In the face of repeated failure, how do you stay motivated?

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vizilla

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Working online really takes persistence. Except for eBook sellers (who make $857.21 their first night), the failure rate is going to be huge.

I'm really getting depressed over this. Over the dozen or so projects I've started over the past few months, only one of them has been a mild success. Much time and money has been wasted. I'm so unmotivated that it's very difficult for me to psychologically to go after a big idea (investment wise in terms of time and money). I'm addicted to quick hits and get depressed when they inevitably peter out.

Advice and tips on this would be greatly appreciated.
 


Stop looking for the quick hits and build a business. Sure the quick hits are nice but you can't rely on them for steady income. Create a niche blog or 2 and post a couple times a day for a few months, build an email list. There are a ton of ideas, just look around. Pick something and stick with it for a while. Create a bunch of web2.0 third party sites and use bum marketing and social bookmarking to get traffic.

All it takes is time and persistence. Oh, and nothing I suggested requires money or very little. Look for many more ideas around the forum.
 
I know the frustration vizilla. Do what illkity has suggested, PLUS...

Keep reading the blogs of successful affiliate marketers and test everything viable that they suggest. Most things won't work for you, but at least you will learn a lot through that trial and error. IDEAS come from trial and error.

Go back and read every thread on WF from the guys on here who think outside the box. There's a ton of good shit here. You just have to find it.

Don't let the fact that you've had a dozen campaigns fail. I had 25 campaigns fail until I hit on 3 new ones that have had great success and have driven XX,XXX in revenue each of the last 4 months. This came through testing everything for 9 months straight and a lot of failures. There is hope and the rewards can be huge, but the work will be very draining and long hours are required. Good luck.
 
It can be frustrating. And, if my option was to go do something else that immediately made money without effort then I would. But that is not how any business works. When you take a close look at the facts, online marketing is one of the greatest business opportunities out their as it can scale to your resources.

Sometimes, I need to pause and review my plan to make sure I am staying on course as opposed to trying everything I hear from others. For all the different ways to make money online (affiliate marketing, niche blog, product development, free lancing, etc.) there is one simple truth: they may all work, but I cannot work all of them. Pick a path, and stay with it. If you hear that others have success (which WF is loaded with) then you can let go of the great question "will this work?" and intstead focus on the following: "am I willing to do what it takes to make it work?", and finally, "What action do I take right now!"

good luck.

vizilla said:
Working online really takes persistence. Except for eBook sellers (who make $857.21 their first night), the failure rate is going to be huge.

I'm really getting depressed over this. Over the dozen or so projects I've started over the past few months, only one of them has been a mild success. Much time and money has been wasted. I'm so unmotivated that it's very difficult for me to psychologically to go after a big idea (investment wise in terms of time and money). I'm addicted to quick hits and get depressed when they inevitably peter out.

Advice and tips on this would be greatly appreciated.
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Vizilla,

It takes some time man, truly it does. The one thing that is hard is staying focus. You sound a bit like me and I am willing to bet your mind is on a hundred things to try/do to make a buck all the time. Am I right?

If so, thats a failure point. I have been a webmaster/Internet marketer for over 13 years now, but all that time was working for someone else. Once I got on my own I failed at my own projects over and over and over again. I kept trying so many different things and failed. I almost gave up for the 100th time. By failure, I mean I had some sites I was negative cash flow in, some that broke even ( paid the rent ), and some that barely made a profit ( were talking maybe $10 here ).

I wasted a lot of money and time. Then it hit me to focus on a few industries only. After much research I narrowed everything down to 3 industries and I built a few ( a handful ) of new sites in each industry. I used free blogs, squidoo, my own sites, hubpages, etc... After some rough testing of about 3-4 months, I settled on one industry and started to build around that one and only industry.

All the things I failed at before, I could somehow morph into this industry I settled on and I started to use those projects also with my new found niche. Sure, I always wanted to try new things ( new niches ) and got distracted, but I thought to myself this is the last thing I am going to do before I fail again and I pushed through with this one niche I settled on.

What this did was give me a pretty good sized network of sites all somehow related to my niche/industry. They were not all the same sites/style of sites, but it afforded to give me a nice network I could test and bounce things off of. All my failures also provided me a game plan of what not to do, what to improve on, and what to stick with.

My new network didn't do much for me the first 2-3 months it was finished, but it did help get all my sites indexed, ranked, and noticed.

About the 3-4th month I started seeing some income from various things I was doing. Adsense, affiliate offers, links I would sell to others, etc....

Was I rich? No. Am I now? No. Can I live off my network? Yes.

The income I started making was small, but it was mine and it was something that was working. I added more sites to it, tested different things, and improved on it over and over again.. maybe too much.

Now anytime I want to launch a new site, I have a network to back me up on it and the ROI is so much better.

It takes time man, it really does.
 
Just know that each time you fail you are one step closer to success. It took me a long time and a lot of failures before I found something that worked for me.
 
vizilla said:
Over the dozen or so projects I've started over the past few months, only one of them has been a mild success.
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focus on your successes... build on that...

and keep throwing shit at the wall... more of it is bound to stick sooner or later ;)
 
Just keep trying, you'll eventually succeed. The good thing is, that you learn a lot in the process of failing and you usually can re-use assets later on.
 
i know a lot of people making money online. I just tell myself: If they can make money and you can not, it means that you are a loser. Are they smarter than you Nick Flame? Are you a loser Nick Flame??? No, i am not, and i get back to work.

Works very well.
 
What's up bro? I'm in the same boat as you with regard to some of your issues. When I started out, I got lucky and made some quick, easy money, so that's what I kept trying to do again. I usually broke even or made a little money, but it was hard to be motivated to work hard for it when it came so easily before. It also sucks cuz I work full time now and when I come home, I just want to relax.

I've shifted my focus to long term shit because I've wasted so much time trying to replicate the quick and easy stuff that I could be a lot farther along right now.

If you want to talk, support each other, run ideas by each other, encourage each other- whatever... hit me up on AIM @ MDM704

Sometimes having someone else to talk to that's in a similar position can give you some motivation/energy to keep working on your shit.
 
Jondoe0069 said:
What's up bro? I'm in the same boat as you with regard to some of your issues. When I started out, I got lucky and made some quick, easy money, so that's what I kept trying to do again. I usually broke even or made a little money, but it was hard to be motivated to work hard for it when it came so easily before. It also sucks cuz I work full time now and when I come home, I just want to relax.
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This is EXACTLY what happened with me. When I started affiliate marketing full time after losing my job in April 2007. Within a couple months I found a profitable campaign, and just one campaign out of all my searching. This was my only profitable campaign everything else I failed at. This one campaign has been supporting me until now. Well now, that company has basically shut-down I'm making a fraction of what I was.

I have nothing else to show for all the work I've done, and I just now had to pick up a full time job as well. Although I make the the little time I do have to work on IM more valuable than when I was working on my own. Since I had all the time in the world and didn't really feel pressed for time. Although I do see that it's effecting how much I'm learning. My list of "Today's Goals" has now turned into "Weekend Goals". If you don't have other obligations, take this time to continue learning as it is so much more valuable than money.

With me after working time after time and failing I start to notice that it effects my confidence which effects my motivation. So now that I'm working a full time job and I see that everybody else on here is still moving forward and I'm playing "catch up" after work to see what went on during the day it keeps me going on.

If your heart is in this business then you won't go anywhere. Since you'll always be thinking of ideas in the back of your mind on how to make some money. Many people complain about not being able to make money in affiliate marketing while it might not be easy I do think the advantages are so much greater than trying to open your own business or store. Paying rent, and employees, etc... The low overhead and freedom makes it all that worthwhile to continue trying. Just keep thinking of ideas, pay attention to what others are doing and try to improve on it. If you feel down and out of ideas, try to contribute to noobs and answer their simple questions, that makes me feel better at times.

When I feel times are rough, I like to think to myself, "If it was that simple, everybody would be doing it." It's supposed to be hard, as they say, "That's what seperates the men from the boys."

"No Pain. No Gain."
 
Thank you all for the insightful positive posts.

This past weekend has been a huge setback for me. I just got out of college and I foolishly decided to move out. Got a part time job at UPS loading trucks to help pay some of the bills so I could focus on stuff full time. I was running a semi-steep deficit but I have a good amount of money saved up and was fine during the fast few months.

Now it's getting very cold and dark here in Boston, and will only get worse. I can't think straight. Not sleeping, bad appetite, losing weight (and I'm a skinny guy), everyday tasks becoming very difficult to do. I'm trying to get another job that would at least be warm. I went back home for the weekend to recuperate. It's a nice escape but things are just going to get worse with the job (colder, start snowing, ridiculous work during holiday season, work starting at 2:30 in the morning).. I don't know how the hell I'm going to be able to interview for other jobs.

Of course other people have much more on their plate so I don't have much of a right to complain about things. But damn things suck right now for me. This year is going to be a huge financial set back for me. I've gone from the best days of my life in college to the worst so far..
 
I'll be honest, the easiest way to make it as an online marketer involve having probably a 3-6 month parachute. Your campaigns will fail. Your adspend won't drive conversions. You'll lose $1 for every $1 you put in.

Go get a regular 9-5 and work on your sites / marketing campaigns as a part time hobby until you break even or get in the black.
 
vizilla said:
Of course other people have much more on their plate so I don't have much of a right to complain about things. But damn things suck right now for me. This year is going to be a huge financial set back for me. I've gone from the best days of my life in college to the worst so far..
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Well there went my attempt to be flip.

I went through the exact same when I finished of college, vizilla. You just feel like you've been dropped into the real world with no direction. I almost didn't make it. If you're depressed get therapy and get on the meds.
 
This means one thing. You have no plan. Write down a plan and stick to it, that is the only way to succeed. Jumping from one idea to the next will get you no where fast. Plans are necessary because they force you to prioritize, set timeframes and allocate resources. How will you ever know if you've got to where you want to be if you're not even sure where exactly that is.
 
When I get unmotivated I just go look at one of those giant adesne/copeac/azoogle checks that I could live happily off of. I think to myself, "The guy who has that check looks like a tard" Then I get back to work.
 
bubbles said:
When I get unmotivated I just go look at one of those giant adesne/copeac/azoogle checks that I could live happily off of. I think to myself, "The guy who has that check looks like a tard" Then I get back to work.
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shoemoney does the trick
 
Glad to see I am not the only one in the same situation. Too many times I try to focus on a million things at once. Bought a book called Goals by Brian Tracy almost a year ago and never picked it up. Think it is time I actually crack it and read it. Quit my job in March 2007 and I have tried to do everything from IT consulting, real estate investing, web design, eBay store, blog network, and affiliate marketing. Some of us are taking action, but spreading ourselves too thing trying to make money one hundered different ways at the same time. Realize I need to pick one thing and stick with it for more than one hour. That is easier said than done sometimes with all the great ideas on WF. Thanks for the motivation!
 
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