You know how some of the semi-religious self-improvement psycho babble you’ve read that you probably thought was junk? It isn’t.
You need to re-program your mind to think in different ways if you want to have a profitable internet business.
The biggest downfall for many people is procrastination caused by the fear of failure as confirmed by the replies to yesterdays post. (I already knew this – been there, got the t-shirt.)
To overcome the fear of failure, all you need to know are a couple of things.
Persistency and consistency are the keys.
If you create your first product and it flops, it doesn’t matter.
The learning you will have gained will have paid for the product creation time.
The next time you’ll do it better. And you may even later rework the product that flopped into something else. You should always look at re-using any material you create.
But as sure as anything, if you persist and consistently create new products every 4-6 weeks, some will do well. Some will also flop but it doesn’t matter, because using the law of averages means you are getting closer and closer to a full time income.
So using the law of averages, eventually you may come up with something like 5-3-1.
For every 5 products you create, 3 will do well and 1 of those 3 will do very well. Or it may be 3-2-1 or 7-4-2 or whatever – you’ll see the pattern emerge in time.
You can then work out your average income across them all and know that just by the sheer weight of numbers, you will be making n amount of dollars. If your averages work across 5 products, divide the n by 5 to give you your dollar value per product.
Let’s say it’s $200 per month per product averaged out.
Pure logic now says that the FASTER you can put out new products, the more money you will make – guaranteed. You CANNOT lose as each one will generate an average of $200 per month.
Now the fear of failure is irrelevant.
You will know FOR A FACT, that every time you create and release a new product it increases your monthly income by $200.
It doesn’t matter whether it flops or it does really well, the law of averages is on your side. Every single product, averaged out, will increase your income by $200/month.
To begin with you won’t know your averages, and the only way of finding them will be to do something. Which brings me back to taking action and not worrying about the failures.
All you have to do is pull your finger out, create that first product and start marketing it. While you’re marketing it, start working on the next one.
It’s as simple as that. The law of averages is your friend.
Okay then…Â Now I’ve removed your fear of failure, what are you waiting for?
-Frank Haywood
Great post, Frank.
I had a great idea last night that I’m taking action on right now. I’d much prefer to work for a week or two and then get paid a little, consistently for months or years than spend all my time for months working on a project only for it to fail (I’ve failed with big stuff far too many times, the small and quick model is finally sinking in).
Would write more, but I’ve got some PLR to rewrite then a WP to configure. I’m launching a new service really soon now, starting to get excited!
Hi Frank,
the only problem I have with this idea is that it consumes a fair amount of time. Iknow, I know, I’ve got to plan my time a bit better but in the end, by the time you’ve done your marketing, made sure you still have a wife and kids, put a bit of blogging in. (Why are you playing at that computer again comes wafting over the airwaves) and generally made sure you have a life support system 🙂
“You know how some of the semi-religious self-improvement psycho babble you’ve read that you probably thought was junk? It isn’t.
I think part of the problem is that sometimes the self-improvement stuff is presented with a fervour that makes it difficult to see the wood for the trees.
Self-improvement using software and subliminals is a big part of my product base and I can say for a fact it works. In a way, it doesn’t even matter why it works.
Very few people would know why a painkiller works, would they?
Ever seen how many painkillers are sold every day? To people who don’t know how they work!
One thing that takes the risk away from buying self-improvement products is that you get to experience first-hand whether it works for *you*.
It doesn’t matter if it works for someone else.
My subliminal messenger software is a case in point: it doesn’t work for everyone. But for the 80%+ of people it does work for they’ll be glad they used it.
It’s like you said, Frank:
“It’s as simple as that. The law of averages is your friend.”
Most people will benefit from some of the ‘psycho-babble’ out there. It doesn’t need to work for everyone for it to work for *you*.
And not every product you create/have developed needs to be a hit for *you* to succeed overall.
Product development is like a muscle – it gets stronger with regular use. Wherever you are today you can be in a far better place 30 days from now (or even just 7 days from now) if you take action and keep taking it.
“You should always look at re-using any material you create.”
There’s a very well-known marketer who’s making, well a lot of money, from doing just that. And his customers love him for it!
Re-purposing content is a smart way to create products faster and better than a cold start.
Nathan:
There’s a concept of “today’s money” and “tomorrow’s money” I teach my students.
I can see you’ve got there the hard way like me. 😉
Once you get over the grand ideas which are all tomorrow’s money (I have loads of those), you realise that the important thing is the small projects / products that you can handle easily and that are today’s money.
Rob:
I fully sympathise. I’ve had all the same issues. Juggling it all gets easier especially when the money starts coming in…
Amin:
Spot on with your take on it all. A quick mind re-program any way that works for you is money in the bank, and I like your concept of a product development muscle.
And… I think I know that marketer and have been a customer. 😉
-Frank