7 Challenges For Being An Online Marketer And How To Overcome Them

byKyoko817

987 followers

7 years ago

I have followed my husband's burning desire to having a successful internet business for a long time, watching ups and downs of being an online marketer. After dealing with a stubborn job mentality and slowly understanding and reviewing my true value (I was a major under-earner), I decided to take a leap of faith and start online marketing business myself.

Online business seems an easy entry to start one's own business. Many market gurus claim what a wonderful business it is. You can do your business anywhere you are, anytime you want, even at the beach or on vacation, and still getting a massive income flowing into your bank account.

After watching my husband's struggle and going through my own, I found seven major challenges for being an online marketer. Just to clarify, my post is not about "becoming" an online marketer, but "being" one. With strong desire and attitude, many people can start an online business, but staying this world requires significant disciplines.

Challenge 1: Technicality

While many Online Marketers are already technically savvy, there are quite a few people who start this business know nothing about webpage when they start out. I am one of them. I still don't like to figure out even how to manage c-panel.

WordPress made it yet easier for laymen (or laywomen) to build their websites, and its simplicity becomes more and more as time goes. Many products offer training and hosting as a package so that new online marketers can start building their website within that program.

Even though building websites become easier than ever, I believe understanding some technicality is crucial, especially knowing about security. Be aware large numbers of hackers who try to revert your hard effort, money making website to their owns to snatch potential customers from you.

Technicality can be challenging to many people, but be patient and learn foundation. There are many excellent courses for teaching how to build your website. The best way to learn is DO it. Even though it may not make sense at that time, by creating your first website, you will start understanding how it works. Don't worry you mess up your first website. You will eventually create multiple sites!

Challenge 2: Analysis Paralysis

Having your own business, you want it to be perfect. That's natural, and I am one of the champions of perfectionist. While perfectionist may be applaudable in the regular job world, it does not get you anywhere in the business.

Analysis paralysis shows up when you think too hard. From blogging, finding niche, finding products, etc. We are living in the time of overloaded information, so the more you try to do research, the more you get confused, and after hours or days, or even weeks of spending time to polish up, where are you? The same place where you started.

Repetition is a mother of learning. As Nike says, "JUST DO IT!" It does not matter it does not look professional or looks lame. If you don't keep doing it, you won't get better at it. The most dangerous thing is that to be caught up in analysis paralysis and stay in the "research mode" when you have to get out and start making money. Just Do it!

Challenge 3: Isolation

Some people may like to do your own thing and be left alone, but I believe we are creatures of being connected to one another. Being online marketers tends to end up being alone because that's the nature of this business. Although you feel relieved to get away from human drama at work, don't you sometimes miss interacting with others? I certainly do.

Finding like-minded people is getting easier as social media develops. There are many online groups as well as physical meetings such as meetup. Attending seminars or events for entrepreneurs are perfect place to connect with like-minded people, and also these events usually provide great motivational speakers to pump up your energy. You can exchange your ideas to learn something new, form a mastermind group, or even find someone to go into partnership. Don't stay home alone, get out and meet new people! Entrepreneurship is a whole lot different world from 5-9 job world.

Challenge 4: Time management

Time management can be a challenge to any entrepreneurs. You set your goals, making the schedule to achieve your goals at your own pace. After all, nobody is monitoring your progress. But because you are your own, it takes an extra discipline to stay focused. The most danger comes from the internet itself. Because your business is online, you sit in front of the computer, which throws at you extensive information. You decide to find your niche, Googling, and soon you find yourself browsing one information to another, spending unnecessary time.

Having a written schedule is crucial in time management for online marketers. Fill in your tasks in hourly basis, and once time is up, you will move on to the next even though you did not finish the previous project in time. Make sure to mark where you left out, so next time you get back, you know where you get back. You may also want to re-evaluate whether the amount of time you set was reasonable. Adjust the schedule accordingly.

In this technology age, time management system might be more favorable for many people than writing down on the paper. There is many time tracking software available. Pomodoro is a very popular metric of time which is working for 20-35 min and take a 5 min break. There is also some time tracking software based on Pomodoro.

Lastly, Time management is not only for managing idle time to enhance productivity. Many start-up business owners tend to overwork. I remember my husband sat in front of the computer for 12-15 hours a day, trying to make it work. "Doing something continuously" does not always mean being productive. In fact, your productivity will reduce when you work too much for too long time. Even though you feel you are not doing enough, have to work longer because you had not made any money, take a break often. Balancing your life is one of the important keys to success.

Challenge 5: Shiny objects

The Internet is a full of information and resources. There are many internet marketers targeting people who want to make money online. I have no idea how many programs my husband ended up purchasing. Well, I don't blame only my husband. I fell into this traps many times. How many of these many programs we bought have we indeed utilized? Not too many. This Shiny object syndrome is the most common epidemic in Online marketing world. You become a buyer instead of a seller.

To solve this problem, you will first need to realize that you are into this Shiny objects syndrome. Besides the loud noise of marketers' "this is the only thing you need to become successful!" I have to admit that the primary cause is due to our "lack" mentality. We feel we don't have enough resources. Too many resources bring nothing but confusion. Do a proper research before you fall into the marketing trap, (sometimes online review helps, although there are many affiliate marketers do reviews on products they are promoting) telling yourself "I have enough resources to be successful" a few times, and then ask yourself, "do I still need it?"

Make no mistake, continuous education is essential, as online world is constantly changing. For instance, I bought one training on Facebook marketing. It served my purpose for a little while but became irrelevant once Facebook changed allegorist. So I still believe we need to invest our education continuously. But not one after another, and the same kind of program made by another marketer! Use your resource wisely.

Challenge 6: Fear of spending money

While many online marketers who get caught into shiny objects, I also witness many of them get freaked out when they are told to spend money on advertisement. It may be because, unlike brick and motor businesses online business is easy and cheap to start out - all you need is a computer and internet - so some people may have some strange idea that you can make money with no money. Indeed, I do see some people's testimonies saying that they made a fortune with little money. Nonetheless, people become very careful about spending money when it comes to advertisement. Not the only advertisement, but there are some real "costs" attach to online business. Some people start moaning. "I don't have enough money!"

From my own feelings and my speculations, I concluded that people are reluctant to spend their own money on business out of fear. It could be fear of failure. Or fear of making mistakes. Putting out advertisement become your own decision even though some programs give you step by step instructions. It is a little bit different feeling from buying someone's advice when you put your money on something you don't know if it works or not.

Another thing I have witnessed is that people get very nervous when successful gurus share their own advertisement tracking system that shows they spent well over $1,000,000! These numbers may overwhelm some beginners, especially when their 9-5 job incomes are less than six figures.

After all, you are in the business. Business takes money to get built. The advertisement may be the most nervous expenses to some new entrepreneurs, but without advertisement, your products will never show up in the marketplace. I feel there were more online marketers than years ago when we started, and it will be more to come. The advertisement is a great investment, even though sometimes you may feel wasted when there were no sales. Keep tweaking, finding better audiences. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. These errors will become great asset to you later on.

Challenge 7: Discouraged from No Sales

Oh, how many times I got discouraged from not selling what I am offering! Even though I made some sales, I still get discouraged from the pace of the sales, especially when I pump up my money on advertisement (after overcoming challenge 5). If you are following and depending on some programs or gurus, then you start blaming on them, thinking "this is not working..." and looking for somewhere else (like Challenge 4).

You may also get discouraged to find out how many competitors are before you. Even though you are passionate about "fitness," the thousands of marketers are already selling hundreds of "fitness" products, you feel to give up.

Personally, these discouragements are the big challenge for me. Be patient. It will come. As I mentioned earlier, keep advertising. Tweak and test your ads.

One caution, though, that you will need to know time to stop selling your products. What you are selling may not be in demand. It has been particularly difficult for me when I was selling t-shirts or coffee mugs that I designed. Don't get attached the product. Move on to next product after reasonable time and amount of ads you spent and still see no sales.

Conclusion:

Having your own business is not easy. They are many challenges to overcome. These seven challenges above are what I had encountered and overcame. It is not hard to overcome if you have the willingness to take the next step. I was able to do it, so you can!