Reader Questions #1: How Tough Is Internet Marketing Initially?
Reader Darren Lim Asks:
Hi Andrew,
I’m just starting to get my feet wet with internet marketing and your website was 1 of the first I had visited through a chance of luck about 2 weeks back. Since then I had hummed and hawwed, tried to focus amidst the mountains of information set upon me, setup PPC campaigns that just netted me 1 sale and I still couldn’t focus on 1 plan of action with that much options swirling around me.
Fast forward 2 weeks later and I find myself back at your blog and I decided.. why not see how you did when you first started and I went all the way back to dig your posts back in July 2006. Thats when I realised that it was all about focus and hardwork at the start which I’ve been unsuccessful in doing so far. I’d just like to ask, was it that tough for you initially?
Cheers
Darren
—
The short answer is that everyone always starts out hard before it becomes easy.
This sounds counter intuitive to computer game players because we’d usually set a game to level 1 before progressing to higher levels.
But if you think about it, the most difficult part of any task is to build inertia from a stationery starting position.
If you have an idea of where you want to be (your goal) and you want it badly enough (your motivation and determination), then you can develop a plan of action and implement it.
Sound simple, doesn’t it?
But the difficulty is that there’s often a disconnect between our goals and our motivation.
If achieving your goal means you will be financially free, able to take 6 month long vacations if you chose to, and buying things you liked without having to calculate if a new car fit into a budget, the question becomes: How motivated are you?
You may have seen that I recommend various products and services which I’ve personally felt were very good, such as the:
- AutoBlogIncomeGenerator
- SecretBlogWeapon
- And lately, Jo Han Mok’s Internet Millionaire Code
But underpinning all these tools must be the desire to succeed.
I just had a conversation with someone in the WickedFire chatroom.
If your motivation to play World of Warcraft is stronger than your thirst for Internet Marketing, you’re not likely to get very far.
If on the other hand, you’re doing very well at Internet Marketing, it would give you the freedom to spend most of your time playing WoW without regard for not being able to meet your living expenses, wouldn’t it?
If you can bridge the connection between your goal and your motivation to achieve that goal, it will be more a leisure activity, more than a job.
Dawud Miracle
February 13, 2007 at 4:01 am (17 years ago)I certianly agree with your statement:
I find this in every aspect of business. Many small business owners struggle because they aren’t fully motivated to ‘do what it takes’ to be successful.
kumiko
February 13, 2007 at 10:58 am (17 years ago)I get a thousand e-mails a day asking me “how can I earn $100/day using the internet?” or “please outline to me step by step how to make money with adsense”…if these people took the time to READ a small section of my site and realize that I’m not making anywhere near that (even in a month!), they’d be in a better position!
The hardest for me was spending a full two months reading and researching internet income methods before I even got started on my journey.
But that hard part at the start made the money flow a little easier later in the game!
Kumiko
xo
Nenad
February 13, 2007 at 3:41 pm (17 years ago)I am still very much in the early stages of the game, and I agree that motivation is the key. I do find that my motivation tends to vary with time (sometimes I feel like I could just ignore trivialities like eating and sleeping so that I could work on my business, other times I get distracted by anything). I think the key is to find ways to boost your motivation, without pushing yourself (the last time I tried my hand at internet marketing, I allowed absolutely nothing to distract me, and burned out in a couple of weeks)
One thing that people forget is that different people have different styles of woirking. The idea of focus is a good one, but I personally find it better when I have at least two projects I can switch between (working on one thing for a long amount of time tends to bore me)
Dylan
February 13, 2007 at 10:11 pm (17 years ago)“If your motivation to play World of Warcraft is stronger than your thirst for Internet Marketing, you’re not likely to get very far.
If on the other hand, you’re doing very well at Internet Marketing, it would give you the freedom to spend most of your time playing WoW without regard for not being able to meet your living expenses, wouldn’t it?”
That’s a very apt (if not slightly ‘ghetto’.LOL) analogy! I think the ‘initial’ motivation is not difficult to find. Its sustaining your motivation and keeping the fire burning that is the harder part.
Dylan Loh
Calvin
February 13, 2007 at 11:44 pm (17 years ago)Hi Andrew,
I have to agree absolutely with your point. I feel that the reason for doing something rates much stronger than the methods used for doing it. When you really want to achieve a goal, you would do whatever it takes to achieve it. (within ethical means of course).
Hence, if people have a strong enough ‘why’ to go online and create a successful online business, they will find exactly the driving force to do it.
Nonetheless, having a solid plan and taking massive action has to follow.
So focus on finding your driving factor! And write it down and be reminded of it everyday!
Cheers,
Calvin
Geordie
February 14, 2007 at 7:32 am (17 years ago)Sometimes people like the “research” part of starting a new affiliate marketing endeavor more than they like the actual doing. These are the people who like shopping for office supplies, but never actually build a business that requires an office in the first place. Often times the time spent “researching” becomes a crutch for why they haven’t started actually trying to sell anything yet. There are ways to start small in affiliate marketing, so there’s no real excuse for not getting some small steps accomplished within a couple of weeks.
Andrew Wee
February 14, 2007 at 10:02 pm (17 years ago)Ohayoo Kumiko-san,
Take the questions, work out the answers, publish the entire thing in an ebook, fill it with your AFF links, and you’ll hit your cash quest target.
Soodesuka?
Andrew Wee
February 14, 2007 at 10:03 pm (17 years ago)Nenad,
I’d not suggest working on 2 projects at the same time.
Why not break your current project into different parts/sections, eg product creation, tech support, marketing, traffic generation and switch to different tasks when you’re feeling worn out?
It’s better to have a completed project, rather than 2 half-completed ones.
Andrew Wee
February 14, 2007 at 10:04 pm (17 years ago)My opinion is that if you have complete visibility on the entire cycle, your motivation should be relatively steady.
If your motivation peaks, then drops, it could be an indication that the idea wasn’t well thought-out in the first place…
Andrew Wee
February 14, 2007 at 10:06 pm (17 years ago)Geordie,
Yep, I’ve been reading many “analysis paralysis” anecdotes lately.
Procrastination could be an “out” for avoiding failure too.
No action taken = no failure possible.
Unfortunately some do not see the “no success possible” side of things either.
Matt
February 20, 2007 at 8:11 am (17 years ago)Andrew,
I’ve finally stumbled across your blog. I’ve seen your avatar on MyBlogLog and on WickedFire. Let me say this is very solid content. Very good! Honestly I’m just getting my feet wet in internet marketing and this was a great post. Definitly adding this blog to the RSS feed, and this page is getting bookmarked!
Thanks for the quality post!
-Matt