Archive for the ‘Seeking Success’ Category

How to Build Your Success Online

The Yo-Yo is a No-No

It is hard to know what works and what doesn’t until you jump in and try a few things. It’s understandable that you will most likely make several attempts at building your online business and fail to follow through. This does not mean you are a failure. It can take time to find the path to success you are most comfortable following.

The problem is many people get into a habit of this. They simply jump from one program to the next without ever taking action or following through with any particular game plan. If you never take action, or follow through with any particular plan, you will never find a successful plan to follow.

I found success with Adsense, but I failed to really see what I had and sold it. I have another site that has the same potential as the one I sold for $1400.00, however, right now, I do not have time to work on it. However, I am not abandoning it. I am setting it aside for the time when I have the money to outsource the work to building it up.

Reinvesting into Your Business

Every dollar you earn online can be spent or saved. It is up to you to decide how much of it you can afford to reinvest into your online business. However, it is vital that you do not reinvest your money into learning.

If you have a successful business, reinvest your money into that business. Outsourcing is one way to reinvest into your business.

Treating Our Online Business Like a Real Business Not a Hobby

Imagine going into work one day and saying to your boss, “Hey Boss, I’m going to just hang out and chat with my buddies on Facebook for about 20 minutes, then maybe kick back and watch a few YouTube videos on last nights game. Maybe around noon I’ll get to that report you need. How’s that sound?”

Sounds like you’re about to be fired.

It’s really important that we consider our online business as a real business. Since we are our own boss, we can be far too lenient. This is why it is so important to have a SMART game plan.

To be successful online requires focus, determination, and discipline. They key is to realize that while it can be simple, it is not always easy because it is truly up to us to make it work.

Read this series from the beginning

Part 1 – How to Be Successful Online

Part 2 - How to Build Success

Part 3 – Where to Focus Your Time and Money

Has this series prompted any thoughts? Share your thoughts below. We’ve all been there and done that!

Where to Focus Your Time & Money

100% Guaranteed to Work or Your Money Back

I have YET to see an offer online through Clickbank or the Warrior Forum that is not guaranteed to work or you get your money back. If there is not at least a 30 day money back guarantee, avoid it. Typically you will get your money back if you are not satisfied if you spend your money on any programs delivered via Paypal, Clickbank, and the Warrior Forum.

So, 3 rules of thumb here.

1. Follow the plan, if it doesn’t work, get your money back.
2. Follow the plan, if you quit or don’t even try, don’t ask for your money back.
3. Don’t request a refund after reading the guide and deciding you’re too lazy to take action.

So don’t be afraid to jump in and try something new. Just be sure you’re ready to take action on this new thing you’re about ready to learn.

Where to Focus Your Time

This is really a question of where is your time best spent. The most important thing is to have a clear idea of where your focus should be. You don’t want to be jumping all over the place. Work on one project at a time.
Getting to Attached to a Failing Niche or Program

Another thing we can do is really grow attached to our blog or websites to the point where even when they are clearly not working, we continue to try and force the square peg into the round hole. Sometimes the niche we selected just isn’t working and we just have to call it quits.

Are You Wasting Time Online?

The Internet can take us down two paths. One of them is just like the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland. We can get lost reading blog posts, forum threads, watching videos, or chatting with friends. That rabbit hole is deep, dark, and can suck up your time with the power of a jet engine.

Your resistant is futile!

Allowing yourself a few minutes of distraction can lead you down that hole very fast. Avoid it. Set time aside for this rabbit hole. And that time really should be set aside for when you are finished with your daily goals that lead to profits, not pleasurable distraction.

On the other hand, the Internet can take you down a highly profitable path if you pay attention, set goals and stick to your goals. Some people have 1 hour a day to devote to their new Internet business. That’s just 7 hours a week. What can you really accomplish in 7 hours?

Option One – You can learn a new skill.
Option Two – You can work for 7 hours and get paid for your time. Then invest your money where it will have the most ROI. Perhaps you could spend $10.00 on the guide, then take your money you earned and hire someone else to do the work.

Outsourcing Offers an ROI of Endless Possibilities

This is by far one of the most valuable ways to spend your money. It offers a huge ROI if you invest wisely. It may take some time to work your way into affording it, but it is well worth it. As an example,  last year I had two SEO clients who paid me a total of $1,000 a month. I spent $200.00 a month in software and outsourcing the work. I personally spent two hours per client managing those accounts. That’s $800.00 for 4 total hours of work.

This is just an example of how outsourcing can work for you.

Read Part 1 – How to Build Success, Start With Specific goals

Read Part 2 – How to Manage your Time Money & Procrastination

How to Build Success – Part 2

Today we’ll talk about managing our time. SMART – Specific we covered in Part 1, today we will cover the “M” in the SMART system, so managing our time. If you missed Part 1, you can read it by clicking here.

Training and Research

My research is divided into several time zones. I call them zones because they are separated and I don’t want them to mix. Some of the research I do is vital to my work, other research I do is non essential to my success.

1. Researching a new article I want to write for a new post to my blog or for guest posting. This is something that is part of my workday. But I have to be very careful as it can lead me down the rabbit hole. I have to really focus to avoid that hole.
2. Researching a new idea for a product I want to sell. This type of research is not allowed unless my work for the day is done.
3. Researching for fun. This is almost never an option. If I want to have fun, it’s pretty much not happening via the Internet. I’d rather play racquetball, hike, watch TV, or go to the movies. So, I avoid YouTube because there are just too many cute, funny, and amazing videos on YouTube.

Those are some examples of how I divide up my time and prioritize my day.

The point is, set goals and stick to your goals. When you work without goals, it’s like sailing without a compass in the fog. You will never have a clear direction of where you are going or how you will get there. Failure loves to hang out in the fog.

It Takes Money to Make It

This is a true statement. But you can manage the way you work with this issue. You can either save a little money from your offline work or work online where the opportunity to get paid for your time is 100% guaranteed.

Avoid getting into debt to make money online as there are no guarantees you will be able to pay it back before things get out of hand.

You can make money online by doing simple chores that generate enough money to buy a How-To guide within your budget. Be selective when choosing how to make your first dollar online. There are many excellent tutorials that teach you how to make money online are less than $10.00.

You can earn $10.00 within an hour to pay for these inexpensive guides that you want to buy. There are three websites online dedicated to paying you for doing specific chores online.

• Fiverr.com – You decide what you’re willing to do for five bucks ($4.00 after Fiverr fees) and you get paid after you have done the job. Some of these jobs are incredibly easy to do or learn. There are plenty of Fiverr YouTube videos to help you get started.
• iWriter.com – This site pays you to write articles. It takes about 15 or so articles to earn about $20.00. It may take you 5 or more hours to generate your first $20.00, but it’s not a loan, it’s money you can spend on your first guide.
• Mturk.com – Mechanical Turk is a site run by Amazon.com. You will need to visit that site to really understand how it works, but people pay for all sorts of things that they need done. Some of these jobs are stupidly simple like clicking on a Facebook Like button for .05 cents. But if it’s something you can do and watch TV at the same time, it’s a far better idea of how to pay for that $9.00 guide, than using your credit card.

No Excuses – Work & Get Paid

There are so many people who become insanely upset and frustrated because of not earning a dime from all of their hard work and time put into trying to make money online. However, you can be a total newb, without any skills on creating a website, blog, or product, and visit any of those 3 websites I mentioned above and start making money.

Yes, it’s work. But the pay is almost 100% guaranteed. You simply cannot fail if you do the work you promise to do. I think anyone can click on a few LIKE buttons, write 20 blog comments, or watch a free video and learn how to do a simple chore that someone needs done on Fiverr.

Think of it this way. You could spend 10 hours learning how to set up a WordPress blog to make money in Adsense. Or you could spend 10 hours in Fiverr doing a variety of Gig’s that generate a few hundred dollars. 100% ROI on your time. Learning has a 0% ROI on your time.

Read Part 1

How to Be Successful Online – Part 1

First, let’s be sure to understand that our focus is not on our failures. We can learn from failure, but we do not want to focus on it. We can learn from our successes and it is these things we want to focus our attention on.

Today’s post is about being SPECIFIC in your game plan. Setting goals, avoiding distraction, etc…

Pay Attention to the Addiction to Learning

One of the most difficult things to overcome in this business is the addiction to learning. Learning new things in general can be very exciting. Learning new ways to make money seems to be the key to unlocking those endorphins in our bodies. Like those extreme sportsmen who climb cliffs without a rope seeking the ultimate rush released by the constant reminder of sudden death should they lose focus, we who surf the net feel that rush when we learn of a new way to make money.

Perhaps sometimes it’s simply having that “AHA!” moment when all the pieces flow together and our own creative juices start to flow. Whatever the cases, this is a very dangerous addiction to have. The way to avoid allowing this addiction to grow or the way to overcoming it, is to set specific goals for our online activities.

What Type of Goals Should We Be Setting?

If there is one thing I have procrastinated about it has to be taking the time to set up my daily goals. However, daily goals have saved me from going down that rabbit hole of new thoughts, new ideas, and hours of wasted time pursuing things that cannot help me now.

When setting up goals, it’s a good idea to create long term goals as well as short-term daily goals. Get started making money with the 100% ROI, then work on building up your skills and knowledge.

How will you divide up your time?

50% action – 50% learning? One man in the Affilorama forum said he tamed his learning addiction and now his focus is divided into 90% action and 10% learning.

I believe the day I read that was the day I decided that was the perfect ration for me as well. However, I have been online for over 10 years learning, first making money designing websites and SEO. When you are first starting out, your learning curve is high, you may need to divide your time into 50% learning and 50% action.

Emails, Social Activity and Other Distractions

Decide how much time you will spend reading your email. Email is perhaps one of the most difficult things for me as I have to read it in the morning to be sure that I take care of my clients or other urgent requests that I should get to before working.

To avoid getting distracted by email I have folders set up in a variety of categories. Email from clients are read before I work. Any email that is promoting an offer, I move them to my “Promotions” folder. I do not allow myself to read it until the end of my work day. Out of sight, out of mind. Sometimes I never read them but so far the earth has not shattered into space so I’m OK with it.

Social activity is something I really do very little of online. I have two Facebook accounts. One is for business, the other is for family and friends. With my business, it’s easy. The only thing I do with my business FB page is share my blog posts and Newsletter posts with them. It requires a click of a button to do this.

With my friends and family account, I only go there to announce something special like, “Hey guys, I bought a new house, check it out” or “Yo, come to our BBQ sat, bring food and beers”.
Other than that, I have not time for social activity online.

Fun stuff? Well, this is something only allowed on my days off or at the end of my work day online. And since I really don’t like to be on my PC any longer than when I’m working, I guess I don’t do a lot of fun stuff online.

Part 2 – Where to Focus Your Time

Are you looking for ways to build a business online? Frustrated from trying a few different programs and never seeing a dime for your efforts? You’re not alone. Building a business online requires a few things that are not really covered in the How-To-Make-Money-Online guides.

The reason for this is because most people are hungry for the fast buck. They don’t want to take the time to really understand what it takes to make money on the Internet. Over the next few weeks I’m going to be covering a weekly series on something referred to as the S M A R T system.

Building a Business Online
Using the SMART System

S: Specific, Significant, Stretching & Simple

M: Measurable & Manageable

A: Attainable, Attitude, Appropriate, Achievable, Assignable & Ambitious

R: Relevant, Results, Results-focused, Results-oriented

T: Time-bound, Time framed, Time-Specific, Trackable

These are things that I personally need to work on. Most likely you need some guidance here too. I’ve been able to succeed at making money online, but I’ve not quite reached the financial goal I want to hit.

My Personal Goal – To Build Multiple Online Assets

Right now I make the majority of my money providing SEO services for other people. Instead of helping other people make more money online by ranking their sites high in Google, I want to build Netwoozy.com into what I had originally intended it to be.

A website to help Inter-NET Woozy entrepreneurs.

I’ll be covering this subject every Monday. The perfect day to set your goals for the week.

Friday I’ve reserved for Social Networking 101.

I haven’t set a goal for the rest of the weekdays yet, but I’ll get there soon.

If you’re wanting to improve your online business, before you jump in and make a big splash, you really need to learn what you’re getting into. It’s going to require some planing and goal setting.

You can follow me on Twitter @netwoozy to learn when I add a new SMART post.