It’s funny how I can find the money and the resources for the things that I ‘have to’ do. The car transmission fails and suddenly my brain goes into overdrive to solve this pressing problem and get my vehicle back on the road.

The rent is due and the thought of being homeless during the winter forms new neuron pathways between my left and right brain. I find myself battling a sickness, and suddenly life’s priorities shuffle themselves into the correct order. Time spent with the family seems more pressing than the business meeting that was so critical. In fact, when I’m sick the only thought that dominates my mind is to regain my health.What motivates you?

On opposite ends of the spectrum of human motivation are inspiration and desperation. The reasons that drive you to act can be found somewhere along that continuum. I know that many noble feats have been accomplished through love for another person, but this can be classed as inspiration. Love for the object inspired the lover to perform acts that would be hard to explain otherwise.

I must confess that I am closer to the ‘desperation’ end of the spectrum than the ‘inspiration’ end. I am a deadline type of guy. While in school, I always procrastinated until I just had to write that term paper, study for that test or-you may smile-pay for the tuition. It seemed the idea that there was no way out placed my brains on steroids. I happen to know many colleagues who operate on a similar principle. At the same time, there were many students who just had to get the paper completed a long time before the deadline.

Inspiration would appear to be a much nobler motivator than desperation. Yet, it has always been said that necessity is the mother of invention. Necessity is closer akin to desperation than inspiration. It is often true that desperation can lead to inspiration but seldom the other way around. There are countless inventions which came about to solve a pressing problem compared to those made for just a luxurious use.

Those who study direct response marketing tell us that buyers respond more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure. In other words, Mr. Jones is more likely to buy the central air cooling system because it saves him money, than for the reason that it keeps him cool in the summer. Statistics also shows that the vast majority of those who inherit large sums of money, either through family or the lottery, end up losing their wealth or in some instances their minds.

This reminds me of the old adage: ‘Easy come, easy go’. There are many parents who have passed on a legacy of wealth, and hence laziness, to their posterity.

The critical point for the home business owner is motivation. You can no longer lose your job because you are late, tardy; hate the boss, disliked by fellow-workers and a myriad of other reasons. Now you are the boss and have less to fear outside of failing yourself! Your motivation must now be intrinsic, and you have less people to blame for all your failures.

Although many tout the superior benefits of owning a home business, the harsh reality of finding that motivation to get out of bed when there are no traffic jams to beat leaves countless paralyzed.

My advice? ‘Know thyself’! Know what makes you tick and ‘trick’ yourself into that frame of mind. There are many motivational speakers who teach that you should write out your goals and even place a picture of your dream home next to your workplace. Even though this may work for some-and it doesn’t for me-, I think that contemplating the results for failure can awake many giant ideas.

If you are on the inspiration end of the spectrum then listening to motivational tapes and reading the stories of those who overcame great odds, may just be the medicine for your soul.

Do you love being healthy or hate being sick? Do you love having money or hate being broke? Do you love being with your spouse or hate being away? Do you love being independent or hate being bossed around? Do you love happiness or hate being sad? These questions may all seem to be two faces of the same coin but very different faces.

You may be like George Bernard Shaw who said, “You see things; and you say ‘Why?’; But I dream things that never were; and I say ‘Why not?’ Or, you may identify closer with Dwight D. Eisenhower who said, “What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it’s the size of the fight in the dog”.

You may be the dreamer or the dog engaged in mortal combat. What counts most is to know who you are, and light the appropriate burner on your motivational stove.

Everyone knows that the weight-loss industry is a billion dollar a year industry. It seems that there is no end to the weigh-loss books that line the shelves at bookstores.

So the big question is “Why are Americans still so overweight?” It cannot be for a lack of knowledge because there is a ton of books out there. The answer has to be that people read the books but never implement the advice.

There can be a lot of debate about which diet is the better one and being a vegetarian myself I have my bias. Still whatever diet is followed requires discipline to carry them out and to stick with the plan. There can be a BIG gap between ‘what I know’ and ‘what I do’.

Think about the number of ebooks you have read and the number of training materials that you’ve been through. Have you implemented at least 10% of the advice given there? I’ve found that there is a lot of good information that you can get online without spending a dime but you must be a DO-er and not just a READ-er.

Ironically the programs online that sells the best are those that promise you no work. People will always be duped into thinking that they can just sit back and make money. At the same time the people online who are making a steady income are the hard workers – the Do-ers. Are you a READ-er or a DO-er. What about that last article that was so inspiring to you. Did you follow through on all the ideas you got from it?

I’ve found that the harder I work the luckier I get.

The Golden Key to your online business success is called “work.” It’s a four-letter word that many people are afraid of but there is no other way. Anyone who will tell you otherwise is only trying to steal your money. There are many tools that will speed up this process but you still have to use the tools!

So how much work have you invested in promoting your online business? Have you submitted your website to the Search Engines? What about trading links with other webmasters? Have you tried writing an article? What about asking for joint ventures? Have you been promoting your affiliate programs? Learn to use the Google Adwords and Pay-Per-Click search engines? The list goes on but they all involve time and effort. It doesn’t happen overnight but it CAN HAPPEN!

It takes effort to TEST your advertisement campaigns, fine-tuning your webcopy and improving your conversion rate. Most people just throw up a website and hope that it does well. The successful marketer tests, test and then test again. There is no magic here just plain work. Show me a successful businessperson who got there without hard work. Point taken.

Stop looking for the latest “secret to success” product and use what you already have. You will be surprised to know the number of people who have bought courses worth hundreds of dollars and never implemented one idea from the course if they bothered to read it that is.

The door of success demands that it is opened by the Golden Key of ‘hard work’. Those who try to go through the windows soon find that the house mysteriously disappears.

This subject may appear strange at first. Why would anyone want to know how to fail at doing anything? Many times failure comes because we failed to heed the warning signs not because we were not success oriented.

This can be compared to traffic signs. They don’t all tell you what to do but what NOT to do. If it were not for those signs that said “No right turn”, “No parking” you can imagine the confusion it will cause.

Here are some sure ways to fail in your quest online to build a healthy income.

1. Thinking that making money online is ‘easy’.

There are many that come to the Internet with a ‘lotto’ mentality. They think that by some stroke of luck they would sign up for this incredible business and ‘bam!’ their bank account is overflowing with money. In fact, there are many ‘pluggin businesses’ that try to sell you on that idea. They use words such as ‘automated income’ and ’spill-over’. I can assure you that any business that try to sell you the idea that you don’t have to do anything to make money and that they will do all the work for you is robbing you of your dream.

I have signed up for many MLM programs that use the ‘forced matrix’ model. This means that you can only have a limited amount in any level before the recruits are passed on to another level. This model sells on the fact that you will receive ’spill-over’ from those above you. The only problem here is that if everyone waits for the spillover then opportunity flops. The idea that someone else will do all the work and make you rich is a fallacy.

2. Making sure you have everything in place before you start.

You can be stalled in the planning stage thinking that everything has to fit in place before you can launch. Some refers to this as ‘the paralysis of analysis’. There are many projects that never get off of the ground because the creator was never satisfied that it was ‘just right’. It’s best to go ahead with what you have and improve as time goes by. The inspiration often comes while you are on the road and seldom while you are planning the trip.

3. Try one thing and if it doesn’t work give up.

You can read any story of a successful online marketer and it will be filled with failure. What makes the difference between a ‘guru’ and a failure is that the ‘guru’ was willing to fail more times. History is littered with stories of people who failed a thousand times before they hit the bull’s eye. Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Edison come immediately to mind but there are many others. We often feel defeated because we are presented with the success rather than the path to that success. Anyone who courts the trophy must pay the price of hard work.

4. Try every opportunity that comes along. One may work.

There is no way of telling which business will be successful and which will fail. However, at the same time you need to focus on a particular niche and keep working at it. Jumping all around causes you to lose focus and not to mention money as well. I’ve heard the complain often ‘I tried everything and nothing worked.’ This may be because you tried everything!

We are only blessed with a limited amount of time. This means that we have to give any project the best that we have and do not lose focus. If you have the tendency not to finish what you started then you need to discipline yourself to change this. This does not mean that if you find something that is not working that you keep at it just to be persistent. If you find that the project is failing because of something over which you have no control then it’s time to leave and move on. On the other hand if you find one that works then keep at it and build your empire.

5. You can make it without investing in your education and advertising.

There is one place you don’t want to be stingy and it’s in your education. The most successful online business owners will tell you that they invest thousands of dollars each year in their education. You have to keep reading and don’t begrudge this time. Saving that dollar for the seminar materials may cost you thousands of dollars later.

There are two areas that you can never be a miser in - your education and advertising. A common mistake that people who are new to Internet business make is that they don’t budget for advertising and their continued education. They start a business and think that people will just find them and buy. You have to read to keep abreast of the latest research findings and advertising methods that work. I’ve read of affiliates who emailed the program owner and complained that hey had not received their commission checks. When asked if they were advertising the program they said ‘No’!

6. Thinking that your online business will give you a lot of free time.

Look at all those pictures on websites that sell business opportunities and they show you entrepreneurs on the beach with their laptop and cell phones. The idea is that you can work where you want and when you want. This may be partially true, except that when you want may be from 6 AM to 2 AM and where you want may be everywhere.

Most people who are self-employed will tell you that they work harder and worry more than when they worked for someone else. There is just no easy way out. The very freedom that your home business promises you is also the same slavery that binds you. As always, freedom comes at a price. Remember all those worries that your boss carried and you didn’t have to spend all night thinking about? - Well, you now have them all and more!

Just look out for those warning signs and you will be safe on the road to online success. The road is steep and littered with wrecks of those who didn’t look out for the signs. Don’t let this happen to you.

(c)2003 Ray L. Edwards

There is a concept in marketing that I like to refer to as the “advertising funnel”. What do I mean by this?

If you look at how a funnel is designed, at the top entrance is wide and then it narrows towards the bottom like a sharpened pencil point. At the top it is wide and open but as you move towards the bottom area then it becomes narrower.

The same must be applied to your marketing. You must make it easy for your potential customer to enter your field of influence and ‘tighten up’ on them as they get closer to the sale decision.

Now let us make this as practical as possible.

If I asked you to just go to my website and make a $500 purchase you will likely turn down my offer. I am asking for too much to early. But instead I offer you a subscription to my fr-e newsletter along with a bonus and it becomes a much easier decision to make. This is where the funnel is wide and easy to enter.

I then may offer you to purchase an ebook for $37. Now because I should have developed some credibility with you then this step is much easier to take. My next offer will be a $97 product and then the $500 product.

This works the same way in normal human relationships. It’s a “hi, hello” and then as we talk more and get to know each other we can talk about more things than just the weather.

Some people attempt the $500 sale before taking the other baby steps and blame their lack of sales on other factors than ignoring the marketing funnel.

It is plain to see that the wider the mouth of the funnel is the greater will be your ‘catch’. Like the Bible says, sow besides all waters because you do not know which seed will bring forth the abundant harvest. The waters you sow beside includes search engines, classified ads, safelist, article writing, joint ventures, posting to forum boards … and the list goes on.

As you try to build your mailing list just ask for a ‘first name’ and ‘email address’. If you ask for much more information than this then you will likely be making your funnel too narrow. Now they have opted to be on your list then you can ask for more. If you under-promise and over-deliver each time then you’re likely to have a customer for life.

So if you were to ask me what was the primary reason for your website? The answer will be to have a wide funnel mouth collecting email addresses. The primary purpose of your website is NOT to make sales but to collect that ever-important email address!

Once they are in the funnel then it becomes easier for them to slide down into your sales bottle. Check your marketing strategy to see if you may have your funnel upside down - few enter but many leaving.