Been Doing IM For 2 Years and Made $0, what should I do?

I swear this question gets asked every week. There's a search bar for a reason. Just do a simple search and you will find mountains of advice already out there.

I'd say brush up on your SEO some more.. I can spend a weekend picking 10 clickbank products, throw up some review type sites sites for them (with pretty much only on page seo), and end up with a few making an odd sale every week or so, and 1 making a sale almost every day. Review sites aren't really my "my thing", but I've done this several times.

1. Pick a business.
2. Make plan for that business. ( Set goals, take action plan, etc)
3. Take action according to your plan.
4. Focus and be positive no matter what the situation is.

You should get a professional profile pic, this is not an adult dating site.

2 years is a long time for you not to make any money

you either need to do some serious soul searching to see what you're wasting your time on
or get some 1 on 1 coaching so you can figure out what your direction should be

Paul

Pinpoint your exact strategy, whether it be list building, cpc, or something else.

i am a newbie in the IM space myself. What did you focus in these 2 years & are you full time into IM ?

What are you doing now? What have you been trying to do?

2 years is a long time, but if you've been spinning your wheels instead of following a system proven to make you money, maybe you need to change something.

I don't know you, I don't know anything about what you have been doing but I will guess one thing. You have not just stuck the the one thing you have been dabbling around and trying your luck at a whole bunch of different things. I am correct, yes?

The road to success is very simple. Sadly most people want to complicate things and all they do is ruin their chances of ever succeeding.

It's simple.

1. Pick something that works. I will give you two. List building online or selling mobile services to offline business. There is no question as to whether those business models work as there are thousands of people making money from them as we speak. So the proof is already there. Step 1 complete.

2. Take action.

3. Persistence.

If you pick a business model that others have already proven to work, the ONLY way you can fail at it is if you give up and/or move on to something else. The fastest way for you to succeed is to stick at the one proven business model and keep at it until you make it work... because it will eventually. Will it happen instantly? No. Did it happen instantly for everyone else? No. Those who succeed in this business are not the geniuses, they are the people who stick to their guns and don't settle until they have made a success of things.

Focused Action + Persistence = Guaranteed Success

You should probably migrate to Ebay. Why make it hard on yourself? If you don't mind driving back and forth to the post office everyday, you should try it. You'll get sales fast. I would know... i was an ebay powerseller and top rated seller.... but hated driving back and forth to the post office everyday, doing inventory, ordering new products and supplies, and i think you get the point.

Get a mentor.

You can take action and work with good intentions all day long, but unless you have someone to help you, you'll just continue wasting time.

Maybe it's to competitive niches for the beginners?
Way harder to rank it.

Takes money to make money. Free methods wont work forever. Paid traffic is the way to go. Expect 30-100 ROI on average. Treat it like a business and you will succeed.

It seems like you've been spinning your wheels for 2 years. There are so many ways to make money online.

You are looking for free i see that by your comments. Since you have a fitness blog start making videos and posting them on youtube and focus on a HUGE niche which is the weight loss niche..

Everyone and their mother wants to lose weight.

Have a link to your blog on each video that you produce.. In the mean time start creating a step by step report on how people can get fit and lose weight..

Do it and stop wasting time doing the same thing that makes no money for you over and over because in that case we will see you here again 2 yrs from now singing the same song..

Gengis

You obviously need to corner your target market more efficiently. Learn how to attract targeted traffic. Then find ways to do it even better. You need to put your offer in front of the right people. Anything random with your IM methods will continue to lead to $0 totals. Best to you!

Why not focus on what you've been successful at and build on it. You said you've made money selling domains and from freelance writing, correct? You could focus on one of those things instead of bouncing around like others have said. If you're a decent writer, you don't have to rely on freelancing. Create your own products.

make a fitness related site.
have a youtube channel talking about the various aspects of fitness, losing weight, nutrition,etc. lots of money to be made there.

implement seo and promote, promote, promote. it's that easy. though easy it doesn't mean that there isn't any work involved.
as I said on my site, to each person there will be new aspects to learn to be profitable with a web business.

if you don't have any money, you can make youtube videos for free.... google lets people ad adsense to their channels as well.

you could also do personal training in your area if you like. even if you don't work for a gym, you could do it on your own.

You don't need to pay for traffic for your site in order to see results. I know plenty of people, myself included, that don't and still have great results. There's really no need to pay for traffic at all, in my opinion.

Joey

You probably shouldn't take my advice because I have only been in the IM business as long as you have and I haven't made much money either. But what I made is a lot more than $0.

My suggestion is that you re-assess your short term goals. If you don't have any, then you should really make some. I only do internet marketing part time, but whenever I need to get something done, I set a date by which I need to have it done by.

If you are having trouble getting work done at all, you should try working in different environments and at different times. A lot of people like working in Starbucks while others prefer the comfort of their home. I think it is safe to say that most computer and video game programmers spend most of their time working between 9PM and 5AM. I definitely prefer working late at night and in the early morning. I could never understand why, but I do know that working between those times makes me get more work done.

I hope this bit of info helps and good luck with your internet marketing endeavours!

A lot of good advice here and I'll add my two cents.

You're clearly into fitness (blog and profile pic) so I would suggest to keep going with it.

Easiest thing to do would be creating a training video series (on youtube) or even a ebook with your favor exercises. You can give it away for free to build a following or better yet create videos that point to you squeeze page to get opt-ins. After that you can start selling your own product/training course or just get one from clickbank.

Alternative is selling your fitness regime or even diet plan on fiver (seems to work for some people). But I'll still focus on the blog.

If you want more info just pm, and we'll talk.

I suggest that you do whatever you need to do to make a living and support yourself and family if you have one. That includes getting out and getting a job or doing odd jobs for people in your community.

If I was out on the street tomorrow and only had say 1000 dollars to my name here's what I'd do....

STEP 1) Call up a buddy or a friend to allow me to crash at their place
STEP 2) Find the cheapest working pick up truck I could possibly find, and retrofit the box with plywood side walls so it could store more stuff.
STEP 3) If I couldn't find someone's place to crash at then I'd either go to the mens shelter or else crash inside the pick up and live out of a Walmart parking lot.
STEP 4) Get some free vista print business cards done up
STEP 5) Place ads everywhere saying that I have a truck and that I do: junk removal, deliveries, hauling, landscaping, painting, and a million other things.
STEP 6) Start doing jobs for cash, then use some of that to place determinant ads in the newspaper, build a website, get a cell phone, and a lap top
STEP 7) Keep building up my business using my truck, until I could afford to rent a room somewhere and get out of the walmart parking lot.
STEP 8) Keep building up my business and growing it offering the truck services.

Then eventually when I'm making good money, start trying to get into other solid ventures. forget IM ok. do something that really fills a need and you'll find lots of money and opportunity there.

That's obviously something went wrong.I think you should change your plan.Why don't you build an online business ?Giving value to others / customers is vital when doing business.

From a previous post:


If I were starting over today and knowing what I know now, here is what I would do.

I would IMMEDIATELY pick a very profitable niche, that is easy to reach and has a large consumer base that buys most of it's products online.

Having said that, I would focus 100% of my efforts on listing building.

Squeeze page>Upsell>Downsell(if upsell was not purchased)>Freebie> Follow-up sequence.


That simple model can set you up for a great future. I would not spend any amount of time buidling SEO sites,etc......but, that's just me.

I would focus on learning 1 paid traffic method, inside and out. Than after you master one method, move on to the next. With paid traffic you can drive traffic and gather data ultra fast. Learn how to write copy and learn how to run tests on you pages to ensure maximum conversions.

I'll say it again, that simple model can set you up for a bright future.

Once you have your pages converting..........the work is done. Just drive traffic to it.

Internet marketing requires one doing what one have passion for and give it time, this ensures one overcomes challenges when it comes.

Where can you add value? Find a niche and help people in it.

The niche I make the most money in I get a 'thank you' emails on a regular basis. People thank me for the content, the advice etc. etc. I sent out a list of recommended books and got a bunch of people responding back thanking them for the list (nevermind that they were all affiliate links to Amazon).

Think about what you can help people most in and where you can add the most value. This is where your success will be.

So you've been doing IM for 2 years and made NO money but you've also made $500...which is it?

If you've made $500 from something then work out why that worked and how you can repeat it or scale it up and do it again. Focus on it 100% and make more money instead of doing other things you're not interested in and aren't working.

A mentor would most probably recommend some like

STEP 1

Does any of your blogs (#2 and #3) get steady traffic?

Pick the one which does, get more traffic and fit's more with what you know about. Dating is a bit easier to make sales but Fitness can open up the opportunity to make recurring income. Fitness also let you mix offers (hardware + digital courses).

STEP 2

Check out a bit the competitors on first page for your best keywords to steal some ideas about their design, how they monetize, color scheme, offers etc....use what works, remember.

STEP 3

Be sure to build a list. Use Constant Contact as they have a 60 day free trial before you have to pay $15 for up to 500 leads. Mailchimp is free but doesn't like Affiliate Marketers and can cancel your account without warning, keep this in mind.

Setup a good funnel. You wrote articles for others so I guess you know how to write a good email campaign. 1 welcome, 2 emails with content, 1 soft sale email, 1 content, 1 hard sale, 2 content, 1 hard sale spread out over 2 weeks.

STEP 4

Go to a great PLR site like PLR Assassin (free signup offer) and put a good freebie together for your subscribers. Several Merchants with successful products in your niche have rebrandable reports you can give to your list.

STEP 5

Now go and do whatever traffic generation you want and feel good at and get people visiting your site to sign up to your list.

Free would be Video Marketing combined with Social marketing. Article Marketing is good if you have good unique articles, where you must make reuse of your unique articles as much as possible. 1 Unique can get you 10 different web properties with a backlink very easy.

STEP 6

If you have that system setup and you get traffic, focus now on improving your conversion. Traffic ain't make you any money if you can't convert it into sales.

STEP 7

After all this, try and make your OWN course. As said, a good option would be a video course for monthly subscribers if you go for Fitness.

Welly Mullia offers for free a Network signup at https://www.zaxaa.com/ to sell your product and recruit and manage affiliates.

Do that for a few weeks, month and if you still ain't make zilch, get yourself a job because IM ain't for you. Harsch but honest.

G.

SEO was never my game. I stuck with paid traffic, failed, failed, tested and tried till I got successful trust me. Never give up as long as you stick to a traffic model, every time I run a new campaign I can make it profitible.

Failing made me ambitious to make it, which it did. Paid traffic is the way to go in my eyes. Especially media buying.

Just find something that works and stick with it. I've been doing IM for 3 years now and I haven't made money until my third year.

1) Get a mentor that knows what they are talking about (research them)
2) Listen to them
3) Make money

At the risk of sounding unprofessional, I once got advice in Vegas from someone that speaks your language.
"Scared money don't make money."

Look man, I'm going to cut through the bs and give you a dose of the real world. Merely as a tribute to my first year on WF.

First, you're not asking a real question. Just the manner in which you posted this thread, set off huge red flags in my mind.

Life is all about problems & solutions.

Everytime you are faced with a problem, you can make 2 types of decisions,

1) Constructive decision
2) Destructive decision

So lets use logic to deduce what your current problem is, ok?

You're not making money. Thats a problem. You tried selling domains, tried writing articles, barely made any money, and now you're essentially asking "how can I make money?".

Which as I already said, is NOT a question.

Its like asking "how can I run a mile?"

Well, you can do it with shoes.
You can do it without shoes.
You can do it with clothes.
You can do it naked.
You can...

You get the point.

So here is your real problem in my eyes. The real problem is you do not have a real problem.

For instance, successful people try things, then fail at something specific. Then ask a specific question, pose a specific problem, get a specific answer, solve the problem, then repeat this process over and over till they succeed.

So when you say "how can I make money?" I hear various different statements.

1) I want to give up with article writing.
2) I want to give up with selling domains.
3) I'm not really encountering any specific problems that I would like to improve upon.
4) I'm not really aware of what I'm doing, because if I was, I'd have a specific question to ask. If I knew what I was doing, I'd know where I was failing.
5) I don't know what my specific problem is, so I can't ask a specific question.

The point is, you're asking a severely loaded question.
Loaded questions never get real answers. You know what they get?
A thread full of OPINIONS.

You don't need opinions, you need solutions.

Unless you would like to reframe your question like,
"I'm done with article writing and domain flipping, I didn't make any money, what are some good niches to get into". As broad as that is, at least its more specific.

And you couldn't even ask something like that.
So that tells me something for absolute certain.

All the answers you get in this thread, are NOT going to HELP YOU one tiny bit.
Because the real problem in my eyes, you don't have a business model. You don't have a plan you're following. Your just a head full of ideas and a mind obsessed with money. Like most people on here who fail.

If I am offending you, I apologize.

But what you are failing at right now, someone else is making money at.
Because they are more organized, more systematic, more knowledgable, and overall more determined.

Instead of posting 1 broad thread like this, they wrote out a list of 10 highly specific questions, then researched them all quietly on their own time. They're the type of people who rarely depend on others for their success. Which is also the reason why they're so successful.

You can make money writing articles, flipping domains, selling ebooks, selling services, selling products on ebay... doing anything.

It is not our job to convince you of something to be passionate about.
It is not our job to write out your entire business model.
It is our job to provide specific solutions to specific problems.

If you rely on people for anything more than that, they'll try to help, but they'll fail. Same way you failed to ask a specific question.

So here are my tips.
First, find something you are actually passionate about.

Print out a list of 100 different things you can do to make money.
Go through the list and extract your top 5.

Take the list, and write down all the pros and cons of each idea (notice I said idea and not "plan" - plans come after ideas). Go through it intensively. As you do this, you'll begin to FEEL which 1 idea you're most passionate about.

It doesn't need to be a perfect choice.
The key is afterwards, start researching a business model.
Turn it into a fully developed plan.

Use other peoples models to write and innovate your own better model.
Or copy a model just to get started. Just never forget how much money innovation is worth. Innovation has made me more money than anything. Stepping outside of formulas and going with my intuition. "You know... other people might have done this x way, but x way is really stupid. I'm going to try y way because it makes a lot more sense". Thats how I innovate on things. I trust myself more than I trust other people.

This is also how Warren Buffet has become so successful. By ignoring market trends and trusting his own perspective on life.

Then focus on 1 thing, untill you make $50-$100.
Do not focus on thing #2, untill you have achieved this.

Once this goal is achieved, figure out where the money came from, then figure out a way to do it better. You'll run into specific problems, ask them here. Or decide to save yourself time and frustration, and use the search button. You always find more useful informationt that way.

For instance, I started making real money when I got involved in lead generation. I immediately realized I was passionate about it. Because to me, lead generation = power & control. The one who can generate the best leads, the most efficiently, is the one who makes the most money imo.

How did I start?

I began studying copywriters, stealing their "tricks" and applying them to ads on CL.
I applied their copy to videos on youtube.

I used fiver to help speeden up the process.
As I was doing all this, I continued to work on an offline site I have. My goal was to sell leads to local businesses.

I built links, made content, built more links, improved my copy, improved my content, and kept doing this OVER AND OVER AND OVER till money started growing.

Then I took that money and REINVESTED directly back into the business.

I've been on this forum for 1 year.
I've already broken 6 figures.

Our business is going on NBC in a week.

Am I saying this to brag?
No way. I'm saying this to prove to you that you need to trust yourself more than anyone you can think of. You can have more power than most people, if you learn how to discipline your brain and the way you think. If you learn how to ignore the way other people think.

I never come on here to ask broad questions.
In fact, I rarely come on to ask questions at all.
If I have problems, I'm researching on 3 different forums and gathering solutions/applying them.

If my copy isn't converting, I'm not asking questions. I'm studying material from well known copywriters.

If my youtube videos aren't ranking, I compare them to my competitors. Sometimes I use fiver to get more views, more likes, more subsribers. Then my video gets pushed to position 1. I am happy. I move on to the next problem.

Thats what money is all about. Problem after problem after problem. Solution after solution after solution.

Become a solution finding machine.
Become a problem finding machine.

Combine these 2 on a daily basis, and you'll make money. IF you stay focused. IF you know how to prepare. IF you do your research first. I see tons of newbies on here making fitness blogs and their blogs look like crap. Their copy looks like crap. Their articles. They have no idea how to promote a site properly. No idea wtf is going on.

Don't be that person.
Be the person thats in control. Believe in yourself. And don't let one single person on this forum tell you that anything is hard, or impossible, or can't be done. Don't let pessimistic failures feed insecurity into your own mind. These people thrive on excuses. They always fail to realize that the problem is always THEM. Like I said, please don't become that sad, bitter, excuse making person.

We have too many of them in this world already.
We need more people who live outside the box, who create their own rules, who don't believe in destiny, who are fully convinced that nobody can create their own future, but them.

Good luck & happy 2013.

-Red

This thread is a mess...

@All Warriors - we should not be giving Michael any advice without more information. We need to know EVERYTHING he has tried in order to direct him. How else can you advise him if you don't know exactly what he has done? If he is not willing to put the time in to provide that information in DETAIL, you should not be wasting time trying to direct him. It's impossible without more info.

@Michael - You said, "I haven't earnt a penny via internet marketing but I have earnt money online though". Huh? I'm confused. Anyways, you need to provide a lot more information about what you have tried if you plan to get any meaningful advice (as noted above). You need to tell us EVERYTHING. "I started a blog" is not enough. How often did you post? How much traffic did you have? What did you promote? How long did you run the blog? Etc?

@Red Shifted - You are right. The question is terrible, although I think he is sincere. He might as well ask "What should I do today?" Hmmm... go fishing, go to a restaurant, no wait, go use the bathroom...

Brandon

P.S. This is definitely not a dating site. Please put some clothes on.

Hi Michael, try to build up a squeeze page and build your list.
No other things can make a so fast cash.

Write articles (free), make videos (free) and register a weekly podcast to distribute on iTunes. Try to send your message around, people will come to you!

Thanks so much and see you soon!
Alessandro
Alessandro

Sometimes the truth hurts. If this just a hobby then fine get plugging away. But if your really looking to make this a profession you need to do some in depth soul searching, otherwise get a job.

Respectfully
Jack

They say in order to make money you have to spend money... have you tried using premium services to boost your business?

Right, I need to clear some things up.

People have asked me to document in detail everything I've done in IM for the past 2 years.

Here is a detailed timeline:

January '11-June '11 I read up on IM, SEO sporadically. I wrote some articles for
websites.

June '11-September '11 I set up Wolverineuniverse dot com. I would post an article a week on X-men movies, episodes and merchandise. I set up social media accounts with Facebook and Twitter(these weren't set up well). The site was 'monetized' via points2shop and Swagbucks ads on the sidebar and header. Traffic was around 10 UVs a day. TBH this was my best I've achieved with SEO. I managed to rank on the first page for keywords like 'wolverine and the x men episode 1' etc. Not big keywords but it was a start.

I scrapped the site because I didn't feel I'd be able to sustain creating content for that niche.

September '11-December '11: I created a few blogspot blogs promoting Points2shop. One of these blogs was centered around the TV show Entourage and how I managed to get a DVD of the TV show for free via Points2shop. Generating traffic for this was horrific, but I tried via a youtube video for proof of getting of the DVD. I also tried spamming Twitter with the blog/video.

Money made:$0.5

December '11-February '12 I created Casanova review dot com. The aim was to build a dating site that's traffic is 100% derived from google alerts. I got this from a popular method on a certain IM forum(I'm not allowed to promote other forums, but I think you guys should know what I'm talking about).

Basically I'd set up G alerts for the keyword e.g 'get my boyfriend back' as soon as there was a forum topic made on that subject, I'd sign up to the forum and post a long reply trying to give that forum member advice on the topic.In my forum signature I'd have a link to my website. I was creating around 15 forum accounts doing this.

On the website, there were not articles. Just clickbank reviews. The unethical part of the method was that I copied/pasted old reviews that real-life users had submitted.

The idea was that the forum member would feel I provided them with enough value to go to my site, check the products I reviewed and actually go and buy them on clickbank.

In terms of site design, this was my best effort by a long stretch. Problem was traffic and I scrapped the site.

Money made:$0

February '12- August '12- This was a period where I did not own a blog or site really. Well apart from a freelance writing blog I tried to use to get clients.

Now, during this spell is actually where I made the money. People ITT have questioned why I said I made $500 but also made $0. I don't consider freelance writing and domain name selling as Internet marketing, but I may be wrong?

Anyway, I made around $60 on Fiverr over those 6 months. The gigs varied from article writing to drawing. My first gig took off but the orders started to dwindle down
dramatically afterwards.

I attempted to work for Leapforce as well. Which is basically reviewing google searches. I didn't get accepted.

I pitched my article writing on many forums. I got gigs here and there. But I was lucky to find two clients that paid the majority of my money made.

Money made:$250

This was around the time where I was desperate because I HAD to pay off something. I was searching around for literally every little avenue online.

I also made a few dollars reffering people to points2hop via forums.

Then my most successful online venture thus far. Domain name selling. I registered the domains cognacreviews dot com, populartechno dot com and latesttrance dot com. Sold them for $100, $25 and $125 respectively. I bought 5 other domain names that didn't sell
but I made a good profit within the first week.

I stopped because I felt I just got lucky and wouldn't be able to hand register domain names like that every single week.

I had a system for finding good name via google keyword tool but it became harder to find good ones.

Money made $250

August 12'-present

That brings us to now.

I thought that I should start making us of my physique and create a fitness blog in the vein of fitness black book dot com. Obviously it didn't pan out the same way. It took 2 weeks to design everything, set up social media accounts. I bought fake likes and followers to boost social proof.

To start the blog off I studied Corbett Barr's blog startup course and what I did was round up 5 top experts in the industry of fitness. I got their opinions. I received 3,000 page views for that article because they all shared it on their facebook accounts.

I set up an email submit that day as well. I got 25 subs from that.

The monetization I had in mind was email signup>free ebook>autoresponder series leading up to live launch of ebook.

I planned to sell the ebook for $47. I got a guy to do the sales page for $50.

Right now the site is still up but I haven't updated it in a while. UVs per day is around 15 still, mainly because of the post that all the experts shared.


That's basically it.

My Internet marketing timeline.

$500 is not all that great, but you at least made some kind of money. You need a path that has focus and a clear plan. If you cannot create that plan, then find someone that can help you and create a plan of action for you.

take that fitness site and make money !!!!!! work on it !!!!! use the article to submitt them to tons of site , create videosand submit them , post 3 times a week aand make it viral , search for recurring products on your niche , what i mean is :
MAKE IT BIGGER AND BETTER IT WILL PAY OFF !!
create a list and all the old school tecs and perseverance is a key.
Learn more by the way , applay , ACT !!!! i'm sure you will make it , you also need a product that's a sure seller ( a proven one ).
Good luck
B.tw. MANY GREAT ADVICE ON THIS THREAT , NICE DISCUSSION I LEARN A FEW THING HERE , THANKS
FRANK MORENO

C.P.A

Make money without selling a thing

You can put up offers on your current sites.

Just keep on trying. This is a new year & things will only get better.

Well, I see a few things that jump out at me:

Wolverineuniverse dot com : those ads were not relevant at all.

blogspot promoting points2shop: again, a blog on the tv show Entourage, and using points2shop to get free dvd's? is that really a hungry market? relevant?

Casanova review: while you marketing method on this may not be my cup of tea, seems like it could have made a little money for you. but it sounds like a lot of work to keep the traffic flowing.

your fitness site: did you actually launch your product? It sounds like you were off to a good start, but didn't pull the trigger.


so, I don't really think you should throw in the towel just yet. You've learned a few things:

1) you need to make sure what you are promoting is relevant to the traffic you have
2) content heavy endeavors can be tough to stick with (how long can you keep posting stuff about wolverine?)
3) 'forum marketing' via sig lines takes more time/effort to keep traffic flowing then you feel you are willing to give.
4) you spent way to much time/effort just trying to find a way to promote 'points2shop'.
5). when you actually promoted stuff relevant to the market, you made money (promoting article writing to people who are actually looking for articles, selling domains to people actually looking to buy domains)

I still haven't got my head around the death of your fitness site.. did you get cold feet at the last second?

I know this is an internet marketing forum but sometimes I think people get a bit caught up in the marketing side and forget that a good/unique product markets itself. You need a brain storming session. Find something that truly differentiates you from the competition. There are a heap of good ideas that haven"t been done yet. In just five minutes I've come up with three ideas that MIGHT be good ones for a fitness blog.

One example that ties in with the wolverine forum and your fitness interest. A site devoted to what actors, who play superheroes do to get into shape. For trademark reasons that might not be a goer but there are a ton of great ideas that have yet to be implemented you just have to find one. THEN put the hardyards in.

Maybe someone else can chime in with links to the best books, WSOs, websites for brainstorming new ideas.

Two pages of "advice" from "marketing people", and not a single person focuses on the following question... "What specific problem are you solving for what specific customer?"

Comeon guys. This is a basic fundamental.

People use the internet for two things: 1) entertainment; and 2) finding information about how to solve a problem.

Both avenues can be used to generate money, but people tend to be far more motivated to pay money to solve an immediate problem.

What specific solution are you presenting to solve what specific problem for what specific person?

It starts with a very targeted customer profile. This should clarify and guide every single thing you do to reach people with a specific problem.

Your activity should be designed to build a marketing/sales funnel process that targets that specific customer profile somewhere in their buying process.

uninterested/unaware they even have the problem > aware of the problem/actively researching potential solutions > comparing solution features > making a decision to purchase

Your "content" online should be helping facilitate someone towards a purchase decision. This can be in the form of a single sales page that covers the entire pitch... or in the case of a bigger blog site, helps to inform and educate the prospect while moving them towards you as the solution of choice.

This is both B2C and B2B... creating a state of tension that can only be released by deciding to purchase a solution for a problem. Good copywriters understand this psychology.

WHO IS YOUR CUSTOMER AND WHAT IS YOUR SOLUTION FOR THEIR PROBLEM?

Only 1 thing to say : Try, Try, and Try.
Dont ever give up IM. You will get success sure so dont stop any work.

Try 3-5 method per week (you can check Money making Online Section of this forum).
If you get success with them go further with Twists,
Add/Replace methods which are not worked.

I have to agree with pretty much all of the above, Do you have a plan, if you do, do you stick to it, whats your strategy, whats your goal, have you had any PROPER coaching, how are you marketing, are you going it alone........... we were all in the same position at some point ( maybe not the same time frame) at least I was, for 6 months or so , I simply found someone I could relate to, get on with and new what they were talking about, AND who was getting the results I wanted. Think about that , does it make at least some sense, or carry on doing what your doing , which isnt a business, more of a hobby

I want to help you. I see that you're offering writing services. How much do you charge per 700 words? What topics do you write?

I'm looking forward to your reply. If interested PM me

Also I kinda have had a mentor for the past 2 years. He's the one that got me into this. I found him on another forum.

A year from now you should make another post and it should read like this...

January 2013 - January 2014
Focused on ONE site, One niche. Created a GREAT piece of content that solves the audiences problems. I gave it away and drove traffic to a squeeze page. I spent 80% of my time building my audience and traffic.

10% of my time was spent sending emails to my list to give them more great FREE content.

10% of my time was spent promoting other people's high ticket offers through the list such as Webinars.

If you do that EVERY DAY for an entire year, 6 figures isn't that unreasonable.

I haven't read through the entire thread, so sorry if this has already been posted. But from your summary it seems like you're (a) looking for a shortcut and (b) not doing the one thing that's guaranteed to work: posting valuable original content on your website. If you do that and aren't a complete idiot about SEO, you'll start getting visitors.

Wow - I wish this kind of thing was much rarer with people trying to make money internet marketing

My advice would be to go right back to the start and get a mentor (if you can afford one). They will work with you step by step to help you choose the right methods for you to succeed.

If you can't afford a mentor (sadly most people in your position can't), then you can PM me and I'll send you a draft of a new book I have been putting together as a kind of 'poor mans alternative to mentoring'.

Okay, I'm gonna be 105% honest with you Mike, if you've spent 2 years and haven't made a dime from your IM efforts it seems to me you have been twiddling your thumbs trying new methods every 2 weeks when it seems as if the current isn't working.

BE PERSISTANT!!!

and organic is GREAT.... When u can get your pages ranked accordingly, but the more competitive a niche is, the slimmer your chances at SEO become!

In marketing there is only ONE THING that never
Changes, (the fact that thing always CHANGE). you can easily Spend the 20 years hoping to rank for a term, but are willing to risk it wen you could just spend a LITTLE For guaranteed results?

Paid traffic costs money... Because it works! 100/100

organic doesn't because.... Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.

And since Google constantly changes it's algorithm, at ANY SECOND you could be lowered in rank... Refer to the old adage "never put all your eggs in one basket"


**Hope this helps, pardon any errors.... On Mobile Web

Dear Michael:

I think the most important words you said were "I'm only 18." You have made the same mistake a lot of young people make -- expecting results too soon and giving up too easily.

Casanova Review was actually not a bad idea, but you gave up on it way too soon. If I were to build a business around a site like that, particularly with free web traffic, I would probably expect to take a year (or more) to get it into some kind of profitability. That kind of subject matter lends itself better to paid traffic. There are ways to get there a lot faster with paid traffic, but you should only risk what you are willing to lose. You also need a certain knowledge of human nature to be successful with a dating site, and that kind of knowledge only comes with age. Young people rarely have problems dating, because they are usually attractive and there are lots of free ways for them to meet other young people. They rarely pay for a dating site. Paid dating sites are generally used by older people, and convincing them that you are going to do a better job of delivering the goods they want is an art form.

The fitness blog is a good idea if fitness is your thing, and this brings me to the main point -- you already have the tools you need to be successful, but you haven't been using them properly. If you have the dedication to do the reps and lift the weights and suffer the pain to build muscle, then use that same dedication to build traffic. Most importantly, learn how to build traffic. If free traffic is what you are going to use, google the keywords you are going for and see what sites are on the top. Learn to use analytical tools to figure how those sites got to the top, and how to go them one better in terms of improving the content on your own site. If facebook is your thing, then learn how to get shares and likes, and how to use facebook to drive traffic -- or get some money together to use paid facebook ads.

Pay attention to your product, and your market. No one is going to pay $47 for a fitness ebook that they are going to read on their Droid phone or their Ipad. If this is what you are selling, then the price probably needs to be a lot lower, but you need to get to the gym and talk to people and find out what they are willing to pay. None of this "I'm selling an ebook," either. Try, "I was thinking about getting a fitness ebook or two -- how much would you pay for something like that?" This is called market research.

Stay focused, and let us know how things go.

As many others have said, focus and pesaverance are the key, After a period of trial and error, you'll be in a position to identify which strategies you need to focus on. I know no one in IM who have made it overnight. You are on the right track

Really appreciate the comments from fellow Warriors!

I think what I'll do is carry on updating the fitness site, try to rank for keywords but not depend on it.

Some how I'll have to find a way to generate capital to fund a paid traffic campaign as many of you have already said 'to make money you have to spend money'. In real life, you can't start up a business for free, so I guess I shouldn't expect the same in IM.

First of all at least you've taken action on a number of things and you've probably got a better skill set than you realise. Looking at your timeline I'd say that focus is perhaps your issue as you've jumped from one thing to another a little. You sound like the type of person who would benefit from a coaching or mentoring scheme; if I were you I'd decide what it is in IM that you really want to do (or are best at) and find a reputable coaching or mentoring programme to join that deals with the aspect you've chosen. This should help you with your focus.

Hope this helps; good luck.

Hello Michael,

I would advice you something here. You just need to go for the best stuff you can do like you mentioned SEO.... Enter in the SEO Industry and make some residual income from there..... After you get some into your pocket, then go for experiments and learn some quick tips and tricks from around the Internet about Internet Marketing and start earning from there as well...

Happy New Year 2013!

Ok

Here's the dilemma.

Do I..

Try and go about creating this fitness business for free. Trying to rank for easy keywords for free on google.

or

Somehow raise the capital to fund a paid traffic campaign. People have said get a job but that's isn't entirely realistic in my current situation as I'm at boarding school.

You have been changing too many paths in 2 years. There is success to be found in every path. Before you found success on one path, you changed path, start from ground zero again. 2 years to build one area of mastery is a reasonable time. For you, 2 years to test so many areas is actually a short time.

Before you even decide your next step. Discover yourself first.

What is your value? What drives you? Don't say "money". Money is what had you going round and round.

What is your strength? What is your desire? What satisfy you?

Find out who you really are, before you jump into the next venture.