Do You Fall For These Make Money Online Myths?
This is a guest post by Hendry Lee who helps bloggers overcome strategic and technological challenges in starting and growing their blogs. He also blogs about tips and strategies on how to make money blogging on his blog Blog Tips for a Better Blog – Blog Building University. While you are there, download your free eBook and subscribe to the blogging e-course!
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I never am amazed about the misconceptions people have about making money online. I bought into one of them just a few years ago. With so much misleading information, everyone can fall victim, especially when he is just getting started.
However, what amazes me is the fact that some people gave up too soon, or at other times, they kept doing the same thing, wasted ten thousands of dollars worth of information products before they realized they were taking the wrong path.
This article contains information that I wish someone would have written. It should have saved at least two years of my struggle, not to mention the money and effort put into the wrong direction.
So without further ado, here are the myths, busted.
1. Make money online is easy
This is perhaps the biggest myth of all. Many of the so called “gurus” use very strong and aggressive words to sell their products. Hyping up the e-book or home study course certainly sells. And that also accounts for why people actually think it is possible to earn “millions of dollars online in six months, starting from scratch without any experience.”
Don’t get me wrong, it is possible to do so once you are at their level, but it certainly involved at least a few bruises on the shoulders when they were getting started.
Making money online itself is not a myth though but like any kind of business, it requires efforts on your part to make it work.
2. The key is in finding the “magic button”
Countless people think Internet marketers who are selling e-books hold back the magic button and that prevents them from making money online overnight.
Remember I told you I was a victim of one of the myths? This was it.
This myth is responsible for millions of dollars of wasted purchases (wasted for the consumers, at least). This myth keeps the victims in a circle seeking for the magic button — and for that reason, keep buying — until they break out forcefully.
I admit it was hard, especially because I was (and still am) such an information junkie.
People purchase e-books over e-books, join membership sites, sign up for courses and attend seminars expecting to find the magic button. The thing is, such button doesn’t exist.
Succeeding in online business is about taking action in the right direction and persistence. Blogs, web sites and information products are there just to guide you through the process.
3. All you need is one hit
Newbie marketers who create a product wish to approach big names. “If only (mention someone with a big list) promotes my product, I will be rich.”
At least that was their thought. All they need to achieve is one big hit before they are financially independent.
This is a huge misconception. Certainly teaming up with big names will help, but at the end of the day, whoever is able to provide the right product to their customers win. In a niche that I’m actively involved in, getting a big name to promote my product generated less sales than I expected, mainly because my product was targeting the wrong group of people it didn’t match his list members.
4. Create it and they will come
It used to be almost this easy. You put up some web pages, submit the site to search engines, and then a few weeks later you would see traffic coming from search engines. If you offered a product to sell, perhaps you got one or two sales immediately with little or no promotion at all.
Nowadays, it doesn’t work that way. The cost of reaching your prospects is much higher. If you publish a web site, chances are those pages will be buried just like a drop of water in the ocean. The only way to make your content stand out is by promoting it. Promotion requires you to invest money or put effort into it.
It is still possible to build an online business, just that you need to have a clear strategy and plan or you may end up wasting your time.
5. Anyone can make money without some skills
A subscriber of my list once wrote me about her excitement of quitting her day job to pursue an online venture. This news was exciting to her, but I was worried more than anything else (not that I wasn’t happy for her).
The problem is, she knew nothing about online business at all. She has no skill beyond browsing and reading emails. An e-book she bought just a week ago told her she could earn six figure income in a few months. And she got three months of saving in the bank, so that was the right decision, wasn’t it?
She learned it the hard way that it was the worst decision she had ever made. The dream of working from home and live in the lifestyle that you can only dream about can be a reality thanks to the online business. However, it is also important to be realistic.
Business is a business. It is still a business. Setting the right expectation from the start helps you anticipate things as they appear.
6. You only need this (or soon-to-be-launched) e-book
If you read in public forums people were talking about one product was just a rehash of old information, the product owner wasn’t always the one to blame. Often, the customers expect to find all the answers in one e-book — that costs $7, I might add.
Building a business is about satisfying a need with a good product or service. If you summarize any business, it is really that simple.
There certainly is a reason many marketers who have been there and done it tell very similar things over and over again. And if you guess because it works, you are right.
One e-book may give a bit of twist to the old information that the marketers believe to be the missing link. Readers who have not yet been exposed to such information may find it very useful and actually succeed after applying that information. On the other hand, those complainers skim through the information, think they’ve known it all, never bother to try again because they have failed once.
Many people already have the necessary knowledge to build a successful business online, but they keep looking for the next big thing. This group of marketers usually believe in the “magic button” myth too.
7. You can start with one hour a week
If you have been following the make money niche for a day, you should have found products that promise high income with little or no work.
The truth is this: no one will ever make money that easily, even the product owner. He still has to put hours into creating a product, writing sales copy and setting up payment processing.
When it comes to product creation, speed matters a lot. If you spend one hour a week, it would take years before it is ready for launch in which case it will already be obsolete.
Here’s a rule of thumb. If a product sounds too good to be true, most likely it is.
Conclusions
Just like a brick-and-mortar business, online business is also about satisfying a demand.
No one is going to throw their hard earned money away but unfortunately people — especially newbies — still think magic actually happens online.
If you’re not on your way to making money online, you may find that you fall for one of the myths above. Don’t let a false believe keep you from achieving your dream.
You may be surprised that success is as simple as taking the right actions and avoiding those myths. After reading this article, you may feel discouraged. Don’t be. It is the intention of this article to help you avoid the pitfalls and become successful quicker.
Making money online is entirely possible. It just requires time and persistent effort on your part. And if you ask me, the fact that I can set my own schedule, be my own boss and working from home (or wherever your favorite place) is really something worth pursuing, not to mention the potential of earning more than average salary.
I believe you will agree. The question is, will you take the challenge?
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shahar boyayan
February 18, 2009
i totally agree! it is sad to see people fall into traps because they believed in false promises