My IM Journey....Three Years of Disappointments

Hi Mark, I'm really sorry to hear you didn't make it in IM. All hope is not lost, however.
My thoughts on your situation: I make a point never to spend money I haven't earned. A lot of people say "you have to spend money to make money" but that's only true up until a point.
I'm no expert but it seems like you had a bit of shiny object syndrome. If you had stuck with one way of making money maybe you could have seen it through to success?
It looks like you have made the right decision for you for now. Maybe when you are settled in your job you can IM on the side using the tools and knowledge you have already purchased. I did it that way around: worked until I was making enough to work be a full time AMer.

I'm sorry it's taken you 3 years and $30,000 to realise the truth but better than still not getting it.

You said, "This was supposed to be easy. I wasn't suppose to work so hard and make so little. If I knew this was the outcome I might as well have stayed at a paid job."

Hopefully you've got over that now because there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Business. Is. Hard.

All the things you described doing above sounds like you dabbled in it. Picked up the low hanging fruit while it was easy and never took the time to get really good at one thing. Then when lots of people came for the low hanging fruit there was nothing for you to pick.

If something is easy it will quickly become saturated.

Your job is to get good at something that others can't/won't do.

To illustrate with an example from my own business. I've spent the last 4 years getting really good at launching products. I started before it became the thing everyone was doing but I work hard every day to stay ahead of the curve and keep an advantage.

Solve other people's problems. Get good at it. Charge for it.

Don't just jump around from one thing to another looking for the easy way out. It's not there and you'll go mad/broke/both if you try and find it.

It sounds like you spent too much time consuming and not enough time producing. You also seemed to jump from one thing to another, and jumped ship anytime you noticed that other people were doing what you were doing...rather than adapting and improving. Sounds like you're out, and you're right, it's probably for the best. Farewell and goodbye.

Create some WSO. some WSO creator is the same as broke as you, they are profitting by selling stuff. that is the EXACT way they create some money. and dont forget to put some fancy sales page with the "TITLE: HOW TO MAKE $50000000 a day" I'm sure a lot of newbie will fall for these, I mean try it out. (RINSE and REPEAT) my favorite Quote.

There is one thing that stands out to me here in what you're saying:

Lack of focus and understanding what you're good at.

It's like me, who's all of 5'7, going to a basketball coach and expecting him to make me an NBA star.

I'm not saying that it's impossible but my effort would almost certainly be better spent doing something I'm good at as opposed to something I can make money on.

You tried a number of niches - why? Because they were allegedly profitable and successful?

What other people make money doing will have little bearing on what you should be doing to make money.

Figure out what you do well and then build on your knowledge and skills. Figure out how to get your product/service to the highest possible amount of people. Differentiate your offerings so that you have a unique selling point.

Personally I like offering services because they cost little to nothing to produce yet can make money when priced and marketed correctly.

Try your hand at freelance writing (I'm not talking about the 1 cent per word crap either)

Learn wordpress and set up simple sites for people.

These two methods can make you money within 24 hours - although if you do it right then you'll take a bit longer to learn and set up a business that will generate greater profits.

Hi Mark

I started my project back in 2003 but was not at all serious about it in the first year. I made exactly $29 in commission through 1 sale. But that sale made me see the potential so I began seriously in 2004. It took me seven years of solid effort after that to build up my income to a level where I was prepared to quit the day job - that was about 2 years ago.

So, yes ... there is no question that you can do it. But, you need to stop chasing those 'get rich quick' schemes. Believe me (and I don't wish to be unkind here) the only reason they exist is because there are people looking for them.

Making money is indeed easy but it is NOT easy at the start. In order for it to become easy, you need systems and processes in place that will generate targeted traffic and then send it to related offers. But you need to build those systems and processes and that's where all the hard work is. As some wise person once said,

"It took me 10 years to become an overnight success."

Or, as Samuel Goldwyn put it,

"The harder I work, the luckier I get."

Yes - it IS hard work - a lot of really hard work before you get to go to the beach and let the money come rolling in of its own accord. That's not what you have been reading on those 'get rich quick' sales pages. But it is the truth.

My advice to you is to read everything you can about how to generate targeted traffic. Actually, that is really step 2. Step 1 is to decide upon the niche you are best equipped to serve. But when you have those 2 things in place:

1. A tightly defined niche you can serve that is already buying online
2. The ability to get leads (targeted traffic)

... you will be off to the races.

Just one more thing: as I mentioned here ...

http://www.warriorforum.com/mind-war...n-succeed.html

... the decision you make right now is what is going to make the difference.

Good luck,

Will

Hi Mark,

This is actually my first post here on the Warrior Forum.

Instead of providing feedback, I'll do something slightly different. I'll ask a question ...

Over the last 3-6 years what value have you provided to the internet?

I'm a firm believer that in order to get decently compensated within life, value must be provided (normally more value than what you are being compensated for ... especially on the front end).

Cheers,
~~Yonks

Well, at least you're learning some very important lessons. As a former financial planner, if you were my client I would have advised you not to quit your job, even with the amount of savings that you had. Starting a new business is risky, no matter what some people say.

Finding a job should be your number 1 priority right now.

I would like to take this offline with you as there's no way we could cover this one topic in this thread. I would like to see how much time and effort was put into one of these WSOs and what they were.

If you were making some money, why did you stop? Did you test other offers? What kind of traffic were you getting and where from?

You're learning some very valuable lessons and you are very close to getting what you want. It looks like to me when your profits start to dwindle you get discouraged, quit, and jump onto something else.

Show me your marketing funnels. Without seeing this and how you were promoting them it's difficult to make any kind of assessment.

Hard to comment on this without knowing what the offer was and what specific actions you took.

And thousands more are doing it and yet are succeeding at it. There's one red flag that I'm noticing here and that is you keep on repeating that someone "promised me the world".

Did any of these programs have any kind of guarantee?

No, Amazon only cracks down on people who use PLR or violate any of their rules. Granted, you might have been doing something they didn't like because you were following someone else's advice. But plenty of people are making money with Kindle.

Article marketing stills works, but if you're referring to submitting articles to directories, that stopped working a long time ago.

You're doing something wrong, list building still works...in a lot of niches.

It's easy for people to come into this thread and put 100% of the blame on you; I'm NOT one of them. There are a lot of empty promises in this industry and after reading a bunch of hyperbole, testimonials, and having people tell you how "easy" or "simple" it is, then you have unrealistic expectations when you first come in.

Unfortunately you have paid a pretty high price in terms of money and time to learn a very valuable lesson:

Starting a business is not easy.

Every successful marketer that I know worked their asses off, in some cases, for many years. So you don't want to quit now. You've got to learn from what you've done already.

Mark, I know you and have talked to you before. I'm going to do something that I rarely do. I just sent you a PM with my Skype ID. Let's get together for about an hour. I have nothing to sell you.

If you're serious about this then what we need to do is take a look at what you're currently doing and see what's missing in your business plan.

RoD

well the experience you got will last forever. keep on it

Hi Mark,

I am sorry to hear about your experience. I have heard many people state that after trying something the "new strategy" becomes oversaturated or things change on the Internet and problems occur.

My only piece of advice that might be helpful is creating your own product. I know this might seem like old advice, but here is my take on it.

An example would be the exercise industry. People come out with "new" techniques and machines every year. But people still buy them, especially in the very competitive markets. The key is to be on top of the pyramid, so to speak. When you have your own product or products, then everyone else is worrying about how to market it, the changes on Google, Facebook, etc.

You just have to create the product one time and you are able to avoid these changes. Plus, you are using the "same thing" strategy to your advantage by taking advantage of "herd mentality". I think it is the only strategy that keeps any of us from all that you discussed above.

Anyway, hope that helps. Don't give up. You have learned far too much to quit now.

I noticed that you have used word " EXACT SAME" 9 times in your post . This is the main reason of your failure because you dont want to do EXACT SAME things as others doing to make money.

Famous quote " Winners don't do different things , they do things differently"

Cheers
Preeti

hey bro listen... Internet Marketing is not like one man show business, first you need is a mentor who can guide you... and Most important is you should never ever quit job and then try IM...thats not possible.... IF you dont like to do paid job... then you can create your own site and make your own ebooks and sell...within 4 months you can earn in millions..if you do SEO properly. apart from that you can create your own blog keep adsense in it and attract people...making site and have a personal blog will give you good amount of $ after some years as a backup income ...

Mark,

I saw you have many successes under your belt. The fact that you were able to navigate PPC and facebook and profit is great. Now just expand on what you learned.

That's the only mistake I see you make "Giving Up Too Early".

Your actually ahead of 70% of marketers.

Cheers,

I have been in IM for 3 years too and I have learn from my mistakes and I have up'd my game this time. You need to have a solid strategy. Online marketing is about having a strategy. For an example, most of the time you need to do keyword researching and that's how you can develop a strategy.

Don't put all eggs in one basket, yes you have tried different strategies but there is a reason why it doesn't work. It's like bodybuidling, you can lift for 10 years but have no results.

@OP, it sucks to hear you story but becoming successful online is a lot harder than the gurus make it seem.

I would suggest that you start looking for part-time job and continue working online on the side. Or just find a full time one.

Personally, it seems like you switched between one thing and another too quickly. Whatever worked for you in the past, keep at that and you'll get out what you put in. That of course will only happen if you don't keep chasing the "Make a $$$Million$$$ in a month". Aim for a realistic goal and build it up, you can still earn more than the average national statistic for the average salary in the U.S and UK.

None of those attempts really solved a problem or 'found the pain' that would allow someone to give you his/her money for a solution. These attempts you have more or less were just ways someone else found a problem first and then taught you some of the marketing tactics he/she was doing.

If you want to make a real online business you are going to have to sell or deliver something that someone really needs. The internet doesn't need another Clickbank ab product or 'How to get your ex back" ebook unless there is truly something unique no one else is doing in it.

Mark, I sympathise to an extent but your mindset is wrong my friend. All this "They promised me the world" stuff defers the responsibility for success (in your eyes) to those that promise you something which never became your reality (yet). YOU are responsible for your success - nobody else. Nobody. No system, no guru, no buddy marketer, course, program or ebook.

You are going into things subconsciously expecting to fail. Sure, I know your conscious mind wants to be a great success online and to make it all work, but your subconscious mind is annihilating you my friend.

Reset your mindset and THEN take action... consistent applied action and focus... and you will SUCCEED. But you have to want it and I mean REALLY want it! In your mind nothing can stop you - that's the level you have to be at.

For one second do not fall for the notion of any of it being 'easy'. Sure it's easier at the top, just like it is standing at the top of a castle when it has been built. But when you're at the bottom you have to build it one brick at a time even when it looks nothing like a castle! Even when everyone around you thinks your chances of building that castle are slim to none... But you know better. That fire deep inside of you carried the vision through.

Without it you're dust man. Seriously.

Don't give up - even if you go back to work carry on with it in your spare time, but PLEASE... please.. don't keep 'TRYING' the latest and greatest fad/system/loophole.

You need to make a decision and STICK with it like glue on a windshield.

I really don't know what to tell you here except that I was into this about 4 years ago. I did it for about 2 years so I started about 6 years ago. I quit about 4 years ago to start a trucking business with my Dad. I started back into IM to get out of that truck. I have been back at it for a couple of months and have not really done a lot yet but I have learned a lot. I bought a few select WSO's from a few select marketers and I have everything I need right there to get up and running.

In the past I bought a lot of crap that just rehashed the basics and promised millions. It doesn't work that way. You will not get rich overnight but you can make fairly good money in a fairly short time if you do it right. I like to come here and read posts but I get hung up on it and a lot of times don't get anything done. You can get overloaded on information and strategies. You have to get good at one or 2 things and go with it for a while.

I am thinking of a membership site in a non IM niche. I am going to concentrate on great content and great tutorials and building an e-mail list and driving traffic to that list. on the website I am just going to provide great content. I am not going to worry to much about SEO now or even getting a high ranking in Google. I just want to drive traffic to that list and get them to join my site for 10 or 15 bucks a month.

I think you need to get a little plan like that and go for it a little at a time. This will not happen overnight for me or you but if it works out who knows where it will be in a year or 2.

My little membership site think about it. I still need to get the site running. Could be a month before I open it to my list. Say during that time I have built my list to 1000 which can be done. Now I open the site to my list at $10 a month and get 100 to join right away that is $1000 a month right away Just keep working to build it. If in 2 or 3 years if I have 1000 members that's 10 grand a month. Not bad. Now I have quit my job and have time to work on other things besides this site. I am not counting on it but I know it is defiantly possible. Thing is you have to stick with something that is working and improve on it. I think if it is not working after a week or 2 it is not time to jump ship it is time to figure out why. I just read on this forum I think a guy said he was a low signup rate to his list. He changed from a squeeze page with a sign up box to a squeeze page that had a pop in sign up box. It pops in after the page being up for so long. His sign up rate went way up from what he said.

Well just my .02!
Scott

Get a job now! You can still do IM, but need to start making some money, before you go broke. IM is never easy and it takes lots of hard work and a system to make money. You have the experience, choose one thing and work at it. All those elements that you mentioned are making money for people.

What separates them from you, is that they keep testing things, till they work and become profitable. Some people have failed, for a lot longer and have become successful. Don't give up, stop buying everything that promises wealth.

My fav quote "Become a producer and not a consumer". Thing can turn around for you, you just gotta focus and not chase every new product/system that comes out.

You mentioned, that you were mentored. Get the materials and trainings, for that specific mentoring and give it one more try. Create our own product and start selling it. If you do anything else from now, till end of the year...create your products and start selling em.

Honestly, that's how majority of the big earners do it, there is no secret...Selling makes money and not buying...

Whatever you do, never quit!

One thing I forgot to put in my post. You don't need to be buying any more stuff but if you follow Bill Hugall and Alex Jeffries at least IMHO they have some great stuff out there right now. Good informative solid stuff and it definitely will not break the bank.

Frankly most every system leaves out important steps. Check into Marlon Sanders dashboards. They are the only systems I have found that go over every step. IM me if you need a link.

Little steps are like little hinges and can change the results substantially. Most people don't measure the results so they can't make the little changes that make the big differences. Then they jump to other things before the magic happens.

I did all of the things that you listed, and was only mildly successful. Then I learned to build on the successes. The biggest changes were little things in the covers of my ebooks, a few words in my sales pages, but the biggest was just finding a lot of affiliates that would sell my products and that had great products that I could sell to my list.

I can tell you exactly where you messed up.

When other marketers see that their system is being over exploited and run over, they switch from being do-ers to teachers. That's when they release the WSO and the coaching and teaching program. That's when they share all of their secrets.

Next time you see the money dwindling and the market being saturated, pull out and start coaching and teaching right quick.

Hi, Mark

Have you found any specific field of IM that you love? Stick to you love to do will lessen your frustration.

Can you leverage your online experience to help offline business that needs them? There are lots of mom and dad shops need online exposure.

I believe you can save people 3 years from your experience and it's quite valuable, what do you think?

You have to find a job and work online part time. You are not the only one who didn't manage to have a regular income. Many people are in such position because they go from one money-making method to another.

You have to find something you know well and you like, and is also in demand.

Stop spending money online and do everything you can to make some money without spending anything. Offer your services, use free platforms like Blogger and also platforms that pay you to create pages like Squidoo, Hub pages and Zujava to make some money, but you cannot depend on them. Use them to drive traffic to your pages and have this income stream.

Write ebooks about your personal experiences for Kindle.

Stick with one method until you will learn everything about it. Then, find something else that may help you, and is related to your main niche.

Make combinations. Promote your CPA offers at your blog, along with affiliate products.

Try to be original and have your personal style.

You've made money in quite a bit of ventures you've tried, so what you've learned definitely works. The problem lies in the fact that you give up too soon.

Once you notice your numbers drop, you quit and move on to something else.

Find out why profits fall, then try to fix it first before giving up.

No business in the world has growth every day/month/year. There's always going to be ups and downs.

Mark,

You write with great intellect and yet your answer to what you seek, you refer to many times: "EXACT SAME THING"

When something is proven to work, it is the "EXACT SAME THING" that you need to be doing, only add your own spin and you're in the money.

If you haven't been able to make a sustainable income for yourself list building then quite simply, you're doing it wrong.

First and foremost, it's people's personalities that we buy then the product. You're clearly a smart guy and yet you have missed it even though it's staring right at you.

I suggest going back to basics:

1) Build a capture page around a product
2) Capture emails
3) Become an attractive character (you have this already, you got me interested!)
4) Nurture your list, connect with them on their level, not yours
5) Be yourself even if that means offending and losing half your subscribers (you don't want them anyway)
6) Provide them with more value than you make from them
7) Give your list stuff for free even if it costs you money
8) Promote products of value not crap!
9) Rinse and repeat...
10) The biggest one of all, believe in yourself (without that, you're dead already)

When done correctly, this will not fail

Also.... submerse yourself in this book everyday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VadExa-5PWc

Good luck Mark!

Remember......you have only failed if you give up

Mark, I was thinking about what you wrote earlier. I want to offer you these words of encouragement, "The Past Is Not Your Future".

Just because you have failed prior to now, doesn't mean you can't have massive success, but you've taken more than a few knocks - battle scars, if you will. Don't let them hold you back, just dust yourself off and instead of following courses, wso's etc just do this one thing...

START looking at what successful people are doing. NOT what they are saying.

Model those people. Do what they are doing because it's working for them. Sure, you won't know what's going on at the backend so you may have to even go through their funnels but you can reverse engineer pretty much any business model online that isn't high barrier to entry.

By doing this you are nailing the target much more securely than following the next great thing that is being recommended to you.

Up until now you have been an internet marketers dream. You've spent thousands of dollars and you've got trapped in the buying cycle. When results haven't appeared as you expected, you've jumped ship and bought the next product. It's important to recognise you are following this pattern of behavior because you are very likely to repeat it unless it truly dawns on you what folly it is.

There are people out there that can put their fingers in many pies and do very well, but most people that achieve success develop laser focus and stick to one thing until it hits paydirt. I will give you one caveat here and say don't follow ONE thing if it's a loophole or something relying on a 3rd party platform that can wipe you out overnight. Build contingency into what you are doing where possible.

Really work on your mindset though it definitely needs fine tuning. Instead of spending all that money on courses buy books like "Think and Grow Rich" and spend your time in the company of successful people (in books). In real life bottom line what people are doing, not what they are saying.

Not many people will tell you this because, well quite frankly they want you to keep buying products and earning them commissions/sales. But after several years it's your turn to break out.

Go back to work for a while if you have to and then come back stronger than ever. Good luck man!

I can understand your frustration, and the journey you've been on. I think like many have already pointed out part of the reason you haven't seen the breakthrough you're looking for is you've been hopping from one strategy to another. (I've done it too)

Perhaps you can use the pressure of having to go back to a job to light the fire under you that you need to focus (Follow One Course Until Successful) on one strategy that inspires you and stick with it until you succeed.

Find a mentor that you can follow who's actually still doing the thing you want to model. The drop your EGO and be willing to do what he tells you to do.

That's my 2 cents.

Best of Success!

Thanks so much for your posts. You have been so helpful. This is a great forum as people take the time to reach out and help one another.

I will continue my IM journey (although this time with a job!). I will be a producer and not consumer!

I will be contacting you shortly Rod! Thanks so much for that offer! You have always been helpful to me. Rod is an outstanding guy.

I shall update you on my IM journey and hope one day to share the good news that I reached my goal!

Mark,

Your story is more common than you know. IM is no joke ... it takes a lot of hard work and a whole lot of clarity and planning.

There have been some awesome WSOs offered on the WF. However, I haven't found many that really share (outside their inner circle) the whole enchilada or the "secret sauce" that makes their method work quicker, easier and more effectively.

Having a coach or mentor who is successful can accelerate your progress. However, we students, must be coachable and must be able to stay focused.

Pick something that you are passionate about and do it. For example, if you are into eating health you could create a membership site to help others - you could share you tips, recipes, strategies etc. You have to focus and enjoy the the journey...

Just keep on going and don't ever give up. You have really tried lots of things and you have accumulated experience along the way. If these systems have work for other people, it will surely work for you if you do not give up.

For me personally, I feel that growing a IM business requires lots of work and time as it is just like growing any other real business. If I have chosen a mentor that is really successful, I will simply just follow it closely and take whatever action that is needed to make it work.

Keep going and good luck

Mark,

Congrats on being willing to take a big leap and take action! That's more than most Warriors ever do. So kudos to you!

You've already gotten a lot of good advice here. A few things stand out to me about your post:

1. As others mentioned, you have a lack of focus which seems to stem from a lack of clarity (as evidenced by you jumping from one thing to the next). After 3 years and $30K, you don't sound any closer to knowing what kind of business you REALLY want.

This is a kiss of death. Just wanting to "make money online" is not enough, as you've found out.

2. Forgive me, I don't mean this unkindly, but...

Why on earth would you quit your job with $30K and NOT invest some of it in a real, solid program like Product Launch Formula? A coach? Some other training program?

I will never understand why Warriors insist on relying solely on $7 WSOs and then actually expect to make real, consistent money or build a real business. WSO's, by their nature, are incomplete at best. They're merely a very small sliver of a very large pie. Yes, they can provide good info. But what they DON'T do is provide a comprehensive overview. They're merely a single blade of grass in a very large field.

3. It drives me CRAZY when people say "I tried listbuilding. I tried article marketing." as if they were biz opps in and of themselves.

Arrhggh!

You can only make money in one of two ways:

1. Sell a product.
2. Sell a service.

That's it! Listbuilding and article marketing are nothing more than MARKETING ACTIVITIES to sell that product or service.

Even if you don't have your own product or service and choose article marketing to monetize CPA offers, you're essentially providing a service: you're driving qualified traffic to advertising offers. Article marketing is the method, NOT the business.

I hope that brings some clarity.

As someone else mentioned, focus all of your energies on getting a job right now. That can take a while. Once you have consistent income, you can get back into IM.

You might also consider using your IM knowledge to help local businesses get customers. That can bring in some money fairly quickly. Check out OfflineBiz.com.

Hope that helps!

Michelle

A lot of great advice Mark, I urge you to take Rod up on his generous offer, I have seen several threads similar to this one, with most being highly critical..

Great, that within the WF there are folk willing to help...and be honest.
Don't give up man, learn from your failures.

Hi Mark:
Here is my take on the internet.
It is just like any other business.
Bye that I mean you need to sell a product that to a market that very few people are able to duplicate.
As you have found out the hard way (3 years and $30,000) later, you cannot believe what you hear or read. (That simple.)
You have proven what I learned early on (started in 1998) and that is if it is profitable, somewhat accessable, then you will make money in the short run until everyone else gets in the game.
For over two years, I was selling jewelry cleaners and made good money at it, until all these suppliers caught onto to the internet and started selling the same thing at my cost. (I figured they were making pennies per sale and my time was worth a heck of a lot more.) So I stopped.
I am slowing making a comeback to start manufacture my own jewelry line (with my brother who is a jeweler).
I promise you that his is not easy, but that's what it takes.
Create something that is better then what people can bring from China (our jewelry will be made in the U.S.A.), putting Americans to work, and we hope to mushroom on the internet like there is no tomorrow. (However, I will not quit my job to do this.)
At any rate, you need to do something unique (the whole idea of the internet was to find unique items and information), make sure not too many people (I can count my competition of actual custom jewelry making on my fingers), deliver a great product and a good price.
You should be okay.
Good Luck.

great advice here !!! bookmarked the thread !!

Well the experience you got, you should insist, victory is at hand.

You didn't try to perfect anything you were doing. You keep jumping from one business to another. I expected you to stick with something you believe in and something which you feel you're good at. Wish you luck but try to work on these things. Also equip yourself with useful tools like YouTube videos and ecourses

Minimize the money you spend. I try to use free tools first before investing money on anything. I've earned thousands online without evn spending up to a hundred. Goodluck

Keeping things in perspective, $30,000 over 3 years isn't bad at all.

For a brick and mortar business at start up phase, $30k could be easily spent in the first 3-6 months and that's for a small "mom and pop" business.

I think when "we" get into the IM world where everything is so cheap, i.e., Fiverr and odesk, we can sometimes forget about reality and how much business really costs.

I'm working with a consultant for a offline project, his retainer fee............$22,500.
I didn't blink when he gave me the invoice.

Keep things in perspective.

As Andy said, get good at one thing and be better than others and charge for it.

The best way is building authority website in niche which you like to write about without targeting any keyword and doing SEO but social sharing is must. The traffic will come naturally for content and you can monitize by adsense and selling ad space. Although, it will take few months to get there.

The thing that stands out to me is everything you did you did with the intent to make money, not create value. You used various marketing methods/tactics, but you did so without vision, strategy and an actual goal (outside of create a business to make some money)

The other thing as others have pointed out is that you stopped and changed gears when things started to turn south. You did what others did and had some success, which is a great way to start but NOT the best way to keep moving forward. Once you had that foundation, you had/have a chance to work on how to improve, maximize and optimize and gain an edge over the competition.

For example...

-improving conversions (banners, landers, site speed, etc)
-lowering traffic costs, finding new traffic sources
-getting better payout on offers, creating your own offer or bonus, etc.

There are many things you could work on, a small improvement in multiple areas would create an exponential increase on your returns. The more profit you can squeeze out, the more you can pay for traffic/leads which furthers your edge. Its a process/cycle, but you have to stick with it and remember its a number game.

But back to my first point, value should be your primary focus. Create or promote stuff with a real value. Stop with the gimmicky type bulls*t (PLR, crappy CPA or Clickbank product,etc).

You already have a lot of the knowledge and skills, to succeed because you have succeed. Also put me in the camp with other folks who feel creating your own products/services is the best way to actually make money online. Though leveraging affiliate products for market testing, cross/upsells, in many cases should be part of your model.

Much love,
Daniel.
----------------------
P.S. I've been away from the forums for quite awhile, apologies to those who PM'd me questions, etc. Life changed pretty dramatically and priorities/focus/time completely shifted. (separation, becoming a single parent of 2 young children, etc.)

Well what have we learned here? Create your own product and thousands of affiliates will still be promoting the same product, but it would be your product that these affiliate would be promoting.

For Mark (and everyone else who's experienced the same frustrations). This is what I should have posted in this thread first:

Clarity is a HUGE part of IM success. I hope this post brings some clarity. It's so simple when you know it -- and darn difficult when you don't! I owe my mentors a world of thanks for bringing this clarity.

IM is actually pretty simple: you can sell only one of two things:

1. Products
2. Services

That's it!

And selling products or services online happens in the same basic way for everyone, no matter what they're selling:

Traffic > Opt-in page > Autoresponder series (or e-zine) > Sales page

That's it! It's just that simple. (We IMers tend to overcomplicate things.)

But no matter what your niche is, or whether you're selling a product or a service, do you know what your business model is?

A business model is the framework or skeleton of your business. Essentially there are three types of online business models:

1. Membership-based model

A membership-based business model allows you to build a community of people (your members) who are as passionate about your subject as you are. Your membership fees can be monthly or annual, but either way, you're building recurring, passive income.

There are a lot of resources and information out there to help you build a membership-based business if you're interested in doing this.

2. Product-based model

Selling products allows you to maximize your time and effort by selling items over and over again. This can be hard goods or it can be information products. Information marketing is it's own business model under the product-based model. Information marketing allows you to take your brain to the bank by creating a product ONCE based on what you know and selling it over and over again.

Affiliate marketing falls under both models. You can choose to market either products or services as an affiliate.

3. Service-based model

Selling services can be great for 1) generating quick cash (as in the case of article writing or video producing) and 2) establishing your expertise and getting testimonials.

However, in the long run, your goal should be to offer services at a PREMIUM. The biggest advantage of IM is LEVERAGE. You're able to leverage your time, money and expertise exponentially online. We all have just 24 hours each day. Time to get ruthless about what you expect for those hours you spend in IM each day. Expect more of yourself and more from your business friends, clients, partners, etc.

What results are you getting for those hours you spend online each day? Ultimately, your services should be at the bottom of your funnel and cost the most since they involve your time and personal attention. (We all have a limited amount of time each day.)

The fun (and confusion) comes in with all of the endless mix-and-match possibilities of the above models. If you're just starting or still struggling to make money, keep it simple:

Pick just ONE!

1. Pick ONE niche. (Something you're interested in and know something about.)

2. Pick ONE target market for your product or service. (Who will buy what you're offering? The more specific you are, the more you narrow it down, the more successful you'll be.)

3. Pick ONE business model.

Now that you're clear about what business you're in, FOCUS! (And stop buying any info not related to your niche and target market, period!)

F -- Follow
O -- One
C -- Course
U -- Until
S -- Successful

And remember: build a list, Build a List, BUILD A LIST!

In IM, it's easy to put the cart before the horse. Take a deep breath, step back and consider what type of business you REALLY want. Don't worry about getting traffic or buying that expensive traffic product until you know 1) what your business model is, 2) what niche you're in and 3) WHO your target market is!

Successful business people will tell you that MARKETING is more than half the effort that's needed for success anyway. So pick a niche, target market and business model. Then spend most of your time and effort marketing it.

If you DON'T have a solid plan or system, THAT'S when it's hard. A good system will shave YEARS (and save you big $$$) off of your learning curve

That's why I recommend investing in at least one good, comprehensive IM course (or mentor who will give you such a system) instead of jumping from one $37 e-book to the next. A lot of people here complain about not being able to make any money. But neither are they willing to invest in their business. (Buying a random bunch of $37 e-books doesn't count.)

The best thing I ever did was invest in a comprehensive IM course aimed at REAL business owners, not just other IM wannabes. Yes it was $1500. (It's no longer available.) But it was truly some of the best A-Z IM info I ever bought. Everything else I've learned (from the $37 e-books) since has simply been plugged into this system.

Get a solid plan or system and then work the plan!

Hope this helps!

Michelle

Hey Mark, I did feel bad for you at first when I read your post but I feel more admiration now for you after reading it a second time.

Internet Marketing is not Rocket Science no matter what anyone tells you.
What works for me may not work for someone else. We all do pretty much the same thing we just have different roads to take to get us there.

Maybe you haven't found the right road yet.
I can coach someone for months but if they can't do everything the same way I can, they won't get the same results as I will, but some actually do even better than me lol.

I agree with a lot of statements here right now. One your livelihood is your most important task right now. You must find a job even part time and supplement through IM.

I also agree with them that what most call Information overload and lack of focus has caused your situation.

You know one thing I have found out in IM never put all your eggs in one basket and I have learned that the hard way three times. Gambling sites, diet pill sites and Adsense. I always though follow through till I met my goal on the project.
Now I have probably dozens of things making me money.
I will say some only make me 20 a month but they sit there and make me 20 a month.

I still make money at cpa even though its over saturated but new cpa offers come out every day. Some of my cpa sites have been up for years earning me nothing but 20 bucks and up a month but they are there and earning me money.

I still get checks from hostgator and don't think I actively marketed them in over five years. I never was the best file keeper and I get checks I have no idea on earth where they came from.

I really can not tell you anything you haven't heard or read and I can't guarantee your success if you stay in, but man you know I fail every day, every single day I fail at something, but I have never truly failed because I will continue to try something in a different way each time.

Good luck to you my friend.

If you believe Gladwell (and the study behind it), it takes 10,000 hours to master something. That is 10k hours working on one thing. Like Sales Copy. Or paid traffic. Or SEO. Or whatever.

The point is... if you had spent the last 3 years really learning one thing then I doubt you would have ever written this thread. You could probably write your own ticket.

The second piece of advice I will give you came from Jim Rohn... "Work harder on yourself than you do on your job." If you acquire the skills, then you will be able to translate them into income.

First I do believe Jim Robin but I have a debatable nature with Gladwell and his study.

I studied Gladwell"s theory as I did not fully agree with it.
First lets start by saying Gladwell did not take a number of participants and do a double blind placebo study, what he did was study the habits of very successful people.
I mean I do not think you can be a great copywriter if you do not have the aptitude for it. You can be trained as a parrot and repeat what you have learned from repetition but repetition is not always real life and things have to change sometimes for a situation.

I mean honestly if the 10,000 hour rule was the case then everyone could be the star quarterback.

Lets just say we have 100 men and we train them for 10,000 hours to be Folk Musicians, does this mean we are going to have 100 on the number one charts of Folk music. I would have to say we would be lucky to get one successful musician unless we hand picked them to do the job.

There is plenty of research on the net to back this up.

I have seen Internet Marketers walk in the door and make hundreds of thousands of dollars. I have seen tons more walk in and never realize a dollar profit.

I got involved in IM without really even realizing what IM actually was. I am a professional stock trader. I have traded for a living since 2002. Around 2010 a relative got very sick and I decided to take a break from full time trading to help take care of them. To help with income during this time I wrote an ebook and created a course which detailed a decade of my experience in the stock market and what I do on a daily basis to extract profits from the stock market. Most people lose money in the stock market just like most people lose money in the IM arena. My course showed people how not to lose money, and in the process extract profits.

I was successful building an online business because I created a product which couldn't be replicated. Somebody could try to copy my product but the fact is to be successful in the stock market requires gaining an understanding of something which few people have. I am able to answer questions of my customers and share my knowledge and very few other people can do the same because they have never made money in the stock market themselves. The penny stock niche is extremely competitive but my product is completely unique because hundreds of other people are providing useless products or straight up scams, and my product is legitimate.

I have succeeded because although I had absolutely no clue about internet marketing before I got involved, I learned how the game is played from places like this forum and other online resources. I did not buy WSO's or other courses because frankly most people that sell these are modern day snake oil salesmen, and they do so because uninformed people will buy them. To the original poster if you want a product that sells, become my affiliate and you can start earning 50% commissions but understand you can't make money doing what everyone else does. (I have hundreds of affiliates and only the ones that differentiate themselves make money). I know all about this because in the stock market is exactly the same. You only make money if somebody else loses money. Although the IM industry is not a zero sum game like the stock market, you have to separate yourself from the "herd" as as you do in the stock market or you are bound to fail.

Building a unique squeeze page and strong sales letter is important. Most people try to use some generic squeeze page that came from software they bought in a WSO. This goes back to doing something different from others. Also building a list is important but you can't really use solo ads because basically everyone in the IM arena has a list composed of the same subscribers.

Dude... you have a product right here.

First, you figured out how to save up for three years, so you could survive the other three without a paycheck and have an extra $30,000 to spend. That makes you an economic genius Dave Ramsey would be proud of, and is probably worthy of its own book without a single mention of what you spent the $30k on. Teach people how to do THAT and you'll be a wealthy man.

But separate from that... your experience with all of this is one that would be valuable to many people. People who step into this world just like you did, thinking there is some "secret formula I just haven't figured out yet" that will lead to a passive income without any expertise.

The problem isn't with any of the models you tried, or even market saturation. The problem is that markets change, and you have to know how to adapt to those changes. If all you ever do is follow a step by step guide, no matter how good it is it will always be a short-term gain. You learned this first hand... and your experience here gave you insight that many people just getting started could benefit from, so they don't make those mistakes. So they turn off the "autopilot income" mentality and focus on building a LASTING income.

Write it all down. Then sell it.

I don't think you should give up. Find a real service oriented path where you provide value to others and people will pay you. The rest of the "methods", just look at them as hobbies to challenge yourself with, like little puzzles you do in your free time with the extra profit you make.

That's what I do and the minute I used the above information that I am giving you I became a real full time internet marketer with money enough to keep me and my partner comfortable.

What kind of service can you offer? List it here so we can help you on the forum. After all the money you spent and all the "studying" you did, I am sure there must be something you have gotten good at. What is it?
Don't give up!

My impression is that you have been most successful with "hit and run" profit generating methods rather than those that create sustainable income.

I do not see anything wrong with this. Many people using "sustainable" methods were just as badly hit after multiple Google updates. If you could make $200,000 in three months, who cares if you make next to nothing for the rest of the year. However if you use "hit and run" methods, you cannot just sit still and then get disillusioned when the niche doesn't work anymore. You have got to go on finding and trying out new niches.

I bumped my head against IM walls for 1.5 years before i figured out the "secret"!

A very simple secret:
1. Spend time learning (mostly for free - but paid courses can speed up the process)

2. Spend time implementing what you have learnt!

3. Do not become a serial buyer or shiny thing chaser! There is NO WAY you become rich in 24 hours, 1 day, 1 week or 1 month - contrary what 75% of the WSO tell you!

4. WORK HARD - yes...work 18-20 hours a day!

5. Dont give up! Any effort is sooner or later rewarded!

Following the above rules i now make $300-$400/day...not EVERYDAY ...but most of the month!

IM is simple if you start something and stick with it...if it makes you money just scale it up and make more!

DIXI

Your story reminds me of the guy who sold his field to go in search of riches only to find later that his field was the top of a diamond mine and if he'd just focused on where he was (rather than going in search of riches) he'd have been rich beyond his dreams.

You seem to have a sensible head on your shoulders and the fact that you're willing to admit you've failed and ask for help is a great sign.

I think Fletch's comments earlier in this thread made a good point - you said "it was supposed to be easy", well that expectation was probably your undoing.

Sure, there are a lot of people saying it's easy - but if you look closely they're usually selling something.

You seem to be serious about wanting to do well, but if you think it's an easy route to succeed and work less hours than a normal job, well you're asking for trouble because for most people succeeding in IM does not mean sitting on the beach with their laptop working 4 hours a week - it means they work at least as hard as a normal job - except that they control their work, their time and their results - and in return get the lions share of the rewards for that work.

Don't be misled into thinking that all you need to do is choose a Clickbank product and then pay for traffic and you can retire.

Don't think of IM as the easy alternative to a normal job - think of it as an alternative lifestyle, much more work but for your own reasons, enjoyment and results.

If you're starting an IM business doing something you wouldn't do if you didn't need the money - you're probably in the wrong business. You need to be completely committed to your plan and your results or the chances are high that you will fail.

Don't go around looking for other people to tell you what your business should be or what your results should be - only you are responsible for your plan, your action and your results.

Andy

Sounds like you need a holiday.

I'd been at this for seven years before I made consistent money.

I know people that tried hard for ten years and never made it then gave up.

I also know people that made money and then created a business their first month online.

Everyone is different.

Best advice I can give you is to take a holiday or some time off from I.M. clear your mind, dont even think about it. It's the best thing you can do at this point. Come back to it with a fresh perspective and find out what makes you tick, what you like, what your good at... go do that.

Why didn't you look at yourself in the mirror. I'm buying all this crap, but won't make money.

There must be someone like me.

I will make crap, and sell it.

Done!

Friend,

First I'm sorry for the situation that you're in right now.

I don't know your background in business, but I'll tell you this:
Principles of business (off-line or on-line) never change, strategies rarely change, tactics might change from time to time.
I believe that famous Dan Kennedy actually said it, and because my background is from a brick and mortar biz, I somehow subconsciously went by that when I decided to enter on-line biz arena.
And it worked, and will continue to work.
I hope and believe that stuff that you've learned won't be a waste , just use them as a tools or vehicles in your business. Trust me, you know much more than some of the folks I work with, that are making good money on-line.
You have to cover the basics ( and I haven't seen that in your post):
What's your market?
How thorough is your research?
What are their circumstances?
Demographics and psycho-graphics?
Problems and pain points?
Competition?
Marketing channels?
Your Unique Selling Proposition?
The list can be (and is) longer, but unless you don't do basic homework, all the knowledge that you accumulated won't help you.
Don't chase but plan, and stick to it! You might be very close to success.

I wish you all the best!

Veo

You have done so much. You could even begin a website. Dontfaillikeme.com or something.
Slogan: Been there, failed that.

You could give tips about what doesn't work, you could even ask questions. You could do a lot with your knowledge.

Mark,

I hate to say this, but don't listen to most of the people on here.

Well kind of...listen to the ones that are telling you to continue to press on! But don't listen to anyone who tells you to buy more coaching or training.

What you need to do is create a large authority website. In 3 years time, you could have created an extremely profitable site, without spending nearly as much money. The problem with doing this is the results come a lot slower at first, that's why you won't see most people online advocating it.

Don't try to sell your own product, not yet, wait until you have a following in a niche. Selling a service is another way to go about making money, I don't have much experience with it but some of my buds do.

But I can tell you right now, find an interest of yours that involves a product, then create an authority site. Make an "about me" page a page to put reviews on, and whatever else you need, which mainly depends on your niche.

Than post to that blog on there a few times a day, maybe create some videos, feel free to share it on forums as well. First few months traffic will be next to nothing, but keep going, keep posting, don't build backlinks, just keep posting. After 5 months or so things will start going up and up and up.

3 years from now you'll tell all of us a different story.

Trust me Mark, this is the way to success.

I'm sorry to say it but you failed because you had no clear business and marketing plan. It's the preparation. Research. Diving into blind never does good. Also not being able to see through the WSO fluff can't be blamed on anyone else other than you.

I'm far from an experienced, successful marketer, man. Let me say that up front. But I realized a few things early on that have helped me gain clarity, get focused and STAY focused. While my journey is moving slowly, it's moving in the right direction and I haven't spent a lot of money. What I have spent I've spent mostly from money earned from the business. And I've done it all around my full time job, which is what I'll continue to do until my marketing efforts are generating at least twice what I make on my job.

There are so many awesome replies here, but some really stand out. Nightengale's comments, all of them, should really be read and re-read. Because what she says will really help you understand and avoid the trap most of us fall into at the beginning; Shiny Object Syndrome. I learned this term early and "got it" quickly. And it has saved me thousands.

The point she made about the fact that products like list building courses are NOT businesses in and of themselves, but processes that only work when you already have a business, is absolute gold. That bit of wisdom alone has helped me avoid 95% of the products I see being sold on-line.

The second point being made here that has really helped me is the fact that you really MUST have your own product. I read this many times when I first started and it really sunk in quickly. So I started looking at my own niche and what wasn't available, and that's where I saw the the most opportunity.

But even if you don't have a specific niche and you're thinking you can't create a product, you might be surprised to know that in my opinion you just did. I just recently bought a coaching product from Alex Jeffries where he taught the power of just starting a blog and telling your story, and how it can lead you to a very successful business. Then he gave many real-world case studies of people who had done just that. One of them was an older lady who's first blog post was a story just like yours here. Alex actually took us to the blog, showed us her first blog post and a few others she had made chronicling her journey, then he took us up to where she is currently-making a full time living.

Your original post- your story- IS your product. And like many others have said, it's the one thing nobody else can duplicate. If you started a blog and simply told your story, documenting all of your attempts, successes and failures along the way, you would have hundreds of followers in no time. Do you know how many thousands of people out there identify with your story?

Soon they would start asking you questions in their replies to your blog posts. As you start to see the same questions over and over you start to move from novice to an expert of sorts. Next thing you know you release a product of your own answering the questions you're getting asked most often. Which you can easily do from the knowledge you've gained from your own experiences so far. Now you have your own business, a clear focus and your own following. A list of people who are following you because they identify with YOU.

And as you've already proven, telling your story is very natural and something you're very good at. And the fact that people would relate, like and want to follow you is evident by the number of people responding in kindness to your post.

So, my lack of experience notwithstanding, I say your next move-after getting yourself employed-is to register a domain name-something around your own name- start a blog and then just start telling your story. Honestly, candidly, holding back nothing- just like you did here. Even posting this thread and talking about all the replies you got should be one of your posts. Followed by what you did next. Going back to work. Everything. Start a blog, telll your story, keep participating in forums like you're doing now, with your link in your signature, and I think you'd be surprised at how many people would start following you. You're the product you need to sell, in my opinion. Being you is something nobody else is doing.

Then when you buy a traffic course or a list building course you'll see it for what it really is supposed to be, as Nightengale said. And I really thought her acronym was profound.
F -- Follow
O -- One
C -- Course
U -- Until
S -- Successful

And Rod?? OMG, even I reached out to him and he wasn't even talking to me, lol!
I know you're still reading so I just wanted to add my two cents in as someone relatively new and still figuring it out myself. I've made some money, created a couple of products and seen lots of progress-all in a niche most people avoid. But what I've been able to do so far is based on the fact that I'm just me. In my blog posts, on my fan page, in my videos.
I wish you much success, man. And if you start that blog I'll be one of the first to follow.

Take care!

My advice would be stop LEARNING so much and get in the TRENCHES.

That is the only way you will LEARN.

There are similar people that jump around from seminar to seminar and never get anywhere.

At one point in your life you must realize, you have EVERY tool you need to be successful.

It comes down to YOU, ultimately in the end you are responsible for your life.

You must take ACTION daily.

Hope this helps

Mark,
I have my own version of your story and I have now found what I believe to be a coach that is sending me in the right direction based on what I have learned over the last 4 years, 2 1/2 of those trying to succeed at internet marketing.

I know some of the comments by DeanJames may be painful, but in the area of business philosophy he is talking about he is dead on target. If you will swallow the bitter pill, it will help you to become successful, you are not alone.

But there is another area that some have brushed on, but reading your post brought to mind. Did any of your mentors ever talk about bringing something of value to the market place? Exchanging something of value for money? Did any of the courses you bought, talk about how to find something of value, to take to the market place? Did anyone explain to you how to use your creative mind to bring something unique to the market place?

I have a growing list of books I could recommend, but perhaps the best place to start is the book by Robert Kiyosaki - The Business Of The 21st Century because it shows the difference in thinking between an employee and a successful business person.

So as others have said, there is nothing wrong with getting a job to make a living, and working on IM to make your fortune. The more I grow the more I am amazed at how many ways my beliefs and thinking have kept me in poverty, and how it doesn't have to be like that.

You are like so many people I see her over and over again. You have a huge list of things you have tried, and AdSense is nowhere on the list. Stop the hard stuff and get to the easy money - AdSense.

Imo, you should go back to some of those things that worked for you, where you made some profit, and try new ways to beat the snot out the copycats - rise above them. You're quitting too easily, letting others drive you out. You should be the one driving some of them out.

It also sounds to me like you haven't spent much time testing anything. You just kind of follow along with someone's method and never perform tests so you can see for yourself why something works.

When you understand why something works, not just that it works, you can apply that understanding to other things, including adjustments and improvements, and then from testing arrive at your own strategy that would be hard to duplicate unless you made it public.

It sounds like you tried to jump from method to method and didn't stick with one thing.

With everyone here telling you to make a product (and it looks like you did), why didn't you make more products? Did you ever learn how to market them?

You mention "PEOPLE ARE DOING/SELLING THE SAME THING" over and over. If you had stuck to product creation and list building, people would have been selling YOUR product over and over!

Rule #1 if someones trying to sell you a product that says your going to earn 5k a month do you really think its going to work that well? 9.9/10 times it does not because why would someone sell you a true honest system for $97 that is suppose to make you 5k a month? It just makes no sense. Yes these products have good information in them for the price but unless you think outside the box and tweak it to your own level I can promise you your not going to make anywhere near that 5k they are saying you are suppose to make. Learn from the products and then build your own idea.

Don't get pulled in 100 different directs or drop a project because your not seeing results in your first month. Honestly it can some times take a year before you start seeing positive results in some cases.

There are many wonderful advices.

In fact, I have a similar experience with you, and wasted so many time trying different methods, until I begin to think about what the most important asset is.

It is a targeted and responsive list, yes, this is the most important asset for you as an Internet marketer.

After I understand it, what I do every day becomes very simple. I improve my sales funnel every day, and find good advertising sources, and buy advertising to drive traffic to my sales funnel. I begain to make money effortless, and I became more and more confident.

So, I suggest you think about for you what the most important asset is, then find ways to build the asset.

I am sorry to hear about your heavy loss
It was the same point for me when i started heavily studying and buying IM products
But it somehow became turning point for me, i shut down every thing, stopped reading everything, and starting thinking days and days what i can do ..
I suddenly realized i had some experience regarding pinterest, i knew how it worked how you can pull traffic, so i decided to make a product and sell it dirt cheap for peanuts just to grab my potential leads, i made sales thread on different IM forums
And you know what it worked, i started a regular income,
As my buyers community kept on growing i had always new product for them, and like always it helped solve their problem, so i had a happy community

This is what you need to do
. If you are expert in something try to sell it
. If you are not try to be in one

For all the years i wasted buying IM products, i had feeling about them that there were there to make sure i never had success online, it was success for the owners not for me
It was only the point when i stopped hearing from others and started hearing myself, this was the turning point for me

Super thread, good read for all who are struggling.

As someone who 'made it' (fulltime online since '99), at least a comfortable living, the thing I see here is what I see in so much of the WF.. you guys are trying to become marketers first, and experts second. Cart before horse.

It's true that some people can do just affiliate marketing and cpa and reselling stuff; that's an ok way to get one's feet wet I suppose. It's how I'm getting my wife started in a new niche she's interested in, for example.

But the way I found works best is to gain genuine expertise, specialize in one narrow niche, then become a well known authority/expert in that niche, and develop an info business from there.

Example: I started by gaining experience in the trading niche by actually trading for years in the late 90s, then in 1999 I started my business by producing a tutorial product, which went viral (in '99, on yahoo message boards), then I created an online course, and went from there, to now I'm a top recogized pro in my niche and publish articles, speak at expos and the rest. But it all started off very humbly, by answering the question "What did I learn that's most valuable, and how can I share that knowledge in a professional (for-pay) way with others?"

hope that helps - best wishes. and all of you, stop with all the gimmicky how to be a marketer bright-shiny-object consumer vs producer mentality, that's useful AFTER you've become a genuine expert or can produce CONTENT, then (or while producing), learn how to market it. I've produced now 47 dvds, dozens of sites, built out a big continuity and ladder model w/internal product launches etc and have thousands of customers. but it all started off with a small following of 20-30 on yahoo message boards back in 99.

my biggest epic fail is i don't trust people, so I did far too little w/affs/jvs (built my business with close to zero affs/jvs), which I'm working to expand on next year and beyond

You know more than you think you know Mark.

Take a step back.

Press the reset button.

There's a reason what you've done hasn't worked.

There's always a way to succeed. Always. No exceptions.

How can you leverage your story to connect with people, while helping them avoid the predictable pitfalls you've fallen into over the years?

The answer to that question is the gold at the end of the rainbow.

Mark

Consistancy is the master key to success in any action. If you hit the nail confinuously with the hammer on the wall surely it will go through the wall but if you hit once here and once there nothing will happen.

Prepare only one blog. Spend time on it. Check what people likes. Spend more on it. Do consistently. Have patience and see the results.

OP you can't make it in ANY business until you change your perspective. You are looking at things all wrong blaming Facebook Ads, product creation, Amazon. When all this time, the common denominator is YOU.

Sorry to say but YOU are your probably. Einstein says insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Based on what you said you've been doing the same things over and over again in that you are trying everything, anything, going at it, and quitting at the first sign of hardship. Not realizing that this behavior is what has been preventing you from reaching your goals.

My advice to you is to fix the bad habits you have. You have an opportunist mentality. Where you keep looking for the next great opportunity while not really doing anything. Fix that and I promise that the road to your goals will be easier.

Sorry for you! But do not give up! You are an an icon to those who haven't made money online and have spent less time and money than you did.

For you I have got one idea, now that you have figured out how all things on the web works for making money online may be you can start a blog on revealing things and offers that are fake or not delivering on their promises - a review type of site who offer people to be rich online!

Hope this helps

PPC, On page and off page SEO, Backlinks, Direct Mail, Split Testing, Email capturing, Writing Copy, building a membership, trying to build customer relations, CPA, Media Buying, Facebook Ads, Kindle Book writing, blogging, article marketing, bum marketing, spinning articles, landing page design, social networking, SMS marketing, Press releases, ebook marketing, video marketing, forum blasting, joint ventures, branding, affiliate marketing, classified ad marketing, offline marketing, ad swapping, telesiminars


ALL OF THESE ARE ABSOLUTELY USELESS.

Unless you follow this method:

-Find the Pain - Talk to people, do research, create a hypothesis.
-Validate the Pain Talk to people, make sure that this is a serious pain that they would pay money to solve.
-Build a Solution (Read the Book "Running Lean" By Ash Maurya)

After this part....

THEN DO ALL MARKETING CRAP LISTED ABOVE!

The solution to your problem, Mark, is truly this simple. In fact, the only time I've ever made money in my life was when I validated the pain.

Don't give up Mark, you have put so much into this already. I agree that you should go find a job, it will take the pressure off and you can take this slow. Financial stress or any stress for that matter massively affects your concentration, your motivation and general well-being. When you are under that amount of stress, how the hell are you supposed to focus! Don't be hard on yourself just take a step back. Then rinse and repeat ;-)

I think with all the things you have tried and dabbled in you could produce some killer WSOs and make your money back in no time. You have been offered some great advice from some very experienced IMers in this thread - take advantage of it all and find yourself a good coach to help you with the whole process of creating WSOs.

I would also recommend reading a few inspirational books to get your mindset back on track. Check out this thread for recommendations.

Or this one: Personal Development Books - your favorites!

YOU CAN DO IT!!!

Nothing in life is easy. I don't have an answer for you, but none-the-less wanted to show my appreciation for sharing your thought provoking story.

This is some serious good advice from tons of different people. Some great, some good, some just clicks. I'd recommend reading through to find the things that click.

See where you are and where you want to be and make a map. Seriously, write down your very own step by step guide/map to where you want to be. It'll help you find your way.

The best exercise for almost anything in life.

The thing that one ahs to remember about online success is that it takes on many forms. What works for one individual may not work for another, so there's no way that you can easily say that one shoe fits all.

Take solo advertising for example. There are many different ways to create a solo ad campaign, and there are many entrepreneurs whose lists are built on many different niches. So if you're into let's say selling water to people in the desert, then you will want to create solo ads and place them on lists that relate to people living in the desert.

You wouldn't want to sell water to people who live in a huge city because they already have water. You will want to market to those living in desert communities and such.

What works for one type of business and its entrepreneur may not work for your business or for you in particular. So to say that one particular formula, technique or strategy will make everybody successful is really an understatement because there's no one strategy or technique that works well for everybody.

You're going to find that some techniques or strategies work well for certain types of businesses while other types of techniques and stratigies work for different businesses.

So what makes one individual successful may be a total flop to somebody else. It is all in how you present yourself, your web site and your products that really makes the diffference. Just use what really works best for you and your market.

You need to be more focused on working with only some networks learning and implementing the strategies taught there. Before joining any network as an affiliate do your own research before you join in. It takes consistent time and effort before you start systematizing your online business and generate a regular income. And most important thing is to stay positive and never give up on your dream

I counted about 9 pivots in 3 years from you OP. The problem seems to be split focus and expecting instant results. Internet marketing is just like any other business, you will be presented with obstacles, the same obstacles everyone else in a niche can choose to overcome or not.

If you fall off the wagon at the first 5 obstacles then the guy that climbed the 6th is going to always out perform you.

3 years, $30,000 spent and very little reward - that's a great story that needs to be told! James Altucher failed many times in his career. He's happy to fail everyday!

Remember, IM is a journey. It's taken me two years to get to this point and I would say 90% of that journey ended in failure. What are you good at? What did you learn in 3 years because you have TONS of experience. Identify everything you have learnt and replicate - there's money to be made.

Mark,
My heart goes out to you! I've been there and have fallen for many of these "quick riches" ebooks and courses. The truth (as most here will tell you) is that online income almost never comes "easy." It's a lot of work just like any other business... and sometimes even working hard will not bring the results you want. I'm still astonished how so many people seem to be doing so well with affiliate marketing, mini-site building, facebook ads, Kindle creation etc. I've dabbled in some of this stuff, but the work required for such little pay-off got me burned out quickly. I make a full time income online, but I focus almost entirely on selling REAL physical products to REAL people utilizing Amazon and Ebay (as well as my own websites- but this isn't even necessary to get started). My advice to you is don't spend another penny on courses. There is so much free information available. Ebay and Amazon themselves have tons of information to get you started right on their site! I wrote an ebook explaining my strategy (also FREE) and there are many other great ones out there (free) don't pay me or anyone any money- at least not until you're MAKING money. The best courses I bought were courses that expanded on what was ALREADY WORKING for me.

E-commerce works for me and lots of people, but that doesn't mean it will work for you. Start small, learn as you go, and preferably start by selling some things you already have in your house (Ebay!) After you make a few $$, you'll get motivated to keep going. At that point, get as much good free information as you can! When things get rolling, that is is the time (in my opinion) to buy some of the proven courses out there. I'm so sorry to hear that you've gotten burned out on this! Good luck on your journey!

So basically you wasted a bunch of time and money trying to find the "easy money" instead of actually working hard, learning from the forum here and formulating a real business plan. Its no wonder you failed.

Honestly its like a broken record here. I cant make money .. bla bla .. I bought some WSO that told be Id make $300 a day while I slept and I didnt .. bla bla. so now IM doesnt work . .bla bla ..

Im going to say this once and for all everything you need to know to make cash online is right here in the WF. Its right here, litterly. Right in front of you right now.

Hello u

Sorry to hear that all of your IM experiments went wrong.

Truth is - I started when u did in 2007.
Truth is I did what you did.
Truth is you need to release all of the stuff that you thought you knew and start anew.
Truth is you really do need to start with a job again and get your stuff in order.
Truth is you need to go thru the niche selection process again and relate to what you love todo.
Truth is you need to focus on this new way of thinking and your success is guaranteed.
Truth is you get what you believe you're going to get.

Truth is - I wish you all of the luck in the universe with your business - and more importantly your future choices.

Go get em

Mark Don't give up. Never. I know it feels like rock bottom now but that exactly the point most successful people reach before they turn it around. My advice is to find some part time work and keep trying but Focus is key. Stick to one product or sector. And learn everything you can about it. You will do it. I believe in you. Perhaps you just need a break and to look at things from a fresh perspective. Get free advice here. NEVER pay for coaching. In 5 years you'll be famous.

Hey Mark,
I thought this video might be of help to you and maybe others here. Maybe a little cheesy but it rings of so much Truth