Archive for the ‘Tough Question Tuesday’ Category

Following up on my small rant about “correctly“…

Often when I’m interviewed, people ask me “What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made with your online business?” I always find it hard to even process that question.

Sure I’ve goofed up a lot, but I prefer not to view things in terms of mistakes or negative experiences. For me, every goof up, mix up or blip has been a learning experience for me.

From causing my whole website to disappear to setting up my Yahoo group newsletters so people could spam it, to delivering the wrong product to customers… I’ve learned a lot of things. I still make mistakes, but it’s a part of life.

I think a lot of people focus on mistakes and worry so much about making them that they are paralyzed.

They think:

1. What if this isn’t the right autoresponder for me? (Result: mailing list not built – lost profits)

2. What if my info product isn’t good enough? (Result: no products are sold)

3. What if this isn’t quite the right WordPress theme? (Result: blog isn’t updated – lost traffic)

4. What if my sales copy isn’t good enough? (Result: no products sold and no opportunity for split testing an improving conversion)

I think you get the point. Without action, nothing happens. And without action, you don’t get to learn the best course of action. Sometimes you just have to DO to get where you want to go.

So what is my biggest mistake? I don’t have one because I can’t consider something that helped me learn and grow to be a mistake.

So maybe the question for you is: “What was your Biggest LEARNING Opportunity?”

Do you ever wish you had the ability to do certain tasks in your own business instead of paying someone else to do it for you? If you could become skilled at one thing you currently outsource, what would it be and why?

For me, it would have to be graphics. My talent in that area, well, it doesn’t exist, and so I spend a lot of money every month having graphics made for me. It would be cool to learn how to do some of things my graphic designer does.

So how about you? What skill would you like to learn and apply to your business?

If you could eliminate one task that you do in your online business, what would it be? Why?

Of course, it may be an important task to your online business, but if you could get rid of the burden/extra work/etc., what what you choose?

For me, I actually enjoy most of the work I do. If I don’t, it’s already been assigned to my VA. Or if it’s not already assigned and I start to hate doing it…guess what? My VA gets that too.

So how about you? What would you eliminate from you to do list and why?

If you’ve ever gone to an Internet marketing forum and complained about an Internet marketing tactic that made you cringe, you may have met with responses like:

• “Well they do it because it works!”
• “Classic…an Internet marketer complaining about being marketed to.”

What-ev-errr…sometimes it’s okay to get your frustrations out. And here is your chance to complain without any judgment or argument. It’s simply your answer to the question:

What annoys you about Internet marketing (and perhaps an idea of how you could make the tactic better)?

Have fun posting, but then get back to some serious work (even if some of what you do annoys other people now and then)!

Now and then I hear (very honest) people talk about how their envy of others’ success often paralyzed them in their own business growth. It can definitely be frustrating when you’re working so hard and things seem to fall into other people’s laps. Sometimes we might become jealous of the wrong things (i.e. successes that we don’t even want for ourselves). Jealous and envy can be a tricky feeling.

Have you ever experienced jealousy? How did it affect you…and if you got over it, how did you do it?

If you’re doing this online thing full time, do you ever think or even dream about going back to your old job?

Despite the fact that the pay and the hours suck, I admit I do think about the simplicity of the 9 to 5 grind. You go to work, get your work done (or if you work for the government like I did…get as much of it done as you can in your set hours) and you go home. Period. It’s done until the next day. Problem is, you have to come back the next day, put in a solid 8 and that kinda sucks. And you miss your kids like crazy.

What about you? Do you have any daydreams like this?

Yesterday, we released our quiz (over 187 people have taken it so far) that creates a customized plan to help you increase your hourly worth as you work in your business. This means you can earn a full-time income (or more) in part-time hours if you make adjustments and continuously work for great efficiency and productivity.

So, here’s a question if you’re cool with answering -> Do you make more per hour in your online business or do you/did you make more per hour in your job? Now I’m not talking about overall income…you may very well make more or less with your business…we’re just talking how much you make for each hour worked.

I know a lot of online business owners do things that they’ve always done simply because they feel like they have to…or because it’s just what they’ve always done them – despite the fact there is no benefit to their business from doing so.

Um yeah, I do it too sometimes.

But it’s time for you to confess. What do you do in your online business over and over again, despite the fact you KNOW it’s not helping you grow.