At the end of my first year online I was spending at least eight hours a day, and was NOT making any money. Finally, in frustration and about ready to throw in the towel, I went to one of my mentors, Alex Mandossian, and explained my situation.
Sensing my anxiety, he asked me what I was doing. As I began to tell my story, he stopped me and said, "There are only four activities you can be spending your time on: (1) technology, (2) products, (3) traffic, and (4) conversion. Since you've selected your products, that leaves only three: technology, traffic and conversion. What percentage of your time are you spending on each?"
I thought for a few minutes. "I'd guess I'm spending about 50-60% of my time on technology issues, maybe 30-40% on traffic and maybe 10% on conversion."
Alex then said, "That's why you're not making any money.
The secret to making money online is real SIMPLE, you have to spend at least 90% of your time focused on traffic and conversion because that's where the money's made. You can't spend any more than 10% of your time on technology, unless you intend to become a webmaster."
WOW, it was like I'd been hit on the head with a brick. I knew he was right. I suddenly realized that I was totally tangled up trying to manage a lot of complex the technologies. No wonder I wasn't making any money.
"How do you do that?" I asked.
Alex replied, "It's simple, hire a Webmaster to handle the technologies so you can focus on getting traffic and making money."
To which I said, "What do people do who can't afford Webmasters?"
"They don't usually make any money unless they're a geek."
Since Alex gave me the secret, I've surveyed hundreds of people and found that violating his 90-10 rule is the biggest single reason people fail online. It's absolutely true: if you want to make money you must spend at least 90% of your time getting traffic and learning conversion skills, which means you can't manage the technologies yourself.
If you're already online and not making much money, ask yourself this question.
What percentage of your efforts are spent managing the technologies, versus
traffic and conversion?
There's a reason that all the successful Internet marketers and online entrepreneurs hire Webmasters to manage their technologies. If you attempt to set up and manage the technology requirements yourself, you have a very high probability of failing.
