Dispelling the i-myths

Dispelling the i-myths

There is a common problem out there amongst the many people wanting to get started running a business on the Internet. And this problem is being fuelled by all the confusion and dissinformation out there at the moment.

People know they need to get in on the action here, but they don’t know where to start.

Do you feel much the same way?
Do you feel like you’re still stood on the sideline, watching everything happening around you, but you can’t seem to get into the ‘game’?

Well you’re not alone. There are countless thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of people out there who feel the same way.

The problem is there is such a massive weight of information out there, much of it conflicting, that it’s difficult for most people to know where to turn. It’s a case of massive ‘information overload’ and not enough time to look into it; not enough time to work through all the hype and nonsense to get to the truth. And to make matters worse, every man and his dog are telling you what you should be doing.

And I have to tell you, a large number of those people, even many of the ‘so called’ experts are telling you wrong.

For example, much of the mainstream press is still encouraging people to organise and set up complicated ‘never been seen before’ business concepts; urging you to set up in the 'Dot Com' arena and try to follow in the footsteps of well-known companies like lastminute.com. But that really is the hard way to go about it.

If there’s one thing I should emphasise to you here and now, it is to beware of the advice of others who might appear to be ‘in the know’, since, in reality, a lot of what they tell you (even if it is well intentioned advice), is not necessarily accurate and is not what you really need to know.

In truth, many of the ‘gurus’ and 'information providers' selling you Newsletters and manuals, ebooks and ezines on the subject, know very little more than you do!!

Many of them are still just learning themselves, stumbling around in the dark, hoping they’ve got it right (and often merely relying on the ‘advice’ of other so called ‘gurus’ whom they think might know what they’re talking about).

So you do need to be careful out there.

Beware of Poor Advice

By way of example, the sort of advice many people are pushing forward is as follows (you can use this as a guide for what NOT to get involved with!):

Firstly, be aware that most of the new internet based magazines, newsletters, business and marketing related manuals etc. provide little more than 'sound bites'; snippets of information on what others are doing (or planning to do), most of whom are the big 'monster business building' 'Dot Com' hopefuls with a long line of deep pocketed investors behind them.

The advice is usually:

"discover something no-one has ever done before, research your subject, look for investors, build your management team, spend 6 to 12 months preparing your new venture. Then spend the next couple of year's running at a loss (but with your business valued at £ millions) then sell up and retire!"

Well as I'm sure you know by now, that's the hard way to do it!!

OR, they provide some basic ideas and very generalised information, about how to convert an unsuitable traditional 'bricks and mortar' retail/wholesale business to the web (which in most cases will fail for reasons we've explained in other articles).

OR (not surprisingly) many of the biz opp companies are simply transferring their old 'offline' products to the web i.e. they try to get you to buy their 'publishing package' with reprint rights to hundreds of manuals, reports, guides etc. (but usually these manuals are not very saleable, so you are wasting your time).

OR, many are trying to persuade you to join their multi-level marketing company and "make loads of money without lifting a finger". There are lots of dodgy Internet based MLM 'Schemes' out there. Many are currently being investigated by various 'authorities'. You should leave well alone!

OR one that appears to be the 'favourite' at the moment is to suggest you register lots of domain names then sell them to other people for huge profits!! Obviously, lots of people are attracted to this, since it appears so simple to do. But that's exactly why the biz opp publishers write about it so vigorously: they know it's what people want to hear.

The reality is there ARE ways of selling on domain names for a good profit. However most people are not giving you the true facts on how to do it. And the truth is, domain name buying and selling is highly speculative. It is almost akin to gambling; so unless you can afford to lose I'd advise you leave well alone!!

OR, you’re told how you can 'easily make a fortune' simply by signing up to lots of affiliate programmes and doing practically nothing else. The truth is, this is a sham. And unless you know exactly what you're doing, you're simply wasting your time. You need guidance to know how to go about this and most of these people do not provide it!

OR, they suggest you try to sell products which are totally unsuitable for selling over the web, so even if you did manage to get your business off the ground, your chances of success are nil before you even start!

OR, they concentrate too heavily on silly ‘pocket money’ schemes like some of the new get paid while you surf the web programmes, which literally will only ever pay out pennies.

What is most damaging about all of this is that such poor advice will distract your attention away from genuine ways of setting up and running an Internet based business.

Most importantly here, despite what many others are saying, you really must forget about trying to think up some amazing new, novel and unique concept to base your internet business around. That really is the hard way to do it, and is not just unlikely to succeed, but is very, very risky.

This sort of business is not really suitable for the ordinary person. And let’s face it, you could spend all your life just trying to think up some kind of grand unique concept when what you really should be doing is concentrating in other areas.

So, do be careful who's advice you listen to.

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