Maybe you have read about or heard me describe the “turning point” in my early days of online marketing. If you have, it’s worth hearing again (IMO). If you haven’t heard it, there’s a good chance it can change your path just like it did mine.

Here’s the story again, quickly:

I had been “trying to figure out how to make money online” for a few years. I had already tried, crashed and burned, and was scammed a number of times. Just like so many others, I was frustrated to say the least while I worked a day job and tried to build an online business at night and on the weekends.

I still remember the exact place on the drive home from my job one day when I had my epiphany. From that instant, everything began changing for me…for the better.

This was my life changing thought:

I knew there were many people doing very well on the Internet. I did not believe they were simply lucky. I also did not believe they were significantly smarter, if any, than I was.

Here’s how that thought changed my strategy:

Instead of “trying to make money”, I began spending ALL my effort on learning HOW those successful people were doing what they did. Instead focusing so much on “me”, I focused on them. I studied what they did and how they did it. I bookmarked countess sites I found interesting. I spent untold hours reading internet related blogs and forums. In other words, I basically enrolled myself in “school” and committed to studying.

I felt liberated from the stress of “trying to figure out what to sell and how to sell it”. I was 110% positive I was now on the right track. I did not have a doubt. THAT was a great feeling!

To make a longer story short, I’ll fast-forward ahead about 6 months.

In a few months, the light bulbs were coming on. It wasn’t too long that my wife and I had another epiphany for what WE could do online…and the rest is history. In just a few more years we were both able to quit our jobs in education…life was/is good.

Why am a telling you this story? It’s pretty simple. I feel confident that a few people, out of the thousands of people who read this email, will open their minds a bit and allow their own epiphany to pop in. I fully expect some folks will contact me in a few days or weeks telling me that they too “get it”…they finally had that breakthrough they’ve been looking for.

For me, those people, whose lives I helped change, make everything I do worthwhile.

Are you one of those whose direction will change for the positive because of this mail? I hope so.

If you feel frustrated, confused, and “lost”, you need your own breakthrough thought. Here are some suggestions for “allowing” it in:

• Stop beating yourself up about your lack of success. (This Internet marketing stuff is NOT a simple as you originally and falsely thought.)
• Avoid feelings of desperation. If you impose deadlines on yourself in the beginning, you set yourself up for massive frustration. (Sure, setting goals is GREAT, but even the gurus had countless train wrecks on their way to their success. (This won’t be a quick process.)
• Stop thinking there is ONE perfect idea that will result in your massive success. It almost never works like that. Massive success is usually a conglomeration of small successes. (Forget trying to find a way to make $5000 a month! Just making a steady $500 a month is no small goal for a beginner.)
• Once you have good success, I’ll bet my next AdSense check that the area of your success is something that’s already in your life that you enjoy doing and/or you want to learn more about. (In other words, stop looking “out there” for ideas. Instead, look more at yourself, what you do, what you like, and who you are.)
• Most importantly, give yourself time and space for insight to happen. I was lucky that I had a fairly long commute with plenty of “thinking” time. In other words, your breakthrough WILL NOT happen in front of your computer. I can all but promise you that. Clarity for your personal direction won’t come from your computer. Take walks or relaxing drives to give your mind freedom to think.
• Lastly, it’s very easy to get in a wrong rut and be stuck there. Don’t let wrong choices you made in thinking control how you think now. For example, maybe in your first days of online marketing exposure you learned about affiliate marketing and thought it sounded perfect for you. However, maybe you have at your fingertips the ability to create a killer info product about an area you enjoy or are a semi-expert in. Don’t let past thinking ruts detour you from success!

Internet marketing isn’t for everyone. Some people can’t handle the fail fast, trial and error methods nearly every success requires. Others can’t or won’t master even the simplest of technical issues. Still more underestimate the time required. Perhaps they have a 50 hour a week job, kids, and other responsibilities that won’t allow for the time required to build a business.

But if your gut says Internet marketing is for you (like mine did), you won’t give up. Just like the rest of us who enjoy success, you’ll keep looking and trying things until something gets traction. You won’t give up.

Wishing You Great Success,

Steve