I spent some time looking for the instant internet lifestyle and jumping ship from one internet program to another. I was seduced by the thought of a magic formula for instant internet riches. Unfortunately the internet will not give people the ‘instant’ success they are hoping for without a large amount of hard work, sacrifice and sweat! Some people, of course, will have an early success and figure it all out within a few months but it’s still not without sacrifice. The large portion of would-be internet entrepreneurs will give up before they see any tangible results. Why? Because they are not prepared to slog it out in the long run and are only looking for a quick win!
Instant Internet Lifestyle
My internet journey started with ebay several years ago. I used to buy and sell items either from car boot sales or the auction site itself and then list them on ebay, selling for a profit. You can see my ebay strategy in my article how to start a profitable ebay business. Â My business model wasn’t up to par so I started looking for something else. I was spending a lot of time standing at the post office waiting to weigh my items, trawling through charity shops looking for bargains and standing at car boot sales at far-too-early o’clock in the morning. I knew about on-line ‘vending machines‘ or at least that is what I had heard them being called. Now I know this is affiliate marketing.
Affiliate Marketing – An Online ‘Vending Machine’
Having an affiliate business is much simpler than what I was doing with my ebay business. Although some ebay models are more efficient, I turned my attention to affiliate marketing.
I was seduced by many ‘get rich quick’ schemes which promised to make me a fortune. I built hundreds of sites which had email capture pages as their main page and which linked to affiliate products. They were keyword targeted but none of them ranked on Google and after several months I realized that this wasn’t going to ever work! I needed another model.
Unfortunately the internet is a buzz with thousands of ‘schemes’ promising the earth for only $49! I signed up to a few of these diligently working my way through the endless videos and creating content, advertising and linking to affiliate products. I had the odd success over time with both affiliate marketing and Google adsense but nothing of any real lasting value. It was far from an instant internet lifestyle!
Instant Gratification
Part of the problem was that there was no continuity in what I was doing. I didn’t have a method of making money which I believed in strongly enough to keep going in the same direction. No sooner had I discovered a tiny success in one method, I was distracted by another ‘online guru’ who could get bigger results faster. So I joined the merry-go-round of ‘instant internet lifestyle’ training courses!
My instant internet lifestyle was one of misery – juggling several jobs and trying to keep going with my affiliate business, I never seemed to get anywhere! Constantly stressed  and with hundreds of websites which made virtually no money! I quit my full time job because I couldn’t keep everything going and I was miserable. I still had a couple of part time businesses offline and wanted to be free of a boss. This dream kept me going and I persevered with the online stuff.
Multiple Online Business Strategies
At this point I had tried most online income strategies and had had some success. Â Google Adsense was working on some sites and I had sold a couple of affiliate products through my websites with content generation. My Adwords account got shut down after I found a working strategy which was selling products! However, Â I could still see some light at the end of a very long tunnel!
I found Stuart Ross’s video on Facebook and was immediately intrigued by how he came across. He wasn’t the usual type of internet guru who promised the instant results so many do. He was more reserved and I thought there was some integrity in that – something which is rare on the internet! I signed up to the email and followed the 7 day video course. (Sign up here). His ‘ethos’ is to under promise and over deliver which he did. There was access to so much information in the back office I decided to upgrade my membership and join their program.
Why Mindset Is So Important
It is several months now since joining the SFM and I have already learned so much of what was holding me back. In terms of skills I had already learned  far more online skills than many people who were having far better results than me. Many of the things I had learned were simply not needed and I had gone down a path of constant learning but never achieving! Much of the self development content in the early modules made me realize this.
Mindset is such an important factor when you are working on your own. It is easy to get disappointed and demoralized when there is no-one there to motivate you or point you in the right direction. Eventually you have to trust someone. This can be a hard task in the online world where everyone is trying to take your money! I bit the bullet though and decided if I don’t commit to it completely I would always be stuck where I was. I started again and decided I knew nothing, really, since I hadn’t had yet the success which I had dreamed of and hoped for.
Get A Mentor
Having a mentor in the SFM has been truly invaluable and it is very difficult to succeed on your own with an internet business. The community of the SFM are committed to helping each other and there is always a place to have your questions answered there. With a constant flow of webinars, seminars and a chance to meet up with people who are on a similar path, the SFM has definitely been of huge benefit to my online journey.
If you are looking for something similar I would highly recommend checking out this video of Stuart Ross. It’s the one which I originally found on Facebook thanks to my sponsor Oliver Mallory – Thanks Oli!