How To Tell How Far You've Progressed

A lot of people think the only way to tell how far you've come as far as
Internet marketing is by the bottom line. Granted, in the final analysis, that's
all that matters, but there's really a better indicator as to how far you've
come as far as your knowledge of marketing.

Today, I took a look at an ebook I purchased quite a while ago by a pretty
well known marketer. At the time I read it, I thought it was quite informative
and cutting edge. However, looking at it today, I realized how far I've come.
Much of what is in that book is so basic to me now. Sure, I didn't know it at
the time, but now...it's second nature.

And that is the key. It isn't so much getting the info and just reading it. It's
getting it, reading it and UNDERSTANDING IT...to the point where you
actually USE IT and make it a part of your everyday life as a marketer, to
the point where you can't even remember where you learned it or who you
learned it from...to the point where it has become a part of your being.

And of course most of all, to the point where it is actually make a difference
in your bottom line.

THAT'S how you can tell how far you've come. See, if you read that book
again and it all still seems so new and revolutionary to you, then you
really haven't gotten what you were supposed to get out of it.

Go back to your old books and see how many of them seem OLD to you
now. If not many, then you need to really work on making these concepts
a part of your everyday routine, provided of course that they have been
proven to work. Yes, that's another can of worms all together (what DOES
work?) but we'll leave that for another thread, otherwise this one will turn
into a philosophical discussion that might even give Paul Myers a headache
and I for one am just not up to it today.

And should you find that you really haven't learned much in the few weeks,
months or years you've been doing whatever it is you're doing, take one
of those books and go through it again. Really try to get something out
of it. If it adds even just a few hundred dollars a month to your income, it
will have been worth it.

So, how far have YOU progressed?