We all start an online business thinking that we are going to make a great deal of money in a short period of time. That is what all the internet ads say anyway. The truth is that for each of us the amount of time it takes to start making money is different. Those with experience will hit the ground running and will appear to make money overnight while others toil day and night with nothing to show for it. One of the keys to start making the money tree produce is to spend your time productively and not just getting ready. We also have to work hard not to be discouraged when success does to come a quickly as we had hoped.
Each of us is unique and possess different talents and skills. If you are an experienced online marketer then your time to a positive return on investment will be considerably shorter than someone with little or no experience. Take me for example. I came into online marketing with no marketing experience on the internet. It took me months to see any money deposited into my account. On the other hand I have some experienced online marketing friends who made money almost instantly. It took me some time to develop the skills necessary to fill my sales pipeline with qualified leads before I was able to celebrate my first commission.
You have to use your online time productively. Spend your time building your business and not getting ready to build your business. I fell into that trap myself. I would spend hours reading articles or watching videos on marketing, getting more and more overwhelmed with each marketing idea I was exposed too. This was not productive. Sure I was learning a great deal about the business but I wasn’t taking the action needed to start making money. Fours hours of productive time is better than sixteen hours of getting ready to get ready.
If you are like me it is easy to become discouraged when you do not see immediate results. This is especially true when others in your business seem to be making money hand over fist and you are not. Keep in mind that we are all unique and some learn faster than others. Celebrate you successes no matter how small they may be. Even if you just learned how to turn on your computer. Any progress you make is better than standing still. Become excited about your accomplishments even though it did not make you any money today. It may make you money tomorrow or the next day.
For some of us it takes time to start making money online. It may take one day or three months. Thats OK because making money online is a lot harder than it appears. Be patient and be productive. Do not be afraid to just jump out there and start swinging. A prize fighter is not a prize fighter if he spends all his time in the practice ring. Never get discouraged with your level of progress and always celebrate even the smallest of victories.
Posts Tagged ‘internet marketing’
How Long Will It Take to Make Money Online?
Monday, October 19th, 2009Online Business - Confused and Overwhelmed
Friday, October 16th, 2009If you are like me, you have been or are confused and overwhelmed by your online business. You are not alone. More and more people join the ranks of online business owners everyday only to find that knowing how to surf the net does not necessarily qualify them to run a successful online business. But don’t despair, there is hope, through determination and perseverance.
Whether you are starting your business from scratch or have joined a marketing system it is easy to get frustrated very quickly. We have all been conditioned in this internet age that we need instant results. The pressure gets even worse when you have to produce in order to pay your bills. There is a learning curve when starting any business whether it is a coffee shop or an online store. You have to give yourself a break and understand that the knowledge to become successful does not come overnight. Take a deep breath and give yourself credit for having the courage to step into the jungle of free enterprise.
There is a great deal to learn when starting your online business. Pay per click, making videos, writing articles and email marketing does not come naturally for the vast majority of us. The secret is to start with a marketing technique and learn it before you start the next one. It is when you jump from one technique to another (before you have mastered the first) when you find yourself overwhelmed. How do you know you have mastered a technique well enough to move on to the next? When you can comfortably perform the tasks of your current medium. You don’t have to be an expert, just comfortable.
Millions of people are looking for products and services everyday on the internet. The person you are looking for may not be online today but chances are they will be in the near future. That is why it is so important that you are consistent and persistent with your marketing efforts. To become successful you must be productive in your efforts in order to reach out to people. Managing you pay per click once a week will not do it. PPC is too dynamic for the hands off approach. Videos have to be keep fresh and up to date to capture people’s attention. Articles must cover various topics to appeal to the most people. An online business is not a hands off business, especially in the early stages.
It is normal to be confused and overwhelmed when you start your online business. If your not it means you are under the age of twenty five and you cut your teeth on the internet. Just remember that you are not alone, others are experiencing the same things you are. Keep your chin up, take a deep breath and keep moving.
How To Become a Leader in Internet Marketing
Thursday, October 1st, 2009Leadership is the most sought after trait in any kind of business. A quick search of Amazon.com will prove this. There are countless books and CDs on the subject and now even some colleges are adding leadership classes to fill this need.
First and foremost a leader is a servant to those he leads. I know that does not sound logical, after all, in the minds of most people a leader is served by others. Not true. A leader puts the needs of those following him first, thus earning their loyalty. You must understand that after the basic needs of food, shelter and clothing have been met the next most important thing is that everyone desires to feel important. This is often overlooked because when most folks are placed in a position of leadership their primary focus is on their own importance. You can begin to meet this need by simply expressing an interest in your follower, who he is, what she likes and so on. You would be surprised how far this will get you. The more you understand them the more effective you will become as their leader. In internet marketing these are the people in your downline.
When it comes to internet marketing not all of us are created equal when it comes to technical skills. If you are like me you know your way around a keyboard but the skills to build an effective website and to market it is not part of our skill sets. As a leader you must take this in consideration. Simply telling someone to make a website and run some ads on Google will be met with a deer in the headlights look. Lay out a plan of action that breaks down the process, whatever it may be, into manageable bites and in terms they can understand. That is why it is very important to know each member on your team.
Lead by example. If your business requires you to follow certain procedures in order to be successful then you better follow them. Do not expect your team to do what you say if you are not doing it yourself. You’ll be very surprised at how perceptive people can be. Actions always speak louder than words and your followers will judge you by what you do more than what you say. You must stay in touch with your team members from time to time to see how they are doing. Remember as internet marketers we work alone from our homes. It is important to feel the support of those who lead us. If not they will not be successful and this will cause them to leave your team which will cut your income. If this happens then you must continue to bring in new members which costs you time and money.
If you want to be a leader in the internet marketing industry you need to keep in mind that just because you are making money does not mean that you a leader. If you can effectively demonstrate to others the process that made you successful then you are a true leader. Remember these key points, put serving others first, teach not tell and lead by example. Keep these three points in mind and you will be successful in more ways than one.
How Big Foot Stomped Out My PPC Campaign
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009Let me tell you the story of how Big Foot wiped out my pay per click program. Now I’m not a big believer in the big harry beast, even though my brother swears he has seen him on his front porch. I personally think it was our cousin needing a place to crash. So here is my story. It was late one night when it happened. I don’t remember much about the night other than when I awoke all that was left were the tattered remains of a once productive campaign. I was not alone. Most, if not all of my friends were hit with the dreaded Google “slap”. I had heard the rumors that Google was cracking down on business opportunity scams. I assumed it did not pertain to me because my opportunity was legit. I sold a product that gave more value to my customers than what they paid for it. I only thought the police used profiling but apparently Google does too. An we all know profiling is wrong! Because my business fell within their broad parameters I was guilty of trying to scam the public. I do not completely disagree with Google’s decision because I understand that their ultimate goal is to provide the best experience possible for the folks who use their search engine. What I do not agree with is the way they did it. Because I am inherently lazy, I don’t check my campaigns as often as I should and it took several days for me to notice that my leads had completely dried up. When I did check, it was not completely clear to me what went wrong. I had zero impressions and no clicks. I mistakenly thought that I was being out bided on keywords and when I check the recommended bid, $10 seemed way out of line. After wasting a vast amount of time, because like most men I don’t stop to ask for directions, hence, I didn’t contact Google until I was well beyond frustrated. When I did I was not happy with their answer, but was more upset because they did not see it as their responsibility to contact me when they pulled the plug on my campaigns. I guess customer service only applies to the folks who use their service for free. But that is another story for another day. So what did I learn, have leads coming from as many sources as possible. That way if one dries up you still have leads coming in. I also learned to be more vigilant when it comes to monitoring my lead sources.
Your Home Business - Balancing Work With Family
Thursday, July 9th, 2009I was not prepared when I started my home business. I had taken into account that this was a real business and it needed my full attention. I was even prepared that it was going to take some time for the business to really start producing income. What I was not prepared for was the level of distractions that existed in my own home. Kids, chores minor emergencies such as leaking pipes never entered my mind when I started. Every morning I would go to my office, a converted guest room, go to work. No sooner would I get started that a knock on the door would come. It was one of my three boys, “Daddy, will you fix my toy?”. What father can refuse such a request. So I would stop, fix the toy, or try too then go back to work. Then something else would require my attention. This is how the day would go. A little work and a lot of interruptions. This went on until my wife and I set up some ground rules. Unless there was an emergency that required an evacuation of the house or a trip to the emergency room, certain times of the day daddy was not available. I think this was harder for me than anyone else, but it worked an I became more productive.
I was disillusioned to think that I had the ability to run my home business while attending to things that needed to be done around the house. I like to work with my hands although I lack the skills to do things right the first time. As I worked I found that in the back of my mind I was constantly thinking of the dripping facet or the uncut crass that needed my attention. Here again I would stop what I was doing and start working around the house. I was no longer running a home business but a business of my home. I would spend the majority of my time doing this and that around the house only to be frustrated an guilty at the end of the day because I had neglected my online business. This issue I had to tackle on my own. I started filling out a time sheet every day of the number of hours I spent with my internet business. Wow, was that I eye opener. I resolved to treat my online marketing as if I were working for some one else. A couple of breaks with lunch in the middle of the day. Did this always work? You guessed it. But it did provide me with a framework to be more productive.
Let’s face it the main reason I started my home based business was to spend more time with my family. My family was accustomed to me working long hours and working on the weekends as well. But that was going to change now that I had fired my boss. Sometimes my need to succeed in online marketing overwhelms my desire to spend quality time with my family. So what do you do? I decided that I would work very hard during the day at my internet business, devoting my evenings with my family. I would reward myself for reaching goals during the week by giving myself a long weekend to be with the ones I love. This served several purposes. I demonstrate to my children a strong work ethic while at the same time spending quality time with my children.
It is a balancing act to work at a home business while maintaining a healthy relationship with ones family. It took me some time to realize that distractions in my home were killing my dream of owning a top online business. I also discovered that I needed to be disciplined enough to treat my internet business as a business and not a hobby. Never loose site of why you started a home based business, quality time with your family. Keep these things in mind and you will be on the fast track to a successful home business.
Internet Marketing = Massive Action
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009Internet Marketing has been touted as the best thing since sliced bread and many of us come into it with some preconceived notions that this is easy money. It can be once you get it up and running. I was of the mind that all I needed to do was throw some money at it and it would do it on its own with little help from me. As you will discover this is not the case.
I discovered almost too late that my advertising budget was directly linked to the amount of effort I put in. I thought that if I used my meager budget to advertise that traffic would pour in to my site generating leads and life would be good. You see I thought that I could spend a few hundred dollars and I would not have to put forth any effort on my part other than entering my credit card number. I was wrong. The less money you have the more effort you have to put in to generate traffic, whether it is writing articles, press releases or blogging. When you cannot pay others to do the job then someone has to and that someone was me.
I went from spending an hour a day on my internet marketing to spending up to eight to ten hours. Although I had to put forth more effort I did discover that my number of leads began to increase. I had initially made a grave error in my thinking. I thought that internet marketing required very little time and energy especially in the beginning stages. An online business is not unlike a traditional startup business, they both require massive amounts of time and energy during the startup phase. The difference is that my online business if done from the comfort of my own home. I found myself writing as many as ten article a week, blogging and tweeting several times a week and I would even do a video too. These are things I never though I would ever do, but here I am enjoying every minute.
One of the most important things I have learned is that you have to be consistent. In my opinion this is as important as knowing how to do internet marketing. If you consistently do something, eventually you will get better and better at it until it becomes second nature and more effective. In the beginning I dabbled in a little bit of everything but I did not do it all the time. It is only when I became consistent that I found my internet business start to grow. I make a schedule of everything I need to do for my internet marketing business for the week an check things off as I go. This helps keep me on track and consistent in my efforts.
To summarize, the lower your budget the more time an energy you will need to devote to your internet marketing. An online business is just that, a business, and you need to treat it as such. It doesn’t matter how much time or energy you spend on your home business if you are not consistent. Shampoo makers got it right when they put on the bottle, “Wash, Rinse, Repeat”.
