So what do you do when you get stuck with the online technical stuff?

I’ve spent the last 4 months creating online content, learning new skills and setting up my own MLM system. There are days where everything flows gloriously and there are days where EVERYTHING seems to get stuck. ( And I feel like screaming!)

If you’re working online with the internet and learning new skills then you have probably experienced the same thing. What do you do?

I’m like a dog with a bone if I get stuck with something i.e.; last week I had a problem with my ‘permalinks’ (I’d never thought much about permalinks 6 months ago, and never heard of them 1 year ago but suddenly they were a big problem!) I don’t give up until it’s fixed.

I find the techie stuff very frustrating and although I have come a long way with my technical learning curve, with the help of my trusty virtual mentors Mike Klingler and Mike Dillard, the more I learn the more I realise I don’t know!

So when you get stuck and just can’t find a way to get your YouTube titles to work, or your Squidoo Lens has been lost and you’re not sure why, or your widgets are not appearing on your blog, or you feel like crying when someone mentions more ‘html’ just take a deep breath.

It happens to us all. The further along you go the bigger the challenges seem to be. Whereas I used to spend time working on pieces of content that were finished that same day (or hour) now I spend time on bigger projects which create higher value content.

Unfortunately it does not mean I never encounter problems. Everything can be humming along beautifully and the thing I think will be most challenging goes very smoothly, and the thing I least expect to go wrong does!

If you want to really work online (and I mean attract endless leads to your marketing funnel – not dabble and chit chat on Facebook) you will need to become a hardened warrior of the internet!

You’ll need to be ready to overcome frustrations and challenges and not give up. Sure you can just settle for only doing 1 or 2 types of content that you are comfortable with but you will probably get bored.

And guess what? Your readers, followers, subscribers, fans or whatever you want to call them will get bored too.

So what can you do for troubleshooting? How can you get through the frustration of being stuck?

Here are a couple of tips for finding solutions to those tricky online issues:

1) Phone a friend who is more technical than you. It may be that you can trade talents. As long as you’re mindful of your friend’s time and offer value in return then it can be a real win win and sometimes with 2 minutes of someone else’s input you can breakthrough.

2) Pay a professional. Just because you work from home and are self employed doesn’t mean you can’t leverage other people’s skills. In fact there is probably all the more need for you to do so – otherwise you are running a one man band that is completely dependent on your talents. Pay someone else to do it or if you need to learn it, pay them to teach you.

3) Get online internet coaching. If you’re trying to be the hero who will figure it all out you may find you pay the price with your time and in many cases you can be setting up content online with no strategy. If you don’t set up your content so that it works together you will be forever working on new content today but not leveraging what you have already done. Learn from someone who knows how to do it right the first time.

4) Google it! It is amazing how many solutions I find to my online questions just by keying in the exact question I have into google. And it’s free!

5) Ask your network. Give value to your network of contacts and then reap the benefits when you get stuck. I often put out a quick question to my network via Tweetdeck..which hits Twitter…which runs through Facebook…which connects with my Ecademy contacts…and my Linked In and my Plaxo… When you build a network with 1000s of business people who are interested in your industry you will discover that there are many smart people in it who have the answers you seek!

6) Recruit people whom your business needs. I first heard this from Randy Schroeder, a well known and very successful networker. It is an interesting concept. Once we have some MLM experience we all know in theory that we want to enrol skilled people. Still… many chase after the needy folk who drain their talent rather than contribute to their business.

Again if you need to pay for someone’s time then do it. If you can trade skills to help each other then do that. It all works and will save you hours and hours of frustration. I am blessed with a super-geek, Tony, in my business. Everybody needs a Tony!

How do you breakthrough the technical frustrations you encounter in your online learning? Share your tips with us here at the blog. We’d love to hear them. And remember…. Be like a dog with a bone and never give up! Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is your online real estate!