Success as an Internet marketer doesn’t come easy. In fact, many people estimate that upwards of 95% of those who set out to be Internet marketers or online business owners fail.
This failure is for a variety of reasons. While everyone is different, there are some striking trends that are important to pay attention to because they can prohibit your success.
You’re also not likely to succeed unless you avoid some critical errors so many Internet marketers make. These are mistakes — roadblocks to failure — that you need to be aware of.
You might feel resistant to what you’ll read below. Honestly, a big part of that is because you might see yourself within these reasons. It can be like looking in a mirror — and you may not like what you see!
I urge you to really take a hard look at what’s described here, because one or all of them can be blocks to your success. Examine these reasons and take them to heart. Don’t let them hold you back. Don’t be on the wrong side of the statistics.
Keep it at the top of your mind that you will be part of the successful group of Internet marketers. You will succeed beyond your wildest dreams.
The “success blockers” below are not in any particular order. You might recognize some of them in yourself, and not others. Pay particular attention to those that tug at you, the ones that make you think, “hey, that’s me!” Those are likely the ones blocking your own success.
Success Blocker 1: You don’t really know what you want.
When someone asks you why you are an Internet marketer, what do you say?
If you’re like many people, then you reply that you do it because you want to earn some extra money. If you’re ambitious, then you might say you do it because you want to be able to quit your job and work full-time online. If you’re really ambitious, you might say you do it because you want to develop mostly hands-off income streams so you can go lounge on the beach and sip Coronas!
These wishy-washy ideals of what you want are not enough! There is no way to achieve just earning some “extra money.” There is no way to achieve just “being wealthy.” Because, what do those things really mean? They are too abstract to be effective or really make an impact on you.
You have to really define your goals and know what you want out of your Internet marketing venture.
Consider the specifics:
How much money you want to earn?
What, exactly, are you going to do to achieve your goals?
What business model do you plan on following?
It can really help to, literally, write down your goals. Write down all you might hope to achieve today, this week, this month, over the next year, over the next five years, and over the next 10 years.
Believe me, if you don’t outline your goals and make thinking about them part of your daily life, the days will pass you by without you having achieved any tangible success. You need to define your goals. When you do that, your mind will naturally start to guide you to take the actions you need to take in order for you to succeed.
In addition to writing down your goals, it’s all about having a clear vision in your mind. Visualize how you see yourself in the near future. Where will you be living? What will you be doing in your online business? What do you want out of your online business?
Be specific.
Goal setting is an extremely extensive topic. You are urged to learn all you can about it, because it really can help you define what you want. It can also help you take the steps you need to take in order to achieve your goals.
Success Blocker 2: You are not passionate enough about the reason for your online business.
One of the biggest mistakes people make with their online businesses is that they are just in it for the money — or the idea of the money. This is not enough! You really need to be passionate and excited about what you’re doing.
Now, that isn’t to say that you have to love every single step along the way. It just means that there has to be something that drives you to keep on going — something that drives you to succeed.
The question to ask yourself is: “What is my “why”?”
Your “why” will be different than any one else’s. Everyone wants to make more money, but why do you want to make more money? Do you want to pay off your debt so that you don’t have an albatross around your neck? Do you want to have enough money so that your spouse doesn’t have to have a job, or a second job of your own?
If earning life-changing income, even if you’re not generally thrilled with the niche you’re in, is something you’re passionate about, then you might be willing to do just about anything in your online business (within reason, of course) that you can.
Find your passion and run with it!
Success Blocker 3: You don’t think big enough
If you’re putting a lot of hours into your online business, then you’re likely not content with earning just a small amount of money here and there. Though, you might have tricked yourself into believing it because you will not allow yourself to think big enough. Don’t make this mistake!
In fact, even those who are earning $1000 or even a few thousand dollars per month could dramatically increase their earnings if they just thought bigger. That’s right — you need to think bigger and have bigger goals with just about anything you do in your online business. It’s all about scaling up. It’s all about doing things bigger and better.
That’s why it’s so important to learn and grow all the time. Let yourself make mistakes along the way! Even those who you might consider to be the most successful in their online business are constantly expanding their education and developing their business sense. There are always ways to increase your income — it doesn’t matter who you are or what your experience level is.
If you don’t think it’s possible for you to earn more money in your online business than you’re making right now (or any money at all, if you’re just starting out) then consider this. Have you built an email list? If so, are you doing all you can to increase the size of that list? Are you developing positive relationships with other marketers? Are you taking full advantage of the traffic you receive to your website?
In just about every case, there are things you can do to improve your earnings online. Not thinking big enough and having a small, impoverished mindset, is one of the biggest mistakes people make. Do not let yourself fall into this trap because it will just get you down and you’ll be stuck with low earnings. Thinking big means bigger earnings!
I say that and I believe that, even though I wrote a book about setting small achievable short term goals, inside my “5 Bucks a Day” book. I encourage people to think about working on a project that will earn them just $5 a day in recurring income.
Sure, that sounds small, but the thing is, $5 a day is $1825 a year in income. And a $5 a day project every week is $260 a day, every day, by the end of your first year of doing 5 buck a day projects. So small becomes big quickly if you have the “Think Big” mindset.
Success Blocker 4: You don’t believe in yourself
The truth of the matter is that you will not be able to reach higher levels of income if you do not believe in yourself. Sure, you might have those fleeting moments of hope and belief right after you’ve read a motivational story or e-mail about yet-another-marketer who’s pulled themselves out of the depths from their job as a McDonald’s clerk to make great money online. You suddenly think, “that could be me! They don’t have anything I don’t have!”
When that happens to you, I urge you to hold on to that feeling. The feeling that you can do bigger and better things. The feeling that you really can succeed online and that you have everything you need to do it.
What happens that makes you doubt yourself, even when you have those initial good feelings? In many cases, it is the voices of others. Perhaps you do not have a supportive family at home. They wonder when the fruits of your efforts are going to come to fruition from all the time you spend working online.
Do yourself a favor — turn these other voices off. Unfortunately, even when you do this, you may find that an internal voice may continue to nag you. Don’t let that happen! Whenever you start to hear a negative voice telling you what you can’t do in your online business, turn it around to something you can do in your online business!
Yes, it can be hard if those you love and respect do not support you. It can be even harder when you don’t truly support yourself. Make it your mission right now to start believing in yourself. Once again, you will not succeed if you don’t believe you can — there are no two ways about it.
Do this. Get involved in an Internet marketing forum. You can even start with a free one if finances are tight, but if you can manage it, you’re much better off in a smaller forum that you have to pay to belong to. Find the right one and you’ll be surrounded by others that are there for the same reason, are non-judgmental, and you can either watch from afar or you can ask for advice.
When I had my worst days, I finally found such a forum, and I started following someone who was successful. I developed confidence in myself because I convinced myself that “if he can do that, I can do that”. Sure enough, I did start succeeding, after three long years of being unsuccessful.
So find a mentor (they don’t even need to know they’re your mentor, by the way), and watch what they do carefully. Be sure you have one that does business the right way, with integrity, and soon you’ll be on your way.
It bears repeating — you can’t succeed if you don’t believe in yourself!
You can attract success and develop positive work habits simply by believing in yourself and knowing that you will achieve the income you want to achieve and the lifestyle you want to live — it’s only a matter of time.
Success Blocker 5: Expecting success right away
Think about your own expectations for the business model you are currently following or are considering following. Were you given a realistic timeline for when you could see success by the person you are learning from? How long have they been in Internet marketing and how long did it take for them to see success? Are there variables you’re missing that contributed to their success?
Consider all the factors that go into the business model you are interested in or are invested in. In many cases, you might be relying on things like search engine traffic. It takes a while to rank in the search engines! Always consider the time factor and know that it can take a while to see success, no matter who you are. This is something many sales pages gloss over.
In fact, the reality of the early stages might be that you’re working hour after hour without seeing a single smidgen of benefit. Keep pushing!
If you just kept pushing a little bit further, you would have made it! Keep pushing, and you will make it. Be persistent and know that success may not be immediate, but it is imminent.
Don’t feel like it will take forever, though! One of the great things about having an online business is that you can achieve success far more quickly than many do when they start an offline business. This is one of the great things about working online. As long as your expectations are realistic and you keep on plugging away, you can achieve all of your dreams and goals.
You should also realize that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts. That means that not all of your efforts will pay off. For example, if you build 10 niche sites, the chances are good that the bulk of your income will come from just two of those sites.
You also can’t expect to get something for nothing. If you’re not putting in the effort, you will not succeed online. If you are not doing absolutely everything you can to better your business, you will not see success. If you’re not willing to invest either time, money, or both, then you will not see success online. Invest yourself in your efforts and you will succeed!
Success Blocker 6: Not educating themselves
You really can dramatically cut down on the time it will take you to earn a great living online by educating yourself properly. Now, that doesn’t mean just buying every course that comes your way willy-nilly. Once again, you need to sit down and really think about the business models that are out there. What appeals to you? Does it pass the litmus test of success?
Here are just some of the available business models that are a sure thing, if you work them the right way:
Selling ebooks
Freelance writing
Freelance graphics
Affiliate niche websites
Blogging
Membership sites
CPA marketing
Do any of these appeal to you? If so, you will need to zero in on one and learn all you can about it. It can really help to find someone you admire who has already had success with a particular business model. Have they put out a course? If so, you may want to pick it up!
Educate yourself, and actually follow the instructions. They are so many people who just will not follow directions! They want to go down their own path because they think they can do it better.
In fact, that’s something drives me nuts sometimes. We have some incredibly successful people in our insiders club (Earn1KaDay), and occasionally one of them will post a step by step method that they’ve actually used to earn big profits.
Success Blocker 7: Educating themselves too much
Despite what was mentioned above, there is an even bigger group of people who educate themselves too much! These are the people who are on all the marketer’s lists. They’re constantly browsing the WSO section and the Warrior Forum, trying to find the next big thing. Their pulse quickens when they read a sales page. They constantly think, “I’ve finally found the thing that’s going to change my life!”
They read the product, watch the videos, and get excited about the possibilities. They forget about it as quickly as they chose it. Something else shiny has landed in their mailbox and they are on their merry way!
There are some people who collect business models and courses like they are trading cards! They think, “well, if I implement this business model I can make $1000 a month right away. If I implement this other business model at the same time I can earn another $2000 a month. If I implement this business model…”
They lack focus! They go after shiny object after shiny object, never giving a single one of them their full attention.
In other words, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but if you watered your lawn on your side of the fence, you might be better off.
Not being successful is not the only harmful effect. You’ll also put yourself on information overload! You cannot fully digest all of the information you’re gathering!
Your head will be swimming with ideas and you can’t implement anything because nothing is solid or coherent.
You have to find the right balance. Yes, educating yourself about the right business model is extremely important. There are so many wonderful products out there that can help you achieve great success online. However, you will never succeed if you do not sit down and implement a business model from start to finish.
Having the ability to focus on a business model is so powerful. It will allow you to succeed where others do not because they are busy chasing the next Big Thing.
Instead of flitting from here to there, never finishing anything, you will be implementing one thing at a time. Your chances of success will be dramatically improved because you are actually following through. You will not be on information overload like others, because you take things one at a time.
Success Blocker 8: Hanging around the wrong group of marketers
One of the best things about being an Internet marketer is that there are some wonderful groups and forums you can join. This is a great thing, because it can be very isolating when you work online. It’s also neat because you can meet and work with people from all over the world. You learn from all different perspectives, and it’s very powerful.
Imagine: you are very excited to try a certain business model and you go post on your favorite Internet marketing forum about it. You’re sure this business model will work either because people have been successful with it in the past, or it is a solid plan you’ve thoroughly investigated. In any case, you’re pumped to try it out.
Unfortunately, some of these “forum vampires” immediately tell you that you can’t do it for this reason or that reason. All they do is tell you why something won’t work. In fact, they do this all the time. Suddenly, you start to doubt yourself and leave your surefire business model behind.
While you can get valuable and amazing feedback from others on forums, it’s often the case that you’ll run into doubters who have nothing to do but doubt themselves and others. Many of the know-it-alls out there are actually not at all successful. They don’t know what works because all they do is spend time complaining about things and thinking about why things won’t work! They are not who you should be listening to or hanging around.
You need to surround yourself with good influences. Make friends with people who are already successful at what you want to be doing. When you do that, you will start to develop a more positive mindset yourself. You know it will know it is possible because you hang around people who have made this lifestyle possible. They will encourage you and life you up.
You’ve really got to reprogram yourself. Far too many people have self doubting thoughts far too often. Don’t think of yourself as a loser. Think of yourself as a winner! Think of yourself as someone who is just around the corner from seeing massive success from your online business.
When you start to think of yourself in this way, and surround yourself with others who see themselves in this way, your success will happen by default. You will be able to break out of this rut and achieve success beyond your wildest dreams.
If you hang out with the wrong people — with those success-sucking vampires — you will not see success. Do not let that happen to you!
And remember, I mentioned it before, but to put it in this context, the success-sucking vampires tend not to invest in the forums or insiders clubs that they would have to pay to belong to, so it’s relatively easy to avoid them.
Success Blocker 9: Not taking action
This one is such a doozy! Not taking action is a huge reason why people do not succeed online. They educate themselves and they might even surround themselves with the right people. However, they don’t actually do anything to further themselves and their business.
For example, have you ever had spent all day at your computer, typing and clicking away, but you can’t name a single thing you accomplished at the end of the day? I have, we all have — but if you make a habit of it, you will never be successful! Doing something and looking busy is not the same thing as taking action in your business.
If you actually want to be successful, then you need to make sure you do something every single day that moves you forward. Develop a solid business plan and break down the action steps you need to take to get it done. Then do the steps! That’s the part so many people miss out on.
I call it incremental progress, and it’s a foundation for my success and what I teach people who I coach and mentor.
Checklists can be phenomenally helpful in this regard. Break things down into systems and they will be easier to achieve. Perhaps the reason you are not taking action is because you’re not sure of what your next steps are.
It can seem like there are such overwhelming projects looming ahead of you that you don’t think you’ll ever be able to tackle them. Breaking things down into smaller steps can definitely help you achieve your goals. You will be successful before you know it because your checklists and action steps are actually moving you forward.
You have to make sure they are taking the right kind of action, of course. This goes back to getting the right education. Follow in the footsteps of those who are already successful. Emulate the steps they take, and how they take them.
Remember, if they can do it, you can do it, if their methods are congruent with your beliefs, and if you do exactly what they’re doing.
That doesn’t mean you can’t add little tweaks along the way, but it is far better to do what you know will work. In other words, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Follow the examples people have already laid out for you.
Combine these action steps with your goals and outline them now and in the future. Break things down in stages and chunks — go through them one by one. Take action! Let nothing hold you back from doing whatever it takes.
Success Blocker 10: Not being disciplined enough to follow through
You absolutely, positively, need to be disciplined to succeed as an Internet marketer. You have to have a plan in mind and you need to have the resolve to complete that plan. You have to have it in your mind that nothing is going to stop you. As long as you have laid out your goals and the action steps you are going to take, you know you will succeed.
One of the biggest pitfalls as an Internet marketer, is that you are making your own rules. You’re not working for a boss who is telling you to do this, that, and the other.
This is a good thing for some people and not good for other people. If you do not consider yourself to be a disciplined person, then you will have to take steps to become a disciplined person.
You should put all of your blood, sweat, and tears into your business. You would bust your butt for a boss, so why won’t you bust your butt for yourself? It takes discipline, and it takes persistence. You’re not going to succeed as an Internet marketer if you are not disciplined enough to follow through with it.
You need to set timelines for yourself. If you don’t set timelines, you will be slow to take action. Your projects will stretch out way too long and you may not even complete them at all. If you develop timelines, and are disciplined enough to set your own deadlines, you will be far more successful.
Make it your mission to really treat this like a business. You need have a solid business plan, office hours where you know you are going to do work and nothing else, and an action plan that you follow through with each and every day. At the very least, you need to do something every day to move yourself forward in your Internet marketing business.
Keep in mind that it can take around 30 days to develop a habit. If you are currently not disciplined and organized enough to succeed with Internet marketing, you ought to make a conscious effort to do the right things every day. Over time, it will become easier to stick with what you have to do and the timelines you have to do it in.
At the same time, you need to follow good time management techniques. I could write a book about that subject, but what I’m saying is that Internet marketers are often painfully distracted.
Be brutal in time management, and you’ll be able to accomplish more in a day than most people accomplish in a week.
Success Blocker 11: Fear of success
It can sound strange, but an incredible number of people have a fear of success. They get comfortable with where they currently are in life. The thought of actually being successful might sound great, but the reality can be a bit scary. You will be out of your comfort zone if you become a successful and wealthy person.
How would it feel if you were successful and wealthy? On the surface, you might answer that makes you feel great. You might feel like it will solve all of your financial and life problems to be a successful Internet marketer.
You have to think beyond the surface. Are you a little bit fearful? Do you worry what people think about you? Do you feel like it will be too much pressure to be successful?
Or maybe you aren’t fearful yet, but when you tell your friends what you’re doing, they try to talk you out of it. They plant seeds of doubt in your head. They try to convince you that they know more than you know about your business, even though the opposite is true.
Truth be told, they’re probably a little bit jealous, and maybe a little bit fearful that you’ll rise out of your current state and no longer be the same person you’ve always been, and they don’t know how to cope with that possibility.
The chances are good that you recognize a least a little bit of this fear of success in yourself. You really have to let yourself get over this to move forward!
What is the worst thing that could happen if you are successful? Be honest with yourself! Sure, you’ll be out of your comfort zone, but the chances are that nothing bad will happen. You will be successful and more comfortable in your life. Yes, people might look at you differently, but it will likely be with admiration.
It can really help to visualize yourself as a successful person. Doing this will allow you to become more comfortable with the feelings that will surround your success. The more you visualize yourself as a success, the easier it will be to become one!
Some people do this with vision boards or by making mind movies. You can gather pictures, magazine cutouts and other images of your ideal life. These can be pictures of your ideal home, car, family, significant other, electronics, and so on. Put these images in a prominent place. Watch your mind movie frequently. This will help you reprogram your mind so that you no longer fear success, but look forward to it.
Success Blocker 12: Fear of failure.
Along with fear of success, many people have a fear of failure. It can be incredibly scary. You’re trying something new and really putting yourself out there as a business person. You think, “what if I can’t do this?”
Once again, consider the worst that can happen. If you do fail, you can think of it as a lesson learned. You know what not to do next time. It also might be the case that with a little bit of tweaking, you can turn that failure into success.
Failure isn’t a dead end, it’s a detour.
The secret of the most successful people out there is that they know how to learn from their mistakes. Remember — the most successful people in the world are also those who have made the most mistakes. They don’t let these mistakes knock them down. They don’t let criticism knock them down. They keep on going, despite any supposed “failures.”.
No, not everything you try in your Internet marketing business will be a success. But if you are persistent, disciplined, and avoid the reasons people are not successful, then you decrease your chances of ultimate failure. You will make mistakes and not everything you do will be amazingly successful! Get over it! You will do other things that are great and are successful.
Surround yourself with winning people, a winning business plan, and a winning outlook, and failure as a whole will no longer be an option. When failure does happen, it will be a stepping stone to bigger and better things.
Now get out there and create your own success! Be sure to write me when you’ve done that, I thrive on those messages.