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- Dec 27th, 2007
- 4,763 Comments
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I blogged about how YOU keep focused, and promised those who commented that I will include the answers in an upcoming post. Due to focus problems,
it’s taken me a lot longer than expected.
I was reminded since I had the delicious opportunity of spending the ENTIRE afternoon at the local Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.. Just me, some yummy drinks, and my laptop! How intimate. The whole purpose of getting the laptop was to be able to get out of the house to get work done.. just the timing was off, since I gave birth not too long after my laptop and well I dont do so well with dumping babies and going. Dont even ASK how much this afternoon of caffeine cost me. DONT.
However, the place was bustling, not one empty seat, noise all around.. someone said.. NO WAY you could focus there. You know what? Not ONE of those distractions had ANYTHING to do with me, not one wipe me, not one knock at my door.. It was inspiring to know I COULD focus. It’s just everyone and everything else in my life to blame .
Here are your answers:
Rich Gilchrest – I cant tell if he is mocking us – what do you think?
I sometimes have the opposite problem. I can get so wrapped up in what I’m doing, I lose track of time. For example, I was doing some research for a gaming website last night. All I wanted to do was create an account, play for ten minutes, and write 200 to 400 words about getting started in this game. Hour and a half later, I was still enjoying the game, but my eyes finally wandered back up to my system clock and I realized my twenty minute time allotment for that task was LONG gone.
Too much attention, not enough disorder
Cindy Powers – I’ve found a timer to be a big help. Even if I only set it for 15 minutes at a time, I can focus on one task knowing that I don’t need to do anything else during that 15 minutes. I can get a LOT done in 15 minutes of focus time. And if I’m on a roll, I’ll set it for another 15 minutes for the same task.
I also make sure that I get 15 (timed) minutes of down time each hour. Even if it is playing Internet Backgammon or some other ‘mindless’ activity, this keeps me from straying from my task at hand, knowing that I’ll get some ‘me time’ soon. My favorite use of this time is to sit out on the porch swing and bird watch – away from the hum of electronics and the squabbles of children.
Leslie – – MY FAVORITE!! – put a dish of chocolate 10 feet away and go get a handful after you finish your assignment. You won’t look better but you’ll be happier.
Alexandra – I have a few things I need to focus. The first is a cup of chai – nothing happens without it. I have a big dry erase board where I list different categories (calls, promo materials, shopping list, etc). then i make a category called “To Do TODAY”. I put what i think i could/should accomplish that day. It helps keep me focused. There are lots of times when something unexpected happens – like baby falls asleep in my lap. Then I can shift gears easily.
Cynthia Powell – I set a timer for 5-10-15 minutes.
Work on something non-stop til timer goes off then set it again and go work on something else.
Example: Set timer for 15 minutes and work on my mounts of emails.
Timer goes off. Reset it for 15 minutes and go fold cloths. Timer goes off. Reset and go work on emails again. Keeps me going and focused and not so board.
April D – The only thing that works for me is to have a schedule or routine. If I follow it and focus on my mommy and house jobs first thing in the morning I find I can focus better on my business after those things are accomplished. If I get on the computer first thing in the morning I set myself up for stress and not much gets accomplished.
and the theme continues …
Traci K (how the heck did you have time to read this blog I want to know!) – With four kids, a full time daycare, and my handcrafted store, I definitely rely on list making as a way to accomplish tasks/goals. One thing I have discovered though is be reasonable with your goals. Make your tasks something that can actually be completed in a reasonable amount of time. Baby steps. Don’t set yourself up to battle a mountain of tasks…make it more like a hill. lol
We started with a man.. and we will wrap it up with a man, certainly no stranger to responsibility:
George – Don’t let distractions determine your day (which I so often do). My best piece of advice for staying on focus is to write a list of takss you want to accomplish each day. Then set a strict completion time for each task and stick with it. This practice has REALLY helped me the last few months.
Thanks everyone for your answers! I wouldnt have such a hard time staying focused if I could manage to not fall asleep. Any suggestions to a non coffee drinker on how to stay awake?
The Power of Focus: What the Worlds Greatest Achievers Know about The Secret of Financial Freedom and Success (Paperback)
Whether they are corporate professionals, budding entrepreneurs, or they own a home business, most people are looking to achieve more in less time, while earning enough money to live comfortably. This book reveals the proven techniques thousands of people have used to attain all of the money they wanted while living healthy, happy and balanced lives. The Power of Focus, the new blockbuster from the coauthors of the bestselling Chicken Soup for the Soul, is a practical no-nonsense guide that shows readers how to reach their business, personal and financial goals without getting burned out in the process.
Canfield, Hansen, and Hewitt have taken the best ideas from their own successful careers (seventy-nine years of combined business expertise), and distilled them into ten powerful focusing principles. The result is a treasury of insights that is enjoyable to read and easy to understand. At the outset, the book identifies the three most important fundamentals for consistent success: developing unusual clarity; understanding that habits determine your future; and using a “no exceptions policy” approach to focus on what you want. Numerous anecdotes and inspiring stories help to reinforce each principle.
This is a must-read for business people, sales managers, entrepreneurs, and anyone who is serious about improving their personal awareness.
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- Nov 26th, 2007
- 5,626 Comments
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About 6 months ago or so, MANY online marketers (newbies and seasoned) signed up for a $1 trial to StomperNet. The StomperNet program claims to ‘stomp the search engines’ and build your business to be a SERIOUS business, and at an $800 monthly membership fee, this trial seemed like a no brainer!
Only once we entered, did we find out that they were offering their trial members a special system called Stomper Simple. The plan of simple was to help EVERYONE get an online affiliate business up and running. Everyone was to take a product of their choice at Clickbank and pre-sell it. Part of their system including creating ‘Kitchen Table Copy’. The idea is that you print out 4 different salesletters of competing products, and place them all on your kitchen table. Take a red marker and highlight all the best parts of each salespage and then create one ‘knock em dead’ salesletter.
But what’s the catch? After creating this awesome salespage you have to send them to ANOTHER full blown Clickbank salespage! Many of the better products – better meaning that according to Stomper Simple ‘mathematics’ it’s an easier sale – include poor salespages, opt-ins, and just a LOT more reading to get to the order form.
When you pitch a product, you have to make it READILY available – dont ask them to jump through ANOTHER hoop!
Here was a question I posed to my Stomper Team – Is there a way to SKIP the clickbank salespage? Go straight to their order form?? There are MANY benefits to this beyond the Stomper Simple method..
After surfing the web a bit yesterday, I accidentely fell on the solution! Here is what Lynn Terry from ClickNewz says: (ok this is copy and paste to make sure you get the technical details right – hope thats ‘kosher’ in the blogosphere)
Typically, when you are promoting a ClickBank product as an affiliate you will use what they call a “hoplink” to the merchant’s sales copy. That hoplink tracks the click-through’s and you get credit for every sale in the form of commission.
In the rare case that you want to bypass the merchant’s sales copy, you can set up a direct link to the checkout page that will still track your referrals. Here’s how you do that…
clickbank.net/sell.cgi?YOURID_MERCHANTID/ProductNumber/ProductName
You will need to put the “http://” in front of that, and also make sure the link comes out all on one line – it breaks into two lines here on this page, but you want to make sure to create the link with no spaces or breaks.
There are 4 things you need to edit in that link:
YOURID which is your ClickBank ID
MERCHANTID the merchant’s ClickBank ID
ProductNumber
ProductName
The product name and product number can be found in the merchant’s original checkout link. What I usually do is view the merchant’s sales copy page, then click View > Source in my browser. This brings up the source code for the page, and you can locate the order button and analyze their order link.
Lynn also suggests asking the merchant for permission.. and testing it out! When you click to purchase at the bottom of the purchase page you should see your affiliate name in brackets at the bottom.
Thanks Lynn!
The next trick is to figure out how to not have others steal your clickbank commissions.
Speaking of Stomper Simple – all the participants say that the best part were the relationships created. I added like 30 names to my skype and chat regularly with 3 of them and of course everyone knows my new friend George! Certainly worth the $1!!
P.S. I want to give you one more trick than I promised in this post. Here goes … it’s to do with spying on your competitors ads … If you could check EXACTLY what keywords your competitors are bidding on in Google adwords and find out how much they are paying per click, how many ads they are running, and what is converting for them you would probably think you would have to Google to find out that stuff? NO! I use a software called Affiliate Elite. What will Affiliate Elite do for YOU? All the stuff I mentioned in the second sentence of this paragraph! And as well as seeing what ads your competitors are using how much they are paying etc. you can also use it to find potential affiliates to promote your products – clever eh? Check it out.
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- Oct 11th, 2007
- 4,239 Comments
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Seriously how can I have time to blog, when I am too busy spending money. Even the Next Internet Millionaire was ahead of schedule .
I am going to go out on a limb here.. but it is my NEW belief that if you have $500 to spend and you know the right resources – in ANY GIVEN WEEK, you (aka NEWBIE or More) could cull ideas, hire / purchase the materials and get something up and going. This is actually a piece of the puzzle that I was always missing. I believed I had to do BIG.. and while it’s true that I am working on BIG to Earn BIG, if you can learn how to earn small, and set it up multiple times, thats a good start! And actually accomplish.
My next post.. ok very very soon.. will share more of what I am buying.. but since I just dumped this on you, I am going to give you an opportunity to check out a NEW report that is lauded as one of the best marketing ebooks around. For more than just it’s content. It’s combined with both 20 ways REAL Marketers earn at least $100 daily, and the creation of the product itself is a testament to the success that you can have as these 20 contributed, packaged, marketed it, and here I am promoting it!
Honestly $3000 per month is not enough for most people to ‘fire their boss’, but with 20 options, something is bound to be eye opening, give you a new perspective, take the idea and put a twist on it, and that’s what this whole education is all about.
So back to my shopping spree – Up until now, I usually would buy something for its value of what it CAN DO. I would be sucked in with the compelling sales copy. Naturally, the items would sit collecting dust on my hard drive. Heck, one of the main reasons items sell so well, is that 20% of the marketers are counting on 80% to do nothing with them!
It’s not like I am new to spending impulsively. As I explained before and will repeat until I can make YOU feel good about it, I invested in an education. SO what if the people were selling a DREAM, and I bought into that. I learned something. everything. I can assure you that my sister in NYU spending $45k per year, forcing my dad to push off retirement, will NOT come out more prepared. I guess it’s an expensive way to make sure she has a social life, since working from home online aint too good for that .. (love you Ris!)
This time I have a plan. Its not 100% formed. There are holes. There is flexibility. I havent entirely hit the nail on the head. But when I see something to purchase, I see how can it fits in this puzzle, and simplifies the process, hopefully offering a double advantage of saving money and earning us more. The Internet Marketing world is filled with items created for mass production, and therefore you can pick up an item for $37 that if ordered custom for you could cost in the $100′s if not $1000′s. Not to mention the chance to purchase online money making ideas (like I am promoting here) for anywhere from $7 to $47 which can get addictive, but often opens your eyes up to more possibilities, and increases your knowledge of the market, what is out there, and is a real bargain when you add up the added value you can attach to your resume.
A friend of mine who contributed ONE of these 20 ideas could sell it on it’s own for the price of the book. I loved his idea! Making money online is not all about loans, weight loss, and ebay! You can make money promoting Hanna Montana, and Britney Spears.. Find something for you (or your teenage kids) to do in their spare time to earn some cash. Multiply his idea by 20 and you have what I call a NO Brainer. For those of you who are a bit slow that was a link to check it out. HERE is another one.
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- Sep 17th, 2007
- 69 Comments
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This is a ‘quickie’ (no pun intended)… but I just want a blogging question answered.
*DISCLAIMER – for those of you seriously considering hiring me to turn your struggling online presence into a star-studded affair, do not be discouraged by my need to ask these questions. I can back it up with 7 years of serious internet marketing and it’s those who ASK who LEARN. Yes I could have googled it, but this is MORE FUN and just maybe I am a keyword GENIUS to write this post.
Moving on….
What is the difference between being ‘tagged’ and a ‘meme’? Rather, I know what it means to tag, but how should the ‘tagee’ react if tagged vs being ‘memed’.
I ‘tagged’ a few people and the end result was that one person wrote a blog post about the subject (which was cool) and someone else ‘memed’ me and I just commented on their blog…
All I wanted was to start conversations and get comments.
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- Sep 7th, 2007
- 41 Comments
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Yeh.. you know me always trying out for something. I was looking to find the link to show you for my latest
WHO WILL DISCOVER ANDREA YAGER … – WILL IT BE YOU??
but unfortunately my email is too busy downloading 1700 spam emails for me to open the other account and find out for you!
In a nutshell – I answered a very simple 8 question survey for why I should be accepted into this very small select group of individuals.
One interesting question:
How would you list the following, in order of importance from top to bottom?
Creating your own digital product
Affiliate marketing
Adwords and/or adsense
JV’s
Building your list
Since I dont know if there is ‘ONE CORRECT ANSWER’, I am withholding my answer, to hear YOUR answer. This is the choices they offered. Would you have added anything?
So if you are TAGGED, please ANSWER!!
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