You may have heard the age-old story of the tortoise and the hare.
The slow and deliberate tortoise wins the race by consistent (although slow) effort, while the hare, shamelessly over-confident, sleeps away his opportunity.
Many online business people are like the hare, relying on the next big thing to get them quickly to the place they want to be.
That’s ironic when you consider that the people making the real money on the Internet are the steady performers… the Internet marketing tortoises.
Think about this – if you knew the right things to do (the things that really work) and had been doing them since the first week you tried to start making money online how far along would you be right now?
What are the things that will help YOU succeed at internet marketing?
In an attempt to keep this article simple and short, I’m going to focus on a list of activities. If you need more detail you can find that here on my blog, inside my books or membership sites, or you can just ask for help. 🙂
While the answers may vary from business to business (an eBook author might do different things from someone in Network Marketing) there is a CORE SET of tasks that generally apply to almost everyone involved in internet marketing.
Core skills for most online businesses
For an online business, they may include the following:
- Placing ads in ezines
- Publishing to your blog
- Creating joint ventures
- Writing articles for other websites
- Writing special reports
- Creating a follow up system
- Teaching & training your downline
- Learning core business skills
- Creating your own product
- Managing pay per click listings
- Researching your target market
- Identifying important keywords
- Writing an eBook
- Improving your search engine positioning
- Doing things to automate routine tasks
There is no lack of information on HOW to do these things. It’s just that most of us don’t do them.
Time Wasters To Avoid
By contrast, there are many ways to waste time online.
While some of the items below might seem like a good use of time, the fact is that very few of them create sales.
- Reading email ads for products you don’t need
- Reading entire sales letters for products you don’t buy
- Watching “teaching videos” that are hidden sales pitches
- Most free eBooks
- Phone calls that take too long
- Forwarding joke emails
- Many forums and blogs
- Checking out new biz opportunities every day or every week
- Anything else that does not add to your bottom line
Please understand that I’m not saying “don’t have any fun online”. We all need a break and some down time.
What I am saying is this: If you are like 99% of people I’ve met, you don’t have enough time to do what you want and your time online is disappointing.
The bottom line… it’s just too hard for most people to make money with internet marketing.
And that is NOT how it should be.
If that is true for you, then limiting the things you do online, and limiting the time you spend on those tasks, will have a direct effect on both your profits and your quality of life.
Hope this helps.
