You Need to Actually Start to be
Successful!
Copyright 2002 Jason Anderson
It's a very easy mistake to make. Heck, I was
making it myself for a long time.
I had been reading every article, ezine, ebook
and ecourse for the last 8 months that I could get
my hands on. All of them were teaching me about
internet marketing, creating my own products,
running my own ezine, etc etc. Which was great - I
need to know these things.
BUT - I wasn't actually doing anything! Finally
I realised that unless I started to use what I was
learning, all the reading I was doing was useless -
a waste of time and money.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had this
problem. The good news is that it is a fairly easy
problem to overcome - if you become aware of
it.
The most obvious reason for not starting is
information overload. There is so much information
out there that it can be overwhelming! Thousands
(if not tens of thousands) of ezines, hundreds of
ebooks you can buy, and many more that you can find
for free. Where do you start?
The first thing to do is find a good
introductory ebook. The best one I found was a free
ebook called Online Business Basics by Angela Wu.
You can download it from http://www.achievenetprofits.com/obb.html
Once you know the basic information, the rest of
the material available will start to make a lot
more sense. The volume of information won't
decrease, but your understanding of what you are
reading will increase.
However you may start to find a new problem.
Some of the material contradicts each other! You
should create a themed content site to attract
visitors. No, you should forget that and build a
small mini site to get people to buy. FFA link
pages are great. No, they are a waste of time. Free
ads work. No, they don't. Etc etc.
My recommendation is to not worry about the
contradictions. Some of them are based on out of
date information (the method used to work, but
doesn't any more). Others are simply due to
difference of opinion, or different results for
different people. My suggestion is to pick an
expert you are comfortable with (one who is
actually succeeding), and then follow their
advice.
Another common problem that can stop you from
starting is the feeling that everything has to be
perfect. You need to craft the perfect sales letter
before you start. You need to create the perfect
ecourse before you start, or the perfect web site.
Or, in the worse case, you have to have everything
in place from day one!
Often all that happens is that you spend all you
time working on things, but because there is so
much to do, you never get around to actually
putting it out in the public eye and making any
sales.
The secret is that everything doesn't have to be
perfect when you start, nor does everything have to
be in place initially. You can start an ezine
without a web site. You can start selling things
without your own opt-in list. Yes, you will need
the other things in the end, but don't let that be
an excuse to not start now!
A striving for perfection could also be due to
another reason - fear. Whether its a fear of
failure, or a fear of putting your material out in
the public eye where people can see and comment on
it, this can stop you from succeeding for a long
time (perhaps even forever if you don't acknowledge
and overcome it).
There are many books and articles available that
can guide you in overcoming such fears. My
suggestion is to concentrate on why you want to
have an online business, and let your desire for
the end result allow you to work through your
fear.
The final reason for not starting is the excuse
that you don't have the time at the moment, and
that you will 'do it later'. Of course, later never
actually arrives, and you never actually start.
Now if you are working an 80 hour week, you have
a good excuse! But most people aren't. Instead they
work an 8 or 9 hour day, then spend the evenings
sitting in front of the TV.
This is the perfect time to work on your
business! You don't even need to be in front of
your computer - you can use a notepad and pen to
draft your sales letter, plan your web site,
outline an article or ecourse, etc.
If you really want to start your business
online, you can find the time to work on it.
Correction - you can *make* time to work on your
business.
Now I do have to make one thing clear. While you
need to start your business, I don't mean that you
should jump in before you have learnt the basics of
what you need to know. That would be silly (and
could be costly in both time and money).
But you do need to be aware of why you haven't
started yet. Are you in a genuine learning period,
or are you simply delaying your start due to one of
the reasons above?
---
Jason is the editor of Achieve Net Profits, a
weekly ezine that reduces your learning curve for
Internet marketing by speaking directly with
professional Internet marketers. New subscribers
receive 3 FREE gifts when they join. For details
visit http://www.achievenetprofits.com/article.html
[You may publish this article in your
newsletter or on your web site. Minor editing of
the article is permitted, but links (if any) and
the resource box must remain unaltered. If used on
a web site, any links in the article must be
clickable. An email to jason@achievenetprofits.com
letting me know you are publishing it would be
appreciated, but is not required.]
|
