I was reading an article by David Risley, where he was taking a hard-line look at what he believes are some fundamental flaws regarding the make money online niche.
The main question at the heart of David’s article was why people do not actually succeed at making money online, despite the wealth of information available to do so, including plenty of blogs, free reports, ebooks, courses and mentoring programs.
From my own experience, having hundreds of thousands of subscribers and several thousand paying customers over the last seven years, I know only a very small fraction actually succeed, if you measure success by making money.
Even if you look at the percentage who go on to make a small amount, say a few hundred dollars a month, it’s still a tiny percentage of those who set out to do so.
So what’s going on here? Why is it so hard for so many?
If asked why so few succeed I’ve always had an answer that I know is true. Most people simply don’t do the work to get the result.
If you implement the steps and keep building on your results, eventually you reach an outcome.
That’s certainly true, and every person with a success story will trace it back to consistent hard work towards a goal, with an almost pathological will to keep going despite constant setbacks. I can vouch for that myself in all areas of my life I have worked towards improving.
The problem with that answer, is that it is a convenient “catch-all” statement to explain away every failure. They just didn’t work hard enough or stick to it long enough or implement all the steps.
I think it’s necessary to take a closer look at this explanation and figure out the real reasons why people do not succeed at making money online.
What Motivates Action?
What are the reasons behind a lack of action? We can break it down into a few categories –
- Practical Reality / Physical Constraints
- Lack of Understanding
- Lack of Resources
- Limiting Beliefs
All of these areas overlap and in fact at the heart of it, there really is only one major thing stopping us – beliefs. It is still worth taking a look at each category in more detail. Chances are one of these things is stopping you now, or at least you think it is.
Practical Reality Or A Physical Constraint
I consider this category all those physical things in life that get in the way from doing the work necessary to make money online. You might have to raise four kids, cook and clothe everybody AND work a job, which doesn’t leave much energy or time for anything else.
Maybe you have problems with your eyesight, or pain in your wrists, or other physical conditions that stop you getting the work done. Perhaps your computer keeps breaking down, or is so slow that what should take 30 minutes ends up taking two hours.
All of these things are variables that get in the way of you producing output. Unless you can remove these constraints, or find ways to work around them, you will fail due to lack of action.
A Lack Of Understanding Or Skills Shortage
This is a condition that every person who has an online business faces. You can’t know how to, or enjoy doing every role in your business. That’s why you need help from other people who have the skills you don’t.
Unfortunately even knowing what you need to know is something you have to learn, which is why so often people quit before they even get close to succeeding – it’s all too overwhelming.
If going online and learning how to make money from a certain system is completely new to you, you face a ton of new experiences. You may spend a good six months just figuring out the basics before you can start to move on to actually producing something.
Given that each educational experience opens up doors to new areas you can study, often simply the act of studying your options will kill your motivation – you just don’t know how to put all the pieces together.
A Lack Of Resources
For some people it is money, for others it is time, sometimes it is people resources – these are all the most critical elements for success when building an online business. You can never have enough of them.
When starting out, often the lack of funding to pay for even the basics – someone to set up your website, the fees for hosting and software, someone to do your facebook page, your twitter and youtube profile pages and just to pay for your logo, are out of reach.
Even if you have a nice set-up fund to pay for all of these things, once you spend your money to build a foundation, only to then turn around and realize you need money for a pay per click campaign, someone to write the copy for your landing page, not to mention paying for keyword research software, split testing software, ebook cover design, and on and on – it once again becomes out of reach.
Knowing What To Deal With First
All of these problems are real and you are likely dealing with them all right now in some way. I am too.
I’m a big fan of logic based problem solving. I think it’s the best way to progress forward.
However the first problem you have to solve is often the trickiest – in what order do you solve these problems?
Following the theory of constraints you should look to whatever is the most pressing constraint that is stopping movement forward. Unfortunately, without experience or at least some feedback from somewhere, it is hard to know what that is, especially if you are new to the online business building process.
That’s why concepts like lean testing and having a mentor are helpful. They give you a direction to move towards and allow you to change directions quickly.
I think it is equally important to tie in your own motivation rewards into the problem solving process. Although designing a logo might not impact your bottom line directly, it does give you a sense of achievement, of making your business more real, and that is fun (and thus motivating). It’s also a creative process, which can get your juices flowing and carry your motivation even further.
Limiting Beliefs
I think today if I was to answer the question about why most people do not succeed at making money online I would first say it is a lack of action, but I would qualify that by saying behind every lack of action is a limiting belief.
Every challenge I have outlined in this article and every challenge you will face is surmountable, but it’s your choice not to figure out how to get it done and spend the time to do it, which stops the outcome. That decision comes from a place where you decide it is too hard or too scary or too much work or you would rather do something else, a belief you make true when you stop action or fail to take any to begin with.
This is a simple answer to a complex problem, which perhaps doesn’t do it justice.
I say that because us humans are complex creatures made up of constantly changing motivations, desires and energy flows. Every moment is impacted by how much food we have eaten and of what type, how much sleep we had, whether we feel content, or lonely or happy or excited, whether we have family supporting or berating what we do (or ignoring us altogether), what kind of personality we have and whom we have to deal with on a day-to-day basis.
There are simply too many variables at play. Thus we generally make the desirable decision in every given moment, and it’s almost always made because of how we feel in that moment.
So to put it bluntly, it’s all in your head… and perhaps your heart (and stomach).
How To Stay The Course
The next question that begs answering is thus:
How do we get our head and heart to align with what we want?
(Be careful, you could end up having a conversation with yourself at this rate…)
Studying personal development can help. Aligning yourself with the right people can help. Gaining faith in divine purpose can help. A little dash of good old fashioned luck and timing can certainly help too. Figuring out what you really really want is always a good step.
Unfortunately I do not have a reliable answer that is guaranteed to succeed.
That is why I think it is unfair to lay blame on teachers, or teaching materials, or even sometimes yourself. It’s all about the context and there’s a heck of a lot of context within and around every human being.
The reason why only a few people succeed is clear: it’s hard.
It takes a lot of things to go right and you doing a lot of things over and over again even when you do not feel like it, and even then you won’t necessarily succeed.
Learning is guaranteed, which is what makes taking action always the best choice.
Action not only gives you a better chance of success, but also returns an insight into why you are doing something, how well it is working and how other people react to it (if they do at all – non-reaction is still a result, if a discouraging one).
Personally I find that enjoyment is generally the key ingredient because nothing keeps you active like fun. As such that good old statement from Joseph Campbell –
Follow Your Bliss
…is pretty accurate. Overly simple perhaps, but very true.
Figure out what you enjoy doing, then how to make it a part of the process that leads to the rewards you want from life, and you win. Simple. As. That.
Or maybe not.
Your Next Step…
If you are struggling to get results, nothing seems to work and you feel your blog is going nowhere, I suspect your biggest issue is how you think and how you act.
The next level of training I offer for bloggers who are just getting started or who have struggled for a while is my Master Your Mindset: Productivity And Mindset Training For Professional Bloggers e-guide package.
I honestly believe you must get this issue resolved or you will NEVER succeed. The same mental stumbling blocks and poor patterns of behaviour will kill your chance of success no matter what you are working on, how hard you work or how good your intentions are.
There is a reason why certain people succeed even when they start with no education and no experience. It has everything to do with their attitude and willingness to improve. This guide will give the necessary insights and productivity hacks so you get results quickly.
Inside the guide you will learn:
- The 3 core principles that govern everything I do, including a detailed breakdown of how to apply the 80/20 Rule, Theory of Constraints and The Sprint Technique (Pages 10 to 28)
- How to stay productive when you feel like giving up. Based on the most popular blog post I have ever written, I will help you conquer your greatest challenge, your own emotions (Pages 29 to 35)
- The secret to a 2 Hour Work Day, traveling with your business and living the laptop lifestyle. I’ve cracked the code on the lifestyle business formula more than once, even before I had a blog. This chapter will teach you how (Pages 37 to 46)
- How to break the pattern of average results and manufacture perfect timing, so you finally you get the “big win” that you have seen so many other people experience (Pages 73 to 80)
- My story of how I made a million dollars online, including the key steps to get to this big goal yourself. It won’t happen over night, but there is a process you can follow to get there (Pages 82 to 87)
On top of the guide itself, I’m also including five new mindset audio lessons I personally recorded recently, plus the original 10-part Master The Mindset audio lesson series I recorded when I first taught my groundbreaking Blog Mastermind program.
There’s also a third special bonus, a report covering my unique system for outsourcing, which focuses on hiring local work at home people so you can build a remote team.
The package includes my 90-Page complete guide to master your mindset and productivity, 15 audio lessons featuring over five hours of personal coaching from me covering all the key mindset insights and techniques you need to know, and the special bonus outsourcing report.
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No Risk Trial (30 Day Refund Guarantee)
Even if you are not sure, I suggest you download the guide and then make up your mind after you go through it.
As you will see when you click the link, I offer a 30 day refund guarantee. If it’s not for you, email me within 30 days and I will refund your money. You can even keep the bonuses regardless of your decision.
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Further Reading
I’ll leave you with two articles that I recommend as further reading on this subject.
If you are struggling with motivation today, read this –
How To Remain Productive When You Feel Like Giving Up
If you have time for a deeper look into how to create the change you want, you can learn my methodology – in this 9 part series starting with part one here:
Is It Really Possible To Create The Change You Want In Your Life?
Good luck!
Yaro
Making Money Online
Photo courtesy of Carsten Schertzer
Thanks for the link, Yaro. 🙂
I think this post is right on the money. However, the other side of the equation… and the one I’m focusing on internally.. is the responsibility of the product creator.
While we do a good job of giving the info that is needed, we don’t do that great of a job of following through and taking responsibility for delivery once the sale is made. We more or less leave it up to them – completely. I think there are ways to actually administer a training program differently to minimize that.
Information providing is one thing… administration is something different.
Anyway, still working out details internally. 🙂
Oh, and love the mention of lean testing. That’s something I’ve been paying some attention to, most definitely. 🙂
I think much of the follow-through, as you call it David, comes from more personalized coaching, if you decide to offer that.
It’s hard to follow through with large groups. You can invite people on to coaching webinars, but most of the time only a small percentage show up.
At the end of the day, unless you actually do the job for people, no matter how much you attempt to hand hold them – administer as you might call it – it’s still in their hands.
Of course you can certainly come up with systems that improve your results helping people. Instructional design is all about this, but it is a tough ask for one information marketer to go down that path, usually it is large educational institutions with massive budgets who invest in that sort of process design.
Hi Yaro. I agree with your statement: “At the end of the day, unless you actually do the job for people, no matter how much you attempt to hand hold them – administer as you might call it – it’s still in their hands.”
Your work with me one on one was most helpful and gave me a lot of good insight. Bottom line: it’s still up to me to do the work. And it is hard work. Almost three years into blogging with my golfgurls.com site and I am still slogging away. Which is why it’s important to choose a niche that you are passionate about. If not, you will surely drop it out of sheer discouragement.
I’m still shy about asking for backlinks, but am working on that and on improving my articles… slowly getting ads and building my list. One step at a time… as long as you’re moving forward, I guess, that is something.
You guys have me thinking if I should add personalized coaching to my latest product. The product is once off fee, and I didn’t think a membership model will work on it. But you guys just got me thinking. Thanks!
Also, David, the Aweber editor issue. Still having it? I wonder if it would have been better if they had a ‘change to the old editor’ function like other platforms. OR don’t you think that’s the issue?
……Knowing about is one thing … and how to take action accordingly is another thing…to combine it is the other thing ..anyway it is good idea and inspiring…thank
You know, ever since I came online the same basics of success have remained unchanged despite all the get-rich-quick products and services in between. What are these basics?
Create a website for your visitors, not the search engines (quality content is still king). Secondly, patience and relentless persistence will prevail providing you are doing things right. And thirdly try not to major in minor things (something a lot of newcomers suffer from).
Wise words from Henry Ford, he said, and I quote; “Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right”.
Andy
Thanks Andy, some good points there. “patience and relentless persistence will prevail providing you are doing things right”. This is where a lot of people fall down, they throw their hand in and give up too easily. You often have to work hard for no reward for an extended period of time before there is any noticable reward.
Thank you–some very good ideas in this article.
Consistently taking action is definitely on the top of my list of why many people struggle online or offline. Great insights Yaro. Thanks
Houssem
A terrific, inspiring post, Yaro! With all the experience and accomplishments you have in this, you have seen it all by now. THANKS for sharing with us your words of wisdom!
The way I read it, the VERY BEST news about this is that this is almost entirely in OUR personal control! The market place, the competition, the economy, the whatever – all those are external things, over which we have limited control. But taking personal action and modifying our personal belief system to support and foster personal action – that is entirely in our personal, internal control. And that’s the very best news, the way I see it, after reading Yaro’s words of wisdom for us aspiring to make a living online.
Thanks again, Yaro! Olga
Hey Olga, yes it certainly can feel empowering knowing that much of this is in our hands, but of course we are not perfect creatures when it comes to performance, so there is a downside to it too. Plus timing and luck play a part, which is not in our control (which perhaps is what makes achievement that much more special – it’s as if the universe helped out a little bit too).
I just recently wrote an article which ended with:
“..and I’ll tell you that on a long enough timeline: success is only a matter of your ability to eliminate and overcome anything that prevents you from writing.”
There are many things that can delay or reduce your chances of making money online, but one think will SURELY bring them to zero: not surviving enough time to write (or execute, market, whatever is the core of your business)
Yes SK, I agree, writing – or at least content production of some kind is key, the internet is a content based medium, so if you want attention you have to do something worthy of getting it.
Hi Yaro – I think the correct answer is not having a comfortable enough office chair! 🙂
When you have to sit at your computer for long hours people need to protect themselves from back pain. Not being able to do that will slow anyone down.
I’m joking of course, I think you are right when you said: “It’s hard!”.
That’s the real issue, not many people can overcome the obstacles involved. After the question of ‘can’ comes the question of ‘will’.
But the worst part is, know really knows if they ‘can’ when they first start out and many are not sure they have the ‘will’ part either.
A lot of time people ‘test the waters’ and if they find the waters comfortable or get early results it is easier to build from there.
The hardest is to work really hard every day for a long time and not be sure if you are going to get results or not. I bet that stops a lot of people. Any thoughts?
Hi Yaro
You’ve just said it all. But i think lack of passion is another factor that limit ones success because when you don’t love what you’re doing, the chances of you succeeding is very slim.
Also just like you mentioned, we do need mentors sometimes to show us the way, but not everyone has the resources to pay for that. I think sometimes we just have to be helping the newbies somehow without demanding for money because if you help someone and he eventually scale through, you will also benefit from his success.
However, i must thank you for the post as always, you did a very nice job.
Keep it up
Great post, Yaro. Time, time and more time. Work on skills, read a lot and learn as much as possible. Keep plugging along…
Hi Yaro, I agree 100%.
Learning, staying the course and continually taking it to the next level.
Yaro,
Many people do not succeed because they believe the on-line’ hype’. There are so many ‘products’ that promise $thousands within weeks.
They start…income doesn’t happen…so they buy another course that promises riches. And it happens again.
You and I know to succeed on-line, it can take many, many months of working 12 hour days.
Andrew
Great post Yaro… I think it’s a simple matter of not having basic business skills.
I used to see this all the time when I was an electrical contractor. The electrician working for me would “go out on his own” because instead of making the $45/hr I was paying him he would get the full $100/hr I was charging clients. He had no idea what expenses it took to run the business… or the fact that there was downtime where we weren’t getting paid, but he was. He would try for a short time and then realise he was actually better off where he was.
Yaro, when you interviewed me you highlighted the fact that I went from blogger to ebook seller, to membership site owner to affiliate manager… This was largely out of necessity. Because of my brick and mortar background I knew I had to grow the transaction value ($27 to $108) so I maximised the profit from each visitor. I knew to watch conversions and focus on the best converting traffic (affiliates) because that was were my time was best spent improving the bottom line.
I could also show my affiliates proof that if they spent $0.40 on a click (using specific keywords to specific landing pages) they would make back $1.52 over a 3.4 month period… So, they made a loss in the first month!
Most beginners to IM would have no clue about these concepts. They are coming from day jobs, lured by the hypey headlines and ads, and trying to become a business owner with NO business training. But, tell people they need this to succeed and they won’t even try, because it would be too hard.
Also, the cost of entry to IM is minimal, the risk is minimal, so minimal effort is put into it…
And it doesn’t help where the “Gurus” don’t reveal the whole truth. There are a lot of flawed strategies out there, that only experience will recognize.
Cheers
Ian McConnell
Western Australia
People don’t succeed online because:
-they are lazy
-they dont have clear goal
-they are not patient
-they want 4hour/week work
-they don’t prioritize
etc…
BR, Chris
I like that this article goes beyond taking action because that is not the only nor the main reason many don’t succeed. It does take time to learn things and it also takes time to gather information and find real products or information that will help you. After spending money on information products that are incomplete, it is understood that you either have to give up or your going to have to take some time collecting information that will help you to get something up and going.
Yeah! effectiveness and hard works wonder for getting success…..
I agree with some of the things David says but I have to say that I followed your course, did what you said to do, made full use of the calls and now I have a real business.
Excuses, well I have heard them all, most of them started when the people got the advice and said “I’ll Try” or “I’m gonna”, and they gave themselves an out. I think the appraach for me has always been I did this or that and it did or didn’t work, not i will or i’m going to, it still is i did and tried this or that.
With all of this being said, there is a huge gap and a huge void in the make money online space and it doesn’t involve “marketing or selling the dream” it would be something with a much higher success rate and that’s taking people making 2 or 3 thousand dollars a month (so they have done the work and know what it takes and are already on their way or somewhat on their way), and take them to the next level of over 500,000 visitors a month and a half of a million dollars or more a year in profit. I will leave that one for the “experts” but I know I could teach people that one and have the connections to get them there as well..
Thanks Yaro,
For me the focus is always on taking action whether it’s 100% right or not. The biggest obstacle I find is I want something to look perfect before I write it / publish or put it out there. Such has been the case in the early stages of my blog.
Some good advice on one of your podcasts I heard was that you had written many a post where it wasn’t 100% correct. Maybe there was spelling or grammar error but you still posted it because it was taking action and moving forward.
Still a long way to go for me but i’m getting there.
Cheers
Great article.
Consistency is King!
I agree with the laziness and “wanting it to be easy” comments above as well.
Nothing comes easy, hard work is the determining factor in being successful.
You are right Mr Yaro,
Most of the time we are wondering what to do and still on the point where we start over, anywaz keep struggling to outfit my work.
Thanks anywaz,
Regards,
Umar
Hi Yaro, excellent article, unfortunately too many people are falling for the typical Clickbank get rich quick systems where they are told they do not need to do much work.
However we all know there has to be work done and as you say the internet is a content based place. I am trying to spend at least an hour each evening doing something new for one of my sites. I love the idea of Patrick Meninga of writing a thousand words a day. That is my goal for the next few months, maybe not 7 days a week but definitely 5.
It’s in my hands. So it is up to me.
Regards
SI
It’s interesting. I’ve achieve successes (although I must say that continuous success is yet to come) by ONLY working on my beliefs. Once the negativity is gone, the mind becomes clear and the right actions come “out of nowhere”. Some call it intuition, some divine guidance. Whatever you call it, it’s definitely working! That’s why I devoted my blog purely to the beliefs part.
This is a great article. I have to say my main reason for never giving up is that quitting was not an option.
I had to make this online thing work in order for me to continue to stay at home and for our family to eat.
My approach allowed me to continue because there were no other options.
Wow very insightful… It seems to come down to ‘inner creates outer’.. Nothing in life happens to you unless you manifest it from inside first. Whether we’re conscious of it or not! All the more reason for positive thinking! Thanks Yaro! Great stuff! Going on to read those links now!
Top rate post Yaro, this should be required reading.
Totally agree with your statement: “”If you actually implement and keep doing it, eventually you get an outcome.”” Patience is a virtue but one that is lacking in 99% of those who try to break into the “make money online” concept. Of course all that BS in the IM niche doesn’t help when the seeds of “do this and make millions overnight” leaves thousands of wannabe’s disillusioned.
I think the other part of the equation is not giving up on being an entrepreneur, even when one idea doesn’t work out.
I keep reading that the difference between a successful entrepreneur and an unsuccessful one is that the successful person has tried out 10 different ideas while the unsuccessful person has only tried 2.
I find that each time I start a new project I learn a whole lot of new skills and concepts. Next project is a new bunch of knowledge. As time goes on, that increasing breadth of knowledge means I’m better able to judge which ideas are likely to succeed, and to know how to go about implementing them.
There’s a huge amount to learn, and those who’ve had quick success are the rare and lucky ones!
Hey Yaro, long time follower on your newsletter (new and old) and blog reader but I rarely comment so you probably don’t know me.
Like you basically said, I think a lot of people work hard at working hard and yet they may never achieve that success they reach for. Of course there are many reasons why they may not and each person is different, but I believe a big part of it is simply the fact of today’s day and age we live in.
People want things to work now. And not just now, it has to be easy. It might be a lot of work, but it has to be easy (seo, blogging, article spinning, etc.).
To really be successful, it’s important for everyone to remember they need to be real entrepreneurs and not an automated tool entrepreneur.
Like you said… hard work, education, and dedication is a great secret sauce.
This article speaks incredible truisms throughout! What you described can really be applied to anything in life. The world we live in, is anything but fair. Some may be “better equipped” to handle adversities than others. However ultimately, we are the captain of our own fate.
Nice post Yaro.
Dan
Thanks Yaro for a great post and very timely indeed. I like your answers to the question, What Is The REAL Reason People Do NOT Succeed Online?
However the answer everyone could agree with there are many variables involved and it’s HARD making money online.
Keep up the great work..
A very thoughtful and spot-on article Yaro, thanks. My problem seems to be information overload, in particular, from coaching programs who start off be saying they don’t promote third party launches but very quickly jump on that band wagon. Of course, they are in it for the extra income it brings them but from a mentoring point of view they are being dishonest and disrespectful of my time and my subscription. These “must have” offers from third parties only serve to distract me from the training in hand and are counter-productive. I have unsubscribed from several mentoring programs because of this problem.
Awesome Yaro! I haven’t been to your blog in awhile but once here, I can’t seem to leave because you’re so positive and up front with your information.
I, too, believe that what we put out comes back to us so I’m always trying to give the best I can in whatever I’m involved in. I’ve had some success in affiliate marketing but more in ebooks I’ve written.
Our beliefs keep showing up in everything we do so it may be time to rethink some of them and get rid of others. I’m a firm believer in being as positive as possible.
Continued success to you.
Just checking in to see how your Mom is. I clicked on the link of “mother” and read she had pulled her tracy out. I’m sending a prayer that she is doing well. You have been diligent by her side. Bless you for that. Prayers for you Mom.
Just checking in to see how your Mom is. I clicked on the link of “mother” and read she had pulled her tracy out. I’m sending a prayer that she is doing well. You have been diligent by her side. Bless you for that. Prayers for your Mom.
Hi Yaro, Yes it was a great post. I have experienced many of the trials and tribulations you speak about but even with a career I am passionate about, running the ranch on my own, and taking care of an aging mom and a 13 year old, I manage to keep plugging away at it. Slow and steady. I write about my passion and that helps.
However, I also think, that why some people don’t make it is that they truely think that an internet business or affiliate marketing is a “get rich quick” plan of action. They think you can do it with little or no work….. so masses of people give it a feeble try and when they don’t “get rich quick”, they give up. Then they say, “it didn’t work for me, it was too hard or complicated”. They don’t treat it as a job. I believe you have to work hard in the beginning to achieve, finally, a 2 hour work day and make money online. It is almost survival of the fittest (or hardworking) people.
Wise words Yaro.
Products touting making money online by the marketers focus on just a small part of the business and we all get left hanging what do I do or how do I take the next step.
If you’re new to the online game then you tend open yourself up by going online to find the answer which reults in you exposing yourself to another marketing onslaught. In short we all need the focus of jet pilot because you can lose your way very quickly and venture down the wrong path or a new path and all the past work gets left behind and one succumbs to the “I tried school”. Thats my practical take on it anyway 🙂
I’m only just starting out on creating my first blog and I’ve already found that it’s way too easy to get sucked into spending time reading all the info and advice on-line about content and technical issues at the expense of witing. I’ve now got to be disciplined about balancing time, and alternating writing and research.
Thanks for the advice, we all have to begin somewhere.
Everything said already, except by me.
My belief is, this is the plain simple truth. Maybe somewhere, sometimes an update required, but at the moment, just an excellent analysis.
Thank you very much, Yaro.
Next?! 🙂
Hi Yaro, great thought there. The truth is that success in any endeavour is no stroll in the park. Achieving success is hard; and that is the reason everyone is not a success. It takes another spirit to succeed!
Thanks Yaro,
I have been into IM for more than two years now, but with little success. Everyone claims the right one this and that. However, the best way is by doing it, and we will know what works for each one of us. I hope this article will stir me to work on IM again.
thanks
True, true. But the thing is that people dont really want something so bad that they will make the change.
This is brilliant, and so true. I’m amazed by the graveyard of abandoned blogs out there, and also how many blogs/websites simply don’t do things like “updating fairly regularly” or “having an e-mail sign-up” despite the fact that these are clearly established best practices.
Pretty much all the online success stories I’ve read seem to have taken 18 months to 2 years to really come into their own, yet this part of the story is often glossed over. I think people also underestimate the mental aspect – how discouraging it is in the beginning to be doing all this work and seemingly nothing gained from it… and you need to keep that up for a pretty long time.
Great post! I agree with the reasons here. I think that often times it doesn’t help that some of the information online is false information. Sometimes it is because people got scammed a couple times believing that the information they were purchasing or receiving was really from somebody who has succeeded when really they were just trying to make a sale. I have seen some great information (like info you share with us) and I have seen some really bad misleading information that people end up following. It can be hard in the beginning, often people trust too many people or they don’t trust the right person.
There are also too many “you will have boat load of cash in your bank account tomorrow” scams out there and people fall for these. They then start to think that working at home is all just a scam as it was their experience.
Laziness and fear definitely play a big part. I would be lying if I said that I never sunk into this category before. The difference is that I picked myself out of it and pushed myself!
Great post Yaro. With three active kids and family time as the priority, the physical does impede progress on the site. I am persistent though and will keep plugging along.
Thanks for all of your encouragement!
I think the biggest problem is that there are so many courses, ebooks, mentorship programs and so on detailing how easy it is to make money online that almost everyone tries it and a big percentage fall usually after having spent a lot of money. A variation of a get rich quick scheme. Also given that all that’s needed is a pc with internet everyone can jump in so the result is that there is an enormous amount of competition and it’s pretty difficult to stand above the others. After that there is the difficulty of monetizing a blog, Adsense doesn’t work anymore and selling affiliate products is not everyone’s dish.
So we get high competition, difficulty to monetize, fables about how easy it is, the time needed which spans in years and not months, Google dance, etcetera. No, really making money online these times is not that easy, at least in my opinion. 🙂
What I like about you, Yaro, is that you not only write indepth posts but you also cover more than just the physical how-to. There is so much more going on with each person within themselves and in their lives.
It is overwhelming to those who are just starting out, and can be even more overwhelming when they find out how much there is to learn and how long it takes – very easy to give up along the way. However, it also takes sticking to the tasks and not giving up when times get tough for someone to get to the point where they are making a decent income online.
Avoiding the amount of misinformation out there is helpful as well. It can be done; just need to use wisdom as to who to get involved with and learn from, and dig deep into the determination to succeed. Thanks for another thoughtful post.
hi yaro,
i became a ‘student’ of yours in 2009 when i purchased your mastermind course. after 6 months of ‘learning’ i set up my blog in spring of 2010. nearly every roadblock has come my way that your mention, which has been frustrating. but i have continued to post once a month (at the least) to be consistent (in my own eyes) and i have stayed in tune with what my own vision and ‘bliss’ are. i still someday want to earn from my blog, but for now i just am able to stick at it, so it does not become something ‘i tried and stopped’ in the future. always enjoy reading your insightful articles, it would seem i am a ‘textbook case’ for this post…thanks
Good discussion to have–very helpful.
o great to have this recognition of the various factors at work when you are trying to learn something new. I must say some of the advice I’ve read on other sites in no way pertains to my own struggles, and I’m sure the site owner would perceive me as not having enough drive to overcome all my obstacles alone. (I am learning not to be like them.)
Watching others who are not as far along in some skills as I am, I know their struggles are REAL, even though they are not the same as my own struggles. I don’t think we are called to get judgemental or holier-than-thou about why someone else is not succeeding at the pace we think appropriate. If we can help them, it’s a far better thing to do. If we can’t, we have to be satisfied that our information product or coaching was the best we had to offer them at this time, and they will eventually get there.
Thanks to Yaro and others for recognizing the struggle and reasons behind it.
Seen it all before. People not succeeding is the only way there can be a path for people to succeed. My advice, get an unbranded product from China for 25 cents and sell it branded in the US for 10 dollars.
Great post – For me the biggest barrier to success is my own mindset. When I first started our in internet business I (like a lot of people) got drawn into the get rich quick market as it is so easy to get an emotional high from buying these products. It was only after several costly website mistakes that I finally bit the bullet and decided to commit for the long haul. The niche I chose was in the jazz guitar teaching niche. But upon looking at the competition I realized that we had the bones of a good product and today the site is growing. It took us a whole year to develop the lessons! For all those people out there that want a quick answer to making money online it is sadly only a few people that make it rich that way. Most of us have to work hard and be committed to getting results over the long term.
Lack of time has been one of my main problems. I have a good system down where I’m consistently making so many phone calls per day, sending out so many emails per day, making so many autoresponders per month and writing so many blog posts per month.
So being consistent helps, but it’s still not enough. If I lost my J.O.B. I would have plently of time to build my online business. Good write up.
Thanks for producing this article Yaro.
I have been going through a cycle of entrepreneurial activity/inactivity for about 10 YEARS now and I have FINALLY just started ACTING upon some of my ideas. I agree wholeheartedly with what you say in your article, but I might add one extra consideration: “Dream Killers” or poorly chosen confidants, (I have found), to be the MOST destructive force. They kill off the initial all consuming, motivating inertia that gets most projects off the ground and on the road to eventual success. I have learned not to ask for praise or advice from anyone BUT a well chosen mentor.
Thank you for the REMINDER and the extra help keeping me motivated.
I got a lot out of this article.
Cheers,
Marie x
True that people are not doing enough to achieve their goal, this happens to me myself too. Hoping for huge results with little effort putting in, this is a warn to myself, and I could change the results with putting in more hardwork in building my website.
Thanks for the post Yaro. 🙂
Thank you so much for this informative, helpful and insightful article!
Really helped and saved me!
Persistence with passion can only drive someone to success. Awesome post Yaro!!!
I think too many people actually believe the BS that tells them they can work 4 hours per week from a beach and be successful! I know you can do this BUT, only after you work hard and get your business rolling.
This is NOT an easy business, you have to love what your doing and be committed to consistency. Either way, finding a mentor you connect with is 10X faster than trial and error!
Thanks for the great post!
I think many people quit to soon, possibly just short of where they could have made some giant steps forward….
Also, I believe that the persons state of mind when faced with obstacles and “Big windfalls(breakthroughs) will determine their level of success….
Then again, everybody has their own unique view on “what success is” which does make the topic of success much broader in definition….
I agree with Kate. Not only that, but the amount of time and effort it takes. I am not “selling” anything, but I have been running my blog long enough to know that it definitely can become a full time job. My biggest problem is committing to it 100% with other responsibilities.
I agree with the above comments. Too many people have this idea that an online businesses are easy and you just get rich over night. For some this may be the case but before you see that side of them i’m sure there was a time when they devoted 100% of their time to build that business. In my opinion and my experiences even once you have a successful business you still have to work hard at it to keep it successful.
Part of the reason why people fail online which i strongly agree with is lack of real mentors! You see, this issue of finding mentor has dragged some people to the back because there is no one to show them the real way
Sheyi
This story is just fantastic and realistic! I started blogging in internet marketing niche two months ago and so far invested a lots of money and time just to start. Comparing with my previous job in customer service were I spent 8 to 10 hours per day in the office and at the desk dealing with customers I can easy say that newbie in internet marketing basically need to work sometimes all day long just to start the business and learn. Today I am learning every day with online video tutorials supported by personal online coach and mentor that I am grateful for. So, from my perspective I definitely agree that online business is not easy if you seriously planning stay in and do not give up. But results hopefully will be rewarded on the end of story.
Before I read this post I already had an answer to the title, it is definitely that people do not put in the effort that is required to make the venture a success. You can’t just put up a couple of banners and sit back and wait for the millions to roll in, I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that.
Hello Yaro –
Excellent blog post as always and some really great advice not only new marketers but experienced marketers looking to break through to higher levels of success. I appreciate you thoughts on ‘staying the course,’ understanding ‘skills gaps’ and having the required resources.
Selecting a business model and developing a basic business plan to expose needs can really help you get organized. Identifying a mentor who can guided you will shorten your learning curve and increase your odds for success. Making money online is relatively easy and you have done the hard work of getting properly prepared and then commit to following through.
Have a blessed day!
James
This is a great resource. I have experienced first hand what happens when you stop (even for a while) an then come back to your site and try to catch up and make up for lost time.
Once, I got busy with “work” and neglected my blog for a few months. It even went offline for a week (owed my ISP some money :-)). Anyway, now it’s a hassle to get it back the the kind of traffic it used to get…
One thing if for sure, the only way to make it (unless you have loads of money to invest in promotion) is to keep going and not stop.
4 hours a week get real, working from the beach, well if you’ve got wi-fi on that beach it could happen. Look 4 hours a week isn’t likly to happen even if I could cut all the marketing, and link building, experimenting with ways to improve my website, and research out of my days out of my days (and short of winning a sweepstakes or the lottery that won’t happen because I can’t afford to pay for it) I’d still be working something like nearly 20 hours a week assuming nothing unexpected came up.
No a more realistic goal is finding a business where you like enough of what you are doing that even though you might be working 20 or more hours a week it really only feels like 4 hours a week.
Hey Yaro. I was feeling very bummed today. You see, I have several niche websites up and running and not many promising results yet. However, I have been seeing natural search rankings in Google for my chosen keywords. This is alright. But I seem to become very unmotivated at times. Feeling of depression or worry often overcome me.
It always feels good to read one of your articles. I don’t know what it is, but when I read your writing, I become inspired. I feel that I can succeed. And that is something I truly need to become successful. Thanks so much Yaro! I feel much better now.
My problem is bad time management. I struggle to fullfil all of my goals. Nice article Yaro. Thank you very much.
This reminds me of a video a saw with Tony Robbins, Frank Kern and John Reese. There Tony explained what he thought so much people got bad results and he had a like cycle: Potential->Action->Results->Belief and back to Potential. So basically you have a potential and if you really believe in the product you’ll take massive action and that’ll produce good results which will make you believe even more and then take even more action and get even better results and so on and obviously that works the other way around as well. So if you do bad your belief will go down and your actiontaking will be lower and lousier results will be the result of that and that’ll reduce the belief even more and so on.
Dennis
Lack of time and concentration are the worst killers. You rock. Thank you very much.
Great inspiration here – many fail due to lack of passion and perseverance
Hi Yaro,
Great article. I have to say that besides money, of course — a budget of not even a hundred dollars, maybe $20 for a year’s purchase of a domain and one of the many “free” webhosts out there, my biggest limiting factor has been people resources. I am an extremely shy person, very self-conscious about my appearance (female!), and struggling to shed a lot of the baggage from a dysfunctional, abusive upbringing and psychologically traumatizing past. I find that cultural items like music, humor, inspirational quotes, etc., have been a staple of coping mechanisms for me. And quite obviously, I love to write, and believe I do it well, although mine is in a more poetic, “flowing” style than the blunt conciseness of blog copy. (My posts end up in “tl;dr” format with several long paragraphs, and I have an automatic tendency to use academic sounding words…. because they sound so beautiful, and to strait-jacket my posts into a keyword-friendly advertisement just seems so… cold. So “business-like,” and art, prose and intellectualism have a natural tendency to clash with the mindset of “business” and “advertising.” Social “targeting” sounds all Big Brother/Mother Russia and, well, “evil,” you know?
Because I fear that the people who treated me badly will discover my online presence, I have been working double time at trying to cultivate a “persona” and fiddling with a slew of privacy programs that often break my connection and muck up the workings of my site. I am also trying to do this without having to get a dreaded job first, quite literally working “from home” and entirely from home — I rarely, if ever, go out, and have zero “real life” people I feel comfortable interacting with.
I did start a blog “just for kicks” as a freebie on WordPress.com, to see if I could keep up the rhythm of daily posting — the frequency at the very least, because I do grow tired and get headaches/neck aches from exhaustion and staring at the screen for too long. I don’t have much else to fill my day, and so I spend too much time with just one activity and then grow tired soon after.
And yet, even with my functional limitations and social fears, coupled with my VERY young age (I will be sixteen by the end of summer), I would like to share what I know about coping mechanisms and personal inspiration via a self-development blog. When you’re depressed, it’s very hard to concentrate, but I do make time to read the best personal development blogs out there, many of which go back in archives for several years. I also read blogs on how to develop your own blog, like yours, Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger, Chris Garrett’s ChrisG.com, and Brian Clark’s CopyBlogger. I have been looking over Blog Traffic School and found it most informative and entertaining. But I think with the “just for kicks” blog, I have not been getting very many readers because I am an “insular blogger,” which really is because I am a very insular person, a high school dropout and bullying victim both in-home and in school, hidden behind the four walls of a tiny low-income apartment. 🙁
I really don’t know, and am so very lost on, what I should do regarding social media, because by this point I think there’s a “who cares” factor that goes along with yet another wannabe hoping to catch the comet tail of success in the blogosphere, and I am not at all a social person who likes to blurb aimlessly. It seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy: I don’t think people will care, and I’ve been set up for pain and dismissal in the past, so I don’t do anything because why bother. Maybe you can do an article/series on, or someone can recommend, a basic how-to on getting started with social media for someone who is so paranoid and self-conscious about revealing the “real me,” and has legitimate privacy/safety concerns, yet believes in the quality of one’s content to attract readers?
Social phobia, and online privacy concerns are certainly challenging. I personally have never had many concerns regarding online privacy – I think it is as safe as the “real” world, whatever level of safety that is, so you may as well enjoy your own personality by sharing it.
As for social phobia issues, that is a fear that like most fears you can overcome with patience, practice and most importantly, facing the fear as often as you can without going completely bonkers. I recommend focusing on daily writing both on your own blog and in one other place as a form of marketing, whether that be forums, or social media, or guest articles on other sites.
The important thing is to learn because at some point you will discover an area where you can give back to other people and they genuinely value your help. Once you figure out your value, it becomes a lot easier to be confident when sharing it.
I absolutely agree that “Follow your bliss”, by Joseph Campbell, is definitely the way to go.
It allows us to directly tune into our desired state of being, which I think is what most of us ultimately want.
Thanks for an insightful post!
If something was easy, people would flock to it, then the competition would make it hard again. Very few people ever got rich in the California gold rush other than the original discoverers of the gold. The people who got there second flocked, but few of them found anything. I have hear over and over about people who really believe they will strike it rich with internet business, but they would not have heard about it unless they were the second ones there.
Maybe you can do an article/series on, or someone can recommend, a basic how-to on getting started with social media for someone who is so paranoid and self-conscious about revealing the “real me,” and has legitimate privacy/safety concerns, yet believes in the quality of one’s content to attract readers?
Loved that tip!!
The great thing about blogging is that – especially when you enjoy writing – Blogging itself is something that you can enjoy doing.
And even when you don’t experience your results as successes, or your results aren’t exactly as you had in mind, even than you can write about your experiences helping others not to make the same mistakes. That way you can make your mistakes into little successes anyway. Than eventually all the little successes can build into bigger successes, and when that happens it also becomes a lot more fun.
Even when you do things wrong, you can still get results.
Also a lot of great business successes actually did start as ‘un wished for’ side effects that turned into great successes.
Uaro you have a way of making complicated psychological issues sound SIMPLE.
“That decision comes from a place where you decide it is too hard or too scary or too much work or you would rather do something else, a belief you make true when you stop action or fail to take any to begin with.”
* Too hard
* Too scary
* Too much work
These may not seem logical reasons to hold us back.
But they don’t have to be logical, because they are emotional responses.
If we are HONEST with ourself and ask what is holding us back we will see that 1 or more of these are the culprits.
I have discovered & addressed the first of these with my favorite self improvement tools. I look forward to addressing the last two.
Hello Yaro,
Fantastic article. I actually discovered your site last week, read the Blog Profits Blueprint, and even went over to becomeablogger.com and watched the 10 free videos there. I have been in the mode of gaining all the information I can as I plan to start blogging (first time I have ever blogged, so it is very exciting).
My problem has come in the form of making the decision on what I feel will be great content for my blog. I love to write; I have written many short stories over the years. However, I am focusing in on what I feel will generate the most traffic. I bounce ideas around in my head, write them down, and they all look great. But deciding which one would be a hit is what keeps my mind running, lol.
I plan on starting small, paying for the things I need while not going overboard. My thought, or business plan (if you will) is to focus mainly on the content, market myself, and then once I do start to add income I will look to expand the page (my long range goal is a membership site). Anyways, this article gives me insight to know the obsticles that I could face as I grow my blog, and then move onward to a membership site.
I will also say that it is great to have all this information out there from experts such as yourself who truly want to help others succeed with an internet business. Rock On!
I was actually looking up a contact online (considering training from him) and stumbled across this article after reading about him. He is one of your successful online entrepreneurs you have interviewed. I learned a lot from the article above. I think a few of the comments made about mindset hit home. Sometimes it seems like such an uphill struggle. I will continue on after reading this article!