In my last post I asked “what was the biggest challenge facing you when you first started your work from home internet marketing online business?” and I’d like to thank everyone who contributed to my survey.

I promised to share the results with you so here they are:

39% stated that “information overload” and where and how to get started was their biggest challenge.
13% stated that lack of technical knowledge was their biggest challenge.
13% stated lack of focus was their biggest challenge.
9% stated the inability to select a niche was their biggest challenge.
9% stated a lack of (or inability to maintain) motivation and self-belief was their biggest challenge.
5% stated lack of traffic was their biggest challenge.
5% stated not knowing how to successfully monetize a site or an inability to convert traffic into sales was their biggest challenge.
5% stated lack of time or poor time management was their biggest challenge.
1% stated not knowing which business model to use was their biggest challenge.
1% stated trying to “get rich quick” instead of building a genuine and sustainable business was their biggest challenge.

Reading the comments, a very common picture emerged, one that is very familiar to me …

You decide that you want to set up a work from home internet marketing online business and are full of excitement, motivation and anticipation because you’ve found an internet marketing course that will teach you how to make “squillions” of dollars online quickly and easily.

You devour the course and try to implement what you’ve learned but it assumes a level of technical knowledge that you don’t have and there is no support to answer your queries.

You can’t make it work but it’s OK because someone has very kindly emailed you about another internet marketing course that will show you how to make “squillions” of dollars online even more quickly and easily. So you buy it but you don’t have a list of customers or any joint venture partners so it doesn’t work for you.

But its OK because someone else has very kindly sent you an email about an even better internet marketing course …

And so it goes on.

You end up flitting from course to course, half-heartedly trying each one, failing to achieve the results you were hoping for and then getting distracted by something better, easier, quicker. Very soon you have information coming out of your ears and don’t know what is worth focusing on.

You are investing loads of time and money but are going nowhere fast. Time is passing, your bank account is emptying and all you seem to be learning is just how little you know about internet marketing.

Does this sound familiar?

Another trend that emerged from the comments from those who responded to my survey was that they only really made progress once they found a mentor – someone they trusted who showed them, step-by-step, exactly what to do and provided on-going support to help them along the way.

Only then were they able to focus on one workable system which took their business to the next level.

In fact, I don’t know of any successful people who don’t have a mentor.

So, the moral of this tale is stop buying course after course after course. Find someone you trust who provides mentoring and invest your time and effort with them!

I intend to provide a step by step course to help newbies start their work at home internet marketing online business but it isn’t available yet. You can be one of the first to receive it when its ready by filling in your name and email in the box on the right of this page.

What are your thoughts about using a mentor? Waste of money or the best way to succeed? Please share your thoughts by adding a comment below …

To your success and happiness

Martyn