New to Internet Marketing? Here’s 6 Ways to Fail

Internet Marketing forums are filled with complaints from new marketers saying that no matter what they do they’re unable to make any money from their efforts. I see and hear it almost everyday.

There’s also common themes among all of these complaints. It doesn’t matter if the person posted on the forum yesterday, last month, or five years ago.

The problems are always the same with most falling into a handful of similar categories.

Take a look at just a few recent forum topics and you’ll see what i mean:

I really need help …I’ve started affiliate marketing 2 months ago. I tried networks like Clickbank and CPA networks but I haven’t made any money.

It took me quite sometime to create an info product, design banners, design the site, get reviews and everything that was required to launch. But I was so disappointed to see that I did not make a dime.

I have spent money on internet marketing and other ways to make money online. Now I am more desperate than ever. If I could make $500 to $1,000 a month I’d be happy! Instead I fail at each offer for some reason or another.

I tried a lot of things to make money online but nothing works. I opened this topic because I don’t know what should I do. I tried a lot of things; building websites, blogging, freelancing, fiver, but nothing works, it’s now over 2 years of trying.

Why Do I Keep Failing? I have been watching this forum for so long and have learned a lot. I have taken a lot of action and gave most things about 3 months minimum. 6 years now and no results with $1,000’s spent on PPC, solo ads, hosting, domains . . .

With hundreds of ways to earn an online income, why do so many well-meaning and often hard-working people fail?

Well, after almost 15 years in this business, here’s six main reasons why many new and even long-time beginning marketers struggle:

1.  Money For Nothing!

Nearly every day a new product is launched that promises fast online riches with little or work. Sales pages show screen shots of thousands of dollars being earned from the methods being sold.

“Push a button and have money deposited directly into your Paypal account” they say. Or, “Build a profit generating website in just 3 clicks of your mouse!” People get excited and buy the product before that special price or offer goes away!

What beginners don’t see is what the salespage and hype leave out. The most important item being that there is no such thing as fast and easy internet riches. This is an actual business and needs to be treated as such including proper research and planning.

So, the next time you get excited reading a salespage, stop yourself and really understand what is being sold. Will that product actually help you with a current task in your business or did you just get really excited because it promised easy, instant income?

2.  Bright Shiny Objects!

This one is similar to number 1 above. Just take a look at most marketing forums and you’ll often see the “Special Offers” or “Products for Sale” sections with twice as many people in there than any other section of the forum.

If you’re on several marketer’s mailing lists and belong to more than one marketing forum you’ll be bombarded with sellers and affiliates promoting the latest and greatest offer being sold.

Too often, beginners spend a lot of money buying all these new “shiny objects” with promises of a fast and easy income. In no time at all they have hard drives full of ebooks, courses, and videos that they’ve read once before moving on to the next one. Rarely do they ever take the time to even learn or implement the method being taught.

One of the biggest reasons for failure is jumping from product to product without ever giving any one of them the time and effort required for them to work.

3.  Quitting At The First Hurdle

One thing everyone needs to learn in this business is that there will be roadblocks nearly every step of the way.

Sellers will disappear or their products stop working. Affiliate networks change their Terms of Service. WordPress themes and plugins stop working. Web hosting companies go out of business. The niche you selected doesn’t have buyers. And, an almost unlimited number of other roadblocks you could run into.

Too often I see people give up at the first sign of trouble. Maybe it’s a technical issue they don’t know how to resolve. Or, maybe their affiliate account gets closed. No matter what the issue is, some people give up way too soon without working through the roadblock, finding a solution to problems, or asking someone for help.

Learn from your mistakes and move forward! Really! You’ll be glad you did.

4.  Making Excuses!

This is one area that causes many people in all sorts of situations to fail. It’s not restricted to just internet marketing. We’ve all been guilty of this at one time or another in life, work and play. Do any of these sound familiar?

• “I have no money”
• “I don’t have the time”
• “That won’t work”
• “That’s too technical”
• “I can’t do that”
• “I’m not very good at that”
• “It’s not my fault”

These, and hundreds of others like them are constantly going through our minds on a daily basis. It’s pretty difficult to accomplish anything with so many negative thoughts taking over our lives.

Guess what? You can do it! You can learn! And, you can find the time if you really want to succeed. So stop making excuses and take that chance. Even with all the hype and pie-in-the-sky promises of all those shiny objects, it really is possible to earn an income online.

Give yourself some credit for all the things you know and all the things you know how to do. If you really think about it you’ll see that you really do have the knowledge and skills required to succeed. If you don’t, there’s plenty of places where you can learn.

So, no more excuses. OK?

5.  Fear Of Failure

I read once that this is an actual medical condition where the fear of failure is so great that people avoid anything that might be considered a failure of make them feel bad about themselves.

So, rather than risk the possibility that something great might be achieved, these people do nothing if there is even the slightest chance they might fail.

But, guess what? There’s a similar condition for some people called the “Fear of Success”. Millions of people buy lottery tickets on a daily basis hoping for that big win! But if they really thought about it I’m sure it would scare the heck out of them if they were to actually win millions of dollars.

Money has a way of doing that to some people.

For example: Several years ago the bank I worked for hired a new teller. Their daily duties included counting and balancing their cash drawers in addition to counting and balancing the bank’s vault.

One person counted the cash in the vault while a second watched. Then the second person counted the cash while the first watched. When finished, the totals from each are supposed to match. If not, it was counted again by both to find the error.

The newly hired teller was asked to count the vault with another teller and once inside, panicked. She started shaking and had to get out of the vault. She had never been around that much money at one time. It upset her so much that she quit her job that day.

If you have a true medical condition related to any type of fear then there’s nothing I can do here for you. That’s between you and a medical professional.

Otherwise, understand that you’re not alone if you have a fear of failure or even a fear of success. Often, other than a true medical condition, those fears can be overcome by actually failing or actually succeeding.

So, fail forward! Go ahead and take that chance. Fail, learn from it, and try again. One small step at a time!

6.  Only Thinking About The Money

One of the main reasons for wanting to get into this business is the possibility to earn a lot of money. But even though that possibility exists, too many beginners are driven by that reason only. And that can be a big mistake.

In order to sell your products or services, build an email list, sell affiliate products or earn a single dime, you first need to provide value.

You do that by building relationships. Relationships with your list, with your potential customers, and with other marketers to name a few. You also need to help others whenever you can. Solve others’ problems!

One of the easiest and fastest ways to fail is through WIIFM (What’s in it for me?). What you should be thinking about is WIIFT (What’s in it for them?).

Maybe you’ve heard this before:

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” Zig Ziglar

Find out what your market wants or needs and provide that for them! Create quality products, provide quality services, help others, and the rest will take care of itself.