Have you ever wondered what separates successful marketers from the unsuccessful ones?

In the beginning I never really thought about it too much. I was too excited about this new way I’d found to help me quickly and easily make money. I never expected that I’d be ‘unsuccessful’.

I now know how difficult it can be, especially when starting out, to ‘crack the code’ of online marketing.  

To be enamoured by the dream of achieving financial and time freedom. And the idea that I could break the shackles that tied me to my meagre existence working a job, hand to mouth, while helping someone else realise their dream, and not my own….

My problem back then was that I lacked the discipline to put into practice and follow through on the marketing training I had at my fingertips. I had access to a successful multiple 6 figure earner mentor, and for some reason wasn’t able to grasp the lessons back then. Not only that, I was also very easily lured by many of the hyped up systems out there.

This is partly what led to me ‘failing’ in my online business. I let myself get distracted, shiny object syndrome, and took the easy road building my business the wrong way, with the wrong focus and relying solely the businesses that I joined, which I had zero control over, to make money.

This resulted in me becoming disillusion and then quitting, for a while. I go into more detail in part 1 & 2 of my online journey.

Lessons learned

I can now see the value in doing things the wrong way, and the experience has been a catalyst that has pushed me into building my online business the right way. Building a solid foundation by following the marketing training provided by my mentor and implementing it step by step.

Time to do this

“Don’t ever rely on someone else's online business or project as your main source of income. Instead, set up a system that you have control over, that you own, and make that your online business. Sure, join other businesses or programs, do your due diligence as best you can, promote them if you like, use them as vehicles to make some money. But never, ever rely solely on them.”

Fortunately we don’t need to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. And part of the beauty is that we can leverage certain systems, platforms, knowledge and education to create what I like to refer to as an online income generating asset. This is in my view, the right way to build an online business.

Focusing on laying solid foundations, by following a time tested and proven formula used by successful marketers to achieve results that will blow your mind.

Will it take some time to do this?

Will it take graft?

Will it take commitment and clear focus?

Will it mean sacrificing some things to make time for this?

The answer, you guessed it, is a resounding YES! Of course it will.

Will it be easy?

Probably not… but it is relatively simple.

If you’re looking for easy, then it’s likely you’ll end up going about building your online business the wrong way. You’ll likely end up relying on some business or system that is out of your control, to make you money. And it might for a while. But chances are it wont last long.

An Online Income Generating Asset  

The beauty of having your own online asset is that you are in control. You have ownership of it and it is your business. It can take some time to get this set up, and a whole lot of learning too (but relative to traditional business model, it can be done in a fraction of the time), there’s no avoiding it if we are really serious about our business.

This of course comes with responsibility. It’s up to us to treat it like a real business, to turn up and do the tasks that need doing. To engage in ‘money making ‘ activity every day.

Sure, once set up we are able to use the tools and systems in place to automate many of the functions and processes, resulting in more free time for ourselves. And there may be phases where we need to spend more time on our business. But we can control that.

The Components of an Online Asset

Lets take a closer look at the different elements our online asset is comprised of which includes a simple and effective marketing process.

1 - Traffic: people that we can show our business, offer or product to. This could be in various forms, paid advertising, blog, banner ads, email, text ads etc..

2 - Landing page: - this can be a simple web page that is designed to peak interest in the product, business or service on offer. It also has the means by which interested people can enter in their contact details in order to find out more.

3 -  Information page: once someone has entered their contact details, they become a lead and are directed to an information page. This could be a presentation video or blog post about the product or service. This is where your lead can make a more informed decision and whether they are interested or not.

4 - Contact manager: leads can be organised and managed in the contact management system so that we are able to communicate and follow up with them. In this way we can continue showing them the benefits of the product, business or service that they showed interest in. This way it’s more likely that leads will become customers. It’s also more likely that these leads will purchase other products or services from us in the future.  

5 - Testing: this is an important element of the marketing process. Testing different landing and information pages could be the difference between traffic becoming a lead and then a customer, or not.

It’s important to  test the effectiveness of our pages based on how they perform, not our personal preference. Just because we like the look of a certain page, does not mean that others will.

Having a system in place that allows us to test, could be the difference between having some success or massive success.

6 -  Automation: another important element is having the ability to automate our system. We do the work once, get it set up and it can be used over and over.. we don’t necessarily need to be there for it to be working. In this way we have the means to scale up our online asset over time, to the level we choose.

Having an online income generating asset set up in the way described above, or something similar, is what I have come to see, separates the successful marketers from the unsuccessful. This is the same system used by 5/6/7 figure earners, for ongoing success online.

Consistent work with the right system = success

Someone just starting out with online marketing could be forgiven for thinking that they can achieve overnight success without doing much work. The way that certain systems and businesses are marketed can and do give that impression.

What is not seen is all the work done done behind the scenes. The relentless consistency, the learning, the testing, following up and the system used - the online asset - in order to achieve consistent results.

It’s important to realise that if you want to succeed online, then it will take work. You will also need a system in place that will help you achieve your goals. Saying that, you don’t need to go it alone. There is support out there as well as awesome products that can and will help you achieve your online goals.

Have a look here at my number 1 recommendation.  

Let me know in the comments your thoughts and experience with online marketing - and how it was for you when you first started out.