I talk alot about the kind of mindsets that get you failure at online marketing.
“Opportunity Hopping”, “no work” mentality “fast money” mentality, are all mindsets that don’t work, but what mindset DOES work?
How SHOULD you view, and pursue a business online to give yourself the greatest chance of success?
Here’s a question.
What if you viewed your affiliate marketing, niche marketing, blog making, whatever your business model is, as an investment?
What if you asked… If I spend $100 on this site, how much might that return over the course of a year? Of 5 years?
Let’s play out a little scenario…
You put up a blog today.
Assuming you do everything right, you spend $8 for a domain, $8 a month for some hosting, and you spend $50 on getting some content written.
Total yearly cost, $154.
How much could that investment return over the course of a year assuming you don’t spend any more on it and assuming you work on a good model (of picking a market, building your site, promoting it etc)
You’d need 5 sales at $31 commission to cover your costs, and the rest is profit.
5 sales in a YEAR. It’s not alot.
10 sales in a year, less than one per month, and you’ve doubled your investment. 20 sales in a year, one every 3 weeks or so, and you’ve tripled it! 200% return in 12 months.
Try tripling your investment in 12 months on the stock market…
Now, $150 or $300 profit in a year isn’t something to get excited about, but the point here is the mindset.
How DIFFERENT is this mindset to the mindset of…
“How can I make $1000 a week by the end of this month”
“How can I make $500 a day without spending a dime”
You get my point?
Guess which mindset is more likely to succeed online?
Now, the thing to note here is that “money” as the investment we’re talking about is just a currency.
The other currency is time.
You can move your online business forward by investing your money into it, or investing your time into it.
Let’s look at the time example.
Let’s say tomorrow, I decide that I’m going to invest a month of my time into a new blog.
So each day, I write an article for it, I do a submission to an article directory, I spend time building backlinks, I try to get guest posts on other blogs, and so on.
Let’s say after that month invested, (and let’s be honest, a month of consistent focused effort is a big deal) my site is earning $100 a week. A modest sum.
Even though if I had’ve worked the same hours at my day job (assuming I had one) in that month, I would have earned triple the amount, I’ve now created an income stream.
I’m now set to earn an extra $5200 per year from this site, from that one initial investment of my time.
Do you get where I’m going with this?
What we’re talking about is a mindset of “delayed gratification”. You spend some money now, make less in the short term but more over the long term. You spend more time now, it’s frustrating and hard work now, but in the long term you’re rewarded.
Is that a good or bad idea? Well what do you WANT from an internet business? Do you want to make $1000 next week and then have it die and make $0 the following week? Or do you want to setup an income stream that will provide for you and your family for years to come?
There’s a great quote by Tony Robbins that I’ll never forget
“Short term pain equals long term pleasure… and short term pleasure leads to long term pain”
In other words “chasing $1000 a week by next week” leads to long term pain.
The thing is, the GAME of online marketing is secretly rigged toward people who are seeking long term pleasure. Think about it…
Domain names become more valuable with age…
Search rankings favor sites that have been around for the longest time…
The game changes so quickly that those who have gotten in and secured the big lists and great followers early on are at a continual advantage…
So why aren’t YOU “investing for the long term” with your online business?
Here’s a great example:
A long time ago I set my dad up with a little site. I told him to spend $60 on getting articles written and submitted to promote the site. He did.
It took a while for results to come through, but eventually, the Adsense income built up to $1-4 a day.
At first, Dad wasn’t enthusiastic. When I would say this was a great result, he always replied “hang on, we haven’t even made our money back yet.”
Today over a year later, that site still ticks over at that same amount per day with no additional work. It’s not making anyone rich, but it’s long since returned the investment, and the percentage profit on that $60 grows every day because we never spent any more money on it.
If you asked him he might say that the site was a failure, or at least not a success. But me… I’m wondering when he’s going to ask if we can spend another $60 on it 
(Dad if you’re reading… *hint*)
Do ya seeeeee what I’m getting at? I know I’ve asked that thrice now but I’m really hoping the point of this post comes through.
If it’s not clear enough in your mind, online business is a business just like any other, and the more you treat it as such, rather than a random foray where you’re trying to grab for cash where-ever you can find it, the more successful you’ll be.
Accept delayed gratification, invest in your business (whether it’s with your time or money) for the long term, and set yourself up for a future filled with true passive income, personal freedom, and the kind of lifestyle that is always promised but rarely achieved… the “internet lifestyle”.
ADDENDUM: I actually wrote this post last week, and the following day Shoemoney wrote a post on his blog echoing the same sentiments from a slightly different angle – great stuff!
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Yes that is a great way to look at it! I call a website as a success if it makes back any of the money I spent on it. Then I reinvest whatever else it makes for the first 6 months or so into getting more content and expanding the site. I’m spending nothing on the site, and creating a genuine long term money maker.
Project hopping kills people IMHO. Spend a little time and get each site well set up, then sit back and watch to see what happens for six months or so. If it makes money, reinvest it and get it to make more. If it doesn’t- flip it for twice what you paid and start a new one. Either way, you are making money.
Very true Andrew, what also frustrates me is not taking any action- avoiding any pain (and pleasure)
In reading about your failures on a post, I have had a very similar path, I guess I am heading the right direction. Now i putting sites together around niches, sort of “throwing mud against the wall to see what sticks” – adsense is building but i will do affiliate too- would love to catch up with you some time in NZ – Hi to Elysia
totally dude! i just realized about this thinking method a month or two back, and I’ve got my overall business strategy well organized and improved. No wasting time anymore. No messed up mind. No lost focus. I know what needs to be done to get to the income level I need. Great post for anybody who is still messed up about getting past their current income level.
Hi Andrew….Very good points here. A business should be thought of as an investment…and one that if set up right can increase your profit as time increases….as you suggest.
I like the story you made about investing a month and creating an income stream.
Thanks for the quote from Tony Robbins too “Short term pain equals long term pleasure… and short term pleasure leads to long term pain”.
That’s the mindset (short term pleasure leads to long term pain) that really is responsible for the downfall of so many beginners.
Stuart Stirling
If we take internet thinking offline, it doesn’t make sense. I mean, in the real world if you had a stock or bond making 12%/year investors would be flocking to it. In Internet marketing, your site costing $60 @ $2/day adsense return is making over $700/year about 1250% return and it is laughed at.
Are we crazy or what?
Bill
Awesome post, Andrew! Seriously, this is just what I needed to read today, as I am definitely guilty of getting impatient and falling into that awful “instant gratification” mindset.
But I’ve been doing better with that, and I think this post is just what was needed to push me over the edge and abandon that mentality once and for all!
Andrew, Good advice, I think that when I got into trying to make money online I was drawn by the lure of quick money. Through several initial failed attempts at pay per click, I realized that you have to build your skill set to the point where you can invest your time productively and build continuously toward that long term gain. I think that for anyone who wants to be viable in the long term, you have to adopt the attitude that you have described here. Also developing a plan to base your actions around also helps. When I started I tried to do everything myself and found that the learning curve was so enormous that I was constantly learning and not actually doing anything successfully. I think that the learning process was invaluable because the skills I have developed are ever building and continually provide value. So I have through trial and error come to the same conclusion that you have, that the long term focus is the measuring stick that ultimately defines success. Thanks for the post and the food for thought.
Jonathan Hilton
Great Advice. I wish I would have seen this when I first started out. I jumped from opportunity to opportunity, spending thousands of dollars and never receiving a dime. I was looking to make money quickly.
I now work on one project and I am in it for long term profits.
I hope everyone who reads this post takes takes your advice and not make the same mistakes that I did.
Great way to look at online marketing. You read so much about making thousands right out of the gate, but in fact you soon find out, that hard work and a plan are what’s really needed.
Especially enjoyed reading about setting something up for your Dad. My Mom is on a fixed income and I’ve talked to her about getting something set up. She’s interested and this will help me explain the process.
Thanks for your insights.
Hi Andrew,
That is so true. If you have any experience launching a brick and mortar type business (I’ve owned a bookstore), you see very quickly that most people launching an Internet business are taking a very shallow approach.
And that ‘s the beauty and the danger of an internet business. It is so easy to begin and the overhead expenses to starting are so low that it is very easy to forget that this is a legitimate business. Trying investing $40,000 to launch your business and see if you don’t have a somewhat different attitude.
The thing is, I’ve been as guilty as the next person in treating my internet businesses in a very casual manner.
Like you, I’ve realized that what has been preventing my online businesses from really succeeding is my attitude. I have only recently recovered from the “get rich in 7 seven days without doing any work” syndrome.
I’ve found that if I simply work at my businesses and not use them as ways to entertain myself (i.e. buy a new tool, get a new domain, start a new blog, etc. etc.) I make far more progress and more income.
Doug
Hi, Andrew! You are absolutely right telling about business this way. This is an investment of time, money, concentration and patience. All of them are applicable when you have deal with a right information. At the same time all of the above are useless if you are working with an information garbage, that, unfortunately, is responsible for the lion share of failures in business.
I understand and agree with the process, but the wait can be painful at times. Simply throwing up a site and sitting back waiting for traffic is a fools errand, yet the siren song of the internet is just that: “instant riches”. It is nice to hear a sane voice of reason from the “reality” side of the equation. Andrew thanks for being that voice of reason.
Hey Andrew
Nice post. Totally agree. If only people can see that earning money online is also a business just like any other offline business, where you need to invest your time, effort, and money in order to achieve results, then they’d be less stories of people failing.
Let’s build our online business for the long term!
Cheers!
Welly Mulia
Thanks guys, glad it connected with those of you who needed to hear it
Let’s promote this mentality where ever we can across the web so we can build more true online entrepreneurs and achieve even bigger things!
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Great post and completely resonates with me.
I wish you had a coaching program. The analogy with stock market returns is awesome!! Never thought of that.
I have used the diversification concept from Stock market in my online activities and made a big mistake. Tried to get into multiple things…niche marketing..PPC-CPA etc. I have decided to stop doing that and follow a coach/mentor.
Thanks for the value you provide in every post.
Great,We all need this kind of mentality to be success.
Hey Andrew, allow me to tell you why I think this is such a great post. Although I have owned several businesses in my life, when I came to the Internet, business here seemed like a completely different entity. With such different nomenclature it seemed not just exotic but downright mystical. I had a hard time getting my head around it. If someone would have simply put it exactly like this. They could have saved me a lot of anguish and could have prevented me from feeling that I was a much dumber ass than I actually am. This mind set could help many people make the transition much easier. My businesses were vastly different but the principles were not. Nor are they here. There is something comforting to know that the laws that govern business are as steadfast as the laws that govern gravity. I fall down enough without having to worry about falling up too. Great post. This has the potential to help a lot of people. Thanks Andrew
Hi Andrew
Yep, this has definitely struck a chord.
We are the grand masters of the opportunity hoppers award ! After reading your post we have ditched most of our subscriptions that waylay us, cleared out our files, sorted out all our unread E books and organized our heads and our office !
Thanks to your post prodding us to act we now have a clearer idea and business plan as opposed to waffling around chasing the next good deal. Your post has also made us realise that you can have as much clutter in your head, and in your computer as in your home ! It seems more simple now – the plan to get there and getting there and all else is junk !
Great thought Andrew, as always. For a young whipper snapper you are sure old in years smart wise. Thanks for the reminder, it was the turtle who won that race, not the hippity hoppity bunny who bounced all over the place playing around. Go show mate.
So true Andrew, great post. Having “invested” somewhat in the stock market, I often compare the awesome ROI of IM with measly stock returns of 8-12%.. Thanks for taking the time to share this insight.
Thanks Andrew for reminding us that effort and time is very much needed for long term success in internet marketing. I have often strayed into get rich scheme or becoming impatient when the going is slow. This blog post brings me back to the basic fundamental of success. Slow and steady will surely win the race!
Hey Andrew, I’ve stumbled over your eBook and (my opinion) it’s really not worth it. But afterwards I’ve got an E-Mail from you with the link to your blog and your articles are great
please continue sending important blog updates per E-Mail! Thanks man! 
great Andrew…still learning to increase my traffic..
Great advice. It does take hard work and a lot of concentrated effort but well worth it in the long run when you start seeing some real traffic and sales.
Great ! Andrew, this blog is for me as I am just getting frustrated not making any sale 2 months since I have set up my web site. You have really motivated me and I would start looking at internet business as a long term investment. So delayed gratification is the key? Eeeh!
Realy great post, I am one of those opportunity hoppers this made me stop and think, I am,or now WAS, one of those people that flips from one super never to be repeated offer to the other you are quite right nothing comes instantly you have to build on it so delayed gratification is the way to go !
Andrew, that’s an excellent post for anyone, not just internet marketers. Just that you’ve used websites instead of deposits or mutual funds.
I loved the part “Short term pain equals long term pleasure… and short term pleasure leads to long term pain”
That’s something every upcoming business owner should actually first put into their head.
Cheers!