Feeling Overwhelmed

[hal1989]

Hi,

I've been reading this forum for a couple of months now, learned how to make a simple website, made a Squidoo lens, started a blog, and wrote an ezine article. The fact is, I am feeling overwhelmed. Every time I come to this site I find new things that I am supposed to be doing. I feel like I could spend 24 hours a day reading all the information and still be confused. Does anyone have a system that newbies like me can follow just to make a few sales and get my feet wet? I read the bum marketing course as well and joined wealth affiliate, but it just seems like there is so much to do to get your articles ranked. And then what about writing the articles? I've read some books on copywriting that ALL say you should thoroughly research your subject before writing an ad - yet here I read you should crank out articles or ads at rates approaching 3 an hour or so? Sorry to vent, but I feel so disorganized about this whole thing and REALLY want to make it work.

Any one have any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks,
hal1989

[John_S]

Yeah. Pay someone to do it.

[dorothydot]

It's super-easy to feel overwhelmed in this business. Everywhere you turn, there's something new to learn. And it's all so darned interesting!

Sometimes you need to take a step back and inhale slowly. [Read, take a vacation!] Examine yourself. Try to find out what you feel the most comfortable doing. Then restrict yourself to learning just that facet.

Once you are knowledgeable in that area, find another related one that you'd like to master - and learn that.

Want to develop your own product? Write an ebook? Or become a rich copywriter who can sell other people's products and services? Or would you be happier being an affiliate?

Hope this helps,
Dot

[Eric Engel]

Originally Posted by hal1989

here I read you should crank out articles or ads at rates approaching 3 an hour or so?

Articles - I can see cranking them out quickly.

Good articles that are worth reading - take your time and write them well.

Ads - if you can write one in a day, then it's not a very good ad.

Take your time, do what you learn, and find one thing per week to work on and learn more about.

[Collette]

Take a deep breath. Take a few more. Now...

You didn't mention whether you have something to sell yet. So, your first thing is to make a sequential plan:

1. Pick something you're passionate about, and will enjoy spending hours talking and writing about. It's easier to begin with something you love.
2. Go to ClickBank.com. Set up an account. Find something you can sell that has relevance to what you're interested in. For example: you like fishing. Find an e-book on fishing. Buy it. Read it. Create an affiliate link for it.
3. You already have a blog. Start blogging about fishing. Try to blog at least once or twice a day, at least 350 words or more. (This should be easy, since you love fishing, right?) Write every day. No kidding.
4. Add a banner or other graphic link for your affiliate fishing product to your blog page. Mention the book and how helpful it is in your posts. Give specifics, but DON'T SELL THE BOOK in your copy. You're positioning yourself as a fellow fishing enthusiast and a helpful resource - not a sales pitch.
5. Use your Squidoo page to reference your blog page. Bingo. You got one inbound link.
6. Submit your blog to any of the ping sites. Enable your RSS feed on the blog. In a day or two, the search engines will begin to pick you up.
7. Find at least 5 fishing forums. Jump into discussions. Try to give some useful advice, or at least be friendly. Speak up. Make sure you have a signature file w/ link to your blog. Spend at least an hour each day on these forums (in the beginning).
8. After about a week or so of this, find other fishing-related blogs. Make geniune comments on the posts. With your signature.
9. By now, you should find that traffic to your blog is picking up.
10. Write one 400 word article a day on fishing. Make sure you include at least 2 links to your affiliate product. Also include a link to your blog in your resource box. Submit the article to 5 article web sites. Every day. No kidding.
11. Do this for at least 30 days. Assuming you have picked a subject for which there is a decent amount of interest, and a decent product to sell, it's going to be almost impossible for you to NOT make at least one sale in 30 days.

You don't have to know EVERYTHING before you start. Nobody does (and if they say they did - they're lying!)

Get the first sale under your belt. When you begin pulling a consistent income (even if it's just a measly $20 a month, but it's consistent), it's time to move on to the next step.

Q: How do you eat an elephant?

A: One bite at a time.

[Ronwag]

What a wonderful, helpful post Collette. I'm going to cut and paste it into my idea book as a tool to keep me on track. Thank you

[PetraW]

I can just SOOOOOO relate to you, hal1989!!! I have been doing IM since about a year, starting off with NO experience whatsoever (Blog??? what is that, can you eat that?), and I have learned a TON of things.

I have got the same problem, though - too much info on too many things and too little time to deal with them all.

Essentially the advice given here is right - start with one thing and keep at it, and once you master that, go on to the next. It's just, well, VERY HARD TO DO! You think you are going to miss out on something if you don't sign up to this and don't buy that, and when you sign up/buy something, you should read and apply it, too, but about 10 pages into the new project, something else pops up that sounds even easier and more lucrative.... Know that feeling?

Basically, if you want to learn from my experience, I have been going on like this for quite a few months now and KNOW I have to stop, I have literally become COMPLETELY UNPRODUCTIVE, jumping from one thing to another, not ever finishing anything off, and even losing track of what I was supposed to do! - This crazy running around in circles like a mouse on a wheel is 100% counterproductive. We have to learn to concentrate on one thing, and one thing only at a time.

But, hey, I need to build my blog, should also get more familiar with Twitter, create another few Squidoo lenses and update my old one's, write Articles to get backlinks to my website (and I can't produce more than one Article every 3 days or so, IF I DO IT ALL DAY), update that as well, keep adding backlinks to my sites, get more clickbank campaigns going, meaning I should create landing pages, but I have to learn how to do that right first...and so on.

It's not easy!!!

[gillberk]

Are you always rushing to catch up? Do you have an enormous “To Do’ list that seems to grow each day? Poor time management is a common source of anxiety and stress.

If you have trouble getting things done, invest in a time management course to help you prioritise tasks, eliminate unnecessary activities and plan your day effectively. Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Be clear about what you are trying to achieve. Set personal, financial and career goals.
2. Take time at the beginning or end of each day to plan.
3. List everything you need to do and the date by which it needs to be completed.
4. Number each item in order of priority. Your highest priority items will be the ones that help you achieve your long-term goals and ambitions.
5. Delegate or lose tasks that do not help you achieve your goals and ambitions. Place a value on your time, and eliminate tasks that do not have a positive payback.

---------------------

peter
Buzz Marketing

[Norma Holt]

Hi Hal, welcome to the forum. I can't offer any more advice than what is given above except that like anything you have to crawl before you can walk. Work out where you want to go, what you want to do and stay focused.

[hal1989]

Fantastic ideas - thanks and I'm glad to know I am not alone in my confusion. Collette - I have a product to sell - an ebook on multifamily property investing that I have on clickbank (Homes Without Payments). I have made three sales so far. But to make my WP website look really good and get all the backlinks will take some time. I will follow your advice though - the posts may not be every day - but I am shooting for 3-4 a week.

Thanks again to everyone.

[lennoxtran]

there's an seo software called lotusjump.

it gives you task and tells you exactly what to do.

i was overwhelmed for 1 year with internet marketiing.

i feel the trick is to delegate and outsource as much as you can.

i don't know your budget, but time is more valuable than money from my experience.

doing it yourself saves money but you will be on a slow track of frustrations and doubts.

hope it helps