Ever said ‘It Didn’t Work For Me’? Well think about this…

You ever visited a forum to get a review on a particluar method or product before you buy it or start using it in your business?

And you read the following comment:

‘It didn’t work for me’

(I’m told it’s one of the most common refund reasons too).

Five little words that are possibly the most frequently muttered in IM circles.

‘It didn’t work for me’

But those five little words provoke some quite revealing and unanswered questions that are extremely valuable when it comes to getting to know yourself in terms of being an entrepreneur AND possibly explains why you’ve made bugger all money so far.

Think about this:

What’s YOUR definition of something that ‘works’?

It’s very subjective.

Suppose you try a method a technique from a pdf you bought as a WSO and implement the method.

Exactly WHEN does it ‘not work’?

Do you try it for a day?

A week?

A month?

What exactly constitutes failure?

What if it only brings in $15 and the product creator made $100 from the method?

Is that failure?

What if it DOES bring in the $100 but the product creator does it in a week and it takes you two months?

Is THAT failure?

Here’s my hypothesis on how this works. Me included.

I think once you’ve been involved in internet marketing for even a few weeks you create your own ‘ideal magic money machine’ in your head.

It’s your own personal ideal of how much money you’d like to be earning, how long it should take to come in, how much work you’d like to do, and an image of the lifestyle you’re living while doing it.

I had my ideal when I first started in IM.

I knew what I liked doing, how much work I liked to do in a day, how much money I wanted to earn, and how I wanted my lifestyle to be.

Have I acheived that?

Does my reality match up to my dream?

No it most certainly does NOT.

Now that doesn’t mean I’m not happy with what’s going on in my business, or that I don’t feel fulfilled. I am both. EXTREMELY.

It’s just that your dreams rarely live up to reality.

I’m typing this while in the middle of a summer cold. Blocked up nose, piles of papers, folders and books on my desk. Total mess.

The car needs the brakes checking over, my T-shirt is ever so slightly streteched over my belly because I’ve just had a big breakfast and a small project I worked on last week in another niche has BOMBED big time.

Compare that with the reality of wandering across the beach in your bare feet launching your latest product and watching the sales roll in. I’ve done that too as I manage to remind you every chance I get.

But it ain’t the day to day reality of things going wrong, feeling like chucking the PC out of the window because Dreamweaver is being a total tosser or spilling a coffee over your keyboard.

Easy for me to say when the money is coming in eh?

Well think about this –

You think your dream is JUST to be able to make money online?

If you had the green stuff flowing in you wouldn’t care HOW it arrived?

You’re wrong if you think that, trust me.

There are things you just WILL not do.

If you don’t believe me then wny aren’t you making 30 videos for your first product right now?

Or writing 30 articles per DAY to start your own PLR article site?

Because no matter what you (or I) believe, in the western world we’re lucky enough NOT to have our backs against the wall that much. (not yet anyway)

We’re not watching our children go hungry. I don’t know about you but if I was in that situation and it could be cured by writing 30 articles a day I’d be typing through the night.

And I was the same when I got into IM

I knew exactly what would bring me the money I needed.

HARD WORK.

STUFF I DIDN’T WANT TO DO.

BORING REPETITIVE TASKS

UNCOMFORTABLE, OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE SITUATIONS.

And I just didn’t want to do ANY of them.

So did I heroically struggle through all of the above to break through into the warm sunlight of success?

Did I balls. No way.

I found every excuse under the sun not to do anything I didn’t want to do.

Instead I watched what other people were doing and bought products BUT ONLY IN THE AREAS I WAS INTERESTED IN.

I don’t particularly like article marketing even though it was really big at the time. I love writing but only if it’s what I like to write. Writing 400 words on genital herpes is NOT how I want to spend my sunday.

So I mostly ignored article marketing.

Blogging however, and newsletter based products were DEFINITELY high up on my interest level, so I investigated this area, bought products on it and worked at it.

And I worked my ARSE off without actually realising it. I really enjoyed it so it was a totally natural thing when money started rolling in from it.

Now to be fair to anyone who’s just starting out today, there wasn’t the constant ‘noise’ that there is today. I’m talking about information overload.

There are new products and techniques and methods and WSO’s coming out every single day, and unless you’re some sort of willpower guru you’re going to buy and try some of them. Maybe a lot of them.

I do.

It’s human nature and while you can’t fight it all the time, there are things you can do to help your business along.

So here’s what you need to do to create a successful online business in my view.

And it IS this simple.

You need to go back to basics and look at the stuff that works:

Blogging

Creating and selling your own products

Affiliate marketing

Buying traffic to put into your funnel (most definitely the fastest)

Developing software

There are more of course, but I focus on the above because that’s where my interest and expertise lies.

The other thing you need to do is to be honest with yourself.

Instead of saying ‘It didn’t work for me’

Try saying to yourself:

‘Well I HATED every minute of that, couldn’t really be arsed to put the work in and I’m not altogether convinced it was right for me’

Don’t do stuff you hate just because other people have had success with it, if it;s something you’re likely to dislike doing. You just won’t get anywhere.

Also consider this.

The internet marketing dream is like your ideal woman or man.

How often does anyone marry the ideal image you had at 16 or 17?

You meet someone who BECOMES your ideal (if you’re lucky)

Things change, and in IM that’s a good thing.

The stuff you initially fancied doing, like perhaps those big six and seven figure clickbank launches we had a few years back could now seem like WAY too much hassle.

Instead you might discover you’re happy bringing in a few thousand a month just writing a newsletter about hand-made model soldiers because it’s where your interest lies.

Whatever it is, you need to figure out what constitues ‘it’s working’ for you.

How fast do you want to see results, how much money, in what areas, and doing what sorts of tasks?

Work out the above, and you can select the latest new shiny products and wso’s to try – but ONLY if they fit the bill of how YOU want to work.

You’ll find success much quicker doing that because you’ll filter out all the stuff that works for other people but isn’t right for you. Dump it. Even if it does work for you it’ll seem like pulling teeth in the long run.

No matter how much other people say a technique works, if it’s not something you want to do then you’re gonna fail.

Comments welcome – what do YOU think?

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11 responses to “Ever said ‘It Didn’t Work For Me’? Well think about this…

  1. Great article, Tony! I’m now at the point where I think like you do. Some things might work for me but I’m never going to want to do them and, therefore, probably never will. 😉

    So, I take my time evaluating what tools and products I buy instead of just jumping on the latest WSO bandwagon. If I don’t realistically see myself using something within the next 30 days I won’t buy it.

    It took me a long time to get to this point. It would have been great if I had understood this earlier on but I guess better late than never.

  2. Great stuff here Tony. I’ve bought a lot of crap and yes, I have been on that WSO bandwagon.

    It hasn’t been as much that products didn’t work for me, it was that I didn’t work for them.

    It took me awhile to find my “voice” and in the process, I bought a lot of products. I guess that’s part of the learning.

    Thank you for helping me learn.

    Stay Strong and Be Inspired.

  3. Hi Tony,

    I love a bit of case-study, so I’m already in on Jeremy’s thing, sorry.

    I just had to compliment you on your turn of phrase – particularly loved “Dreamweaver being a total tosser” 🙂

  4. Mmmm???

    Well your posts seem to be getting more and more candid as the year goes on Tony 🙂

    Yea you tell it like it is and this is no exception !

    To tell you the truth I went to work on the slided for my OTO and just had to shut is down with the excuse that my eyes were too tired after hours correcting multiple errors from my Pilipino transcriptionist’s £5.00 for 20 minutes transcription.

    You can imagine what a colourful composition she made of the Geordie accent!

    Yes! I prefer sitting here with my Laptop on my bed crafting off this blog comment that actually getting on with my own product creation! … Now where did I get that sudden burst of energy from ehh??

    Well I guess you are right. I feel that much of it is in the actual motivation about why you are doing this in the first place…

    I guess it’s not to do the arduous tasks that you are trying to escape from in the 9 to 5 world?

    Anyway … whenever I try something new, I always have this nagging feeling of guilt that I should be concentrating on one thing instead of jumping around trying out new methods and neglecting my product creation.

    I actually bought the Yahoo answers report by Val Wilson through your affil link and gave it a go … I am quite enjoying it except for the feeling of guilt just mentioned 🙂

    Yes I guess its bad when you give up on something that would probably work as you have not given it enough time, or it wasn’t your thing …

    and I do try and stick to the basics as you mentioned in your list.

    The truth is I still need to get my product out there and unless I do focus right down I will never get the thing off the ground!! lol

    Too many WSO’s … ohh yes … Too many mammoth bonuses … You bet!

    OK Boy – time to knuckle down and get back to basics … (with a few Yahoo Answers thrown in) … I’ll let you know if it worked for me in 1 1/2 days lol (just kidding)

    cheers

    xxxxcarlxxxx

  5. That was really Good!I will have to come up with things like that for myself.So right about the hard work and writing on sunday’s.I have had a couple of refunds.They where for list building,i can not stand it.I just have to completely force my self to even start it.With out a list no money so even though i hate it,force gives in.Because it is needed in this business.Looking forward to your posts Hippy!
    P.S.
    Also a hippy from 70’s

  6. Tony Shepherd

    I think it’s about doing things you’re interested in.

    I’ve wasted time trying to make a business model work using some technique I’m not really interested in, and it’s totaly UN-enjoyable.

    I think to make money online you need to have some interest, some passion in what you;re doing

    Tony

  7. As a fellow Brit it took me a few years of struggle doing exactly what you have described in this post.

    It took a mutual American friend to introduce me to your list when I was spending mega bucks attending an event in USA.

    It turns out you were on my doorstep all the time. I now see the trip to USA an investment for finding someone who has taught me more in the short time I have been on your list than I had learned in the previous few years.

    This post has settled my nerves, and in a language that I understand, as I was also hating trying to follow methods that really didn’t interest me. Are you sure you live ‘up north’ and are not a cockney?

    Thank you. please keep them coming.

    Bob

  8. Hi Tony,

    You are absolutely right, (AGAIN!). I’ve tried many things that just haven’t worked for me, because I wasn’t really interested in what I was doing. My biggest problem is that I can’t sell things that I don’t believe in. Yes, I have made some money , but it didn’t feel right.

    Just recently I have been casually writing Squidoo lenses about a subject I’m passionate about. Photography. Guess what? I have been really enjoying what I’m doing. I can’t wait to get to the computer and start writing every morning. I keep a notepad beside me, because as I’m writing I get so many new ideas firing through my head. Furthermore I’m focussed and beginning to make money.

    If you take notice, most of the people who have made it, whether it be online or offline, are passionate about and enjoy what they are doing.

    If you enjoy doing something it doesn’t feel like work!!

    Always look forward to your posts Tony, keep up the good work.

    Kind Regards,
    Keith

  9. You are right as always Tony…

    But surely as beginners we are always going to encounter some aspects of the business that do not interest us, even if we start down the road that does interest us ??

    Also can a business work on just things that we want to do ??

    cheers

    xxxxcarlxxxx

  10. Well, that works for me, Tony! A refreshing smack in the face with a wet reality check.
    I think similar advice might apply not only to one’s choice of business models and methods, but mentors too.
    Don’t try to emulate the marketers who spend their time on the big ticket seminar circuit, unless that’s your ideal ‘internet lifestyle’ too. Choose someone who’s living a life you’d find a good fit, a life that would ‘work for you’, and do what they’re doing.
    Cheers,
    James

  11. Ian Pritchard

    Thankyou Tony. Good article as usual.

    I’ll pick a little point.

    I don’t think it’s that we have to find something we are passionate about, as much as thinkking about WHY we are passionate about something. What particular part of it are we passionate (read intensely interested) about? What is it about the thing we love that we love doing?

    Once we know that, I suspect that we are well on our own sweet way.

    Always good to have the little grey cells activated. Thanks again.

    Ian

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