Rites of Passage

Rites of Passage

© 2002 Elena Fawkner

"I'm not sure what exactly my point in writing this is going
to be other than to voice my frustration to someone who
has been there, and would understand.

"Like many, I've been considering starting up some form
of a home business. Or at least some way to boost the
income. So over the past few months, I've been looking
at every hare-brained idea out there. All the Associate
Programs, the eBooks with publishing rights, all the scams
(and most of them out there really start to look like scams
after a while!).

"What I've discovered: "There are no short-cuts". I don't
know why I thought there were."

This is an extract from an email I received a couple of weeks
ago from one of my ezine subscribers, Ric. It typifies the
frustration and "overwhelmingness" we ALL face when
grappling with what we think we need to know before we
can begin to start an online business. It's like trying to pin
jelly to a wall - there's just so much we know we're missing
so at what point do we actually bite the bullet and just
start?

If this is how you're feeling as you sit here reading this late
at night, chin propped on hand, after yet another evening of
searching, downloading and reading everything you can lay
your hands on about generating an income from the Internet,
only to end up feeling more confused, overwhelmed and
discouraged than when you started, take heart. This is just
how it is. You're not alone. We've ALL been there - it's just
part of the process, a rite of passage, if you will. Rest
assured, you CAN get through this to where you need to be.

Let's shine a light on this beast and cut him down to size,
shall we? Here's the process and, although there may not
be much you can do to avoid it, at least you can recognize
it for what it is and be reassured in your darkest moments
that, far from being lost at sea, you are walking a well-worn
path. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other and
you'll get there if you don't give up.

=> Phase I - Have Computer, Will Get Rich

OK, so you have a computer, and an Internet connection.
You've been online for a while actually, just dabbling about,
sending email to family and friends and maybe doing a bit
of surfing.

In your travels, you've stumbled across all these people who
are making fortunes on the Internet. After a while, it seems
to you that pretty much everyone who has a computer and
an Internet connection is using them to generate a huge
income. You think to yourself, "I have a computer and an
Internet connection. I should be making a fortune too." So,
like the pioneers before you, you decide to go after your
rightful share.

So here you are, computer connected to the Internet, fingers
poised over the keyboard. Now what? How am I supposed to
use this thing to make money? Oh, I know, I'll do a search. I
can find out anything on Google. So you go to Google (or, if
you're really new, Yahoo!), and you type in "making money
on the internet".

And Wazzooo! Lists and lists and lists of sites that promise
to show you how to make money. Oh, this is a goldmine!
Already you're planning a month-long trip to Europe.

You merrily head off and visit dozens of sites your first
afternoon. During the course of that afternoon and in the
weeks that follow, you come across sites that promise to
give you $30,000 in 30 days if you invest just $30 (you
learn about matrix/pyramid schemes the hard way), then
you learn about affiliate programs and how you can make
money by referring people to someone else's site (but only
if they buy) which is great because you have no product
and no idea about how to create one.

You hear a lot about MLM programs and network marketing.
You think they sound an awful lot like pyramid schemes but
you know they're different, you're just not sure how.

And then you find out about products with resell rights so
you can keep 100% of the profits (but you have to buy the
product first).

Every time you turn around there's another expert promising
to show you the way to the promised land.

=> Phase II - This is More Complicated Than I Thought

You soon realize that this whole making money with your
computer business is way more complicated than you
thought. And now you discover you need to go off and learn
something else besides. Internet marketing. After all, when
you finally decide what you're going to sell, you have to
know how, right? Fortunately for you, there are literally
thousands of Internet marketing experts out there just
waiting with bated breath to share their secrets with you.
For a price.

Everything is so confusing and overwhelming that you just
don't know where to begin. So you decide you'd better
learn everything there is to know about Internet marketing
before you start. That way, when you've learned everything
you need to know, you won't make any mistakes.

So you spend the next several weeks to several months
downloading all of the free Internet marketing ebooks that
you can find. When you realize they all pretty much say
the same thing, you decide you'd better get serious and start
paying for some of the really good stuff. So, three months
and $900 later you have a hard disk crammed full of ebooks
that you don't even remember reading and you're damned
if even now you have the foggiest idea where to start. No
wonder. It's pretty hard to visualize how you're going to
market a site you haven't even created yet, let alone make
money from it.

Then you learn about the secret marketing sites. Aha!
That's where all the good stuff is, you figure. So you pay
your $60 lifetime access fee to two or three of the really
best secret sites, confident that you're entering an
exclusive club just for those who are REALLY successful
in their Internet businesses.

What you find, of course, is more of the same stuff that
you've already read, it's just that now it's all in one handy
location.

=> Phase III - Paralysis by Analysis

You finally accept that you really do have all the information
there is to have sitting right there on your computer. You
just have to use it.

Only problem is, it doesn't matter how much time you spend
reading, rereading and absorbing all of the information, the
fact is you still don't have a site, you still don't have a
product and you still don't have a business so what are you
reading all this Internet marketing stuff for?

You've reached the point where you have so much
information, all of it telling you to do something different,
that you don't know where to start or in which direction to
turn - paralysis by analysis, in other words.

=> Phase IV - The Dawning of Realization

So you take a step back (or have a dummy spit - whichever
you prefer). Thoroughly fed up and disillusioned, you decide
that this whole Internet business thing's nothing but a crock
- a quagmire of false promises made by unscrupulous con
artists out for a quick buck. There's just no way to make
money on the Internet. It's all a big con.

You go back to watching television in the evenings and
having actual conversations with family members. After a
few days pass, though, what you read in those interminable
Internet marketing ebooks and at those secret sites starts
to germinate. Independent thought actually starts to
flourish. Suddenly, you realize you were missing the woods
for the trees.

You reluctantly accept there really is no business in a box.
You're going to have to create it for yourself. You come to
understand that the only way to make money on the
Internet is to do *everything* you've been reading about.
All of the contradictory advice wasn't contradictory at all -
it was cumulative! There IS no one way of doing this. You
need a solid, content-intensive web site to attract visitors.
You need an ezine to keep in touch with them. You need
products to sell and quickly (affiliate programs! you astutely
think to yourself). You need to create your own products.
You need to market and to advertise. You need to get good
search engine rankings. You need a lot of sites linking to
yours. You need to write and publish articles to get your
name out there.

All of the things you've been reading about were true after
all. You just have to do them *all*. The light has finally
dawned.

=> Phase V - Where You Need To Be

In a sense, Phase V brings you right back to square one -
how am I going to make money on the Internet? But
unlike Phase I, you now know what it's going to take.

What you need to do now is the hardest work of all. You
have to come up with a rock solid idea for your web site.
Only when you have this can you begin to build your
business. That's why you never got anywhere in Phase I.
You went out looking for ways to make money with your
computer but you had no context. What's the point of
signing up for and promoting affiliate programs when you
don't even know if they're going to fit with your site?
How are you supposed to think about writing information
products if you have no idea of your subject?

Once you have your good idea, everything else falls into
place. You can get to work creating your web site,
publish your ezine, decide which affiliate programs to
promote, create your own products and all that goes
along with these things.

So, when you find yourself back at square one, don't
despair, congratulate yourself! You're exactly where you
need to be.

=> Phase VI - Just Do It

Now it's time for action. The past weeks and months have
not been wasted. They've exposed you to all of the things
you need to do to establish and grow your online business.
But at some point you have to stop reading and start doing.
Only then does the real learning begin.

That time is now.

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Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ...
practical business ideas, opportunities and solutions for the
work-from-home entrepreneur.
http://www.ahbbo.com