Internet Marketers Fail When They Get Lazy
The biggest obstacle that will stand in your path as you start and travel along your Internet Marketing journey can be encapsulated in one word: Laziness. Conquering it is key to reaching your money goals.
People keep asking me why I say that 90% of Internet Marketers drop out of the industry within 6 months.
The truth is I don’t have a fixed answer, but on bad days, it seems like everyone else who started out about the same time as me has moved on to:
- Network marketing
- Taken up a 9-to-5 job somewhere
- Doing the “financial trading cycle” which typically involves day trading or forex or options trading
The sad part is that they inevitably hit a brick wall, then look at what I’ve achieved in the last year and comment “Gee, you’re lucky”.
That kind of stings, considering the amount of effort I’ve spent in Internet Marketing, determining a path, building bridges to other Internet Marketers (sometimes taking a 20 hour flight each way) and taking on more than what others would normally do because I want to move along the road further.
So when I hear about the aspiring Internet Marketer who hasn’t taken action because he bought a new laptop and couldn’t figure out how to use it, and didn’t know how to configure his email, it makes me sad. Very sad.
In 2 minutes I informed him that he ought to call Dell and his ISP’s toll-free number and get his problems fixed by the next day.
Allaying blame on an inanimate laptop is tantamount to scolding the gas in your car because you got into an accident. It doesn’t quite add up.
Is it a catchall and a generalization to say marketers fail because they are lazy?
I think it’s more than just laziness, however, it’s a fundamental disconnect between your current reality and your long term goal.
If you knew you were destined for greatness, and you spent the day futzing around (maybe playing online chess, or IMing your friends), who’s to blame?
And if you have $127.05 in your affiliate marketing commission account, can you truly blame the ‘system’ because it’s rigged?
Why not start looking into the mirror, and take a cold hard look.
If you’re truly doing your best and your best isn’t good enough, it might be time to consider other options.
But if you’re putting in 30 minutes a week, and loudly yelling that the system doesn’t work, then you might eventually become part of that 90% dropout statistic.
Should it be time to kick your Internet Marketing efforts up a notch?
Like they say: “Tough times don’t last. Tough people do.”
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Jhong Ren
May 21, 2007 at 11:35 pm (17 years ago)Agree totally…many times there is so much routine tasks to be done daily and it becomes a daily task..which brings people back to the reality of what happened to the “immediate pot of gold” they thought IM can bring them…
Small Entrepreneur
May 22, 2007 at 12:40 am (17 years ago)very well said. I have my own share of the above mentioned truth. The trick is to remember the goal often times, which keeps the ball rolling. What is your trick?
Shannon
May 22, 2007 at 12:46 am (17 years ago)Hey Andrew. Love your blog. Always informative. I agree that laziness is a big part of why people fail online. A lot of people think that they’ll put up a site, make a load of money, and retire early.
Unfortunately, that’s just not the case. It will require a lot of work, time, and patience.
I’ve been online for many years and I’m still studying daily, working hard, and still not making enough to buy myself a cup a coffee everyday. I’m averaging about $0.10 to $1.00 a day, but most days are in the lower amount.
I’ve done so many things wrong over the years that I can’t image now what I was thinking. One thing I can recommend is to buy a mp3 player and download as many podcasts, audio books, seminars, tele-seminars, etc that you can find about making money online, running a business, marketing, etc. Then listen to these as much as possible. Also read, read, read. One book I especially like is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. If you can’t afford to buy it, just borrow it from the Library.
I received my mp3 player for Christmas and it has accelerated my learning ten fold. It’s amazing how much information I have learned over the last few months. I now realize all the things I’ve done wrong in the past.
I still don’t know if I’m on the right path now, but I feel more confident now than ever. Plus the knowledge I know posses helps keep me going.
I’m still struggling with a few personal habits that I need to overcome. One such habit is the starting of multiple projects and never really finishing them, or moving on to a new project because the first one didn’t work after a week.
I still have multiple projects on the go, but I have created project sheets which I list anything that comes to mind (brain dump so to speak). I have also determined how much I want to update each site and try and keep to this schedule.
By keeping everything organized in this manner, I can work on multiple projects at the same time. It’s still very time consuming and a lot of work. Especially when you’re working full time with two small children. 😉
Andrew Wee
May 22, 2007 at 8:52 am (17 years ago)Hi,
The “trick” is to figure out what your goal is.
Say you need $5m in the bank in order to retire.
Then figure out how much you made that day and how much you’ll have in the bank.
It should motivate you.
Plus you must enjoy the journey as well, if you’re only in this for the money, you’ll have a hard time on tough days.
Andrew Wee
May 22, 2007 at 8:53 am (17 years ago)Hi Shannon,
Thanks for sharing.
What I’ve found is that I’m constantly giving advice, AND getting advice.
What you shared is a good way of saying you need to continually invest in education and upping your goal.
The next step is to take massive action, testing and restesting and refining till the system is running more or less on autopilot, then moving on to the next campaign/product.
Erwin Tan
May 23, 2007 at 6:05 am (17 years ago)Great article!
Totally agree with Andrew on this. Laziness is really one of the major factors that causes many people to fail.
I could remember back then, I was introduced to a new computer game by my friend that I neglected my affiliate marketing for weeks as I was really addicted to my new hobby.
One fine day, when I logged on to my Clickbank account I discovered I never earn a single penny for that month. I felt disgusted and was mad at myself for that.
Since then, I try to spend at least half of my time on my IM rather than those addictive games. (Sometimes I even sacrifices my favorite shows and football matches on TV, but when you know what’s more important at the end of the day, I can say that you just few steps away from success)
Erwin
BlastYourAss.com
May 25, 2007 at 5:43 am (17 years ago)Andrew this comes down to the same old 90-10 rule that you can apply in almost any sales industry. 10% of the people do 90% of the business. It has always been that way and always will. But yeah I agree with you 100%.
As far as multiple projects. Most all smart people do that. I come up with a great idea a day but not enough time to pursue them. The trick is to finding which ones are doable and doing them till your finished!
Fred
October 27, 2007 at 2:17 am (16 years ago)While I agree in principal to all of the comments posted thusfar, I belive we may be overlooking a rather striking point.
May people approach building a website in general (an one which involves affiliate marketing specifically) as a result of being swept away by the hype that we in the Internet community have helped foster. We should probably ammend the phrase to “If you build it, they will not necessarily come.”
I’ve seen my share of well intentioned folks drop off the bandwagon, so to speak, because they just don’t know what to do next. They sign up for an affiliate program or programs with no idea of what’s involved in promoting their site or maximizing the clickthroughs for each of the visitors they manage to attract.
Perhaps if the merchant provided some assistance and guidance, such as Shannon’s suggestion to pick up and actually read a copy of Mr. Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, we could find ourselves actually on the road to reversing the 90/10 rule already mentioned. In the words of one of my early mentors, “You get what you want only when you help enough folks get what they want”
Andrew Wee
October 27, 2007 at 5:59 am (16 years ago)If someone is approaching a website in a euphoric mood, they need to chill and look at their business plan once they’ve calmed down, there’s more effort to make something successful that you might think…
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Expecting a merchant to provide assistance and guidance while optimistic, seems a little out of the ballpark.
When you buy your grocery from a costco or a ralph’s or target or wal mart, I dont expect the cashier to teach me how to cook my steak and i don’t think it’s a realistic expectation either.
You get the goods and you need to take personal responsibility for your actions. get a good mentor, look for good training, this likely is outside of the organization (unless it’s a multi level/network marketing organization …. and don’t even get me started about that…)