One thing I have learned (the hard way) is that it is easy to half finish jobs. I’ve read countless stories about internet marketers and entrepeneurs who start working on projects with some great ideas and a lot of enthusiasm, only to move onto something else before the current project is complete.
It’s easy to become sidetracked … especially on the Internet. You start working on a new site which is going to make loads of money and secure your future, and then you see or hear about something else that is going to ‘take the internet by storm’ or ‘make you a millionaire’ and instantly you forget about everything you’ve been working on and start creating another ‘sure thing’.
At some point, most likely when your credit cards are maxed and you’re wondering how you’re going to pay the bills – you will realise that you are working your butt off but getting absolutely nowhere. I’ve been there. Over a period of around 18 months I purchased more than 100 domains and built maybe 50 sites and blogs. I probably made a couple of hundred dollars over that time. Why? BecauseI kept moving on to new things and either left sites incomplete or simply didn’t take the time to develop and promote them.
When people say that you can make a living online they are telling the truth. But it takes time, effort and more than anything, focus, to build a successful online business. You’re not going to make money by throwing up a web page or two and waiting for it to happen. It’s like any business. You need to provide something that is useful and good value. Once you have a good product or service, you have to promote it. When you start to make some sales you have to back your product up with good customer support. If it all sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Running a business on the Internet is much the same as running any business. Build your product, attract some customers and provide good service.
I’ll be adding some links to the ‘Building Your Business’ page soon so keep an eye out for that. There’s a huge amount of free information out there that can help you build a succesfull online business
Thanks Gary,
I understand that well… even when one does focus on one thing (especially online), other projects tend to creep in.
Looking forward to more posts on this subject, tried to subscribe to the RSS.. another project?
RSS is somewhat new to me… I tried subscribing before my post and got an XML page, having posted I was able to subscribe.. hmm.
Putting my projects on a spreadsheet always helps me.