This Internet thing is kicking my butt and from what I have studied

Q: I have spent the past few months trying so hard to start an ecommerce business. I have read virtually everything you have written. I have listened in on more than one of your teleconferences.

I have clicked and spent and clicked and spent and clicked and spent. I filled the laundry basket and sold on eBay. I became a Clickbank affiliate (I think I am an affiliate of almost the entire Internet).

I know that it's ironic that I want to make money on the Internet considering I have not one drop of technical skill in my body, but I am a single mom: bottom line is my kids NEED me... and I really and truly am relentless when it comes to getting what I want (in other words, what I lack in technical skills I make up for in persistence.)

Please, please, please...just give me one word or sign or anything...that this CAN be done by the little people (such as myself). Otherwise, I will return to my 5am job that exhausts me so much I can't even tell my children apart anymore (which isn't flattering to a daughter and son that are almost 5 years apart in age!).

This Internet thing is kicking my butt and from what I have studied, you are the "Dr. Phil" of the ecommerce wannabe's, successes and everything in between. (Please don't be offended by the comparison with Dr. Phil....I merely use this in the most pop-culture way possible).

I swear, I am ready to sacrifice my PC in the backyard firepit and return to my old typewriter: that is how frustrated I am.
Thanks for letting me vent (must be an estrogen thing).

-- Mary (real name withheld)

A: Hi Mary, The first thing you need to do is close your eyes, take a deep breath and let it out slowly.
(repeat as necessary :o).

First, let me say that I understand your frustration, but it has been my experience that most people in your situation (including yours truly when I was first starting out) create much of their own frustration because they put themselves under too much pressure to succeed quickly. Their situation is not a happy one and they want to change it TODAY. When that doesn't happen, frustration and anger can set in.

Everyone wants to hit home runs the first time at bat. They want big money and they want it fast. When results don't come as quickly as they think they should they say, "This Internet thing doesn't work and those who claim to make money are scammers!"

I have been an Internet marketer for 3 years now. The first year I did miserably. I lost about $5,000 trying to figure it all out on my own. One day it occurred to me that succeeding would be much easier if I knew what the heck I was doing.

You see, I, like so many others, didn't take the time to educate myself on Internet marketing. I saw others making money online and figured if they could do it, I could, too.

I just found the crowded pool and dove in head first. As you expect, I almost drowned because I had not taken the time to learn how to swim. Heck, I couldn't even float...

So I stopped what I was doing and became a student instead of practitioner. I discovered that I was making every mistake in the book because I had not taken the time to learn what to do, and more importantly, what not to do.

After losing a ton of cash, time, and sleep, it finally started to make sense.

I remember finally making $100 profit from eBay in one week for sales of my own ebook (CD Money Machine).

I had made hundreds of thousands of dollars in other ventures, but that $100 was the hardest money I had ever made. That's why it meant so much to me. It told me that FINALLY I was doing something right.

I took that $100 and plowed it into more auction listings and just kept repeating the process.

Then I moved beyond eBay to my own website.