According to a Merrill Lynch report published in and around 2008 (you’ll forgive me for not knowing the exact date), there had been 8,364 internet millionaires created to date. That’s interesting, because it’s broadly our niche and, tastily, it could so easily be one of us next.

Today, we’ll take a light hearted look at the internet marketing (and general internet business) industry. It wont be heavy, I wont dazzle you with stats, but we’ll look at the type of irritating challenges that come with creating, running and growing your own online empire.

Before starting, let me tell you that in fact, setting up my own business was the most rewarding thing I have ever done, on multiple levels. It has been my baby. And, being a childless near middle aged man, it will be my legacy and footprint in this world of ours.

In case you don’t know all that much about me (and you probably dont), I’ve been online for about a decade now. The idea of owning my e-business first came to me about a decade ago, when I was working at about 10.47pm in my then rather hectic city job. I had finished off my umpteenth cup of dishwater coffee and I had a list of things to finish. Tomorrow, I would have to take the 6am train and repeat it all over again. As I sat there, momentarily paralyzed at how I could have wound up in the rat race at the age of 25, I remembered thinking, there’s got to be another way.

A better way. Where I can work hard when I need to, but also enjoy the nice things in life – fast cars, my own place, travel… without the intense workplace politics, and the hundred other chains and whipsaws that come with that dreadful 3 letter word…JOB.

That idea took seed in my mind. And do you know the most difficult thing to get rid of in the world? An idea. Ten years later, I have to say I’m in an industry that I like, doing a business I enjoy, working with clients who are a pleasure. Thanks to technology, I can wake up and head to a cafe for a couple of hours in the morning to do some work. I can work late when I need to (which is quite frankly, often) and when the situation allows, I can finish early and enjoy some time off. As long as you’re responsible, and you understand that clients come first…you’ll probably love being an internet entrepreneur, and do pretty well to boot.

Today, we’ll look at a few of the challenges and even toe-curlingly irritating issues that you have to get on top of when you choose this life.  Here are just some…and these may not always be covered in your standard marketing-101 ebooks. A couple are serious, others a tad bizarre…but you’ll encounter ALL if you hang on long enough.

- Motivation: What type of person are you? Can you *REALLY* work without the tyrany of a ruthless boss monitoring your every move? See, the idea of working in your PJs sounds pretty sweet, but when push comes to shove a lot of people discover that they just do not have the motivation or discipline to do it. When it’s a choice of watching Jeremy Kyle go head to head against a canabis smoking benefits cheat, or article re-writing…Jeremy Kyle wins more often than not. You need to be motivated in this industry, and be stern enough to stick to the tasks you need to complete. 

- Reading the pulse of your industry: Online, it all changes at the speed of light. Everything is fluid…from the best ways of generating new leads and traffic, to what it is exactly that clients WANT from your business. If you’re starting out from scratch, you’ll need to develop your skills, to be able to deliver what your clients need. If you’re an old pro, the process involves continually reassessing what they want, and adapting your business accordingly. Sometimes, we all get it wrong…and you need to have the strength of character to bounce back from it.

- Spammers. Sometimes, all you want to do is log into your various business emails and deal with relevant issues. But of course, instead you have to deal with all sorts of SPAM. Some have subjects that are tantalizingly genuine sounding, such as “please send download link” – which paints a picture of some distressed client who’s invested in a product but who has not been redirected to the download page and instead been stranded in the blankness cyberspace (probably because Paypal is having a momentarty strop). So you click, but it turns out some plucky little spammer is trying to promo his ebook instead. These wasted clicks and seconds soon all add up, until you wind up wanting to beat every spammer over the head with a baseball bat until the blood seeps through every imaginable oraface.

Here are some spam mails I’ve recently received:

* “I have a list of 50,000 lawyers that you can buy!”  (keep sending this to random people and you’re going to need them)

* “Make her erupt with pleasure”

And perhaps my favourite…

* “Genuine Rolex Fakes for £10″

- Form Filling & That Little Letter Verification Box. As an online professional, you’ll have to fill in a lot of FORMS. When you want to join an affiliate program, you need to fill out a form. When you join a giveaway, you have to fill out another form. Some are simple, some are more involved and you’ll need to verify your email address.

But, perhaps the most annoying is the letter verification tool that a lot of sites you’ll visit have. On the surface of it, it’s a good thing right? After all, the site owner is only trying to protect the site from thos scampy little auto robots getting through. The thing is (and it may just be me) most of my first (and often subsequent) tries end up being wrong. Because, the letters are always done in some weird squiggley writing which is impossible to identify. Is it an a or an unfinished 8? Is it a 0 or an O? It’s impossible to tell – and if you get it wrong, you’ll get penalized for it. Sometimes, when you screw it all up (which in my case is always) you’ll have to do the whole form again as a punishment. When you try again, the next series of letters is even harder to decode – this time, it appears to be just a random collection of shapes that look nothing like letters. And now, there are lines and circles criss crossing the shapes. Lightening seems to be attacking it. I mean for goodness sakes, you’re meant to fool the robots, not the humans. 

- Cats. Yes, cats. Here’s a tip for you. Do not, under any circumstances even think of having a home based business when you have a cat. My one seems hell bent on ruining my business. Ordinarily, he’s a great and incredibly personable little fellow. He loves affection, and will nibble your ear gently in the mornings when he’s hungry and it’s time to wake up. Give him some fresh prawns and he’ll purr loudly like a ferrari engine. Take him to the garden, and it’s a pleasure to watch him leap about, batting his paws at insects, and sniffing flowers energetically. However, let it be know to him that you’re trying to do something productive and he’ll bend over backwards to stop you. Over the last few weeks alone, he’s managed to ruin a crucial .txt document (he likes to sit on the laptop when you’re off to the kitchen to brew some tea), he’s attacked a potential JV partner, he’s stolen a dongle (still missing) and if you so much as dare to make a skype call or produce an audio/video he’ll scream like a maniac until you abort. So, think hard before getting a cat – having said that, I wouldn’t now change having him  around for the world

- “JV Giveaway Events” – A good way of adding new subscribers to your lists? Sure. What does perplex me is that all of them seem to feel they need some underlying theme. We’ve had the sweetheart event (Valentines day), events for every religious holiday, we’ve had the fathers day and mothers day events and birthday events. Do we as marketers really need to hold these events only when there’s a holiday or occassion of sort? And, when too many people start hosting their own giveaways and we run out of occassions, what will we see next? A move into increasingly bizarre life based events? Will we see “Menapause Madness”? Or “Midlife Crisis Extravaganza”? I certainly hope not.    

- Taxes & Accountants. Every year, I start looking at getting my dream car (in a realistic attainable sense). The Audi TT. It is a thing of beauty, and when you fancy a bit of speed and danger (ie overtaking little old grannies in their 1.2l Hyundai’s) there’s nothing quite like it.

The thing is, every year around about Christmas I start getting the itch – and I tell myself that yes, it can be done. Then, my accountant calls up and informs me in his robotic voice that we need to start talking about the accounts and the taxes to be filed. Now, in my business I pay taxes annually not monthly. It typically comes as one big nasty TT shattering shock, and it needs to be paid upfront in one whack. Then, you also have to pay the accountant a good 2k for his services. By the time it’s all done, your TT money has gone into the governments coffers.

On a serious note – you do need to take taxes and accounting seriously when you venture into online business. Because, you can get into serious trouble if you don’t.    

So there you have it – some random, strange and possibly neurotic things that I’ve stumbled over while running my own online business. But do you know what, weighed up against the fantastic things that my business has given back in return, these things are really nothing. And I wouldn’t change what I have for the world . If creating and running your own internet business appeals to you, I really could not recommend it enough.

If you’d like everything you need to create and run your internet business, all in one place then DRR Pro is just what you’re looking for.

How did you do in 2008? And how are you doing in 2009? Do you know? I can all but guarantee you that experienced entrepreneurs who have money rolling in from all sides will have a detailed plan set out in front of them. It would entail things like what projects they wish to develop, what levels of income they would want to see and how they would achieve it. Trying to develop or grow your business without a plan is a little like driving a car with a blindfold on. You have no idea where you’re going, and you’re almost certainly going to crash.

If (as I suggested at this time last year) you had created your plan for the year, then take a look at how it stood the test of time. See what you wanted to do. And achieve. Did you? If you did, congratulations but the work’s only just starting – you need to pinpoint exactly what factors were behind your success. Did you excel at list building? Find out what worked, and do the same thing again – only twice as hard. The great thing about the internet is that success can be duplicated – once you find a system that works well, you can duplicate it over and over and get rewarded each time.

In case it all went wrong, again you need to find out where. Your intentions may have been perfect – you may have wanted an opt in list of 10,000 more people. You may have wanted to increase traffic. Or income by X amount…your job is to calmly analyse the facts and see what went pear shaped. Then, you can take corrective action so that this time around – you do better. The trick really is to know what happened, and to change your actions to improve your performance. In reality, you may find that some of your plans went well, and others not quite so.

Personally, I also have a monthly review for my own performance as well as the performance of everyone who works in my business. And, I have an annual one that takes place every December. It’s the one I love doing the most. If you’re early on in your internet business career, then start drawing up your plans. It’s very important.
How To Set Your Goals For 2009

Believe me, people who know what they want and write it down get far better results than those who don’t. It’s simple logic really – if we ourselves don’t know what we want, how is our mind supposed to go about achieving it. You’ll be confused, moving on from one thing to another and almost certainly not achieving very much, sort of like some giant unstoppable idiot.

In contrast, if you spend just an hour or so to develop a plan – and come back to it frequently, your mind has a blueprint to follow so that you can actually get what you want. Your plan should be detailed – and challenging, without being unrealistic. You also need to enter as much detail as possible about HOW your plan will come true. What learning goals will you have for 2009? What sort of in come will you believe you can get? How will you do it? What level of investment will you have available? How will the floundering global economy affect your projections?

I would also strongly suggest having additional plans for each month of the year, these should be tied in to your yearly plans too.

Thoughts, Actions, Results

There is a wonderful little book called Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T.Harv Eker. I keep it handy when my own mind gets a little riled. Anyway, one of the greatest things I learned in this book is how and why two people with exactly the same education, information and resources at their disposal can see such varied results.

In a nutshell, it’s all to do with how our minds think. This is key because our thoughts give rise to certain feelings. Our feelings lead us to take action. And those actions lead to the results we achieve. Most people only focus on the results part – but they don’t consider the thoughts that gave rise to it.

I know a lot of my clients are eminently successful, and my word it makes me happy. But I also have a lot of newbies, and early entrepreneurs and this section is very important for them especially. Because, one of the biggest challenges that newbies and early entrepreneurs face is the mental one. Some of the biggest problems that newbies have is (a) overload of information (b) too many hyped product launches and (c) changing their actions so that their results also can improve. Instead, many people will keep doing the same old things, because they have the same old thoughts – and still expect to see different results. It’s not their fault – it’s human nature. But now that you know, look out for it.

Today, something a little different. Because, usually in this blog we’ve discussed internet marketing techniques that work, niches that rock, how to do this, and how to do that. Helpful? Yes. But let’s look at some lesser talked about things that can help your internet marketing and business growth.

1. What Is It That Successful Internet Entrepreneurs Have, That Can Put Money In Anyone’s Pocket, That You Can’t Buy Right Now…?

Experience. The simple fact is that experience is one of the most wonderful assets to have under your belt, whatever your trade. In the online biz world, only with experience can we understand what’s good and what’s trite. Only experience can tell us what is a good business proposition and what latest big ticket fad to avoid with a bargepole. Experience guides us as to what advertising methods are worth the time and investment, and which are scams.

When an employer looks for a worker for whatever job they wish to fill, you can bet it’s experience they look for, even above qualifications or other traits. In the game of football (soccer), even the most youthful, energetic and skilled team can be blunt and win nothing at the end of the year unless shepherded by an old pro who’s been there and done it (just ask Arsenal fans if you don’t believe me).

It’s a great thing, but it’s also a double edged sword. Because, only by DOING and over TIME can we actually gain experience. We cannot buy it. It’s not to be found in Bob The Guru’s shiny new video course, and no teleseminar or any third party product/service can give you this most elusive of traits. It can only really be earned through the virtues of graft and action.

Experience taught me that not all niches are the same. Experience taught me that what monetisation model works for one website business will fail in another. Experience taught me that an opt in list is well worth the trouble to develop, and that it cannot be reliably bought at any price (not even for 1.5k as I had “invested” with one “guru” many years ago).

So, go ahead and “experience” things. Go ahead and have a GO at building your list, at setting up a niche business, at getting traffic using a myriad of different methods. Do it fearlessly and don’t be afraid to fail. Because with each day that you try something new, you’ve found a method that may or may not work. Either way, you’ve gained experience…and that’s worth it’s weight in gold, because one day your accumulated experience will afford you more success than you dared dream possible.

2. Know Yourself, Know What You Want And Understand Why…

A few days ago, we talked about the importance of goal and plan setting. I wont go over the logics and technicals of this again but there’s another thing that plans can help you with.

As you scribble down your plan, you’ll actually have a clear idea of what you want in your business, and maybe even in life. You’ll discover why you want whatever it is you’re striving for. This is important, because when a person knows with crystal clarity what he or she wants, they have a good chance of achieving it. Subconsciously, they will find a way to make it so. And, I believe strongly that there is an unwritten law within our universe that rewards those who have a strong, clear desire for something.

Personally, I don’t seek money first. I seek happiness. In fact, I can name you some gurus who make probably twice what I do…but, I’m willing to bet not one of them can match my level of inner-peace and happiness.

Fact is, I choose happiness first in my blueprint for life. Money is simply a part of that happiness, and the internet business I’ve built over the past decade is a fantastic way of achieving wealth without sacrificing happiness. In contrast, during my stressful banking career I had oddles of cash but rarely any peace of mind. Only through experience did I learn that money can be a very fickle mistress to worship, and that we need much more to enjoy life.

I still keep in touch with some of my old bank buddies – some have made it to VP, some haven’t – but all are looking seriously tired, haggard and, dare I say it, unhappy. What’s the point of that? I choose to have more than just wealth. I choose to enjoy love. I choose to take care of my body by going to the gym and being selective with my diet. I choose to go on nice holidays when I wish and buy whatever I want be that an iphone, ipod or PS3. That is why I am an internet business entrepreneur – because the title allows me not only wealth but so much more of the wonderful things that life has to offer, such as time to enjoy life and stay fit and healthy. And only this combination can make ME happy. It may be different for you.

So, what do YOU choose? What do you want? Why do you want it? Write these things down, and refer to it from time to time. Be honest with yourself, because you’re brilliant and wonderful and you deserve getting whatever it is that you really WANT. And once you know what that is, not much can stop you.

3. The Beauty Of Long Term – It’s The Only Term Worth Thinking About

Excuse me. I promised when I set out to write this article that I would NOT criticise the internet marketing industry today. But, one of the things that do get my goat within it is the amount of “short termism” that exists within it.

The emphasis is almost always on the here and now. The big magic red button that will fill your paypal button. The magic software that will fill your autoresponder with fresh hot subscribers and all that garbage.

In fact, it’s only the long term that matters and we all need to know that. Only by providing consistently good products or services will we ever get repeat clients. Only by steadily building a list of qualified prospects in your direct market (and giving them useful content) can we build our list into the tens of thousands. Only by learning, applying, and repeating this countless times can we ever hope to have the know-how to be leaders in the industry of our choice. And, like it or not, this is likely to take years as opposed to months, weeks (or even minutes as some sales pages may have you believe).

It’s all about the long term, not about being a one hit wonder. Most people give up, not because of any fault of their own but because that’s the default setting in human nature. If after a few days, or weeks, or months they don’t see a wild ROI, they are liable to just quit. That’s sad, because there’s greatness to be had – just hang around long enough to let it embrace you.

4. Take Care Of Your Mind, Body & Soul

Ok, I don’t wish to sound like your mother here but this is as important as everything else above. It’s important to achieve balance in life. That means working not only on your business, not only on getting traffic, not only on list building, outsourcing and the thousand other things that we need to do to run a successful online business.

It also means working on everything in our life that matters. Because, human beings have a complex nature – it’s impossible to be happy in life unless a number of key needs are met. We need other things besides money to be content – there are no shortage of wealthy yet miserable people in life and I’m not sure about you but I would never wish to be that way. Believe it or not, we can all make small changes that can impact our lives very positively, no matter where we currently are.

For example, our health. Everyone is at a different stage in life, but for most it’s never too late to make small changes that can dramatically improve our life and health.

Like, even small amounts of exercise a week can help to keep us healthy – and exercise has the added benefit of stimulating our brains (I swear, so many of my best ideas have come while I’m in the gym…just make sure you go with a tiny notepad.) And, if the gym is not an option then there’s lots of other things you can do, from jogging to gentle walking. Together with exercise, consider eating the right foods too – what we put in our body has a big say in how we feel, as well as our energy levels and so much more. It’s funny, but the best I’ve ever felt in life has always been when I’ve eaten the right things and done my time at the gym. And, most important of all, that’s also been when I’ve produced the best work for my clients and my business. And, whichever stage of life you may be reading this at, I’ll bet it’s not too late to start. There’s always time for YOUR health, don’t you think?

5. Have Faith In The Internet – Amidst The Global Economic Downturn, It Will Hold It’s Own

I’ve touched on this in recent times, but now is probably a better time than ever to set-up an online, internet based business. I’m not the only one who seems to think so, with The Economist recently publishing an article that predicted that online spending will remain relatively buoyant, with particular mention to online advertising.

That means, that for those of us in high-demand, high-impact niches there is every cause for optimism. Big companies, in big niches will continue to offer big payouts through Adwords, CPA offers, and other general commissions. That means your blog/site, when in the right niche, should not see the type of slowdown and brutal wealth devastation that we’re seeing in the offline world.

It’s to do with a change it trend. It’s to do with the internet business model being a low-cost, high efficiency one. That’s why offline companies like Woolworths (UK) have gone bust, while online retailers like Amazon and Play.com have reported record holiday profits yet again. All of them sell DVDs, gifts, playstation games – but while Play.com and Amazon are able to utilise the benefits of an internet business model (with a fraction of the staff and real estate costs of Woolworths), Woolworths just could not compete – it refused to change in a changing world. It did not develop it’s web presence (indeed, it’s website and what it offered just could not stand up to those of established internet retailers). It was trying to use a business model developed in the late 1800s, when horses and carts were still in use – in an age where we have spacecrafts orbiting Mars.

There’s a lesson here for all of us – to keep our fingers on the pulse, to see and hear the winds of change coming and to act on them before we’re swept away.

Believe me, the internet as a source of income for more and more ordinary people is only starting. Wealth is being transferred from offline to online at a remarkable pace. And everyone, you included, can be a part of it.

Being The Leader Of Your Own Internet Empire – Some Important Traits

The following tips may help your business to grow – and sidestep the many challenges and obstacles that will inevitably arise, and firmly grasp the opportunities that are to be found everywhere in the world of online business.

The subjects are leadership, and key character traits you’ll need to develop as the head of your internet business…

1. You MUST Be An Effective LEADER

Being a leader is far more than being a manager. And, it does not matter if you read this as someone who runs a large company, or someone who’s creating ebooks from their garage. It applies equally to everyone.

The reason leadership of your internet business is important is that there is a tremendous pace of change in the world of online business. That means you MUST continually monitor your environment and see what’s happening out there. Change happens – consumer tastes and needs evolve, and if you are not providing what they want, then your very existence will be threatened. Change also happens in the way we can get business to our sites – you need to be aware of the trends, understand the most current cost effective ways of getting traffic and clients…because the moment you stop doing this, you’re in trouble.

Being a leader also involves monitoring your business environment. For example, what industry events could represent potential threats or opportunities for you? What skillset do you (and your team) have that can neutralise such threats and ride the opportunities all the way to the top?

Imagine if tomorrow a new law is passed that makes email marketing illegal or cost ineffective (and don’t think something broadly along those lines couldn’t happen). How would your business cope? What if most of your returns are generated through this method? Would your business die?

In fact, business is fraught with threats – who can forget the terrible consequences brought about by events such as the Google slap, or ebay banning digital products…and so on? Entire small businesses have been wiped out because the leaders of these business (often small businesspeople who didn’t know any better) failed to catch the trends in time. They were too busy doing their daily tasks – posting their ebay ads (etc), to understand that a hurricane of destruction was about to hit their business.

Please don’t fall into the same trap – if you have just five minutes, then perform a SWOT analysis on your business. Get a scrap piece of paper, and jot down the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats for your business as you see them. Open your eyes, and look at the bigger picture – if you’re reading this as a leader of your organisation (be it huge, or a one man show) then start acting like it.
2. Important Character Traits Of LEADERS – You Must Develop These To Keep Growing Your Internet Business

There are two character traits in particular that you must try and imbibe unto yourself – if you’re serious about leading your internet business to bigger and better things.

The first is directly linked to the above – it is to be PROACTIVE. Don’t wait for google to slap you senseless, or for ebays latest (and daftest) policy change to beat you up. Identify the warnings, and then do something before they hurt you. Or, even better, notice the trends and act on them so that you actually benefit from them. It’s no co-incidence that the most successful leaders, marketers and entrepreneurs are all proactive in nature.

The second is to be a GOAL SETTER – whatever you do, begin with an end game in mind. This is important because unless you start all your projects with a carefully mapped out plan, you’ll almost certainly end up drifting. Set goals for yourself and your business. If you have staff, set goals for them. Connect these goals for the greater good of YOUR company. What’s your core product? What do your consumers want? How will you deliver it to them at a quality/price balance that is better than the competition? What are your income targets? Before you do a jot of work on the “technicals” – please have your end game mapped out.

Owning, running and growing an internet business is a long term thing. It’s not easy at the best of times – but as long as you have a long term approach, and you keep doing the right things, good things will happen. And, after you taste success and start living the internet business lifestyle…you’ll wonder how you ever did anything else.