When it comes to starting your own business many aspiring entrepreneurs choose to market their products or services online using internet marketing.
Internet marketing is attractive for several reasons:
- Low cost of start-up
- Simple to get started
- Many ways to begin making money quickly (affiliate programs, quick infoproducts, resell services, ad monetization, etc…)
- Less risk as you can get started part-time while still earning money from other sources
- Hype – internet marketing and online business are high on the hype scale these days with both mainstream media and various vendors trying to sell you on the idea of starting or expanding your business onto the internet
Having started and grown dozens of our own businesses online since 2000 and helped thousands of others do the same through our online mentoring site InfoMarketer’sZone – I can safely say that these benefits are REAL and can make a massive difference in people’s lives and financial futures, however there are also minefields that must be navigated in order to take your dream of making money online into reality.
Here are 10 of the most common reasons entrepreneurs fail at internet marketing and how to avoid them.
1. Not Having a Viable Business Idea
Just because the internet marketing offers a quick, relatively easy and powerful way to reach online markets does not mean that the money will instantly begin flowing. Just as offline businesses fail because of bad or even lukewarm ideas, the same can be said for online businesses. Starting your own online business and using internet marketing requires the same dedication to market identification, market research, competitive analysis, and customer interaction to ensure you have developed a commercially attractive idea
2. Poor (Or No) Definition of Target Market And How To Reach Them
While there are many advantages to starting a business online, the one disadvantage you have is that you cannot see the “profile” of people that come to your store, your events, etc… With an offline business you can stake out a competitor and see or validate the age, sex, motivation, etc… of your target market. Online, this is not done so easily. What it means is that you have to use stealthier ways to nail down the profile of your target market and find out how they find products or services that offer solutions to their challenges so that you can tap into finding them online.
3. Poor Alignment With Your Passions And Beliefs
I see it again and again, one person passionate about serving a given market with their products and services goes the extra mile and earns 6-figure and 7-figure returns from their internet marketing efforts. Hundreds of others then try to copy that success but fail. Why? Because they really had no passion, no belief and therefore no real commitment to winning in their marketplace. Just because you can match a market to a product online does not mean that is the right internet marketing niche or business for you. You must tap into the energy, passion and motivation that comes from enjoying the market and what your products/services can do to improve their lives to succeed big online.
4. Less That 100% Commitment
While it is true that one of the advantages of internet marketing is that you can dabble with it and earn a few bucks, nobody ever made it big in ANY business by dabbling. So, if you want to start by dabbling (spending a few hours a week to put up a website, blog a little, resell some products, etc…) – you will learn from that but cannot expect to really succeed with internet marketing. At some point you will need to go ALL-IN – that may be after 1-year of dabbling or it may be sooner. Don’t be fooled into thinking you can make 6-figures with just a few hours a week though.
5. Copying Instead of Forging Your Own Path
I’ve always been a big believer and have taught thousands of others over at InfoMarketer’sZone many techniques you can use to learn from your competitors to find great markets, ideas, products and money making techniques. However, I am NOT a believer in purely copying what others are doing. In order to succeed with internet marketing you can learn from others in your market but you need to then go one (or several) steps beyond what they are doing to differentiate and add more value to your marketplace. Not many people do this leading to a high rate of failing with internet marketing
6. Overwhelm
If you are serious about internet marketing and have not felt periods of complete overwhelm then you are either someone who is just starting out or you haven’t been working very hard yet. Overwhelm is natural in business (offline and online) – how you handle it makes all the difference in whether you succeed or fail at internet marketing. The key to managing overwhelm is to develop (or follow) a proven checklist of steps for developing, launching and growing your online business and then restricting your learning/tools/education to these key phases. Using this approach you limit distraction and maintain your focus without becoming overwhelmed by everything else you COULD be learning, but would bring limited value to your own business efforts.
7. Not Having A Belief Mindset
After years of coaching online entrepreneurs I can pretty much spot someone who will succeed within the first 5-minutes of my initial conversation with that person. I may not be able to tell them WHEN exactly their success will come, but I can (with a high level of certainty) tell if they will succeed or not. A big part of this assessment comes from their mindset. Most new entrepreneurs WANT to succeed but really don’t believe they WILL succeed. If that is your mindset, don’t even get started because you will not succeed. However, if you have an unshakable belief that you MUST or WILL succeed, then you will.
8. Following Others Instead Of Your Own Gut/Brain
It is highly unlikely that you will succeed when you are following the passions, dreams, goals and objectives of someone else. Yes, you can boost your belief, gain motivation, learn techniques and be inspired by others, but your success will ultimately come from within. Spend more time getting in touch with your thoughts, beliefs, passions and ideas than blindly following others
9. Lack A Big WHY!
The desire to make money, be famous or achieve most material things is rarely enough to succeed with any business including internet marketing. When you are focused purely on making money, that’s when you become scattered, chasing every different tip, technique, fad, tool or personality that claims they can teach you to make money too…Instead, tap into your underlying reasons for wanting to make money (to have security, to have more control over your energy and creativity, to prevent others from controlling you, to give your child the incredible benefit of understanding business, etc…) and use the energy that comes from these underlying passions to fuel your success.
10. Low Self Confidence
I have come across some online entrepreneurs that have a great idea, have had initial success, are passionate about their business and are driven by a big WHY in their life, but they still fall far short of achieving up to their true potential. Often, in these cases, it is a lack of self confidence that is responsible. I hear excuses like…I am not qualified to sell into this market or this why will this market listen to me or even…I am too [old, wrong sex, not English speaking, etc…] to really make it big in this market. Self defeat is one of the ugliest restrictions we place upon ourselves leading to failing with internet marketing. If you have overcome the previous 9 obstacles but STILL find you are held back, then look inside and work to improve your self confidence – removing this last obstacle will mean a huge difference in your results.
So yes, we certainly have some landmines on the way to success in internet marketing, but by recognizing some of the common obstacles you can now press on and achieve the level of success you know you are capable of.
Which one of these obstacles can you relate with the most? Leave a comment and let us know.
