"Plan B" can still make you money when "Plan A" fails

I wouldn't be anywhere in internet marketing today if it wasn't for my "Plan B".

The big overly-ambitious, ever-changing, never-starting genius million dollar website/product idea that you're always "working" on? That's "Plan A" and LOTS and LOTS of people in internet marketing have a "Plan A". I have one myself.

But the sad fact is, that "Plan A" is probably never going to happen for most (myself included). In this field in particular, it's very easy to have a vision that exceeds your grasp.

The fact is, if you're a newbie (or even a veteran IM hobbyist who has been at it a while but never made any money) you just don't have the experience and resources to pull off a "Plan A" kind of deal.

And I'm talking about these guru-style mega launches where you have JVs out the wazoo and monster-mega lists to mail your offer to. Believe me, all those guys that can clap their hands and make thousands - it's TRUE - but it was a long time coming.

But not ONLY that - it could be that you just have a great idea for a niche e-commerce store, or an awesome idea for a paid newsletter - or even MULTIPLE of these.

Probably hundreds of thousands have had really good ideas that WOULD have worked if they hadn't been attempted by unskilled amateurs. If you're like me, you have a whole graveyard of projects that died on the operating table, simply because I wasn't a good enough surgeon to make the attempt (yet).

This is where many, many people stop. Some give up and quit IM altogether, some just stay at this level forever, always trying the next big thing, but always coming up short, spending more on courses than you ever earn back with the info inside.

But you know what? I'm not ready to give up my "Plan A" yet. Heck, I've got at least FIVE "Plan A" projects in my head right now. They "fight" for my attention and brainpower constantly, and I foolishly flit from one to the other without ever making any real progress. Regardless, that's my DRIVE and I don't want to give it up.

So I'm NOT telling you to give up on your own "Plan A" - certainly not. You NEED to keep it warm. "Plan A" is great, because having that kind of mindset is what makes you a 2%-er. It's a fire in your belly. And ONE DAY it might be a fortune in your bank account. But not YET.

Because you have a whole lot of learning to do to get there, and Internet Marketing (like most things) requires you to learn by DOING. You can read all the ebooks in the world but until you actually TRY things and most likely FAIL, you don't actually learn a thing.

So I encourage you to keep trying at "Plan A" and even though it's going to be tough going, and you're going to probably mess it up royally PLENTY of times. I know I did!

But the fire in my belly for "Plan A" remains and that's because I had a "Plan B" to help prop it up and keep me going and actually STOP me from getting discouraged.

So since we know what "Plan A" is, what's "Plan B"?

"Plan B" is a backup that I created for myself that was the total OPPOSITE of my "Plan A" in every way.

"Plan A" is sexy and cool, "Plan B" is boring.
"Plan A" is clever, "Plan B" is kind of dumb (but it works).
"Plan A" requires lots of resources (brainpower and labor), "Plan B" requires minimal amounts of either and is INCREMENTAL, so it can be worked on a little bit at a time.
"Plan A" had no guarantees of working, "Plan B" had to be a sure thing.
While "Plan A" was to make a ton of money fast, "Plan B" was all about making teensy amounts of money FOREVER in a cumulative way.
"Plan A" needed to be PERFECT or it would never work, while "Plan B" was so simple it couldn't NOT work, even if you did it "wrong".

Every single day that I worked on "Plan A" without ending the day with money in hand from the effort, I FORCED myself to work on stupid old boring "Plan B". At least a little bit, EVERY SINGLE DAY.

I knew when I came up with my "Plan B" I would need to take my own natural weaknesses and make them into advantages. I needed to basically TRICK myself into doing a stupid, mindless, repetitive task that was PROVEN to make money, even though I'd rather spend my time doing something else.

That's why I made it like "homework" or a "punishment" for not being able to pull off "Plan A" yet.

I designed it to be BORING so I wouldn't get distracted and accidentally turn it into a "Plan A".

I designed it to be DUMB so I wouldn't have to think about it, I could just do it, even if I was mentally burned out from working on "Plan A" all day.

I designed it to be made almost completely out of copying and pasting, so that the labor was minimal, and I could do it in between working on other things and the efforts would add up.

I chose an EXTREMELY simple profit model so that no matter what I did, the money-making component was built-in, so it would make a profit regardless.

I'd heard over and over that perfection is the enemy of good enough. I'd heard over and over that all it took is consistent work to succeed. So I created a simple set of tasks that would MAKE me do that, without having to think about it.

But only after I'd indulged myself in my fantasy big-idea "Plan A" project for a while.

I could experiment and try every new technique under the sun for as long as I liked. But before I went to bed, I needed to spend an hour on "Plan B".

Very simple rules. Progress guaranteed.

Here's the "Plan B" that has gotten me where I am today.

Step 1. Find some keywords. I like to use SpyFu and Google's tools so you can estimate the value of those words. But to be honest, all you need to care about is "are people paying for it?" - if Yes, it's good.

Step 2. Search for free articles that contain those keywords. Article directories are numerous.

Step 3. Post those articles to a blog. Blogger suffices. At first I would create a bunch of posts as drafts and then just log in every couple of days and publish one. This allowed me to build many blogs pretty rapidly.

Step 4. Put some ads on them. AdSense is easiest, but I branched out into posting my own affiliate ads quickly and find that to be more profitable most of the time, but I almost always start with AdSense (or YPN, MSN, AdBrite, Azoogle - some AUTOMATED ad system).

Step 5. Build a few backlinks to an article I already published. To do this, go to Google News, Blog, or Forum search. Look for your keyword. Post a comment with a backlink anywhere you can from the results you get.

That's it. That was my whole "Plan B" in a nutshell.

As time went on, it continued to evolve and get refined and I started to make better choices about content and backlinks. Eventually, I was making enough with "Plan B" that I was encouraged to work on it full time.

Which was really cool, because it was EASY. I could daydream and think about "Plan A" while systematically copying, pasting, rinse, repeat.

And it DID take quite a while for things to get that way. I knew "Plan B" would work, but it was going to be slow. It took at least a year, probably slightly more, before I'd say the line was crossed and the work I put in at the beginning became worth it. But "Plan B" worked perfectly. It was consistent effort applied to a proven system.

There was no way that it could NOT be profitable. It took an hour a day, and inside of a year, it was paying my mortgage.

Now, I'm not telling you to copy my own "Plan B" because unless you happen to be a lazy daydreamer who hates to work, it may not be your style.

But I want to encourage you to develop your OWN "Plan B", especially if the size of your "Plan A" graveyard is looking depressing, and you've been at IM for a year and don't have any consistent income to show for it.

Find something foolproof and go at it like a fool (but a CONSISTENT fool) and you'll be amazed at where you find yourself when you were trying to go somewhere else the whole time.

NOTE: If anyone WANTS to try my "Plan B" above, once you make enough money to afford it, start buying domain names and then doing the same thing with WordPress installed on your own sites instead of relying on Blogger forever.

It shouldn't take very long for that to happen. Anyway, that's my story. Anyone else end up finding success with their own "Plan B"?