Does this sound familiar?

You have  a great idea – one that you think will really succeed and help you achieve your goals.

• You tell your spouse or friend about your great idea.

• You make some notes about your great idea.

• You even check out what it will take to do the idea.

But then life gets in the way, and soon your great idea is just another set of notes, a fading memory that becomes harder to recall… until…

You see someone else doing your great idea!

And sure enough – they are succeeding with YOUR idea!

If that sounds familiar, take hope. Almost every successful business person has had that experience.

If you have ever had a great idea, only to see someone else reap the rewards, there is both good news and a challenge for you today.

The good news is that you had the idea. And you can rest easy knowing that you will have another.

The challenge is that you’ll need to change a few things to stop the situation above from happening again.

But take heart, the changes are not overwhelming.

So… why do some great ideas fail to make money?

1. TOO MUCH THINKING – NOT ENOUGH DOING

We have probably all been guilty of thinking about A simple guide to personal loans because of our situation to death, and then never acted on those thoughts.

I know I have, and it’s cost me dearly.

One way to avoid this situation is to make a list of what needs to happen for your great idea to become a reality. Make the list quickly, simply writing down what comes to mind.

Then, without any further refinement of the list, take action on the most important item.

For people who want to sell things online, but are not succeeding with that now, the first thing might be learning how to create a web page, or registering the domain name, or learning how to advertise effectively.

No matter what the item is, do what you can on it now, then do something every day. You will soon be farther ahead than you imagined possible.

2. TRYING TO GET OTHERS TO DO MOST OF THE WORK

Here is a myth that needs busting.

I know you have heard how easy it is to succeed online.

I know you have heard that making money on the Internet is like “falling off a log”.

But that’s not true, and it’s time that someone stood up and told the truth. The fact is, if you want an online business you are going to have to do most of the work yourself.

AT LEAST IN THE BEGINNING, you will need to know how to create web pages, upload them to a web server, write some sort of copy, place ads and more.

I know the gurus keep telling you that you can succeed online by being a “broker” or building a big affiliate army, or using joint ventures – and that doing these things means you will work little but profit big.

But they are not telling the whole truth. They are telling you what can work after you have established yourself online, not what will happen if you are a beginner.

NOTE: I’m sorry if that sounds negative, but I think more people have been hurt by the “it’s so easy” lie than almost any other.

3. IGNORING THE BASICS

Vince Lombardi was right. In any endeavor of life, mastering the basics will take you further than trying to be on the ‘cutting edge’.

Ignoring the basics online means running a site that does not have an email follow up system.

It means limiting yourself to one or two advertising methods, without trying the others even once.

It means selling only one product, and not offering customers a chance to buy more from you.

And all of those factors mean either failure or a stunning lack of results compared to what could, and what should, happen.

Here’s a fact that I’ve seen proven time and again. A simple site that offers a good product, uses email to follow up, has a simple Clickbank affiliate program, and consistently advertises will outperform a site that is expensively built, uses video and audio, and has a super-long fancy sales letter.

Simple sites that do the basics well sell more than super-portals that have thousands of pages, period.

4. STOPPING TOO SOON

We’ve all heard stories about the gold miner who stopped five feet short of a major vein, only to sell his mine for pennies, when only a little more effort would have yielded millions.

And those stories have a measure of truth.

If you have a great idea, one you really believe in, then nothing should stop you from achieving your goal.

REMEMBER THIS: There was a time in the history of every great idea when things were not going well. But persistence, mingled with common sense, caused the great idea to become a great reality.

In the beginning days of the space program, there were far more failures than successes. But persistence put Neil Armstrong on the moon.

Persistence can do amazing things. Is your great idea WORTHY of persistence?

5. PERFECTIONISM

Ah, perfectionism. The killer of so many great ideas.

I’ll bet we have all fallen victim to the same thought process… I’ll wait until it’s just right to unveil my great idea.

Here’s my advice —- don’t wait.

• Don’t wait a day.

• Don’t wait an hour.

• Don’t wait a moment.

I had a client once who wanted to create a powerful follow up system using an autoresponder.

But he waited until the message sounded just right.

Then he waited while he evaluated autoresponder companies.

Then he debated plain text vs. HTML email formats.

Then he considered how far apart the messages should be.

Know what happened?

He’s out of business today, convinced that the Internet is not for real, and that it’s all a scam.

All that time THINKING convinced him he was trying to DO something. And that convinced him that the Net was not for real.

What a shame.

The truth is this – if he had sent four messages to every visitor to his site who asked for more information, and those message said nothing more than “I want your business, please visit my site again” he would have made sales.

I guarantee he would have made more sales with “bad” messages than no messages.

As you consider your business, and the great ideas you have had, let me encourage you to take action now.

Not today, but right now.

Take the next five minutes and make some notes, write a message, send an email, talk your idea over … do something that moves you forward.

Then do the same thing tomorrow and the next day and every day.

If you do that, you will make time your ally, and success will not be far behind!