Internet Marketing – Do You Have What It Takes?

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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…

graduating fish“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!

what others can’t billboard

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?

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