Most people just want to sell you the dream of success …….

Unlimited income, a life of unbridled luxury and freedom……..

You see, success is what sells and what everyone wants a part of.

But, back to reality because in 97% of those who start a home business the reality is not the huge success but disappointment, disillusionment and failure.

You see the figures do not lie – just 3% succeed.

So, how to get some good out of the bad?

Well, you see I have been 1 of the 97%, but I did not let it beat me because I was determined to become a 3%er.

You see, the biggest variable between the two poles is YOU, how you either accept the failure and just walk away or how you embrace it and learn from it.  How you turn your negative experiences into positive ones and how you learn from them to move on in life will determine future success (or lack of it).

So, have the big dreams, set the big goals, see the big house and new car and the life of freedom and keep moving towards those goals.  Never ever let them out of your sight and …. make sure that you get the coaching and mentoring from someone who has not only been where you might be right now but more importantly is where you want to be right now.

Just 16 months ago I was a "newbie“ a complete & utter novice, I was not just wet behind the ears I was soaking. Now almost a year & a half down the line here I am creating my own sites, blogging, networking on Myspace & Facebook & 'tweeting' on Twitter. Like thousands of others the primary reason I decided to work from home was to give me more time & flexibility & to allow me to earn more money than I had been doing. In the process of doing this I could also help others to do the same, so it was perfect as I could improve my own life & that of others. It is fair to say that in this time I have learned fast & grown a lot & as a result of this my business has grown & succeeded too. I am now in the enviable position of being able to help others to achieve just as I have. I learned very early on that one of the main reasons over 90% of those who start a home based business fail is due to a lack of money/cash flow. In the early days when you are in the process of just setting up your business, web sites, online presence etc. there is a time delay between significant cash out & cash in. You need cash just to be able to stay in the game, yet due to inexperience, lack of a list & lack of a significant business this can be very difficult. This is the time where a positive cash flow is critical to survival & if you can survive this then hopefully you will stay in the game. I have been there & know that awful sinking feeling of impending doom & disaster only days away yet I knew my instincts were telling me it would be ok & just to ‘keep believing’ & ‘keep doing’ & it would be ok, & it was. I learned to do Pay Per Click advertising through Google & Yahoo. The feeling of euphoric satisfaction I got when leads started coming through my system at a good price was amazing. However, this feeling was nothing compared to what I felt just a couple of months ago when I realised that 14% of my prospects now coming through are FREE. Yes, you read this correctly Free. What this means to me is that all the hard work I have been putting in since last summer has started to pay off. I began by setting up my own personal web site so that prospects could read about me & not just my business opportunity, then I added a blog so that they could follow me on a regular basis & see the progress. I then took a deep breath, bought a camcorder & joined Youtube. I would never have thought it possible that I would be posting my own videos to Youtube, but I now do this regularly & what is more I love doing them. I joined Myspace & Facebook & the community on Betternetworker.com & then just last month began posting articles to Ezine articles.com. In short I began to put into practice what Mike Dillard has called 'attraction marketing'. Attraction Marketing is all about creating value to your visitors/list. Too many people out there in internet land are too quick to start pitching their opportunity as soon as they can to anyone & everyone they meet. For some unknown reason they think that total strangers they just met online will sign up with them or buy their latest launch – would you buy from a total stranger you just met in the street or mall? I bet not! But, would you buy from someone you knew & trusted? Most likely you would. Attraction Marketing is quite simply about giving first without expecting anything in return, making yourself valuable in the eyes of others, making yourself into a leader that others will naturally begin to follow. If your blog contains posts that are useful & packed with good help & information then it will be read, if your tweet on twitter about useful things then you will get a following, if you send your list emails with helpful hints & tips they will read them not delete them. There is 1 man I can give credit to for opening my eyes & mind to attraction marketing & that is Mike Dillard of Magnetic Sponsoring. Everything Mike produces is valuable – extremely valuable. A lot of it is free (he practices exactly what he preaches!) & even the items you buy are only around the $40 mark. I bought his Magnetic Sponsoring & Building On A Budget courses & devoured them as soon as they arrived & the business they have generated for me is huge. Pay per click is still a great way of driving traffic to your site but once that visitor has gone you have paid money & it is gone. Once you have placed videos, articles, blogs etc. out on the internet they are there for months & years to come still getting visitors & readers driving them to your sites for free. All of these methods combined now provide me with free visitors to my sites & in turn some of these translate into free prospects for my business & this generates sales & success. This figure of 14% is set to increase as I increase my efforts in this area & instead of cutting back on my paid forms of marketing I intend to increase these too. The more qualified visitors in total you can generate to your site, the more sales you will generate. But remember, the greater your value to your list the greater your list will become. Make yourself ‘invaluable’ & you will be a rich person indeed as your business succeeds better than you would have ever imagined.

Just 1 short year ago I was a ‘newbie’ – a complete and utter novice, I was not just wet behind the ears I was soaking. Now 1 year down the line here I am creating my own sites, blogging, networking on Myspace & Facebook & ‘tweeting’ on Twitter.

The primary reason I decided to work from home was to give me more time & flexibility and to allow me to earn more money than I had been doing. In the process of doing this I could also help others to do the same, so it was perfect. It is fair to say that in this time I have learned fast and grown a lot and as a result of this my business has grown too. I am now in the enviable position of being able to help others to achieve just as I have.

I learned very early on that one of the main reasons of failure is lack of money/cash flow. In the early days where you are in the process of just setting up your business, web sites, online presence etc. there is a time delay between significant cash out & cash in. This is the time where a positive cash flow is critical to survival. If you can survive this then hopefully you will stay in the game. I have been there and know that awful sinking feeling of impending doom and disaster only days away yet I knew my instincts were telling me it would be ok and just to keep ‘believing’ and keep ‘doing’ and it would be ok – and it was.

I learned to do Pay Per Click advertising through Google & Yahoo. The feeling of euphoric satisfaction I got when leads started coming through my system at a good price was amazing. However, this feeling was nothing compared to what I felt just last month when I realised that 14% of my prospects now coming through are FREE. Yes you read this correctly – Free. What this means to me is that all the hard work I have been putting in since the summer has started to pay off.

I began by setting up my own personal web site so that prospects could read about me and not just my business opportunity, then I added a blog so that they could follow me on a regular basis and see the progress. I then took a deep breath, bought a camcorder and joined Youtube. I would never have thought it possible that I would be posting my own videos to Youtube – but I now do this regularly and what is more I love doing them. I joined Myspace and Facebook and the community on Betternetworker.com and then just last month began posting articles to Ezine articles.com. In short I began to put into practice what Mike Dillard has called ‘attraction marketing’.

All of these methods combined now provide me with free visitors to my sites and in turn some of these translate into free prospects for my business.

Pay per click is a great way of driving traffic to your site but once that visitor has gone you have paid money and it is gone. Once you have placed videos, articles, blogs etc. out on the internet they are there for months and years to come still getting visitors and readers driving them to your sites for free.

This figure of 14% is set to increase as I increase my efforts in this area & instead of cutting back on my paid forms of marketing I intend to increase these too. The more qualified visitors in total you can generate to your site, the more sales you will generate. But remember, the greater the percentage of prospects you can generate for free the better your profitability will become.

I was recently teaching a class of college students, I set them a task & then was sitting watching them. Some of the group instantly set to & applied themselves to the task & others did not bother & could not have cared less. This set me wondering about how come some people apply themselves to achieve better, others just stagnate & some just fall deeper into a pit of failure.

We all have the potential to achieve greatness & to become who we truly are & admittedly this comes more easily to some people than others. For the majority some effort & work is required but the potential rewards can be phenomenal.

Our success requires a plan- when setting out on any journey you need a route map to help to guide you to your destination. If you are not quite sure where your destination is you need a vague idea of your direction so that you can at least get started. If you set off without a map then there is a greater chance you will just be wandering around drifting aimlessly in no particular direction & you will never reach your true destination. Setting off with a plan in mind gives us a starting point & it might be that we change direction en route but at least we made a start in a particular direction. Sitting down & writing our goals & mission helps us not only to define the route & destination but also the reason for going there.

These principles apply to most things in life as we need a purpose, goal, mission to work towards to keep us focussed & on track. Universal laws do work in an order & randomness will ensure chaos follows.

By committing our goals to ourselves & onto paper we begin to embed them deep into our subconscious, the place where magic starts to happen. The more we think about & visualise what is going to be, the more vibrations we send out into the ether to attract back to us the very things we desire. We begin to attract to us people, things, ideas that help us on our journey. We meet people who can help us, we get inspirational ideas, we find web sites & articles that were just what we were searching for, ‘coincidences’ happen. When these things begin to happen it means we are getting into the flow of universal energy & are attracting to us the very things we need.

So, write down your ‘why’, write down your ‘goals’, make a treasure board with pictures of your dream home, car, holiday. If you are looking to change career then put a time scale on it & write your resignation letter & date it. Place these all where you look at them regularly. Visualise yourself in the present tense having all these things, feel what it feels like to already have them – Believe this is all yours now.

Every single one of us has the power to be who we truly are yet many prefer to hand their immense power over to others. You have to choose to take responsibility for your own life as an abundant manifesting magician & use this power to create the reality you want & deserve.