Spinning Your Wheels?
I often hear Internet marketers who are not making money online use the term ‘spinning my wheels‘ to describe how frustrated they are with what they’re doing… or NOT doing.
They report working on sites for 40 hours per week for over a year; or that they’ve started 5, 10 and sometimes 20 different sites – and still haven’t earned a pittance.
The term ‘spinning my wheels‘ is a very telling metaphor. Being from Canada, when I see someone really spinning their wheels, it tells me that the person doesn’t know how to drive for conditions… and I’ve seen it a thousand times.
The guy who guns the gas at the intersection and ends up standing still. Someone who takes a corner too fast and ends up wrecked in the ditch. The ill-informed who use ‘all-season’ radials (believing that they’re an acceptable substitute for winter tires) and wonder why they have no traction or control. Of course, there are the grannies who top out at 5k an hour… and blessed are they that stay home. 
Sure… we all have to learn, but the uneducated get themselves needlessly into situations that risk their lives and the lives of others.
Granted, starting an online business without a proper education might not mean risking life and limb — but doing so could risk your life savings or ruin your marriage – and I do know a few to whom that has happened.
Here’s a clue to the trap that they fall into…
Many of those ‘wheel spinning’ newbie entrepeneurs buy every $999 or $1999 course that promises to reveal the latest ‘tricks of the trade’, but have never invested in a basic business course at a fraction of the cost.
Why?
Because they can ‘learn all the basics in the forums’.
Uh… huh. Sure they can. NOT.
When I need to know something (about anything), I ask a professional – and where’s the guarantee that the person giving the advice on one or another forum is a professional? From what I’ve seen, really bad advice gets shared on forums, as well as the good — but when you’re just starting out… how do you tell the difference?
Furthermore, you can spend an awful lot of time searching for advice online and either come up with nothing at all, too many different opinions or a really good answer that is so far above your head that you’d have no idea how to make it work.
That’s why successful business people all have their own libraries of reference materials related to sales, marketing, customer service, etc., etc.
My office library, shown here in the photograph to the right, didn’t have a single business book on the shelf when I started my Internet business in 1998 — but today it is chock a block FULL of business manuals.
There are books and courses about sales, marketing, affiliate marketing, traffic generation, and copywriting. I have a section just for inspiration and motivation that includes the stories of successful business people. Of course, there are a bunch of Revenue magazines (I keep every issue) and if you peer really close at the top shelf, second door from the left, you’ll see a copy of the course that I think is ESSENTIAL READING for EVERYONE who wants to start an Internet business…
… the Internet Marketing Center’s Insider’s Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet.
If you’ve been following my work for any length of time, you might know that “Insiders Secrets” was the first course that I purchased and that I’ve picked up every edition as they’ve been revised over the years.
You can read more about the l latest version of Insider’s Secrets here
E-commerce is not rocket science and there is no reason you should be spending any time spinning your wheels as you try to get your business off the ground.
It is about doing it right – right from the start. And this course will help you get that “right start” for a very modest investment.
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Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant.
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I have to agree. If I could learn everything I need from a forum in exactly the right order, right when I needed it then forums would be great. But more often then not a rorum or watching blogs just gives you those new shiny things that are paths that distract you from doing what is important instead.
As you know consistently doing the important things is far better then jumping on the newest big popular tactic.
Ya hit that nail on the head. I’ve definitely been spinning my wheels. I have spent loads and loads of time on forums and what I get there mostly is an assortment of everything that all the others posters are selling. Good, and bad.
I’ll be getting my “Insider’s Secrets” today. Thanks for a great post.
Rosalind you have the truth formula. I too purchased this manual when I began affiliate marketing. I have also invested in a number of books and manuals. This is a learning game that you have to keep training yourself in.
Totally! Forums are useful tools at times. But if you are just learning and don’t know what is good information and what is not then, there is no way for you to know if its true or not.
I have 2006 version of Insider Secrets and it is good but I was still ’skidding my wheels” so decided to do a mentoring course with IMC. I learnt alot but after spending alot of time and money I realize now not enough emphasis was placed on the importance of keywords and finding a profitable niche (if I had put the same effort into a profitable niche I would have surely had an income by now).
I have found the IMC forum (Internet Entrepreneur Club) very helpful with experts giving advice (much quicker than I received in my mentoring course.
I have the 2007 edition. Good material.
This is beautifully written Rosalind… And I absolutely agree.
When I first started out in affiliate marketing, I was doing just that… “spinning my wheels”… being busing doing things that didn’t get me results or doing nothing at all.
I now know that two of the very first things that some wanting to build a successful internet business has to do are:
1/ Develop the right mindset… take the business seriously
2/ Invest in a good internet marketing course…. and of course take action!
…. I also agree that Insider’s Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet is a very good course….
William
I have been using my son’s computer but now he has moved away so now i have no computer and can’t afford one yet. I have puchased IMC training library and it arrived today.
I bought “Insider’s” last year–but ’spinning’ describes my own life. Through Derek Gehl’s monthly Entrepreneur CD I learned about you, and purchased “Super Affiliate Handbook” around the beginning of the year. I have definite ideas for several sites, but need to get one up and running. I hope to be able to report back soon that affiliate sales are kicking in. I will also need to get “insider’s” back out (I did read it all the way through!) and go through it again. Thanks for your sites, and your inspiration.
My wife and I have been full time on the internet for more than 5 years now. Full time from day one, out of desperation and necessity! Started out selling real world products online, not digital, (selling wood on Ebay, of all things), though we now have a growing stable of affiliate sites,(credit cards etc.) as well as a PLR article site which is 2 years old and still growing. (I love that thing!) The wood is still doing o.k. too, though most of our customers now buy direct rather than from Ebay.
To be honest, I bought 2004 edition of “Insider’s Secrets” back then, glanced thru it, never picked it up again. (It’s still on the shelf behind me!) Truthfully, I learned more from Ros’s old newsletter at that time, than I learned from “Insider’s Secret, 2004″. While info gathering and education, (self or traditional), can definitely expedite the success journey, it is my own experience that the most crucial ingredient for success in ANYTHING is just taking action……any action.
Hands on action will teach you faster than any course, book OR forum can…believe me, you’ll learn FAST about what works or doesn’t work! Be warned…some books, ebooks and courses can lead you as far astray as some of the knowledge garnered from forums and the like. Conversely, some of the knowledge I gathered while surfing forums has been BANG ON! (With reference to the forum comments above) You should be open to all knowledge, regardless of the source. Use common sense, try the things you trust, disregard that which you don’t. Make a plan and follow that plan, changing it as you go, eliminating what doesn’t work , improving upon what does.
Ros, I have followed you since 04, (that’s been an education in itself! LOL!) and I don’t know where this comes from, but I always thought you were a student of Martell’s. (A student who re-educated herself afterwards to do things the right way!) I probably have you confused with someone else who did the Martell thing. (McDougal?)
I’ve never made a million dollars on the Internet, but the internet did help make us millionaires. (On paper anyway.) We made enough on the internet in our first couple years to get out of debt and buy property…a lot of property by some standards. If you google my name, Michael Rytter, you can read an article in the Province newspaper where I’m on a rant about the 2008 property assessment on one of our properties.
The above isn’t meant as bragging, but is meant to show those of you who are “spinning your wheels” that success, both online and off, is within reach OF EVERYONE. You need to want it, though, and be willing to take action. Just buying courses and ebooks won’t do it for you, if you do nothing with the education they provide. (I wasted YEARS doing the above. YEARS.).
In our case, the “desperation” factor was crucial. It “KICKED” us into gear. Otherwise I would still be like most other folks….just be buying the next course, the next ebook, the next “Butterfly”, the next MASS CONTROL….reading some of it, the rest gathering dust on the shelf behind me, waiting for its next new neighbour to arrive.
Thanks Ros, for the neat stuff you do and provide.
Michael Rytter
Rosalind, I heard you for the first time last night on Yanik Silver’s call. I was intrigued with your style, your vocal inflection, and the fact that we share the same last name! My husband and I are new to this business, but we are learning fast and having a ball. I’m just developing my website, which has the objective to help couples, parents, and families learn healthy options for living, communicating, and earning income–finding treasure all around them. Thanks for the insights you shared! They were fabulous and I took a lot of notes while you were talking. Blessings, Cristie Gardner