I am kind of amazed at how many emails and comments I get from folks who read Lost Ball and say that my experiences parallel what they too have experienced. I am glad people are reading my little missives but it makes me realize just how many people are working hard, and spending hard, to find a way to be successful in this business.
I think it is time for people to realize this is not an easy way to make money. I mean, you and I both know it’s not, but it seems easy, right? Just one more website. Just one more piece of software. Just one more membership. Just one more ebook. This is what will catapult me to the holy grail of greed (HGOG): 5 figure check from Google Daddy.
Marketers are so much more smarter than the consumer. They really are. They can make you buy things that you never knew you wanted.
There was a time about 6 months ago, (er, maybe 3 months ago. OK, last week.) I was buying all the promises I could find. Ebooks, software, etc. I came to the conclusion that they really didn’t offer anything more than what I already knew.
Which is: build a site. So I tried a new tactic of sorts. When I found myself getting ready to be seduced by an offer I would simply build a site. No kidding. I would simply build a blog and add content, affiliate links and adsense. It was a game that I was playing with myself.
So I am a self admitted lost ball in this business. I find it very confusing. I find it difficult to stay focused. And the biggest thing these days for me is to stay motivated.
When I first started out in this business everyone said to build a website on what you know and love. I did, but soon ran out of ideas. I only love so much. It’s not like I’m God or anything.
But then I was showed how to spam the web with adsense keyword sites on topics that I wouldn’t even include in my personal dictionary. Now I have people giving me content for niches that I could care even less about and am building blogs in the hopes people get bored enough to click out via an affiliate link or adsense.
Now I’ve come full circle. I would love to own about 3, maybe 5 blogs where I could write about the things that interest me. That people would like to stick around and actually read. Provide information that people needed. And get paid too.
And that’s why I mentioned motivation. Because I am not motivated to re-write a bunch of PLR articles anymore to post to my niche blog. I am not motivated to build more spam keyword sites in the hopes that MSN will quickly index them and I’ll get adsense clicks.
So how does all this help you? It probably doesn’t honestly. Just know that I understand your frustration with the constant mantra of build, build, build. VRE, Virtual Real Estate, guru gibberish for build more sites.
I’ll keep building but I want to construct 5 mid-town office towers instead of 10,000 trailer parks. Yea, they’ll both make you money but one is alot nicer to own and operate and you’ll get tons of traffic passing by. The other is typically a blight and the local officials are always trying to steer meaningful traffic away from it.
Think I’ll go buy a real estate ebook.
6 responses so far ↓
Spikey // Jun 20, 2006 at 12:55 pm
Splork,
Excellent concept…You mentioned something in your post I think that is very valuable.
“Marketers are so much more smarter than the consumer.”
Are we the consumers? Or are we the marketers…
Not so much a question b/c I know in your context here we’re the consumers buying the Gurus, how ever I’m a big proponent of putting on our marketing caps when it comes to building these VRE, Blogs, Websites what ever the buzz word of this qtr calls them.
As website/blog owners we have the ability to market to our consumers…which are our visitors. Viewing our sites with this cap on rather then HOW CAN I GET a BILLION pages indexed with adsense on em and enough content that won’t get me banned.
That game is a long haul with no end in sight b/c the SE’s will always and I mean ALWAYS be smarter then us. Building quality, with paitence is the anwser.
You’re right it ain’t easy
It is possible
It takes work.
good luck,
spikey
Splork // Jun 20, 2006 at 1:05 pm
Great comment spikey. I think we are both in the context of marketing and consuming. But I think we need to be smarter with both. Search engine’s will always be a game that will never end and can never be beat. These days I really like the idea of social bookmarking and tags. They make SO much more sense.
Tony // Jul 6, 2006 at 4:56 pm
Interesting post.
Personally, I believe everyone has been suckered into the notion that success on the Internet equals mega $$$s every month, especially when we see headlines such as “Learn how I made $164,374.28 in 7-days” or “Do you want to know the secret to how I make $28,578 a month with Google AdSense?”.
Crazy!
We all know there’s no such thing as instant success. So why do we all get caught up in the mythology and then wonder why it’s not working for us?
Worse still, everyone seems to want that short-cut to riches. Whatever happened to mastering the basics, not only of the Internet but of business itself. Is this because the Internet is so different from any other form of business - expenditure is still money off the bottom line, and cashflow and profits are the things that put food on the table and petrol in the tank…
At the risk of being radical - might I suggest a new focus for everyone who, right now is NOT making money on the Internet?
Step 1: Be thankful for what you have today: Opportunity!
Step 2: Forget wanting to be the next Internet Millionaire: Focus on a more practical goal
Step 3: Take stock of where you are: If you could make what you make in your job - right now - so that you don’t have to go back and you can take control of your most vaulable comodity - your time - isn’t that a worthwhile goal?
Step 4: Work out how much you need to live your current life and divide by 30: For example: If you need $3000/month to live and cover all of your expenses, etc. then you need to focus on making $100/day in profit.
Step 5: Now focus on answering the question: How can I make $100/day profit.
Once you can consistently hit $100/day profit you can give up work FOR EVER!
Now you can start working towards your dreams…
By the way, a millionaire coach of mine said “Wealth is not about the money you make, but the money you make on the money you make!!”
In other words plan for the future. The safest form of financial security and wealth is INVESTMENT INCOME. Did you know that if you were living off your investment income (rather than your Internet income) then everything in life is FREE no matter what the price tag?!
Of course, because you never worked to make the money - your investments did it for you - so plan to get trained well so that you can convert your internet income into a vast ongoing investment income.
Now that’s what I call living!
Tony MB
Copyright 2006 Future Lifestyles Today
Splork // Jul 7, 2006 at 12:41 am
Hey Tony. Thanks for the post. Well said. We could all do well to follow some of your advice.
Bonusdays // Jul 16, 2006 at 9:28 pm
DUDE! I busted out laughing several times on this post alone.
I know there’s 2 reasons poeple laugh:
1) humor: somethings funnny
2) tension from discomfort/awkwerdness
You hit both for me.
holy grail of greed (HGOG): funny
…about 6 months ago, (er, maybe 3 months ago. OK, last week.): funny
The rest hit too close to home and made me laugh to keep from crying.
Keep it up man. This is like free therapy.
“Therapy’s expensive. Bubble wrap is cheap. Your choice.” Dan Kennedy
Splork // Jul 17, 2006 at 1:12 am
The reason I started this blog was sort of a way for me to work things out. Sometimes writing stuff down helps me to focus my efforts. I get a quite a few people telling me that my experiences happen to them too. It sucks really.
Thanks for reading.
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