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How many projects do you juggle at the same time?

by cuie
21 replies
Hi,

I´m just starting out in IM and have somewhat ADD personality => bad for IM

As I find hard it to concentrate 3-5 months to one individual project, I find it easier to juggle several projects for a longer period of time. So I need to focus only a short time per project per day. This also allows me to see which IM method gets traction.

I currently have (made within one month):

1 product for health niche sold at Clickbank (has a site, squeeze and sales pages + auto-responders setup) and I`m now trying to get traffic.
1 Amazon Affiliate product review site (I have outsourced reviews so I just format and post them)
1 Clickbank affiliate site which reviews IM products (pretty tough environment)
1 membership site on hold since I need to develop / outsource content creation
1 general affiliate site on relationship sub-niche starting out

I´m not a native english-speaker so I have to outsource most of the content creation (articles, emails, sales pages, etc) and it takes quite a lot of capital.

My question is for all of you who have succeed:

1. Should I try to concentrate to only ONE method for a short time trying to put 110% of my energy and effort into it before it becomes too much of a burden. If so, how long should I bang my head against the wall before questioning the method? 1 month, 3 months, 6 months? What is the measure for potential success: traffic, organic backlinks, opt-ins, sales and in what timeframe?

2. Should I try to juggle all of the project for a long time (a year?, two years?) which allows me to generate credibility with Google, a lot of content, links etc but it might take a long time. This is also easier for me but takes a long time to see results and it costs quite a lot to outsource content creation to 4-5 projects for example 6 month period...

I need to see results fast to keep my head motivated but I don´t know what are good results and in what time frame. I don´t want to give up too fast but I don´t want to waste my effort and time to a site that doesn´t produce. I know some get their first sales within couple of weeks, I don´t even have traffic by then.

How many projects / sites do you host currently?

I know that I should focus on my passion as it is easier to focus to it for a longer time. The problem is that my passions change constantly. And were speaking months here. It leads to a problem were I know about tons of different niches something, but I`m not guru in any of them.

Happy to hear if any of you have had similar issues and how you solved them. ADD seems to be pretty common problem for unsucccessful internet marketers..

EDIT: As I wrote this, I tend to gravitate towards option one even if it is harder for me. It seems that writing your problem down, helps you to solve it
#juggle #projects #time
  • Profile picture of the author TerranceCharles
    It seems to me that you're on the right track The reason I say that is because you are doing one thing which is the most important of them all and that's creating. You are consistently creating products, it just seems that you need to focus more on finding affiliates to promote your products.

    It is preached that you should concentrate on one thing at a time in I.M. but, that's not true. As long as you are concentrating on the main things that are bringing in profit. You could do as many projects as you like, you outsource the things you can't do, or the things that take up the most time to others so that you can concentrate on building, not managing.

    You want to have as many income streams as possible, ofcourse - but, as long as you have one main one that is driving you the most profits, you're free to expand and take on as many as your time can allow. The problem is, many marketers tend to do it backwards and bite off more than they can chew, and not consistently bringing in profits at the same time. That's the real problem.

    It's also a good thing that your passion changes constantly, this way you won't stay stuck and it shows that you're ready and can handle the changes. It keeps you creative and constantly evolving and that's one thing you need to have in I.M. Once you start getting affiliates, you'll start building more traffic. Find a Joint Venture Broker to recruit affiliates for your products.
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    • Profile picture of the author cuie
      Thanks Terrance for your motivational and positive comment
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    Jack of all trades, master of none.

    Focus on one project at a time.
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    • Profile picture of the author cuie
      Originally Posted by WillR View Post

      Jack of all trades, master of none.

      Focus on one project at a time.
      You´re spot on

      How would you judge individual method´s feasibility and when?

      Let´s say I concentrate on Amazon affiliate review site. I might spend 2-3 months and $200-$300 on outsourced articles + SEO. I get 10-30 visitors daily, some affiliate clicks to Amazon but no sales. I might got a small list built but no conversion from there.

      Do I stop here and try something else? I don´t want to fall for the sunk cost fallacy.

      If I decide to continue with the site, I`d have to buy more reviews for maybe $100, tweak and A/B test the site. Maybe add additional sections and content to provide more value to visitors.

      Now I´ve spend 4-5 months and $400 in total and might not still got any sales.

      Long story short, what I`m trying to ask is that how do you measure success?

      Do you calculate return on your investment (time + money) and in what time frame? Do you look for quick wins to see if niche is profitable and what are those quick wins (traffic, list optins, sales)?

      If I spend $400 + hundreds of my own hours without any sales, I´d be pretty frustrated I bet many of newbie IM´s stop because of this. They either throw good money after bad or don´t invest anything and don´t get any returns.

      ...or maybe I´m just over-analyzing things
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  • Profile picture of the author Moneymaker2012
    I thinks you should focus on one thing at a time, set a time period for each of your plans. It's all about how easily you manage your time and efforts to your work. Human mind is brilliant for multitasking, discover your abilities.
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  • Profile picture of the author dadamson
    I was like you too!

    Get an app on your phone or PC for project/time tracking.

    It will do you a LOT of good to work to a schedule for a while to ensure everything you started is being seen through to completion.

    This was one of the most important things I did when starting IM to keep me in check.
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  • Profile picture of the author MoneyKattz
    That is interesting. I like how you are questioning how long you work at an internet project for without results before you declare that you are throwing good money for bad.
    I guess one solution is you can find a coach who maybe able to tell you what you are doing wrong or give an expert opinion that it really is time to stop throwing good money after bad.

    So that is one solution any others, well I'd be interested to know about them as well.

    I find most say to focus on one thing tell successful, that easier said then done.

    It's probably the next best thing if you are like me and feel a strong need to jump around, is to focus on complimentary things.

    My projects are:
    1. My own IM Product
    2. My own Affiliate sale funnel-landing-page biz
    3. A done for you system
    4.CPA marketing.

    I think some would say my plate is too full and I might not disagree. People want me to get into MLM opportunities or telemarketers will call for online opportunities from some list I got on from buying products. I have to tell them all not right now my plate is full-it could be a phenomenal opportunity but I can't get involved right now-I am too full as it is.

    I mainly focus at the moment on the first two: my own product and sales funnel.
    They are pretty complementary as I learn more about building a better sales funnel from building my product and once I have affiliates driving traffic the product will also put many into my landing page without huge efforts on my part.

    The done for you system I am putting on hold, but ultimately it is something I am really wanting in my sales funnel; so complimentary again.

    The CPA marketing is fairly on hold as well, it is in many ways much less complimentary but it is a nice thing I feel for me to get into when I feel like I'm tired of building and I just want to jump in, or to build up confidence when I feel nervous about getting in so deep too, maybe; also it helps give me more experience in driving paid traffic which I can use in my other biz-ops.

    So they are really connected and serve their own purposes. I have other projects that I want to get into way down the line but these are my stepping stones I am really focused on.

    Even this isn't probably very good as far as focus I'm sure but I am certainly enjoying the process and much more narrowed my focus then I have been before. I think it is probably better than such jumping around-in my opinion. I hope that helps.

    Also I wouldn't mind others commenting on my approach giving me some insight into my strategy, I'm interested to know what you think and incorporating what I can to grow better as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tim3
    Originally Posted by cuie View Post

    Hi,
    EDIT: As I wrote this, I tend to gravitate towards option one even if it is harder for me. It seems that writing your problem down, helps you to solve it
    It certainly does, especially if you list objectives in one column and successes or failures in the other, like a running diary of event, then you haven't got it all buzzing around in your head.
    Clearing the clutter from your mind helps with focusing on the task in hand
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  • Profile picture of the author jessegilbert
    Banned
    1 at a time is the best I think. As far as I can tell IM is 90% psychological i.e. your mindset and confidence. The other 10% may in skills may take a few years to aquire but there is always outsourcing. From my experience don't get 'entrepreneuritis' where you keep getting more new projects...instead focus like a magnifying glass on 1 project and get the flame going then you'll have enough money to fund all your other projects. sounds like good advice to me, I'm trying to focus more. Focus is power in my opinion.
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  • Profile picture of the author TheRockstarWriter
    I tried to juggle my fourth grade science project. I learned that it wasn't a very well built volcano after all.

    I stopped juggling projects after that.
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    While you spend time reading people's signatures on a forum someone else is working to make the money you could have made.

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  • Profile picture of the author brettb
    If you're a non-native English speaker, how about creating some products/services for your own market?

    I've not seen much quality from outsourcing, especially outsourcing writing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jassen
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  • Profile picture of the author xpesos
    I will work on 3-4 projects as long as i can make sure that i can give my attention to all of them daily
    Yes if you see that some of your projects are doing well i will give them more attention, but i will not abandon my other one's as long as they keep showing some result
    If they drop to zero then i will surely abandon them
    Originally Posted by cuie View Post

    Hi,

    I´m just starting out in IM and have somewhat ADD personality => bad for IM

    As I find hard it to concentrate 3-5 months to one individual project, I find it easier to juggle several projects for a longer period of time. So I need to focus only a short time per project per day. This also allows me to see which IM method gets traction.

    I currently have (made within one month):

    1 product for health niche sold at Clickbank (has a site, squeeze and sales pages + auto-responders setup) and I`m now trying to get traffic.
    1 Amazon Affiliate product review site (I have outsourced reviews so I just format and post them)
    1 Clickbank affiliate site which reviews IM products (pretty tough environment)
    1 membership site on hold since I need to develop / outsource content creation
    1 general affiliate site on relationship sub-niche starting out

    I´m not a native english-speaker so I have to outsource most of the content creation (articles, emails, sales pages, etc) and it takes quite a lot of capital.

    My question is for all of you who have succeed:

    1. Should I try to concentrate to only ONE method for a short time trying to put 110% of my energy and effort into it before it becomes too much of a burden. If so, how long should I bang my head against the wall before questioning the method? 1 month, 3 months, 6 months? What is the measure for potential success: traffic, organic backlinks, opt-ins, sales and in what timeframe?

    2. Should I try to juggle all of the project for a long time (a year?, two years?) which allows me to generate credibility with Google, a lot of content, links etc but it might take a long time. This is also easier for me but takes a long time to see results and it costs quite a lot to outsource content creation to 4-5 projects for example 6 month period...

    I need to see results fast to keep my head motivated but I don´t know what are good results and in what time frame. I don´t want to give up too fast but I don´t want to waste my effort and time to a site that doesn´t produce. I know some get their first sales within couple of weeks, I don´t even have traffic by then.

    How many projects / sites do you host currently?

    I know that I should focus on my passion as it is easier to focus to it for a longer time. The problem is that my passions change constantly. And were speaking months here. It leads to a problem were I know about tons of different niches something, but I`m not guru in any of them.

    Happy to hear if any of you have had similar issues and how you solved them. ADD seems to be pretty common problem for unsucccessful internet marketers..

    EDIT: As I wrote this, I tend to gravitate towards option one even if it is harder for me. It seems that writing your problem down, helps you to solve it
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    Daily 15+ Winning Products and 500+ Trending Products for Dropshipping/Ecommerce/Amazon FBA - Start free Today
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  • Profile picture of the author jerseygirl1977
    I say focus on one project at a time. I too get easily distracted and created multiple blogs. None of which are making any real money or have decent traffic. That's after about 2 years. I've realized my main problem is focus. I'm all over the place. Now in the last few weeks I've decided to just put my energy on 1 project at a time until I see the results/money that I need.
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  • Profile picture of the author Grant37
    If you are going the SEO route with your individual projects I would highly suggest juggling. Google Panda, Penguin, etc updates are now watching your every SEO move. If you move to quick then you will just get penalized. Slow and steady wins the race. So if you need to move slow and steady to stay in the good graces of Google then you may as well have several projects. I have about 5.
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  • Profile picture of the author Matthew Trujillo
    The problem with a lot of newcomers, or marketers or anybody in general is this...

    They get a list of things they need to do , and rather than focusing on completing one task at a time,

    They instead work 20% of 1 project , than they start the next, than repeat the pattern.

    Than they realize they have no gotten anywhere and they wonder why.

    My advice would be to focus on one thing at a time, then go on to the next thing.

    I know I have been a victim of this at one point, stop thinking and "Just Do IT"

    Hope this helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author larry50
    When do you switch because what you are trying doesn't work?

    The real heart and soul of web marketing is business, and in business you have to wait for a reasonable amount of time to measure your results and then evaluate if what I am doing is working. The truly successful go in only one direction at a time, complete their goals, and only then look to expand into another direction.

    So when do you know that the system you are using isn't working? That is a little subjective, but when you have done the following: read or listened to everything you have on the system you are using, you have checked for all of the results daily and see no change, researched further the method you are trying, sought out another person or course in the same method, tried everything you could find to try, then waited what should be longer than a reasonable time to see the results. Then it is time to take the knowledge you have learned and move on.
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    • Profile picture of the author Prasawet
      From my experience, this is what I have:

      I started with adult website, work 1y with $0/mo revenue, second year about $500/mo, third year about $1500/mo and now $5k/mo.
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  • Profile picture of the author Greenville
    You are asking a question but I have the feeling that you already know the answer. You just want a confirmation and, yes, you should focus on only one thing and get it profitable.

    Among all that you do, is there something which is more profitable? If there is, stick with it until you master it. Otherwise, you will always being half finishing project then moving to something else.

    What is the need of a doing list if projects get never done?

    You give the impression of someone with great potential and determination. You seem ready to work. Put all your efforts on a project and you will be successful faster.

    Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author achukuttan
    Focusing on one project is the best way to get the best results out of it. But when it comes to SEO/IM, usually IMers do more than one projects/campaigns but I am sure that all of them will get the exact concentration they needed , so the results too.
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    • Profile picture of the author Luminaryvisions
      I've been marketing online for a almost a year. Although many don't experience success for a long while it is sometime due to the fact that they aren't focusing on one particular thing...Whether it is one company, one strategy, you need to stick to it. I seen it already in this forum, "Jack of all trades, master of none" There are some many ways to drive an income. Focus on one and perfect it.

      There was a very successful marketer that said to me, the first time he had a four figure day is when he focused on one thing, before then he made nothing.

      Let that be a lesson to you my friend..
      Take care.
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  • Profile picture of the author Greg guitar
    You already have enough advice on whether to focus on one or more projects, but I just wanted to share my impression that your writing is above average, even among native English speakers. You need not be perfect; there are seven figure marketers here on the forum who publish sales pages with more mistakes per word count than you've made here.

    This made me laugh: "I´m not a native english-speaker so I have to outsource most of the content creation (articles, emails, sales pages, etc) and it takes quite a lot of capital."

    It's funny because a lot of native English speakers would have trouble expressing themselves with as much clarity. (You're supposed to capitalize "English", but that didn't affect clarity, and most people don't care). Very rare is the person who knows every rule, but we muddle through anyway, and it's usually fine.

    So my point is, if you want to outsource to save time, go right ahead, but if money is tighter than time, and you're just not confident in your writing, save your money and get over it; you're a fine writer.
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