Ever wondered why entitlement will kill your online business? When I started out online, I knew nothing. I bought several courses from a few different people. One guy I remember was called Shaun Smith. He promised the Earth and promoted a strategy using Google Adsense. If you’ve ever tried making money using a blog and Google Adsense you’ll know it’s far from easy. Needless to say it didn’t work. Well, it worked and I did make my first money online. But I made only pennies (cents if you’re in the US).
But this was a long time ago. This was probably around 2005 when I was struggling online trying everything I could get my hands on.
After Shaun’s course I bought another and another. Many times I jumped ship because another “shiny” object came along promising an easier ride. I took the bait over and over.
Why Entitlement Will Kill Your Online Business
Cynicism hit me hard and I gave up several times. But my situation gave me time off with little income. I was working as a stunt performer in the UK. So when work came in I was well paid. But work was thin on the ground and so I had to take many jobs in between stunt work.
Each crappy job I took made me realise how much I needed something of my own to escape the cycle of trading time for money – especially in jobs which meant nothing to me beyond the financial gain. I wanted to learn how to stop trading time for money.
So I traded some financial security for time off in between stunt contracts and used this time to learn how to make money from the internet.
This wasn’t going to be easy and I knew it! But I kept on going no matter what!
Why Entitlement Will Kill Your Online Business – You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
There’s a number of reasons why entitlement will kill your online business. Looking back now I wish I could have found a mentor much earlier. Back then there wasn’t the options available today. I learned many skills which are not so necessary to know with an online business today.
I built hundreds of websites after purchasing a course which taught SEO – search engine optimisation. Sadly I failed in most of them. A couple of my sites floated to the top of Google but making money from them was tough. I moved on to another strategy after several months of work but little to show for it.
The next course I purchased was called The Keyword Academy. It doesn’t exist now but taught how to build content around keyword targeted articles. The main strategy was, again ranking sites on Google. However, changes in Google algorithms over several years probably forced their close.
I spent such a long time on all these strategies without really earning anything from it all. I had one of two sales but overall I only had the hindsight and experience to show from it!
Getting Caught In Bad Strategies
I had spent so long in some strategies that it became difficult not to keep going. This is similar now to traditional workers accepting that there’s better ways to do things today! If someone has spent decades believing in their career path, it’s very hard to accept that there’s easier and better ways to do things.
I jumped on board yet another course. This time I learned some paid marketing. It brought some fast results too and I made several sales through building a sales funnel and advertising one affiliate product.
Sale, sale, sale, sale is what I saw on waking up one morning! It was fantastic. However shortly before I was able to scale up my paid advertising campaign, Google shut me down! I couldn’t recover my account either, it was brutal back then!
Self Pity Time
I dropped out for a while feeling sorry for myself. I just didn’t know of all the problems I would be facing. Since I was doing everything alone, there was no-one to guide me and help me avoid the many pitfalls I found.
I couldn’t get my account back with Google, and had to turn back to organic strategies. So, I carried on each time I got knocked back. But each time I was a little less enthusiastic and a little more apathetic.
I also fell into the entitlement trap too. Having worked so hard and for such a long time, I figured I deserved success! But online success isn’t ever deserved. The results simply speak for themselves.
The Entitlement Trap
Buying a product online can make you feel like you’re making progress. You can take some action and feel accomplished. But as an affiliate marketer or blogger, your results speak for themselves. Without sales you still make no money!
The entitlement trap is to expect the result (financial freedom/income) without doing the work needed to create it. In the online space too, you can very easily procrastinate and or spend time on the wrong activities. Some activities will never bring you the results you want. I thought I could write a few blog posts a week and make a fortune! I was wrong!
Over several years of working online, I slowly discovered the truth. Nothing is a “given” online. You can buy all the tools and mentors you like online but in the end it comes down to the actions you take, how long you keep going and your mentality.
The entitlement trap is a feeling of expecting things to happen without having done the right action steps. When you start out, you don’t know those steps. The best way is to find a mentor and learn from people who have the result you’re looking for.
Feeling entitled means putting the excuses for failure outside yourself. It’s an expectation of success without the work. Once you fully own responsibility for your successes and failures, you can become more empowered to succeed. Without doing so means a part of you doesn’t take that responsibility and this always means disempowering yourself.