Keeping Focus in Internet Marketing
It’s very important to find your focus and stick with it. I’ve often had the problem, not just in internet marketing, but in a lot of things, in finding and keeping focus. I’m the ind of person who has tonnes of ideas and once I get the idea down on paper (or in a computer log) I tend to skip on to the next idea. This made me really good at a job I used to do, it was something that required that - and other people did the work, but it’s not great in this. At least at this point. So, focusing on one project at a time is a struggle that has to be done - and done well!
With several projects on the go, it is impossible to see any money right away. At least any real money. My smallest, and least important, project is actually the one that is getting me the most direct money online. That’s writing articles and getting paid directly through them. Obviously it doesn’t pay much if you look at my online progress. My intent with that is to get a couple of hundred extra dollars a month and leave it at that. It’s something that will continue on indefinitely with little effort on my part - really one of those things that once it’s going brings you money in your sleep. But the money is small.
My oldest project is one that I seriously need to develop. My eBook on how to incorporate does some small sales. I sold one this month (it’s not on my progress chart yet, because it was after my cutoff date). but I seriously need to redo the sales page - I have some help in that, for which I am very grateful! But I need to seriously get working on it.
And my other serious project is my budgeting site. That site doesn’t does very little sales at the moment (I’ve sold something that gave me about $14 in commissions). but I do give away a spreadsheet - a very simple spreadsheet on personal budgeting. I am currently using that to try and develop a mailing list. I know it won’t be the highest quality list, but it is better than nothing. At least it’s a start. My next plan is to put on that site a more developed spreadsheet. Well, actually, it’s there already, but it’s currently only available to people on my list. I want people to have a look at it and evaluate the usefulness of it and give me feedback, as I intend to use it in a course I am developing. And the course is where I will start to make some money for myself. And in the long term I plan to develop other products around the course.
Actually, it seems that all of my ideas are course-based. I am an educator and writer, at least before I studied business that’s what I did. So it’s what I know. One has to do what one knows, after all. So I am also developing another course, which I think will be more profitable than the budgeting course. but one never can tell! The two courses may even compliment one another when I am all done, and I could do some cross promoting to my two lists. I expect so, anyhow. And that’s a good thing! And each product (course) has great potential to have spin off products. And that’s where I will likely end up making the real money. At least real enough that it could replace my job. But all in good time. This certainly isn’t going to be overnight!
That’s one thing I hate about these people who advertise that they made $14,000 in two days, or whatever. They fail to mention that it also took them three months to build up the product and do the marketing for it in order to have those two great days of sales. Sure, they make $150,000 a year or $500,00 or more off of something like that. But we never hear about the months of preparation and planning and work that go into it before any sales are made. And how many hours it really takes. And the costs of advertising. At least not until we’ve already paid the fees to join their membership sites and after a couple of months, then those hard numbers start to come out. So, before you go into Internet Marketing, just be aware that it’s no cakewalk. But I am willing to bet that once all the hard work is done, it really is worth it!
And that’s exactly what I’m counting on! I will be a millionaire from my internet business. It may not be this year. Or next year. Or even the one after that. But it will happen. Count on it! For now, my goal is more modest - I just want to be able to make a decent living from this business.
And for that, I need to keep my focus and get one project at a time completed. It is the goal that will keep me focused. I realize that if I do not do one project at a time, it will take longer to reach my goal. And so I focus much more in this than I have with anything else. Ever.

May 12th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
I know what you mean about keeping focus. There are a lot of shiney things out there to distract us with. However, I am managing to get more and more focus as time goes by.
I have found that creating up a plan of action can help gain that focus. And it seems to be easier to stick with something if you have a plan layed out in front of you to follow.
Yea, there are tons of misleading sites out there telling you you can make millions in a day or 2. And what they do not tell you is that that figure is based off of having a list or 2 to promote your product, and not on actual traffic to your site. OR its based off of paying 90k for every 100k you make in PPC.
I am not sure if you have a plan of action, but if you do not, I would advise creating a step by step plan so you know what to do and when to do it along the way. That way, when it works, it can be repeatable in the future for any other projects that you do online. That is one of the great things about doing things online is that most ways of doing things for one project is transferable to the next.
Well I had better jet.
Talk to you later.
Ciao for now,
Jeff