From Read to Write

If you spend any considerable time on the internet you know that opportunities abound to make money.  The problem is that there is so much information out there that it may be paralyzing.  You may worry your not good enough to write your own blog or that you don’t know enough to write your own eBook, develop your own course etc.

There is so much demand for high quality information products that if your not making money your simply not putting forth the effort in one way or another.  I know because I once believed that there is nothing that I can say, that hasn’t already been said or hasn’t already been tried.  How can I possibly make money selling a product that has in one way or another been covered by some other clever person.  However, I’m here to tell you right now why you are paralyzed.

Feeling like you need to know everything first. Writing a blog, becoming an internet marketer or starting your own business all require learning.  But how long are you going to let yourself be stuck in the learning phase?  Did you realize that you are allowed to not know everything?  Do you think that I know everything?  Hell no, I’m here to learn as well.  But what I’m doing is accepting the fact that I can learn on the way, and that it is not possible to know everything.  On the internet, everything is a changing game.

Feeling like you need to please everyone. First and foremost in whatever endeavor you take on remember that you are doing this for you.  Not for anyone else; not for you sister your Grandmother or your Great Aunt.  You need to live up to your own expectations.  You need to define what success is for you.  For me it’s having enough money to have my freedom, for me that is the ability to have time, enough money to take on some personal goals and the ability to travel.  I think Bill Cosby said it best, “I may not have the formula for success, but I know the formula for failure and that’s trying to please everyone”.  You will find your audience, it just takes time and at the same time you will find your voice too.

Fear of Failure. What if I don’t make money?  What if people laugh at me?  What if I invest all this money and it doesn’t make me a dime? What if.. What if.. What if..  Again, I’ve been there.  But you have to take a risk in order to make gains.  I feel it’s a much larger risk to let your life be dictated by others, only to find yourself sad, depressed and feeling like you’ve wasted your life.  But what is risk really?  It’s just a choice, like anything else.  Besides if you fail, you’ll undoubtably learn a lesson.  As long as you can learn from mistakes, there is no TRUE failure.

Lack of Belief in Yourself. So many people just simply feel that something is too hard or too above themselves.  Which means you’ve cut yourself off even before you’ve started.  You’ve thought of a thousand reasons why you can’t do something or why it won’t work.  But you need to open up to accepting your talents and your voice.  You may have others telling you that you shouldn’t try or that you are a dreamer.

Fear of Picking a Niche. People are fundamentally afraid they will box themselves in.  The way I see it though, is that there is always a way to write what you want and tie it into your choosen blog topic.  There is always a story to be told from a different perspective.  A financial blog can talk about cooking.  I say write about what speaks to you.  If you open up and share stuff about your life, most people are not going to abandon you.  Because they may be entranced by your voice, your style and your unique point of view.  A perfect example is the author Tim Ferriss, made popular by his book the 4 Hour Work Week.

My best advice is make a commitment to yourself that you will post X number of articles per week and spend X amount of time promoting them.  Then you can gleefully focus on everything else in your life.