How To Handle The Confusion And Overwhelm That Goes With Starting An Online Business

 

So, you want to start and grow your online business. Question is… what do you do next?

Do you tweak your theme? Do you concentrate on writing pillar posts? Do you work on your email list giveaway? Do you spend time on social media?

So much to do. And it all seems important. So, we come back to the original question…

What do you do next?

It is an all too common challenge which people face when they’re just starting up. And, in fact, it was recently voiced by one of the Academy’s new readers. He’s a young guy and he sent me this email:

my biggest problem right now is the technical part. i’ve been trying to break into the blogging industry for some time now but each time i get in and i try to find a way to make my blog more professional i get a lot of advice on the internet and i’m not sure where to start from. i mean should i change my favicon first or try focusing on designing the blog. i know i ought to spend a lot of time working on content first but i just get so excited i would rather be doing anything that would make people read my blog posts than actually working on the content which i know is what keeps readers on your blog at the end of the day.

then even when i do try to take things slow, there is a lot of random pieces of info online talking about different stuff that end up confusing and discouraging me because i have no idea where to start from.

I think his last statement really nails the crux of the issue:

There is a lot of random pieces of info online talking about different stuff that end up confusing and discouraging me because i have no idea where to start from.

Does this sound familiar to you, by chance?

So, in this post, I want to address this. Truth is, as a person who is in the business of teaching this information, these kinds of statements are things I pay a LOT of attention to. After all, if I’m going to help YOU get a result, then we have to directly confront that sense of confusion.

STOP. Pause. Breathe.

First off, if you’re dealing with this kind of confusion and overwhelm, then the absolute worst thing you can do for yourself is to continue to plow forward with all guns blazing.

There is simply no sense in vigorously heading in some direction when you don’t even know which direction you’re going.

So, what you need to do is stop and get some orientation. Figure out which way is up, so to speak.

Now, in space, we orient ourselves by comparing to known points of stability. You find something which is sitting still and, by seeing where other things are compared to that, you get a sense of orientation. This is EXACTLY how it works when it comes to the world of knowledge and information.

Your sense of confusion and overwhelm comes from the fact that it seems as if everything is changing, it is all equal, and all important. That isn’t necessarily true, but that’s the sense one will get if they’re desperately reading all these blog posts trying to start a business from scratch.

So, to put a stop to this confusion, you do this:

1. Stop everything.
2. Chill out. 🙂
3. Pick ONE thing to concentrate on first, and do that.
4. Forget everything else for now.

There it is. A 4 step confusion busting formula.

The reason this works is because, by choosing ONE thing and doing that, you are in essence making one thing still. You’re literally plucking one item of importance out of the swirling mass of info being thrown at you… you’re making it your item of focus, and thereby putting the rest of it at bay.

But, What Do You Focus On?

That is the natural next question. After all, if I’m telling you to pick ONE thing to focus on first, then what should that one thing be?

It is this question that often hangs people up. They’ll search for that information on all the various blogs across the Internet, but in the process they’ll be hit with all kinds of criss-crossing information and….

… before you know it, you’re right back where you started. Confused and overwhelmed.

This is why most people who try to start an online business and learn the whole thing solely through free blog posts around the Internet… usually fail. It isn’t that the information they’re reading is inaccurate, it is that there’s literally no structure or focus to it. It is just a high volume of confusion.

The solution is to find (or create) a true SYSTEM.

I’ve written about systems before here on the Academy blog. And instead of repeating myself, I’d like you point you to these blog posts. And, they go best in the order they are listed.

1. A Sad State Of Affairs
2. In Order To Successfully Monetize Your Blog, You Must First Forget What You Think You Know.
3. The 3 Reasons People Fail in Business
4. Introduction To The Theory of Constraints
5. The Academy Business System – A Graphical Illustration of An Information Marketing Business

Truth is, the process of building an online business IS a system. There are a certain series of steps one makes to pull it off. Some of the steps can be interchanged, but the components are the components.

I Wish I Could BAN The Word “Monetization”

After 16 years of doing this, and 6 years helping other bloggers do this, one thing I know is that MOST blogger-centric training geared toward “monetization” is teaching it COMPLETELY WRONG.

Well, to clarify, it isn’t that the information is wrong… they just haven’t connected the dots in a way which is repeatable by the masses. They aren’t all that systems-oriented.

See, information is just random facts, data and… stuff. Whereas KNOWLEDGE is the ability to look at all of that stuff and evaluate it and rank it in importance.

Well, after 16 years, I guess that’s one thing I’m pretty good at. But, it is also a skill I believe everybody needs in order to not be overwhelmed and confused as they travel this journey toward a prosperous online business.

It also happens to be a major guiding principle to how I structure the training inside the Blog Marketing Academy.

Focusing on YOUR Next Thing

You’ve now got until the end of this week (July 11th) to take advantage of the current membership rates in the Academy, including the one-time LIFETIME payment option which is about to disappear for good.

The courses I’ve already done – and the ones I have yet to create – are all based around enabling YOU to solve YOUR NEXT THING. To select that thing to focus on, and do it in a systematic fashion.

For instance, I knew how big the confusion and overwhelm issue is for a lot of people, so I created the How to Step Into Your A Game course. The course walks you through a series of focus areas and assigments which will have you reassessing how you do things, allowing you much higher focus and clarity to lend to your business. That course is available to all VIP members.

If you’re still undecided on your niche, I have a solution to that called Finding Your Niche.

If you have a niche but are unclear on how to make a business out of it, then I have a course called Discover Your Business Model.

If you’re dealing with technical hurdles, I have a workshop for that, too.

If you’re working on building your email list, I have a course called Master Your List.

If you’re working on creating the content which will fuel your marketing and your blog, then I’m currently teaching a course called the Content Marketing Clinic which will turn you into a very strategic content creator.

You get the point. 🙂

Soon, I will be releasing a flow chart to guide one through these courses and spot the ones which are ideal for YOUR next step.

But, right now, time is of the essence. My VIP members get access to ALL of the stuff I talked about above, including all the courses I have yet to make. And for just a few more days, you can secure a LIFETIME VIP membership for one single payment.

My goal is that Blog Marketing Academy is (or will be) a source of clarity for you in this sea of confusion and overwhelm. It isn’t because I have some kind of magical knowledge that others don’t have…. it is because I believe I DO have a knack for simplifying things and paying attention to HOW stuff is presented.

Information isn’t what is lacking in this business. What is lacking, however, is knowledge and structure.