I get lots of email from blog readers & customers and I try to answer it all but as I’m getting more & more blog readers and customers it’s becoming more difficult & time consuming. Just in the past 24 hours I’ve gotten inquiries asking to review products, how to build traffic sites, and what plugins I’m using on the blog. Here’s an email I got and responded to a few weeks ago. It contains some common questions. I’ve added my comments inserted in [bold] and expanded my response in this post.

Robert,

I need honest advice if u can. I now have all of James’ products [James Brausch] except rasof and muvar2007.

I have James’ CD how to create a blog as well. In the past I’ve created sites in squidoo, hubpages, and wordpress but never tried to drive traffic to them because I didn’t know the best ways. [There is not necessarily a "best way" but there is probably a best way for YOU...and how are you ever going to find out the best way if you never try? "never tried (insert what was never tried) because (insert reason/excuse why it was never tried)" is a phrase commonly used by unsuccesful people...they always have a convenient excuse or reason for doing nothing.]

In your opinion, should I concentrate on the boca plan since I have everything or build a product first. [It's difficult to make this decision for someone else because I don't know your goals.] The boca plan is long term whereas the prod could be short term. I suffer I think from lack of focus after coming home from my job as a computer systems analyst after a 1 hr commute. [Lack of focus is an obstacle for a lot of people including me at times. It's good that the issue is recognized but it's followed by more excuses for doing nothing.]

My problem is not following thru with action…. [This is great. The issue is known, recognized, and admitted. Unfortunately there's only one person who can fix that...and it's not me. No one is going to do it for you.]

[Name Withheld for Privacy]

Here’s my response:

[Name Withheld],

Sounds like you have everything you need. Now it’s time to just get off your butt and do something. I don’t mean that to be rude. I was at that point myself in the past. Having all the tools and knowledge is worthless if you don’t put them to use.

A house won’t build itself just because you have all the lumber, nails, hammers, and saws and your Internet business isn’t going to build itself either just because you have all the tools. It’s time to either make a commitment to build an Internet business and get started immediately or admit you’re not serious about it and move on to other things. You’re at a fork in the road and which fork you choose to take is entirely up to you but it’s time to make a decision.

What you do first (Create a Product vs. Build a Traffic Business) doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you make a decision and do something to get your Internet business started today. Then continue to do something every day so you build momentum. Doing something for 21 straight days usually makes it a habit. Develop the habit of doing something every day to build your business. You’ll be amazed at how much progress you make in a short period of time and you’ll learn what works best for you along the way.

I’ll just tell you what I did. I created the CyberCashology blog in March and just started making posts. The results of my first few 24 hour specials were unspectacular but I didn’t quit. I knew I just needed more traffic so I kept making posts and I kept submitting articles to build links. As I built more links and kept making posts I got more traffic and more sales.

Now I am creating more products, building more links, getting more traffic, and making more money. I’m also creating systems like my intern program to remove myself from the daily activities so I have a business that runs itself with little or no involvement from me. I’m following the flywheel concept. It takes time & effort to get the flywheel moving - a lot of effort in the beginning - but at some point the weight of the flywheel will begin working for you instead of against you as long as you don’t quit or give up before you reach that point. It didn’t happen overnight but it didn’t take too terribly long either. And my business keeps growing everyday. I’ve got the flywheel moving and it’s speed is increasing daily.

Unrealistic expectations squash many Internet entrepreneurs’ dreams. The stories you see on infomercials and read online about people making 5 or 6 figures monthly or even 7 figures in one day are only half the story and taken totally out of context. It reminds me of my days in the Navy. The TV commercials only showed the cool destinations or ports of call. They didn’t show you the journey. My ship visited Australia for a week and it was great but the journey consisted of 3 months in the Persian Gulf and we didn’t see land for 79 consecutive days before we got to Australia. The commercial would have only shown the fun times in Australia, not the whole journey.

This is a perfect analogy to an Internet business and lots of other entrepreneurial activities. All you ever hear about is the destination or “port of call” - the success stories of people making bushel baskets of money in a short period of time but that’s only half the story. In most cases, these people had a journey of several months and more likely years struggling, overcoming obstacles, and persevering until they finally succeeded and reached the destination or “port of call.” The whole story won’t sell many products so the focus is on the “port of call” instead of the entire journey.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that. You just need to understand and acknowledge the reality of the situation. Anyone starting from scratch with no past business, marketing, internet, or entrepreneurial experience who buys a course with a compelling sales letter, and thinks they’re going to make a million dollars (or even $10,000) next month is a complete blithering idiot who deserves what they get. But that’s exactly what happens in many cases. People will take action and get started but when they don’t achieve spectacular results in a few weeks or months they’ll quit largely due to their unrealistic expectations. It’s likely they were making progress but the results weren’t in line with the unrealistic expectations.

How long it takes you to succeed depends on many things like your definition of success (i.e. goals), your attitude, your willingness to persevere and overcome obstacles, your skills and how they apply to achieving your goals, and lots of other things. In my opinion the freedom that comes with a successful Internet business justifies the effort and the journey is half the fun.

That doesn’t mean the journey is always fun. It’s full of obstacles, and it really never ends but when you’ve achieved your goals once and reached your “port of call” it’s much easier to then set bigger goals and achieve them because you’ve proven to yourself you have what it takes to succeed and you can repeat that success on a larger scale…unlike say a lottery winner who had no journey and through blind luck suddenly arrived at the destination.

They don’t have the knowledge & experience gained from a journey to fall back on and they usually end up broke again in a few years. Someone who has already made the journey and ends up broke for whatever reason (i.e. lawsuits, etc.) is likely to be wealthy again fairly quickly because all they have to do is repeat what they’ve already done successfully.

The first thing you’ll need to do is put a goal & a plan in writing. You can revise your goals & plans as you go along but just put something in writing and get started today. There is no “ideal” plan. We’re all different people with different goals and different strengths and weaknesses. What might be a great plan for one person might be a lousy plan for another person. To be successful you’re going to have to think for yourself, make your own decisions, and act on them. Most people are too lazy to think for themselves. They have jobs where the boss does the thinking for them and makes the decisions about what the employees do all day.

If I were starting from scratch I would start a blog, create a product, build the biggest list of ezines possible and submit at least one article every week…maybe more at the beginning to get the flywheel moving. If you’re using Artemis Pro, your resource.txt file can have links to all of these sites so your article marketing efforts will promote them all.

Here’s a simple plan:

1. Create a blog (post to it every day for 30 days, then at least 3-5x per week)
2. Create Products (& create a product site w/ sales letter)
3. Promote Sites (blog & product sites)
4. Develop & implement systems that remove you from the daily activities of your business (i.e. intern program)
5. Repeat steps 2 - 4 until your business is successful according to your definition of success

Don’t lose focus and jump into other businesses (i.e. a traffic business) & markets until you’ve succeeded in one market. Only after you’re successful in one market should you start another business or enter a new market. I think building a successful Internet business is that simple. But don’t confuse simple with easy. It’s not easy. There’s no closely-guarded secret to success as losers insist. It requires effort and that’s why most people don’t succeed.

Robert

Since I get so many emails from blog readers & customers who have questions related to building their own Internet business and I’m running out of time to answer them all, I’ve considered starting some type of email coaching program. I don’t really know that I want to do that simply because I despise dealing with whiners who waste their time (and more importantly mine) making excuses and doing nothing but on the other hand I’m sure I could help people who are ready to quit making excuses and actually get started building an Internet business.

So I have a question for you: Would you be interested if I started an email coaching program? And if so, what would you say a fair monthly price would be? Based on this feedback, I may or may not start an email coaching program. Thanks for your help.

Tags: Traffic, Websites

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