't get rich with internet marketing. It really depends on the creativity you have to make a killing with your campaigns to attract visitors into your websites.

    It is such a lot of pain in your part that you have spent 18 years with internet marketing and having no success at all, but you are still young like me man. It is not too late for you to turn things around and potentially become successful on your own.

    I started internet marketing since 2009, and barely hang on to my unstable income which my parents still doubted on me, until now if I already had a long term day internet job that earns me more than the average income of Filipinos. I had ups an downs at the moment, feeling that I give up, but my conscience told me that I won't back down and listen to my parents about quitting. They did told me that I really can't make a living with internet marketing, which they really wanted me to have a real 8-hour stinky minimum wage job minus taxes and other things like social security system, but I refuse to believe that. But still I am not yet contented though, which I am looking for other ways to make money like creating attractive WSO's, CPA marketing, planning and building innovative ways to make money with affiliate niche sites (and even planning for a local gig like goat farming business for small investment). You need several ways to generate income by yourself, not just being stuck up with internet marketing.

    Try to recall the mistakes you have with internet marketing since day one, list them on your notebook (if you can still remember since 1995), read them and fix it. This is what I am doing, when something goes wrong, identify it and fix it. Remember, failures will help you succeed, no matter how many times you fail.

    Cheers and good luck pal!

    Jeff
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    • Profile picture of the author mrdomains
      Should I just give up trying to make money online?
      Yes.

      But having tried for so long with only aggravation and distress to show for it... you already knew the answer yourself.
      Signature

      Free action plan : Think less. Do more.

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  • Profile picture of the author TheMadHatter
    You need to forget everything you know and do this.

    -Go buy a domain and hosting from the gator. Preferably something like WebsiteSupreme.com or something catchy.

    -List a bio, your skills, a little bit of a portfolio and a pricing page.

    -On the pricing page offer websites for $100 a piece for 1-5 pages. You can either host these sites on a reseller hosting plan or make them sign up to buy the sites through your affiliate link. Which is like an extra $50 or so in your pocket.

    -Get on yellow pages.com and get in the phone book and get a list of business phone numbers.

    -Call around to local businesses all day every day until you get clients.

    -Reap the rewards.

    -Most small businesses don't have these sites up and for the cheapness of $100 you can likely make quite a killing. If you are decent with wordpress, which is what I recommend, you can make a couple a day. Possibly even have a younger family member call around n get work for you for commission.




    Ideas are a dime a dozen. Hard work isn't. You can not actually quantify it in terms of whole numbers. Chances are you won't do this and stay poor but I will do what I can. Hope this helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author celente
    first of all its your mindset.

    second you are spending your time in the wrong areas.

    Stick to one thing, on niche, one business and build a list. Remember you want to build a business not a money spinner, which is what it seems you have.

    You also need to get help from someone in the know, and someone who is at a level where you want to be. I had no direction until I got a mentor and i still talk to him today, infact I was on teh phone with him yesterday, and one idea we had could add another $5k to my business each month.

    Hope this help. Go away and re-energize your battery print this thread out and come back, and write out a plan and write out some goals as well.

    good luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author CurtisSWN
    Your thinking reeks of failure and self pity. Success first begins in the mind. If you continually affirm that you're a failure, well.....you are. That's all very nice and Yoda-like for me to say these things here, but from your OP it looks like your real problem is your attitude; adopt a different one. Look at people who post on WF and emulate their thinking and attitudes, and then follow tried and true methods, see what happens.
    Signature
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    • Profile picture of the author 1mattonline
      you have the skills and experience.i recommend you to get coaching from somebody in your field, it seems like you have the skills, but lack in how to implement it in todays market. the market is actually huge in the niche you are in.

      and change your mindset, instead of focusing on "do i have to quit" rather focus around " i will succeed!"

      it's no doubt that you had bumps thru the years, but never quit! receive some mentorship. some people have a lot of potential but needs that guidance from a mentor.

      after this long there's no way you can give up!!

      best of success for the next 10 years!!
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  • Profile picture of the author george b
    If you are any good at web coding, and you fecking well should be if you taught yourself at the age on nine, then why don't you brand yourself as the "Warrior Forum Go-to guy" for all things coding related.

    Set yourself up a Warrior for hire thread, with a nice looking sales page and a list of all the things you can do with basic rate prices.

    Leave all your contact information there, email, skype, msn, aim, phone number etc.

    And make yourself available 24/7.

    If someone has a problem they come to you, no matter how busy you are or what time of the day it is. Like an emergency service.

    People want things done quickly and efficiently, if you could provide this to just a few warriors at first, word would spread and you would be inundated with clients.


    Edit
    -------------------
    Here you go, get yourself started today!

    Signature
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  • Profile picture of the author Publisher1953
    You could make a movie (or at least a youtube video) about your story. Heck, it might attract some views and some AdSense revenue.

    Your posting reminds me of the challenges of persistence, correlated with the concept of self-responsibility. Persistence/perseverance can be really important for vital long-term goals that truly align with your values. You appear to have lots of that!

    Self-responsibility is the other core concept, one which I didn't discover until (gulp) I was 38 years old, flat broke, living as a single person with a failing (but new) business in a dumpy apartment in a not-so-good neighbourhood. Thinking my business was "gone," I lay on the cot and then had the second major insight of my life -- no one but me is responsible for the mess I'm in, and no-one but me can sort it out. (I had a little help from Brian Tracy affirmation tapes, but you don't need him, or any guru, to figure this concept. See below.)

    I then took stock of my strengths. I had done some pretty good things in my life, had my health, and decided to push on -- but accept whatever happens to me.

    Two years later, I married the woman of my dreams, after signing a pre-nup (she had plenty of money). We'll celebrate our 20th anniversary this year. My business, though not a mutli-zillion dollar enterprise, is still very much around. Life is good.

    Now, over the years, I've had some fun debunking the gurus' myths, including Brian Tracy (referenced above). For example, he describes in one of his motivational books how he traversed Africa as a young adult and the lessons he learned taught him the key to success. Well, he alluded to someone who made the trip with him. I tracked the travel-mate down. The guy spent most of his life driving a truck, wrote an (unsaleable) self-published book, and I think dreams of being a screenwriter. Success (in the big name flashy way model), not. But he's happy, enjoys his life, and finds it amazing how people fall for the motivational crap.

    Then, last year, I tracked down one of my own African travel-mates (I set out to achieve my goal of being a foreign correspondent, and achieved it at age 25-26). The guy is a super-genius (really, his intelligence is in the 99.999 percentile and he belongs to a super-genius society.) He lives alone (I think) in his late parents' home in the U.S. and writes local restaurant reviews. Through is network, I tracked down one of his super-genius peers who lives in my city -- who lives in a rent-controlled apartment and takes the bus to get around. Both of these guys are successful in their own way, but pure material success isn't their story. (They've connected me to a closed Facebook group with about 500 super-high IQ people -- I'm probably the utter dumbest one in the bunch! Some of these geniuses have achieved incredible material and intellectual success -- others, I think, live in near poverty.)

    The point here is that you have some gifts and talents, and lots of persistence. The missing ingredient, I think, is that you need to do the inward thing and truly accept your own responsibility for your circumstances. If you can truly do that, you'll relax, release your potential and then find where you need to go. Yeah, you might see this as motivational pap, and you may discover that success for you is different than the material success you think is important. But it can work. Be yourself.
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  • Profile picture of the author gcgipson
    It sounds to me that you haven't put much attention into brain storming and coming up with a truly ground breaking web based business idea. Most of your post seem like you struggled over the technicalities of web site creation, as opposed to the originality of the product or service that you are delivering.

    I see a lot of people who, after deciding to start a web based business, get bogged down in the act of creating a website themselves. One could just go on oDesk and find someone to create a website themselves or do as I do, find a local web programmer (meet face to face) and have him sign a contract. You probably have a basic understanding of web coding, so leave it at that, let someone else do it.

    The crazy thing is, there is even MORE money in the internet then there was when you were regretting that you did XYZ. This means that the problem is in your approach and lack of motivation. Change your approach and boost up your motivation and you're bound to make money eventually.

    If you give up, you'll more than likely fall into a deep depression, and that is a fate worst then being broke. Keep fighting or die a slow death, let that be your motivation
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  • Profile picture of the author Publisher1953
    Thanks for the additional posting. There had to be some gaps in the story -- and the years on the road explain things, obviously. However, I think you still need to get the attitude thing under control because until you do, you are probably doomed to failure.

    Lots of truckers find ways to own their own trucks. I don't know much about trucking, but I know they do it. Many don't come from wealthy backgrounds. Others are content to work for others. There's an old guy who drives our printers' small truck -- he's done nothing else in his life but probably drove the bigger ones when he was younger and a bit more capable of some of the heavy lifting. As I mentioned in the previous posting, the guy who traversed Africa with Brian Tracy actually lives in the same area (San Diego) and has found happiness with a modest (but comfortable, he lives in a decent neighbourhood) lifestyle, after years of trucking.

    I understand it may seem like pap to give you the motivational "take responsibility for yourself" crud and I don't buy into all the rah-rah stuff that some motivational types push out to the uninformed masses. As I see it here are the challenges:

    1. You need to make money to live, somehow, until you can get things in order. Probably your best option is to seek out a local trucking gig -- won't pay as much, but you won't have the stress of the long-hauls. If your abstract is in order and you are willing to accept you wont' make as much money short term, you'll still have a job, and income.

    2. Combine your knowledge and expertise. Trucking and Internet go together. Figure out services and resources that you think truckers might want/need. You'll relate to their language and mind-set and realities.

    3. Learn how to sell. If you want to really boost your career (and you have the balls and time to do it), take a commission selling gig and all the sales training you can get. It isn't your life, but will help you find it.

    One trick is to look through your life and find the moments (and there were some, we all have them) when you really felt good about yourself, your life, your success. What was it that happened then? What can you do to make things right going forward.

    Oh well. . . got to get to work writing some stuff about my specialized industry for an association publication we produce in a mid-size Canadian city. Glamorous, no. But I get to use my specialized skills in a specialized niche, and it brings in some money.
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  • Profile picture of the author jstumfer
    I have a simpler suggestion.

    Why not just focus on learning how to build a website that makes $100 per month first?

    That should be considerably easier for right now.

    Once you accomplish that, set a bigger goal for yourself and harness the knowledge you already have learned.
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  • Profile picture of the author grandstar
    you have your answer. you mentioned you wrote some steve pavlina like articles? if you wrote 2 of such lengthy articles weekly for your blog and submitted to ezinearticles. go 2 years time tops, you'll get a flood of traffic. Next monetise it!
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    • Some thing just doesn't seem right with WebsiteMadeByYou. I think you're focusing too much on not working (retiring at 30 - not working until 50) than actually working. You bring that up numerous times in your posts. Everyone would like to put their IM business on automatic and make six figures, but that is not reality.

      Take it from me - time does pass - even if you are not being successful. So - I would do something - anything - to get your out of your financial situation (maybe sell items at a flea market (no knock on this - I know someone who did make A LOT of money doing that) and do your IM business on the side. Multiple streams of income is a key to financial success.

      I am working in IT and have dabbled in selling on the internet for years (started with eBay). I have just started taking it more seriously. This year I'm taking action (getting a coach and also doing a JV with a friend of mine).

      Baby Steps - you need to walk before you can run -- and getting some income - any income - going will create a better mindset for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author J50
    How can having a job be a terrible way of making money if you make no money?! Seriously does the Internet make people delusional or something?
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    • Originally Posted by J50 View Post

      How can having a job be a terrible way of making money if you make no money?! Seriously does the Internet make people delusional or something?
      EXACTLY!!!
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    • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
      Originally Posted by J50 View Post

      How can having a job be a terrible way of making money if you make no money?! Seriously does the Internet make people delusional or something?
      How can having a job be a terrible way of making money if I make no money???!!! -->BECAUSE I MAKE NO MONEY WITH A JOB!!!

      70 hours a week of long haul trucking including hand unloading the truck for several years and after all the reimbursements not paid back to me by the evil trucking companies I make $20,000 a year. They say truckers make more... they really don't. Companies report on your tax forms YOUR GROSS but that's not even really gross income earned, it includes reimbursements (when you do actually get them).

      Therefore, $40,000 really is $20,000 (truckers have to pay all kinds of stuff like headlights, fuel when in locations where the fuel card wont work, etc., out of pocket because if you are going to have a job as a truck driver that's simply how the companies do it).

      So than $20,000 minus 30 percent for taxes.

      13333 left over. Now, that's all fine and dandy when living on the road but oh wait - truck stop food is super duper expensive. And getting groceries don't work, you don't consistently get to park in a good location always run to the last minute on delivery deadlines.

      Fridge? What a novel idea...they make them at truck stops to run off the cigarette lighter charger, BUT trucking companies won't let you idle, and they are usually too cheap to install an auxiliary power unit (a generator that uses about 4 gallons of fuel a day to keep the batteries charged) so THUS: you can't keep the batteries charged, you can't run your fridge.

      Trucking was the real problem, it's the most F'd up industry.

      I literally would've made more money working at McDonalds and being home every night, but "I'm Overqualified", that's what MANY COMPANIES have told me when applying for regular jobs.

      And local trucking jobs have huge problems too. They simply don't pay that much.

      Try unloading two 18 wheeler loads by hand every day with no help from anyone in the trailer (the store will have 5 or 6 people on the ground handling the boxes you send them one by one down ROLLERS).

      I've done that, I've driven a heating oil delivery truck (100 gallons at a time to people's homes).

      Having a job in America simply doesn't pay the bills. That's a normal problem that most people have. Most people work till there 65.

      I've "failed" (but not really) for 18 years SO I CAN SOME DAY FIGURE OUT WHAT IT TAKES TO NOT BE 65 when I finally don't have to "punch the clock" MAKING BARELY ENOUGH TO BREAK EVEN.

      I've worked on a farm, I've had jobs that were non-Dot-hours-of-service-regulated where I LITERALLY WORKED 18 HOURS A DAY FOR 6 DAYS A WEEK.

      It costs money to live and jobs don't pay enough.

      When you live local food is way cheaper. BUT RENT = 1/3 of your paycheck. Your car = gas, registration, insurance, and maintenance...and suddenly UNEXPECTED BREAK DOWNS happen so there's another 1/3 of your paycheck.

      But you still need FOOD to survive, haven't even mentioned phone bill yet. Where's the "life enjoyment money?" It doesn't exist.

      Or it barely exists.

      My problem is with the system. The 1 percent having 99 percent and 99 percent having 1 percent.

      There's no margin for error.

      You can "budget" all you want but when an unexpected car repair is needed, or you buy a lemon and than you're only able to afford at any time (because you never save because your first car was a lemon) to go to the cheap mechanic who won't do a good job and you'll be back five times more than the good mechanic but you're kept in the hole because you don't have the money to break free from the start.

      THAT'S WHY.

      I'm not an excuse-person. That's reality. Shit does indeed happen to people.

      One tiny bit of bad luck and how much the average American makes and there's NO MARGIN to scrape by or recover.
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  • Profile picture of the author mosthost
    When searching for True Wisdom, avoid the Land Where The Blind Lead The Blind
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    • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
      Mat, (OP)

      I just wanted to let you know that I think you are a bloody genius! You've discovered so many ways of what not to do, that the road forward will now be a whole lot smoother.

      That's what I always do when I attempt something new that ends up being less than successful, okay, a complete flop or failure. I always say to myself, "Self, you are a bloody genius! You have just discovered yet another thing that won't work!" This helps the ego, the drive and to change any negative mindsets. Why beat yourself up when there are plenty of people out there who are all to willing to do so, right?

      I admire your tenacity and readiness to learn, the change of your mindset, and your goal setting. May I just make one recommendation? Set small goals for yourself and when you meet those, set another one. Starting out with lofty goals has a tendency to cause disappointment and disillusion. When we first learn to walk we do it one step at a time and after that, we learn to run.

      Terra
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  • Profile picture of the author vicdd
    I've reviewed your site and I don't think building websites is your strongest suite.
    If you're a decent programmer there is TONS of ways you can make money online, why aren't you trying to take adventage of what you already have, and others don't? Why are you trying to get into something you need to start from scratch?

    You could make simple Android apps and sell them on Android market - it's all about a good idea, not tons of code.

    You could make a java/python or other trending programming language tutorial and make it your product you then ask people to pay for/make it your newsletter and market something else, or even upload on youtube and make money off advertisements if you're very good.

    I'm a programmer myself and I've always thought that's a great asset in making money online, and I have lots of friends from this field who are making money that way and are successful in it.

    I just can't imagine why aren't you trying to utilize that.

    And I just wanted to point out that I personally participated in online programming courses, and from my experience, if you're any good, once people find you, you don't have to reach out for them, they will reach out for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author mrdomains
    Ahh.. I got it now... it came from Nordic folklore.
    Signature

    Free action plan : Think less. Do more.

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  • Profile picture of the author wolfe655
    I did not read all the replies here, to many and no time right now. I did read yours and a few others. A few years ago I was into IM and failed terribly. I just now decided to try it again. I am also learning to program. I am pretty far into c++ and am starting to learn c#. I want to make games so c++ but decided to forgo the games for now and learn c# because of XNA for one but also for the net framework, faster learning curve and the ability to program forms and windows stuff faster than you can do it with c++. I do have a plan to make money with it once I get better but don't want to give away all my secrets.

    Anyway I saw some advice on this forum the other day. I don't remember the post but what he said made a lot of sense so here goes!

    He said he started and was trying everything and was getting no place fast. So he started this, get good at one thing, don't think about the money.

    You say you suck at getting traffic. Go after that and nothing else right now. You need good content but concentrate on traffic building and get very good at it. Spend some time studying and learning it and get some traffic to the site. Once you get 50 to 100 visitors a day maybe put an affiliate link or 2 relating to your site up. So now you have some pretty good knowledge on building traffic and have some traffic coming in and a few different traffic building techniques working for you move onto something else SEO, content creation, writing, keyword research, niche research, etc... get good at it get it working for you then move on to something else. After a while you will really know what you are doing. Just get really good at one thing at a time.

    I plan on using this approach. I want to leave my current job but will not do that until I can make $5,000 a month consistently and have about 5 or 6 months of that in the bank!

    well that's my .02 on this!

    Scott
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    • Profile picture of the author vicdd
      Originally Posted by wolfe655 View Post

      I did not read all the replies here, to many and no time right now. I did read yours and a few others. A few years ago I was into IM and failed terribly. I just now decided to try it again. I am also learning to program. I am pretty far into c++ and am starting to learn c#. I want to make games so c++ but decided to forgo the games for now and learn c# because of XNA for one but also for the net framework, faster learning curve and the ability to program forms and windows stuff faster than you can do it with c++. I do have a plan to make money with it once I get better but don't want to give away all my secrets.
      Games are the hardest to build and the most time consuming. To build a game, even a small one, that would matter, you'd need at least 6-12 months of hard work of a whole team, including graphic designers. And then you have to market it, on top of that.

      In terms of making money without such investment, I'd go for utility apps if I were you. Just to gather some capital - then you can get into games developement if you want to.
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  • Profile picture of the author wolfe655
    Also and this is out dated somewhat but still a lot of good info to get pointed right and in the learning mind set, the challenge. Used to be the 30 day challenge. I have not done it myself and they are coming out with something new this year. I think it is geared towards folks who already up and running an online business.

    I think quite a bit of the old challenge is still pretty good to get you thinking about the bare bones basics of IM I have downloaded all of the modules and may do it myself just to get back into the swing of things.
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  • Profile picture of the author hustlinsmoke
    Man reading your post I have to say you still have information overload. Everything said is great. I'm not going to add to it but I can give you a great suggestion.

    Go back to clickbank. Get in the jv forums and rooms and fb pages and warriors. Get a great product, run a great contest. If you have it on clickbank it will accelerate your numbers and you will only have to do one launch and not many because your CB numbers will be there and the others will jump on board.
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  • Profile picture of the author TheMadHatter
    I think maybe you should try and philosophize more with a better spiritual outlook on things. It would probably solve what you are going through. Also maybe you shouldn't look at it as failing for 18 years and only look at it as trying for those hours you actually spent online. Maybe add in a few extra for the time you spent going over the idea in your head. It may improve your disposition. No one fails for 18 years. Hope you are getting there. It is an internal process. Best of luck.

    Namaste
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      I'm not an excuse-person.
      Are you serious? I didn't read all the replies but I read all the OP's posts and they are revealing.

      The excuses just keep rolling and the dream of being rich...of retiring very young....of not having to worry about bills.

      You keep talking about "18 years" but truth is if you were using services online from 9-18 you were lying about your age. If you were using 1and1 back then, probably were using one of the free accounts they offered when they opened their services to the public after years of working only with businesses.

      The thread of self pity that runs through your posts will keep you from succeeding in anything until you get honest with yourself. You even complain that your father didn't spend enough time with you. At least you had a father who was alive and cared and was providing for you - have you considered that? You have nothing at all to gain by continuing to provide excuses - and everything to gain by finding an optimistic outlook that considers possibilities rather than focusing on failures.

      Your childhood is over and what you did at age 9 isn't relevant at this point - time to stop fussing about it.

      Trucking is a rough job - a lot of jobs are hard and uncomfortable. You were delivering products designed and produced by other people to companies built by other people in a rig owned by other people.

      I personally know two truckers who worked for others for many years while they saved to buy their own rig - and now run their own companies. It wasn't easy - but the results were worth it.

      It costs money to live and jobs don't pay enough.

      When you live local food is way cheaper. BUT RENT = 1/3 of your paycheck. Your car = gas, registration, insurance, and maintenance...and suddenly UNEXPECTED BREAK DOWNS happen so there's another 1/3 of your paycheck.

      But you still need FOOD to survive, haven't even mentioned phone bill yet. Where's the "life enjoyment money?" It doesn't exist.

      Or it barely exists.

      My problem is with the system. The 1 percent having 99 percent and 99 percent having 1 percent.

      There is no margin for error.
      The "life enjoyment money" comes when you succeed. Until then, you work to pay the bills. Your problem at the basic level is you are convinced you deserve more. The system doesn't owe you anything - you owe it to yourself.

      It sounds as if you've been living in a "margin for error" for the eight years you've been an adult. You are stuck on a wish you had at age 9 - to be rich. You have added to that the desire to retire very young. It's not realistic and not a plan that will work unless you put some years of focused effort into it.

      It sounds harsh, I know - but wishes and dreams and excuses don't pay your way through life. Some people work 60-80 hrs a week year after year. Others prepare themselves educationally for a career they enjoy. Too often, we fall into jobs we are able to get (trucking/day labor) because we didn't plan for the future and life gets away from us.

      You are young and have plenty of time to create a good life for yourself. To do that you have to stop the introspective of "poor me" and focus on finding work you enjoy and can do well without complaints.

      Successful people have one thing in common - they provide services or products that others want and need. They focus on helping others rather than on explaining themselves.

      Learn to do that - and you'll get what you want out of life.

      kay
      Signature
      Saving one dog will not change the world - but the world changes forever for that one dog
      ***
      One secret to happiness is to let every situation be
      what it is instead of what you think it should be.
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  • Profile picture of the author umc
    That whole 1% vs 99% is yet just another excuse to blame others for your lack of progress. I grew up poor and I can tell you that poor people are often poor for a reason that isn't external, it is within them. I got out of that mentality and the bleak mentality that you are parroting. My wife and I made six figures last year cleaning houses and got out of debt . So get out of the truck and go mow lawns or do something else self employed and learn how to hustle and win while marketing yourself. Get margin between yourself and life and then you can pursue dreams from a position of strength instead of weakness. Lose the retire early and get rich mentality altogether and find work that you enjoy and don't want to leave. Work is something that humans need for happiness, it just needs to be fulfilling work. Yes, you can even find fulfillment in cleaning someone's toilet. Your mindset sucks and needs lots of work. You won't fix it by continuing your same course. You need to get perspective. Read books and listen to podcasts (I can make recommendations) and open your mind. You are stuck and need desperately to get unstuck.
    Signature

    Simple "pay what you want" life coaching services online.
    Get out of your own way in business. It's personal. Click Here

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  • Profile picture of the author Midnight Oil
    Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

    My problem is with the system. The 1 percent having 99 percent and 99 percent having 1 percent.
    Horse squeeze.

    Your problem isn't the system.

    Your problem isn't 1and1.

    Your problem isn't Google.

    Your problem isn't EMD sites.

    Your problem isn't how complicated Clickbank is.

    Your problem isn't writer's block.

    Your problem isn't the luck of a viral video.

    Your problem isn't that friends don't like to be advertised to on Facebook.

    Your problem isn't in keywords.

    Your problem isn't SEO.

    Your problem isn't traffic.

    Your problem isn't advances in technology.

    Your problem isn't programming lessons.

    Your problem isn't PHP.

    Your problem isn't the curse of being smart.

    Your problem isn't growing up too fast.

    Your problem isn't the corrupt industry you've been working in.

    Your problem isn't an abusive work environment or unsafe working conditions.

    Your problem isn't the lack of respect for truckers.

    Your problem isn't that you didn't have a credit card or couldn't make online purchases until you were 18.

    Your problem isn't a low paying job.

    Your problem isn't that you are overqualified for regular jobs.

    Your problem isn't the unexpected expenses in life.

    Your problem isn't the one tiny bit of bad luck in life.

    Your problem is that you make excuses for everything that isn't working in your life.

    Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

    I'm not an excuse-person.
    You most certainly are. Your posts in this thread are one excuse after another. At some point in the future, you will likely use the excuse that you asked the WF for help but really didn't get any answers that worked.

    There are those in life who are highly skilled at playing the blame game to excuse a lack of results. Stop playing the blame game. There's a successful strategy for almost every one of your "reasons" in these forums.

    Alexa gave you a great link, but you only skimmed it. Instead you choose to continue posting excuses for your lack of success, lack of money, etc.

    You've got no job and only $1,000 in savings. You need to make money now.

    Instead of posting more excuses, spend today reading all 18 pages and 859 posts in the thread Alexa linked to. From that thread, make a list of at least ten things you can do to make money now. From that list, pick one thing that you can start today or tomorrow. Do it.

    Here's one to get you started.

    The "system" isn't keeping you down. You are. No more excuses.
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    • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
      ^^^You listed what could be seen as excuses I've made but some of the things I've said are in deed FACTS. Things held me back. Than I was in a position of difficulty making it tough to get anywhere because of that position. A paradox of sorts.

      ***I have worked over 8000 hours in my life. You don't think I'm entitled to SOMETHING BY NOW???

      If anyone's making an excuse it's all the people JUSTIFYING working any harder than I already have TO GET NOWHERE.

      I need to change my mindset, and loose negativity, but sometimes people who tell me *I need to be realistic* aren't even being realistic them selves.

      The lawn mower example you sent me to...you know when I was 18,19, 20, and 21 I tried THAT. I had a pickup truck, and a lawn mower and TODAY I DO NOT HAVE A CAR I DO NOT HAVE A LAWN MOWER.

      I could spend money getting a lawn mower, BUT (and don't you dare call this an excuse) I've WASTED THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS ON AN UNSUCCESSFUL LAWN MOWING BUSINESS BEFORE.

      What's written on that thread seems simple: yet for me when I do the same exact thing for some reason I LOOSE MONEY.

      You can say I haven't done this or haven't done that BUT I HAVE DONE THIS THAT THAT AND EVERYTHING ELSE YOU CAN THINK OF...and IT'S GOTTEN ME NOWHERE.

      If I make excuses than why do I ***DO*** (take action) SO MUCH and get almost nothing in return?

      That's just bs. Terrible luck. Failure.

      I want to "not make excuses", I really do, but when nothing works and every "excuse" people say I make I THAN "void" the excuse BY TAKING THE ACTION that I "supposedly was not taking" and IT STILL GOES NOWHERE.

      Of any one out there on this Earth I am MORE WILLING TO FAIL THAN ANYONE YOU KNOW.

      (I've failed over and over and over and over and over and over and over again).

      ***And will continue to do so UNTIL I become successful. I won't ever quit.***

      But if I'm "making excuses" than why I have I been trying for so long and so hard and continuing DESPITE EVERY SET BACK?

      An excuse making person WON'T TAKE MORE ACTION. I DO. I take the action. No matter how many times things go wrong. I keep chugging along unsuccessfully.

      Things that look like excuses on the surface are actually IN REALITY more complex.

      There is such a thing as a paradox.

      No it isn't "me making excuses" it's the things that went wrong. That REALLY DID GO WRONG.

      I want a way out, absolutely.

      I AM LISTENING TO YOUR ADVICE.

      I agree with you I do make a lot of excuses but HERE'S WHAT I DON'T GET: even when I have NOT made excuses at certain points in my life for long periods of time it still got me NOWHERE.

      Success breeds success.

      Failure breeds failure.

      Failure breeding failure cuts down on your resources, your mindset, etc.

      I was "gung-ho" (freaking intensely motivated/ambitios/etc. for almost two decades now and I'm just FINALLY getting burnt out).

      I've done pretty good on keeping a positive mental attitude for what I've been through and how many times I've failed.

      But NO RESULTS.

      Something other than "me making excuses" IS INDEED MESSING THINGS UP. Because other people don't even try one tenth as hard as I do AND THEY GET RESULTS.

      If you could explain ^^^the solution to what I just wrote I would love to hear it^^^

      I'm in a failure-loop-paradox. It takes serious momentum or good luck or something to break free.

      No matter what I've tried NO RESULTS NO RESULTS NO RESULTS.

      ***BEFORE I EVER MADE EXCUSES***

      Looking back and saying "this messed me up and this messed me up" those aren't excuses, those are OBSERVATIONS.

      Excuses would be "I've failed before so I'm going to quit."

      ^^^I don't do that. Never have. SO HOW AM I ***REALLY*** MAKING EXCUSES?

      I'm not.
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      • Profile picture of the author seasoned
        Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

        ^^^You listed what could be seen as excuses I've made but some of the things I've said are in deed FACTS. Things held me back. Than I was in a position of difficulty making it tough to get anywhere because of that position. A paradox of sorts.

        ***I have worked over 8000 hours in my life. You don't think I'm entitled to SOMETHING BY NOW???
        *****WOW*****! 8000 hours!?!?!?!? 8000/40=200 weeks! Two HUNDRED WEEKS! WOW! 200/52=~3.85 years! So you have worked approximatey 3 years 10 months! WOW! What do you want? A gold watch? OK, I have worked approximately 102,960 hours!(I worked a lot of overtime and specific study, and much of that was given for NOTHING) If you get a gold watch, what should I get?

        If anyone's making an excuse it's all the people JUSTIFYING working any harder than I already have TO GET NOWHERE.

        I need to change my mindset, and loose negativity, but sometimes people who tell me *I need to be realistic* aren't even being realistic them selves.

        The lawn mower example you sent me to...you know when I was 18,19, 20, and 21 I tried THAT. I had a pickup truck, and a lawn mower and TODAY I DO NOT HAVE A CAR I DO NOT HAVE A LAWN MOWER.

        I could spend money getting a lawn mower, BUT (and don't you dare call this an excuse) I've WASTED THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS ON AN UNSUCCESSFUL LAWN MOWING BUSINESS BEFORE.

        What's written on that thread seems simple: yet for me when I do the same exact thing for some reason I LOOSE MONEY.

        You can say I haven't done this or haven't done that BUT I HAVE DONE THIS THAT THAT AND EVERYTHING ELSE YOU CAN THINK OF...and IT'S GOTTEN ME NOWHERE.

        If I make excuses than why do I ***DO*** (take action) SO MUCH and get almost nothing in return?

        That's just bs. Terrible luck. Failure.

        I want to "not make excuses", I really do, but when nothing works and every "excuse" people say I make I THAN "void" the excuse BY TAKING THE ACTION that I "supposedly was not taking" and IT STILL GOES NOWHERE.

        Of any one out there on this Earth I am MORE WILLING TO FAIL THAN ANYONE YOU KNOW.

        (I've failed over and over and over and over and over and over and over again).

        ***And will continue to do so UNTIL I become successful. I won't ever quit.***

        But if I'm "making excuses" than why I have I been trying for so long and so hard and continuing DESPITE EVERY SET BACK?

        An excuse making person WON'T TAKE MORE ACTION. I DO. I take the action. No matter how many times things go wrong. I keep chugging along unsuccessfully.

        Things that look like excuses on the surface are actually IN REALITY more complex.

        There is such a thing as a paradox.

        No it isn't "me making excuses" it's the things that went wrong. That REALLY DID GO WRONG.

        I want a way out, absolutely.

        I AM LISTENING TO YOUR ADVICE.

        I agree with you I do make a lot of excuses but HERE'S WHAT I DON'T GET: even when I have NOT made excuses at certain points in my life for long periods of time it still got me NOWHERE.

        Success breeds success.

        Failure breeds failure.

        Failure breeding failure cuts down on your resources, your mindset, etc.

        I was "gung-ho" (freaking intensely motivated/ambitios/etc. for almost two decades now and I'm just FINALLY getting burnt out).

        I've done pretty good on keeping a positive mental attitude for what I've been through and how many times I've failed.

        But NO RESULTS.

        Something other than "me making excuses" IS INDEED MESSING THINGS UP. Because other people don't even try one tenth as hard as I do AND THEY GET RESULTS.

        If you could explain ^^^the solution to what I just wrote I would love to hear it^^^

        I'm in a failure-loop-paradox. It takes serious momentum or good luck or something to break free.

        No matter what I've tried NO RESULTS NO RESULTS NO RESULTS.

        ***BEFORE I EVER MADE EXCUSES***

        Looking back and saying "this messed me up and this messed me up" those aren't excuses, those are OBSERVATIONS.

        Excuses would be "I've failed before so I'm going to quit."

        ^^^I don't do that. Never have. SO HOW AM I ***REALLY*** MAKING EXCUSES?

        I'm not.
        You really ARE being unrealistic!

        Steve
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        • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
          Typo. Not 8000. Way more than that.

          But YOU are being unrealistic by not seeing the fact that if a KID can draw a picture of fish on flip flops and contact a shoe company and suddenly become a millionaire because of doing just that THAN CERTAINLY ***ANYONE*** who GIVES UP 8000 OR MORE HOURS OF THEIR LIFE...DESERVES -->ABSOLUTELY WITHOUT A DOUBT -->$1 per hour worked ACTUALLY SAVED UP.

          That's NOT A LOT TO ASK FOR.

          It's COMPLETELY UNREASONABLE that everyone can't make that.

          1/8th return investment of CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIETY isn't much.

          And I've delivered OVER A BILLION DOLLARS of stuff when I was trucking.

          A BILLION. LITERALLY.

          I wasted my childhood researching how to make money, and trying failed business attempt after failed business attempt.

          AND I GOT A JOB AS SOON AS I COULD. And have been working ever since.

          And when I wasn't over the road I was ALSO doing internet marketing on top of that.

          No - I'm not being unrealistic when it comes to believing I deserve a heck of a lot more than what I've got.
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          • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
            Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

            Typo. Not 8000. Way more than that.

            But YOU are being unrealistic by not seeing the fact that if a KID can draw a picture of fish on flip flops and contact a shoe company and suddenly become a millionaire because of doing just that THAN CERTAINLY ***ANYONE*** who GIVES UP 8000 OR MORE HOURS OF THEIR LIFE...DESERVES -->ABSOLUTELY WITHOUT A DOUBT -->$1 per hour worked ACTUALLY SAVED UP.

            That's NOT A LOT TO ASK FOR.

            It's COMPLETELY UNREASONABLE that everyone can't make that.

            1/8th return investment of CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIETY isn't much.

            And I've delivered OVER A BILLION DOLLARS of stuff when I was trucking.

            A BILLION. LITERALLY.

            I wasted my childhood researching how to make money, and trying failed business attempt after failed business attempt.

            AND I GOT A JOB AS SOON AS I COULD. And have been working ever since.

            And when I wasn't over the road I was ALSO doing internet marketing on top of that.

            No - I'm not being unrealistic when it comes to believing I deserve a heck of a lot more than what I've got.
            As far as the 1/8th contribution to society being not much THAT is unrealistic to expect to get it in this corrupt world.

            The billion dollars I've delivered as a trucker - 1/8th of that - no I'm not gonna get that. I wouldn't expect that working a job when jobs are geared to make the owners rich and the employees just enough to survive so they can continue making the owners rich.

            But 1/8th of my wages over the years I should have that in the bank by now.

            And it's amazing, because I almost never spend money on having fun. I deposit my checks directly into the bank. I pay my bills.

            I eat food.

            I pay rent.

            I drive my car (when I have one).

            That's it.

            But that IS 90 percent of a paycheck.

            The other 10 percent GETS SAVED - until CAR DIES or somethng like that.

            No car = no way of going to work = no way of making money to fix car.

            I've WALKED 5 miles to work for a few months (both going to work and going home after work) when my car died.

            And STILL worked on the internet when I got home.

            It took that time without driving the car around and spending gas money on it to save up to fix it.

            I'm being unrealistic but so are a lot of people who are quick to judge me as an excuse maker.

            What would YOU do if you were in all those situations?

            Walking the talk vs talking it are different.

            I've lived the shitty experiences. I've tried really hard to get somewhere.

            Yet nothing. No results.

            I'm NOT being unrealistic in thinking I deserve more when MY WHOLE ENTIRE LIFE HAS BEEN SPENT TRYING TO MAKE MONEY.

            I've never done anything else.

            But for the amount of effort and dedication and perserverance I've put forth for so long it's absolutely ridiculous that my effort hasn't paid off.

            If I make excuses but I'm giving it EVERYTHING there's not much more I can do.

            I'm at full throttle, there's no "faster" or "take more action" BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN TAKING CRAP-TONS OF ACTION ALL MY LIFE.

            Why hasn't that paid off? And why do people think that it's an EXCUSE expecting SOMETHING (a little something) instead of a LOT OF NOTHING (for a heck of a lot of effort and time given up and sacrifices made)???

            That's messed up.
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            • Profile picture of the author Brandon Tanner
              What action do you think will give you the best chance at future success...

              A) Wasting more time continuing to make posts complaining about why you haven't been successful so far.

              or...

              B) Doing something about it. And by "something", I mean something different than what you've been doing for the past 18 years, obviously, because the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results (which sounds exactly like what you're doing).

              A lot of people have given you some great advice in this thread. But you need to start with your head. You need to change your entire outlook on life. This "victim" mindset is going to get you absolutely nowhere. Life is hard sometimes for everybody. Your situation is by no means unique to you. Not by a long shot.

              There are people in this world that bust their ass doing hard manual labor from sunup to sundown, that come home to a slum, and can barely afford enough food to keep their family alive.

              Do you think that YOU deserve success anymore than THEY do? Hell no you don't!!! If you grew up with a roof over your head and always had food to eat, you better be damn grateful. Because you're not "entitled" to ANYTHING. None of us are.

              The world doesn't owe you, or me, or anyone else, ANYTHING. Your success (or lack of) depends entirely on YOU.

              Now... you can keep complaining and making excuses. Or you can man up and do whatever it takes to change your circumstances.

              Your choice.
              Signature

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        • Profile picture of the author Kay King
          I have worked over 8000 hours in my life. You don't think I'm entitled to SOMETHING BY NOW???
          Right there - that's the problem you have in a nutshell. You aren't entitled to squat - none of us are.

          A person working a full time (8 hr a day) job works 2080 hrs in a year. For that, he gets a paycheck. People who work "jobs" often work about 40 years before they retire. New IMers often become successful by working early morning and late at night while they work a full time job to support a family, too. Many people pursue higher education for 8-10 years before they can even start their careers.

          Most people struggle for years to become an "overnight success" - and many dreamers see only the success and not the years of struggle. You don't get paid based on how much effort you've put forth - you get paid based on what you accomplish.

          You are holding on to a childhood dream of riches and easy living - even though experience should have taught you that doesn't happen to most people. It's not good to be 26 and talking about when you were 9. It's time to plan for where you will be at 30 and beyond.

          Childhood is over - you are an adult and from here on you only get older and, hopefully, wiser....or not. It's your choice to make.
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          • Profile picture of the author umc
            Winners never quit is a load of b.s. that people throw out when the reality is that winners quit all the time. They quit doing things that aren't working and find something that does. Something I've noticed from your posts, and I may be wrong as trying to follow all of this gets mind numbing for a guy like me with ADHD, but it seems like you kind of equate persistence with progress. You stuck with that 1and1 thing for quite some time and you blame it as a fact, yet wouldn't another fact be that you are the one that stuck with it despite it not working? Or let's take trucking. You complained about how bad that system is, and I'm not doubting you, but you are the one that stayed in it long enough to deliver a half a billion dollars worth of stuff or whatever. That's a fact too.

            You see, facts or statistics or whatever are looked at as though they are indeed reality. And they are, ONE reality. They can be manipulated based on your perception to paint the picture you want to paint on some level. I have a really beautiful photo I took of a creek in the fall at one of my favorite places. I've gotten compliments on it. What I didn't show you was the bloated deer just to the right of it, laying in that very creek. The reality is that both positive and negative were present, as they are in most all things, you choose which to see and which to represent in your life.

            If you can't see that my mentioning of starting a lawn business is just one example of an offline business you could start instead of bringing up that you tried that one method and it blew up on you and that therefore the point is null and void, that's on you. You can choose to see that, or you can do an autopsy on why that one method didn't work for you, what other ways you might be able to do something similar in a different field, or a different way.

            If you can't hack it in IM, then get out of it for a time and regroup. Find joy in other places in life and don't expect it to bring you what you're looking for. Happiness can be achieved many ways. But you have this awful vision of what jobs mean to people and the opportunity therein. You have an awful vision of where you stand in life and what got you there. I wonder how much else in life you're finding fulfilling with this darkness hanging over you.

            On the other hand, you have a great willingness to come here and open yourself up. You need that if you want to get out of the place you're stuck in. Everyone's advice has some merit to it. Find that and look bigger than the small experiences you've had. You're only 26, and you have such high expectations as do many people your age. Don't get caught in hyperbole and pick the few examples of seemingly easy success that someone had. Some people catch lightning in a bottle and it looks easy. Maybe that part of their lives is easy but they deal with other horrible things in life such as abuse. You don't know that. So don't bring up the tiny percentage that do catch something and use it to negate what you've done. You're on here asking for help. That's more than a lot of people. If you're willing to listen, that puts you up a few more notches. If you apply what you learn, you will grow even more.
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    • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
      Originally Posted by Midnight Oil View Post

      Horse squeeze.

      Your problem isn't the system.

      Your problem isn't 1and1.

      Your problem isn't Google.

      Your problem isn't EMD sites.

      Your problem isn't how complicated Clickbank is.

      Your problem isn't writer's block.

      Your problem isn't the luck of a viral video.

      Your problem isn't that friends don't like to be advertised to on Facebook.

      Your problem isn't in keywords.

      Your problem isn't SEO.

      Your problem isn't traffic.

      Your problem isn't advances in technology.

      Your problem isn't programming lessons.

      Your problem isn't PHP.

      Your problem isn't the curse of being smart.

      Your problem isn't growing up too fast.

      Your problem isn't the corrupt industry you've been working in.

      Your problem isn't an abusive work environment or unsafe working conditions.

      Your problem isn't the lack of respect for truckers.

      Your problem isn't that you didn't have a credit card or couldn't make online purchases until you were 18.

      Your problem isn't a low paying job.

      Your problem isn't that you are overqualified for regular jobs.

      Your problem isn't the unexpected expenses in life.

      Your problem isn't the one tiny bit of bad luck in life.

      Your problem is that you make excuses for everything that isn't working in your life.



      You most certainly are. Your posts in this thread are one excuse after another. At some point in the future, you will likely use the excuse that you asked the WF for help but really didn't get any answers that worked.

      There are those in life who are highly skilled at playing the blame game to excuse a lack of results. Stop playing the blame game. There's a successful strategy for almost every one of your "reasons" in these forums.

      Alexa gave you a great link, but you only skimmed it. Instead you choose to continue posting excuses for your lack of success, lack of money, etc.

      You've got no job and only $1,000 in savings. You need to make money now.

      Instead of posting more excuses, spend today reading all 18 pages and 859 posts in the thread Alexa linked to. From that thread, make a list of at least ten things you can do to make money now. From that list, pick one thing that you can start today or tomorrow. Do it.

      Here's one to get you started.

      The "system" isn't keeping you down. You are. No more excuses.
      I will give your advice a try (but I'm not doing the lawn mowing one I've lost too much money failing with lawn mowing before).

      I know in ways I am keeping myself down BUT (yes this is an excuse but also an explanation) it just doesn't make SENSE that after all I've done I haven't succeeded one bit.

      Excuses or not I've been a productive worker at every job I've ever had. I've never been fired, I was usually more productive at each job than the other people at the job (I got company recognition for that).

      I've done so much for so many other people but I've gotten nothing.

      I've given away productivity to make other people money.

      But in my own life have failed to be productive at making anything happen (despite spinning my tires with immense effort sustained for a really long time).
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  • Profile picture of the author Scott Ames
    It must really tick you off to read of the accidental multi-millionaires and billionaires. You know the ones that started a website, suddenly making hundreds of thousands a month?

    Tony Hsieh for example that started Link Exchange, sold it two years later for $265 million.
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    Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. -Winston Churchill

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    • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
      Originally Posted by Scott Ames View Post

      It must really tick you off to read of the accidental multi-millionaires and billionaires. You know the ones that started a website, suddenly making hundreds of thousands a month?

      Tony Hsieh for example that started Link Exchange, sold it two years later for $265 million.
      It absolutely does. Doesn't seem quite fair when I've put way more effort into it than them. People who accidentally made tons of money are so lucky they don't even have a clue. I've put my time in, I've made sacrifices, I've lived like crap for my entire life. And I keep plugging away. But no matter what I do I never break free of the lack of money problem. I get ahead, get some saved up, and than (when I had a car before I got debt because of not making enough money to pay for it) car would die. Would have to fix it with money I didn't have. If you have a job it's kind of a paradox because you spend so much money on keeping a car going just to get to work to make money that simply going to work eats up half your money.

      It's not right. Not right at all.

      The world certainly ain't fair. The people who DESERVE to be successful do not have while the ones that just had success fall in their lap get everything.
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      • Profile picture of the author evco8
        Wow...just a few thoughts

        We actualize our future through our words and thoughts.

        The fact that the title of your thread is 18 years of life wasted on IM speaks volumes.

        If you truly feel that your time pursuing an IM career has been wasted
        then it surely has been. Go seek other avenues.

        If you are distressed over the amount of time that it has taken you to hit paydirt
        then do self examination and modify your behavior toward a certain goal.

        You yourself said "UNTIL I become successful. I won't ever quit."

        If you truly believe this with all your heart and soul then understand that adversity
        in the form of emotional and often times financial suffering is the price that must be
        paid for your success.

        18yrs or 100yrs....it doesn't matter.

        Col Sanders of KFC fame didn't reach success until he was 66 but the important thing
        is that there would be no huge KFC franchise if he quit.

        No doubt some peoples adversity comes far worse than others but this is not about others
        this is about you.

        And how you handle adversity on your life's journey to whatever it is that you consider
        success will determine not only whether you get there but how fast.

        You can't lose if you don't quit
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        • Profile picture of the author BamIPD
          Originally Posted by evco8 View Post


          Col Sanders of KFC fame didn't reach success until he was 66 but the important thing
          is that there would be no huge KFC franchise if he quit.
          Very interesting.I didn't know he was 66 when he became successful. It's actually too bad he didn't quit because I hate KFC
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          • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
            Originally Posted by BamIPD View Post

            Very interesting.I didn't know he was 66 when he became successful. It's actually too bad he didn't quit because I hate KFC
            Seriously?

            If you don't like it, then you don't eat it correct? So in what way does that affect the Colonel in terms of his success and how long it was before he achieved it. I'm pretty sure he achieved it before you were old enough to buy it, so I say nada.

            Also I'm sure the people who do like it, would greatly disagree with your statement. The Colonel succeeded without your patronage. He made it big time. One simply cannot do that without a product the masses like.

            It's not too bad he didn't quit. It's too bad you don't understand what one needs to do to become successful and that the world doesn't revolve around you and your likes and dislikes.

            Terra
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            • Profile picture of the author BamIPD
              Originally Posted by MissTerraK View Post

              Seriously?

              If you don't like it, then you don't eat it correct? So in what way does that affect the Colonel in terms of his success and how long before it was before he achieved it. I'm pretty sure he achieved it before you were old enough to buy it, so I say nada.

              Also I'm sure the people who do like it, would greatly disagree with your statement. The Colonel succeeded without your patronage. He made it big time. One simply cannot do that without a product the masses like.

              It's not too bad he didn't quit. It's too bad you don't understand what one needs to do to become successful.

              Terra
              I don't eat it and it doesn't affect the colonel or the franchise in the slightest bit. There are hundreds of thousands of people who wont eat there just like me and KFC is doing AWESOME!

              I'm not sure you understood my sarcastic response because it has nothing to do with anything you replied about. I know what it takes to become successful. Me not liking KFC and joking about how he should have quit because I (ME! LOOK OVER HERE! IT'S ALL ABOUT ME! - see the sarcasm?) don't like it doesn't mean I don't think he's a brilliant business man.

              I was simply stating I never knew he was an old man by the time he was successful. I think it's great he finally achieved his dreams. I was just pointing out I hadn't heard that fact before and it made me happy that he followed through.
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              • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
                Originally Posted by BamIPD View Post

                I don't eat it and it doesn't affect the colonel or the franchise in the slightest bit. There are hundreds of thousands of people who wont eat there just like me and KFC is doing AWESOME!

                I'm not sure you understood my sarcastic response because it has nothing to do with anything you replied about. I know what it takes to become successful. Me not liking KFC and joking about how he should have quit because I (ME! LOOK OVER HERE! IT'S ALL ABOUT ME! - see the sarcasm?) don't like it doesn't mean I don't think he's a brilliant business man.

                I was simply stating I never knew he was an old man by the time he was successful. I think it's great he finally achieved his dreams. I was just pointing out I hadn't heard that fact before and it made me happy that he followed through.
                I would have got that if your post read this way:

                Very interesting. I didn't know he was 66 when he became successful. It is actually great that he didn't quit even though some people hate KFC, like myself. If he had quit because a few people didn't like his chicken, he may not have ever become successful.


                Terra
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          • Profile picture of the author Midnight Oil
            Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou


            Than I started taking action but

            A almost couldn't even BUILD a site with 1and1 but

            I would have made EMD sites TEN YEARS AGO, and made tons of money zipping people to affiliate links BUT

            And being a ClickBank Vendor and getting affiliates -- tried that once (in my dark ages when I managed to get a site to upload with 1and1 but

            But I still have a problem

            and I know a lot but

            making websites is the easy part but

            Daniel, I will try out your advice, but

            I've held jobs most of the time and done internet marketing in addition to the regular job but

            I can write 50 pages in a single day...but

            I wrote 126 "Steve-Pavlina-Style" (LONG) articles in three months but

            I've gotten better at it but

            My ears and eyes are open to any new methods, but

            I don't care at all where my traffic comes from - I just need it, but

            I made huge volumes of effort, did everything-and-anything out there to make money...article marketing, Adsense, affiliate programs, but

            I DID Visual Basic, but

            If I took classes than I would be able to keep up but

            I can code HTML and I can figure out how to make things happen with PHP code in WordPress themes and plugins (but

            I have the ambition to succeed and have always been extremely driven, but

            Smart, but

            I literally had an IQ test at one point and at that time I was a genius, but

            I spent 18 hours a day for several years "trying to get rich" but

            I did everything I knew to do but

            Yet I stuck with it for a while. I saved money. But

            I have worked for a handful of different trucking companies, tried to make my passion work. Didn't work, won't ever work unless I own the truck, but

            I understand that making excuses is self defeating, but

            But until I was 18

            I literally would've made more money working at McDonalds and being home every night, but

            You can "budget" all you want but

            I need to change my mindset, and loose negativity, but

            I could spend money getting a lawn mower, BUT

            You can say I haven't done this or haven't done that BUT

            I want to "not make excuses", I really do, but

            I agree with you I do make a lot of excuses but
            You need to get your "but" out of the way. It only encourages excuses.

            Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

            Things held me back.
            Get over it. You obsess over these things. You've allowed them to define you.

            Something holds us all back at some point. You either muscle through them, find a way around them or let them defeat you.

            Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

            I have worked over 8000 hours in my life. You don't think I'm entitled to SOMETHING BY NOW???
            No. None of us are entitled. Thinking you are keeps you firmly entrenched in the 99% mindset.

            Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

            The lawn mower example you sent me to...you know when I was 18,19, 20, and 21 I tried THAT. I had a pickup truck, and a lawn mower and TODAY I DO NOT HAVE A CAR I DO NOT HAVE A LAWN MOWER.

            I could spend money getting a lawn mower, BUT (and don't you dare call this an excuse)
            Excuse. I dared.

            Borrow a car or truck.
            Borrow a lawn mower.
            Buy a used or cheap lawn mower.
            Push your mower up and down the street knocking on doors.
            Get a friend to help and split what you make.

            You don't need thousands of dollars for a successful lawn business.

            Your "but" is still in the way.

            Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

            No it isn't "me making excuses" it's the things that went wrong. That REALLY DID GO WRONG.
            Again, you obsess over these things. Your past failures have become your default position when things don't work now.

            Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

            I AM LISTENING TO YOUR ADVICE.
            No, you're not. My advice was:

            Originally Posted by Midnight Oil View Post

            Instead of posting more excuses, spend today reading all 18 pages and 859 posts in the thread Alexa linked to. From that thread, make a list of at least ten things you can do to make money now. From that list, pick one thing that you can start today or tomorrow. Do it.
            Yet, here you are, continuing to make lengthy posts about why you can't get anywhere and all of the bad things that have happened to you.

            Instead of doing the hard work, like actually reading that entire thread and taking notes, you choose to defend your reasons for failure and expand upon them.

            Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

            I want a way out, absolutely.
            Then you have to be teachable. A lot of folks have given you some great advice on this thread. There's more great advice in the other thread at the link you were given.

            Ask questions about the tips, advice and strategies you have in front of you.
            Stop posting about your past failures.
            Stop trying to explain yourself.
            Stop living in the past.
            Drop the entitlement mindset.
            Remove "but" from your vocabulary.

            Are you teachable?
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            • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
              Originally Posted by Midnight Oil View Post

              You need to get your "but" out of the way. It only encourages excuses.



              Get over it. You obsess over these things. You've allowed them to define you.

              Something holds us all back at some point. You either muscle through them, find a way around them or let them defeat you.



              No. None of us are entitled. Thinking you are keeps you firmly entrenched in the 99% mindset.



              Excuse. I dared.

              Borrow a car or truck.
              Borrow a lawn mower.
              Buy a used or cheap lawn mower.
              Push your mower up and down the street knocking on doors.
              Get a friend to help and split what you make.

              You don't need thousands of dollars for a successful lawn business.

              Your "but" is still in the way.



              Again, you obsess over these things. Your past failures have become your default position when things don't work now.



              No, you're not. My advice was:



              Yet, here you are, continuing to make lengthy posts about why you can't get anywhere and all of the bad things that have happened to you.

              Instead of doing the hard work, like actually reading that entire thread and taking notes, you choose to defend your reasons for failure and expand upon them.



              Then you have to be teachable. A lot of folks have given you some great advice on this thread. There's more great advice in the other thread at the link you were given.

              Ask questions about the tips, advice and strategies you have in front of you.
              Stop posting about your past failures.
              Stop trying to explain yourself.
              Stop living in the past.
              Drop the entitlement mindset.
              Remove "but" from your vocabulary.

              Are you teachable?
              Holy crap! That's pathetic - "but this and but that."

              Excuses for excuses :-(

              Thanks for pointing it out like that. Excusing an excuse is an excuse itself.

              I have been busy reading from the link Alexa gave me, just multi-tasking this thread and that one.

              But I was still making excuses. And probably will for a little while because (yes this is an excuse: i see it now) - it's a habit that's been with me a really long time.

              Habits take like 30 days to vanquish, so that's what I need to focus on.

              I've got to make no excuses for a long enough period of time that I can break the habit because it's a really bad habit, one that hasn't helped me in any way and is the source of almost all of my frustration.

              I'm going to do it. I will succeed. Period.

              Thanks for your advice.
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    • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
      Even crazier than that: there was a girl who made DRAWINGS of flip flops with fishes on them.

      She's "sold the idea" to an investor and the result is "Fish Flops" Fish Flops! Fun Footwear For Kids

      She's a millionaire. And she will never have to work a day in her life. 10 years old or something like that. Drew a picture. And than...successful.

      It almost feels like the universe hates me. If success is THAT EASY for a 10 year old kid, than why on Earth after working my butt off for almost two DECADES, and having a job since 16, and doing odd jobs, and internet marketing, and EVERYTHING TO MAKE MONEY: I still have almost none?

      It's so messed up.

      ^^^That's not even considering people with inheritances, or people who won the lottery or celebrities that certainly worked hard but not THAT HARD (hard enough to deserve what they have when so many other people work 100 times harder and can't even EAT)

      I've been homeless before.

      Whenever i've been out of work I've always immediately gone job hunting. Some times it takes a while to get a job and than money dissapears.

      You work and save for a long time only to have a gap and it all comes crumbling down.

      And in trucking I'd rather have a gap in employment than fall asleep at the wheel and die/cause the death of other people so when you get burnt out on that it only MAKES SENSE (even though it will personally set you back financially) to do the right thing and "quit" (which isn't really quitting because you're doing what you HAVE TO DO TO NOT DIE - if you didn't quit when you got burnt out you actually WOULD BE QUITTING because you'd be risking your life - that's not acceptable).

      So yeah, whether i make excuses or not ( and I probably do), there's no doubt about it: life isn't fair.

      Some people have so much they really didn't deserve.
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      • Profile picture of the author seasoned
        Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

        Even crazier than that: there was a girl who made DRAWINGS of flip flops with fishes on them.

        She's "sold the idea" to an investor and the result is "Fish Flops" Fish Flops! Fun Footwear For Kids

        She's a millionaire. And she will never have to work a day in her life. 10 years old or something like that. Drew a picture. And than...successful.

        It almost feels like the universe hates me. If success is THAT EASY for a 10 year old kid, than why on Earth after working my butt off for almost two DECADES, and having a job since 16, and doing odd jobs, and internet marketing, and EVERYTHING TO MAKE MONEY: I still have almost none?

        It's so messed up.

        ^^^That's not even considering people with inheritances, or people who won the lottery or celebrities that certainly worked hard but not THAT HARD (hard enough to deserve what they have when so many other people work 100 times harder and can't even EAT)

        I've been homeless before.

        Whenever i've been out of work I've always immediately gone job hunting. Some times it takes a while to get a job and than money dissapears.

        You work and save for a long time only to have a gap and it all comes crumbling down.

        And in trucking I'd rather have a gap in employment than fall asleep at the wheel and die/cause the death of other people so when you get burnt out on that it only MAKES SENSE (even though it will personally set you back financially) to do the right thing and "quit" (which isn't really quitting because you're doing what you HAVE TO DO TO NOT DIE - if you didn't quit when you got burnt out you actually WOULD BE QUITTING because you'd be risking your life - that's not acceptable).

        So yeah, whether i make excuses or not ( and I probably do), there's no doubt about it: life isn't fair.

        Some people have so much they really didn't deserve.
        You're certainly right there. THAT is the reason that, when I was unable to do anything else, I tried considering a better system. I couldn't think of one. *****NOBODY***** in all of history ever has.

        Oh SURE, if we had an altruistic community controlled by a dictator, this place would be HEAVEN!!!!!!!!! IMAGINE! NO theft! INNOVATION better than EVER before! ALL could live a GREAT lifestyle, with many having LONG vacations, NO starvation! FAR less suffering! NO poverty! OH, it would be BEAUTIFUL!

        So what is wrong with the idea? How many REAL altruistic people are there? FEW dictators have ever started and ended up altruistic. There HAVE been a few apparently, but perhaps NONE in the past 3 centuries!

        SOME have an idea of one concept and think IT would be great, but it is based on the belief that all the leaders are altruistic, etc.... The sad part is NONE are! It has been tried for the past almost 200 years and NEVER succeeded! There is suffering, poverty, starvation, etc....

        You think that girl is bad? How about 2 people I could name in my industry that claimed they developed something I tracked back as far as a couple thousand years. It is something that I did LONG ago. TODAY, some ask me questions using THEIR terminology and I must study what THEY say NOT to learn, but to know THEIR opinions, THEIR reasons, and THEIR names! And they get paid tens of thousands, perhaps MORE, just to APPEAR someplace!

        Is THAT fair? I have developed things and found that others LATER patented them! One database company now sells a concept ***I*** told them about. I don't get a PENNY! Is THAT fair? Some people work hard on nice songs and tell a nice message with a nice tune and get a pittance. Others take a mishmash you can't even hear, put a beat to it, and become INSTANT sensations. Is THAT fair?

        Be happy you are so young. STOP talking about the stupid 1v 99 garbage! Someone LONG ago spoke of the 80/20 bit. THAT is more reasonable.

        And it isn't the quantity of the work, but the circulation, usability, and quality that count!

        Don't believe me? Consider this one person I heard of. Let's call him JDR. Anyway, he took a relatively worthless substance, and made a product from it. OK, I'll tell you the product. KEROSENE! It was useful for things like lighting and the like. But there was this nasty muck that was left over. Eventually that nasty byproduct became very valuable. In the US, two items made from it are called gasoline and tar. OK, I'll let you know. JDRs name was "John D. Rockefeller". His company had a virtual WORLD MONOPOLY on petroleum products. The US had to split it up into like a dozen companies. Texaco, Chevron, EXXON, Shell, just to name a FEW!

        Anyway, he got richer. WHY? Because of USABILITY! As it increased, he made more from the same stuff. Stuff he PAID people to take from him is today a big money maker!

        And what of circulation? Most of the people here, stars in hollywood, etc... depend on that.

        As for quality? It kind of goes without saying.

        Consider those things, and you will be fine.

        So what of supply and demand? It kind of fits. If supply is VERY low, lower quality might sell better, but generally quality trumps it. As for demand, circulation creates demand, and usability enforces that and people will take quality first.

        Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
    Originally Posted by onlinesolutions1985 View Post

    Hi!

    I think you have to find your web designer again because he is the one who suggest to in purchasing HostGator because I think he knows a solution for your problems and may be he is your lucky charm?
    Thanks, not sure if you're being sarcastic or not but either way no one is going to turn things around for me Except Myself.

    I need to stop being so self-defeating.

    That's the real problem. Not sure 100 percent how I will defeat it because it's not going to be as simple as snapping my fingers and than it gets defeated (probably just made another stinking excuse) - but (holy crap wow)...um...

    I'M JUST GOING TO DO IT!!!

    I'm going to make it happen!

    I will start looking at failures as learning experiences.

    HostGator would've made life easier and I bet if I had been building sites with the Gator several years earlier I would've been successful earlier on but it was MY FAULT for trying to make it work with 1and1 with all the problems 1and1 gave me I should have left them several years earlier and switched to HostGator.

    HostGator would've made things easier yes indeed, but it wasn't 1and1's fault that I stuck with them as shitty as they were. Their fault for being shitty, my fault for letting their shit-y-ness hold me back.

    They didn't hold me back at all. Only I did. I held myself back.

    I actually HAD thought of switching to HostGator years earlier but I didn't.

    Instead as someone on here said a few posts above (not sure who there's an ocean of posts here) I equated Persistance with Success.

    If anyone's been persistent it's me, persistent at chasing the same defeat I was trying to run away from by not taking accountability. FULL ACCOUNTABILITY.

    We may not all be born on a level playing field but I have two arms and two legs and my eyes work fine and my ears work fine and I'm REALLY SMART, I've got it a lot better than a lot of people do.

    I definitely have it well enough that even though survival is a monumental struggle - I can pull myself out of this and I can turn it around.

    I will turn it around.

    I will get help from other people, instead of being so stubborn, but<--dam ignore that, I WILL CHANGE MY MINDSET ALL ON MY OWN.

    I will look to outside observers for advice, and experienced people for advice, but no one's going to fix my self-limiting ness except me.

    They can recognize it, and have recognized it easier than I have. It's hard to look at your faults and recognize weaknesses.

    A lot easier to look at other people's faults. Human nature to be stubborn I think.

    But that stubbornness isn't helping me.

    So being open minded to not being a one man "do it myself" person in everything I do, I will actually become the "self made man" I was trying to be by making myself from within, but not entirely being self made by being open to working with others, and learning from others.

    Self made on the inside, but success for me will be a combination of perserverance (which I definitely have) plus open-minded-ness to change, plus IMPLEMENTING THE CHANGE ON MY OWN.

    And from within.

    Wow. I have wasted so many years of my life for nothing. Except that it wasn't a waste because I learned SO MUCH, yet didn't learn the most important thing until starting this thread and getting a ton of useful advice from outside observers who could see the errors in my ways.

    It would only be a waste if I were to continue on the same dead end road.

    I don't like that road. I'm a trucker, it's in my blood now, I'm really good at navigating roads and finding better roads, not so much when it comes to making money and living well, but navigationally speaking - I'm good at finding a better way.

    Now I'm going to do the same thing I do in finding better roads and apply it to internet marketing.

    I'm going to change. Enough withering away and living like crap.

    In fact I don't even need to look for a road or find a new path.

    It's right in front of me in the here and now.

    I have two options: "I can't do this because of this, or this is in the way, blah blah blah boo-hoo"

    AND, "Well I need to do THIS to GET AROUND THIS (potential obstacle - NOT mandatory obstacle)."

    Mind over matter. Yoga style, but realistic (I'm not telekinetic obviously though that would be neat)

    Change the mindset, change the outcome.

    "Do or Do Not. There is No Try."
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    • Profile picture of the author Midnight Oil
      Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

      I'm a trucker, it's in my blood now, I'm really good at navigating roads and finding better roads, not so much when it comes to making money and living well, but navigationally speaking - I'm good at finding a better way.

      Now I'm going to do the same thing I do in finding better roads and apply it to internet marketing.
      Why not combine trucking and internet marketing?

      Plenty of ebooks and website content to work with.

      Best Trucking Road Food
      Trucking news website
      Trucking jobs
      Trucking blog
      Trucking resources
      etc.

      Sounds like you might want to introduce yourself to gonzotrucker and check out his website.
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      • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
        Originally Posted by Midnight Oil View Post

        Why not combine trucking and internet marketing?

        Plenty of ebooks and website content to work with.

        Best Trucking Road Food
        Trucking news website
        Trucking jobs
        Trucking blog
        Trucking resources
        etc.

        Sounds like you might want to introduce yourself to gonzotrucker and check out his website.
        Thanks for the link. I just checked out his site and I will introduce myself to him as well.

        I had a site I worked on and got it really, really, really good. I lost it when I left 1and1 (but not because of them - because *I* let their complicatedness and domain-for-ransom-to-keep-you-with-them-for-along-time-tactics-that-are-in-their-fine-print hold me back).

        I've already registered a new site and I'm working on it now but it's a unique concept I don't want to give it all away just yet (companies that have money to throw down could develop my idea a lot faster than I could build it to the point of being what I want it to be).

        That website is something I am passionate about enough to do even if it wasn't to make money. I strongly believe in raising awareness about the corruption in the trucking industry. I believe I can make a difference with my site (eventually). I can't bring down the evil trucking companies but I can provide newbie drivers with information that would make them steer clear of trucking or get into it way more prepared.

        The site's goal is basically to tell the TRUTH that the general public has no idea about in the trucking industry. The greed, corruption, and the hold the company's have over drivers lives while in their employ.

        Right now it's just one page and a WordPress theme it took me thirty seconds to launch a bunch of months ago (HostGator IS AWESOME, glad I finally switched to them).

        I could make a fancy design in a day, that's not the focus, it's on content and sending out a message to people who are planning on driving a truck or already drive a truck and know the truths of what it is to be a long haul driver.

        The site will have articles to help drivers be more successful, to make better job hunting decisions, to keep themselves healthy, and to avoid the scams that I fell for.

        I also want to advocate for law changes in the industry that would seriously make life better for anyone who IS on the road (as a long haul trucker).

        I would much rather work on that site than a tutorial on making websites, or a several years later hope-to-get-pg-1 self development blog (I'm NEVER relying on SEO, never even going to blink an eye of SEO or "Keywords" again), but that's something I did try to do.

        I read Steve Pavlina's article on why you should never have a job (Google Steve Pavlina + Evil Bovine Master)...that one.

        And he wrote about passive income from the internet.

        I read tons of his articles and got it in my head if I could build a site that ranked well and pulled in traffic I would make money. I tried delivering value with my self development articles but writing that subject just isn't my forte (nor interest).

        Trucking on the other hand: I know what I'm talking about, I'm passionate about it, and I wouldn't get as burnt out writing on the subject.

        And I could make a HUGE DIFFERENCE in a lot of people's lives.

        Getting rich would be nice to, but with what I know from first hand experience in the industry I know I could put that to use on the internet and do some good with it. A lot of good.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ken Houck
    I didnt read it all, but has someone suggested finding a mentor/coach to help you?
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    • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
      Originally Posted by Ken Houck View Post

      I didnt read it all, but has someone suggested finding a mentor/coach to help you?
      Yes it has been suggested and I think it would be a really smart thing as I have so much know-how I just don't know what to do with it (information overload) though the biggest problem I have is excuses.

      I need to tackle that first, and get a mentor second (to learn how to un-overload the information overload problem and put it to use).

      Money's low now, so I have to focus first on getting money coming in, and when that happens I definitely am open to having a mentor (not right now though as I need cash flow instead of debt flow @ a tm with no income).
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  • Profile picture of the author george b
    This guy cant be serious? Surely?

    Trolling at its absolute best!
    Signature
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  • Profile picture of the author FitMarketer
    Sorry to hear about your faliure.

    I believe in focusing on one thing but I think if something is not working for you for a period of time its time to move on!

    18 years is a long time to be focussing on something if its onlyn brought you in $1000
    There are many ways to make money online not getting ranked in Google

    You need to be creative and willing to learn and test along the way

    I hope you can find away to learn a lesson from your failure and move on and achieve success online
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  • Profile picture of the author ezekielseo
    - Wow, 18 years almost as old as me...

    I see where you are going here, the IM world is about consistency and taking action.

    You probably stopped taking action after you hadn't seen any results. Paid traffic would seriously help you out, it'll keep the ball rolling and help you get the motivation you need to keep taking action.

    PPV is a great way to make money, search around on the forum about PPV learn it take action and I know for sure you'll see results.

    Stick to one thing and don't switch up, you'll just fall into "the shiny object syndrome". Which basically means you'll be switching between the next best thing to the other.

    Few things you need to know:

    -STICK TO ONE THING, AND ON THING ONLY. Once you start earning good from that, scale it up, or build more income streams with the money you've earned from that one method!

    -TAKE ACTION!!

    Hope you start earning!

    -Zeke.
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  • Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

    18 years of my life wasted trying to get rich off the internet only to go broke instead :-(
    Not to be rude but... not everyone's cut out to be an entrepreneur...

    If you've been trying "something" (whatever that "something" might be - Internet Marketing for example) for 18 years without any positive outcome... don't you think it's about time you search some other endeavor that might fit your skills better?
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    • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
      Originally Posted by Anonymous Affiliate View Post

      Not to be rude but... not everyone's cut out to be an entrepreneur...

      If you've been trying "something" (whatever that "something" might be - Internet Marketing for example) for 18 years without any positive outcome... don't you think it's about time you search some other endeavor that might fit your skills better?
      I kind of do...but "a job" certainly isn't better. I've had a job basically since 16 and worked ever since with only brief gaps in between long haul trucking burnout recovery phases.

      BUT DOESN'T WHAT YOU SAY ALSO APPLY TO ALL THE *JOB PEOPLE* WHO WORK FOR FORTY YEARS OR MORE AND JUST BREAK EVEN????

      This is no different. Except I've had a job the same time so I've worked WAY MORE HOURS and gotten the same results an average American is getting in today's economy. There are 35 year olds who HAD HOMES and lost them because of the economy and had to move back in with "Mom and Dad." There are people who ARE NOT EXCUSE MAKERS that by no means of their own got screwed over and set back and do the best they can and still get nowhere.

      Than there are people who make exuses. I've made a lot of excuses over the years, but there are people who don't make excuses (or not as many as I have) and they barely get anywhere.

      Living in poverty until 65 is WAY MORE THAN 18 YEARS OF HAVING A JOB and getting no results.

      By doing the 18 years of extra work at the same time I've ALSO HELD JOBS, I have knowledge, and skills and stuff, that if I ever figure out how to apply: I'll do very well and sooner rather than another 18 years from now.

      In today's economy if it stays the way it is now people WON'T be retiring at 65 they'll be retiring at 75 or 85 (if they live that long).

      It's time to "move on" in a sense, but isn't it time for all the JOB PEOPLE that SWEAR ON THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING A JOB (and who never rise above poverty in all the time they have one) to WAKE UP AND MOVE ON TO?

      Absolutely.

      Problem is: that's everyone who has a job who fits the "work forty year mold."

      That's a lot of people. Obviously some have to have low wage jobs and some have to have higher wage or salary or commissions "jobs"/businesses/investments/etc. because that's just the way it works.

      It shouldn't be and I think there are better ways but the world doesn't WANT to change as much as people talk about wanting change. So many people are "content" complaining about how they have no money and their job doesn't get them ahead in life but they don't make the extra effort to do other stuff on top of their job until they figure out how to make it work.

      I've done extra- and gotten no results from my extra.

      But all the people who just do jobs and don't bother with the extra aren't getting any result (their giving up less of their time so if I were to never succeed (which won't happen because I've had a mindset shift and am bound and determined to succeed) either.

      So I'm losing more time, but if I catch up quickly than I'll actually have caught up and gained time because I won't be 65 + years old retiring with nothing like most people do.

      If I should "just move on" than so should ALL the unhappy job folk that are JUST OVER BROKE and stay that way for FORTY YEARS.
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  • Profile picture of the author ozkantarkan
    OK, I never give advices because I never want to give harm to people, pointing at wrong direction. Same for my kid. Well, I’ll tell you the truth and hope you can get your own advice below.

    Here is the main point,
    You were after really low hanging fruit. I mean there are low hanging fruits but they are collected by many people FAST. Think about the gold rush, land rush, oil, industrial machinery times in the past. When there was the first oil discovered you could dig a small hole and could find oil but now it takes hundreds of miles to dig down to find oil. Same for gold. Same for lands, same for domains, same for offline businesses and same for online businesses.
    Now it is time to dig further down or, you have to climb up the tree to collect fruits. EMD you mention was just one of the low hanging fruits to be collected but it is gone like many.
    Let me tell you my story and you can get further points.

    I was on internet 1995. I was 16 in that year. I was able to hand code html and make a decent website that days. I did. I made pages for fun, pictures, formula 1 etc… I was always chasing after big ideas that I could make. I saw many successful websites launched and grew till this time on different topics and niches. But I just didn’t happen to think to do them before they appeared. Also I have seen hundreds even thousands of failing good ideas. People think of ideas that became successful. They think of people became rich. Did you think about people followed a plan or stick with his idea for years that led to nothing? You see google and facebook projects are successful. I remember those days we used altavista, webcrawler were big capital and authority search engines. Do you know how many social network or search engine projects failed? So it is not that easy to say I thought about it. If you were to implement such a new idea, there are many many problems you face along the way. It is a complicated machine. All components must function to get it work.

    You think if you were to ride EMD wave you would be… Do you know how many people rode the EMD wave with long tail keywords to rank up websites and get income by adsense and turned back to ZERO almost overnight? I also think if I were to but dictionary domains in 1995… Do you think it was easy to pay 150$/domain and hold it for 15 years to become a millionaire today? How would you know they would be valuable or internet would be valuable today? How would you know .com will matter regardless of .anything will be open to public?

    Same thing happened to people discover lathe in 1950’s. And same for CNC machines, CAD/CAM software’s in 2000’s. they were to ride some wave to get ahead. Now everybody in whatever machine he is making, expert in that machine. Filling, packaging etc. There are no low hanging fruits in those areas.

    IMPORTANT!!!
    Here is an idea for you. If you would like to catch up a cool trend from start, go ahead an develop app for Samsung TV! Yes my tv has appstore with almost no apps, crappy apps and all free.
    Will you do it? But after 5-10 years when people are starting to make millions of TV apps, will you remember me? But will you do it now? No. Because it doesn’t make money now. Industry is not ready yet. Come on, there is no competition, yes you can rank on first page instantly, will you do it? No you won’t.. Internet was just like Samsung appstore now in 1995. So as you have to power to get back to those days with Samsung tv appsore but you are not doing it, don’t look back those days saying “If I had …”

    Let me tell you a story of 2 internet marketers. They went to safari and suddenly they saw a lion. One of them immediately took off his walking shoes and wear on running shoes. The other said that “Hey what are you doing, you can not outrun a lion!” He replied, “I don’t need to outrun a lion, I just need to outrun you!”

    You what you may need to do is refining oil. Refining what there is now. Drilling for oil is a risky business. Google, facebook, flippa, fiverr etc.. all are drilling for oil. Yes you may hit the oil and become millionaire in one day but there is a risk to lose a lot.
    Regarding the get rich quick… Why do you position yourself out of being get rich quick? Is it a bad thing?
    Maybe it is the problem… I mean you may be focused too much on making money on the long run. Why not try to get rich quick?

    OK, 1995 to 1999 I was on internet for how to XXX. Like how to make casting at home, how to make plastic injection molding machine, how to make a boat, how to make your CNC at home etc… I was getting incredible important information and implementing on myside. I made furnaces, molds, circuit boards etc. I was using internet to get howto information to start up offline business locally.

    1997 to 2002 I used internet to find a girlfriend. I dated hundreds maybe but didn’t have a relationship. I was on IRC, ICQ etc. Also those years I played strategy and business games. I was at university by the way those times. I’m an engineer.

    After I graduate, I married. I tried several businesses, I produced some low-quality, homemade machines etc. But it was not 1950’s 1970’s. My inventions could work in those times but in 2003’s or so, they didn’t. I opened up a store to sell something by the time I could work to invent something. Store didn’t go well.

    I had to close it and get a job in 2004. My first job as R&D engineer. After a year, I understood that being engineer I can not get my goals to be businessman. I left it and applied for high the sales engineer job 2006. I sold record numbers, became sales manager in 2007. It was nothing but few more dollars. I started a company in 2008 to sell printed circuit boards it didn’t work. Back to sales manager. 2009, I left the company but the president of the company offered me to open up a company %50-50 share. I was expert in what I was selling/managing. We sold 1M$ but I only earned 20-30K$. In 2011 the company became 13 people me as %50 share holder and selling good. They gamed on me they took all I have and I was left flat broke of a sudden! I had only 1-2 months of money to survive with a baby.

    I started all over, tried to get a job. I tried to push hard to get back to point I was before, no way… I took higher paying job. Tried my best. But I wanted to sell something in parallel on my own for me. I then think that it was bad what I did somehow, I think it was cheat. I wanted to get back to level I was before hard but it was not fair I thought. I tried to recover my mistake, did that even but they discovered it few months later and fired me.

    I was back to zero in 2012 again… I had some offline sales experience. Also, for all these times, I have internet marketing and website etc. experience. So I borrowed some money to build 3 offline business for reselling chemical agents, reselling brand software and consulting service. To see which one will stick. And internet marketing, as well. The businesses were making some money last year. However I decided to focus only for online businesses. (For several reasons) Doing both makes distraction. You somehow progress too slow and it demotivates you. I studied many courses for 1 year even though I’m on internet since 1995 professionally. I had more than 500 domains. I decided to develop the but there are many things involved now, making website, generating content, video, graphics, social media, social bookmarking, SEO, ppc, …. List goes on. I understood that I cannot do it all by myself even though I could technically. I now employ 8 people for technical, seo, video, article writer’s full time. I’m paying their salary and none of the projects made any money yet But I understand it is like a complicated machine. All of these must function properly and after sometime it can generate money. I understand that I have to pay those expenses upfront. So as it is not low hanging fruits, I need to go high up.
    I can say that online and offline businesses are the same as they operate like a machine. Being an employee you are just a component of the machine. To earn money you have to control the entire machine. And it should run smooth it generate profit. And I faced it that “don’t make your business on sand, especially on someone else’s beach.” I lost my whole business because of this. And seen many people lost overnight. Selling is important but not enough. From product to sell, whole cycle is the key. You have to supply whole thing to call it a real business. Or you are broker or salesman. If you sell good numbers, the vendor someday can see it and cut off everything overnight and you are left alone with nothing. Why does he do it for a high selling reseller? He may decide to sell his product on his own to make more profit. And several other reasons. Be careful.

    Finally, you are generally looking for one thing that works to keep on doing it and earn lots of money. Same like girls, I faced problems dating etc. My longest relationship was 3 months. But when I was 23, I met a girl and we are married for more than 10 years. Looking back the other crappy girls I dated and left me etc, I now lough with a happy smile while I was crying for months those days.

    Same for business. If you get one thing that makes profit and is growing huge, you may well be looking at today with a good smile forgetting your past as though it never existed.
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    • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
      Originally Posted by ozkantarkan View Post

      OK, I never give advices because I never want to give harm to people, pointing at wrong direction. Same for my kid. Well, I'll tell you the truth and hope you can get your own advice below.

      Here is the main point,
      You were after really low hanging fruit. I mean there are low hanging fruits but they are collected by many people FAST. Think about the gold rush, land rush, oil, industrial machinery times in the past. When there was the first oil discovered you could dig a small hole and could find oil but now it takes hundreds of miles to dig down to find oil. Same for gold. Same for lands, same for domains, same for offline businesses and same for online businesses.
      Now it is time to dig further down or, you have to climb up the tree to collect fruits. EMD you mention was just one of the low hanging fruits to be collected but it is gone like many.
      Let me tell you my story and you can get further points.

      I was on internet 1995. I was 16 in that year. I was able to hand code html and make a decent website that days. I did. I made pages for fun, pictures, formula 1 etc... I was always chasing after big ideas that I could make. I saw many successful websites launched and grew till this time on different topics and niches. But I just didn't happen to think to do them before they appeared. Also I have seen hundreds even thousands of failing good ideas. People think of ideas that became successful. They think of people became rich. Did you think about people followed a plan or stick with his idea for years that led to nothing? You see google and facebook projects are successful. I remember those days we used altavista, webcrawler were big capital and authority search engines. Do you know how many social network or search engine projects failed? So it is not that easy to say I thought about it. If you were to implement such a new idea, there are many many problems you face along the way. It is a complicated machine. All components must function to get it work.

      You think if you were to ride EMD wave you would be... Do you know how many people rode the EMD wave with long tail keywords to rank up websites and get income by adsense and turned back to ZERO almost overnight? I also think if I were to but dictionary domains in 1995... Do you think it was easy to pay 150$/domain and hold it for 15 years to become a millionaire today? How would you know they would be valuable or internet would be valuable today? How would you know .com will matter regardless of .anything will be open to public?

      Same thing happened to people discover lathe in 1950's. And same for CNC machines, CAD/CAM software's in 2000's. they were to ride some wave to get ahead. Now everybody in whatever machine he is making, expert in that machine. Filling, packaging etc. There are no low hanging fruits in those areas.

      IMPORTANT!!!
      Here is an idea for you. If you would like to catch up a cool trend from start, go ahead an develop app for Samsung TV! Yes my tv has appstore with almost no apps, crappy apps and all free.
      Will you do it? But after 5-10 years when people are starting to make millions of TV apps, will you remember me? But will you do it now? No. Because it doesn't make money now. Industry is not ready yet. Come on, there is no competition, yes you can rank on first page instantly, will you do it? No you won't.. Internet was just like Samsung appstore now in 1995. So as you have to power to get back to those days with Samsung tv appsore but you are not doing it, don't look back those days saying "If I had ..."

      Let me tell you a story of 2 internet marketers. They went to safari and suddenly they saw a lion. One of them immediately took off his walking shoes and wear on running shoes. The other said that "Hey what are you doing, you can not outrun a lion!" He replied, "I don't need to outrun a lion, I just need to outrun you!"

      You what you may need to do is refining oil. Refining what there is now. Drilling for oil is a risky business. Google, facebook, flippa, fiverr etc.. all are drilling for oil. Yes you may hit the oil and become millionaire in one day but there is a risk to lose a lot.
      Regarding the get rich quick... Why do you position yourself out of being get rich quick? Is it a bad thing?
      Maybe it is the problem... I mean you may be focused too much on making money on the long run. Why not try to get rich quick?

      OK, 1995 to 1999 I was on internet for how to XXX. Like how to make casting at home, how to make plastic injection molding machine, how to make a boat, how to make your CNC at home etc... I was getting incredible important information and implementing on myside. I made furnaces, molds, circuit boards etc. I was using internet to get howto information to start up offline business locally.

      1997 to 2002 I used internet to find a girlfriend. I dated hundreds maybe but didn't have a relationship. I was on IRC, ICQ etc. Also those years I played strategy and business games. I was at university by the way those times. I'm an engineer.

      After I graduate, I married. I tried several businesses, I produced some low-quality, homemade machines etc. But it was not 1950's 1970's. My inventions could work in those times but in 2003's or so, they didn't. I opened up a store to sell something by the time I could work to invent something. Store didn't go well.

      I had to close it and get a job in 2004. My first job as R&D engineer. After a year, I understood that being engineer I can not get my goals to be businessman. I left it and applied for high the sales engineer job 2006. I sold record numbers, became sales manager in 2007. It was nothing but few more dollars. I started a company in 2008 to sell printed circuit boards it didn't work. Back to sales manager. 2009, I left the company but the president of the company offered me to open up a company %50-50 share. I was expert in what I was selling/managing. We sold 1M$ but I only earned 20-30K$. In 2011 the company became 13 people me as %50 share holder and selling good. They gamed on me they took all I have and I was left flat broke of a sudden! I had only 1-2 months of money to survive with a baby.

      I started all over, tried to get a job. I tried to push hard to get back to point I was before, no way... I took higher paying job. Tried my best. But I wanted to sell something in parallel on my own for me. I then think that it was bad what I did somehow, I think it was cheat. I wanted to get back to level I was before hard but it was not fair I thought. I tried to recover my mistake, did that even but they discovered it few months later and fired me.

      I was back to zero in 2012 again... I had some offline sales experience. Also, for all these times, I have internet marketing and website etc. experience. So I borrowed some money to build 3 offline business for reselling chemical agents, reselling brand software and consulting service. To see which one will stick. And internet marketing, as well. The businesses were making some money last year. However I decided to focus only for online businesses. (For several reasons) Doing both makes distraction. You somehow progress too slow and it demotivates you. I studied many courses for 1 year even though I'm on internet since 1995 professionally. I had more than 500 domains. I decided to develop the but there are many things involved now, making website, generating content, video, graphics, social media, social bookmarking, SEO, ppc, .... List goes on. I understood that I cannot do it all by myself even though I could technically. I now employ 8 people for technical, seo, video, article writer's full time. I'm paying their salary and none of the projects made any money yet But I understand it is like a complicated machine. All of these must function properly and after sometime it can generate money. I understand that I have to pay those expenses upfront. So as it is not low hanging fruits, I need to go high up.
      I can say that online and offline businesses are the same as they operate like a machine. Being an employee you are just a component of the machine. To earn money you have to control the entire machine. And it should run smooth it generate profit. And I faced it that "don't make your business on sand, especially on someone else's beach." I lost my whole business because of this. And seen many people lost overnight. Selling is important but not enough. From product to sell, whole cycle is the key. You have to supply whole thing to call it a real business. Or you are broker or salesman. If you sell good numbers, the vendor someday can see it and cut off everything overnight and you are left alone with nothing. Why does he do it for a high selling reseller? He may decide to sell his product on his own to make more profit. And several other reasons. Be careful.

      Finally, you are generally looking for one thing that works to keep on doing it and earn lots of money. Same like girls, I faced problems dating etc. My longest relationship was 3 months. But when I was 23, I met a girl and we are married for more than 10 years. Looking back the other crappy girls I dated and left me etc, I now lough with a happy smile while I was crying for months those days.

      Same for business. If you get one thing that makes profit and is growing huge, you may well be looking at today with a good smile forgetting your past as though it never existed.
      I don't even know where to begin!...thanks for probably the best advice I've received yet.

      Me making excuses was a huge problem and without fixing that I won't get anywhere (a lot of people gave me advice about fixing my mindset and I agree with them).

      With that said: there were huge periods of time when I didn't make excuses (before I got burnt out on failing for 18 years with no results).

      And that's not failing because I have indeed learned from it, but to me at the time (until basically today) I looked at my past as a complete failure (which it WAS NOT).

      In those huge periods of time when I didn't make excuses I still got nowhere.

      I was chasing after low hanging fruit (but no one's ever described it as eloquently and simplistically as you have). That fruit got picked up fast.

      EMD would have made me money IF I was launching sites basically immediately when EMD was figured out. Once something like that gets figured out all inet marketers scramble to reverse engineer it and engineer a way to profit from it. The lack of people building websites meant EMD success wouldn've been so easy if I was one of the first to catch on and got focused and launched websites left and right.

      Quality matters in many cases but way back than the sheer volume of SEO traffic I could've gotten in huge bursts would have made tons of money (that would die off quickly but also would've made me more money in a single year than what I've earned in my entire life if I acted fast enough -- which I didn't).

      I do not like SEO. I never have, and Alexa gave me a golden nugget. That I should firmly close my eyes and ears to anything with "keyword" in it. I agree with her on that completely, especially since I missed the "bandwagon" for EMD, long tail keywords, SEO itself in whole in part, general SEO or "niche SEO"...it's all PAST IT'S "low hanging fruit days."

      The way I'm understanding you, the low hanging fruit is like oil and the gold rush (when it takes off before the market/ability to profit from it gets way more difficult). The higher fruit is kind of like what hasn't happened yet. I need to be ready for it when it falls, and get to it before it does because when it becomes low hanging fruit I won't have much of a chance.

      I can still go after the low hanging fruit but since everyone else is in a mad dash for the cash if I'm in that mad dash I need to be one step ahead of them.

      (Out running the lion not possible but out running the competition, being ahead of them at the golden-moment of opportunity).;

      I've been trying to ride a wave that long ago settled down. It's low tide now (in the areas I've been focusing), but the waves are strong and fast in the un tapped markets.

      Those markets will be low hanging fruit some day, and if I'm ready for when that happens (before it happens or IMMEDIATELY when it does happen) and I go after it AGGRESSIVELY -- more aggresively than the competition, than I WILL stand a good chance on being able to ride the wave successfully.

      To basically get the gold without having to dig for miles.

      I've been chasing what's already been reverse engineered and written about and almost all the information overload that I had in my mind was USELESS INFORMATION because I didn't act fast enough on the new techniques.

      Which is why SEO (anything in SEO) is a waste of time. It's unreliable because it changes too fast.

      The waves were big in the beginning, and they were slow waves (relatively speaking in "internet time") compared to how fast SEO changes now.

      The waves now in SEO are small and move faster. There's less fruit available when it's low hanging fruit and there are more people trying to get it.

      I need to stop going after the low hanging fruit that people have already scooped up.

      When it's low and first shows up (when some big new advance/innovation/technique in something ("F" SEO -- anything other than SEO) shows up...GO AFTER IT "Fast and Furiously", don't hesitate.

      Because in today's world the "gold rush" is the equivalent of month's time. The oil rush is a month. Low hanging fruit gets scooped up VERY FAST.

      Thanks for the really great advice.

      Between what you've written and me working on not making excuses I KNOW (NOT "I THINK") I CAN AND WILL TURN THIS AROUND.

      When that low hanging fruit falls I will be the first to get it. I will be ready for it. I will have my eyes on it before other money-chasing people REALIZE that the fruit IS a golden nugget.

      I will realize before someone else does and go for it without waiting around for other people to succeed (a few people) and THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WHO DON'T SUCCEED to write about the technique as if "it's so easy you can do this and do that... throw up some articles on EzineArticles, make an EMD site... yadayadayadaya and you'll be a millionaire tomorrow"

      I now realize that a lot of the information that's cluttered my mind has been SO USELESS because it was written long after those techniques worked, and other people's minds have been overloaded with crap-info that they've then spread around as "this is what you to do make money online" when THOSE TECHNIQUES WERE ALREADY LONG EXPIRED because somebody else got to them and capitalized on them first.

      While other's "still make it" in those low-hanging fruit niches, their LUCKY because their getting the few pieces of fruit left over that the SCRAMBLING FAST PEOPLE WHO CAUGHT ON RIGHT AWAY happened to miss.

      Thanks for you're way of looking at this. It's been an eye opener. (As has the advice of all the people who told me (and showed me) how many excuses I make).
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      • Profile picture of the author umc
        Just thought the OP deserved this for manning up and admitting where he's gone wrong and keeping an open mind. So many people ask for advice and then spend the entire time fighting it while refusing to acknowledge their involvement. If we could only get a lot of other people out there to own up to the reasons they hold themselves back instead of blaming everyone else, the world would be a brighter place.

        Signature

        Simple "pay what you want" life coaching services online.
        Get out of your own way in business. It's personal. Click Here

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  • Profile picture of the author goindeep
    Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

    Hi, I taught myself computer programming at age 9 (I'm 26 now). I've made $1000 off the internet, and I've probably spent ten times that out of pocket.

    I've been trying to get rich off the internet since I first knew it existed. So far, no luck. I've only lost money but I'm not one to give up easily.

    I did the information overload and no action thing for a long time.

    Than I started taking action but I had a terrible web hosting company (1and1) and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't build a website.

    Than I hired a web designer who was shocked by how difficult it was to use 1and1 and told me I should go to HostGator so I did and WOW what a difference. I fired my web designer at that point because I could do everything he could do myself.

    **I fully believe that if I had had a HostGator account 5 or 10 years ago I would be a millionaire today, bc I would have BUILT SITES THAT WORKED, AND BUILT THEM FAST, and GOTTEN THEM TO RANK ON GOOGLE.***

    Now of course its a million times tougher to rank a website.

    A almost couldn't even BUILD a site with 1and1 but if I had HostGator years ago I would've had no problem in that area... I would have been using WordPress instead of Front Page and wouldn't have been hand-coding and FTP-ing my sites page by page because more than one page uploaded at a time would "crash" the 1and1 website and it wouldn't upload right.

    I would have made EMD sites TEN YEARS AGO, and made tons of money zipping people to affiliate links BUT...now it's so much tougher to rank a site.

    Article marketing seems dead. EMD seems dead. And being a ClickBank Vendor and getting affiliates -- tried that once (in my dark ages when I managed to get a site to upload with 1and1 but it was 100 times more work to make it happen than it should've been bc 1and1 sucks and I eventually got burnt out).

    That vendor site is no longer around and would've been a much more impressive site if I was using WordPress and CPanel, but you can view my old site at The Guide to a Safer Identity

    I just launched a website development tutorial (basically it's for people that don't know anything about coding) it is websitemadebyyou.com this is the site I'm mostly interested in getting advice on but I just mentioned the other site to show that I'm a step ahead the 99 percent of people who don't ever take action of any kind. But I still have a problem. The almost-no-money-problem. I've taken PLENTY of action; yet I get NEGATIVE RESULTS. I loose money.

    Despite what I know (and I know a lot but I have SO MUCH INFORMATION OVERLOAD IN MY MIND)...its way tougher to make money now that I actually can build a site because of how many people can build sites easily.

    I'm not a "get rich quick online" mindset-ed person. 2013-1995=18 yrs. Obviously I've been at this for quite some time, yet to no avail. What's the point this long and no results?

    Am I on track building my web development tutorial? I figure if I get a t-shirt that says "learn how to make your own website at www.WebsiteMadeByYou.com" and wear it all the time that the site will eventually take off, and since it PROVIDES VALUE, maybe people will follow the steps in the tutorial and generate me some HostGator commissions (and BringTheFresh commissions)?

    I know if I hadn't missed the "EMD band-wagon" it'd be so much easier to get volumes of traffic and make money now that I'm using HostGator and finding it so easy to build websites, making websites is the easy part but getting traffic to them I've ALWAYS FAILED AT THAT.

    2013-1995=18 years of my life wasted trying to get rich off the internet only to go broke instead :-(

    I have $1000 life savings. Pretty depressing.

    I feel like I should have quit trying to make money years ago and just worked a job even though I know having a job is a terrible way of making money.

    Internet marketing is harder to succeed with but if you do make it you wind up a lot better off. What does it take to make it these days online?

    Apparently -whatever that is: I don't seem to have what it takes to make it online.

    Of course...most ppl when they quit...they quit when they were on the verge of success.

    Am I complete failure? Should I just give up trying to make money online?

    Sick of having no life and no money and "trying" to get rich from the internet.

    This is a very serious post.

    I'm aware of the information overload problem...that's my biggest problem, but how to be successful despite that? Anyone who's "been there and done that" if you can offer me some well-thought-out advice I would really appreciate it.

    I feel like giving up, but I still don't want to, but I don't want to waste my life like Ebeneezer Scrooge, I don't want to be obsessed with getting rich and never actually get there or get there when I'm so old that life has passed me by and I'm senile and all that ####.

    Thanks,
    Matt Roberts - the ultimate internet marketing failure :-(
    -At least I have the guts to admit it.
    I feel for ya. I've been there.

    Sounds to me like your focusing too much on building websites (perfectionist) and not enough time on building your business.

    I was plagued by this very same issue for about 7 years.

    I also have ADD so for me to stay focused on one thing for any length of time is difficult.

    The best advice I can give you is to do what you love and the money will come. Stop trying to build sky scrapers with hay and mud. Use the hay and mud to build a hut, sell it, scale up.

    Clearly you can build websites so I would suggest you offer your services both here and on other sites.

    Charge a fee for your services and start off that way.

    All you need to do is get the ball rolling and then once the momentum builds up it gets much easier.

    In terms of taking some quick action. I would post your service offer on your social accounts, create a warrior for hire thread here and link to it from your sig and finally create accounts at odesk and elance.

    Get the ball rolling then scale.

    Other points:
    -Stop focusing on getting rich and start focusing on how your skills can help others.
    -Depending on your lifestyle and work you really only have a short window each day to build your empire. What are you wasting time on?
    -Stop making excuses, crap web-hosts will always exist, move past that and find a good one, sometimes it is more comfortable to blame others, I get it, but that's not what winners do.
    -Start making goals. Write them down.

    p.s. 1K ain't nothing some of us have blown a hell of a lot more.
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    • Profile picture of the author ozkantarkan
      I’m glad that you found something relevant for you in the whole story.
      Since it is the “low hanging fruit” you find most relevant, I would like to clarify a mistake you mention.

      *High hanging fruits are not future possible low hanging fruits.*

      If you wait for them to fall on the ground, somebody could get it before you before it falls down or while it is falling!

      I was not a good basketball player. You know it is a team game, and as I’m not a good player they usually don’t want me in their team and shout at me etc. I lost the ball once and the other player of my team shouted at me angry. I said what could I do, the ball was blocked before it reached me! What could I do about it? He said, your problem is that you are waiting over there waiting the ball to come to you. Run and jump towards the ball when I throw it at you. But I thought, It is already coming to me, why should I bother to go towards it? But he was right. Yes if you sit there and wait opportunity to come to you, even though it was coming toward you, someone jumps out suddenly and block it coming to you and get the ball for himself.
      Same for fruits on the tree. If you wait for fruits to fall, sitting and watching them all day, somebody climbs up can gets them all leaving you no fruit. Or it is falling, you opened up your hand waiting, a fast bird suddenly gets it on the air and flies away.

      What I mean with high hanging fruits, is go ahead and climb high to get them.

      EMD still works. Not like before but still works. Did you know that? You just need some extra work/seo more. But maybe not that more if you compare it to 15 more years from now on.
      I just want to let you know that, the discovery of EMD was not the whole thing. It was a component of a whole machine. Whole machine is, a converting product, keywods that it converts for, profitable niche, buyer keywords, byer traffic source etc. And promotion. Seo, ppc, social media whatever.

      Traffic x conversion rate x $ per sale x # of repeat business you don’t want any zero in the formula. This is full path to money. Traffic is just part of it. Keywords are just part of it. EMD was just another component of it. If you target wrong keywords it leads you to dead end road.
      Also tools were needed to cover those emd’s and long tail keywords. Cool softwares were developed those times. You needed those tools to check search volume and competition. And commercial value. Without those tools it was hard. Sure can be done manually. All these were part of system. Not the whole machine. Even if you were to ride the emd wave, you still possibly could not make profit of it.
      You were in distraction. You are working on offline job and online after it. It loses your focus. The online is business is just like any offline business. It is a business. Sometimes they ask me, can I make money with internet? I ask them, can you make money with fax machine? Telephone? No difference.

      Even tough I’m online professionally since 1995, I send the whole last year reading all the wso’s and educations you called crap. You called outdated. Why? To see how it progressed before I was not actively progressed between 2006-2011. To get up to date with today, I needed to know what happened in past etc. Everybody has his/her tactic. I’m not telling you this is the right thing to do. I just did it to let you know. Whole year studied courses on many IM area. I then saw that it became a big machine. I can not run it by myself. I switched from offline business to online for several reasons. But as I’m serious on this business, I planned and braked it down to components. I saw there are many things you should accomplish to make the machine run today. I asked can I do it? How can I do it?

      Machine is the same. From those EMD times. It was just easier to rank. Is that all major problem? No. Can I fix it? Yes. This post is not about seo tactics so I won’t bother too much on how.

      So I decided that I can/should/must climb higher to reach todays fruits. Beating the competition ranked for EMD only before me. This is outrunning not the lion. Reverse engineer the competitor, just do bit better and it is all you miss those EMD days.
      Finally, very important. Look back 1900’s. There were names of people of inventors. Now can you see names? Now companies. Things changed. When you were to build a machine in 1970’s in your house, you could sell it and be rich. Now try to do that! It won’t be industrial quality! It is gone. People are using 3d softwares, simulation, calculation, latest technology materials .. etc.. every part of this component became a science itself. A company, gathers around those people having those skills individually on each of this components, and leverages the overall skill on product. It is just enough to put the company among the many competitors. Try to make an engine on your home and compete with ford.
      I saw personally that, internet niche marketing business we call, building and marketing website and hoping to get some adsense revenue or affiliate sales, passed those individualism days. Individualism is gone. It was gone before for many online niches, industry. Online platform is just a platform. Like offline industry, machinery, chemical, etc.. Just like offline businesses once before, IM was once before doable by yourself. Maybe even part time someday before. But now I see that, you need to do many things like article marketing, video marketing, seo, ppc promotions, social media, etc so on… all and each of these became a science.

      On one of the courses someone told me that, wright brothers or something, who invented the plane worked on a plane that could almost fly then add motor to it. Those days somebody was also working on to invent a plane. The other guy thought that that the engine should be so big for it to fly. 1st one won. He said, in short. Business is like this.

      I (hope) found my solution to employ people that are expert on their area and form an online company to do it.
      It is nothing new. It is like offline businesses. As you use leverage, it leverages both good and bad progress. I mean if you have 100 units amount of money, if you work alone, you may go bankrupt and loose all your money in 10 months. If you employ 10 people, roughly same in 1 month! Also, If your business model works, you can reach some income level in 1 year by employing 10 people, where it could possibly take 10 years by working alone. Employing people is multiplier. It multiples good or bad progress.
      I pay salaries for months for many people without making any money. Somebody could say that why not work yourself and when you see that you get enough profits then employ people. I calculated it and saw that I may never reach that point myself or could take too long time. For example, I built a website. Spend days for articles. Then switch to seo. Then try to make video marketing. Social media, return to writing articles. And it could take so long that tactics might change and my living costs still counts. You have to be expert on each of these. It will take time. And when you switch to other, time pass, you forget the one you were expert before, how you made it.. things change and you can’t keep up… So I found everything to be in sync and developed dependently, there had to be a team which is very costly and risky.
      I think today is one of the main reasons people try this internet marketing and fail. Even if you work 20 hours a day, I see that it is very hard or almost not possible to keep up with seo, ppc, video, social, article… etc.. And If you target wrong niches, wrong keywords all efforts for no return makes people sink both financially and motivationally. This is high hanging fruits. You have to climb high to reach fruits in internet marketing. Climbing high is risky, hard of course.
      And you have to be sure. Is this the business you would want to make? I find it like playing strategy computer game and I find it fun. Many people don’t like to sit long in front of computer. Depends on people. My wife for example, she has offline business about training little kids. She still uses internet for promoting her local offline business a lot. But she is not online internet marketer.
      This whole thing in the end comes to your strategies, what you like, what you had experience etc.
      Be aware that, be careful that, internet marketing has become industry. It has become serious business. It needs teamwork, full dedication (not part time), serious investment etc like any offline business. Question is are you ready for it?
      Try solving the puzzle from the end. Start with your final goals, how much timeframe do you have for these goals? How much investment can you make? Will the path to these goal be fun to you online or offline work? Like this. Make a plan and simulate it in your head, as if you started doing it today, tomorrow and possible problems you may face. Think very deep in simulation. Try to cover every unknown or possible hazard. Even advanced simulations fit real like by only percentage. Low or high but percentage. Keep this statics in mind. After you made the whole simulation, sit down and calculate what have you needed along the way. Were you stuck somewhere? Is the path fun and exciting journey or a must-do-to-survive job? You have to have a solid foundation and roadmap which is simulated many times to progress. Calculate where you want to focus spending the future money, effort, attention etc before you start to spend it. Whether it is offline or online. Everything is same, business is same. If you decide offline, you have to choose among many sub niches to focus. If you choose among online, same.
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  • Profile picture of the author gcbmark20
    Hi Matt,

    You didn't mention "Building A List"!

    This maybe an avenue you might want to look at turning
    onto my friend.

    It seems that you have been jumping on the trends that Google
    seems to be setting even to today.

    I wouldn't personally wouldn't trust Google for my online business
    exposure, rankings and all that crazy stuff were told you should be aiming for.

    Just because some flashy dude with a nice looking website tells you that's
    the way to go doesn't mean he's right.

    Building a list has changed the way I look at building a business online
    forever.

    You may want to do same my friend.

    Treat these past mistakes as good fortunes and move on.

    All the best
    Gavin
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    • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
      Originally Posted by gcbmark20 View Post

      Hi Matt,

      You didn't mention "Building A List"!

      This maybe an avenue you might want to look at turning
      onto my friend.

      It seems that you have been jumping on the trends that Google
      seems to be setting even to today.

      I wouldn't personally wouldn't trust Google for my online business
      exposure, rankings and all that crazy stuff were told you should be aiming for.

      Just because some flashy dude with a nice looking website tells you that's
      the way to go doesn't mean he's right.

      Building a list has changed the way I look at building a business online
      forever.

      You may want to do same my friend.

      Treat these past mistakes as good fortunes and move on.

      All the best
      Gavin
      I have been stuck in Google Dependence Land for too long.

      Building a list makes sense, however I have to get SOMEONE to know my site exists before I can even get to that step. It's definitely something I will set up, but presently even if I had the double-opt-in script all set up, there's simply no one on my site and it takes a lot of people to get a few signups.

      I'm very knowledge-able about "the sales funnel" concept and getting return visitors, and gaining user trust by sending them a newsletter. I know it increases conversion rates and on avg it's about 7 times people need to see an offer before their likely to respond to it.

      Yet I simply don't have ANYONE at my website.

      I've got to get people to it before they'll sign up for a list.

      Having no visitors whatsoever (except 3 people from Warrior Forum) is a not-cool situation, but I will turn it around and eventually get a list established.
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  • Profile picture of the author MarieDi
    Here is your #1 problem:

    You want to make sales so that YOU make money.
    IOW: You come to the table as a beggar, asking clients to feed you.

    They feel that. They know that you aren't there for them, just for you.
    So they're not interested.

    In sales, you've GOT TO BE THERE FOR THE CLIENT. Otherwise, even if you have a small (or big) success, it will be short lived - if you have any success at all.

    Your case is typical.

    So stop complaining, get to work FOR YOUR CLIENTS and they will repay you with their $$.

    They are NOT going to give you $$ unless they feel you are there for them, not for yourself.

    Everything else is a waste of time.

    Marie
    (Self-employed for 21 years and counting, with a few years helping and coaching self-employed like you as president of a self-employed network in Montreal - just so you know I know what I'm talking about).
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  • Don't give up all of us here came up with that failure but still we have no lost hope that is why we are seek guidance on how to improve in online business and I know someday you will achieved it someday.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rbtmarshall
    I'd suggest getting out of Internet Marketing in itself. then once you find something offline to establish, use IM to market that product or service. Otherwise you'll get stuck in the same rut, believing all the hype here, investing in psudo-coaching or information marketing to internet marketeers, all of which are models constantly pumped here that are mostly junk


    One good thing you have going for you is the time spent learning marketing online, so once you create your business, you can hire a marketer and free yourself up for other aspects of your business. But with your knowledge of marketing, you'll better be able to screen out the crappy services from the better ones when that time comes.\\\



    stay far far away from paying for coaching services. it's all a bunch of crap
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  • Profile picture of the author Anton543
    Sorry to say but I think you are in the wrong field. I think you should just get a 'proper' job. Sorry if that sounds a bit harsh.

    If you've only made $1K in that many years it is likely you are not going to make a success of this ina meaningful way. Do you have a job? If you do then perhaps you could do this in your spare time to try and make a bit of extra cash on the side.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dazzling Content
    Maybe you should start a real business and not pursue those get rich quick schemes like trying to rank EMD sites and doing some shady SEO stuff.

    You know what, Google is trying to trample affiliate sites as seen by those Panda and other animal updates. Your "business" is dependent on Google, that's the problem. One minor update and bam! Sites buried deep or deindexed altogether. A risky "business" if anything.

    I learned it the hard way. I was just like you, except that I wised up and stopped depending too much on Google.

    Now quit that shady "business" stuff and start a real business with real customers. You get the idea - selling services, selling products, selling information, selling memberships, etc.

    Then you will no longer worry about appeasing Google, because you are concentrating on customers instead of a search engine. And these customers will bring you traffic. And you will no longer worry about the next Google update.
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    • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
      I'm not quite sure why everyone is suggesting that the OP give up having an online business. Granted he has tried various things that have failed, but my goodness, that is an awful lot of experience he has gained in what doesn't work.

      He could learn from those mistakes and chalk them up to testing. In discovering what doesn't work, the field is wide open for him to move on with many of the suggestions he received and give those a shot. I think he has a better chance of making it than a complete newbie with no knowledge of what works and what doesn't.

      The only thing he did was ignore the adage of more of the same does not bring change for way too long. I'm sure by now, he realizes that. I think he has some good odds in his favor now if he actually learns from his mistakes. Anyone can make lemonade from lemons. Without lemons, lemonade wouldn't exist.

      Terra
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  • Profile picture of the author Ctscott860
    I suggest you go simple and make some simple KEYWORD targeted youtube videos.

    I recently got back into IM and made 10 simple videos 3 days ago and make made a whopping $165 on CB yesterday! Look for a NICHE that is seeking a solution.

    I learn everything I know about IM from the MAIN FORUM and WSO FORUM.. and of course the WAR ROOM!. Don't give up. There are guys living in Thailand makin $5,000 week using IM making a few hundred bucks is defiantly possible!

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  • Profile picture of the author Stuart Walker
    There's a lot you don't know about me. I do blame myself more than you know for my failures. But when I say I have no doubt I would've been successful if I had HostGator earlier it's not that I'm blaming them for the sake of having an excuse it's a FACT that I COULDN'T GET MY WEBSITES TO UPLOAD WITHOUT SPENDING ALL DAY TO UPLOAD A SINGLE PAGE AND IT NEVER CONSISTENTLY WORKED. 1and1 was messed up and sometimes pages would load fine in my browser in my computer but when uploaded the pages would look like this:

    3rd qtr of pg here
    1st qtr of pg here
    4th qtr of pg here
    2nd qtr of pg here.
    ^^^^How could I be successful on the internet with this problem?

    I did everything I knew to do but if you simply cant make your website work than you can't make money with it.

    With HostGator, I can point and click and make WordPress sites (way easier than what I needed but at least FUNCTIONAL whereas 1and1 WAS NOT).

    With 1and1 it was like fighting a war trying to get my websites to upload correctly. That's definitely not my fault.
    And it didn't occur to you when 1on1 consistently wasn't working to try something else?

    I'm not quite sure why everyone is suggesting that the OP give up having an online business. Granted he has tried various things that have failed, but my goodness, that is an awful lot of experience he has gained in what doesn't work.
    It's all well and good figuring out what doesn't work but if after 100 years or whatever it's been he still hasn't managed to crack it then maybe he never will.

    Certain things some people are just not cut out for and maybe with the OP this is one of those things.
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    • Profile picture of the author WebsiteMadeByYou
      Originally Posted by RockingLastsForever View Post

      And it didn't occur to you when 1on1 consistently wasn't working to try something else?
      IT ABSOLUTELY DID:

      However I had a substantial investment in 1and1. I owned quite a few domains and 1and1 is a SCAM company.

      ***They do everything in their power to make it impossible for you to transfer your domains elsewhere***

      They strong-armed me into staying with them, and I put up with it for a long time. Though I had huge challenges getting sites to load there I did build a lot of sites but wasn't able to build profitable sites through their hosting.

      I didn't want to loose my domains, and I held on to them for a long time because of the work I put into them. I was of the "keyword and EMD mindset" before. NOW - I'm doing my best to steer clear of that nonsense!

      Looking back though, since I did have several "EMD domains" and "developable domains" I lost money over the years PAYING OUT OF POCKET the annual registration fees of a lot of domains.

      ^^^1and1 was my biggest money drain. I had tons of domains. I had "golden ideas" and combined my super creative ideas with EMD domains and even though it wasn't working out with 1and1 doing simple things like SIMPLY MAKING A WEBSITE WORK.

      I had already thrown money away for a few years on registration fees AND I WAS IN POSSESSION of what I thought was "valuable domains."

      Today I don't believe that, but the internet is LITTERED with "Emd this and Keyword this", when you fail and fail and fail again and you go online and research the advice that's all over the web and the "consensus" is certain outdated techniques ARE working you just have to be REALLY GOOD AT THEM...than it's easy to fall victim to INFORMATION OVERLOAD.

      My fault ultimately, but it HAS been a learning experience so I AM going to do better going forward.

      I would've abandoned 1and1 REALLY QUICKLY (and I thought about it for a while), but I didn't do it because leaving them meant losing my domains.

      And while I could "transfer the content" to HostGator and than simply get new domains: it wasn't really that simple because of all the reasons I wanted to leave 1and1 for in the first place.

      So I didn't just loose my domains, when I dropped 1and1 and moved to HostGator I didn't know how to save my years of effort and get it to HostGator's server...I lost the content as well.

      The 126 "steve-pavlina-ish" self development articles. I lost them.

      And I lost a lot more.

      Indeed your right, yet there's information you didn't know now you do.

      I STILL: should have left 1and1 sooner.

      I was holding on to "the work I had already done and still had online", not wanting to start over, but I wasn't getting anywhere with 1and1 and the domains were draining my bank account.

      Now I have a new rule of thumb.

      I don't buy a new domain until I develop the one before.

      I buy one domain: put something on it, build a site that's quality and eventually build another. But I don't jump idea-to-idea-to-idea and say "oh I think I can make money doing this...", register a website, and than get stuck in "...this idea is tougher to profit from than I thought"..."let's try THIS.." and so on and so forth.

      I should've adapted better. I didn't. I won't excuse myself for that.

      But I will say I've learned from it.

      And the fact that it took so long doesn't null-en-void the fact that I have learned from it. I am in a much better position to prosper. To succeed.

      And to give value to others as well.

      ***I have what it takes to be successful on online: I am not going to quit. Because I KNOW I have what it takes!***
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  • Profile picture of the author Ruka
    To me, it sounds like you expect monetary rewards simply because you put the effort in. You feel you are entitled to something. The thing is, that's not the way it works if you run your own business. There is no automatic relation between "action taken" and dollars earned. Instead, it's much more exciting than that. You use your own brain, and you puzzle out the best way to earn a profit. If you are clever you can put in moderate or low effort for massive rewards. That's the fun part.

    The way you are thinking, that you are entitled to something, sounds more like the mentality of a worker and no shame in that. If you work for someone else, you put in the hours, and you get paid. It 100% dead cert. Maybe you would be happier getting trained up or doing an apprenticeship and finding a job you really enjoy. Whatever you decide I wish you the best -
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  • Profile picture of the author mcwalker25
    Many people look at their failures and actually identify with these "objects".
    "I have failed, therefore I am a failure."
    But these are only "things" that, much like a ball, bounce upon us and roll away. They do not fuse with you like some genetic mutation.
    calling yourself a failure is like identifying with an illusion. There is no such thing as a "failure."
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  • Profile picture of the author Horacioplus
    Bro! What you needed is some one who is already doing it. Not an internet Guru!
    Im 20 years old and i spent over $500 buying eBooks and tricks which were created by people who only wants advantage of newbies. I created blogs, eBooks but nothing.


    Few weeks ago i tried something different which changed my life. His is like my personal trainer who is making a lot of money. After 2 weeks i made $3000+ but i had to spend some money in ads. And im not even creating a product nothing.
    Im still learning form him.

    What i mean you need someone to help you do it. Find someone who is willing to guide you. And another thing! If you really wanna make money online you will have to work hard....
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  • Profile picture of the author Teravel
    Now of course its a million times tougher to rank a website.
    Here's your entire problem. You're trying to "Rank" your website. Instead of trying to get Search Engines to put your website higher on their list, why don't you focus on getting actual people to visit your site.
    Signature

    "Failure is feedback. Feedback is the breakfast of champions." -Fortune Cookie

    PLR Packages - WSO

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  • Profile picture of the author marc@clickbitz
    Your website tutorial is not a path to riches. There are already lots of excellent free tutorials about web design.

    Could you create a product that people want? You need to think hard about how you could fill a need in a unique and valuable way.
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  • Profile picture of the author wizbiz
    I like the "Take Action" Part while 99,9% WSO's is exactly waste of time. That's is why you can waste 30 years by buying and reading them and never make single $. Most Guru's here are WSO sellers working by magic formula "Money talks BS walks" That's it. That's the secret. Create useless "product" and sell it, since this Forum has tons of traffic, that's all you have to do. That's is why all those millionaire "gurus" wasting their time selling 7$ WSO where they tell you how they making $1000's per day, that math simply doesn't connect. Why would anyone making 1k/day waste his time creating $7 product? Why bother..?
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  • Profile picture of the author himanuzo
    There are a lot of ways in making money on the internet. You must search and find one which fit to you and master & focus it until you success and make good life with it.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
    GET A MENTOR
    Signature

    BS free SEO services, training and advice - SEO Point

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  • Profile picture of the author wolfe655
    To the OP If you learned VB at at 7 or 9 you are smart enough to learn c or c++. I have no collage and drive a truck for a living. I have spent the better part of a year not learning 1 computer language but 3. I love programming am I good no but I hope to be, trying to learn 3 at once is a long process. If I get stuck in one I flip to the other for a while. I have been learning C++, a game language made by a guy in England and I just recently started with c#. For some reason I am totally in love with c++ but it a very steep learning curve especially if you want to make games like I do. That's why I started with c# it is easier to learn and using the free microsoft XNA framework you can program games for the XBox. If you know VB you can defiantly make programs that marketers can use. I can't wait until I get good enough because this is exactly what I will do. It doesn't have to be a big fancy $100 program. It could be a little keyword database that you can market for $10 or $15 bucks. If you could figure out how to make an autoresponder you could have the next awebber. I am terrible at marketing right now and have been out of it for 3 or 4 years. I want back in to try to replace my job so I can spend my time programming.

    To the guy who said he would not market to the programming community, I would. As I am learning I will be helping others learn. There is a lot of free stuff out there but the hobbyist well those guys buy books. I am deeper into this than you guys may think. I know I can make money in areas of this niche without knowing a lot of programming.

    To the original poster PM me if you want I am always interested in talking with programmers. I did not read every post here. Not enough time but I know there is a lot of good info here. I think you may be being too hard on yourself. Take a step back and look at what is not working and fix it. Bottom line is if you can program good in VB you have a marketable skill. There is a lot of freelance work out there. I will find it pass the work off to you, you do it, I will collect the fee and give you half LOL!!! or you can go find it yourself and get the full fee. PM me I can help you learn a more modern language, we can help each other learn! c# is really an up and coming language now. Microsoft's answer to Java.
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    • Profile picture of the author adadsreview
      I just happened to stumble upon this thread this evening and after reading all of the comments on here, I thought I would chime in...

      First, I would like to thank everyone for taking their time offering their insights, wisdom, and tough love to the OP because I feel it's beneficial for those who may be in his place. There's a lot of solid advice in this thread to learn from which includes me, so I thank you!

      I would just like to begin (maybe from a slightly different perspective) by saying to the OP that after 18 years of failing in this field (your viewpoint) and the fact that you have NOT quit is... Well... In my opinion--commendable to me! In fact, I take my hat off to you and I salute you! I'm sure I will receive some backlash for saying that but that's okay.

      The reason I say that is this... most people (including me) would have given up on this dream and moved on long ago. Instead, for whatever reason you have pushed on. Failure after failure and you are still pushing on asking for advice. To me, that says a ton about the character of who you are. It takes some "gonads" for a young man to admit what you have on here and to remain resilient in the aftermath of some of the responses here.

      Yes, many have viewed your replies as "whining" and this and that and so-on-and-so-on, and respectfully so... Nevertheless, you are still here with a sense of determination which in my viewpoint shows a great amount of persistence, especially after 18 years and being so young when you began your journey.

      With that said, I also agree with some of the "tough-love" advice that's on here. Sometimes we all need a swift kick in the a_ _ / rear to get us out of our potholes so we can eventually succeed, but by NO means will I ever suggest that you QUIT and move on to something else! Why? Because you have already demonstrated that you are someone who does not give up (PERIOD!), especially with the failures you have described.

      Through your persistence and unrelenting determination along with the right guidance, I believe you will be successful! You have received a college degree course of advice here so I suggest you take it seriously and with a passion to succeed!

      The posts by: Brian Tayler , Alexa Smith (especially in post #16), GyuMan82, Jeff Caceres, Publisher1953, Brandon Tanner, MissTerraK, tpw (Bill Platt), Midnight Oil, IamBaski, and all the others who I have failed to mention are contributing to your success so please do not take it lightly. They are trying to help you!

      With that said...

      Here's my contribution to you that I found in this very forum and many of you may have already seen this posting by Jarrett Stevenson but just in case the OP has not, I thought I would share it...

      http://www.warriorforum.com/war-room...-friendly.html

      To the OP, read this and take it in. If you look at post #508 I have incorporated everything he discusses in that thread in a PDF file (WF member Roueric also contributed a Q & A PDF file) so you don't have to scroll through the entire thread to find out what the OP is teaching. I hope this helps you tremendously as it has me. With that said, I wish you all the success in the world!

      Cheers,
      Rob Atchison
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  • Profile picture of the author adadsreview
    Oh, I almost forgot to mention from the post above by John Romaine--

    GET A MENTOR!

    Solid advice!
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  • Profile picture of the author venusffz
    There is a lot above. My input would also be to focus on one thing and perfect it.
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    • Profile picture of the author helen jones
      Banned
      Originally Posted by venusffz View Post

      There is a lot above. My input would also be to focus on one thing and perfect it.
      Maybe this was OP's problem, chasing too many rabbits at one time.
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  • Profile picture of the author dchestnut
    1995 was the age of many possibilities. Remember, the internet was thought to be the great equalizer that will level the playing field. Well, unfortunately, it didn't turn out that way for many.

    Once quick recommendation is to look into strategic alliances or joint ventures. This way, you can leverage the power of the many, not just the power of one.
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  • Profile picture of the author jfranchino
    Read "Internet Business Manifesto". It's free. Internet Business Manifesto Released
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  • Profile picture of the author DeanJames
    Matt, the webhost isn't the reason you aren't a millionaire after 18 years of being in IM and deep, deep down I think you know, in your heart of hearts that this statement is true. Believe me, that is NOT the reason. It's too easy to attribute success or failure to something as elementary as that, but the reason you are not yet successful is... YOU. It's you my friend. I am not saying that to make you feel bad, but to highlight that the only person stopping you is the person staring back at you in the mirror every day. It's not your webhost, it's not 'technical limitations' and it's not any conceivable tool that you have or have not used. You've walked right into the town of "If Only" which is only good for guys and gals that like to kick their own shins and revel in the pain. What you have done to date has not worked, is not working and will most likely continue not to work for the next 18 years, so STOP doing what is not working.

    You know, a lot of people will keep telling you to TAKE ACTION, but that's actually poor advice if you are taking lots of action and doing the wrong things. In that case, doing nothing and sitting on your hands is actually the smarter thing to do (or not do). You've taken what you feel is lots of action thus far and it hasn't produced the 'fruits' you had been hoping for, so something is fundamentally wrong with your strategy (and that isn't the webhost that stopped you breaking through).

    I would strongly recommend you work on your mindset, because this is what has most likely held you back all these years. Wishing you all the best and apologies if any of what I have written sounds harsh, I'm just being real!
    Signature
    Complete Blogging Course and List Building Kit:
    100% FREE Download - Click HERE

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  • Profile picture of the author jeffsolochek
    Originally Posted by WebsiteMadeByYou View Post

    Hi, I taught myself computer programming at age 9 (I'm 26 now). I've made $1000 off the internet, and I've probably spent ten times that out of pocket.

    I've been trying to get rich off the internet since I first knew it existed. So far, no luck. I've only lost money but I'm not one to give up easily.

    I did the information overload and no action thing for a long time.

    Than I started taking action but I had a terrible web hosting company (1and1) and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't build a website.

    Than I hired a web designer who was shocked by how difficult it was to use 1and1 and told me I should go to HostGator so I did and WOW what a difference. I fired my web designer at that point because I could do everything he could do myself.

    **I fully believe that if I had had a HostGator account 5 or 10 years ago I would be a millionaire today, bc I would have BUILT SITES THAT WORKED, AND BUILT THEM FAST, and GOTTEN THEM TO RANK ON GOOGLE.***

    Now of course its a million times tougher to rank a website.

    A almost couldn't even BUILD a site with 1and1 but if I had HostGator years ago I would've had no problem in that area... I would have been using WordPress instead of Front Page and wouldn't have been hand-coding and FTP-ing my sites page by page because more than one page uploaded at a time would "crash" the 1and1 website and it wouldn't upload right.

    I would have made EMD sites TEN YEARS AGO, and made tons of money zipping people to affiliate links BUT...now it's so much tougher to rank a site.

    Article marketing seems dead. EMD seems dead. And being a ClickBank Vendor and getting affiliates -- tried that once (in my dark ages when I managed to get a site to upload with 1and1 but it was 100 times more work to make it happen than it should've been bc 1and1 sucks and I eventually got burnt out).

    That vendor site is no longer around and would've been a much more impressive site if I was using WordPress and CPanel, but you can view my old site at The Guide to a Safer Identity

    I just launched a website development tutorial (basically it's for people that don't know anything about coding) it is websitemadebyyou.com this is the site I'm mostly interested in getting advice on but I just mentioned the other site to show that I'm a step ahead the 99 percent of people who don't ever take action of any kind. But I still have a problem. The almost-no-money-problem. I've taken PLENTY of action; yet I get NEGATIVE RESULTS. I loose money.

    Despite what I know (and I know a lot but I have SO MUCH INFORMATION OVERLOAD IN MY MIND)...its way tougher to make money now that I actually can build a site because of how many people can build sites easily.

    I'm not a "get rich quick online" mindset-ed person. 2013-1995=18 yrs. Obviously I've been at this for quite some time, yet to no avail. What's the point this long and no results?

    Am I on track building my web development tutorial? I figure if I get a t-shirt that says "learn how to make your own website at www.WebsiteMadeByYou.com" and wear it all the time that the site will eventually take off, and since it PROVIDES VALUE, maybe people will follow the steps in the tutorial and generate me some HostGator commissions (and BringTheFresh commissions)?

    I know if I hadn't missed the "EMD band-wagon" it'd be so much easier to get volumes of traffic and make money now that I'm using HostGator and finding it so easy to build websites, making websites is the easy part but getting traffic to them I've ALWAYS FAILED AT THAT.

    2013-1995=18 years of my life wasted trying to get rich off the internet only to go broke instead :-(

    I have $1000 life savings. Pretty depressing.

    I feel like I should have quit trying to make money years ago and just worked a job even though I know having a job is a terrible way of making money.

    Internet marketing is harder to succeed with but if you do make it you wind up a lot better off. What does it take to make it these days online?

    Apparently -whatever that is: I don't seem to have what it takes to make it online.

    Of course...most ppl when they quit...they quit when they were on the verge of success.

    Am I complete failure? Should I just give up trying to make money online?

    Sick of having no life and no money and "trying" to get rich from the internet.

    This is a very serious post.

    I'm aware of the information overload problem...that's my biggest problem, but how to be successful despite that? Anyone who's "been there and done that" if you can offer me some well-thought-out advice I would really appreciate it.

    I feel like giving up, but I still don't want to, but I don't want to waste my life like Ebeneezer Scrooge, I don't want to be obsessed with getting rich and never actually get there or get there when I'm so old that life has passed me by and I'm senile and all that ####.

    Thanks,
    Matt Roberts - the ultimate internet marketing failure :-(
    -At least I have the guts to admit it.

    Sounds like either a mentor or a good training product would be best for you. I know of several marketers who got a good start and are making money now using Stone Evan's Plug In Profit site. Rhey can't be bad because there is a Plug in Profit Discussion group on this forum. Another good one from the reviews I have read is Jame francis "Six Figure Shortcut" only $27 not bad.

    Some goodmentors who started learning and were making money their first year are Joann Barnes and Michelle Tobasco. Another good mentor who I have learned a lot from is Willie Crawford.

    Now my son's are making a lot of money with YouTube. They are doing it without making any movies themselves. Anywhere from about $100 to $00 a day. My oldest son knew nothing about IM when he tried this. If he can make a go with this then I know you can as well.
    Signature

    Jeff Solochek
    http://www.jeffreysolochek.com/blog
    http://www.networkcelebrity.com

    I also build blogs for companies and individuals

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  • Profile picture of the author Geri Richmond
    Hi,
    Have you ever gotten a good coach? Sometimes that makes all the difference. Someone who has been there and done that and who is successful. I love my coach! She is honest and hard working and over delivers on everything. PM me if you want to know more.
    P.S. I'm not getting any compensation for mentioning her name. Her name is Carol Amato.
    Good luck!!
    Geri Richmond
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  • Profile picture of the author azulita
    Hi. I understand how you feel because sometimes I feel that way. But you know what. Stop thinking about the past. Is not worth it. You have to move on and I´m sure in a couple of years you are going to be a millionaire because you have a lot of experience.
    So my advice is that if you get burn out because of writing so many articles then purchase them. There are so many people out there who can do it for you. Use social media a lot, try to go that way. Also do campaigns with your links in it and maybe now you are able to do a WSO. Im sure you have the knowledge to do it and you can earn good money if you sell a good quality WSO.

    Don´t give up and good luck!!!
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    • Profile picture of the author johnrose291
      jeff how are your kids making $100 a day by youtube?
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  • Profile picture of the author Lance K
    Forgive me, but I didn't read the entire OP.

    However, I could see the problem as soon as I saw "I've been trying to get rich off the internet...".

    Focus on providing solutions to hungry markets and the money will take care of itself.
    Signature
    "You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want."
    ~ Zig Ziglar
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  • Profile picture of the author RedShifted
    Give up. No offense. This isn't for you.

    I see 15 year olds pulling in $200-$300 / day on a daily basis. These kids aren't even that smart. Some of them are idiots. And it takes them a couple months to reach that point. As sorry as I feel for you, threads like this make me nauseous.

    If you need a mentor, get a mentor.

    Or maybe warriorforum is the problem. I'm not going to get into one of my rants, but there are some serious problems with this forum in the way it "caters" to newbies.

    Too many lost people. Too many lazy people. And too many people charging for shit that should be free.

    In the end, I don't know what to say. Making good money online really isn't that hard so its too hard to guess what you're problem might be. And when I can't guess what a persons problem is, I tend to default to laziness for an explanation. Problem is, that also wouldn't explain it cause I see lots of lazy people earning money.

    -Red
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  • Profile picture of the author PrimaDNA1989
    Banned
    Let me ask you this. Do you have to do via google rankings and the site you built? You have "skills" right? Programming and such? Why not get a 9-5 job just to pay the bills and every minute you are free market yourself on the internet at freelancing sites for whatever skills you have. Even if you can become a writer, a programmer, a social media guy. Then give yourself a deadline and an amount to save up. When you hit that goal, you can start investing back into your online portfolio. Do what needs to be done first.

    When you are desperate, you will find that nothing works. Take care of the important things like bills and then worry about following your dream of making it online. Sorry but that had to be told.
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  • Profile picture of the author Cason
    Focus on giving value.
    Focus. On. Giving. Value.
    Signature
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  • Profile picture of the author NickFI
    Matt, I feel for you. I thought I had an advantage knowing how to code, I built Flash websites, ASP sites - look great did a lot of fancy stuff, but didn't offer any value or solutions, made a few quid building sites for other people for their business, soon realised don't do the donkey work myself. If someone wanted a site, I'd pay someone else to do it (in the far east) and take a commission on top.

    What you want though is a site once built that keeps generating income for you, think about what solutions you could sell on that site and think about how you can make money doing that, but some people here are saying give up, I say whatever you do : don't give up, just find the right thing to do..
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