Being the person that I am, I have learnt to celebrate small beginnings and not to despise them. My only problem is staying in the beginning and never moving forward even when the time comes.First of all, when you come across those internet marketing experts who flash out their six figure accounts online, do not think you will suddenly find yourself making that much. When you decide to start, keep in mind that your internet marketing business needs to take a natural course. It needs to grow and mature. Do not despise the amount of money you make no matter how small it is.

Do appreciate the little money you make in the beginning – use that as a motivation to push even further. When I made my first 5 cents with Google Adsense, I was over the moon. I used that as a stepping stone to get 10 cents the next time and 20 the next. It worked for me – I remember showing my fiancée my US$5 daily report from Google some time ago. I just could not believe my eyes – from 5 cents to US$5 within a space of a year and then a few week later I broke that record to US$10 daily, DAYS later I broke it to US$15, US$21 then US$30. I am still breaking my overall online income record each month!

It started somewhere, with 0 clicks but just passion, then 5 cents per week or so and then grew from there. Let me give you a quick summary of my perception about small beginnings (which applies even with internet marketing):

1. Start somewhere no matter how small: I usually say those who are ahead of me in what ever way are there because they started before me and not because they are necessarily better than I am ( a bit arrogant but somehow true). If I work just as hard I will eventually get there. If I were to borrow from the Holy Bible I would say, “Nothing is new under the sun, what as happened once, will happen again”. So if someone made billions once, someone will make them again sometime in the future – hopefully that will be me…and you.
2. It is never too late, do start: in my stock trading “hobby” I usually come across people who look at the past performance of a share and regret not getting in 5 years ago when the share price was still low. They never stop to realize that there is still the future and chances of growth are still there. I once felt that way about a share/stock and never bought it. The  share has since doubled in price and looks set for more growth. So it is really never too late to start. It is like those people who do not want to use article marketing simply because it is not as effective as it was two years ago. I wasn’t an online marketer two years ago, I am not sure what they are talking about but I use article marketing and it works for me even today. I just apply what works about it now e.g. submit to a few directories, alter your anchor text, spin your articles if you can etc and woola! traffic start rolling in.
3. Judge your online business performance using percentages not actual figures. If you use percentages you will appreciate the effort you put in. For example, jumping from 5 cents to 10 cents is a 100% increase in your  income. If you look at the actual figures, you will feel discouraged and will not appreciate the growth attained. I use percentage to gauge my business performance, this is why you will often hear me talk about 15 000%! increase in my income. It might just be jumping from 1 cent to US$150, which does not even pay my rent but the percentage tells me how really good I am doing.
4. Have a goal/vision and then break it down into attainable objectives: A goal or vision is a broader picture of what you want to achieve (it does not have a due date). So once you have that well defined then break it down to specifics. For example, I want to be a multi-millionaire (this is my vision). Now I break that into specifics and say I want to make my first million before 2010. that means before that I must make at least 300 000 per annum. I can further break this down by month, weeks and days. Then once you do that you can start researching on the activities you can undertake to get you to your goal. For example, decide to make at least US$100 per month for each of your niches sites using Google Adsense alone. This means at least US$3 per day (about 20 per day or so clicks depending on the niche site you are in). Hope you can now see how such small targets can accumulate to the six, seven figures you might be aiming at.
5. Celebrate every milestone: when you get your 5 cents click, take yourself out for lunch and just enjoy the thought of that click. Set your next realistic target, say  60% increase (8 cents) and when you reach it go out again and celebrate. This will make you to crave for more. But if you just look down upon it I bet you sooner or later you will start feeling discouraged. I have, however, since stopped celebrating because I break my records in a matter of days. I am planning to resume with even bigger targets – am talking about 5 figures per month.
6. Keep your mouth shut and do your thing: not everyone will be fascinated by your 5 cents click. Not every one is as passionate about your internet marketing business as you are. So avoid putting yourself in discouraging situations whereby you share your “great” news with someone and they just throw it back at you leaving you feeling depressed and stupid (of being excited about 5 cents!). Not every one shares your enthusiasm about internet marketing. If someone genuinely asks you about it, then you can talk but often people are not really interested. Word of advise, don’t even take offence when they don’t respond the way you would expect them to.

The author is an  who is keen about helping IM beginners find success online