How would this be a business blog without some rambling from the author?

It’s this time of the year again. Seems everyone is getting crazy in February and October. It’s been a pattern for at least 4 years and now I am sure of its existence. Maybe it’s my niche, maybe it’s the norm. I can’t put my finger on it, but maybe it’s those two times of the year that people get anxious of what to do next to promote their businesses or create a new one.

And that period is the only one I am so overwhelmed with projects, I just say no to new clients. But that’s not my problem. The real problem is friends that need help with an application, with an installation, with their site, you name it! And those are the hardest to say no to.

So as you can imagine, the last week has been hell. And as I was anxious as to when I will be able to do something that’s really actual work, making me feel more and more overwhelmed I just thought that all i needed was a small reset.

Took my beverage, a cigarette and went out on the balcony just to look at the sky. All I needed was 10 minutes and I instantly felt much better. Well what can you do, it’s a storm, it will pass. ;) So if you feel the same way, reboot even for a bit, it will help!

If you are one of the ones that wait for something from me, please don’t get frustrated, I only have 5 hands! Take a walk too and you’ll feel much better while you wait. :)

So much to do, so little time is a post from Moneytized Blog
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I got the idea for this post by observing my twitter feed and from watching my friend Vassilis online at 5:30 am.. I am a huge twitter fan, because I can easily see what people that I am interested in, are reading, creating and promoting. Therefore, the second I decided to take Moneytized seriously, I erased all the people that:

• Had nothing useful to say
• Reported their nature calls
• Spammed like crazy every affiliate offer they could get their hands on.
• And so on and so forth…

So I narrowed it down to about 300 people. Every time I saw someone tweeting something pointless, I deleted them. So I was left with the people that either had something interesting to say, or hadn’t said much at all, so I couldn’t really know what they were about. Now with the twitter application on my iPad, it’ s even easier. I can easily view every single tweet from my stream because it remembers where I stopped reading last time. It’s also funny to amaze (and hopefully not scare) some people when I keep responding to their Mac tweets (this one’s for your Aspa ;)).

Back to our subject though, I often see some new avatars on my twitter stream. These are the people who haven’t sent a single tweet for a long time, then all of a sudden they become “active” again and guess what they do. They post 10 tweets, one after another and 90% of the time they’re promoting a product. Then they go back to silence once more.

It’s normal for people to become frustrated with Internet Marketing.

And I feel sorry for them and sorry for my niche “professionals” that have cultivated people like that to have ZERO patience. Internet Marketeers, we have bombarded people with “get rich by pressing a button” offers and way of thinking; making most of the newcomers so frustrated when they don’t make a sale in their first week, that they give up! After a month or so, they might see “the next big thing” in push-button riches, they become pumped up, remember they have a website and send 10 tweets at a time all over again.

This is the exact reason that I am doing the exact opposite than most of the marketers out there. When I am teaching about Internet Marketing, I always mention how hard it can be, how easy it is to become demotivated, how patience is your only asset for quite some time and that you will have to push, push, push if you ever want to do something with your website.

Having a business blog (and not just a place where you just rant and have it as your personal journal) and making money from it, is not an easy thing to do. Especially in the beginning.

It needs patience, consistency and the proper methodology.

If you have lost your patience, take a small break, read a motivational book, take some days off and come back with more appetite for “destruction”.

If you are finding it hard to be consistent and you can’t catch up with your site’s needs, stop posting for a week. In that time gather a good amount of posts ready for publishing and continue with your normal posting plan. If you get writer’s block or have a busy schedule, you won’t have to worry as you’ll have your next posts ready.

If you lack the methodology, well no one was ever born knowing every technical detail. To become an internet marketeer is an easy thing to do only if you keep pushing and always learn new things everyday. Of course, you shouldn’t stop creating new things while doing your research and study. Don’t stop everything and go into a learning frenzy, incorporate reading into your everyday routine! Balance is of huge importance.

I hope I helped, even a little bit,

Angel

Having a website is not a Hobby! is a post from Moneytized Blog
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The new year is already here and, like most people, I find myself struggling to correctly organize my various projects. New ones need planning and organizing, half-finished ones that should have been ready months ago need finalizing, prospective ones need reviewing, while some really just need binning.

Knowing your end goal is a rare but special thing, giving you pride in your stride and a sense of purpose every morning. However, like any great venture, it requires vision and a lot of hard work.  Being able to see the big picture of what you’re doing obviously helps, right; but let’s face it: vision without planning is pointless.

So, how to deal with all your projects without loosing track? What’s the key to staying on top of you game, without suffering multiple panic attacks or stress-related sleep loss? Here is what I call The Basic Four of any project.

One. Prioritization – deciding when to do what and most importantly, what to do first. When juggling many projects, you have to decide which one must take precedence over another. This is directly linked to Deadlines: the final date you have realistically set for handing in or finalizing a project. If one task for a project is due at the end of the week, it obviously has priority over something due at the end of the month. The only way to sort out what task needs doing and when is to make a detailed plan.

Two. Planning- setting both short- and long-term goals for each project and its related tasks. Some projects require almost full-time dedication, calling for you to fulfill certain tasks on a daily basis, while others may only need a couple of hours a week. The best way to keep track of what needs doing and when is to make a monthly Project/Task planner.  This way you can keep track of daily, weekly and monthly procedures. Keep a calendar of tasks and their deadlines, along with what project they belong to and possible notes that may help you along the way.

Alternately, you can adopt my favourite method of organizing things: the Almighty List! I find lists to be the best way of freeing my mind of my own damn clutter. Not keeping lists, means your brain is on constant stand-by for you to retrieve that information. Jotting it down on paper however, means that any information previously residing in you short-term memory, is automatically moved to a hard-copy place, making it indelible and much easier for you to review again and again. Hopefully each time checking something off ;)

Note that projects with certain expenses also need to be strictly budgeted. You don’t want to be broke for your Grand Masterplan before you’ve even got started. Get your numbers on track, keep a record, set up a budget and stick to it.

Three. Action – putting in the hours needed for you to meet your goals. This of course requires discipline. And while I’m no big fan of imposed working schedules –and even less so of having a boss over my head- I recognize that being disciplined is important- even more so when you actually are your own boss! The key is good Time Management. Twenty four hours in a day are more than enough to get a decent amount of work done. Be realistic, don’t over-load yourself and get your head around the idea that, the more you procrastinate, the more you’ll hate yourself when the deadline comes.

However, let us not forget that discipline is just plain old torture without motivation: A keen desire and determination to fulfill ones dreams and make them reality. A restless spirit and peace of mind are excellent tools for this by the way. As is the right kind of attitude, a good breakfast and a large cup of coffee.

Four. Follow up – tracking your progress and finding mistakes upon which you can improve your formula to success. So, after many productive days and sleepless nights, you’ve finally made it. Mission accomplished, you can now proudly cross it off your list and move on. Or maybe not…

What is so very crucial in being really good at what you do, and too often forgotten or dismissed, is the ability to evaluate your own work, fair and square. If you can spot what mistakes, weaknesses or difficulties you encountered, then you’ll know how to prepare for them next time round. This is what you do when you ‘learn from your mistakes.’

Make a list of Objectives at the beginning of the project and check it once you’re done. Did you meet your deadlines and stick to your budget? Did you up your own bar and improve? Or did your laze about and sacrifice the quality of your work? Quit mucking around, be honest with yourself and, if need be, shape up, get smart, get beta. A genius once said “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

So, pull your socks up, make your plan and stick to it. Now you’re all set to “go forth and set the world on fire!” Oh, and of course you can give yourself a pat on the back once you’re done ;)

Vision without planning is pointless is a post from Moneytized Blog
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Internet marketing is getting huge attention and many people every day start learning more and more about it.

The reasoning behind it is very simple and at the same time very powerful.

By living the internet marketing “lifestyle” you are able to:

1. Work wherever you want
2. Work the exact time you want
3. Work for as long as you want
4. Work with whoever you want

That four points are my mantra and I will always try live by those rules as far as my career is concerned.

Don’t get me wrong, i am not “dreaming” of doing nothing and getting paid. You might think that that’s the case if you combine all the four elements together but:

Working wherever you want is really straight forward. It’s a dream of mine to be able to work from my hometown, or while visiting a friend in another city or while on vacations.

With exact time I mean that there will be no barriers on the time I have to work. Traditional businesses have an 8 to 5 schedule but with internet marketing you are able to “bend” this. Basically it’s all about ignoring the clock.

When saying for as long, I don’t mean that my dream working hours are two per day but that I am able to choose if I will work a lot today and less tomorrow. It gives me a choice to say: Today I’ll go out and have fun but tomorrow it’s all about work. It’s a matter of flexibility again.

Finally by saying with whoever I want I mean that I am able to choose my partners. With traditional businesses you get some partners or co-workers and you’re stuck with them. If you can’t fully cooperate or make good decisions, well that’s life. But it shouldn’t be that way. Being an internet marketeer you are able to choose the right person for the right project and you’re not “tied” to people. Having the best partner for each project is the most crucial part in a project or company’s success.

People get so “pumped up” because of the above points(and many other of course)that they do whatever they can to follow that dream, including leaving their jobs.

So far so good but the number of posts whining about the fact that someone can’t make money with Internet marketing, won’t get fewer. I remember reading a forum where someone said “hey I made my first 10 dollars from the internet” and after a jackass saying something like “so what” another guy said “good start mate, you’re ahead of the other 99% of Internet marketers.

So what’s the problem? Is it hard? No!
Does it need patience? Yes but people have enough. The problem that they get tired easily for one simple reason. They Change their whole mindset, they quit their jobs etc but they don’t start living as Internet marketers.

I am not talking about eating in expensive restaurants or doing silly expenses just to visualize how their life will transform when they succeed. All I’m talking about is to start doing simple things they’ll do when they succeed. One great example is writing this article from the train going back home after taking a small vacation. It feels great to write something on the train because you can still see the view, you feel that you’re not loosing another 6 hours of your life and the best thing is that I make one of the above points true. I work from wherever I want. And it feels freaking great!

Making your self remember why you started learning about Internet marketing in the first place and why you should keep pursuing your dream is not enough.

You have to start living your dream with all the ways you can.

That’s what will give you patience and keep you ON track.

I hope that this post will help you fulfill your goals with the right attitude.
Angel

Start living your dream before it faints is a post from Moneytized Blog
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This motto guides my life. Literally! It’s the one thing I’m sure I will never stop believing in. As I go through life, I have come to realize that stressing over things, as opposed to actually doing them, doesn’t help. I’ve noticed that I manage to get the best out of a situation when I stop over-analyzing and re-thinking things and just get them done.

I don’t know why, but it seems that with Internet Marketing I did the exact opposite. I was making good money from the Internet, even though I didn’t know what meta tags were. Once I started learning about Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimization however, everything stopped. Why? Check out what happened…

I had a gaming website focusing on a particular game. I had many visitors per day and a lot of people ended up playing on my server. Then server costs started to pile up and I realized I had to do something about it. A friend suggested I put a couple of ads up, so that maybe that way I could cover at least some of the expenses. At that time I didn’t know anything about Internet Marketing; word of mouth was mainly how I managed to gather all the people on my website and server.

So I added some AdSense from Google and just left it there; waiting to see what will happen. The first month’s income was $94.76. I was amazed! Now I was really curious how the system worked.

Now, in order for me to get money from the ads I added to my site, someone had to pay for them. Except for branding, I couldn’t think of a reason why someone would pay good money for an ad on my site. So I started reading up on ways to improve my ad income, I targeted better ads and spots and eventually had more clicks. Second month’s income was $293.37. What a success! I was able to pay for the server and still keep some pocket money by doing something I adored.

To make a long story short, I managed to make $1,767.91 in one month. Now that even got my father worried! I mean, I was still living at home, theoretically not working (cause let’s face it, doing something you’re so passionate about isn’t exactly considered work) and still making good money? … After I convinced him that I wasn’t a drug dealer, he decided to sponsor me, so I could get whatever I needed to become an expert in the field. Internet Marketing here I come!

I literally bought everything that existed on the Internet at the time, including (but not limited to!) seminars, videos and e-books.

I don’t know why, but after that, the passion I had in the beginning was gone. I wasn’t as motivated, created few new things and did little else but read, read, read. I think now that this hesitation I had was routed in my false notion that I wasn’t ready to compete. Back then, the more I read, the more I found out about people better than me. This just kept me reading, waiting for something magical to happen. It seemed like I knew way more when I was doing “Internet Marketing without a clue™”.

That time is long gone now. Had I known that confidence and action weren’t in the index of any book, electronic or otherwise, things would have been much different now. The key is to act; it’s never too late. At the same time, it’s never too soon for change and improvement.

My whole point is: Stop following what’s happening and Make Things Happen!

What’s your motto?

P.S. This story could have been published a bit later, but hey, it’s never too early to get you thinking about what you want to achieve online, and how long you’ve postponed it! ; )  Hope I helped even a little bit. Angel

Make Things Happen – My story is a post from Moneytized Blog
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