New strategies and techniques for making money online are always being created and marketed to us from today’s top “Make Money Online” guru’s.  However, strategies and techniques are only effective if they are being utilized by an individual who has the proper mindset for making money online, and that mindset requires us to first overcome some of the more common fears of making money online.

You may not even be aware of them, but there are some very common fears to making money online and they may be hindering your success.  Here are 7 Common Fears of Making Money Online that I have run across both personally and through working with and coaching others:

(1)  Fear of Disapproval From Authority Figures You Respect

Most people have been raised and conditioned to respect certain authority figures in their lives.  From a spiritual or religious perspective this may be a higher power you believe in.  From a family perspective, this may be your spouse, parents, siblings, grandparents, etc.  From a social perspective it may be your friends, the government, your teachers, co-workers, your boss, your doctor etc.

Growing up we are taught to respect certain authority figures, and the approval of these authority figures may play a major role in our lives without us even realizing it.  If you want to be successful at making money online, you must get over your fear of disapproval from these perceived “authorities”.  The reality of the situation is that Making Money Online, especially through channels like Blogging or Affiliate Marketing, is still very much a new business concept and only those at the very cutting edge of the industry understand that there is a real, valid, sustainable business model behind all this.  The majority of people you may respect as authority figures, such as your parents, grandparents, teachers, bosses and even co-workers may have absolutely no clue about anything related to Making Money Online, so if you go seeking their approval they will very likely respond with negativity and warnings of “Sounds too good to be true…” or “If it was that easy, everyone would be doing it…” or something along those lines.

In the past I have mentioned some of the income levels of some of the more successful Bloggers and Affiliate Marketers in our industry, and the people I mentioned it to didn’t really believe me.  They didn’t say it outright but I could tell they couldn’t even fathom someone making $500,000/year from a Blog or an Affiliate Marketer who makes several million dollars in revenue per month.  I’m not saying that these are typical results.  What I’m saying is that Making Money Online is still a very NEW industry, and as such there probably aren’t going to be many “authority” figures in your life that will even understand what you’re doing.

To be successful at making money online, you must overcome your fear of disapproval and being misunderstood by some of the more traditional authority figures in your life.

(2)  Fear of Not Knowing Enough

The fear of not knowing enough or not yet being good enough to make money online is another big killer in our industry.  It’s a fear that paralyzes many would-be online entrepreneurs, because they feel like they don’t know enough to make money online.  Especially in this industry, there is so much information to process and it can be a lot to handle for most people.

The reality is that making money online doesn’t require you to know everything before you get started.  Of course the more you know the higher your chances of success, but most people get completely stuck in the loop of learning, learning, learning and never applying anything they learn.  Their heads swell with all this theory, but they’re too afraid to get started on any project because they keep thinking they still don’t know enough.

The trick to making money online is to learn to apply what you learn.  Even if the strategy or technique you are applying is not the absolute best or newest thing available online, it doesn’t really matter.  Most of what you really need to know you probably already know, it’s just that you haven’t applied what you know yet.

Don’t let the fear of not knowing enough paralyze you and keep you stuck in the endless loop of constantly learning the newest thing without ever actually trying anything.  You learn by doing and experimenting with things, not by theory alone.  At some point it’s time to jump in the pool and to learn how to swim in the water, not by standing around and reading “How to Swim” books.

(3)  Fear of Failure

The fear of failure is another big fear that prevents a lot of people from making money online.  This fear is something that we are usually conditioned with growing up, and especially while going through school.

Let me give you an example.  Let’s say that there is a classroom full of students, and a teacher asks the students “What’s the square root of 9?”, and Billy puts his hand up.  The teacher asks him to answer, and Billy says “Four point five?” and the teacher say “No, Billy it’s 3.” as the whole class erupts in laughter.

What does this teach us as kids?  Well, for most kids it teaches them to sit down and shut up and not to try to answer unless they are 100% sure that they know the answer to a question, or they might get laughed at.  They learn that it’s better not to even try to answer the question unless there is no possibility of failure.

Do you ever see the teacher saying “Thank you Billy for having the courage to put up your hand.  The answer is 3, but thank you for participating…”?  I mean I’m sure there are some teachers that may do this, but growing up I’ve never seen this in any of the schools I’ve been to.

In business, however, you can’t have a fear of failing.  Sitting in the corner quietly doesn’t get you anywhere.  In business we learn from our “failures” and move ahead, while those who are afraid of “failure” sit paralyzed afraid to even try.

To make money online you’re going to have to get comfortable with failing at things.  You’re going to probably fail at 90% of the things you do online, but it doesn’t matter because the 10% of things you do succeed with could make you a fortune.  You must reframe any of your “failures” at trying to make money online as learning opportunities that bring you closer to success.

(4)  Fear of Loss of Money

Another fear that stops people from making money online is the fear of losing money.  For some reason, when a student goes out and gets a $40,000 student loan to go to school, we consider that “normal” and don’t look at it as a risk at all.  We see it as an investment in their future earnings.  However, if someone is thinking about investing $300 into a course on how to make money online, they see it as this giant risk.  Why is that?

You have to start looking at your expenditures into online money making resources as necessary investments to get a proper education that will allow you to succeed in this industry.  Medical students today are graduating with student loans in the range of $100,000 – $250,000, but because they understand the six-figure earning potential of being a surgeon for example, it’s not viewed as a big deal.

Your investment in learning to make money online will require some form of monetary investment and yes there is a risk that you may not make some of that money back if you give up on the industry and go back to doing something else, but let me ask you this: how many people do you think would give up on trying to make money online if they invested $250,000 into being educated on the industry?

I think the biggest reason why so many people don’t make money in this industry is not because it requires a huge financial investment and there is money to be lost, but rather because it doesn’t require a big investment to learn most of what’s needed, so it’s very easy for people to give up becuase they haven’t invested much.

(5)  Fear of Alienating Friends, Family and Co-Workers

Many people value the opinions and respect of their social circles very highly.  For example, I know a lot of people who don’t really enjoy the jobs that they do, but they really like the people that they work with.  When they try to make money online, they have fears that if their online business does succeed, they may end up losing some or all of their current “friends” from work.  The way I see it, there are co-workers and then there are friends.  If someone is truly your friend, you’ll continue to be friends even if you don’t work together.  If not, then that means they were just co-workers and not really your friends.  Not that there is anything wrong with co-workers, but it’s probably not a good idea to live your life based on what they think you should do.

Also, some people fear that making money online may alienate some or all of their friends and family since this is not an industry many people understand.  When I first started getting into affiliate marketing it wasn’t easy trying to explain what affiliate marketing is to friends and family.  Most people out there still don’t realize that there are literally billions of dollars being made every year in the affiliate marketing and Blogging industries alone, so a lot of them think that this is just some silly hobby of yours that you’ll try out for a few months and then move onto something else.

On the other spectrum of this fear is the fear that if you do begin to make a lot of money online, you may end up alienating your friends and family members because you’ll all of a sudden be making way more money than them.  I know this may sound strange, but a lot of people have a fear of making more money than their friends and family members.  I mean, a few hundred dollars here and there is not a big deal, but what if the average income of all of your friends and family is in the $50k-$60k/year region, and you start making $500k/year?  Some people fear that this may have a huge negative effect on their relationships with their friends, so they self-sabatage themselves to never get to that point.

(6)  Fear of Rejection

Fear of rejection is a huge fear for most people.  Online, the fear of rejection is even bigger because you’re no longer just being judged by your friends and family.  When you begin publishing a Blog, or when you decide to write and publish an eBook for example, there are so many more people who can reject you now.

For some people the anxiety of being rejected by anyone, even if it’s a total stranger leaving a comment on a Blog post, is not something they are able to handle.  The minute you put yourself out there by sharing your ideas online on the Internet, you also open yourself up to criticism and rejection.

The reality is that successful online money makers don’t shy away from being rejected.  They embrace it.  I’ve had many people leave comments on your Blog posts that completely disagree with what I said.  This is not something I get personally offended by.  I understand that I will be challenged just as much as I will be supported in life and that’s OK.

Don’t let the fear of being rejected stop you from pursuing your dreams of being an online money maker.

(7)  Fear of Not Fitting In

The beauty of the “Make Money Online” community is that it is so diverse and many people really embrace the opportunity to express their individuality and personal style online.  In the corporate world of jobs and cubicles, most people conform and try to fit in with the status quo so it’s not very difficult to fit in with the rest of the crowd.  Once you’ve worked at one corporation in a cubicle and found a way to fit in, you can probably fit in at any other corporation as well.

Online, you can be yourself and not really worry too much about what others think.  The downside of it though is that when you look around the community and you see all these diverse and interesting people who are succeeding online, it can sometimes be intimidating if you try to compare yourself to them.  It’s easy for someone to say “Just be yourself“, but a lot of people don’t have the confidence to truly be themselves out there as they may have been hiding behind a corporate persona all these years and they fear that if they “Just be themselves” they might not fit in.

Overcoming Our Fears

I’ve covered what I believe to be the 7 most common fears to making money online and I wish that there was some magic formula or pill that I could offer that would magically get rid of all of your fears overnight and make you an online money making superstar, but the truth is there is no such thing.  What I can offer are a few tools I’ve used myself to help me overcome some of my personal fears relating to making money online.

One of the best ways to overcome fear that I’ve been having a lot of success with lately is to use the methods taught by Dr. John Demartini.  Dr. John Demartini’s methods can help us to dissolve fear by starting it right in the face and asking ourselves a series of very specific questions to help us accept our fears so that we may overcome them.  It’s best to offer an example of how this can be accomplished.

Let’s take the “Fear of Rejection” as an example.  Let’s say that I want to launch a Blog but I’m afraid of writing Blog posts because I fear rejection from people on the Internet.  To help me overcome this fear, one question I could ask myself could be:

“What are the benefits of being rejected by people online after launching my Blog and publishing Blog posts?”

I would then make a list of 50-100 benefits to the fear actually coming true.  Here are some examples of what the benefits may be of getting rejected online:

1. When one person rejects me and leaves a “negative” comment, someone else with a similar point of view to mine may come and support me by leaving a “positive” comment.  This could encourage active participation from my audience.
2. Being “rejected” means that I am writing from a perspective that is different than the one that my readers have.  This is great as it means that I am showing them another perspective.
3. Just because people don’t agree with me, doesn’t mean that they won’t continue to come to my Blog and read it.  People are often attracted to those that are the exact opposite of them.
4. When I write Blog posts and get rejected, but keep going in spite of that rejection, it will help me to build my confidence.
5. When I am rejected / criticized publicly but keep doing what I want to do, that may build a lot of respect towards me even from those who disagree with me.
6. etc…

Do you see how staring into the eyes of your worst fears and being able to see benefits to the situation, you can’t help but to dissolve your anxiety and fear of it coming true?  If you do this exercise, you may in fact find that you no longer fear rejection (or whatever you are fearing) but instead look forward to it due to the benefits that it brings along with it.  It doesn’t mean you will attract your worst fears by doing this.  It means you won’t be so worried about them and when you don’t worry about your fears, you don’t give them power and then they don’t manifest in your life.

I don’t claim this is a cure-all for everything, but just by becoming aware of these fears and admitting that you may have some of them can be a huge step in the right direction of getting the right mindset to make money online.

Once you know what your fears are, you can look for ways to dissolve and overcome them.  I will cover more tools and ideas on how to overcome fears in future posts but in the meantime, once you identify the fears that may be hindering your success, I highly encourage you to try the exercise I listed above as I’ve been having a lot of success with it.