My biggest problem with internet marketing

You've made a good decision to get back to work!! At least by experimenting on real thing you'll get to know what works and what doesn't work, be sure to post your success here to share

This is one of the problems. There is really not a lot "new" stuff to learn. It's more important to keep going with proven methods and possible expand upon them.

The wheel doesn't need to be invented every single day, really. How many WSOs and "courses" are sold...and how much of the methods in them are really new? Hardly any of it.

Yeah, the problem with this world is there is just so little time. We only get to live about 28,000 days, time is always ticking down. If you want to create something thats going to make you a lot of money, you've got to put a lot of hours into it.

I was always wondering, how people find so much time to read and write all that stuff - you still have to do something to earn your buck.

Reading forums is basically a waste of time. Because you'll be intrigued by the new strategy that are born every day.

I think you should pick one WSO's strategy and go with it. Work as hard as you can for a month and there is bound to be some result.

Your not alone in this issue. Finding a way to learn and implement is key.

I heard somewhere you should learn 10% of your time and implement 90% of your time.

Man, that is hard to do for me. I have been working hard at it. I go to bed early and get up early every day so I can work on my business before getting ready to go to the "Day Job". Some people stay up late but I find I read forums and emails more at night. Although it is 6:38am and I am on the WF.

I am spending about 50% of my time learning and 50% working on my business. I will keep working to implement more and learn less.

What I have done to create a resource for myself and to keep me from buying every shiny object out there is to create an xls sheet with the domain, user name and pw for every product I have ever bought. I went back through gmail and searched on "User:" or "PW", etc. and found most everything I have ever bought. Shhh.... don't tell the wife but I found 67 products I have purchased in the last year.

So now, when I get stuck I go back to my list of products and look for one of the products I own that will help me. Amazingly, I find 9 out of 10 times I have something that helps me move forward.

Everyone can give advice about staying focused and some can. The rest of us will have to continue to find little tricks that help us get back to work.

Hope that helps,
Anthony.

O.K. BACK TO WORK!!!!

One approach you may want to try is to visit the forum as a "reward" AFTER you've accomplished X, Y, and Z for the day.

And set a time limit and don't deviate from it - "just one more page then I'll get back to work I promise" means you are probably past your time limit.

Mark

Set yourself time limits to browse the forum :-)

Only do it once you have completed your tasks for the day or on your "days off"

Danny

really reading a forum needs lots of time. but in this busy schedule its not possible to spent so much time on the forum reading.

With all do respect to you Tim but you've been on this forum as a member since 2008 and you're still having this issue?

Seriously man, you're priorities are not in line. It's time to take time away from this forum and pick one thing and roll with it. By now you have way more knowledge than you really need.

Either you don't need the money because you have enough or you're just not focused. My guess is you're not focused.

I like learning but I like making money more than learning. I'm so damn happy I am off of the hamster wheel. Because it will never stop turning unless you get off of it.

It is so nice to wake up at 6am and get started on my business and work from 7am-1pm like clock work. It's a wonderful feeling to know I don't need to come and "check in" on this or any other forum.

You can blow hours on forums. There is nothing new under the sun.

How many traffic courses have you read and they all say the same thing? Seo?, etc.........

I had to stop with the madness so I set up 1 website and that's all I work on every day and I love my results.

I have to get started for the day now but I hope you get it together man I really do.

Tim, last year (or maybe at the very beginning of '11) I decided it was time to move on and achieve a specific goal. For that to happen, I knew I needed two things:

First, stay away from the forum for some time, weeks, months.
Second, put in practice all the knowledge I absorbed along the years.

I simply stopped all the small thing that we're time consuming (niche websites/backlinks/chit chatting) and focused on getting good/big clients with whom I could get long term business relationships.

It worked, and my offline business went on tracks like never before.

It's a mindset. Teach your mind to achieve what YOU want.

I think we have all been guilty of the same. I changed my whole way of working simply by organization and this is from someone very unorganized.

Firstly I organized all my bought courses and files into categories so they were easy to find e.g. PPC, backlinking, CPA etc. While doing that I deleted or created an "unlikely to use" folder and moved unnecessary stuff to disc/external harddrive (as I am a hoarder).

After my computer was organized I then made a plan to which direction I was going to pursue next and with the easy referenced courses it would be easy to expand the method.

When my method of attack was in place I then wrote down a schedule with time goals. To stop temptations I included some forum surfing and a learning day/half day for new methods etc. but the learning time was only if it enhanced my overall method and not for the next irrelevant "shiny thing".

These simple steps produced a remarkable increase in productivity while still including but capping the time for some of the things which I enjoyed but held me back.

Now my surfing time is up so back to work.LOL

Peter

You can allot a certain duration for forum posting and reading. Like 1 - 2 hours, then work after that. Just be sure that you'll follow the schedule that you have set.

I have exactly the same problem.

I'm working on the internet, and my business-model is a non-SEO-dependent one and I don't really care about Google, for my business. But I still can't stop buying and reading new editions of SEO textbooks (which I don't need at all) just because I've developed an entirely unnecessary interest in the subject. :rolleyes:

Exactly right - thanks for the reminder ...

Read through the forum for the basics and foundation then apply what you've learned. You don't have to get it perfect, just get it going!

It is still best to have a permanent job. It's okay to be an internet marketer but work it as your past time.

My problem is i also like reading sooo much that i often spend time learning different cases. On the other hand, a friend of mine reads nothing, he just keeps experimenting and works a lot. He gets better results cause he learns from practice..

I know this idea keeps popping up every now and then on the
forum, but having a broad-based knowledge of the what's
taking place in the market is not always a hindrerance. It
all depends on what your niche is.

In my case as a consultant and copywriter I have to read
as broadly as possible because even if I don't use a
particular strategy I want to know that it exists because
it may be useful to one of my clients.

So if you are in a teaching type service there is no time
wasted if you are learning something new. But this may
represent lack of focus and discipline depending on your
business model.

-Ray Edwards

Experience seems to beat out mere reading, in my experience.

One thing to point out: reading forums, depending on your perspective is definitely NOT a waste of time. I can't tell you how many times I saw from the IM niche what people were begging for or needing to get started. At that point, all it takes is a quick 10-30 page guide offered up as a WSO that speaks to that exact need.

Rinse and repeat, profit.

Well firstly you need to start taking action!

But seriously spending time on Forums, social media etc. can not only be adictive but a huge time waster...

I'm really anal how I spend my time and diarise, so for example, I have another 9 minutes left to spend on the Warrior and then I'm out!

If I didn't time how long I spent on each activity, I wouldn't get anything done - I can procrastinate with the best of them believe me!

Also, I highly recommend you don't buy any more WSO's. Take the time to actually implement the product(s) you've bought already. The amount of people I see on here who buy products... but don't use half of them.

The problem is that people treat their time on the forum as if it is work when in reality it's mostly just a way of putting tasks off. I've started staying away from the forum while I need to work and only log on once all of my scheduled tasks are completed. You need to spend more time implementing than learning.

It sounds to me like there might be some emotional blockage perhaps subconsciously you are afraid of the changes that might come along with success.

It may sound odd but you can have all the knowledge in the world but without the courage to take action on what you know and risk failure, nothing will change.

Don't let the fear of failure keep you from shining your light on the world.

There are many newbies making mistakes that they never apply their knowledge to the real practice.
There might be many reasons but one of them would be "FEAR".
They fear to fail.

Keep learning is actually an important part of the success.
However newbies should also realize that they can learn really a lot from the failure, the real life lessons.
And learning from the failure is actually fun because you are one step closer to your success.

Robert Kiyosaki once said,
Knowing how to fail is important.

Thanks for the post. So true. I also once thought I needed to know everything to start. But the truth is you only need to know enough to start. Because true learning happens when you actually start doing and applying what you've learned.

I don't see the problem with outsourcing some of your tasks? I mean, Fiverr is pretty cheap these days and it saves a lot of time...

You are right Steve, I have no focus. I piddle and fart around a lot.

I retired early at 53 years of age, back in midd 2005. I have enough money to survive, but not enough to really live. I have just a little money left every month that I can invest in IM, but there is no back against the wall or any job that I hate and need to free myself from. Just a desire to provide my wife with a better life.

I am determined to change my ways and commit myself to working more regular. I just posted a job on oDesk for work that I am not suited to. I suck at writing, even though I do a little of it.

Right now I have a few minutes before I have to go to dialysis, so I am filling the time here on the forum. I have limited my time here today to just a few minutes between working. On my break time so to speak. Lets see if I can continue this tomorrow. So if any of you see me posting here a lot, smack me.

Thanks for all your support and feedback.

I know that a lot of marketers went back to work like you. You learned much about this business. But you might not yet learn a secret thing that could convert to a profit for you. After my work, I usually spend little time to driving traffic. Doing like that is just for me to relax.

I like this one: