To Darn Many Ways to Make Money!

by Dale Calvert

Published on this site: October 19th, 2006 - See more articles from this month

Affiliate Marketing, Google Ad Words, Google Ad Sense, Network Marketing, Niche Marketing, Direct Mail, Real Estate, Stock Market Investing, Direct Marketing, The 4X Market, High Yield Investment Programs, Direct Sales, EBay and Online Auctions, Information Marketing.....the list goes on and on and on and on.

Where do you start?

What do you do?

Here is a story that you may relate with and hopefully provide a couple of ah ha moments. About 3 years ago I was speaking at an Internet Marketing Conference in Orlando, Florida. On the front row was a bright eyed enthusiastic young man in his twenties named Rob.

I was one of the first speakers at the event and my topic was "How to Create a $5,000+ Monthly Income with EBay and Online Auctions". I could tell during my presentation that Rob was getting excited about the possibilities of making money with EBay & creating cash flow with online auctions.

When my presentation was over several attendees went to the back of the room to invest in one of my training programs. Rob was the first in line. I discovered later that Rob had invested in my Deluxe $1,500.00 How to make money with EBay package which included 8 hours of 1 on 1 training and coaching along with the DVD's CD's and manual.

I noticed throughout the weekend that Rob invested in 3 or 4 other programs during the seminar. I thought to myself, this is good. He is a newbie and he is going to try to find the right cash generating program for himself. I had the opportunity to visit with Rob briefly towards the end of the weekend, and sure enough he had inherited about $10,000 recently and decided to invest that money into a financial vehicle that would get him out of his dead end job working for the airlines.

I reminded him to contact our office to schedule his first 1-on-1 coaching session and encouraged him that online auctions can be used as a marketing division with whatever business he choose, even if he didn't want to do auctions as a stand alone business. This concept is discussed at http://www.FundedProposals.com.

Six weeks later, I was reviewing my client list and going through some records and I realized that Rob had never called our office to schedule his first one-on-one session which he had already paid for. I rarely do this, but I decided to pick up the phone and check in with Rob.

He told me that he had marked in his day timer to call me that week. He then went on to share with me three or four businesses that he had unsuccessfully tried over the past 6 weeks that had not made him a penny. This was a clue, that this gentleman definitely had unrealistic expectations and I made a mental note to discuss this during our first telephone consulting session, which we had scheduled for a week later.

Over the next 5 weeks Rob and I met on the phone once a week. My goal was to teach him how to make money on EBay and become a full time entrepreneur He got 20 items from his closet and garage on EBay during the first week and sold 16, which is statistically above average.

His second week using some techniques we taught he put $301.00 cash in his pocket. The fourth week almost $500.00 more and he jumped over the $500 mark his 6th week earning $711.00. At this point Rob was well on his way to creating a full time income successfully selling on EBay, and I knew it was just a matter of weeks until he would be able to submit his resignation to the airlines.

His sixth week, he didn't call in for his scheduled training session. I assumed that something had come up and was confident that he would be calling to reschedule. At this point I certainly wasn't going to beg him to continue his "self education".

Three years go buy and I never heard from Rob again, until about 2 ½ weeks ago. The phone rang at our office and my assistant told me there is someone named Rob XXXX on the line. I thought to myself Rob XXXX, I know that name, how do I know that name? (I use XXXX to protect the guilty, but I will personally be sending him a copy of this article)

I took the call, and as soon as I heard his voice everything came back to me. Rob, what happened to you? I responded. I will never forget his response. "Well you know what the problem is Mr. Calvert, there are just too darn many ways to make money" He went on to tell me that he still had his crummy job at the airlines, and all he had been doing for the past 3 years was basically spinning his wheels, trying one entrepreneur enterprise after another.

He said he made the most progress during the short 6 weeks we spent together learning how to make money on EBay and he was ready to pay me my consulting and coaching fee to get him back on track and his income to $3,500 a month with online auctions so he could quit his job.

I see this epidemic everywhere I go. Would be full time, home based, entrepreneurs that are suffering from information over load. They are a jack of all money making methods and a master of none!

Is this you?

I have to admit, at one time that was me. I became so fascinated with the Internet and the possibilities that I spent hours upon hours studying different systems and implementing few or none of those systems.

Here is what I have discovered.

Choose the strategy & systems very carefully.

You must ask yourself, am I looking for short term or long term cash flow?

Is this a system that I want to run for a long time or short time?

What are the realistic income possibilities for this project? This is a very important question. One of the best quotes I have heard over the years is "You have to say no to a lot of good projects to make certain you have time for the great ones"

Once you decide on a project, you must Stay With it, until you are profitable!

Always remember that the problem is not the project or the system. If other people are making it work, so can you. The real problem is always in the mirror.

The best money you can spend is on one-on-one coaching from a mentor who knows what they are doing. These type of coaches can take years off of your learning curve, and will pay you back 100 times what you invest in their knowledge and expertise.

I personally do consulting with people in three our four niche markets. I also personally pay a coach in another market I am in the process of mastering. I am always amazed that most of the time the people that hire me to coach or consult with them are already full time entrepreneurs earning strong six figure incomes. Yet the newbie will spend $97.00 over and over for the latest eBooks on the newest hot trend and never even consider hiring a coach. Listen, even Tiger Woods needs a coach!

Once you start a project, Stay With it, until it is profitable.

Think BIG! Once you have a project that is working, ask yourself, how can I duplicate this?

I recently had a lady from Utah call me and wanted to hire me to consult with her one on one to teach here how to make money with EBay & get her business started and profitable. She was very discouraged because she had spent the last six months focusing on how to create a website designed to create income from Adsense. After she got her "self education", she built her site in less than 3 hours. She said she had finally figured out the formula after spending almost $2, 0000 on books and courses, but last month she only averaged about $5.00 a day from her sight.

My response, "You don't need me, you need 999 more websites". This ladies problem was she wasn't thinking big enough and she wasn't thinking duplication. I told her after she had 1,000 websites each earning her $5.00 a day ($5,000 a day total) She could call me if she wanted and I could help her get to $5,000 a month in profit with EBay and online auctions. She thanked me for the paradigm shift and hopefully I will never hear from her again until we are speaking together at a seminar somewhere.

Is it time for you to quit spinning your wheels and get focused on exactly what systems and cash generating programs you want to master? A free book entitled The Top 6 Cash flow Systems for 2006 might help you, and you can get your copy at http://www.2006Top6.com.

After you decided, get some coaching, get profitable & duplicate!

Dale Calvert - is a self-made marketing millionaire & CEO of Calvert Marketing Group. A Directory of his sites can be found at http://www.DaleCalvert.com and his site which teaches people How to Make Money on Ebay is at http://www.OnlineAuctionU.com where you can sign up for his "No Fluff" Ezine.