95% failure statistic?

Unfortunately most people fail, yes!

This has to do with multiple factors,
-Guru courses may be incomplete.
-Reader may not understand them completely.
-Most fail to traffic their websites.
-Some spend a lot of time reading information on how to make money online but never really take any action.

However it is definitely possible to make millions online if you know what you are doing.

So what you really need is a proven system that already works and follow it step by step.

Unfortunately even here many courses are incomplete or simply do not work because the marketer is not actually successful, some just pretend to be gurus, in other words there is to much crap floating around out there.

What is your current experience level in internet marketing?

Regards,
Sven

I think the number is plucked out of a hat to tell you the truth but I'm guessing that it is around that figure. My view is that most people give up far too soon..that 3 foot from gold scenario.

Lack of action is the main cause for failueres.
Many people know several ways of making money but when it comes to work on it, they give up at the beginning or soon after they start it...

It's not just Internet marketing, 30 years ago in the Offline Marketing world we talked about the 4%. In any given venture only 4% of participants will make it to the top.
If you do not get to the top do you consider yourself to be a failure?

Successful people know that what you focus on expands and becomes reality.
Thus they don't spend too much time pondering these types of stats, but instead spend their time wisely networking, learning from, and working with the top %.

Failing is reading articles like this for two reasons:

* The figure is nonesense.
* The article is demotivating.

You can succeed and continue to succeed.

It's kind of like asking if you gave someone paints and brushes and a few lessons, how many would become a famous artist.

Some will, some won't. I don't think any guru course alone will get you there.

There are no guarantees! Even if you take massive "right" action every day.

What is "right" action today, may be "wrong" action tomorrow. Although there may be many opinions on your question - there is no answer.

Take any proven business model and run with it to the best of your ability.

Sources are never quoted for the figures underlying these claims.

The reality, though, is that internet marketing is usually an intended form of self-employment, and the overall success-rate for self-employment (for which there are many different types of official figures collated, internationally, according to various different parameters) is unquestionably very low, and probably overestimated by official figures, too.

This hasn't stopped me, and a huge number of other people who post in this forum, and some number of other people who post in this thread, from making our full-time livings through internet marketing.

The question is: is it going to stop you?

I suppose that's true for a few people, but for a far higher proportion of people it seems to be difficult to learn what "the right actions" are. There are various reasons for that, but some of them are complicated and this maybe isn't the time or place to discuss them in detail. The gist, though, looking at it very superficially, is that there's a really widespread myth to the effect that "most people fail through not taking enough action". It's nonsense. Most people never set off in the right direction, and if you don't set off in the right direction, the reality is that it's not going to make any difference how much action you take. :p

I don't think that's often so; no.

There'd be even more who don't succeed, then. Those "guru courses" are typically part of the problem, not part of the solution: they tend to be full of nonsense.

(There are reasons they tend to be full of nonsense, of course: it's not just arbitrary, or coincidental. Part of the difficulty is that the reasons aren't apparent - largely through inexperience and lack of judgement - to the people who study those courses. It's fairly obvious, really: the people who are most in need of judgement and interpretation are always going to be the people who have least of them, aren't they?).

Many people (who persist enough, and who do have or develop the judgement to determine who's worth listening to and who isn't) learn by trial and error, gradually discovering what works and what doesn't, learning to do more of what works and less of what doesn't. Some have a kind of epiphany in which they realise that most of what they formerly believed and were taught isn't actually true at all. I got off to a very bad and slow start, myself. I made every mistake you can make, and then some. That story's here, if you want to see it: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post8532320

Awesome reply Alexa. I thought that was more than sufficient. Thanks

Every business will have high failure rate... Nothing will come easy.
For who can stay and last longer, they will succeed with their HARD and consistent work.
So make sure you are the remaining 5%...
All the BEST!

The 95% failure rate type statements are powerful persuasion tools.

Someone can use them to lead you to believe that you're not like everyone else and that you can be one of the 5%. Especially if you learn their "secret" methods/system, etc.

However, at the same time if you do fail you can take solace in the fact that most other people do too. People naturally gravitate toward what the majority is doing. Steve J. Martin describes it as the "magnetic middle" in his book "Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive".

But to answer your question...it will never happen that everyone implements flawlessly everything that's taught in guru course. But let's say in fantasy land it did happen and the teachings in those courses were legit. Sure there would still be people who don't succeed. Those who innovate and adapt are going to eat the lunch of those who simply do the bare necessities. And those who do the bare necessities will eventually move on to something else and likely cite the 95% failure statistic and some other self limiting beliefs to justify their failure.

Which is usually a huge mistake.

I think (from many years of experience) that the number is more like 98% failure.

Leaders make up the 2%. The 98% consist of the followers quoted above.

Let me be as succinct as possible.

Yes... it is possible... even likely... that the vast majority of
people can flawlessly execute everything a guru tells them to
do and still fail miserably.

The reason is simple. The great ones possess something we often
call intuition or 6th sense. It's taking action based more on something
they feel than something tangible that can be tested and documented.
They encounter these feelings on the fly and act on them spontaneously.

Those who don't possess that "inner voice" will fail even though they
follow the written instructions to the nth degree because it's impossible
for the guru to impart the subtle differences of nuance in written text.
I doubt it's even possible to impart this knowledge or ability in audio or
video because the guru likely doesn't even know it's happening. It's not
part of some course they studied... it's in their DNA.

Not everyone is cut out to be successful in marketing.

The reason why I think many people fail is that deep down they don't think that they can succeed. They want to but once you don't 100% believe in yourself, you are not going to do what ever it takes to succeed.

How did this "article" define success?

Success and failure mean different things to different people. On one of my sites, if I send out a marketing email to the customers and don't get at least $40k in sales from it by the end of the day I consider the campaign a failure. On another site, if a marketing email brought in $1,000 it would be an overwhelming success.

Success and failure are relative.

This is a nonsensical figure that people toss around without much to back it up. No one really knows the exact figure, but people can make educated guesses.

Looking at the IRS figures from 2007, approximately 68% of all businesses started closed doors after one year, though we don't know the reasons behind that, it would be wrong to assume they were all failures (could be a death in the family, a deceased business owner, disability, other personal reasons, etc.). And 86% of them closed their doors after 5 years. Yet, I couldn't find statistics on how many of these were home-based businesses that were running on an online platform.

Then there's the issue of people starting a REAL business as opposed to starting a hobby. I've met a lot of people in this forum, as well as at events like seminars, where they simply weren't serious enough. They were dabbling with the idea of a business and may have even put up a website, but not much action was done.

Is that really a business failure? Not in my eyes because they weren't starting a real business anyway, they were just dabbling.

I think the figure is closer to 80%, but only basing that on my experience and it's not statistically significant.

Internet marketing is a way of marketing products or services using the internet as a medium.

Starting a money-maker online is relatively easy compared to starting a real business; the two couldn't be more different. Starting a real business takes a lot of hard work at first, depending on your business model and how much you plan on outsourcing.

No two people are alike. They think differently, learn differently, have different value and beliefs systems..... so as to the WHY it's "hard" for people when starting a business online, there are way too many factors behind that.

In the 15 years that I've been doing business online, IF I could boil it down to ONE factor it would be mindset. I've seen too many people fail because of lack of focus or they lacked the confidence or they had too much ego, etc.

The brutal truth is that is you're starting from zero, it's not easy to start an online business because you don't know what you don't know yet. You can buy a course and you won't have enough knowledge (yet) to know if it's good or not.

There are tangibles such as which courses you're investing in or what seminars you're attending and/or who is mentoring or coaching you (not the same thing btw). Then there are the intangibles such as how you learn, what you're learning, how you implement the information you're learning, your ability to focus, time management, organizational skills, confidence level, wherewithal, energy, etc.

So yes, it's hard. And it's hard for many reasons. As already illustrated by some of the answers already given here.

From where I'm sitting, you have to be willing to pay the price if you want financial success. For everyone it's different. For me, it was putting the television away, cancelling my cable service, not hanging around people who did not support my vision and my goals, not going out as much as I used to, and making sure that I focused on selling a product or a service and making sure I increased my conversions so that I was making a profit and providing outstanding customer service.

You have to be willing to pay the price if you want to succeed at ANY business. Period point blank.

RoD

Failure is a mental belief. Even when you so called "fail" you still learn. When you learn. you succeed... therefor no such thing as failure

I agree with this statement. Not everyone is cut out to be successful in marketing or in business.

Now the WHY behind that could be many reasons. Many people over the centuries have tried to pin down while some people succeed and while others don't. You have people like Andrew Carnegie who commissioned studies. Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, and countless others who have their own take on why some people succeed an others don't.

Ultimately, there are no guarantees in life, except death.

However, if you do do the "right" things and have the right mindset, you increase your chances of financial success many times over.

RoD

Humir,

In my humble opinion, of the 95% who fail.... The vast majority of them don't view it as a real business that involves consistent real work.

They are constantly looking for the elusive "push button riches" that is essentially a conveyor belt of shiny balls.......

As long as you pick a proven business that has a "reasonable chance" of success and work "smart," you will have some success. You may not make $30,000 a day... But, you will make some money.

Compare that to those who have been "shiny ball" chasers for years...

All The Best,

Rich Beck BCIP, MCSD, MCIS

There are lots of reasons for failure. One that stands out, especially on this forum, is that many people spend the majority of their time working business models that are no longer viable and ones that were questionable in the first place.

A few more:

People don't explain what they're offering very well.
People don't understand their target market.
People take cheesy shortcuts and are stingy with product and services. These are the same people that scream bloody murder when they get short changed.
People fool themselves into thinking they're talented in some way when the truth is they are very mediocre.

And last but not least, people spend too much time focused on the reasons for failure and are surprised when these very things show up and bite their butts.

Emerson said, the thing you give your energy to is the thing that grows. So why put energy into the study of failure?

The answers to your questions are yes, yes, and yes. In that order.

Personally, I decided to make things work anyway, which is why I'm a successful, full-time online marketer...and have been for a number of years.

Being overly successful (at anything) requires a boatload of hard work.



95% of people don't want to learn/educate/splittest/put in the work.

(There's also a million other variables of consequence. Like talent, charisma, aptitude, and... Luck).

Just my humble hypothesis...

That 95% number is tossed around quite a bit.

Its does take some effort to have some success but you will

have to know what caused the success.


That way you'll know how to scale effectively.


I like putting in an effort in a activity that will bring me

traffic over and over again long after I've done it ONE time. .

Residual results are always the best.

The 95% statistic applies in everything; business, sports, academics and even corporate jobs. That statistic (it was more of 98%) was actually derived from businesses being able to recoup their capital and more after 5 years.

What that percentage is actually referring to are those people who are making it really big - your not so typical results.

It's just like in sports, let's say basketball. You may be able to do everything the coach asks you to do but the end of the day, there's always this kid that hits the most impossible shots possible. The one who will go pro.

Does that make you a failure? No.

Mediocre? Yes.

Are you part of the 5%? No. But it doesn't mean you didn't execute what you were told to do. =)

I think that some of the answer may be that people are enticed by promises of near instant riches, and then are surprised that they actually need to put in some effort to get it all going.
It's certainly possible to make big money, but if it were likely or even probable, we'd have millions of millionaires talking to each other here. If we follow the 80/20 rule, the 20% are those that realise they'll have to put the effort in, and the 20% of the 20% are those that keep going, not giving up after the first few knock-backs.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. And they keep going.

Humir,

The assembled talent above me are probably within the 5%, so I for one thank everybody for their comments.

I spent the last 2 years trying to understand what was needed to even make my first $, never mind turning it into a serious proposition. I have spent to much time and money "investing" on various programs that have made all sorts of promises. But, I knuckled down about 6 weeks ago and have focused on 2 or 3 strategies rather than trying everything at the same time. I am now starting to make some serious progress.

So, I think that it is partly a matter of discipline along with trial and error, but mainly common sense.

Good luck with your ventures.

95% is not true. It's way more.

true, not 95% of them fail online, it`s closer to 99%, if you ask me.. But the truth of the matter is that you can be in the 1% if you really work hard .

I think in every business of the world people's failure ration is very high and also in internet marketing. People start business without learning and researching about the business and they just want to succeed in it without any business background also.

I see this stupid figure banded about on many threads and of course by "Guru's" selling there WSO's.

How Is this judged exactly? What is the cut off line between success and failure?

stupid figure dreamed up by guru's selling on there wares.....

that "95% of people fail marketing" can be really any high number...

90%, 98%, 95%...etc doesn't matter the actual number. In reality
its a high number because IMO people treat IM like its a lottery, hoping
they can buy a ticket (in this case the newest launch product) and
then "win" money. Its a mentality based on vanity of money, if you ask me.