Want to Succeed? Then Get Off Your Ass and Work
Too often in forums (and in a few of the questions the Shoe readers asked) I see something along the lines of “How do I make money online” or “How can I be successful in X within X time frame.” Every time I see this question I get pissed off. It’s like a flabby person saying “I want abs and big muscles by tomorrow” as he shoves another Twinkie in his mouth. Not. Going. To. Happen.
I think people see successful folks like Shoe and think “Hey, he makes it look so easy. I want to have a ton of money too!” Come on. You see the end result, the exposure and the fat checks he holds up, but you didn’t see the process and the path he took to get there. Shoe told me that he busted his ass and learned all he could about Adwords and PPC so he could make money from it. This shit doesn’t come easy, or else we’d all be rolling in the dough.
Basically, if you’re asking for the quick fix or the magic formula to get rich and be successful, in my opinion you won’t get rich and be successful. The people who have really “made it” in this industry did it by working long, hard hours, by reading and studying everything they could get their hands on, by having the drive and ambition it takes to succeed. So, pardon them if they get a little testy when some lazy a-hole comes along and says, “Hey, how did you get to be rich and successful? I want to be like you, only without that whole ‘work hard to succeed’ part…” People who want the lazy way out won’t succeed. Sure, there are some exceptions (Paris Hilton comes to mind), but the odds are against you to hit it big without working to make it happen.
The great thing about SEO and Internet marketing is that any capable human being can do it and be great at it. Stephan Spencer’s daughter is making money from ads on her blog, for crying out loud. If a teenager can do it, anyone can. I think that’s what’s throwing people off here. “Oh, well anyone can do it so I’m going to do it and make a shit ton of money!” Well, yeah, but you have to be diligent and ambitious.
Anyway, that’s my input. What can I say, I hate lazy bastards.
- 97 Comments. What say you?
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Tell me something I don’t know
Excellent post, and I couldn’t agree more.
Great post Shoe. It’s good to have someone put things into perspective every once in a while. The only thing I hate more than people asking for a rich formula, are those who run their own ‘Make money online’ websites and set goals at $1,000,000 in the sidebar. Right below that is a tally of made money and it usually isn’t higher than $20.
Here’s a tip: if you don’t know how to make money online, THEN DON’T BLOG ABOUT IT. I don’t know shit about carpentry, so I would never run a ‘how to build a house’ blog. It just doesn’t make sense.
Hey, want free traffic for doing NOTHING? You should sign up for BlogRush! LOL
Srsly great post, I just had to poke fun.
Well said. Its definitely easier to maintain websites after they’re set up. The setup is the hard part people seem to not realize. Then it gets easier later. However, if you want to continue to make more you will still push yourself even then.
Damn, somebody telling it like it is. So, how do I make a Million Dollars between now and Christmas with no money and without working?
You are very right rebecca,. Your thoughts match that of mine perfectly
Right on! I am amazed at how many people think that the success and wealth that Jeremy has built came easy. Believe me, our whole FAMILY sacrifices so he can do what he does. Likewise, he sucks it up and busts it so I can practice as a physician. I don’t know how many people say to me, “I wanted to be a doctor.” Yeah…well, why didn’t you do it? Was the 12 years of training and 1/2 million in tution and loans too much for you? EVERY successful person I know, made and continues to make sacrifices to achieve thier goals and dreams. Thanks for pointing out that there really is no free lunch. Once you accept responsibility for your own personal success, you have won half the battle.
Good points. I see this a lot too. I can’t even start to name the people that have asked me to help them. “Wow, I would like to make money too. Show me how” they ask. But they never want to put in the years learning SEO, HTML, copy, etc. They also want quick, overnight results. They forget the years I spent working on stuff while they were watching TV.
Probably gonna get flamed, but oh well. The problem now adays is that there is information overload on what to do, what steps to take, and what you need to do in order to learn the biz. Ask 10 different people and you get 10 different answers. If someone offers to tell you how to do it, you can be sure they’re selling something; how can you tell a person is actually successful, just because they’re selling an ebook on how to make $10,000 a month on PPC? I don’t think so. That’s why you see so many people trying to imitate successful people or people hounding those same successful people; they’ve proven they know what to do to make that $10,000 per month.
Awesome post! If you want to make money, get up and get going.
totally agree
This idea goes great right along side a blog post from last winter called Do it Fucking Now.
Very true, very true.
we need more people in this world that think like you. it’s nice to think there’s a get rich quick scheme but there isn’t. this world needs to go back to the hard working days that have been lost to automation and mobilizaation
I will print this post and put it on the wall.
Wow - I agree completely! There are way too many looking for the overnight, get rich quick scheme… why do you think all of those 1-page millionaire websites exist?
I often tell anyone who asks, the only way to make money on the web is to start tomorrow! 1 year from now, if you are still at it… you will probably succeed! You will have learned googles of knowledge and applied 1/10th of it at that point, which is a GREAT start!!
The new spunkiness you’re bringing is quite nice.
Hi - great post. Mind you, I don’t know if you could call Paris Hilton successful, unless she likes living like that. Here is Shoe’s famous quote on success: “If money is your only measurement of success then I think the 5 things would be: Lie, Cheat, Steal, Manipulate, Lie again. You wont have any friends and probably everyone will hate you but you will most likely be a millionaire.”
What always makes me laugh is the people that claim it is easier to make money online than in a “regular business”. Neither is easy, and you’ve got to market yourself everywhere, both online and offline, regardless of what type of business you’re in.
After years, I have still not got to the point where it is easy. But, I could never go back to a day job.
I completely agree. I always thought it’d be funny to make a joke infomercial, “You too can make a lot of money! It’s so easy! Just pour your heart and soul into a project for several years before it starts to pay out!” If we had turnkey solutions for this, the economy would get really fucked up
Great post. Don’t forget that luck is a factor too, because by looking at the milliondollarwiki site, that had to take less than a week to build with an open source application. John Chow spilled it on his site and Shoe followed. So it’s not just “hard work”.Some people have luck, others have to bust their asses for it. I’ve been busting my ass on and off line for more than 12 years now and i’m still not even close to making bank. It’s who you know and how you do it, not just burning the midnight oil.
Why do people think working online isn’t a “regular” business? I always hear people compare the two. I work online and I pay taxes, so I have a “regular” business. A business is a business wheter on-line or off.
Very inspirational! great post.
Shit or get off the pot
Oh man, what is it about the shoe domain that brings it out? First sweet little Neal going all black-hat on us and now Rebecca with the rant? I don’t know what it is, but I like it!
Haha, that’s why Shoe wanted me to guest blog for him!
Great point. Luck definitely has a lot to do with success.
Good post. What also perpetuates the idea of getting rich without working are the popular books out there that tell you things like you can make money overnight. Look at that Rich Dad dude. He makes a ton and all his books do is tell people “don’t work, instead put your money to work!” Of course he is never specific on exactly how to make money by not working and putting your money to work. There are a few authors out there that take the other route and teach you to work hard, but they are not best sellers because that is not what the average person wants to read. They instead want to read about how they can be rich in seconds. Larry Winget books have been quite influential for me, but you don’t really need a book even to motivate you. It’s very basic. Work hard, get results.
Jay - when I said “regular business” I was referring to what many people would regard as a bricks and mortar business. I was not actually saying an online business is not real. What I was referring to were the get rich crowd who keep saying that it’s easier to start a business online than offline.
As for luck - I will agree that where you are born is down to luck, as is whether you live or die. But, a lot of luck is the kind you make yourself. Do you really think that John Chow and Shoemoney landed on the million dollar wiki site by accident and said - “Great, lets make this guy lucky”?
I copied this article to my blog cause I get it 20 times a day how do you sell or market onlune dopes calling me I will highlight this article I love it!
Exactly, like some guy I dont remember his name said, 4 hour work week more like 112 hour work week.
Get Off Your Ass & Work Is Not The Best Response!
To one grown old and even somewhat cynical in the world of work, the first several
seem to have dominance. Only the young appear to be left with the illusion or delusion that
Personal Ability, Intelligence, Interest, Education and Industry have anything to do with it; and
the very, very cynical would have us believe that indeed these are only the symptoms of being
very young.
We have too often seen the son become the foreman, the new son-in-law, yesterday the
shipping clerk, soar to board membership, and we all too often have known that the son and
son-in-law not only had no aptitude in the first place but that with no fear of discipline they act
more carelessly of the firm than the worst employee present. Familial connection is something
dependent upon the accident of birth.
But, leaving familial connection until some other day, what have we left? There is Who
You Know. Personal connection plays a dominant part in obtaining, keeping and improving a
position, there can be no doubt of this. One has a friend who works for the Jim-James
Company; the friend knows of an opening; the friend has other friends and these still other
friends and so into the Jim-James Company one can settle down and work with some security
and hope of rise.
And then there is the matter of personal charm. How often have we seen the young
stenographer who couldn’t spell “cat” suddenly soar, with her typing fingers still all thumbs, to
the post of the executive secretary to the boss, wherein, while she can’t spell “cat” any better,
she can certainly spell raise and raise again and perhaps even “supper club” or diamond
necklace. And we have also seen the young man with a good “front” soar above his elders
because he could perhaps tell the right joke or play a slightly worse game of golf.
We have seen, too, the factor of Education all gone awry in firms and governments and
the trained man, at how much cost of eyesight become learned beyond credit, yet passed over
for some chap who didn’t have a degree to his name beyond a certain degree of push. We have
seen the untutored madly ordering the millions and the wise advising a score.
Industry as well seems to have scant place to those cynical few of us who have seen it
all. The eagerness of the young to slave is all too often braked by the older head who says,
“Why get in a sweat about it, young’un? It’ll all come out the same.” And perhaps we’ve
stayed after hours and daubed ourselves with ink, or lingered at our post beyond all demand of
duty, only to watch in times to come the lazy one we scorned draw the better pay. And we’ve
said it isn’t justice — something less than that.
And Interest, too, we’ve seen come all to naught. When our absorption in the deadly
game of firm or unit with its rivals made us lay aside neglected our own wife, or life, and when
we’ve burned the night and leisure time to work out solutions gauged to save our firm, and
have sent them in, and have had them come back, neglected, and soon have beheld our fellow
worker, whose total interest was a man or stamps and not the firm at all, go up to higher posts,
we had some cause to be less interested, we thought. And Interest in our work became
condemned by those around us who, not understanding it, became tired of hearing it in our
mouths.
Don’t tell me to get off of my ass and work, millions of people do that every damn day… to gain a hold of the riches available, its all in “Who You Know” not what you know! I have a programmer analyst/internet solutions development certificate, business administration and a whole lot of determination, work 20 hours a day, have 17 working financial websites including http://www.mycreditapply.com which has took well over a year to get a PR of 1 with no advertising dollar in my pocket, and yet, still struggling to make a buck!.
My problem, I don’t know anyone, grew up extremely poor, whole family on welfare or just *&^% UP… I still work paycheck to paycheck hoping next month I have money to place into advertising, and maybe I might be able to quit my job and work from home. We all work in a world of kissing ass to get to the top. It is all in who you know or how much money you have to get somewhere. Determination takes years of dedication, so getting off your ass is not going to do for me or you!….
Exactly… patience first… it took me like 1 year to have first check and than another year and I could say this can be real job… But I keep this as hobby
well you sure said a mouth full. i was raised with a family business and been in sales for over 35 years. there is no right or wrong way to advertise a business. the right way is you keep advertising. the wrong way is if you dont advertise. but then we can all find our little niche as to what works for us and what doesnt. rule of thumb what may work for me may not work for you. one thing i must say though in comment to what you have said as a professional business person you can drive your message to the point with out the profanity. its what you call business ethics or business integrity. think about it it just might work. but dont take my word for it check it out for your self.
I like the post as well, it wasn’t shoe that posted it though :).
whats with all the fowl language you can express your views without all that bad cursing can’t you
Your advice should be obvious, right? But it is not. Many people think they can just install a blog software and start making money. They web is some magic land where money just pours in for anybody to catch. I am involved with internet, for more than a decade (before the web using the Usenet Group) and I still don’t make as much as ShoeMoney makes. I made some killings in the old wild west using picture suckers and adult sites. I left that field in late nineties. One of my site was moderately successful and I still generate decent incomes from it. I hate the marketing stuff so I was never as finacially successful as ShoeMoeny. In the old days, I could post in 20 newsgroups and generate a ton of traffic but those days are gone.
Ok, left some characters in my URL. Now the URL is right.
100% agree with you.
Thanks for the great post rkelley! Good stuff and very true. Hard work = results!
lol, thats that comment should be qouted and plaqued somewere.
I couldn’t agree more. Hard work is indeed required, but it is just one piece of the puzzle and it’s just not enough. I think being in the right place at the right time has a lot to do with making loads of money. Plus never giving up.
Very good points, lets work hard first then then expect some thing from it.
Exactly.. I think it’s HILARIOUS when people ask “does this work?” “is this the real golden key”? LOL ;p
I don’t think they forgot - rather don’t understand it took years of planning!!
Thanks fro the input, mack ?? :p
Really? You work 20 hours a day?? I couldn’t imagine…
It’s not such a whacky idea..
His 10K experiment didn’t look too much like hard work to me.
He simply had the resources to throw around along with a little common sense.
And whos to say that the way a question is cast/phrased describes an individuals willingness to do a little hard work anyway ?
It’s his profile. I’d say get used to shitty a-holes.. seems they frequent his offices quite a bit
It’s pretty wacky
Sometimes a person just has to dive in and make a few (hopefully small) mistakes. There is a serious issue with information overload - but that is MUCH better than too little information to make an educated decision.
Tell me something I don’t know. Pretty pointless post.
Now this is a girl with the right attitude!!
You’re absolutely right. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication with little in return before you see success.
I’ve been studying internet marketing for a while now and I’m still only scraping the bottom. I use a spreadsheet to calculate my commissions each month and keep track of my totals. I also calculate my estimated hourly wage my time invested and money made.
So far this year I’m making about $0.56 an hour!!!
You have to be dedicated to spend every free hour have of your day for an entire year for a return of $0.56 per hour. You’re not going to get rich overnight. You have to work at it. It’ll take time and hard work.
Plain and simple.
~Shannon
You never actually exceed at something, if some sort of effort isnt put into it. Look at where ShoeMoney came this far
I couldnt agree more. Too many people equate making money online with making easy money.
Hey, a comment from Dr. Shoemoney, I was hoping that you would be one of the guest posters, you know, kind of the yin to Shoes yang, because we all know that without you Jeremy wouldn’t be where he is today.
Your mean response was pointless
You create your own luck. The only thing missing with the working hard point is to work smart. The guy that makes bolts works his tail off, but he won’t get rich. It takes hard work and working smart to do well. Luck has little to do with it.
Inspiring. I posted SEOMoz’s Rebecca Kelley: Cute, Smart and Dangerous last night after reading this because I work with some of the laziest people I have ever met.
Sadly, all of them come to you and inevitably ask how they can make it big. They never realize that it actually requires EFFORT.
I love the stupid responses like this. Of course there are other elements. The article was meant to be motivational. We all know you also have to not just work hard, but work smart. We are very aware that construction workers don’t make more than white collar cubicle dwellers and construction workers work much harder than anybody.
Making money online is alot simpler than most say. With $1000 towards advertising, your pretty much set… without that initial investment, your working real hard. I created http://www.googletrend.info a few months ago and have attracted more than 1000 visitors a day from organic traffic alone without advertising. Your niche chosen is what is going to take you somewhere, not just dedication and hard work, that could take years to achieve. Take credit and finance as a perfect example, the competition is overwhelming and takes alot of advertising dollar to get to the top.
You don’t ? Your MFA site is working that well you don’t need to spend all your time working?
You might love me i work for 13-15 hrs day
Hmmm. I used to work a lot at Internet Marketing, 16 hours a day and all that. But, now I work 2 hours a day and bring in about 300K a year. Call me lazy, but I am comfortable with that and really don’t feel the need to work more, gives me time to spend doing things I enjoy more than making money.
Intrinsic motivation is evident when people engage in an activity for its own sake, without some obvious external incentive present. This hobby is a perfect example, however, all who now try to make money online are no longer doing it as a hobby and are only searching for that external incentive.
Making money online has become a dream to many, like the lottery… your motivating others to win the lottery with a 1% Conversion rate.
1% of the population makes more than $200,000 per year… these are the 1% which make money online within their first year without any help.
But you did work hard to get where you are. And you worked smart.
Nope, still mean the post.
I think she did! The big problem I find is everyone is blogging about the exact same thing… making money online… what everyone must do is find their own calling. Shoemoney, this was his calling!
its about paying your dues. In the beginning you ahve to work harder and longer. When you get to a point, you can relax a little if you want.
Yes, very true.
1. Experiment with as much stuff as you can.
2. Some things will work and some won’t.
3. Leave the things that don’t work and “automate” those work. And goto step-1.
Work hard but work smartly! Don’t ask too many questions but follow your instincts and give it a try.
That’s true tell us something new, we all know with millions of blogs out there it takes a lot to make it to the top…
Wow, great stuff. great original posts and a couple ones that really point out the key that many of us have. Information overload? well that’s a blessing, not a curse. Just pick a course for yourself and _do_something_, rather than worry about if it’s the single _best_ course. If you get something going and it isn’t working the way you want it ot, _change_ course. Lord knows Shoe has had to drop many projects, He often writes about failures. They are like taking university courses except you learn something from them in return for tuition.
Anyway, in particular I was glad to see dr. Shoemoney dropping by. It’s an interesting parallel … being a physician or being a successful web entrepreneur. Almost anyone reading these words _can_ do either of them … just get moving and do it.
This is by far the greatest post I have read in the history of blogsphering. Thats all!
You funny you
But the thing is people even if you tell them such things they keep on asking same question over and over like broken gramophone
Yeah…it’s funny how many people will spend there days on other peoples blogs and reading other peoples success story, but NOT DO IT THEMSELVES! Blogs are addicting, but unless you have enough money, spending your days reading them will not get you any closer to making more money…LOL
Is it lazy, or just lack of focus? Doing the thing poorly is not an indication of lazy - just that they’re not sure how to . . . and a more focused attention span is required.
Work smart, not hard!
Great Post!
Lots of Coffee, Read, Practice, and Practice.
I agree 100% - it seems that a lot of new bloggers want everything handed to them on plate overnight and are not willing to work for it.
everyone have tons of ideas, unlimited talk of billion dollar plan and ideas. but only those who really work and execute the idea can have a chance to succeed. some people are smart enough to capitalize on these people… creating a fake dream for them… write all sort of money making ebook such as “Make Money in 24 hours”, “Make Money With No Money” … it works … selling dreams is a business
Many people have dreams and visions - But executing them is the hardest part of the equation. Dreams and visions are measured in dollars whilst execution measured in sweat invested into the former.
I was the first to Write about Yuwie, and it help me to get more traffic to my blog, so in this way it helped me.
You and Kelley are right. People with no idear of making money try to make a few bucks by telling others how to make big money - this is bad. But we have to live with it. No chance to change anything.
I really like this post. It makes me feel quite relieve. There are some (many) people who boast around that they make fortune in such a short time that make me feel guilty when looking at myself. Now that you give me some firm perspective; thank you, ShoeMoney
i love that title!
Odd how the link here in his comment is redirected so it doesn’t work but the actual url listed to that domain is up and running.
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