Ha! I’m suffering from info overload!

I’ve bought so many products in the last few months that I’m currently up to my nose with all the stuff that’s on my computer. I really got to sit down and plan how I’m gonna sift through all the information and go through them day by day. Plus stick a note on my forehead reminding me not to buy anymore new products, or at least be a lot more discerning with what I purchase.

Which brings me to an interesting point:
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Isn’t that an interesting question? Internet marketing. Too cheap.

Well, let me first explain what I mean by too cheap. You see, starting an online business is really easy because it’s sooo low cost. Like I mentioned in my earlier post, my fixed costs come up to about US$40-50 a month. Mainly on hosting, the autoresponder, and cheque clearing fees. Rest of my expenses are really miscellaneous - things like an ebook here, or a graphic there, or a domain name. I only buy those things once when they crop up.

So in all, costs are really low. Which is a great thing. However, for some people it could also be a negative factor. Why?
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Ok! I’ll finish this whole thing in this final posting and then I’m gonna bum for awhile.

Let’s begin where I left off:

If you haven’t, here’s Part 1 and Part 2.

The last time I was blabbing away to you, I was saying that it’s soooooo easy to be overwhelmed with information on the internet that you’re going to be lost. I know because I went through it (and still do.. but it’s better) and I’m sure everyone else that is a success today online went through the quagmire before.

So hey don’t fret! You’re on the right track!

So the question you’re probably asking now is how do you handle ALL this darn information that’s hitting you left, right centre and below the belt? Well, I’ve mentioned this before in my previous post and the best way to handle this is to start something and stay focused on it.

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OK. Before I kick off Part 2, if you haven’t read Part 1, you can do so here: Internet Success

Alright, once you’re done with that, let me go on with my tiny tirade.

Now I know this topic on FOCUS is going to hellava important to any beginner starting off on the internet because I learnt this lesson too when I was starting out. You need to be focused. Why?

Because you’re gonna be bombarded with offers left, right and center every single day from all the IM gurus out there and if you get lost in this informational barrage, you’re gonna be paralyzed! I not just talking about offers to buy stuff, you’re also get offers to download free reports or free videos telling you the latest and sexiest system out there to make money on the world wide web.

And you’re gonna receive ALL this stuff ALL the time and if you don’t know exactly what you need to do onine, you’re gonna be lost! Now how many here understand what I’m saying here or you’re going through that right now?

You’ve just got so much information, you just don’t know where to start. I know because I’ve been through it and I’d reckon that everyone will go through this when they first start out.

You need to FOCUS.

You see all this great offers that come your way, they’re gonna confuse you unless you know what you’re doing. Now I’m not knocking these offers that come your way because most times if it’s from a reputable marketer, what s/he’s offering you is going to be quality. Be it an adsense product, or a blogging ebook, or a ebay system, whatever. ALL of them will help you to make money online.

Adsense is a great income stream. So is affiliate marketing. So is selling your own product. So is selling on ebay. etc, etc, etc. These systems all make money, there are people out there who have proven that these systems work. The only question is which one do you want to focus on?

Because if you’re not focused on what you want and what you need to get done, you’re gonna be attracted and dragged all over the place whenever someone tells how they made so much money using this new so-and-so system. And you’re gonna be distracted. You have to be more like a laser beam than a torchlight. When you’re a laser, you can cut through any obstacles that come your way.

So pick something! If you decide to become an adsense publisher, invest in a solid adsense program and stick with it until you make it. If you decide to create your own ebook, invest in a program that teaches you how and then stick with it. Stay with the program. Learn and apply everything you have in that program and make it happen.

I’m telling you that if you just take what you have learnt in a solid program and you apply the strategies consistently again and again and again, you are going to see results. I mean it. All the small steps and actions you take will all snowball into a gigantic success story for you on the internet.

There is no magic bullet. There is no ’secret’ to success. The real ’secret’ is taking small consistent right action every single day and you’re gonna see miracles happen. And you have to remember that things do not have to be perfect before you start the ball rolling.

Your ebook doesn’t have to be perfect. Your copywriting doesn’t have to be perfect. Your traffic generation strategies do not have to be perfect. Nothing has to be perfect. You just have to get the basics right and that’s all you need as a launch pad to take off.

Because along the way, you’re gonna tweak your ebook anyway. You’re gonna tweak your copy here and there anyway. You’re gonna learn and apply more traffic strategies anyway. So you’re always improving and there’s really no perfect ebook, copy, blog, article, traffic system. So don’t let the idea that you have got to know everything out there before you start. Just start and the rest will take care of itself.

You see when you start something and get the ball rolling, you’re gonna learn even faster because now you’re DOING how you can make money onine as compared to just reading about how you can do it. And when you’ve got something up and running, it’s alot easier for you to learn new things because now you have something to relate all this new information to.

For example, you learn a new strategy about how you can double your clickthrough rates for your adsense ads. Because you are already running an adsense website, you know exactly how to use this new information to help you immediately and directly. You have something to relate it to.

As compared to you just reading about all these great ways to start a adsense business (but not taking the action to start) and when this double-your-clickthrough strategy comes along, you are going to become even more confused because now you know this new info is going to help you, but you have NO idea what to do with it (because you have nowhere to apply it!).

That’s where information overload occurs! You get all this great ideas and strategies, you know it’s important but you just don’t know what to do with all of it. So you get more confused which leads you to think that you don’t know enough. Which leads you to then be afraid to start at all. And so you do nothing (but still wish to start someting) but then more information comes your way and you get more confused again and so the whole cycle starts again.

Don’t fall into that trap! Just start somewhere! And you’ll know what to do with all the stuff that comes your way.

So if I can leave a tip for you in this post, it is to start something! If you’ve always wanted to start your online business (whatever model it may be), do it! Start now and take what you’ve learnt so far and apply it. Apply, apply apply. And focus and what you need to get done instead of thing how things should be done.

Because if you’re always thinking that everything should be done in some perfect way, you’re gonna be stuck. Don’t do that. Just start somewhere, even if you cocked up somewhere, you can always change it later. Websites evolve all the time. They never stay the same because you’re always learning new things and you’re always applying those new things to your website.

Start now, so that now you can decide what type of information and strategies you want to focus on. So if you’re into creating your own product and selling it, you will only take note of all the great strategies that come your way on how you can create a great product, write a killer salesletter and how you can drive traffic. That’s it!

You wouldn’t care (or give too much attention) about the new fangled system to make money with adsense, you wouldn’t be distracted about the strategy that teaches you how to up your ebay status, yadda, yadda, yadda…

You wouldn’t be distracted because you know exactly what you NEED to get your project up and running and making money for you. And you only focus on offers, reports and strategis that serve you in that area. The rest of the information that comes your way, it’s great but you can leave it aside for now. You can always come back to it later when you want to.

You’ll be able to get rid or all the ‘noise’ when you’re focused on your goal. So foucs on what you want and everything will fall into place. Remember, be like the laser that cuts through everything to hit your target.

Now I sincerely hope that this helps you in someway because I’m sharing from personal experience as a beginner who started out 6 months ago. I got so lost in all the huge amount of information that hit my inbox. Until I started the ball rolling.

Once I started taking action, I knew what I needed to get done, so I knew what I needed to learn to get those things done and didn’t care if it wasn’t ‘perfect’ because I knew that I could always come back and tweak things later if I needed to.

So don’t get lost in this IM maze, because it really isn’t. It all falls away when you know with clear intent what you want and pretty soon you’ll be making your money on the internet. There’s nothing stopping you from doing that. So go out there and make it happen!

Watch out for Part 3… I’m not done with this topic yet!

Read Part 3 here ==> Internet Marketing Focus

Before I write my piece about this topic, let me have a small disclaimer. I’m NOT a granny nag telling you what you should do or should not do to succeed but having generated over US$50,000 revenue in just 5 months since I took my maiden step, allow me to kick your pants.

You see there are a LOT of people jumping into the IM bandwagon and I really welcome that. Because I believe that being able to earn US dollars in your pyjamas is something that has personally made me extremely happy (not to mention grateful). And if more and more people can achieve this same outcome for themselves, that’s really wonderful. Besides we need more happy people in this world anyway!

The problem is that people enter this arena thinking that all they need to do to succeed online is to slap on a webpage, sell an ebook and wah lah(!). They can almost hear the cash registers ringing. Almost.

Let me tell you this and I suspect you’re intelligent to know it yourself already: It’s not so simple! There’s a whole schmuck of stuff that you need to do and learn to do behind that website before it becomes successful. If it really were that simple as to slap on a website and then see the profits roll in, then why do we need IM gurus selling stuff in the first place?

And so when the ebook doesn’t sell, they come across a website telling them that adsense is the best thing to ever happen on the internet and they then jump on to that bandwagon. They create a content site with syndicated articles, stick on some adsense code and they wait. But nothing happens.

So the adsense project didn’t take off but then they spot the opportunity to do affiliate marketing. So they start a review site and write reviews about products on that particulat niche market, stick in the pretty affiliate banners and affiliate links and they wait. Nothing happens.

So now they jump into starting a forum, selling resale rights products, selling on ebay, etc, etc and they jump on to the new fad and the whole process starts all over again.

I know because I’ve jumped through that many hoops before. Maybe not solely in the context of internet marketing, but after I ORDed (or finished my national service to readers not aquainted with local lingo), I was searching for that magic bullet. So I dabbled in options and it didn’t work out, I dabbled in real estate and it didn’t work out, I went to look for a job but I just hated the idea of being a worker drone and the interviewer probably could see that attitude smack on my forehead. I dabbled in MLM and I lost money. (Or my parents’).

You see I was never serious or focused enough before to ever have been successful in any of my previous ventures. Because I didn’t know what it took to become successful in it, because I wasn’t learning every single day of what the industry required of me and because my attitude was that even if I did fail, I could always do something else or go back to school. Which I did. And now lectures are boring me to death!

But besides the point, you get the picture don’t you? I was like a toad jumping from toadstool to toadstool and I never had the focus or desire to ensure that I succeed at what I was doing.

Now I’m not blaming my past folly at all because I’m extremely thankful that I went through all that nonsense. Because if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be where I am today where I’ve achieved some relative humble level of success and I’m making decent income doing things I kinda enjoy. Like typing blog posts. But anyway…

I only found my focus and desire to succeed when I had this opportunity to work with Adam Khoo. And the reason is simple: I just couldn’t screw up and let him down, when he so readily believed in me to make things happen even though I was just starting out.

So I really have alot to be thankful for due to my mentor. So let me brown nose a little here… Adam wan sui, wan sui, wan wan sui! (it means ‘Adam, long live, long live, long long live’ for those we are not Mandarin inclined, like I am). anyway..

Let’s get back to the story, so I found my focus (by working with a rich guy) and for two months straight, I did nothing but eat, shit and sleep IM as I crafted the websites, blogs and salespage along with all the electronic infrastruture behind it. I just did that and watched the World Cup. Serious!

And it all paid off. And all the toil that went before was worth it. Well, it wasn’t really toil because I enjoyed playing around creating the websites (I’m not IT savvy if you must know) and I could do all at home on my laptop. That’s one thing I love about this. I can wake up whatever time I want and work is only a flip of the laptop switch away. Compare that to peak hour sardine can MRT rides.

So are you doing all of that? Are you single-mindedly focused on succeeding in internet marketing? Are you focused solely on what you need to do to get your project (be it adsense, ebook, affiliate marketing, etc) up and running? And do you enjoy doing all of it in the first place?

Because if you don’t then you really don’t have to torture yourself. Because there’s a whole lot of other stuff you can do and you enjoy that can make you successful as well. We don’t have to jump into something just because we see our friends successful at it. Like I found out.

Now I don’t want to make it out like I’m a mad dog gnashing away at my laptop 24/7 doing IM the whole time, I have my lazy moments as well but you do get the point. I certainly had to do certain things before I could actually reach where I am now.

And you can do the same too. If I could place down a tip for now, it would be this: Invest in a solid IM course that will equip you with ALL the basics you need to know about starting your onine business, whatevr model that may be. And I’m not talking about $97 ebooks or videos here. I’m talking real solid courses from US$197-US$997. Invest in ONE solid course and focus, focus, focus on taking what you learn from course and then applying it and making it happen.

Get a local coach (like Stuart) if you have the budget because you want someone who can teach you how to fish. You don’t need someone selling you the brand new fishing rod. Learn how to fish and all the fancy stuff can come later.

And I recommend a local coach because it just beats having a coach that’s only accessible via email. You want to talk over the phone and meet up to toss ideas. You want to build a relationship because who knows? You could end up doing JVs and projects with your mentor and that will take you onto another level. It’s just easier and a lot more fun when you can physically shake your coaches hand and say thanks.

I hope that if you’ve been searching round for some answers this small rant has helped you along somewhere because hey! I took about an hour to type it so…

whoaaaa..and wait! This is only Part 1! I can’t reveal everything yet and I have more to bitch about in my upcoming blog soap operas, so you have to watch out for that.

haha.

Out.

Read Part 2 here: Internet Success

I have a confession to make. I’m a stickler for details, everything has to be in the right place, everything has to be in the right order before I actually do anything. You can see how this is not very useful sometimes. There are so many times where I’ve attempted to start something but because I felt that I didn’t know enough about it, I wouldn’t take action.

You can be sure Adam has scolded me before about this. I’m bringing this up because I feel it’s very relevant in internet marketing especially for those without any basic web design skills. Like me.

My first brush with doing anything online was when my friends and I had an idea to do a football matchmaking website for all the amateur teams in Singapore. We hired a web developer and I took charge of the project. My developer must have wanted to strangle me many times because of the insane amount of times I kept on changing the designs.

At first I wanted the page to do this and look this way, but halfway through the making, I would add even more stuff or change things around and my developer would have to start all over again. It was fustrating! I kept on wanting my website to be absolutely perfect and I would pick on every nitty-gritty detail till my developer went mad! (Of course he was nice about the whole thing, but I can feel his pain.)

Eventually the whole website was done and it was good to go. But then� I went� through the whole thing again and I decided to redo the entire thing again, almost from scratch! I must have gone stark mad! So we redid the whole thing and this time, I was pretty satisfied (costs were burning too ) but you know what? In the end, the whole idea was a failure.

Instead of getting the website up and running and letting it evolve as it grew, I wanted it to be a full-blown Optimus Prime version before it even started! And it sunk like a ton of bricks.

You can take a look at it if you wish (www.challengefootball.com) but I keep it there to serve myself a reminder of the many, many mistakes I made in my first foray online. But maybe I should take it off, I have to pay hosting…

So if there’s a big lesson I learnt it’s about being excellent and not perfect. Now when I go about doing mine and Adam’s websites and the other online marketing tactics, I really just focus on getting them done first before I even think of getting it right the first time around. Because if I did, I would have gotten nowhere.

And I feel it could be the same with alot of people out there just starting out in IM. If you’re always focused on making things perfect the first time you do something, it’s gonna be real tough because you’re just gonna be paralysed by the information you don’t know or have.

I found the moment I allowed myself to make mistakes and screw up, I learnt alot faster and my progress jumped by leaps and bounds. I didn’t know html, ftp, rss and all that jazz and even now I only know the basics of it. But it hasn’t prevented me from starting my IM business, launching websites and making real money.

So if someone like Adam has the faith to trust a beginner like me in running his online efforts, I’m sure you can do the same for yourself. Because it’s not where you are now that matters, it’s how you move forwards and where you end up that counts.