Want The Truth? Building An Online Business Doesn’t Happen Overnight!

Like many people dissatisfied with their 9 to 5 jobs working for someone else, I became intrigued with the idea of working for myself at home on my computer by taking advantage of the vast reach of the World Wide Web.
Yep. If guys like Corey Rudl, Jay Abraham, Marlon Sanders and the like could make a ton of money on the internet, then so could I!
So I jumped into it headlong. The first thing I did was to buy Corey’s “Internet Secrets” course (my wife nearly threw me out of the house when she learned that I’d shelled out a couple of hundred bucks for it! and read it from front to back.
That completed, I was ready to start raking in the millions.
Okay, maybe not right away, I reasoned, but surely within six months or so I’d at least be able to quit my current job.
So I did some research and bought an HTML editor for about $60 and got to work creating my first web site.
My idea was to create a “landing page” (basically a sales page) for people to subscribe to a free newsletter that I would create so that I could eventually build a nice subscriber list to whom I could market some cool products to over the course of time.
Well, not having had ANY HTML experience, and even though I had this cool HTML editor software, the going was a little slower than I anticipated. And, a little more frustrating. Little tasks like changing the background color caused me to yell at the kids and scowl at my wife.
But I soon had a rough version of my site created and looking pretty darned good, if I did say so myself.
Next thing was to get that baby up onto the World Wide Web for the entire planet to see, and to do that of course, I needed to find a reputable web hosting company.
No sweat. Found one, got all signed up, and then all I needed to do was to just upload my newly created site, and I’d be off and running.
No sweat? Wrong. The sweat did come as I floundered around the web hosting site, trying to figure out the most basic things, like how to get the stupid thing to work.
Eventually, through hard work, a lot of help from the customer service department, and a little luck, I was out there for the world to see.
Okay, I thought, now that I have my site out there, and my goal is to get people to subscribe to my newsletter, an autoresponder to automate the subscription process and to send out my newsletters is essential.
So off to another foreign land this na?ve and inexperience traveler ventured to.
I did my research, found a great company, and thanks to their awesome customer support and cool tutorials they provided, I finally had my fancy new “sequential” autoresponder all set up. This also took longer than I thought it would.
At this point, I was surprised at how much I didn’t know and had to learn, and how much time it was all taking. And this was just to set up the basics, the foundation if you will, of my new business.
I was supposed to be making money by now!
However, I digress.
So I created several newsletters, loaded them into my auto responder and kicked back and waited for the subscribers to roll in. And of course, the commissions from the products I occasionally promoted in my newsletters.
And I waited.
I emailed all my family and friends and told them how excited I was and included a link to my site. One person subscribed.
So I began to participate in most of the popular discussion forums, and a few more trickled in.
Suddenly I realized that my site was the equivalent of building a beautiful new convenience store, complete with all the goodies, but building it right smack in the middle of the wilderness!
No signs telling people about my great new store, no advertisements, and no directions on how to get there – heck, not even a ROAD to drive there on!
That’s how my site was. TRAFFIC was what I needed! Doh!
So now I had to hit the web and do a bunch more research to find the most effective and time tested ways of drawing customers to my site.
And thus I ventured into yet another foreign territory.
Now, of course I realize that most any new business venture, whether online or off line, is essentially the same as I’ve experienced with my internet marketing business.
My point is that there are literally hundreds, and probably thousands of slick, fast talking folks in the internet marketing world who make it sound incredibly easy to make a ton of money in a short period of time. And there are even more people who believe them (like I did).
Although it may happen on a VERY rare occasion, most of the time, it simply ain’t the truth. If you’re considering jumping into some form of online business,- and I strongly recommend you do, as the internet is just in its infancy right now and the opportunities are endless – DON’T believe most of the hype you hear and read on the thousands of sites out there in cyberspace.
You can make money on the internet. You can supplement your income, eventually replace, or if things go right, literally MULTIPLY your current income, but it WILL take time and considerable effort.
But don’t let that scare you away. Half the battle is just getting started (most people never do) and then you simply keep plodding along faithfully, diligently, always keeping a clear vision of your goals. And be willing to learn!
Do this and you WILL succeed.
And if you’re one of those who already has a web site online, CONGRATULATIONS! Even if you’re not making money yet, you’re light years ahead of the rest of the world.
Just focus on your goals, learn from others and no matter what, never give up.