IM Death Trap
The other day I got quite a shock – I discovered that I had actually fallen into one of the affiliate marketers death traps – once again! I am sure you can relate to what I am going to talk about – not having enough discipline to work on what is going to make you money, and instead letting yourself get sidetracked by everything else, like checking stats (my oh my, I do that a lot! – Especially since my Adsense earnings have gone quite crazy!), checking out all the new programs that are being offered in the overstuffed inbox, and all the while thinking I am doing something useful. Because I was occupied and spent lots of time on my computer!
Can you relate to that? This particular behaviour is actually quite common to many, many Internet Marketers. I mean, you do work from home (even if it’s at night time after your full day job and everything else that’s going on in your life), and it’s not like you “are going to work” for somebody else. You are working for yourself, and that quite often becomes a death trap, because even though the flexibility and working from home is what you ultimately want to achieve with Internet Marketing, when having the flexibility it can be quite hard to stick to a routine and actually get things done. That’s why it is so important to focus and work out a plan, schedule the tasks you want to achieve and discipline yourself to actually get through with it. I am just as guilty of not doing it as others!!!
Being Productive?
I just sat back today and suddenly thought – what am I actually DOING to make money at the moment; the last few weeks? Don’t I have great ideas on what my next steps are going to be? I am all fired up every day when I sit at the computer, ready to rock and roll, and a couple of hours later I realize that I have literally done nothing but surf. Not good if you want to build a business, I can tell you!
So, it is really important to discipline yourself if you are working from home in your own time. Here are some tips on what you can do to get back on track (no, should do):
- Work out the best days and times in the day for you to sit down and work undisctractedly. Write them in your calendar if you have to! And then stick to them, just as if you were going to a job somewhere. I mean, if you work for Woolworths from 8 to 4 then that’s when you are at work and do your work – you should treat your Internet Marketing just the same, like a job, and assign an appropritate time to it.
- Take the time to sit down and work out exactly what you want to achieve next (short term will do fine for starters) – like building a blog about Jack Russell Terriers
-, and WRITE IT DOWN. Not just on scrap paper, make an effort to make it look nice. - Write down the steps of action you have to take to achieve that goal. Assign numbers to the steps, in the order you need to do them.
- Give yourself a kick in the butt and discipline yourself (Ouch, I just did!)! Meaning – start using the lists you have just created, on the days and times you have assigned for your Internet work. Follow your own plans step by step. Stop being hitchhiked by other things. It is easy for the mind to wonder off if you haven’t got a structured plan laid out, but now you should have one so NO EXCUSES ANY MORE! Have the plan in front of you at all times. Stick it to the wall if you have to!
- I am just going to say it once again, because this is so important: Do actually write everything down on a piece of paper. Write it down. And then write it down. Oh, did I tell you to write it down??? Having your goal(s) and action steps on a piece of paper makes them much more tangible and will seriously help to “untangle” your mind and streamline your behaviour.
Hopefully you can find some useful advice for yourself in this post. I had the urge to write it because I discovered that I had slipped back into my old bad behaviour of spending hours in front of the computer, having all these great ideas in my head but because there was no structure, no “real” plan, nothing written down to guide me along, I never started with anything and just went “surfing”. Death, really, it is. Nothing is going to happen if you don’t make it happen. I was just so angry with myself that I had to get this off my chest. So please try not to fall into the same pit. Make me happy.
Well, I thought today is the time to give some Google Adsense tips. My Adsense earnings have literally doubled over the past 2 months, and even though it still doesn’t add up to all that much, I can actually see 
) as my beach site, but when somebody clicks on an ad I often make as much as 6 or more clicks COMBINED on my beach site. So if I can get the traffic up to my IM blog, then I should be laughing!
As promised, I want to personally thank my official second 
but now I am happy to announce that I have received my first tip!
The Wealthy Affiliate University is undoubtedly one of the most comprehensive, easy to follow Affiliate and Internet Marketing Training Facilities you will ever have come across. It is a fantastic source of all things you need to know to become successful as an Affiliate Marketer. The founders, Kyle and Carson, have gone out of their way to provide you with the information, tools and techniques you need to make it big in this profession, and they have done it for a very low monthly cost. And right now they are offering you to try it for 7 days for just $1, which is an incredible opportunity.
