When I became a music teacher, I thought I had learned enough in college to be an expert in my profession. Was I in for a rude awakening. After a short stint I realized what’s more valuable in teaching is what they fail to teach you in college – what you learn on your own on the job.
I had a brimful of musical information and skill to impart, but most of it meant zilch until I learned to get along in the classroom. Many tools, tips, and tricks in dealing with school age children came to me after trial and error. In home-based marketing, especially on the Internet, the same idea holds true. Take as many Internet courses as you like. Visit as many sites as you wish to experience how others have succeeded. In the end, it’s what actually happens to you as a result of your own effort that’s going to be of most value.
Don’t be afraid or ashamed to be perceived as a “newbie”. We all start out as such, even if to some degree more or less. Reach out now to someone who can take you around the block – show what’s worked for them. You’ll be glad you did.
There’s a lot to be gained from soaking in Internet courses. And, yes, devour those ezine articles, scour the newest ebooks available, and all the rest. Make the most of it. Learn something every day.
But above all, look for individuals who will take time to support you. Let them be your mentors. Be their most eager students.
Remember, too, that not everything to be gained on the Internet in a home-based business is free or easy. Too many of us are desperate for quick sales when we set up our businesses. We’re sick and tired of the 9 to 5 grind and want instant profitability to rescue us from our woes.
Even the most attractive programs, ones that promise generous cash earnings, will take effort. Further, even the best plans will have to survive trial and error. But what you learn from that will benefit you endlessly.
To illustrate this point, let me show you what happened in trying to promote my business on a free web site. Before we get into this, though, let me assure where I’m coming from. It’s not to persuade you of the idea of paid domain names and site hosting as the end-all, beat-all solution to success. There’s much more to it than that.
I’ve always been restricted by budgeting concerns. Could I have taken food off the table to pay for business expenses that may or may not have earned enough to pay for themselves? For reasons too detailed for this article the answer in the beginning was “no”. I’m sure most newcomers to this marketplace have the same concerns.
On the other hand, when I finally did register my domain name, I soon began seeing more traffic on my site. My domain host is not the most expensive one out there, but what paying for a web site gives me is a shorter web address and less down time than with my free hosting service.
Where am I going with this, you ask? Here’s where. It was the months of submitting to classifieds, free for all links pages, and search engines with very little gain that finally convinced me. Even though I used funds from the family budget as a leisure expense it has been worth it. I have made sales, and traffic is improving.
For you it may be a question of advertising money, or more basically, time to invest online. Whatever the issue, it is the experimentation that pays off. Please learn from activities that fall short of profit. That’s the extra value of self-teaching.
Don’t be afraid to try and fail. Be more afraid of not trying for lack of all the answers. After a sufficient length of time in business – and I mean months to years, not overnight – your efforts should pay off. You will then be able to try and succeed.
Brian Moore publishes ‘BizOps Secrets’, a complete ezine resource for online success. AllPro BizOps, Proven Business Secrets That Work Online. allprobizops.com
