Many an online entrepreneur has been in this situation. You keep getting back up because you know there is light at the end of the tunnel. You have tried everything, but sometimes you find it hard opening up your computer and keeping on going. When will all this work pay off? Are my friends and family right after all? Maybe I’m wasting my time and should do something else.
But then it dawns on you what alternatives you have. 9 to 5 working hours, long commutes, annoying coworkers and bosses. The unemployment line and the jobs fairs. Careers days and lack of purpose. Capped wages and job uncertainty. You realise the reasons why you are persevering online, and carry on.
I have found myself in this situation many times. I often ask myself what the best course of action is. But it always comes back to time and financial freedom. I don’t want to trade time for money any more. I want something else. I don’t want to work for anyone else or trust anyone else with my income level. I don’t want to be tied up to a job I have no love for, or with people who don’t care for me.
Why Is Your Affiliate Business Doomed
Your affiliate business is never doomed until you are beaten! But for many people they will never achieve the time and financial freedom which they aspire to achieve. Some will give up too easily and blame their business for their shortcomings. Some will try for years only to give up later. But why do so many people struggle when trying to build a profitable online business?
Number 1 – Expectations
One of the top reasons I suspect is our expectations. We see the guru’s with their Lamborghini’s and expect to have one ourselves soon too. We start our online business fully believing this to be possible but we don’t get any results.
For one, it’s very easy to ‘show your wealth’ online. Don’t expect every guru to be telling the truth. It’s much cheaper to hire a Lamborghini for a day than it is to buy one outright. When it’s a business expense you can write it off against expenses. I’m not saying the top online entrepreneurs don’t achieve great things, just to keep it in perspective. Also, most people starting an online business aren’t interested in Lamborghini’s. They want to escape their unhappy jobs and lives. They want something better for themselves.
The second point with expectations is that we can expect something too early to come from a little effort online. When we don’t see results we assume our efforts have no effect at all. The truth is that our small actions online will magnify their effect over time. Some take months to get their online business going and some take years. If you can keep positive while also having a firm grounding in reality, it will serve to keep you going for the long haul, rather than spitting out your dummy just because you haven’t made huge amounts of money for a tiny little bit of work.
Ask yourself, “Do I really deserve success for the effort I have put in?”. Often the answer will be no. Only when you keep going through the difficult times and pursue knowledge as well as profit, will you arrive.
Number 2 – Shiny Object Syndrome
You’re doomed to failure online if you believe everything the next ‘shiny object’ promises you. Jumping from one ‘get rich quick’ scheme to another is a futile exercise. The problem with the internet is there is too much information. We are overloaded with information. If you start browsing around for programs to teach you how to make money online you will be met with a full email inbox every day.
Information overload leads to inactivity. And this leads to poverty. Just when you are about to take one course of action, another shiny new ‘system’ arrives which distracts you. Before you can apply the knowledge you have learned, you ditch it for another system which offers an even ‘easier’ way to do things online!
Number 3 – Distractions
Sticking to your course is difficult online. The shiny distractions, the people in your life and the well meaning friends and family who are trying to persuade you not to pursue the life of your dreams. They will try and distract you, and put you off the idea that you can make money with an internet business. The ‘status quo’ has a strong pull for people. Going a different route scares people, and they like to be comfortable.
Holding to a regular pattern of work online can present some challenges. Especially if you have a full time job and family commitments. Your employer doesn’t want your online business to work either and will undermine you at every chance. They don’t want you to be free of your employment if they can’t be!
All of these factors will conspire to draw you away from your internet business. No one is interested in your wealth and prosperity – only in maintaining the status quo. So number 3 on my list as to why your affiliate business is doomed to failure are distractions! Avoid distractions and focus wholeheartedly on your internet business whenever you can. Do this regularly and over a long period of time and it will start producing results.
Number 4 – Lack Of Knowledge
If we all had perfect knowledge we would all be living very different lives. But in reality we don’t know everything about everything. Our preconceived ideas come from our education, upbringing, location, the people around us and the people we spend most of our time with. Those people who advise you about your internet business – are they entrepreneurs? Are they successful?
The answer is probably not. Despite this we still look to people around us for advice which they couldn’t possibly be qualified to give. The problem is, everyone seems to be a self appointed fountain of knowledge for everything!
Starting out with an online business takes some know-how. Despite the fact that an internet business can change your life, most people would prefer to browse free forums and look at YouTube videos for their information. Would a doctor or a lawyer think about doing this for their career? Number 4 in the reasons of why your internet business is doomed to failure is lack of knowledge. But more than that it is the lack of interest in developing that knowledge and continuing to improve.
The Busy Fool – Number 5
Are you being a busy fool? Are you avoiding the important to do the unnecessary? For a long time I was focused on the wrong activities with my online business. I spent far too long creating shiny websites and adjusting images to make them look better. They didn’t even get any traffic, much less make any money. In the early stages I just thought people would randomly find my websites. All I had to do (I thought) was put them up and make them look good!
Several years (years of poverty) later, I realised my mistake. Don’t be a busy fool online. An affiliate business is performance related. It’s not like a job where you can ‘wing it’ and still get paid at the end of the month. If you don’t make any sales, you don’t get paid.
Concentrate your time on doing the vital money producing activities after you have learned what is necessary to build an internet business in the right way.
Number 6 – The Wrong Business Model
You can work really hard on your online business and still make no money. Conversely, you can do all the right things and make money much more easily. The difference is knowledge. Having a business model which works for you for the long term is a huge part of this.
Some affiliate products pay you once for a sale. After that the customer belongs to them. Further sales to the customer are not attributed to you, the affiliate. Think about the lifetime value of a loyal customer for a business. If you choose an affiliate program which rewards you for the lifetime value of a customer, you are gearing your activities to be profitable in the future, even after the initial sale.
Membership products allow affiliates to earn month after month for a single sale. Are you using them? Struggling affiliates are missing a trick with this one. Membership sales can last a lifetime for each customer.
Are you using a built in sales team and up-sells? A built in sales team can dramatically improve your bottom line as an affiliate. This is particularly true of high ticket sales. Use all these aspects in conjunction with each other for maximum effect. Sell single items for minimum commission and you will have a long road ahead of you to make your business viable and to quit your job (if that’s one of your goals).
Number 7 – Lack Of Momentum
Top affiliates don’t dabble with their business. They know it has the potential to transform their lives massively. They take massive action on a daily basis. If you’re dabbling with your business maybe it’s time to take stock. Do you have what it takes to make it work or is this just a hobby?
Treat your business like a hobby and it will pay you accordingly. Treat it like a real business and it will respond in kind. Remember why you started an online business in the first place. It wasn’t to add to your to ‘do list’ and keep you busy. Remind yourself why you are bothering with an online business. Set some serious heavy weight goals for your business and take action every day to achieve them.
Momentum comes from working hard in a certain direction. When you see results your motivation increases. You learn what works and work harder in those areas. If you lack focus it can become a habit to wander and dawdle. Focus on what you can do to change your state and do something positive for your business.
Number 8 You Don’t Set Goals
Your online business is doomed to failure if you don’t set any goals. How can you hit a target if you don’t know what it is or where it is? If you work consistently but have no goals it could be you are filling time in to distract yourself or keep busy. Most achievements are accomplished through having specific and time bound goals. Goals should be realistic but also they should highly motivate you too.
Write down some realistic goals which you are massively motivated by. Break them down into daily action steps and keep going.
Many would-be internet entrepreneurs lose track of their bigger dreams and get bogged down in the daily tasks. As an entrepreneur you need to think of the bigger picture and do the daily tasks as well. You need to see the overview of your life and your business, and not get ‘stuck’ in the ‘technician’ role of daily tasks.
Number 9 – Self Image
How do you see yourself? What about when no one is looking? Or when you are around certain people? Your self image is such an important part of your success. See yourself as a success and you will become one. See yourself as a failure and you will become one.
The self image is an important invisible barrier to success in all endeavors. Read Psycho-cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz if you are serious about growing your business.
How do you see yourself? How do you relate to money coming in? And going out? How do you interact with other people in life? How do you feel about money? The answers to these questions can lead to a better understanding of our inner world and how we see ourselves. Unless we change our inner world we have very little chance of changing our outer circumstances. Simply because we fall back to our default ‘comfort zone’ and perpetuate our same problems which we know and feel ‘safe’ with. They are based around our self image, which we have built up over our lifetime.
Number 10 – Your 10 Best Friends
Like attracts like. You can tell what kind of person someone is by looking closely at the their 10 best friends. The average of all their income will usually give you yours. You’ve probably heard the saying ‘birds of a feather flock together’. If you spend time with people who constantly complain about lack of money, trouble with their partners and work colleagues, it will be more difficult to change your reality from theirs.
Find people who support your changing values and have goals in common with you. Spend less time with people who don’t support your goals and dreams. Notice how some people make you feel about your goals and aspirations.
Many online businesses are doomed to failure because of this one simple thing. You are alone with your online business. You don’t have anyone around you to support your new direction, learning and goals. In fact, many of your closest friends probably secretly hope you will fail, simply because they don’t want to improve themselves. You succeeding means the ‘status quo’ changes. The social status bar has changed and they may see themselves as more of a failure measured against you by some unconscious competitiveness, which we all have a little of.
Find a community of entrepreneurs to help you focus on your goals and encourage you forwards.
The Wrong Activities – Number 11
You mean well and you work hard with your online business. Unfortunately you keep doing the same activities. Those activities which will only take you to your ultimate goal in a very long time. Maybe you just do a blog every day, hoping to get found on Google for your work. Perhaps you expect Google to be your savior? If you’re waiting for Google to rank your articles before you make any money you might be in for a long wait. Plus, Google may even never rank you highly enough to get a realistic amount of visitors to your website.
Based on 1% of your visitors turning into buyers, how does your business look now? Remember the internet is an information gathering tool. No-one owes you a living. Certainly Google doesn’t. You can even be hit by a penalty, or never rank in the first place.
Do you share your articles? Blogging is a good cheap source of traffic but you also need to share your content. Don’t expect Google to work for you, it’s too busy working for itself!
So my number 10 reason why your internet business is doomed to failure is that you’re doing the wrong things. Doing the wrong things can only be good if you learn from it, after noticing it, and then alter your activities accordingly.
Of course it all takes time. Even hard work and dedication falls on deaf ears from time to time. You need to suck it up and remember that it is just a business..
Keep working and turning up. Eventually your business will thrive, but only if you do it right, get the right education from the start, join a community and keep working hard both on your business and on yourself.
Keep reminding yourself that an internet business is still a business. But it’s not like any other business. If you do it right and stick at it for long enough and work hard in the right direction it can give you a lot more than most businesses.
Time freedom, financial freedom and geographical freedom are all things which an internet based business can offer. But for most people it is just the simple things that really matter. Things like spending more time with friends and family, not having to work for anyone else, and working in your own way. For some it’s the income which has held their lives back for long enough to want to do something about it.
