WildPointer

What stops most people from using things like self-help books or sites like this merely as mental masturbation, never acting on what they learn?

Nobody wants a job, and everybody has talents, skills, ideas and plans, but who actually takes the risks? acts on their ideas? at least tries?

Why don't most people (me included) do anything?

It's human nature for us not to do things we don't have to do. This is why most people spend their free time having fun, and only working when they are at work (specifically, under rule of a boss or other authority). It's far easier to wake up, go to work and come home than it is to sit down and plan out how to go about implementing an idea or running a business, no matter the rewards.

I grew up thinking that I wasn't normal because I was a thinker, nor a do-er, but I have realized that do-ers are a rare exception, and not the norm. After this realization, I stopped trying to get amphetamine thinking I had ADD and began to actually do work. I accepted the fact that this extra work was optional and I CHOSE to do it for my own sake, not because I thought it was abnormal not to do work due to me being deficient in any way (ADD, depression, fatigue, etc).

What do you guys think? Why do most people think and not do?

lerchmo

I think its very common and pointless to come to grips with your own situation as a forum post followed by a thin question that you don't really care about.
Believe it or not this question structure is common on every type of forum I am on.

Truthfully set specific goals and you should progress faster then just reading shit with the general inclination to make money online.

read this:
Goal Setting Tips and Secrets

argh01

How long did it take you to write that post? Why weren't you out doing?

BlondeTM

Need. It's that simple.

Imagine yourself a millionaire. Would you work as hard to make $100 a day? I doubt it.

Imagine that everything you want...your freedom, your ability to live a decent life... counts on you making $100 a day. That motivates you to actually do something because it isn't a want...it's a need.

When you need something bad enough you'll do what it takes to get it.

ubaidabcd

do you not have bills to pay?

Ronnie

I'm just lazy!

ubaidabcd

I'd rather not be homeless!

Deliguy

the short answer to your question:
So the other 10% can get rich.

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SUP3RNOVA

this forum is the death of probably 90% of the people that post here.

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wsmith810

I'm 100% sure if I wasn't on here all fucking day I'd make more money

At least I'm honest with myself

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Drake

I bet about half of ebook buyers do something, it doesnt get the results they were promised and they quit.

Cant really blaim them. Ebooks are 95% lies.

To be honest I do most of the ideas that get on my front burner. Some just sit waiting to get done. I have about 10 domain names that are good, that need to get done, I am just on a few big projects.

RuDeDoGg

the fear of failing

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_poto_

10% are leaders and self-starters... the remaining 90% are followers and sheep...

probably more like 99% sheep tho...

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Jondoe0069

I think a lot of people in this industry have similar personalities...

Ideas spew out of our heads constantly, and we're in the business where developing pretty much any idea we come up with is an option for us. We begin to develop anything that looks good, then move on to the next idea before the first one is complete. Our previous idea(s) always get neglected for new ones before they have enough effort put into them to succeed. We're all undecisive and it's difficult for us to get married to an idea when there are other attractive opportunities staring us in the face all day.

It's similar to being a really good looking guy. You've got so many good looking ladies that want to be with you, you spread yourself thin and try to have them all, but never develop anything with any one of them because there are always new ones waiting for you. Although women attempt to hold you accountable for your actions, so sometimes they can reel you in and make you settle down. Ideas don't have feelings, so you can just move on forever, never really getting anywhere.

You have to discipline yourself to pick no more than a couple ideas at a time and commit to them until they either a) fail/ die out or b) need little maintenance (or sell).

Hang some vice grips from your penis and every time you leave an idea unfinished for another idea, tighten them a little. Eventually you will learn. Hopefully I will too =)

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LazyD

Agreed that this forum is the death of many would-be marketers. Oh, and throw in IRC too - Honestly, since I decided to not go on IRC I feel like I get so much more shit done.

I think alot of the people that plan and never do are the people that didnt try very hard and were shocked when they didnt make any money, me included. When I first start out I read threads left and right about people claiming to be noobs and making $500 there first month out. After trying what that person said they tried and seeing that it didnt make me any money I started thinking 'Maybe I need to plan out my next campaign better, etc'

If you ever get into a funk where something isnt working, try the exact opposite... For instance, if you do PPC and fail miserably, try a content site, the change of pace helped to re-invigorate me when I sucked...

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WildPointer

The question wasn't about me personally. In fact, I don't read this forum, nor any motivational blogs or books. I accidentally came here and my password was saved, so I logged in and asked the question. I come here when I have something specific to say or search for, not merely for recreation.

I'm interested in answers because I'm interested in psychoanalysis (one of my majors). I'm basically just trying to see exactly what enthusiasm and That Drive is and if it is inheritable (genetic), conditioned, and so on. I've asked this to many people on many forums.. I get many answers:

Some people say, wanna get work done? Amphetamine!

Others say, like above, that you need specific goals, bills, etc, but in my experience this hasn't been much of a factor because I know a few people with good ideas, but they are 10-50K in debt and still don't do anything. Some are so apathetic they can't even hold a job.

Some say it is genetic but others with two hard working, highly motivated parents, still don't do shit.

Fear of failing is a common one.. fear of taking risks, also, especially in terms of making big financial (as opposed to just time) investments.

One theory I have is that some people lack organization or leadership skills. I know intelligent people who excel at work or school, but they are not managers or leaders. They can do what they are told, but cannot organize things themselves.

Age should also be taken into account. I find that younger people (13-17) are very enthusiastic, especially about making money. I find that 18-24 are so-so, some being highly motivated but most (90%) being too distracted or lazy or pessimistic about doing anything. As you get older, this splits into two extremes even more.. some people work their asses off at work and put themselves in "the rat race" and remain there, while others become aware of the rat race and work their ass off to get out (I think many people here fit this, me included).

Anyway, so far I think it's very complex and a combination of many factors. I want to highlight some key replies for inspiration to people:

The first step is admitting you have a problem: "I'm 100% sure if I wasn't on here all fucking day I'd make more money"

"Truthfully set specific goals and you should progress faster then just reading shit with the general inclination to make money online."

"the fear of failing": Failure = experience = wisdom

and these two:
" So the other 10% can get rich." & "10% are leaders and self-starters... the remaining 90% are followers and sheep...probably more like 99% sheep tho..."

Keeping this in mind, remember that doing extra work, no matter how tedious it is, is your choice, for your benefit!

turbolapp

You're right. Here's a bit of irony:

I'm 100% sure if I wasn't on here all fucking day, I wouldn't be making money (on IM) at all.

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ubaidabcd

I guess everybody is different, I would consider myself a workaholic if I like where I work, I can do my best and not ever ask for a raise even if I deserve it. I can work 2 or 3 jobs 18 hrs. a day and do my own projects on the weekend it doesn't effect me. It's just more money in my pocket.

I like to think about the bigger schemes of things like my future, where I'm going to be when I'm old I don't want to be the 54 year old guy that I work with in my office and gets paid the same as me. I didn't go to college, so I really don't have many options and consider myself very lucky that I found IM. If I'm going to put this off, it would be the same as one of the biggest mistakes I made in my opinion which was dropping out of college. I can only be accepted for entry level jobs and my average pay is $10/hr. I really don't have many options.

Even if I'm not actually doing any work, I'm always thinking of ideas to make money, wheather affiliate marketing related or not, from selling gift wrap at my local flea market during the holidays to a topless maid service. Most of my ideas don't work, I've done much better online than I have offline, but it's my ambition that drives me.

I don't know how many people here have seen the movie "Blow", but I like to think of this line throughout my days:

"Throughout my lifetime I've left pieces of my heart here and there. And now, there's almost barely enough to stay alive. But I force a smile, knowing that my ambition far exceeded my talent."


I always tell myself I'm not doing enough work just to try to push myself harder, even though I know I am working or atleast trying to think of new ideas. You can do all the work your heart desires, staying up 24 hr. days on end, but unless you actually have an idea that's going to make money, then you're not going to see any results.

I recently picked up a 9-5 and that makes me work harder with the small amount of time I have to work on IM. No matter how much money I ever make I'll still have a 9-5 since I'm the kind of person that has to go out and have a schedule and have some discipline.

I've also noticed once I start making some money that I get lazier, once I'm bust, I'll go crazy until I find a new way to make money.

Oh yeah and strip clubs, I like being able to go as much as possible and spending a $1000 a night and not have to worry about it since I have 3 paychecks coming in next week.

Everybody is different, I guess it's in my blood my dad has his own business and many of my relatives have their own business. I started selling drugs in high school didn't have to work for many years until I got busted, started working a 9-5 which took some adjusting started trying to find ways to make a lot of money legally and now I've ended up here.

springer

YOU are a topless maid? LOL... pix to prove it! I wanna see the little French Maid outfit!

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ubaidabcd

Not me jackass, I meant starting a business like that, hiring females you know? I actually did start the business, although it wasn't professional and I got the feeling some of the females were going beyond the job description so I stopped it.

RuDeDoGg

damn, if you ever start it up again pm me details.

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Roddy

It's easier to do nothing, that's why most people don't get anywhere!

barman

working is for the birds

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ubaidabcd

Most people probably don't have a game plan so they don't know where to start.

I started PPC in 2002 with Overture for a small business, so after I found this site and learned about affiliate marketing recently, it wasn't really anything new to me. I already knew that I was going to start with PPC first. For example I don't like SEO and I know many people prefer it since it's free traffic. I just like the quick sales that you can get from PPC and don't have to deal with the damn algos changing every hour and getting stricter by day. Not that I'm saying SEO is BS or anything, I still learn it and keep up with it to stay informed of what's going on in the industry.

Mahzkrieg

It's not isolated to affiliate marketing. Doing everthing but DOing is human nature.

People buy weight loss books, exercise equipment, diet books, watch Oprah, but do they ever hit the gym? Fuck no.

springer

Wadeaminnit!

You started a topless maid service and had no clue that the girls you were hiring AND the clients you would get for that kind of business wouldn't "go beyond the job description" and you're calling ME a jackass?! HAH!

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ubaidabcd

That's why I said, most of my ideas don't work!!! Also they weren't reliable there was always an excuse as to why they couldn't make it or I couldn't get a hold of them.

Phre0nBurn

I know of a sexy maid service thats doing quite well...

There are only a few cities in the country where a business like this could work.

Any place with lots of money, and plenty of wealthy young bachelors.

If I had the money and a place that was big enough to hire someone to clean, I'd get a sexy maid service.

springer

Ditto for my idea of a bikini carwash.

Back on topic, I think a lot of us have big ideas but there are usually road blocks to putting them into practice. Or, like ubaidabcd did with his topless maids, we jump in to something blind and get burned.

Then, some people get gun shy, thinking all their ideas are too grand or maybe simply run out of money after chasing so many rainbows.

Too many ideas, too little focus, not enough time, too few skills, too little money... the list goes on and on and on.

For me, there are just too many distractions, too many options. What seems interesting and do-able today becomes overshadowed tomorrow by another great idea that begs for my attention. I'm always pulled in too many directions and have difficulty focusing on a single task until it's completed. I recognize it as a problem and struggle to force myself to stay focused.

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Phre0nBurn

+1 for what springer said.

I have the same problem.
I have a notebook full of potential million dollar ideas.
But it takes money to take money.
Right now I'm going from dollar to dollar, and just trying to get to the point where I can sustain myself financially, as well as my business, with all expenses and bills accounted for, and still not be broke at the end of the day.

springer

Yeah, good luck with that... LOL

Keep in mind, the amount of money you NEED will always be just a tiny bit more than the amount you HAVE. Your expenses will always expand to just above your income... I don't know why, it just does.

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Alcoholics go to meetings!

barman

I have a notebook with a million ideas too, but over time I realized that the key to productivity isn't coming up with brand new, innovative ideas for the masses, but to laser focus your creative thinking on the project at hand.

With each brand new idea, you have to start at square one. If you stay focused on a single project, then you begin to come up with tasks to do that will actually make your project go forward, rather than whole new business models that require a shit ton of work to accomplish. When you start innovating on what you're already doing, then that's where the magic happens.

I guess this applies to those heavy thinkers (i'm on of them)... you eventually get stuck in an idea overload, and never getting shit done. Stop that and FUCKING FOCUS! Too much thinking is just another name for procrastination!

"Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration"

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MDSandB

Yeah but you get tips about how to make money through new ways from WF Community...so i do not think your wasting time + you meet so many people on Instant Messenger

MDSandB

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Mahzkrieg

Adderall. Strattera. Pharmaceuticals.

Nothing has helped me become more productive than to get on a concentration-enhancing drug, and I'm serious. While I don't condone taking psych meds daily, especially stimulants, taking them when you really want to get something done is really priceless. I think you brought up a good point. Especially with beginners' enthusiasm, or the enthusiasm you get when you get your first content live or your first internet paycheck, ideas start manifesting and branching out. I think we all have our notebook of ideas whether it be written down or swirling in our heads.

The hard part is picking one and running with it. I have a SEVERE problem with starting a project, getting the hard part done (the setup, the initial content, initial execution) and then start another project and lose interest for the easy part (the site and PPC campaign are online but they need a little tweaking). In fact, I have a content MFA site that is STILL waiting for me to insert some of its meta html (description, keywords). I have a forum that I should update to the latest version. But I'm so busy working on websites in Dreamweaver (most of which arent even online) I haven't been focusing on what HAS been making me money. I haven't been tweaking what I already have to maximize it's output.

I recently got a perscription for Strattera (a non-stimulant, uncontrolled substance for ADD/ADHD) and nothing really beats going to the library on campus (or wherever you prefer to work), set up the laptop in a quiet corner, and GET THINGS DONE for once.

argh01

True, true. However, if I have a stupid yoga site (yogareflections.com), and I suddenly have a brainstorm about an _exactly similar_ site for a different topic, I don't classify two MFA sites like that as two different projects; they're branches from the same tree. But I can focus and build on the mfa sites each too.

shinysign

I think I would add a couple things.

1. Internet marketing tends to attract people who want large amounts of easy money and when its not there they think it's a scam. (This is largely due to the way marketing is about making money online - make a billion dollars in 12 days type things)

2. I think that internet marketing just isn't for some people in the same way that plumbing isn't for some people. It requires a certain personality, an ability to be self motivated and follow through, and lack of sociability. They say anyone can do it but it is like saying anyone can be a lawyer, or a teacher - yeah anyone can do it but some people are going to be miserable and suck at it and some are going to be naturally great at it. So again, the claims attract many types of people who just don't fit the description for internet marketing and then they wonder why they can't make any money online.

DaveEMG

Honestly, I think far too many people in online marketing do too much DOing and not ENOUGH thinking. I've seen so many crap blogs and half-assed websites day in and day out. To top it off, most people in online marketing aren't even trying to solve problems - they're trying to fill niches because they were told "find a niche and go do it" rather than what most business professionals do: Find a problem that needs a solution.

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"If you ain't first you're last..." ... "Oh hell, Son, I was high that day. That doesn't make any sense at all, you can be second, third, fourth... hell you can even be fifth."

peach

I think this article can be a live-changing read for 90% of the wickedfire community:
Sex Energy

...but serisouly its a pretty clever article read it through.

Hampers

Time and expense generally prevent people from acting on their ideas

Mahzkrieg

While true, that's not the reason people generally don't DO anything. Most people will be enthusiastic about something and spend their free time READING about it and mining FORUMS for information regardless if they have a full time job or not and never do anything. Just like people will read BOOKS and MAGAZINES about weight loss but never hit up the fucking gym. When you ask them why... "bubububut I have no time. bububu it's too sunny outside. bububu i have no money."

Besides, with little expendable money, you can get results in this field. I made my first MFA years ago that has made me about $4 a week. that's a lot of money for a website that took me an hour to make, if even.

placebo_

I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

People in general are mostly concerned by nature about gratification in the present. It doesn't necessarily feel best right now to workout for months to reap the rewards way down the line, etc...

Aequitas

You can always tell the people that do something compared to the people that don't for instance a person that does something may decide to help out by sharing there knowledge (Like on a forum) where sometimes the people not doing anything or have never done anything sit around and say its impossible or call the rest of the people lier's hahaha.

But I know how it is in the whole doing and not doing I used to be a big not do'er until well I started doing.

Juicify

I'm sure this is the most common reason too. People are afraid of spending time/money and get nothing back, failing.

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i am fail

ubaidabcd

I don't think you really have to do much anymore except think of ideas, with all the outsourcing and what-not. Most of the time people don't think about what they have now, or what they have access to and take it for granted and then when it's gone they realize what they could've accomplished. For example when WF was down the other day how many people thought for a second how it could've effected them if this board wasn't around?

If you don't want to do anything, then don't, pay somebody else to do it, find ways to automate your projects, etc.. Outsourcing is damn cheap, you can get your web/blog templates created, you can get quality keyword rich articles written, SEO, scripts written to help automate, you literally don't have to do anything except make some small investments and a little bit of work like pinging your site or copy/pasting your professional written articles to your blog.

Nickflame

i do not know why. I am one of those 10% doing things.

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DaveEMG

This post made me think about the fact that there are really like 3 classes of online marketing. There are those folks in the big companies (with 401k's and water cooler chat and comfortable desks and bosses and stuff), then there are the affiliate marketers building useful websites. But then there's the third class: the fucking web-trolls. Yeah, some of you black hatters are in the same club, but it's also the ebook dolts, and the fucking herbal supplement crowd and the get your dick hard pill club, and all the other garbage that just fills up the web with vapid useless bullshit.

Anyways... /rant.

Just ... if you're DOING something, make sure you keep some business principles in mind. Things like: Am I providing a product or service that people actually want or need?

Okay... now /rant.

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"If you ain't first you're last..." ... "Oh hell, Son, I was high that day. That doesn't make any sense at all, you can be second, third, fourth... hell you can even be fifth."

mdmazing

some people need dick hard pills

axxomarketing

Ohhh ahhhh ohhh...