Internet Marketing: Finish What You Start

31 Right and Wrong Ways to Work Online

In Internet Marketing I have noticed that many people seem to fall prey to that obvious but overlooked malady – dispersal.

I think everyone has been there, the green and the veterans, the successful and the unsuccessful, the young and the old.

I think the phenomenon is best demonstrated in an example.

The examples I will give are things that would happen with new Internet Marketers who are just starting out.  But I think some season vets run into the same problem on a higher scale.  I mean, they might not still be figuring out what article marketing is, but I’m sure there is something else they are up to, and I’m sure it’s just as easy to get disbursed on high-end endeavors as any.

So here is an example of the phenomenon which occurs:

1.  Start a website about dog training
2.  Put content on
3.  Start learning about optimizing Adsense ads
4.  Get an email about a new article submission method
5.  Study that
6.  Sign up and start writing articles
7.  Get a free E-Book about Squidoo
8.  Start to read it
9.  Get involved in a forum discussion where someone recommends list-building
10. Start to research how to build a list
11. Find a new software which is selling really well and become an affiliate.
12. Start to promote it
13. Go back to optimizing your adsense ads
14. Decide that maybe the best thing to do is to start a lot of mini sites
15. Get a free subscription about that
16. Go back to reading your E-Book on Squidoo
17. Submit more articles
18. Start a new website as a mini site
19. Start to promote that one
20. Start a new Squidoo lens
21. Realize that you really should create your own product.  So, start to write an E-Book
22. Sign up for some Social Bookmarking sites
23. Start (not finish) a new article
24  Start (not finish) a new blog post
23. Spend a few hours installing some new WordPress plugins
24. Create a Facebook profile
25. Start to make a video
26. Tweak your Facebook profile
27. Upload your video
28. Subscribe to a membership site
29. Learn how to cloak links
30. Start to cloak them
31. Get a new idea …

At this point you maybe have been really busy but what have you gotten done?

Now I know it doesn’t help that, seemingly, around every corner there is a new great idea, an interesting link, an enticing email advertisement, an exciting new technology, and fantastic inexpensive E-Book, ad infinitum.  And factually, a lot of these products, services, ideas, and opportunities are quite valid and useful!  Okay, some are scams.  But not all.

Now what about this idea?

1. Learn to find a niche
2. Find it.
3. Learn to make a website
4. Make it.
5. Learn how to submit articles.
6. Submit them.
7. Learn how to use Adsense.
8. Add it.
9. Learn about some new great WordPress Plugins
10. Add them.
11. Post on your blog.
12. Learn about Social Bookmarking sites.
13. Sign up and bookmark.
14. Learn about Squidoo lenses
15. Make them.
16. Post on your site.
17. Learn to make Hub Pages.
18. Make them.
19. Learn about Social Networks.
20. Set up your profiles and apply what you learn.
21. Learn about Digg.
22. Apply it.
23. Post on your site.

24. Learn about Stumble Upon.
25. Apply it.
26. Learn about link cloaking.
27. Do it.
28. Learn about video.
29. Make it.
30. Upload it.
31. Post on your blog …

Which 31 steps will get you further?  Your guess is as good as mine.

Again, I think everyone, or almost everyone, can experience this phenomenon at times.  You get interested, distracted, excited, hopeful, and diverted into a bazillion different directions at once.

Well, multi-tasking is fine.  And I admit, some things can get boring, and its nice to take a break from writing articles about snow-shoveling, to go browse through Digg for a while and socialize with people in your niche, install your new fancy software, or browse and comment on some related blogs and get a few insights and backlinks in the meanwhile.

But if you leave a load of incomplete projects lying around, you might start to feel like you are losing it.  In any case, you won’t make the progress you could have made if you would simply finish what you start.

So my little piece of advice and reminder for today, is to simply finish things.  Finish what you start!

Here’s a suggestion – make a simple list on a boring little Notepad document, of all of your incomplete projects.  Get them done, one by one.  Finish writing that article you started and post it.  Fix those links you have been meaning to get around to.  Complete the 10-page E-Book you started reading 6 months ago (if it’s worth it) so you can have a bit more knowledge and file it into your “already read folder.”

As each item on your list gets done, delete it from the list.  Start with most important actions, or start with the fastest actions, or start with the oldest actions.  However suits you.

When you come across a new idea or job to do, put it on a “To Do” list (unless it is really urgent somehow).

But finish what you start, taking priorities into consideration.  Then pick up on your new ideas.

And, going hand in hand with that, is learn and apply.

What is the point of reading a dozen emails, newsletters, and E-Books, if you don’t take action to use and apply what you learn from them?

Once you learn one technique I suggest you start to use it right away before you go on to learning new strategies.  So:

1. Learn about Squidoo
2. Make 10 lenses
3. Learn about trackbacks
4. Post 10 trackback posts
5. Learn about link exchange
6. Do 20 link exchanges

is much better than

1. Learn about Squidoo
2. Learn about trackbacks
3. Learn about link exchange
4. Learn about mini-sites
5. Learn about list-building
6. Learn about upselling
7. Learn about guest blogging …

You get the idea. Learn and apply. After all, you are in this to make some money, not to study to pass an exam!  Right?  This isn’t college, we are trying to DO something with what we study!

That’s my advice for today.

Finish what you start.

Learn and apply.

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while.  But it was on my “To Do” list, and I had to finish some other things first.

See also Clean Up Your Digital Mess

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