Internet Marketing NOT So Easy?

Martin Avis left a comment on Warrior Forum regarding how people new to Internet Marketing are misled by experience marketers …

http://tinyurl.com/ygd5ckl

I’ve just read yet another post from a single-digit WF newbie asking (or maybe it was begging) for someone to tell them how to make money easily online.

Can you spot the word that makes the request a total nonsense?
Can you see the word that has doomed this newbie to fail?
Can you comprehend the mindset that makes failure inevitable?
I’m sure you can.
The word is easily.
It might have been easy, easier or easiest.
Here is a wake up call: Internet marketing isn’t easy.

Sorry. It had to be said. Making money online – and I mean real money, pay the bills and feed the kids money, consistent, do-it-again-next-month money – that takes effort, skill, experience and work.
It ain’t easy.
At least, not in the way you’ve interpreted the word.
You see, when we ‘experienced’ folk say that it is easy we are misleading you badly. We don’t really mean easy in the sense that it is so dead simple that an elderly dog can be taught to do it for biscuits. It isn’t a self-working party trick.

When we say easy we mean that it isn’t particularly hard or complicated, it doesn’t require years of training and it certainly doesn’t need the IQ if Einstein (thank goodness). But it does need consistent, focused, results-centric effort.
Complex, but not complicated.
Or to put it another way, work.
Sorry to burst the bubble.

Here’s a radical idea. Why not go onto a forum for restauranteurs and ask them out of the blue how you can easily start a successful restaurant? Do you think they might laugh at you?
How about plumbers? Try asking a bunch of them how you can easily make a grand a month with no outlay fixing people’s radiators? Do you think they might think you’re a bit crazy?
Ah. you might say, "those are real life businesses – I’m talking about making money online."
SLAP! (I hope you felt that round the side of your head).

What makes you think that a business (for that is what making $1000 or more a month is) online is any different to one offline? Business is business and the people who understand that and treat it with the respect it requires are half way to doing well.

Making REAL money online isn’t a game. Okay, at the lower end it can be a paying hobby, but for those of us who support our families and save money for a rainy day, this is real life.
And when you are just starting out, it isn’t ‘easy’.

Over time it does get easier, but if you are a newbie understand this: you will have to learn some skills, you will have to spend some money, you will have to work some things out for yourself, you will have to stand on your own feet, you will have to (cover your ears and eyes if you are of a nervous disposition) …
Work.

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There were a number of replies including this one from Steven Wagenheim …

Not that Martin needs me to rush to his defence with all these attacks
against him, but let me add my own 2 cents to this problem.

When I first started online I was clueless. I was probably a bigger failure
than 98% of the people here. I made $28 in my first 5 months.
I too blamed all the sales letters telling me how easy it was. But the truth is,
as I looked back at my progress, there were 3 things that I did that ruined
me at the start.

1. I didn’t take the time to REALLY learn the principles.
2. I didn’t stick with one thing long enough.
3. I didn’t put in the correct effort.
Let me expand on that last one a bit.
A lot of people will get a "how to make money" product and go through the
steps, thinking that they are doing everything correctly when in fact,
they are either leaving things out or doing some things poorly.
I’ll give you an example of a simple process that makes me a steady income
on a regular basis. And when I share it, almost everybody here will agree
that it’s pretty common stuff and will even admit that it’s a viable option
to marketing.
1. Find a product at Clickbank.
2. Write articles on the niche and submit to directories.
3. Write a review of the product and put it on a blog.
4. Drive traffic from the article to the blog.

Pretty simple, right?

Do you have ANY idea how many pitfalls there are to this process along
the way?
1. Finding a product that converts.
2. Writing a good article that gets read.
3. Writing a good resource box that gets people to your article.
4. Submitting to the right directories.
5. Heck, just picking the right niche.
6. Writing a good and convincing review without sounding like a sales pitch.
Now, the product could go step by step through this whole process,
telling you exactly what to do, but guess what?

If you can’t write, you’re up the creek without a paddle.
Is it the product’s fault?

What if the product actually included a whole book on how to write
articles?
Guess what?
No talent…no results.
Not everybody can learn to write.

So when I put up a sales page that says, "This is what I do and this is
what I get from doing it" I am in no way misleading anybody. I make no
guarantees that you’ll make even one dime. I simply say that by following
these steps you have a good chance to start earning some money.
And the truth is, you do. But it’s not a guarantee.

Nothing in life is.

And that’s the problem. That’s what people are looking for.
I can’t tell you how many emails I get with people asking me things like…
"How soon will I start making money with this if I get it?"

My answer?

"Nobody can make you any promises or guarantees. There are too many
variables involved including how hard you’re willing to work. If you’re looking
for a guarantee, look elsewhere."

Personally, if I were to use that system I just outlined, I’d be making
money within a week tops.

Why?

I know what products to look for.
I know what niches to pick.
I know how to write a product review.
I know how to write an article.
I know how to construct a killer call to action resource box.
I know what directories to submit to.
I can try to teach you all the above, sure.

But here is what I can’t guarantee.
1. That after reading the info you’ll become a great article writer.
2. That you’ll become a great resource box creator.
3. That you’ll become a great product reviewer.

Ultimately, how good these skills become will come down to how hard you
work at honing your craft.
It would be like a pro basketball coach showing you every move that
Michael Jordan has in his arsenal.

Guess what?

If you don’t have the physical skills or can’t acquire them, it won’t matter.
That is why I have said this a hundred times, even though so many people
don’t agree with me, I don’t care how good an instruction manual is. Some
people do not have the smarts to learn the material proficiently enough to
be able to make it work for them.

Does that make marketers liars?

No. No more than it makes colleges liars when they claim that your child
will get the best education there.
That education is only as good as the effort the student puts into learning
the material.
Is there crap out there?
Sure there is.

But even I could take crap that has at least some value in it (perhaps one
tip that is viable) and turn it into extra income because…
1. I am able to understand the point being made.
2. I am able to execute it properly due to my existing experience.
As you do this more and more, unless you are truly dense, you will begin
to find that it gets easier to understand and implement things, if for no
other reason than through pure repetition.

It took me 5 months to finally put a dent into my income. And even at
that, I was only making about $1,200 to $1,500 a month for over a year
before I had my next breakthrough.

Now…with everything I have learned, if you took it all away from me today
and forced me to start all over, I know exactly what I would do and it
would earn me a quarter million dollars inside of one month. I’d outsource
all the work and be done with it. I wouldn’t piss around with things like I’ve
been doing up to now.

But I’m lucky. I don’t have to start all over. I work about an hour a day
now a few days a week and because of all the content and products I
have out there (6 plus years of blood, sweat and tears) I can still make
a nice monthly income without having to kill myself.

It didn’t come easy and it didn’t come overnight.

Those of us who understand that it takes work understand what I’m saying.
Those of us still looking for that magic button will never understand what
I’m saying.

 

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Your comments are most welcome.

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