In most aspects of life, I have found the following to be true:

“Nothing that is worth doing, or achieving, comes easy”. It applies to just about everything you will ever do. Take a look at sports stars. People knock superstars like Christiano Ronaldo (the world soccer player of the year) who now earns millions a year in wages and endorsements. They say stuff like “oh he gets paid so much for running around a field, it’s a disgrace!”. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In actual fact, Christiano (and everyone who gets to the top of their game in any field) has sweated blood to get where he is today. He practices day and night, looks to continually improve his skills and techniques, has a tediously strict diet and trains like a beast. In an interview shortly after getting his player of the year award he revealed that he got there by working HARDER than the others in his profession. When training finishes, he’s there for an extra two hours working on his skills, his techniques. To get that little bit better, day after day.

This is even more true within the internet business and marketing niche. Without exception, the people who climb to the very top have got there by doing the hard things that many others have given up on. There are always big challenges to be met in business and marketing – you have to view that as a good thing. Because, when you come over a hurdle…everyone else also comes over it. Many will fall – but if you stay at it, and succeed…you can bet it will reflect on your bottom line. It’s good to have it hard, it separates the men from the boys – the wheat from the chaff.

This is very different to what you may hear elsewhere. The sad truth is many people will try and con you into believing that there are easy ways out. Yes, there are ways to be more efficient, and to be more productive but there’s no magic red button that does it all for you on autopilot.

Sadly some programs/products rely on the weakness & laziness of people to grab them sales. Here are some examples:

- Some programs will tell you that you can build a six figure online business without your own site/blog, or opt in list, or any budget. To someone who’s struggling with the technicals of blog/site development or who has yet to earn a penny you can see how it would have a strong appeal. Many of these programs don’t work – often such programs simply sell a tool, or concept that may be effective but only for those who have a business set-up already.

- Some software will promise you the moon, saying you can just switch it on and traffic will start pouring into your sites and blogs. There’s only one slight problem – it doesn’t work. Again, it’s an ideal “solution” for those who don’t want to get their hands DIRTY by doing the effective marketing strategies that can take time and effort. With time and experience, you’ll learn how to spot these a mile away.

There are hundreds more examples, but I’m sure you get the gist. Think about that the next time you come across something that you feel you cannot overcome. Remember that everyone else, including your competition, are in the same boat. If you can rise and beat the challenge, you’re a step closer to where you want to be.

And, remember that online business and internet marketing is a long term game – the process of finding an in-demand product/service to offer, and then setting up a business system to offer it is no joke. To do it right takes hard work. The more you apply yourself, and win on the small challenges, the more battles you’ll start to win – and sooner or later that will filter through to your Paypal account. Big time.

It was Arie De Gues who said “your ability to learn faster than your competition is your only sustainable competitive advantage.” – This quote is actually more apt for individual internet marketers and online entrepreneurs than anyone else. Fact is, in our fast changing online world, you cannot afford to miss a trick.

Today I’m out to remind you that, as you get settled into your 2009 routine, you must never lose your hunger to learn new things. New ways of generating traffic. New ways of making your blog look better, and do new things. Because, the moment we switch off and think we know it all…it all changes, and we can find we’re knee deep in deep trouble.

So what is it you need to be doing? Simply to understand what the core customers and target audience in your niche wants, and to make sure you’re delivering exactly that. To get a feel for what skills and knowledge are key to provide your clients with these products or services. To do that, you really need to keep up with the current – keep learning, because that’s a key ingredient to increasing your revenues year on year.

Before we talk about learning though, it’s equally critical to understand exactly what it is that your clients want from you. Change can be important when the trends are shifting – but sometimes, inaction can be the only action required. Don’t believe me? Just ask ebay…

1. Understand What Your Business Clients Need And Don’t Fight Them…Look What Happened With Ebay – It Misread The Trends & Now It’s In All Sorts Of Trouble

In the recent past, John Donahoe (CEO of ebay) faced serious challenges and questions with regard to his leadership of the company. It seems that a lot of ebay clients are turning their backs on the giant auction firm in favour of low cost alternatives like Amazon and Play.com. The company’s stock levels are bumping along levels not seen since the dot com crash in 2001 – naturally, stockholders are pretty ticked off.

The main problem has been the change in ebays core business model, from being less of an auction site to more an ecommerce site – after years of being a successful online auction, Mr Donahoe inexplicably decided that ebay would change strategy and encourage more of their sellers to offer fixed price items, as you would find on sites like Amazon.

But why? The whole point of ebay is that it joins smaller, solo traders with the public. So that bargain hunters can find cool little products at prices they like. So Susan could potter around and find some unique trinkets of jewelry for a couple of dollars without leaving her bedroom. So Larry could find a DVD of The Rock and pay a few bucks to have it delivered at home. The bidding process was all part of the fun of ebay, many buyers were hooked on that very aspect of the auction site. That’s what made ebay so special. So unique. And ultimately, so very profitable.

Ebay failed to understand what people wanted from it. It failed to understand that it had a perfectly unique and successful business model, and moved away from this model in favour of a model crawling with competition, that small sellers found uneconomical and buyers failed to see value in. In the process, it aggravated it’s customers, sellers and stockholders alike.

Frankly, ebay has a history of making abrupt, often thoughtless policy changes that has harmed thousands of the very people who contributed to it’s success. For example the way it treated it’s digital product selling community has been nothing short of disgraceful. It didn’t listen to the protests then. It’s not listening now. 

This will apply to you only if you already have a vibrant business going –if this is so (and well done by the way) understand exactly what your clients WANT from your business. Then, deliver it. And, before making any ground-breaking changes, make sure it’s what your CLIENTS want, not what you think must be best because some guru somewhere sold a product or course that said so.
2. Your Knowledge Is One Of Your Most Powerful Assets – Just Ask Those People Making Five Figures+ A Month…Make Learning An Active Part Of Your Day

Say what you like about the internet – the simple fact is that there has never been a more incredible, genuine opportunity for individuals to earn staggering amounts with minimal outlay of capital. And, the beauty is that there are so many different online business models to follow, and succeed at. I cannot believe anyone would even consider doing a job, or setting up a bricks and mortar business, when they could be an internet entrepreneur.

Of course, there are challenges – such as learning the key information and skills that are needed to set up your business, and get traffic to it.

One thing that’s common to EVERY successful online entrepreneur is that they share a thirst for knowledge. They want to learn about ways of improving their business in every respect. They want to learn about increasing traffic, increasing their conversions on that traffic, building a list, using PLRs, using the social media phenomina to build business even more, learn about new sites that they can leech potential clients from… and this is always an ongoing process.

The best thing is that as the internet business niche has exploded over the past few years, the availability of learning material has sky-rocketed.

And it’s easier and cheaper to learn today than ever before – Whereas a decade ago when I first started my online business, I had to rely on poorly written ebooks to get a grasp of technical and theoretical concepts, today we can download videos and audios that teach us the same with a lot less pain and confusion. It’s really brilliant, and it means if you’re reading this as a newbie, you can master the learning curve with a lot less hassle than a decade or so ago. 

Ultimately, one of the laws of life is that whatever industry you’re in, the more you learn the more you’ll earn. Hopefully, you’re serious about setting up your own empire of niche businesses. In this economic era, there can be fewer better things you’ll ever aspire to do. And, if you’re serious then you’ll understand that learning is an integral aspect of getting to where you want to be. So, whether you’re currently earning zero or twenty grand a month, make learning an active part of each and every day.

If you can do that, and if you fearlessly apply everything you learn…the simple fact is that you’ll understand how to set-up and grow a flourishing business that has clients coming to it again and again, from all over the place. You WILL earn money, and probably more so than you might dare imagine. Or, as a worse case scenario, you’ll at least be able to get a high paying job as CEO of ebay and show it’s board how not to shoot itself repeatedly in the foot.

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One of my favourite T-shirts from my youth had a brash, loud slogan on it – F C U K FEAR it screamed, in deep, menacing red letters (f c u k of course being a popular clothing brand). In 1992, when I was about 17 it was pretty much my attitude to everything, and I suspect that the same probably rings true for you at that age. For me, that approach worked quite well back then, and I managed to get pretty much most things I wanted.

Now, I’m far more tempered and humble in all areas of my life, but the internet marketing inner voice within me still wears that T shirt today, as proudly and arrogantly as in 1992. And, it’s helping me reach new summits in the world of internet business.

How about you? Are you as confident and bold in business now as you were towards life back in the day? Or are you more tempered, and cautious? And, is it possible that a little fear may be stopping you from surging ahead? Let’s find out… because today, I’d like you to consider putting on your own mental F C U K FEAR t-shirt – so that you can grow and develop your business without any worries, and take the considerable internet business returns that many ordinary people like you and I are making everyday.

Here’s a little more on why fear is counterproductive to your business and marketing, why it’s stopping you from doing all things from list building to traffic generation – and how you can overcome it…

1. Fear Is A Primitive Emotion That Has No Place In The Online Business World…

Unless you were bunking biology classes (and shame on you), you’d know that fear as an emotion came about because it helped animals and early humans escape primitive dangers such as being chased and eaten by a hungry sabre toothed tiger. It was important back then  because fear, in it’s extreme’s,  taught early humans to be wary. Cautious. It helped them to survive, and the ones who did not feel it often ended up as snacky-poo’s for old sabre puss. Ironically, they were the ones who would have probably done quite well in business were it not for the mauling.

Unfortunately, in today’s highly evolved world – where satellites orbit the earth and you can watch the Simpsons on your Blackberry – as emotions go, fear’s become a right old burden. Like your appendix, it’s become pretty useless, existing only to cause problems and serving no real purpose. Fear is responsible for many individuals and small business from evolving. Fear stops otherwise bright people from achieving their true potential. And, fear must be removed as you would a troublesome appendix.

2. Why The Fear? Many New Internet Entrepreneurs Are SCARED  To…

Fail. Fear and greed are two of the most powerful emotions in the world of business – and that applies as much to a large corporation with thousands of employees as it does to a work-from-home mom, plugging away at her internet marketing from her basement.

It’s normal to feel fear – fear of failure – fear of wasting your capital – fear of trying new advertising methods. The thing is, 100% of people feel it, but only 2% or so master it – and those are the people and the businesses who perform the very best in the world of business and marketing.

Want some examples?

Fear WON – In 2001, Yahoo was by far the biggest search engine around. It was the boss – the absolute baap of search engines. However, it couldn’t ignore a resurgent, but then very small, Google. With Google’s huge growth, and it’s rampant ability to attract more and more people to use it as their primary search engine, it seemed almost compulsory that Yahoo should have bought Google out while it had the chance. And the financial muscle.

Yahoo would have acquired Google’s growing client base. It’s technlogy. And stopped it’s biggest threat dead in it’s tracks – but it didn’t. Why? Basically, it bottled it. It was petrified by Google’s high asking price. So, it turned it’s back on the obvious business it should have bought out, and then set about on a series of magnificent purchasing blunders of useless, non competing companies and sites that barely added value (have you heard of Pixoria or Konfabulator? Me either, but Yahoo squandered a fair bit of cash on them). That fear, at that key moment in it’s history has relegated Yahoo to a footnote in the chronicles of internet marketing history. Chalk that up as a big win for fear.

Fear LOST – In 2000, two chaps by the name of Edward Wray and Andrew Black launched one of the internets first online betting sites – betfair. They had lots of fear and doubt going in – the internet, while growing, was still nowhere as rampant as it is today. Online bookies were practically a “pie in the sky” concept, and offline betshops like William Hill and Ladbrokes still ruled the hearts and minds of punters. These guys faced an incredible amount of uncertainty – would internet gambling really take off? Could they really dare to snatch the client base of the big betting shops? Would they be able to create an online betting platform that users would feel comfortable in using? And countless other issues. But, they saw the trend of the internet, saw how people wanted to stay at home to have a flutter, and ultimately bet on themselves. For the last results I have available, Betfair has over a million active users and has grown to be a multi million dollar company. The gamble certainly paid off for Betfair – and all because they saw past the fear.

3. How About You? Do You Feel Fear? That’s Ok, Do What You Have To Anyway…

Do you suspect fear may be holding you back from starting or growing your own business? Is there anything that you know you should be doing, but for some inexplicable reason, you’re not? Perhaps it’s finally picking a quality niche and hitting it with all you’ve got. Perhaps it’s advertising your blog/site, or even getting started with one? Perhaps it’s advertising or marketing your site because you’re worried about the time/financial investment.

Fact is, even the most confident and experienced among us can get scared if we look for reasons to. That little voice will always be there whispering nonsense in your ear – telling you that you’re making a mistake. That you’ll lose your shirt. That business and success isn’t for people like you. Sometimes, you’ve just got to close your eyes and take the plunge – because as long as your reasons for acting are sensible, fear is irrelevant. So, next time you hear that little voice, just tell the idiot to shut up. And do what you have to.

Fear?  F C U K it.