Surfing the Online Marketing World without Drowning

 

If you have been following me for any length of time. You know my message is more than you navigating through all of the noise that is out there online.

The online marketing scene is filled with scammers, pitfalls, shoddy products, overpriced courses, clueless people pretending to know what they’re doing and of course, bold claims of quick riches.

If you’re hoping to succeed in online marketing and you’re a beginner, just be aware that the odds of you succeeding are low. Most who try their hand at it fail and quit.

This truth is not meant to discourage you but to ‘enlighten’ you. Once you know that it’s going to be an uphill struggle, you’ll not be disappointed and dejected when you realize that there are no easy or quick riches to be made here.

You can make thousands or even millions of dollars online – ethically and legally. But it requires a ton of work and you’ll be putting in many hours.

Forget the laptop lifestyle with your feet by the beach and you sipping mojitos while the coconut trees sway in the distance.

The closest you’ll come to that will be a postcard pasted above your desk while you bang away on your keyboard in the middle of the night as you work on your business – at home.

The good life comes later… much later, and only if you’re successful.

 

• Approach with caution.

Approach all claims and hyperbole with caution. Most products are not worth buying and just don’t work. You must be a skeptic for you to make intelligent decisions.

The people who fail online are usually gullible and believe everything they read. Usually, they’re honest people and cannot even imagine others lying to them to make a quick buck.

And yet, this is the norm in the ‘make money online’ (MMO) scene. There are countless vendors who have no scruples about taking your money and selling you rubbish.

You must be cautious so that you don’t lose money to the scammers in this business.

 

• Follow the right people.

When it comes to online marketing, there’s no shortage of authority figures, ‘gurus’, experts, consultants, etc. They can call themselves whatever they want – but only one thing separates the posers from those who walk the talk…

Results. Only results matter.

When you find a mentor or choose to follow someone, you MUST do your research to see that they walk the talk. They must be making money with what they claim to be an expert in.

There are many people who act like experts and can’t generate a cent with what they teach. Avoid them at all costs.

Teaching people to teach people to teach people to make money is NOT a business model. As ridiculous as this sounds, you’d be amazed by the number of ‘coaches’ and ‘mentors’ who make money teaching others to do what they can’t do themselves.

Choose the right people to follow in this business.

 

• Take everything with a bucket of salt!

Don’t believe everything you see or hear. Income stats can be faked. Followers and engagement can be bought. Statistics can be manipulated.

All of this are done to paint a picture of people being more successful than they are. If you wish to succeed online, it’s imperative that you master the first principles and work on your business.

Don’t idolize other marketers and don’t get swept away by the latest trends. Keep your blinders on and focus on your own business as you continually seek to improve it.

 

• Make measurable progress in reasonable time!

Finally, building a successful business will take you time. You can’t get around this. A lack of patience has made many potentially successful marketers quit too soon.

The MMO scene tries to make it appear that fast riches are possible. If you believe them, you’ll feel like you’re doing something wrong and you’re a failure because your business is taking longer to grow.

You’re building a solid foundation for a successful business while the guys who are making quick riches are just scamming and will fail over time.

Aim to make measurable progress in reasonable time. Slow and steady wins the race.

You can and will build a successful online business if you exercise common sense in all that you do. Learn the ropes and be consistent in your actions. Do not get distracted by the noise.

Focus and consistency will help you surf the online marketing learning curve and get you to your destination without losing much money or making poor decisions. It is possible.

Lastly, work on the 4 Core Areas. This is the book that changed it for me, “The Iceberg Effect.”