Hi,

I you haven’t already, I suggest you read the previous post about how to deal with information overload. Information overload is in my opinion one of the three biggest problems internet marketers have to face nowadays, along with failure to learn and failure to take action.

It all started as great news a few years ago. Once business owners realized that they needed to build big lists of prospects that they could email regularly in order to increase the odds of making sales, they started flooding every ad space available with free material (ebooks, sofware, audios, videos, conference calls, etc) that people can get in exchange for an email address. This made both basic and advanced online marketing knowledge available to anyone willing to apprehend this kind of information.

We all know on some level how vital knowledge is. When you think about it for a second, it is obvious why knowledge is power. Yet, we fail to gain the level of education that would eventually make failure impossible. I believe there are two main reasons for that. First, everyone likes knowing, but no one wants to work for it. Human beings are lazy, and any serious knowledge requires that you fight this natural tendency to give yourself a chance to complete the learning curve. Second, the way successful internet marketers interact with newbies is based on having them believe that this kind of effort can be avoided. Even if they fail to admit it, all business owners have their potential clients believe that if they purchase their products, they will be successful in record time. The reason they do it is it works and if they didn’t, they probably would lose a lot of money and run the risk of actually failing (this is due to the very nature of business in itself, but that’s another story).

To sum things up, misleading your clients to some extent is the safest quickest way to succeed for anyone having their own online business. This is why I said in a previous post that you need to stay away from the hype in order to have the odds in your favor.

There is no doubt in my mind that professional online marketers have a huge responsibility for the fact that 97% of their clients fail to make money online. Think about what this stat tells you about this business for a second. Yet, business owners are not the only ones to blame for this terrible situation. This is a two way street and sellers are giving buyers what they want, and what they want is to get rich quick.

It is your responsibility to change your mindset to wanting to succeed IN SPITE OF the bad odds and hard work to be accomplished. Once you make this decision, a whole new picture unfolds. By accepting the fact that marketing online is hard, you start to deal with reality, ask the right questions, get the right answers, meet the right people at the right place at the right time. And then every step you take brings you closer to your goal. It takes time, but it is well worth it. Because in the end, there is a lot of money to be made online.

I can assure you that people are fantasizing so much about being wealthy that if they were guaranteed a success within a 2-3 year time frame, they would decline the offer, try to be successful quicker and take the risk to fail. Believe it ot not, THIS is the main reason why so many people fail to make a living with their online business. They follow their instinct, desires and emotions rather that relying on reason. On the contrary, successful internet marketers are the most rational people you’ll meet.

Now that you know what is at stake and what the risk is, I’m guessing you could probably use some advice on how to avoid the vicious circle of hype and information overload. Now this may surprise you, and I did not like this idea myself at first, but mentorship is how I got the most valuable and coherent information, the kind that I could not get before in spite of all the ebooks I had downloaded. The day when, out of despair, I bought a whole online course and got in contact with a successful marketer, I learned so much in just a few days that I felt like I hadn’t learned anything during the last 10 months.

First, let me make myself clear. I am not suggesting that you spend hundreds of dollars on some guru’s products, nor am I suggesting that you shouldn’t try to learn through free ebooks or any other kind of educating material. What I am saying is you should create direct contact with someone who has been through the same process you are, and who solved the same kind of problems you are facing.

The first benefit is you are going to save A LOT of time because you will get immediate personal help for the exact problems you are confronted with and you will receive advice based on what YOU need. The second benefit of mentorship is this: what you already know will make much more sense when you see how someone with online marketing experience uses this knowledge to build a coherent SYSTEM. Knowledge is power, but knowledge without practise doesn’t create results, so it becomes useless. All the knowledge you acquire will be put to better use if you are shown how to produce results with it. It’s really a problem of putting the pieces together, and this is the kind of empirical knowledge you only get through practise and coaching. The latter will save yourself months of tests and hesitations if you go to the right person(s).

Who should you look for? Don’t go to Mike Filsaime or Stephen Pierce Right away. Not only are there people not helping others for free, they are generally not available for one on one tutoring. The key is to look for someone with more experience than you but not too much, because that person needs to be able to relate to what you are going through. Make sure that anybody you plan on working with is fully available. Only then will you be speeding up your learning curve and seeing results. Take the time to make contacts on forums or business oriented social networking sites, and ask questions to test your contacts’ sincerity. In any case, run away if you start feeling uncomfortable with anyone you initiated a mentoring relationship with.

Another lesser known type mentoring relationship I strongly encourage you to build is the kind where you get to mentor people with less experince than you. I don’t care how inexperienced you are, you can always help someone, at least with some aspects that you are more familiar with than them. Everything you know you should share to start long term business relationships. This is as important as finding your own mentors, because these people can be your future business partners. There is nothing like one on one contact for business. By investing in this type of direct human contact, not only will you get partners, but you will learn faster and more efficiently. You will also gain confidence, motivation, plus you will generate teamwork dynamic, three absolutely key elements to making money online.

If you read the previous post, you already know that I try to practise what I teach. One of the main reasons I created this blog was to be able to help whomever feels like they could use some help to start making money online. I work online full time, and I enjoy interacting with people, so feel free to contact me, whether you feel you need a mentor or not!

Damien