Ahhhh. The dream of the laptop lifestyle. We have seen dozens of ads promoting Internet marketing as the ultimate 
path to wealth, happiness, and financial freedom. Unfortunately, for most people starting in Internet marketing, these are false promises.
What does it take to be financially successful as an Internet marketer?
First, you have to want to be successful. If you don’t have ambition and desire to drive you through the tedium and the failures, you probably won’t make it. The people that are most successful in Internet marketing want financial freedom so badly they can taste it. They are willing to do anything to be free of a job and a boss.
Second, you can’t be afraid of technology. A lot of people promote their systems claiming that you don’t have to have any tech knowledge. Not true. While you don’t have to know how to code in JavaScript or PHP, you do have to be comfortable working in complex software systems. Even WordPress, which is a very user-friendly content management system, can get quite complex to execute converting blogs and sales pages.
Third, you can’t be in a hurry. Like any business, building an Internet marketing business takes time. And by time, I mean no less than six months and usually up to 18 months. There is not a successful Internet marketer that I read about or spoke with that didn’t struggle for years before becoming successful. If you are broke and in a hurry to make money, Internet marketing is not your financial savior.
Fourth, you need working capital. You will have to buy training. You will have to buy traffic. You will have to buy services. All of this costs money. You can plan on a minimum of $500 a month after an initial investment of between $1,000 and $3,000 in training. The less money you have to spend on your business, the more time it will take you to reach breakeven.
Fifth, you must love learning new things. Internet marketing is a vast universe of possibilities. There’s a lot to learn. People are coming up with clever ways to promote their offers. You must be willing to search out and learn those techniques. What worked today probably will not work tomorrow. So you must be a constant student of Internet marketing.
Sixth, you must consider whether you need a mentor or coach. The most valuable service a coach provides is accountability. If you are spending an average of $150 per week on a coaching call, you should be motivated to do the weekly tasks your coach assigns you. In addition, by showing up every week, you’re more likely to get tasks done than to procrastinate.
Seventh, you must tolerate failure. Very few people are financially successful in Internet marketing. The gurus on their webinars will show you people who are dumber than you who made a killing. The whole point is to say if this dumb cluck can make $10,000 with my system, so can you. Don’t get sucked into that hype. Some people do make some money right away. They are just lucky. And, because they got success too early they didn’t learn the discipline to build a sustainable business.
What you are not shown in those webinars is the six months after the picture. How did that person do over six or eight months? Were they still making five-figure sales? Were those sales consistent?
I doubt it. And the reason that I doubt it is because nobody ever shows us the 6 to 12-month trend line. And why don’t we see the 12-month trend line? Because most people fail, even if they were short-term flashes in the pan in the beginning.
So learn to live with failure. It’s part of the game. You will have far more failures in Internet marketing than you’ll have successes.
By the way, I’ve found a marketing system by John Thornhill that is really impressive. My mentor convinced me to sign up. Man, am I glad I did. John Thornhill’s system is a money-making machine if you are willing to do the work. Check out the webinar here and sign up for the system. This is not for the lazy, so don’t bother if you don’t want to work hard.
This is a guest post from Doug Noll, if you would like to be considered for a guest post please contact me.
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