Easy Money? Don't Make Me Laugh!

by Bonnie Boots?

Every month I hear from people all around the globe, all struggling with the same fear. “Everywhere I look,” they write, “I see books and articles and emails saying how easy it is to make money on the internet. Is there something wrong with me? Am I the only one that's not making money?”

It makes me sad… and it makes me angry that the flurry of “become an internet marketing millionaire” promotions leads intelligent, hard working and accomplished people to doubt their own competence.

Self-doubt is corrosive. It's capable of cutting you off from your own core strengths and abilities, thus blocking you from reaching for the life you're meant to live.

That's why it's important to recognize that most of what you read and hear about instant internet riches is a gross exaggeration built around a tiny truth. So let's cut away some of that gross and get down to the truth.

Exaggeration Number 1:  “Everyone is making money on the internet.”

As an ex-journalist, I'm pretty comfortable sticking my finger into other people's private business and poking around. What I've found as I talk to people about their internet ventures is a small number of people making large amounts of money.

And conversely, I've found a large number of people making small amounts of money. “Small” often equates to as little as fifty cents a month in AdSense clicks.

My findings are backed up by U.S. Income Tax Reports, which stated in 2002 that the average taxpayer identifying their business as “internet marketing” reported an income of less than $500.

Less than five hundred dollars.

And that figure is averaged out over the total number of returns. This means a large number of the people self-identifying as “internet marketers” aren't even making 500 pennies, let alone dollars.

Not exactly the “easy internet millions” you've been promised, is it?

Exaggeration Number 2:  Everyone's getting rich working 4 hours a week.

Even the author of the best-selling book “The 4 Hour Work Week” admits the idea is an ideal he strives for, rather than something he's accomplished.  I personally know a number of people who make between $10,000 and $250,00 a month, gross, on the internet. They all work long hours. No exceptions.

Exaggeration Number 3: Just outsource everything!

It's entirely possible to run an internet business by outsourcing everything from web design and product development to customer service. That's the grain of truth. Here's the shaft around that grain: finding people that can do the kind of work you want done, the way you want it done, when you want it done at a price you're willing to pay is not easy.

And unless you're selling in massive numbers, you'll find yourself working just to pay the people you're outsourcing to.

Have you ever remodeled a home to, say, update a kitchen or add a new room? If so, you likely “outsourced” the plumbing, electrical, carpentry and painting work to various contractors. Or you hired a contractor who, in turn, outsourced the work to various subcontractors. Was there anything easy about getting your remodeling done? Do you still cower in fear each time someone in you family suggests any further remodeling?

I thought so.

Exaggeration Number 4: The easiest way to make money is through joint ventures!

See Exaggeration Number 3, re the difficulties of working with others.  The only way you can create a business is by getting other people involved. Anytime you involve other people, complications ensue.

Exaggeration Number 5: Running an internet business is So Easy!

There is only one thing that is easy about running an internet business. Getting into it. After that, everything is hard.

The failure rate for brick-and-mortar business is very high. More than 99 out of every 100 new businesses close their doors before the first year. No records are kept on the opening and closing of internet businesses, but most industry watchers believe the failure rate is much higher.

The reason they think so is because it's so easy and inexpensive to start an internet business. All you need is $13 to register a domain name and pay for a month's hosting and suddenly you're Rodger's School of Taxidermy and Shoe Repair.

That easy entry means many people start an internet business on a whim, without doing one iota of business planning. The less planning you do, the higher your chances are of failing to generate profits.

But let's say you have a plan, and you have the experience needed to bring that plan to fruition. Let's say you're me.

I have decades of experience in product creation. I've worked in media from newspapers and magazines to television and radio, so I know a bit about generating publicity. And I've written sales copy, produced television commercials and assisted in marketing duties for major corporations.

When I decided to focus my attention on the internet, I figured moving my skills and talents into cyberspace would be a piece of cake. The trouble was, that cake was digital.

No one every tells you, when you take your first tentative steps onto the internet, that the learning curve is as steep and tall as the Himalayas. Getting over the mountain range named “technology” is the most difficult challenge I've ever tackled. As soon as I make it over one peak, I see the next peak looming in the distance. Every footstep I've taken in this mountain range has been hard won at a great cost in both time and money.

I love learning and I love a challenge, so the pursuit of digital mastery has its rewards for me. But no one in his or her right mind would ever call this easy.

 Because I was working from skills I already had, I was able top jump on the internet and instantly start making money as I learned the new skills I needed to develop my vision of my cyber business. That's meant working double-time, for 4 years now, working to earn studying to learn, and developing my own products and web sites.

Don't ask me about the 4 Hour Work Week. I've never met it. The larger my business grows, the more joint venture I get involved in and the more commitments I have, the more difficult it becomes. I often feel like BenHur, driving a chariot with 12 horses…and I only have 3 reins.

I'm on the internet every day, 7 days a week, more than full time, and I can't even begin to keep up with how fast the internet shifts and changes. The best I can do is keep my nose stuck tight to my business plan and plod forward like a horse with blinders on, looking neither right nor left least I be overwhelmed by what's going on all round me.

I can hardly imagine how much more challenging it is for those of you who have fulltime jobs, family members who need your time and help, physical and /or financial difficulties, responsibilities in your communities and churches–in other words, a normal life–to come to the internet for just a few hours on nights and weekends and try to make sense of it all.

How do you do it?

If you stand in the midst of a busy, active life and have managed to get so much as a simple web site online, I applaud you. If that website is making so much as 5 cents a day, I give you a standing ovation. And if you have committed yourself to sticking to it, marching forward through fatigue and overwhelm and confusion and self-doubt to develop your dream of your own internet business, I salute you. You are a person with vision and courage and inner strength.

Don't let those wonderful qualities be corroded by self-doubt. You must hold your vision and your courage over you like an umbrella, protecting yourself from the steady rain of exaggerated marketing messages as you walk, step by difficult step, toward your goal. As you see your vision grow into reality, it is extremely rewarding.

But easy money?

Don't make me laugh.

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