It’s a very easy mistake to make. Heck, I was making it myself for a long time.
I had been reading every article, ezine, ebook and ecourse for the last 8 months that I could get my hands on. All of them were teaching me about internet marketing, creating my own products, running my own ezine, etc etc. Which was great – I need to know these things.
BUT – I wasn’t actually doing anything! Finally I realised that unless I started to use what I was learning, all the reading I was doing was useless – a waste of time and money.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who has had this problem. The good news is that it is a fairly easy problem to overcome – if you become aware of it.
The most obvious reason for not starting is information overload. There is so much information out there that it can be overwhelming! Thousands (if not tens of thousands) of ezines, hundreds of ebooks you can buy, and many more that you can find for free. Where do you start?
The first thing to do is find a good introductory ebook. The best one I found was a free ebook called Online Business Basics by Angela Wu. You can download it from http://www.achievenetprofits.com/obb.html
Once you know the basic information, the rest of the material available will start to make a lot more sense. The volume of information won’t decrease, but your understanding of what you are reading will increase.
However you may start to find a new problem. Some of the material contradicts each other! You should create a themed content site to attract visitors. No, you should forget that and build a small mini site to get people to buy. FFA link pages are great. No, they are a waste of time. Free ads work. No, they don’t. Etc etc.
My recommendation is to not worry about the contradictions. Some of them are based on out of date information (the method used to work, but doesn’t any more). Others are simply due to difference of opinion, or different results for different people. My suggestion is to pick an expert you are comfortable with (one who is actually succeeding), and then follow their advice.
Another common problem that can stop you from starting is the feeling that everything has to be perfect. You need to craft the perfect sales letter before you start. You need to create the perfect ecourse before you start, or the perfect web site. Or, in the worse case, you have to have everything in place from day one!
Often all that happens is that you spend all you time working on things, but because there is so much to do, you never get around to actually putting it out in the public eye and making any sales.
The secret is that everything doesn’t have to be perfect when you start, nor does everything have to be in place initially. You can start an ezine without a web site. You can start selling things without your own opt-in list. Yes, you will need the other things in the end, but don’t let that be an excuse to not start now!
A striving for perfection could also be due to another reason – fear. Whether its a fear of failure, or a fear of putting your material out in the public eye where people can see and comment on it, this can stop you from succeeding for a long time (perhaps even forever if you don’t acknowledge and overcome it).
There are many books and articles available that can guide you in overcoming such fears. My suggestion is to concentrate on why you want to have an online business, and let your desire for the end result allow you to work through your fear.
The final reason for not starting is the excuse that you don’t have the time at the moment, and that you will ‘do it later’. Of course, later never actually arrives, and you never actually start.
Now if you are working an 80 hour week, you have a good excuse! But most people aren’t. Instead they work an 8 or 9 hour day, then spend the evenings sitting in front of the TV.
This is the perfect time to work on your business! You don’t even need to be in front of your computer – you can use a notepad and pen to draft your sales letter, plan your web site, outline an article or ecourse, etc.
If you really want to start your business online, you can find the time to work on it. Correction – you can *make* time to work on your business.
Now I do have to make one thing clear. While you need to start your business, I don’t mean that you should jump in before you have learnt the basics of what you need to know. That would be silly (and could be costly in both time and money).
But you do need to be aware of why you haven’t started yet. Are you in a genuine learning period, or are you simply delaying your start due to one of the reasons above?
Copyright 2002 Jason Anderson
Jason is the editor of Achieve Net Profits, where he interviews successful Internet marketers each week. Save yourself time and money by learning marketing directly from the pros! –> http://www.AchieveNetProfits.com/
