Re: How Hard Is To Make A Living Online ?

Hi John,

> I'm fairly new to online marketing, so it would be nice to hear from
> others
> who are also trying to make a living online.

I make a living online. Although not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, I earn a better income then I ever did working for someone else.

> The general opinion is that only about 5% of onliners are actually making
> money. Does this mean that this 5% are making money from the other 95% ?
> lol

I suppose. I build websites.

> I've bought various ebooks from some of the internet's so called
> "Gurus" who
> all promised thee magic formula of internet wealth, but unfortunatley for
> me,
> the books have been full of hype and not much else !

I never bought into it. I don't own a single book, or eBook by any of the great guru's who promise fabulous wealth if you follow their system. Of course, maybe that's why I'm not wealthy ;-)

> Is it just me, or is anyone else having the same trouble ?

I've learned a lot over the years, and people that have helped me offered the help for free. Without really knowing what I was doing, I was sharing information with other individuals, who in turn shared with me.

Last year I discovered this could be called a Mastermind Group as detailed in Jim Straw's free report The Most Powerful Wealth Building Secret Ever Told!.

Willie Crawford in a recent post on his discussion board says:

One myth that we all bring on ourselves is the myth of just how easy it is to build a massively successful online business. We all read the testimonials about how well some people did and so we think we can all easily accomplish the same. FTC rules force many copywriters to include disclaimers pointing out that these results are often "not typical." However, there is a portion of all of us that wants to believe that we can do it too, so we ignore the disclaimers completely. We can all do it too, but most never will... that's a sad fact.

Another fact that we all tend to ignore is the importance of cultivating relationships in order to have massive success online... especially in the Internet marketing arena. We read about people like John Reese or Frank Kern selling hundreds or thousands or even millions of dollars worth of products in HOURS. What most ignore when reading about such accomplishments is all of the time spent building relationships with joint venture partners (list owners) in order to make such accomplishments practical.

We also often read of legendary online marketers selling hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of product in hours or days,and completely ignore the fact that their lists were often told to be on the lookout for a certain offer. So it appears that these marketers can just send an off-the-cuff offer to their lists, and get these types of results. The fact is that these marketers spent YEARS cultivating relationships with their lists and that's what made this type of response possible.

Don't dismiss the above quote as babble. Willie has earned his place as one of the top Internet Marketers, and he is one of the guys from the "real people" crowd who has worked very hard to achieve the success he enjoys today. What he says is very true.

For example, one gentleman on my mailing list, used to ask questions on my discussion forum for a year before he joined the list. Then after two years on my list, and a number of private emails, now I look after his technical work, and he refers other clients to me.

Sometimes it helps to think of the Internet, not only as an advertising medium, but as a communications tool, that allows you to connect with people you otherwise would never have known. But it DOES take time to build relationships. These relationships can help you build a solid, full-time, living from the Internet if you are offering something of value.

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan