I thought it was. It was something I loved doing and I founded success in using the internet to market my music school and recording studio. I tapped on into internet marketing in early 2009 when internet marketing was somewhat a new game, locally.
Having built over 100 websites in the span of near 5 years, fast forward to mid 2014, together with Jar Creations and my business partner Joel, we decided that we shared out some knowledge and experience to local business people in our state.
We did it in a form of a course, where we got people to sign up for a course under Jar Creations in which they paid a one time fee. Rolls of benefits were given to members, from courses, webinars, software sharing and even unlimited lifetime web hosting. Coming to think of that, I can proudly boast that we are the ONLY company in the world offering unlimited free hosting for our members without taking any further payments from them.
We did this out the will to share ideas.
However, it wasn’t long before we found out that internet marketing isn’t for everyone. (We still run the hosting school where you can build your site in 2 days)
Top 5 Reasons Why People Fail at Internet Marketing
1. The Will To Fail
With our experience teaching newbies in the subject, I can confirm that the number 1 reason people fail in internet marketing is because they cannot accept failure.
I don’t blame them.
Through the years, internet ‘gurus’ have been selling dreams to people. Images of people smiling on the beach with their laptops were used to portray the life once you plugged on into internet marketing.
Familiar with such photos?
And that is why when people fail while working on their internet marketing plans, they blame it on the ‘gurus’ or the course systems which do not work.
I believe all these ‘gurus’ are teaching what they know. Why the expensive charge? Well like all businesses, they run a business and probably have a team of staffs too. There are bills they have to pay and running cost to upkeep the team.
If you have placed your foot into internet marketing before, you know what I’m talking about. You will fail. I’ve failed countless of times myself throughout the time I spent working on marketing online.
However instead of failing, giving up and then pointing fingers, it’s the mindset that has to be changed. As we all know, failure brings success.
Put yourself to fail 10 times. So the next time you fail, think that you have failed one time, okay, another 9 more times to fail before I get it right.
Be willing to fail. A guru can only mentor and guide you.
2. Not Technologically Savvy
Doing internet marketing requires you to be internet and tech savvy. You need to understand what links are and what embedding means. In fact, that is just the surface of things.
You’ll need to have enough skills to take on the work involved in marketing online. Here is a list of skills that you have to be at least familiar with if you’re not fluent at it.
- Writing – People become grammar Nazis when they find a grammar or type mistake online. You have to been good at writing
- HTML & CSS – Like it or not there will be times when you’ll appreciate knowing how to edit a webpage.
- Searching & Links – You have to be able to search online effectively and dissect a competitor’s website up.
- Web & Media Design – Knowing a little of designing goes a long way.
Of course there are many skills that a good internet marketer should know but I believe these are the bare minimum.
Sure you can always outsource work. However in the beginning, you’ll find yourself having to cut cost and having to do things yourself before actually delegating work to freelancers. Internet marketing is very technical and it always will be.
3. Cannot Embrace Change
The internet changes every day. Speed is king in the internet world.
You’ll have to be able to predict the next trend before it hits, let alone being able to accept change. The way we rank our website up in Google changes every few months. Currently, your website has to be mobile-friendly to gain a boost in search engine listing.
Didn’t know that one? Drop me a line at Jar Creations and I’ll look to help you.
Take for example, when the Malaysian plane, MH370 went missing, (With all due respect, my heart goes to all the people who were on board.) internet marketers who were big-time opportunists, started creating tribute & memorial t-shirts on T-Spring.
Some quickly bought domain names pertaining the words ‘MH370’, like ‘www.mh370.com’ and so on. That was because they knew the search traffic on the internet for the query ‘mh370’ will be shooting up for the next few months. Being opportunists and fast to embrace change, they made use of that traffic surge to monetize from their websites.
Being in the internet world means you have to be fast. What you know that works today on the internet might be different tomorrow. The quote, “You’re First or You’re Last” remains true as ever.
4. Hoping For Instant Success
Another big reason why many give up on marketing online is because they were hoping for a quick success. Many people are looking for the easy way out. A big break.
Unfortunately that does not happen. At least not in the internet marketing world.
Internet gurus love promoting their courses and events by saying they made a fortune within a short period of time. Believe me, but those claims are usually TRUE.
Yes, some of them made it within that period of time. But many failed to observe another thing.
Have you wondered how much time that particular internet ‘guru’ took to learn, polish, rinse and repeat doing what he did online before actually making a fortune within that short period of time? People fail to see the tough times behind success. If you’re not willing to go through countless of mistakes, trial and error, you’re not fit as an internet marketer.
Silly you, of course these ‘gurus’ would promote their courses with very attractive headlines.
“Learn how to make money online by just spending 2 hours everyday”
Not “How to make $100,000 With eBay in 90 days”
‘The Guaranteed system to make money online in 30 days”
These people are marketers and they happen to be masters at marketing. How else would they promote their courses?
Another issue is that because these people were looking for instant success, they got bored along the way. Admittedly, most of us do that, so I suggest a good read on How To Stay Focused When You’re Bored Of Your Work
5. Non-Creative
The same as marketing physically, internet marketing requires lots of creativity. You’ll need fresh new ideas for thing to work on the internet. By the way, creative ideas don’t come when inspiration hits. Great artist don’t wait for inspiration, they find it.
Many people simply follow what a mentor says and then hopes to achieve success. Sorry, you won’t have luck with that.
Despite the ‘systems’ many seem to promote, you can never just follow a system. “Just follow our marketing system and you’ll make money!”, said the internet guru. You need to have the ability to twist and turn the ways you market on the internet creatively.
What works in marketing a certain product or service might not work for another product or service. You market differently for different niches. Being good at selling hamburgers does not make you a master automobile salesperson because those are two different products that caters to different target markets.
Write down ideas that pops into your mind throughout your day. Sir Richard Branson, the owner of Virgin Air keeps a notebook with him everywhere he goes, taking down notes about ideas and thoughts that come to him.
Also, never follow what a teacher teaches but follow what he does instead.
Conclusion
Despite pointing out the reasons why internet marketing is not made for everyone, that’s not to say you can’t do internet marketing. All you really need is a will to learn and to hustle.
Our course for website creation and internet marketing is still made available to serious individuals who wants to build sites and go into internet marketing. If you’re one of them, head over to Hosting School by Jar Creations and sign up as a premium membership: www.host.jarcreations.com.my
You’ll learn how to build websites, receive hosting, premium lessons and even softwares plus tools, to get you started.
Why do you think people fail in internet marketing? Share your thoughts below.