As you work on your Internet marketing business, you eventually have to make the decision to QUIT
BUYING EVERY NEXT BEST THING. You will always be trying to find ways to improve your bottom line,
but buying everything that promises to do it for you does not work. This will empty your wallet, but
it won't solve your problem of not making money on the Internet.
There are two big reasons why 95% of Internet businesses fail to make any money at all. The first is
that the people don't actually work at building the business. You can easily convince yourself that
there are ways to start a business for under $50, do absolutely nothing, and make over $20k the
first month. After all, Joe did it. All you have to do is start searching for biz opps, and the
promises of fast, easy, riches will soon fill your brain. For those who think it really works this
way, I have no real solution. Eventually time and money will teach you that this isn't so. Until you
learn that lesson, you will certainly fail.
The second reason why Internet businesses fail, and the subject of this article, is that people get
onto the sliding slope of trying to find the magic bullet, the single product that will instantly
put it all together and start the money rolling in. This, however, takes your attention and efforts
off building your business, and puts them toward something else. In an experiment to see where this
might lead, I played a hypothetical game called "TheGreatOpportunity." I "joined" and determined to
make it work. This opportunity promised "22 streams of income," and offered a zero cost start up.
Sounds good, right?
Wait a minute. The 22 streams of income are affiliate programs of one kind or another. You make
money with each of them by referring others into the company. Each one was actually a business of
its own, requiring its own kinds of efforts. However, in order to make any money with any of them, I
would have to pay something. Not a single one offered to pay me if I personally didn't bring in some
cash. I could have spent around $350 to $400 just getting myself signed up to make some money. So
much for free.
I then went to another opportunity. There all I had to do was sign up, and I got my own free
replicated website ("just like this one!"). All I would need to do is get a few thousand people to
visit it. No problem. Just get people to visit my site. How do I do that?
So, that left me where so many new Internet marketers find themselves. Finding visitors isn't as
easy as it sounds, and free doesn't mean free. So I started thinking that maybe I just need some
tools-- autoresponders, ebooks, software, anything. Something that would get some visitors. It seems
thousands of people have "The Shocking Truth About Something," or "The Secret They Don't Want You To
Know." In less than a half hour, I read seven sales pages, each promising to solve my problem for
the Incredible Price That Won't Last Long. I could have spent $790 to have all my problems solved
and been on my way. I had already purchased one of the products a year or so ago, and I went to it
to refresh myself with it. I had paid $176, and inside there were "recommendations" for at least
four other programs I should get to make it all work as it was designed to work.
Sound familiar? You start your new business with great resolve, but when the money doesn't roll in
as fast as you had hoped, you start spending your money on another tool. This, then, has an
affiliate program which you can promote, and it turns out to be another business in itself. Soon,
you are spending all of your time in activities that don't produce revenue. Spend as much time
working your business as you spend looking for ways to build it, and you will be much farther ahead.
Dance with the one that brung you. Once you start a business, stick to it. Don't get distracted.
Spend your time and money trying to build that one business. Working on a single product or a single
business will always produce more results than "The Next Great Thing.
