I don’t know about you but I’ve been making money online for a little while now and during that time I have been acting like a magpie. You show me a shiny object and I’m there, hoping to learn the secret to Internet Marketing success that will let me retire before I’m 40 and go and live somewhere warm and sunny.
That is my confession.
“My name is Clare and I am an Internet Marketing Magpie”
I have finally realised the secret to Internet Marketing success is not to spend my precious pennies on products written by rich gurus who make their living off throwing me a shiny object to distract me from my goals. No, the only way I am going to make this work is to start focusing and taking consistent action.
So I have decided to join the Internet Marketing Magpies Anonymous group and start taking steps towards curing my shiny object addiction. So far it’s a group of just one, but I wonder if you might join me in time?
Here’s the 10-steps that we need to follow to recover…
The 10-Steps to Recovery
1. Admit that we are powerless to resist those shiny objects that promise to make us millionaires while we sleep – and that now we no longer have time to sleep!
2. Make a list of all of the projects that we have started and abandoned, all of the domains we have invested in that are now gathering virtual dust.
3. Reflect on the mistakes we have made and then put them behind us.
4. Review that list for the successes we made, and the projects that lit a fire in our belly.
5. Choose a maximum of two projects and make an agreement with ourselves that we will focus our attentions wholeheartedly on those projects for the next six months.
6. Write down a SMARTER goal for each of the projects we select and pin it somewhere where we can read it each and every day.
7. Promise that we will only spend money on products/training/domains/tools that will move us towards our goals.
8. Set aside time once a week or once a month to track our progress towards that goal.
9. Reward ourselves for staying on track.
10. Take action and stop procrastinating!
It’s all about focus – and accountability
I sat down the other day and took a long hard look at my IM activities up until now. I have my fingers in so many different pies it is unbelievable. They are all worthwhile activities and they all make a bit of money. But the thing I have to sit up and realise is that there is only me. And I am only doing this part time. And right now I can’t afford (and don’t want) to outsource. So something has to give.
So today I am making a stand and I am choosing one two Internet Marketing projects that I am going to stick to like glue for the next six months. I am going to give them my undivided attention so that they have the chance to make me some decent money. I will focus, and test, and take action, and look for successes and failures, and test again and take more action until I know everything there is to know about the strategy and then I will decide whether to stick with it or move onto something new.
The two projects will be:
1. Nurturing my authority website which is in the travel niche and has a number of products that I spent blood, sweat and tears creating. I will give this site the attention it deserves to test and retest the sales page, and to use SEO strategies to drive it to the top of the SERPS for my target keywords.
2. Building Amazon product review sites. I have been dabbling with Amazon sites for a while now and have worked my way through three courses which each uses slightly different strategies to make money with this popular online store. Since dedicating time in recent months to building more sites I have seen my Amazon income increase and that is where I will focus my attention. I’ll continue to tweak and test my keyword research techniques, my WordPress theme and the way I write those reviews to increase conversion and increase commissions.
I’m going to get back to blogging about my Internet Marketing journey and I’ll document the products and tools that I use to make my projects successful so that you too can benefit from them – it will certainly save you buying as many crap products as I have to whittle the list down to the ones worth investing in!
Since I’m all about reviews for the next six months I’ll review each of the products and tools here and tell you why I think they are the best of the bunch.
It might take me a while to document them so subscribe to the RSS feed so you don’t miss any.
Oh and if you, like me are a recovering Magpie drop me a comment and let me know whether you are willing to admit your addiction, join Internet Marketing Magpies Anonymous (IMMA) and follow the 10-step plan to overcome your shiny object addiction and start making some real money 
Clare
p.s. – I think I just added a third project to my list didn’t I lol
I like suggestion #2. If I actually calculated all of the money I've wasted on domains alone that I never put to use (nevermind eBooks), I'd be able to turn that into several batch of outsourced work, content, website configuration/setup, etc.
A few months ago I made the decision to refrain from pulling out my credit card until I reach a level of security in my online business to invest in the next project.
...anything else will just cause me to get sidetracked.
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