Internet Marketing – Do You Have What It Takes?
Sorry for my absence all, but I have just had an absolutely incredible weekend…that led me to an incredible revelation. I wish I could see a show of hands when asking these next questions, but here goes anyway…. How many of you think internet marketing is hard? How many of you expected to be making big money online in a really short amount of time? I also wonder just how many tried internet marketing for a month, maybe two months, and then quit because it was too hard and the money wasn’t made fast enough. It reminds me of my orientation at college – I’m sure many of you heard the same speech…
“Look at the person on your left. Now, look at the person on your right. Statistics show that two out of the three of you will not graduate”
I imagine the statistics are about the same for those that try their hand at internet marketing, don’t you?
My Weekend
Let me tell you about my weekend. Wednesday night, my husband received a surprise phone call asking if we’d like to go to The Masters the next day for the first round. My hubby and I are BIG golfers and golf fans… The Masters at Augusta National each spring is THE golf tournament… and the hardest to get in to. There are folks that got on the waiting list for tickets when they entered college and didn’t actually GET tickets until they RETIRED!
Needless to say, we were in the car and headed for Augusta, Georgia first thing the next morning. What a GREAT day… weather was perfect and that golf course is uber perfect. We watched Tiger Woods and Fred Couples and Stewart Cink and all the best golfers on tour…. we watched Tiger Woods chip in for eagle on #15… and heard the roar where Ian Poulter made a hole-in-one on number 16…. just a fantastic day and a fantastic experience on a golf course that is full of tradition and history. I’ll hush on the golf talk since this is not a golf blog, but if you are a golfer you can imagine what it was like just to walk on those hallowed grounds. Awesome!
We returned home late Thursday night (we live a little over 2 hours away from Augusta) and packed for our next trip that we were leaving for the next morning.
My husband is a true-blue Crimson Tide football fan. University of Alabama football flows through his blood and it is VERY serious business in this house. The Crimson Tide spring scrimmage game was this past Saturday and we went with another couple who are just as, if not more, serious Tide fans. On our way to Tuscaloosa, Alabama Friday morning, we got our deposit for our summer vacation condo in the mail. We have plans to take all 4 kids, and their friends to the beach this summer. We will also be there the same time as family and close friends. Being that we have a blended family with kids ranging from 19 to 3, getting all of us in one place at one time is a REAL challenge. I am very excited about our impending week-long beach trip and the really nice 3 bedroom condo on the beach we found.
ANYWAY, we got our deposit sent off…. had a great weekend in Tuscaloosa with friends. Watched the Tide A-Day game with 75,000 other Bama fans (yes, I said 75 THOUSAND!) and got back in late last night. All in all, we had such a fantastic and memorable long weekend!
So, what’s my point of all this?
Am I telling all this to brag? No, not even a little. Am I about to try and sell something? Lord knows, if I just add in pictures of fancy sports cars or me drinking umbrella drinks on the beach, this will start to sound like a guru sales page! (Note to self: Take pictures of me drinking umbrella drinks while on beach this summer…haha! Reality is, it will probably be pictures of me digging in the sand or putting sunscreen on a little one….. Maybe I’ll put an umbrella in a juice box!)
To my point – As we got settled back in at home last night, something hit me. I was able to just GO. I was still earning money while I was gone. My business goes with me anywhere I go if it needs tending to….and I can take time off at the spur of the moment… AND we can afford ‘spur of the moment’ memories.
Wow!
Just last month we were able to put four of us on a plane to see my father who is ill…and we were on that plane within 24 hours of getting the phone call saying we were needed. That is priceless.
We’re not rich – not financially rich, anyway. In blessings we are billionaires, but the bank accounts don’t reflect that =) However, what has changed for us is something much more priceless than net worth… time freedom and options.
Having options in life is something that, to me, is amazing and so… so…. freeing. I didn’t come into internet marketing with an idea to get rich quick. I didn’t even start it with a desire to be rich. I wanted to be flexible for my family. I wanted to be able to pay our bills comfortably and have money left over for emergencies and extras. I wanted to be able to earn twice as much as we needed me to earn from a “real job” from right here… sitting here at this computer.
I wanted options.
Fact is, no one will GIVE options TO you.. you have to go get them and create them for yourself.
Are You Creating Options for Yourself?
Think about the things you do for your online business – are you working to create options for yourself? Are you working to create revenue generating web presence for yourself – the kind of web presence that will bring in money long after you are done doing any work on it?
If I could share a few things with anyone who is new to this whole internet marketing thing, I would share these things:
1. Do NOT spend a DIME on your internet business until you have earned money that you can re-invest into your business – NO EXCEPTIONS! Internet Marketing is one the very few business opportunities that does not require one red cent invested to earn money. I spent the first 3-4 months with no overhead but an auto-responder ($20 a month) and internet connection (which we already had). Just for the record, I used a free auto-responder until my online business had started earning enough money to cover that $20 a month, too. Learn how to do everything for free… no keyword tools, no fancy software…no NOTHING until you a) start an income stream and b) know HOW to create a web page, drive traffic to it, AND convert it to sales FOR FREE. Only then will you even know what tools to invest in that will make YOUR online business easier on you.
2. Stop Buying Guru Systems and Cookie-Cutter affiliate sites. I can’t stress this enough. There is SO much free information on the internet that is a tremendous over-load for anyone learning internet marketing… why pay for more? Unless you are buying something that is going to dramatically cut your learning curve AND you plan to work that system for no less that a committed week straight – DO NOT BUY IT. Also, do NOT pay to have an affiliate site that is a cookie-cutter site. This type of site is an affiliate site that is identical to any other affiliates site. There is no point of difference for these types sites. Its hard enough to drive traffic to a unique site! I’ve talked with many SEO clients and potential clients that have cookie-cutter affiliate sites and catalog sites that are having a horrible time trying to rank to where they get any traffic. Just don’t do it… and for goodness sake, don’t PAY to do it.
3. Look to Your Left… Look to Your Right… Will YOU ‘Graduate’? Fact is, many come and go….. will you be one of them? Are your expectations realistic? Are you ready to work, and to learn, and to challenge yourself? To”graduate” and make it to the other side of all this to where you know how to create revenue from your computer, you are gonna have to buckle down and bust ass. Sorry for the language, but that’s the fact. Internet Marketing is NOT “so easy a 3 year old could do it”… If it was that easy, EVERYONE would be doing it and be rich.
Folks, you’re gonna have to want it… and want it so badly that it almost possesses you. I’m sorry to bust some bubbles, but this is simply the truth. Stop SPENDING money…and start MAKING money!
Where Will You Be In ONE Year?
One year is not that long, is it? Seems the older I get, the faster time flies. Each time I turn around, my kids are older (even tho I’m not aging a bit! haha!). Where were you last year? Is it much different from where you are right now? Is this where you want to be one year from this very second? Would you like to think that one year from right now, you will have new options for your future be it to quit your current job, have more income in your household, buy a new car, be home with your kids…. do you want those options?
CREATE THOSE OPTIONS FOR YOURSELF! No $97 eBook will give you these options. No $197 IM membership site will GIVE you the answers…you will have to go find them. No $399 internet marketing course will GIVE you the knowledge you need … you will have to GO GET that knowledge. Good news is… it is all free. The biggest investment…and the one investment that the one on your left, and the one on your right, don’t want to make – is the investment of their TIME.
Are you willing to work 14 hour days, 6 or 7 days a week for a year to change the rest of your life?
Still Not Convinced?
Ok, so many people need a ‘sign’…they need to know that they are doing what is destined, or determined for them….
Here’s Your Sign!
The difference that determines whether you, the one on your left, or the one on your right graduate from Internet Marketing or not is…
Who will do what the others WON’T do?
That is so absolutely true. I spent all last spring and summer researching internet marketing and I did not spend a dime on “guru” information. It’s all out there for free, and it’s actually better than the information gurus would sell you.
It took several months to earn any money, but once it starts it’s kinda’ like a snowball picking up speed as it goes down hill.
I absolutely love the sign.
Ha! “Here’s your sign” You watch too much comedy channel.
But, oh, so true. Wonder where I will be in a year.
In reply to your question ” How many of you think internet marketing is hard”?
I would have to answer that with, it all depends on where and how you earn a living from your day job.
Allow me to clarify that remark.
If you’re a research mathematician seeking to explain the meaning of life then internet marketing is nothing more than learning a few formulas to follow.
On the other hand should you have a job requiring a strong back and little else then internet marketing might seem to be an almost impossible task.
However I believe most people fall somewhere between the two extremes.
Even so, at first, online marketing is time consuming at best.
Even though every bit of information required can be obtained for free, few people take the time to seek it out.
To replace the education one will aquire when doing the research stand the big name marketers ready and willing to sell you ebooks that will not prvide you with complete knowledge.
They leave you needing more. So the failure rate climbs to a remarkable
90% after 30 to 90 days.
In the end, if you want to stay ahead of the game you will have to shell out some money to stay on a fast track.
Thanks for Listening
Michael
WOW!! Finally somebody talks about time freedom…..and the option of being able to just go….rather than have to price shop for everything before deciding to just go..
That is real wealth…whether the bank account reflects wealth or not
Hi Jennifer,
I started my online marketing business on a shoestring when I started caring for Mom. My savings were gone and some months it was hard to afford a webhosting account and Internet access.
But, I kept working, reading, and learning, with the emphasis on working.
In some ways Internet marketing is harder now than when I started because there is so much more competition. In other ways, it’s much easier because anyone can establish a presence with a free blog and/or website and it’s easier to bring people to those sites with the growth of social networking. You no longer have to rely on the search engines or paid advertising to get visitors to read your content.
There is also much more “noise” and hype.
Still, Internet marketing boils down to pretty much the same thing as any marketing.
Attract a prospect, get their contact info, provide interesting and helpful information, help them get what they want or need, and some of them will become customers.
Continue to provide helpful information that will rank well on the social networking sites and the search engines and continue to to attract new visitors, some of whom will become prospects, and so forth.
I know that now, but I didn’t know it when I started and I took a lot of wrong turns. I came close to quitting several times.
I’m still working on refining my marketing efforts and putting into practice things I know I need to do, but haven’t managed to actually get done.
Now, years later, I get a steady stream of commission checks and payments deposited to my PayPal and checking account. I earn 100% of my income through online marketing.
But, for me, that’s not the most important thing. My marketing business allows me the freedom to stay home and care for Mom and she stays out of a nursing home. Right now, that’s the top priority. I could not do it if I had to leave home for more than a couple of hours every week.
As it is, I can work right here and, slowly over time, my business continues to grow as I identify and eliminate things I’m doing that waste time and money and continue to do more of what is working well.
It takes time and effort – and some money – and it is entirely do-able.
Some of us get there sooner and some of us get there later, as long as we don’t quit.
“We become what we think about.”
Who will you be a year from now?
Act on your dream!
JD
Great feedback all!
Thanks for reading!
I certainly would like to know exactly what type of SCAM-LESS business I could possible do online. I lost my job in Nov and have become so destitute behind having zero income for the past five months, I stand to lose almost everything I have worked for. My car blew up to the tune of $2,000 to get fixed, and with no savings, no IRA’s no aunts, uncles, and very few family members with any cash to spare, I am alomst homeless now. I was concentrating on the Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) releasing my unemployment benefits and ofcourse if they had, I would not be facing this devastation. I am an excellent researcher and love information. I type 65 + words per minute and can make a mean presentation. I have bee scouring the net trying to find something I can do from home since I am homebound now that I do not have a car or can afford transportation. So fill me in on this one! Don’t leave anything out! I’ve seen so many scams that I almost ignore the words home-based or stay-at-home mom business online. I have spent a lot of time being angry at the GDOL for not releasing my benefits, but at this point I have released them. And as GOD is the universal law, until that commissioner and staff and all involved in not denying my benefits have caused me to suffer- so shall it be returned to them. With that I release the anger and concern and give it to GOD completely and I am moving onward to something else—- SURVIVAL