Very interesting thread. I would like to thank you OP to engage this discussion, we never speak about the psychological difficulties inherent to IM, the discipline you have to put in to respect what you fix yourself.
@Meddie resumed the main problem we all have. We jump from one thing to another and never specialize in anything if we are not careful and consistent. Some people can achieve the dream to live with IM but most people struggle and failed many times and at the end give up. In 4 years you have learn a lot more than many people I think. You have a choice to make, I also am in a situation where I want to give up all and rage about the impossibility to make money online, but I know it is my brain who is fucking me during a very depressing and difficult time. We all have personal issues and troubles. We all become crazy from time to time or during a long period of time. I struggle with consistency a lot and I know that the people who can do actually have a mindset that is simple, but not easy to maintain and
@splishsplash made a few thread about this :
Don't jump from project to project, I have 5 things that I am doing at the same time, and struggle to outsource anything, it is NOT VIABLE and I know I will fail and in 4 years, despite my good intentions I will open the same thread as you.
I opened a discussion a few days ago because I saw many threads of people saying BHW is useless and wanted to tell that BHW is a tool and you should not follow some stupid method short time.
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/bhw-is-not-worth-it-really.1241704/
It is true that the make money threads are NOT something you want to follow because you will mostly fail or you can find a "method" that will work for a few months, or even one year, but it is not a long term goal !
One thing that I am doing right now is thinking deeply, making a break and really think about what I want to have in 5 years, not in 6 months, not in 1 year but in the next 5-10 years...
Many people don't speak about this but some people bank hard now with a "method" and in 5 years it will not work anymore, and all the work you put in tweaking a few strategies to win money will be worth nothing and you will be lost. One exemple that I have is with movie streaming site... I know some people are banking now, but you better be millionaire fast because the day nobody will search "streaming movie X or Y" (and they will maybe not in 5 years) if the only thing you specialize in is this you will not have anything anymore and even if you learned some black hat stuff you will not have any brand or any long term asset.
IF you depend on one source of traffic, one source of income only, you have the risk to have nothing in a few years and we don't want to have this situation. I think it is even worse if you succeeded but after you lose everything due to an algorithm change or something like that.
THE REAL VALUE is to focus on one thing, but one thing that has a meaning, not some dating offers or something like that because you can't control any variable and you can have your income cut in one day. Look at amazon affiliates... I know a guy who earned enough for a few years and they cut his income stream by half, hopefully he can change his offer and maintain his asset but it is a risky situation full of stress because the origin of you trust about your income stream was basically trusting amazon and even if they are respected they can fuck you like that....
One guy that inspired me here was
@t0mmy and his threads about building a brand... He has give people a real long time value, being honest and not screwing people... I don't purchase anything from the guy, but I know that his customers and his brand/recognition will stay with him...
We all struggle in life, we all have our reasons to be here. I am in a depression right now for many reasons and it sucks, I will not make any excuses because it is too easy to give up and just say that "internet marketing does not work and I lost my time" You either continue or you give up but one thing is for sure, another person who is in the same situation as you will likely continue and eventually fail, or not, maybe you have a great idea worth purchasing or you will have very soon and if you don't do it, someone else will take your place.
We should open a therapy section for marketers like someone else said haha despite the non respect in the ton of what he said, internet marketing is very depressing when you try again and again and think you lose your time.
Just take all the shit that you think and put it in the trash, and think about what you would like to create for the next 5 years... Nothing is impossible if you give yourself enough time and that you continue to work on it. I even think a guy here reading this forum could open the new amazon in the next 10 years and do better than them... just check social media... I would never try to open a new social media because you must be crazy to think that you have a chance, but you have... look at that tik tok shit, even if I hate the plateform, the people behind it made it work...
I know this examples are extreme and you will likely fail but there are opportunities, everybody is on their computer, on youtube, on pornhub, on facebook, and people buy more now than ever before (even if my ecological and ethical point of view think it is a shame because our planet will suffer and we could all die in the pollution in the next 50 years but that's another point) but it shows you that everything could work if it has enough customers/viewers/interest.
I suggest you evaluate your life again, but don't forget that everywhere you go on the internet, every website or page you read, you have behind it a successful or wannabe successful person who struggle and try to make it work.
I know for myself I will continue with IM until someone prove to me that nobody will never watch anything or buy anything anymore in this world...
Long read, hope it is not indigest, I wish you a great day and to find your "why I do this" again
