Entries Tagged 'Rant' ↓

I am not sure if this true for any of you, but I am notorious for putting things off until tomorrow. I call it the false promise of tomorrow. Essentially the conversation I have with myself goes something like the following.

Me: I should probably do some work now.
Me: Well… maybe I’ll stumble for a few more minutes.
45 minutes pass
Me: Maybe I should get to work now.
Me: But, first I’ll check my e-mail
1 hour later
Me: Maybe I’ll get some food
1 hour later
Me: Maybe I’ll do some work now.
Me: Hmm… actually I should go out for a run while it is still light out.
2 hours later
Me: I am too tired to do any work now, I’ll just do it tomorrow.

You get the idea I have lots of stuff that needs to get done and I feel like I can always put it of until tomorrow. The problem of course is that tomorrow never comes.

Lesson: If you want to be successful in online business you need to keep taking action everyday. Once you fall into the trap of the false promise of tomorrow you are far less likely to be successful.

Not sure what that says about me….  I guess we will have to wait to find out.

Before I explain what I mean by this I will address a very obvious objection to my headline. Why am I telling you not to create webpages, blogs or products about making money online when I blog about making money online?

Very simply, I don’t make my money online through this blog. It currently represents only about 1-2% of my total online income. I assume that this proportion will rise somewhat as it becomes more popular, but I never expect it to be more than about 10% of my total online earnings.

I enjoy writing this blog because it helps me to think through my own ideas about Internet business and because I want to help people improve their lives by starting their own Internet business. Obviously, if I can make money from this blog so much the better, but the earnings from it could disappear tomorrow and I would hardly notice.

OK, enough about me for one post, what does this have to do with you? In fact, I think this point is extremely important, because it is the biggest single mistake I see people online making online.

Why Do People Think Writing or Even Creating Products About Making Money Online Will Make Them Money?

I think the simple answer is that they see other people doing it and decide to copy them and do it themselves. For example, they see supper bloggers like John Chow who report incomes as high as $30,000 a month, writing about making money online and think well that looks like a good idea, so they copy it.
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Just kidding, I am actually really enjoying getting back into making regular posts. In fact, I am spending a lot more time updating it than I thought I would, just two weeks ago. I often have an idea for a post that I think should be about 300-400 words long that turns into a 900-1000 word post.

I suppose it is better to have too much to write about, rather than not enough. But, it is still taking up a fair bit of my time and effort. Moreover, despite the fact that I said that this blog was going to be more about me and less about just making money online; I have found that I have a lot of tips and advice that I enjoy sharing with all of you.

So, it looks as though this blog will continue to be updated on a regular basis, my aim is to post 5-7 new posts a week. Also, once the traffic numbers pick back up again to their fall 2007 level, I am going to start asking you what kind of articles you would like to read about. If you have any questions please feel free to put them in the comment section below.

I think that’s about enough out of me. Plus, you probably want to get back to work working on your own Internet business, rather than read any more from me. Just remember you have to take consistent action towards your goals for you to have any chance of reaching them.

I spend a ridiculous amount of time online. When I am not working, I spend time reading blogs and websites about topics which interest me, such as business, politics, entrepreneurship and financial planning among others. However, many things bug me about how websites and blogs are often presented.

So, I decided I would create a list of 3 common mistakes that I seem to constantly come across. There are definitely dozens more than these out there, but these are the three that annoy me the most. Both new and experienced website and blog owners make them; although I think newer ones probably make them more frequently.

Try to avoid these mistakes when making a new site or blog and you will be way ahead of the game. Moreover, you will stand out from everyone else who is making them.

1. The biggest problem I run across are websites that have too much advertising. I find that this is problem with sites big and small, old and new alike. In fact a great example is super Blogger John Chow whose blog is filled with ads. But he makes great money with his blog so I should just copy him, right?

Wrong! John Chow and other owners of authority websites, can put many ads on their sites because people know and trust them. People want to read the content on the site and thus put up with the ads. Unless, you are an authority site you should not even think about putting up a ton of ads that get in the way of your content.

Work towards building up a solid base of people who like your site and then slowly put more ads on. However, you never want your ads to make your site more difficult to navigate. Again using John Chow’s site as an example you can see that even though there are a lot of ads they do not make it that much more difficult to navigate his site (see point number 2). Continue reading →

I have been earning some money online, for a long time now. I think I made my first website over 10 years ago and ever since then I have manged to earn a little something online. As I mentioned in the Q&A I did with myself I don’t earn huge money online but it is enough to live on.

However, for a long time I kept spending some of my money on various get rich quick Internet marketing miracles. I loved the promises of earning tons of money without any real work. Turns out the only people who got rich were the ones selling the ebooks, software etc. that I was buying.

My Conclusion: Internet Marketing Products Suck

This is true for nearly every product that gets released on the market these days. For every truly great product that can honestly help people looking to start an Internet business (like Site Build It), there are probably thousands of worthless or even pure scam alternatives.

So, I will say it again Internet marketing products suck. Moreover, you have to be really careful about any so-called “reviews” you read about any new product. The fact is that most of them are written by people who want you to buy it, so they can earn their affiliate commission. Worse still, most of them have probably not even seen or tried the product themselves.

For example, take the review I did of Jermaine Griggs’ Nitty Gritty Marketing back in October. If you go to Google and do a search today you will find roughly 230,000 results when you search for ‘Nitty Gritty Marketing Review.’ I guarantee you virtually all the reviews will be positive. Now it could be great product or there could be other things at work.

For about a week and half before it was released it was the only thing anybody in the Internet Marketing community was talking about. Yet, within days of it being released nobody was talking about it anymore. A little suspicious I think?
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