I believe the following rules apply to any type of project or endeavor, and are crucial to success but far too easily overlooked. Keeping these rules in mind can not only save you time, but possibly make the difference between success and failure in any activity, business, or enterprise.
- If you want a project to succeed you have to actually work on that project, and complete all of its steps.
- If you don’t complete all of the necessary steps of any project, your project will not succeed or it will not enjoy the success it could have had.
- If you start on a project which you will not have time to fully execute, the project is not likely to succeed.
- Two half-done projects are not equal to one fully done project.
- Completing 10% of ten projects is not equal to completing one project 100%.
- It is usually unwise to drop a project which is succeeding in order to pursue another project, just because you think the new project might have greater success.
- If a particular project is successful and is generating revenue or production, it is usually wise to increase the successful actions and devote more time and energy to that project, instead of either dropping it, or spending less time on it, in order to try new and untested strategies.
- If you take on more projects than you have time to work on, they will most likely not all get done. Either some will be neglected while others are completed, or you will spread your time and attention thin over numerous projects, and wind up with just that – numerous incomplete projects.
How does this translate into Internet Marketing?
- All of the successful money making programs and strategies you read about in your emails may very well be successful. But if you dabble in all of them without taking time to drive one of those projects through to success, you will get no where, no matter how excellent these strategies are.
- Find a successful Internet Marketer and you will find someone who, to at least some degree, follows through and completes existing projects.
- If you have 5 websites which each have great potential but you don’t have time to update and promote them all regularly, you probably don’t have time for 10 websites either. Or 20.
- There are steps involved in building up any stream of income online, and these steps must be executed if the project is expected to begin generating income.
- In the real world, income does not happen overnight or without real work. It may happen in sales pages or on testimonials, but not in real life.
- “Real work” does not just mean busyness. It does not just mean “taking action” or “getting started.” It means starting and completing projects. In the realm of recurring or residual income, this usually means getting a project up to the point where it is generating a considerable income which can easily be maintained and increased.
- If your existing project is succeeding, and you have enough time to maintain it as well as it should be maintained, and you still have time left over, this is probably a good time to look for new or additional projects to take on.
An exception to some of the above rules probably lies in the occasional instances when one wants to test different projects or strategies to see which one becomes the most successful. In this case, once you have a successful project, pour the steam on it, and put less productive projects on the back-burner.
However, do not pendulum swing into over-multi-tasking, or you will have a kitchen full of nothing but backburners, and you will have everything on the stove burning, too.
[...] have written a much more succinct post on this subject at my blog, Building from Nothing. That post does not contain the Story of Suzie, but it contains some simple and basic rules you [...]
Anna, this is a great post – so true. Thank you for posting on my blog – it is much appreciated as it has become a bit of a ghost town. I hope you are doing well. I think I got quite burnt out and made several of the mistakes listed on your post (about taking on too much and not focusing on one thing) and I’m now getting back into the swing of things. I took Josh to Utah for the weekend as a final getaway before I can get serious with work again. His rash is finally gone (thank God) so he can go to school and that will help us both. How have you been doing? This new blog design looks INCREDIBLE! Did you use a plugin to create the author bio box below your article? If so, which one?
Thanks again Anna for posting on my blog and for this wonderful article. Hope to catch up soon.
Hi Holly! Thanks for your comment, and your welcome for the post.
I could see you needed some help over there. I know how it is, I am also a Suzie. But ever since I realized it, I’ve been able to gradually pull myself up out of the black morass of incomplete projects.
Thank you for the complement on my new design. I created it from the Hybrid News Theme, which I customized. I had in mind what I wanted for a long time – and now I finally managed to put the pieces together! The bio is not a plugin – Hybrid News puts it in automatically, using the bio you can fill in under the ordinary “User” area of your WP admin panel. (By the way, Hybrid News is one of the most amazing themes I have ever come accross, and I think you would love it – there are so many possibilities! It also has a ton of other page templates like tags, categories, archives, sitemap … )
Where did you go in Utah? I was born there – I have a lot of family there as well. It is so incredibly beautiful and unworldly in some places! I am really glad Josh got rid of his rash. Thank god. Me, I am doing fine – catching up on all my incomplete recipes, just like Suzie, for the last several months … soon I will make the photo and poetry sections for my personal blog! And I might go into selling postcards locally – I will see
Okay, stay in touch!
Hi Anna,
Just seen your post through Holly’s blog, can totally empathise with “Suzie.”
I’m approaching 12 months of the IM world and trying to get out of that vicious circle and move forwards. Your blog looks a winner by keeping it “real” and is something I’ve been needing for months (a bit of direction!).
Excuse my ignorance but have you done the website design tutorial yet?
Thanks for the insights!
D
Hello Anna,
Can so empathise with the Suzie post! Approaching a year now of IM world and want to start moving forwards. Your site is just what I need now (some direction!).
Have you done the Website building tutorials?
Regards,
D
Hi Davos, thank you for your feedback. I really hope my site can be useful to you in this case, and feel free to let me know if there are any subjects you would like to see more information on. You asked:
I’m not sure if I understand what you mean. Which tutorials? Are you referring to a specific set of website-building tutorials?
I did this exact thing in the beginning. I spread myself way too thin, and didn’t focus on my blogs that were really working. After decided which ones made the most sense to keep, I am doing much better and I don’t feel I lack from what I should say.
@ Susan – thank you for your visit and your comment. I am glad you did figure it out at least, so that you could start pushing some of your blogs through to success. Many people never get passed the initial stage of dispersal and then give up, thinking that it “didn’t work.”
Sorry Anna,
in “About Me” – ” plan to start out with posting some basic tutorials on how to get started, specifically on how to create your first website. ”
This is what I was referring to!!
Thanks So much for the info Anna!!! In Utah, Josh and I went to St. George and Zion National Park as well. It was gorgeous there. We went to Zion and I wasn’t paying enough attention when we went on our trail – so I ended up taking us on a dangerous climb with a 200 ft. cliff to the side of us. Josh was fine thank God and he made it all the way – I am either totally out of shape (most likely this) or that was a really tough hike. Have you been there? St. George was really nice and cute too. It was a very short 2 hr drive straight north of Las Vegas (through a part of Arizona) to get to St. George. Wow Anna it has been so long since we last spoke – I am so thankful you posted on my blog – so THANK YOU again. Thanks also for the info about the theme – it really looks wonderful.I will check it out online now.
Talk to you soon!!!
Yes I have been to Zion. In 1992, with my aunt, cousins, friend from Prague, and her 5-year-old daughter (who is now a bartender – wow I am old). I can’t believe you – no, actually I can totally picture you getting lost and almost falling off a cliff. LOL! Sorry. I am so glad you and Josh made it out of there okay!
The most incredible national park I saw in Utah is Bryce Canyon. Its like another planet. If you ever get a chance you will love it! Actually I wasn’t much of a photographer back then and probably missed some opportunities.
No I haven’t been to St. George’s. But to some other places around there – like the Grand Canyon of course, the Four Corners when I was 13, and some other places in the area. Its a fascinating part of the country.
Glad you had a little adventure at least, and thanks for the update
Hi Anna,
I have to say that making money online is no walk in the park. I don’t know if I’m just not born for it or I am in the wrong niche. I’m talking about my pet project which up to now is yet to get off the ground. Good thing there’s this store in my link. LOL
I also believe that I have overlooked some of the things you pointed out. Hopefully, I can clear my mind and start all over again following your pointers.
P.S.
Can’t listen to your poem made into a song. T_T
Gonna try it later on.
Well, I do hope I will be able to help you. You are right it is not a walk in the park but if you treat it like a game it can be fun and also rewarding. What methods to you currently use to generate income? And what have you studied in this field (i.e., an eBook, a course, … ?)
For example, have you been able to begin driving fair amounts of traffic to your site(s)?
Sometimes when you think a project is not succeeding, it turns out it is just about to get off the ground. I had a project like this. A website which I almost gave up on and deleted, but then went on to earn several hundred dollars per month and still growing. I wrote about it in my post called “Twenty Two Months.”
Regarding the song – not sure why you wouldn’t be able to hear it – I was able to before. Hope it works out and thanks for visiting my little personal blog
Apart from that link I shamelessly dropped in here (LOL), I’m trying my hands on affiliate marketing. I’ve read some ebooks and my problem is not understanding it but implementing the steps. I guess it comes with being something new to that avenue of earning online. Plus, I don’t have much time to spend online as I like my weekends spent playing airsoft. Hehehe
I’m going to definitely read that post. Might serve as an inspiration.
By the way, thanks for the reply. I don’t get that a lot.
Must be because of the shameless link promotion. LOL
P.S.
Heard the song. It’s great! Pretty powerful.
You are funny Terry! Thanks for your comment and also your feedback regarding my poem and the song.
Okay, if you really want to succeed in affiliate marketing you have to work on it regularly. Especially in the beginning. Otherwise its just not going to get there. It’s not even complicated but you have to learn and practice what you learn and thing will become increasingly clearer to you. Its like learning a game.
If you are serious about it, I honestly suggest you at least read and apply Honest Riches ( http://hollymannebook.com ) . The price of the book was recently lowered temporarily from $47 to under $20. That is really a bare minimum in my opinion.
In any case, thank you very much for your input on my blog!
I look funny too.. Hehehe
Thanks for the suggestion. I just searched around for reviews of the ebook and the word on the web is that it’s really easy to understand. Might give it a try one of these days. 245 pages is a long read though.
I’ll see if I can make it in the affiliate marketing world. Would surely give you a holler if I succeed.
Oh!
Holly the commenter (?) here is that Holly in Honest Holly. Golly!
Sorry I missed that.
Terry you are hysterically funny. Yes that was Holly. And in regards to the length of her book, the pages are laid out so they are really easy to read and they are in landscape format. There are diagrams and images too as I recall. So its not like reading War and Peace or something. Plus, you don’t have to read the whole thing in one go. She takes you through the steps of Internet Marketing step by step so you can read one chapter at a time and then follow the procedures she advises you on … its easier that way anyways.
Thanks for your comments you are really funny!
Yes, it’s so easy to lose focus and try and carry several projects all at once to the detriment of each of them.
I have found myself in this situation lately. I took ages building links to a particular site which advertised a service that I offered in Sydney. I eventually got some good long tail keyword traffic from it, resulting in several sales.
However, delivering that particular service has proved quite exhausting and not very profitable. Still, I’ve put heaps of work into it, and I don’t want to let it go! In the meantime, I’ve been earning some okay money from affiliate programs on another site whose traffic is growing. So I’ve been torn about these two projects; trying to do both simultaneously.
I think I’m going to just have to completely dump that first website, and focus on the second. I know I’ll feel better when I do this, but I just haven’t been able to do it yet!
.-= Matt@Sydney article marketing blog´s last blog ..Advanced operators for keyword selection =-.
@Matt – I know exactly the phenomenon you are talking about. It’s hard to let go of something after you’ve put a lot of time into it.
And, conversely sometimes, you put a lot of time into something, get frustrated when it doesn’t generating enough money right away, and give up too quickly – possibly just before it would have started making good revenue!
But spinning too many plates at once can be a real killer. I’ve spent quite some time just consolidating projects so that I would have fewer to think about. Though it is still too many, I am persisting on other strategies which can eventually streamline things so that I really do have enough time to dedicate to each project.
[...] it’s important not to spread oneself thin and try to work on too many projects at once, it’s also important to develop multiple streams of income. One has to find a proper balance [...]