Simply Junior

Spending Too Much Time “Learning”

When I first got into internet marketing I probably downloaded close to 200 hundred different reports and ebooks hoping to learn more about the whole make money online process. I read each report from start to finish and then proceeded to download more. This process went on for the first couple of years until I finally realized that just reading all of those reports won’t do me any good. Its about execution. Its about taking what I have learned and put it into action. I like to say I suffered from IIS or instant income syndrome. I was reading and reading just looking for that magic system that could make me money fast.

The problem was that I never found it. And you know why? Because there is no magic system that can make you money fast. When it comes to making money online it takes hard work. As the saying goes, you get out what you put in. I wasn’t putting very much in so I wasn’t getting very much out of it. But once I stopped just “learning” everything and started actually doing something, things changed quickly.

Spending Too Much Time In “Set Up Mode”

The second huge mistake I made was spending way to much time in set up mode. Set up mode is when you are in the process of setting everything up. That can be your blog, your website, your marketing campaigns etc. You see, I would spend hours doing keyword research and then do nothing with that research. I was just “setting” everything up but once again, not actually doing anything. Doing that cost me a lot of time and money. You can’t do that. Don’t take forever to set up your blog or website. Make it functional and then start sending traffic to it. As you learn more and your site starts to grow you can make changes. So don’t get stuck in set up mode like I did. If you start something get it done as quickly as you can.

Procrastinating

I love what Mike Litman says about procrastination. He says it is the thief of profit. And boy is that true. The more you procrastinate the longer it will take for you to make money online. Trust me, I am speaking from personal experience. I would put everything off until tomorrow. The problem was that tomorrow never came. And the longer I waited to complete a task, the bigger that task looked. Which in turn made me want to push it off even more. Procrastination will keep you broke. So don’t put off what needs to be done. Tackle each task as it comes up. That way you will never get behind and feel overwhelmed by all the work that need to be done.

As we near the end of 2010, crucial business planning for 2011 and beyond has to start if not already started.  One area where so many small businesses and home businesses fail is putting together valid business plans for the future.

You have to imagine your home business is a large corporation and treat it no less.  In any large corporation performance and profits and reviewing the client base and how best the company can serve them is key to survival of that corporation, so it should be the same for your home business.  So what can you be doing to get your business ready for 2011 and beyond.  As a student of Jim Rohn, I am always planning for my seasons to ensure that I get a good harvest at the end of the day.

What Can You Learn From 2010?

Right now, its a good time to reflect on the year you just had in your business.  2010 was a very challenging year of learning and change for me, the internet marketing arena is constantly changing and for me it was about keeping up with the changes and how I could use them to my advantage in my business.

Look at the different areas within your business, advertising, prospecting, leading, service how did you perform in each.  Did you meet your objectives that you set yourself.  If you didn’t look at why you didn’t, could you have done better,  its good to make notes of these and see if you can somehow look at lessons learned to improve and go forward with.  Where there things that you did not manage to achieve in the year, do you still need to carry these forward?  Make notes,and ensure they are not missed.  I suggest taking a week to look back at the year you just had, and what you could be taking forward for the following year.

Future Planning – Developing Business Strategies

Having a Business Strategy is key to any growing and developing business, why should your home business be any different.   Depending on where you want your business to go, you need to ensure you have a strategy in place to help you get there.  Don’t make the mistake of developing a business strategy then never look at it again through out the year.  Make sure the strategy is reviewed monthly to ensure you are on target.

Here are some things to think about to put in your business strategy:
Have you thought about what direction is your business going in? What is the market like, and how does your business compare? What is the unique selling point of you / your company? List out your key objectives for 2011 and beyond Based on those key objectives put together your plan for the next year, and the following 2-3 years making sure there is growth in there and realistic targets. Once you have prepared your plan, its good to get the opinion of others. You may want to share with peers or with a mentor or coach.  Take a step back and look at how realistic your targets are.  Are they ‘safe’ targets or will they be stretching you?

Key in all of this is about making yourself accountable.  What ever you put to paper it wont mean a thing if you don’t commit to making it happen.  Go out or your way to take action. Leave fear behind, because fear is what always holds us back. Fear of becoming a failure, fear of success!

F=For

E=Ever

A= Always

R= Running

Or the one phrase I really like is Forget Everything And Run.

I shall leave you with a positive note and that is

‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail’.

To Your Success

Colette Morris aka workfmhomediva

You can find small business ideas all around you. If you can’t afford to make a big investment than a small business is the perfect solution for you. Try to find something with small costs and a good profit. You can be your own boss if you follow a few great business ideas.

Some of the best small business can be made at home. This will be less expensive than renting an office outside the house. You will be able to deduct some of the expenses from taxes. For example a pat of the electricity bill will be considered as business expenses. You can just rearrange a room from your house. That will be your new working space.

Use Internet as your main tool. An on line business will cost you a lot less than an off line one. The income can be without limits. It all depends of the effort you’re putting in it. Depending of your skills, there are a lot of internet business to choose from. You can make your own program and earn as much as you want. Remember that you have to take this seriously. You will not have a fix payment any more. This is why it’s always better to have a reserve of money for when you can’t work.

A good example for an on line business is freelance writing. If your writing skill are god enough, you can get paid for writing articles. You can choose to write about anything you want. There are a lot of companies willing to pay you for product reviews. So all you have to do is to share your opinion about a product you tried. You can calculate your own income. For example if you want 40$ a day you can check how many articles you must write daily.

Another idea for a small on line business is internet marketing. You can create your own digital products or you can become an affiliate marketer. For this business you need a professional website and a lot of targeted traffic. Keep in mind that you need to advertise your sales website in order to attract clients.

For better results you must set up a good working plan. Write down how many hours a day you would like to work. You can even work during the night. At the beginning of every month you should set up a new goal. Make sure your goals will be realistic enough.

When the average person starts to feel the urge to start internet marketing they do not have any money. The fact is affiliate marketing is like running your own business. While affiliate marketing does not require the actual processing and costumer service of an order, it is a lot easier to be successful with start up money.

I’m not going to go into why it is easier to be successful online with some start up money because the majority of you reading this do not have any money to spend. Do not worry though, many affiliate marketers have become successful with no start up costs. The purpose of this is to show people how to replicate their successes into their own.

I have broke down a successful way to do this in 3 steps. Following these steps does not ensure success. However, if they are implemented properly with time and determination you will succeed in any market.

Finding a niche you want to promote on an affiliate network.

There are many different methods to go about this. From my experience the best way to find a product on an affiliate network is to find a niche that is selling well. For example, since the industry involving saving gas is selling really well it might be in your interest to try to sell products involving how water can be used for fuel.

This is just an example and there are many niches to get involved in being an affiliate marketer on these affiliate networks. Generally, you are going to want to find a niche which has a bunch of different products. This helps ensure that your product is going to sell.

Pick 3 of those affiliate programs in your niche to promote.

After you pick the niche you are going to promote you are going to try to focus on picking which products out of that niche you are going to advertise. Through my experience the best way to do this is to pick the top three selling products.

Depending on your niche this is going to take some research. It is really important that the products you are going to promote have a great sales page and sell a good product. Since you are not going to be paying for anything the better products you find to promote the better.

Start promoting your affiliate products on free sign up websites.

There are thousands of places online to advertise your affiliate products for free. Squidoo, Blogger, and Hubpage to just name a few are great ones to start.

On these pages you are going to want to right concise reviews which reveal information about the products you are selling. This will set up the actual sales pages of your products to pump up a sale.

Then you must start social bookmarking and linking all of your free pages together in order to get them ranked on the search engines.

All of this seems like a lot of work but if you stay focused you can soon start making money with this method without any start up costs.