One of the great mysteries about online business is why one person makes a fortune and the next spends a fortune and makes nothing. As a student of learning and motivation I’ve given a lot of thought to this issue. In fact I wrote a post on this several years ago – entitled Not Making Any Money Online. (It has a GREAT discussion with it). Here are my most recent conclusions.
What You’re Passionate About
It depends on what you are passionate about. Those who have a passion for marketing can sell anything. They are not tied to their topic or their target market. They love the thrill of the “getting traffic, converting traffic, making the sale.”
Those who have a passion for their topic are very picky about how it’s sold. In fact, they don’t really care whether it sells or not – they just love the topic.
So which are you – a passionate marketer or a focused expert? (Nothing says you can’t be both – it just means you’re probably making a lot of money and loving everything you do!)
Speed of Action
As someone with a PhD I’ve seen an almost direct inverse correlation of education with action. I believe it’s because the more years we spend in formal education the less likely we are to take action. Our Western educational system teaches us to research, study, think, invent – but not take action.
Those who have an idea or learn a new tactic, then take action in the next 24 hours earn money faster.
On the other hand if you spend a longer period learning, then there is more to be confused about. So the more you learn the less likely you are to take action.
If you could rewind the clock, would you make more by learning one thing then taking action, rather than buying 15 courses and getting confused by varying opinions about how to do it?
Confidence
It appears that those who use technology well are more likely to take an idea and run with it online. They see no hurdles when it comes to the technology behind the business. Instead they know they can conquer that aspect of it and it’s just a matter of doing it.
On the other hand, those who are new to technology see it as THE hurdle in building a business online. But that’s not all. Confidence covers a multitude of issues and it seems that the more things you’ve tried, the less likely you are to be confident that “this thing” will work.
So the longer you put off success the more likely you are to feel that you can’t be successful. The earlier in your online career that you take action and start making money, the more likely you are to build on that success.
In fact, that’s one of the reasons I created the Online Success Incubator – to create a safe learning environment in which you could grow your business rapidly. I believe that the sooner someone joins the Incubator, the more likely they are to be successful online.
Confidence is a spiral. It can be an upward spiral, building on each success. Or it can be a downward spiral, disappearing more each time you try something and don’t succeed.
So where are you on the confidence spiral – going up or going down?
It’s a combination of these three things – passion, action, and confidence – that impact your profits.
Do you agree or disagree with me? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
As a former professor at a “big name” university, I totally agree with you about the inverse correlation between learning and action.
The way we train PhD students and postdocs is terrible… it often encourages not taking action, but instead, sitting around debating about what might work and what might not work, until many get paralyzed by a sea of ideas.
I teach grant writing as part of my business, but it exemplifies the worst of this trend. In a grant you must carefully explore all possible outcomes and options (in writing), weaving an elaborate “science fiction” about what the project is going to look like. Reviewers expect this, even though they full well know that the real world will present twists and turns that will quickly invalidate the best-laid plans.
The world of academic science would get about 5X more actual science done (like cures for cancer) if they were able to spend more time just doing and experimenting, and far less time having to be science fiction (oops, I mean grant) writers.
In any case, I’m glad you pointed this out. Action is something that so many people struggle with!
Morgan – it’s so nice to have confirmation from another former academic professor. I think those of us who have left the University to go into the business world are particularly aware the huge disservice we do to our students.
And I love your take on grant writing! 🙂 I wrote grants (and reviewed them) for many years with an excellent acceptance rate – so guess I’m good at writing fiction. It does seem that there should be a more realistic, less time-consuming means for proceeding with funded research and services. But that speaks to fixing governmental bureaucracy – and I’m not touching that!
This reminds me of when I was pregnant with my Son. I’m a perpetual learner by nature so of course, I bought every book by every expert. In the midst of them all I called my Mother. I was upset because this expert would say one thing, while that expert said the complete opposite, while still another said not to worry about it at all. Her advice?
“Stop reading. Parenting is loving your children and doing the best you can.”
I truly love to learn and that’s a good thing, but at some point I always have to remind myself to stop reading, give birth, and do the best I can with what I love. 🙂
I did the same thing, Melody! I had every book on housecleaning when I got married (don’t clean house). Every cookbook I could find (only cooked for the first ten years we were married, then Bob cooked for next ten, we split it for the next ten, now we eat out a lot!). And every child rearing book in print – which DID trigger my passion for learning theory and finally got me to do my advanced academic degrees.
But I have to agree with your Mom – sometimes you just have to DO it.
And that applies particularly in business. You can have an MBA, but it won’t help you create a blog. You just have to DO it.
Thanks for your great lesson!
Well, I don’t want to agree with you because I have started bringing my online website together but it has taken me a couple of years to get to the point where I can see success ahead. I spent dollars on learning. Bought some thinks that helped and wasted some money on things that were just bright and shinny objects. When I see people like Dennis Becker who spent a couple of years chasing the rainbow, I feel my time has been well spent, but when I read your need for speed in this article, I feel that I might as well take up basket weaving because my ship has sailed.
So if your correct and I have spent too long learning and not enough time doing, darn, but I’m not going to stop now…..In fact, I am on my way to listen to Connie Ragin Green on a conference call.
William – I am THRILLED to hear of your progress! You are a great example of persistence – you could see the possibilities and you kept at it till it all clicked together.
I never meant to imply that you had to be quick to be successful. Those who “seem” to be instantly successful are those who have a passion for marketing and are fast action-takers. But it’s never too late to turn to action. The important thing is to DO it – and you’re doing it!
For a long time, I’ve suspected that the key to success in online marketing was choosing a mentor who’s right for you – or choosing to have no mentor and just learn what you need.
The most successful marketers are those who had some successful sales experience in their lives, whether the job was called sales, loan officer, business development, actor who auditions for roles, or customer relations rep. Getting people to like you is a skill that most people don’t realize they have (or don’t have).
I recommend “The Anyone Can Do It Schtick” by Perry Marshall, which is reproduced by permission here:
http://bit.ly/NcVUiJ
I agree, Cathy, that sales experience is VERY helpful. Many people come online with the intent of hiding behind the computer, not having to work with people. And for years we could do that. But with the advent of social media the game has changed. Now you NEED to work with people, be yourself, and create that relationship. Most have made that transition, but some didn’t make it. They still wanted to hide.
For those who do recognize the value and need for relationships, the need for salesmanship is back.
Thanks, too, for the article from Perry. It speaks to our recent discussion about teaching versus doing (https://jeanettecates.com/do-you-have-to-do-in-order-to-teach/)
I both agree and disagree with you, Jeanette.
Is confidence is a spiral? I think it’s more like a path with ups and downs rather than a tornado or an undertow at a beach that sucks you into the ocean.
If you watch a toddler begin to hang on to the railing of a playpen you might see a big smile on her face. She plops down to the mat hurt and a few tears follow. The requirement for standing and walking is a sense of balance and strong muscles. That happens step by step. Determination and action makes the muscles and sense of balance work for her.
“Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again.”
Passion for marketing vs passion for topics and perpetual learning is probably why so many of us pursue the next shiny object. We aren’t taking action on the right things and we are easy marks for good marketing.
Action – yes. Violin teachers do see procrastination. Forgetting to take violin out of its case, or choosing not to practice isn’t all that unusual. Those who take action are those who are successful.
The reason I liken confidence to a spiral, Peggy, is that we often let one event affect the next. So if you fail at task 1, you think you’ll fail at task 2. And if you fail at task 2, then you think you’ll fail at task 3. And you’re quickly into a downward spiral.
The same thing happens with success. In fact I often talk about building the confidence or success muscle. If you succeed at task 1, you believe you will succeed at task 2. If you succeed at two tasks in a row you believe you can do the third.
We take each success or failure as a predictor of the next event outcome. That’s why I see it as a spiral.
As you described the toddler walking, I had happy thoughts of each of my children – watching them learn a task is a thrilling event! Persistence is built in. It’s only when we start being told we can’t do this or this is hard that we begin to question our ability. And that’s when we start having spirals instead of little ups and downs.
Love your violin example. I’ll bet you’ve heard ALL of the excuses! Would make a cute report – ready-made excuses for why you didn’t practice.
I’m in a real pickle. I am the Director of Nursing for a small college. I had started back to school to complete my Ed.D. in Interdisciplinary Leadership. I completed 11 hours. My husband’s job was down-sized in July. Because of this, we decided I should take a few terms off from school. Money is a tight.
As if that were not enough, our home burned to the ground on Labor Day weekend. We lost everything and literally got out of the house with the clothes on our backs. We are living in a hotel suite now and will be for sometime until our home is rebuilt. I took a one year LOA from my Ed.D. and I am too start again next fall (August).
I’m very concerned about our finances with my husband not being employed in this economy. He is 57 and the job market is not great. For me to be in my job, I need to complete or at least need to be working toward my Ed.D. This is also an added benefit because my son, who is in 6th grade can go to the college tuition free if I’m still employed there.
I’m wondering if you think it would be possible for me to develop an online course that I could make extra money with to support our family and pay for my school. The STANDOUT assessment from Marcus Buckingham shows my number one talent is a teacher. It is what I do best…I just need to figure out a way to make some money with this talent.
I have no idea what I’m doing with this. Our college is working to develop online courses. I googled that topic and your name came up. After reading about what you do, I’m wondering if you think I could do this in addition to my full-time job? You should have my unpublished email…I hope you will reply via my email and share your thoughts. My fear is that if my husband does not find a job, I won’t be going back to school, which will create more challenges for us.
Thank you for your time.
Deb
Deb – I’m sorry to hear about your current challenges. Indeed, you are facing quite a few simultaneously.
Naturally no one can guarantee that a specific course will sell well. But you won’t know if you don’t try. It WILL take some serious marketing to get it to the point where it makes enough to support your family AND pay your tuition.
Keep in mind that while an assessment may tell you your core strength is teaching, the reality is you need experience in doing so. As a mother you’re already a teacher – but nothing takes the place of classroom experience. Of course you CAN get that experience teaching online.
Naturally I’d recommend you take my DesignYourOnlineCourse.com course. I walk you through HOW to design the course, the types of materials you need to provide, and how to deliver the course. But you will need skills to record audio or video – or provide written materials for the course.
I’d say your first step is to decide WHO you want to teach and WHAT they WANT to learn. While you may know what you want to teach – unless you have a market that is ready to PAY you to teach them that – you’re just talking to yourself.
One other thought – could your husband create an online course, based on his work experience or a hobby or interest? There’s no reason that you are the only one who could do this. Online – everyone can teach, whether they have “credentials” or not. It’s just a matter of finding a “hungry market” – and giving them what they want.
Best of luck to you!
Jeanette
Thanks for getting back to me. Actually, I have taught in the classroom for nearly 20 years now. I have also done distance education. My passion is teaching! I love it. I just don’t know what to teach that I could earn money with. I have a lot of experience in the sciences and nursing classes. I am also a certified professional life coach. I just don’t know where to begin.
Yes, my hubby could do some online teaching as well. He is currently the general contractor for rebuilding our house. He is working long hours to rebuild our home and is making great progress. When we are back in our home, I can visit about that with him.
I realize there is nothing that is a sure deal…I just need a starting place. I will consider taking your online course. We are watching our money now, with Tom unemployed an my salary coming from teaching, we need to be careful.
Again, thanks for the ideas. If you have any others, please feel free to send them my way.
Deb