Grrr The human mind.

You are spot on about keeping up with your growth, it’s especially hard when growth doesn’t translate into more cashflow since you only get extra work and no money to hire people to help.

Not saying that’s my case, or Daryl and Andrew’s either, but it’s definitly something to think about.

Thanks for spending the time and dig down to answer all the comments … indeed, first is in the position of not getting any interaction and then the floodgates open and how does one keep up … keep swimming, guy.

For those who have also been wondering about this question I _did_ receive a response from Daryl since my original query here, so all seems well. especially given Taro’s update on their activies .. I guess if you sell out your conference you don’t need to advertise it on your website *smile* … BTW the response I received was sort of a “canned” autoresponder note, but it did serve a number of purposes … kept me in the loop, kept me interested and provided the politeness of a response … albeit after two weeks or so. On the ‘net as well is in conventional business, politeness still counts even when you are feeling “snarkey”

Lesson for all of us who plan to grow someday … put a ‘gap filler” auto response in place now … say something that would kick off if an email isn’t responded to in three days or so … there won’t be time to put it in place later if things take off.

They also are speaking at some conferences around Australia and it’s all related to their ebook business, so if anything they are definitely still in the same biz.

They may have poor email response times due to being too popular – I certainly can understand that!

I actually started with these sales letters, building mailing lists, etc. Then moved on to my blog.

Thanks for this.

Keep up the good work – I’m off to build a business!

I enjoyed and very much respect your excellent post here. Far too many ‘web guys’ just spend their days telling everyone about their latest and greatest “thing” and, yo hear them talk, you’d think they never had a failure.

As one who has been there and done that a time or two I am here to tell you failure is as much of growth and your final goal than is momentary success. Only the truly strong and talented seem to own up to that, though.

By the way, as a possibly interesting future follow-up here, I was wondering if you had had any content with Daryl Grant lately? I listened to your interviews with her, looked through some of their materials at that time and formed an opinion that they were probably on fairly solid ground. But recently a friend wanted some guidance in some sort of career he could follow that would use his writing capabilities and it appears to me that Daryl might have moved on to other things … their website is essentially untouched over the past 9 months or so and they don’t seem to answer direct email inquiries.

I’m not bringing this up to ‘slam’ them or you, merely as a thought it might be of value to do a postmortem type of update.

I already know what you stated above, but it’s a good reminder.

You may not know it, but I recognize some of Rich teaching in the way you run your blog.

Steve Cowan, your comment is the missing link to many newbie Internet marketers. Losing years doing nothing but surfing… I am myself trying to get out of that loop.

I am tempted sometimes, but I keep track on MY business.

What is funny is that I wasn’t like that at all when I had my offline business.

I appreciate the vote of confidence. Brian Clark has been pushing me to put together a blog as well, but I don’t believe it’s the most effective method for achieving my objectives. I’m more focused on writing a best-selling book and starting a speaking career. I think they are more stable and predictable models.

But I could be wrong. I’ve only been working toward it for about two months.

Also, I don’t totally disagree with the people that say you need to enjoy the journey. If you know what you want, then the journey of achieving it is pleasurable as a natural byproduct. Along the way, you might also find a method that suits you better for achieving the same objectives, which you can switch to, as long as you are not tied to the specific path.

In any case, I don’t mean to preach at you. It’s just a belief system that’s worked for me.

From Argentina,

Julia

In my case I’m still trying to fit all the pieces together that result in my happiness, financially included. I’m getting there and improving in all areas each year, but it’s definitely an ongoing work in progress.

I’m about to embark in my first real estate purchase this year and you never know, that might be an area I end up really enjoying.

It’s interesting that you mention the purpose behind wanting the money rather than the process of acquiring it, is what motivated you. For many people it’s the journey that they need to come to appreciate and not focus too much on the end destination.

Again, it would be interesting to read your story and point of view on these issues – you should be blogging about it!

Yaro

And it wasn’t with the Internet, either. I examined all of the possible models for making money and decided real estate was superior to all of them. So, I started building a real estate business. Do I love real estate? No, but I do *love* the lifestyle and opportunities it’s helped me create. For example, my company is about to donate half a million to a research foundation to cure my disease. Now that’s uber cool.

So anyway, after reading this post 3 times (slowly), I came to a disturbing realization… I’m not inspired, motivated, or passionate about anything that I would want to do as a “business” based on the model presented here.

I’ve basically been a money-chaser for many years; always doing things like ebay, affiliate marketing, adwords/adsense, blogging, mlm, etc. I’ve never made decent money doing any of it, and also never focused on anything long enough to make it successful.

I recently started a jerky business/website, but I have to admit — I’m not passionate about jerky either. Let’s just say it’s not something that gets me up early and keeps me up late, if you know what I mean.

Thanks again for the outstanding post! I have some important decisions to make now…

BetterEdit has a better shot at it because of how the model works, but even then it’s a long way off.

That’s actually one of the things that studying under Rich has triggered in my thinking. If I really want millions then I need to think what markets and business models I use to get me there.

In the meantime though, until I figure it out, I’ll keep working to create a sustainable six figure income, which isn’t bad for a worse case scenario. You can always pour solid five figure cash flow into something like real estate if you don’t think your business will get you there.

And of course money is not all I want or what anyone really wants, I realize that. In fact I’m usually happiest when I forget about the money altogether and just let it flow in as a side effect.

If your sole objective is to make lots of money, then I think you’re in the wrong industry. In my opinion, the entire web publishing business is too new and changes too rapidly for any reasonable chance chance of building a sustainable business.

You’re better off going with an older industry like real estate or trading stocks. Not because you can make more money, exactly, but because they’re relatively stable and the formulas for success are relatively defined. You have a higher probability of building a successful business.

Or do your goals go beyond making money?

Although I’m not new to the “focusing on one thing at a time, till you gain momentum”, your article included several other points that made me see things from a slightly different perspective…

Mystery

http://mystic-pandemonium.blogspot.com

When you spread yourself thin, you don’t benefit from the synergy and creative explosion that is possible from focus.

Reading about all the Internet biz ops you’ve considered was sort of like looking into a mirror for me.

Last June I quit my job to pursue a method I came up with for making money online. Unfortunately, that business plan crashed and burned and I’ve recently had to come to the (difficult) conclusion that the plan just can’t be made to work. Since then I’ve been flailing around, jumping into one method for making money and considering a few others.

Your post is a good reminder to stop and think long term about what I am doing and what will work for me. Thank you so much, Yaro!

I really appreciate the feedback too, especially when you guys say you enjoy my candid approach compared to some of the other Internet marketers, which is a difference I am pleased you feel.

Unfortunately my sphere of influence is a lot smaller than the Internet marketers with access to lists of hundreds of thousands, but it’s always nice to have your own community, no matter what the size.