I realize a lot of people want to supplement their day job with an online marketing business. I also realize that working 8-9 hours at a J.O.B. plus adding in an additional 1 hour of daily commute time doesn’t leave most people with a lot of time at the end of the day to get a lot accomplished.

Recently I’ve cut way back on my time spent doing stuff that I actually enjoyed doing like writing articles and build backlinks and creating products and what-not..

People like Donald Trump will even tell you they’re not the smartest person in their inner circle because they surround themselves with people smarter than they are at certain specific aspects of a business. “The Donald” got good at one thing specifically, then added to his knowledge by adding people to his circle.

Most people trying valiantly to earn an income on the Internet aren’t trying to master one thing only.

They’re “riding 6 wild horses” to nowhere.

They’re trying to master all aspects of this craft without any implementation.

They’re serial learners, and yet Masters of NONE.

To do more, to earn more, to achieve more:

• Master 1 thing, no matter what it is
• Surround yourself with those whose skills you need to develop your business.
• And put a value your time…

Things I now outsource:

Article writing and submissions to Ezine Articles and Unique Article Wizard. As you can tell I tend to get a little wordy with my writing therefore article marketing has a huge time-sucker for me, but still something with positive ROI.

Guess what I learned from outsourcing article writing and submissions?

It costs WAY less than I thought, I can get 25 500-word articles written and submitted to my EZA account for under 200 dollars.

They do a better job of it than I do (their article CTR rates are better than mine, therefore they are people now in my inner circle who are better than me at something )

Value:

1. 8.33 hours/month of my time saved,
2. 25 articles X 20 minutes to write each one = 500 minutes
3. 500 minutes is 8.33 hours
4. $200 divided by 8.33 = $24.00/hour

Prolonged value:

1. Higher CTR rates from articles
2. which brings in more traffic,
3. which brings in more income
4. which gives me more time to do other things, + more energy to put into “tha bizz”
5. or just more time to do nothing at all, realizing sadly, that my business runs better when there’s less of me involved in it

If you’re interested in outsourcing the best product to completely understand the How and Why to it all is Outsource and Delegate

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When it comes to marketing on the internet it seems like there are a lot of moving parts to the most minor marketing tasks.

For instance, building a squeeze page:

Sounds simple, right?  Just throw some words on a page, put the optin box there and get some subscribers…

Not exactly, because you have to write the squeeze page, have something of value to give away, then have some follow-up messages set up…

Plus, you have to decide if you’re going to provide whitelist instructions or just the default “Thank You” page…

Plus you should customize your autoreply message, the one that gets sent out automatically when a new subscriber joins…

And so on, and so forth…

It’s very easy to get bogged down and frustrated dealing with these little details that mean so much, but there’s a way out of that mindset trap.

THE Anti-Information Overload Tip… Compartmentalization is key here…

Think of assembly lines and how they “kicked off” the Industrial Revolution…

Assembly lines broke down each of the many moving parts into seperate tasks handled by methods, machines, or people who were experts at doing that one task extremely well.

Many marketing coaches (myself included) like to say that you should treat your business like you would treat the prospect of eating an elephant, you  have to do it one bite at a time.

Maybe a better metaphor would be:

Treat your business like you’re creating a Model T Ford…

There are many moving parts to a business, and if you were to try and build a car going from one station to the next, it would take you a very long time…

But if you employ the assembly-line method to organizing and carrying out your marketing duites, then you’ll be a whole lot more relaxed and a heck of a lot more efficient.

Example:

I do some article marketing for backlinks and traffic and I write the articles myself, but I wait until I’m in the mood to write that way and I do it all day long.

I write until I reached my goal or until I get burned out writing.  This may take 2-3 days, but I’m done with that task for the month and I won’t have to go back to it until next month.

Then I move on to blog posts.  I have 20 blogs that I write to on a regular basis, and again, I have these tasks compartmentalized as well.

When I feel like writing about link building and SEO, I write posts on my link building services site.  If there are home business opportunities worth reviewing, I will write a blog post or 2 on that subject on my home business reviews site.

If I have a lot to review and write about, I write several blog posts, and save some as drafts so I don’t spew out 4 posts in a day.

…but even my sites are getting compartmentalized now, since I don’t try to have one site be about absolutely everything.

The list goes on and one and I don’t want to bore you, so here’s a more general view of how you can beat information overload and overcome a lack of focus:

Pick one thing and learn it well, become obsessed by it.  I spent a good part of 2008 totally involved with SEO stuff and it was fun and exasperating, but after 8 1/2 months of learning what I could by trial and error, I moved on…

One thing that I’ve always been complacent about is list building, for the reasons stated below:

• What to write on the squeeze page?
• What to give away?
• Whitelest, or default Thank You pages?
• Follow up series email? how many and What are they about?
• etc…

When I turned my attentions back to list building, I learned from my past moments of inneffective, time-wasting, scatterbrained behavior.

I compartmentalized the making of a squeeze page by doing one thing at a time.

Here’s how I did that:

I wrote the squeeze page first, and I made life easy for myself by copying a template I had used before and just changed the words aorund a bit

As I developed the squeeze page, I felt like offering more and more in this newsletter series that I was going to be giving away.

The more I offered in the newsletter, the more potential follow up emails I would have to write, but at least there was plenty of content ideas for the follow up series ( a true Ecourse not a sale spitch-a-day newsletter).

Once squeeze page was done, I went to work on the newsletter.

This took 3 days of writing since there were/are 26 emails in the newsletter (so far).

As I started writing the newsletter, it occurred to me that I hadn’t thought of what product recommendations would tie in appropriately  so I started to get agitated again, and losing focus.

But the funny things is, every 2d or 3d email require the newsletter reader to go look at a product I recommended…

So this part took care of itself nicley, and it came naturally without stress or aforethought.

Since I didn’t anticipate finding anywhere appropriate to list the product recommendations before, I didn’t have my affiliate links handy.

I ALMOST stopped writing the newsletter to go find them, but I didn’t.

I stayed the course and finished the newsletter and finnaly completed it.

At this point, in one week’s time, I had written my articles for the month, built a squeeze page and a newsletter.

Time to sit back and say, “WHEW!” huh?

Not exactly…

Now I want traffic to this squeeze page so I got some backlinks pointing towards them to help that get get some search-engine-generated traffic.

This may sound like a lot of work to you, but for me it was fun, since I was doing what I felt like doing at that time and was enjoying myself.

When you’re in a “zone” enjoying yourself, and are focussed on doing one thing and one thing only really well, you will get a lot more done that you ever could have realized.

Compartmentalization…

Absorb this…

Internet Marketing is a cut-throat niche…

The following post may sound a bit negative to you, but the feeling has crept up in me over the years and now it’s come to the point whereby I cannot ignore it any longer.

What am I talking about?

Well, as an idea person I share ideas freely with people, especially other marketers, but those ideas get copied/implemented based on what I told them.

If I am using a certain blog theme, they might use the same one to emulate the look and feel of my sites.

If I am promoting a certain product in a certain way, they will copy that, then do it better usually…

If I express an idea for a certain home business product, they will invariably come out with one of their own based on what I told them (home study course, information product, even a certain niche).

It makes me rather suspicious when I see others copying me, but should I be flattered, “get over” myself, or get ticked off that these other allegedly successful marketers are probably glomming on to me for ideas on what to do next in their business promotions?

This kind of stuff makes me want to take a shower to wash the “fleas” off…

You know like… when you lie down with dogs you come up with fleas…type of thing?

This makes me want to “go niche” under a pen name and turn off my Skype.

How my stuff gets copied the most:

Stolen content:

Whenever there is a product launch I am interested in, I will write a review or article about the product… Then, if the review or article was good enough, it will get scraped and put on a squidoo lens or a blog and whover scrapes tht content will pass it off as their own.  The most prevalent violation is done when people republish the EzineArticles.com articles without linking back to the article or leaving hyperlinks intact.

I understand that a sure fire way to success with business is to take something that works and make it better and can appreciate it when it’s done well and honorably…

Case in point:

I heard on talk radio the other day that Japanese steak houses in my area of New England are making a better product and putting it on the table for less money, much like they did for the automobile industry.  As a result of that Japanese Steak houses are gaining in popularity and success in this region (so says the Phantom Gourmet brothers).

But still, when you see your marketing buddies from Skype or wherever copying what you do and watching you, it is kind of creepy.  I mean, they’re successful people too, allegedly so why the need to copy me?  I’m as humble as they come, and deservedly so…. so I can’t really understand why people are so lacking in ideas for business promotion.

One thing I will admit to though, is that when it comes to double-checking my SEO knowledge or theories, I head on over to Matt Garrett’s blog to see what he’s doing, and how he has things set up.  

No content or marketing methods are copied, but a couple of things are clear when you look at any of Matt’s blogs…

1- They get a lot of traffic

2- Therefore must be configured properly

I won’t scrape and copy Matt’s stuff, or re-word it to make it my own, or grab his blog theme and create a look-a-like site.  He’s a Skype buddy, and I’m no copycat and can think for myself, lol.

BTW, Matt rocks in just about everything, from SEO (true SEO knowledge, no untested theories) list-building,  blogging (has an authority site on just this topic), domaining etc…

So why did my ADD kick in on an already rambling blog post to spin off to talk about Matt?

Because Matt has experienced the same things, too. 

Matt, like all internet marketers, sends out promo emails and someone was copying his promotional and putting it on a blog as content.

Matt got irritated by this so he did the same thing, but his SEO expertise pretty much made what that other person was doing ineffective, or at least less effective.

If you stick around this niche long enough you will get copied, one way or another.  The copycats are looking for shortcuts or just temporarily out of ideas.  I honestly have no problem with someone taking an idea and running with it by making it better, but cannot condone stealing of content and passing it off as your own.  I just find it weird that these alleged entrepreneurs are actually out of ideas and need to emulate little ole me…

This rant and rambling post is done, hope you learned someting from it, I know I feel better now for having written it  and getting this off my chest.  I promise you that more suitable ORIGINAL content is soon to follow :)

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Business is merely a small, yet important part of your life.

Sometimes it is all too easy to get consumed by trying to make your online business grow, and there are some things you need to take into consideration when creating and running your own business…

1. Creating and running your business is a journey, not a race
2. There are certain phases you will go through with your personal development as you and your business progress along side each other.

#1- Has your life been filled with upsides, downsides, struggles, and triumphs?  Has your life been an even-keel experience for you?

If you’re like everyone else on this planet, it probably hasn’t…

Therefore, you need to accept the fact that there will be triumphs and glory and despair and frustrations with your particular business.

Knowing this and believing it can actually set your mind free because it could dampen any frustrations you experience with your business.

Business owners tend to worry about each and every aspect of their businesses, especially if they’re one-man (or woman) shows…

Sole proprietorships are more often than not just jobs with an LLC or corporation or some sort of legal entity attached to them.

The reason for this is sole proprietors tend to get caught up with doing almost everything themselves and a lot of time is wasted.

The beauty of having your own online business is:

• There’s a lot of automation that can be included in your virtual real estate empire (SEO, email marketing, affiliate programs)
• The low-cost of entry into the online business world makes it easier to succeed (but also attracts a higher percentage of unrealistic dreamers.)
• It works 24 hours a day, even while you’re sleeping, unlike the offline world where there are dedicated hours of business
• It’s a challenging and rewarding experience whereby even non-business-savvy folks can make it through sheer persistence

 There is a story (true) that I like to tell my clients when I see the time is right for them to learn this particular lesson…

I ran 2 Boston Marathons and completed them, but it pretty much destroyed my knees.  The goal wasn’t to get a good time, merely to finish…

Life is much like a marathon, in that you keep on chugging away until you reach that finish line.

If things are going rather poorly for you, you might consider quitting or dropping out or being complacent and this leads to you not reaching your goals.

When I was taking psychology courses in high school and college, they often mentioned the concept of self-actualization.  To me, this terms basically means “reaching your full potential” as a person.

1. If you don’t meet and overcome obstacles, you will not grow as a person.
2. If you don’t try to break thorugh comfort zones you will not grow as a person
3. When you do overcome obstacles, you realize that you’re a pretty tough cookie
4. When you do break through comfort zones, you may realize you were being complacent and that it really wasn’t as hard as you thought it was (looking back with 20/20 hindsight)

When I ran the marathons, I never thought I wouldn’t finsih.. That idea never actually occurred to me and that’s an important concept to absorb…

To know I didn’t quit… realizing that the thought never occurred to me… those are the true rewards of running a marathon.

I’m definitely not the fastest marathoner who ever ran/walked the Boston Marathon, and not an elite runner, but it was the journey that was the reward…not the race, not the time, not the name in the local newspaper, not the congratulations from family and friends…

The reward was revealed to me between miles 1 and 26.2…   

Running your own business is much like a marathon, too

You don’t have to be the best to get to the finish line…

There are times where you will want to quit…

There are times you wonder why the heck you ever wanted to do this in the first place…

It is so easy and immediately gratifying to quit when you feel like it, and that’s where you need to take an assessment of yourself.

Do you want the easy way out whereby you gain a little by doing a little, or do you want to grow by leaps and bounds by forging on ahead through the toughest of times, when you rmind and body are working against you?

In life, everyone experiences their hardships and we all move on, and in business there are certain stages you will go through.

Sometimes it takes getting burned numeorus times before you realize some important lessons.

Your mistakes are valuable lessons that can help you and your business grow in tandem…

However, if you go through life and business with Mind Wide SHUT, and not Mind wide OPEN, then you’ll never learn anything.

You need to be aware of the lessons and teachers that surround you daily…

One of my greatest teachers is currently 9 years old.  He has taught me more about life than any book, person, movie or whatever…

Because I watched a young child grow, I learned what true happiness can be…

Young children act like “babies” sometimes when they give full vent to their emotions, but they’re also incredibly resilient because of this…

When we were all children, we breathed the way we were supposed to, by filling up the stomach area first, then the chest with air..

As adults we un-learn this all-too-important every day habit and most of us end up breathing shallow chest filled breaths of air.  The older and “smarter” we get, the more damage we do to ourselves, it seems.

Why are children so resilient, and why are they able to move on so quickly?

They give full vent to their emotions, leave nothing on the table, and move on with feet skipping…

If/when you get frustrated with your business or your life, experience that moment in time with mind wide OPEN and learn from it…

Ask yourself if there’s a lesson to be learned and absorb the lesson…

#2- The phases of personal and business development…

You start with a compulsion- to earn money, time freedom, finacial freedom etc…

Answer this:

Would you rather earn 100k a year doing something you enjoy or 300k doing something you don’t enjoy?

Money does not equate well with happiness, and sometime shaving money is the cause of much UN-happiness.

Many people will tell you that you should not go into business purely for the expected monetary gains, but that is half-assed advice.  IF you’re no tin this for some sor tof expected income generation, then you might as well expect to see ZERO income generated!

Here’s a common thing I see pretty often…

People start the online business “Cuz they want to make some money” and don’t really care how they do it…

Then they realize that there are challenges to be faced if they are doing something they enjoy or if theyre doing sometihng they don’ tenjoy.

So when you’re told by someone to stop thinking about how much money you’re going to make, remember that it’s best to do what you love, or like, because your enthusiasm for what you’re doing is what will help you overcome your obstacles.

Why are doctor’s offices staffed predominantly by women? 

Why are construction workers predominantly men?

Because those jobs and business speak to their unique talents and it’s what they like to do.  They can go into many other fields that could pay them more money but we all just want to be happy, not rich, so we end up doing things we enjoy….

Some evidence to that fact is me.. I have a criminal justice degree but “fell into” marketing and teaching because that’s what I truly enjoy doing.

That’s why a lot of people graduate form college or get degrees and end up doing something entirely differnet with their lives.

That’s why a lot of people start their online businesses with a “pure” , sole desire for income generation for the sake of income generation.

They didn’t know they’d have to find out for themselves that their original intentions were a bit mis-guided and only experience in certain fields and industries will eventually guide them into doing something they truly enjoy doing.

The second phase is whereby you realize you don’t enjoy the focus being just on earning money, but you want to help others since you realize hat you can get paid for doing something you really enjoy doing

My family sees it when I interact with my son and little nieces and nephews and they want me to become a school teacher…

However, what they don’t realize is that teaching is only one of my strengths, and that marketing, business development, and coaching are other skills I have, too.

So, I found my niche, and probably just like you, I started out with a desire for gobs of money, then switched over to just wanting to enjoy doing what I do, and the “secret” to your happiness with your business is to find a mixture that works for you…

Again, that’s why the journey is the reward, not finishing the race… 

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