Planning and focus, along with time management can and will play a massive part in your success online, and I would go as far to say that it will be the difference to you succeeding or failing.
95% of people who try to make an income online fail. Why? Because they don’t have a plan and they lack focus.
Unfortunately, when people first start looking into making an income online, they become bombarded with sales pages and emails telling them how they can make thousands of dollars over night. Of course this is going to catch the eye, and the imagination of those who are just starting out. It is easy for them to get sucked in by the expertly written sales copy and they jump on the payment button, the anticipation of new riches to hard to resist (sound familiar?).
Now I’m not saying that these programs don’t deliver quality information, there are some great products available that can really help people move forward in their business (there is also a lot of rubbish around too).
But the problem comes from people not giving them enough time to work. Expectations of overnight success is a very dangerous mind set, but this is what many people expect unfortunately.
A few days later they will see another product that again promises unrivaled wealth, so they buy this and don’t finish the last product they purchased. This will continue, and in the end they will have spent a fortune on different products, yet not finished any of them, thus making very little, and most of the time no money from their short burst efforts.
So how should people avoid this very common trap that captures 95% of new entrepreneurs?
Answer: Planning and FOCUS
If you’re just starting out online, I would recommend looking through a lot of the free material that is available. You can get your hands on many free eBooks from Giveaway events or by signing up to other marketers mailing lists that will provide you with lots of information on different strategies that you could pursue online. Once you have researched the different strategies and become more familiar with them, then you should be able to make a decision of a strategy that you would like to work on.
Now is the time to start your planning. Without a plan, you will have nothing to focus on!
Let’s say you choose list building as your first online strategy you want to pursue. First you want to set yourself a goal that you want to achieve in your list building in a one month period. Make your goal realistic, but at the same time don’t be too easy on yourself. You will find that once you start achieving your goals it will spur you on to further progress.
Okay, so let’s say you are new to list building, and your one month goal is to get the first 100 subscribers on your list. You now need to work back from that goal and decide how you will achieve it. Make sure you document all of your plans, as once you have them laid out it will help you keep your focus and working to your plan.
So if list building is new to you, these are the type of things you will need to be doing to achieve your first month goal:
- Sign up to an autoresponder service such as AWeber.
- Get yourself a Hosting account if you don’t already have one.
- Get yourself a free product you can use to give away to build your list.
- Learn how to set up a squeeze page.
- Get all of your files and product uploaded to your Hosting account.
- Sign up for as many Giveaway events as you can.
From this list, work out what you think you can do in your first week. Write this down again. Then each night you should write down the tasks that you are going to work on the next day.
How to stay focused on your plan:
To stay focused, you need to first rid yourself of any external distractions such as a television. Try and find a quiet room in the house to work if possible, so you’re not disturbed by family members wanting your attention.
You then need to close of any online distractions…you know the ones…emails, Twitter, Facebook. All of these can take your focus away from the job at hand, so close them down until you have finished your daily tasks.
One technique that I find very effective is to give each task an estimated time limit. Then get yourself a countdown timer (I use my IPod) and try to get that task done in the set time.
Example: If your daily tasks were to:
1. Make a new list in AWeber – 15 minutes
2. Make a new squeeze page – 1 hour
3. Upload your files to your hosting account – 15 minutes
By giving yourself these time frames to work to, you will find it will drastically improve your productivity because it keeps you focused on the job at hand. You’ll be amazed at how much more work you get done if you plan and organize like this.
So just remember, without any goals you will have nothing to plan for. Without a plan you will have nothing to focus on. That is why planning and focus are imperative to your online success.
Nicely drawn out. Thanks.
Good informative post. I have a blog with the topics check it out at http://edreuben.com
Paul,
How many subscribers do you have?
Hi George,
About 9500 now.
Well written article. It is hard to stay focused. My problem has been getting to many e-mails on all sorts of products. At one point I was getting well over 200 e-mails a day. Have a plan and only look at information that is relevant to you plan, so you will have more time to stey focused on your plan.
Hi Paul. The problem is built in to the nature of internet marketing. There’s so much stuff to learn: html, Worpress, hosting, seo, writing content that search engines and humans can appreciate. The distractions sort of come with the territory. My only suggestion is that you keep on top of things and simplify as much as possible. Incidentally, after reading your freeby on list building I finally started to build a list, so thanks for that. GW.
Hi Paul,
Yes, planning and staying focused are critical.
I really enjoyed your List Building Diary. It helped me with some of my planning.
Have a great day!
Sally
Hi Geoff,
Yes, i agree with what you say, there is so much to learn. But i do think many people fall into the trap of trying to do to many things at once and overwhelming themselves, this is when people fail. Once you try and keep things as simple as possible by only tackling one thing at a time, that’s when the results will start to come.
Congrats on building your list, keep it going
Cheers,
Paul
Great blog post. I appreciate your marketing tips, and always look forward to reading what you have to say. I have concentrated my recent efforts on building a list, and while I have had to make adjustments along the way, I am starting to see results now.
Thanks again. You have been a big help to me.
your friend,
Thomas Wheelock
Hi Norm,
You got it, just look at the things that will help you at the time. If you spent your day reading all 200 emails you get, you will obviously never get any work done.
Cheers,
Paul
Hi Sally,
Thanks for stopping by my Blog. I know you have been working hard at my list building diary product, and i have been very impressed with your positive attitude and ability to take action. You’re certainly heading for success.
Thanks Sally,
Paul
I agree. When you are starting out in a business, it seems the world is after you with better methods and products. You go nuts, as to what is correct and has value.
I believe it you have a dream and know what you want, stay focused.
I rembember when I was in college, I had 3 jobs and trying to study What a mess! You can’t do more than one thing at a time. If you try to do 2 things or more and not stay focused, you will fail. Focus, means doing one thing at a time and being at a target or goal. Do not let other tid-bits get in your way. If you do, you are not focused.
Be like an eagel and soar without losing your focus
Bonita
Hi Thomas,
. Keep plugging away and you’ll see that it gets easier as your list gets bigger.
Glad to hear you have been building your list, a strategy i love
All the best,
Paul
Hi Paul,
This is absolutely simple but priceless advice!!. Exactly how can i get my blog to look like yours, i have the same wordpress flexibility theme. Your input would be truly appreciated!!
Hi Andrew,
I had the header made for me, and i use widgets and plugins to get the things in the side bar
Hi Paul really great blog and some very important points, I always make a list of the 5 most important things that I must do the next day and make sure that these are done. Focus is so important in makinmg progress.
Cheers
Rob
Hi Paul,
I agree, this is good advise for everyone, I find that this is one of the hardest parts of my business, trying to stay focused and setting a time for each task works well for me.
Wow congrats on your list it is growing quite fast for you.
Cheers!
David
Hey Dave,
Good to hear from you again. Focus is soooo important, it really is.
Hope all is well.
Cheers,
Paul
Hi Robert,
Yes, good to get some kind of system in place to get your tasks done in order of importance.
Cheers,
Paul
Alright Paul
Great post mate,
As you well know I have troble with planning and keeping focused and they are probably some of the most important things in your business.
So as someone said above simple but priceless information, so you must plan you must stay focused and you must set goals.
laters
Marcus
Absolutely mate, that’s why we’ve got to work on your plans very soon
Cheers,
Paul
Hey Paul great post with highly valuable content.
As someone once said…
“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail”
Or something like that.
Thanks for all of your help with my listbuilding Paul….
…I’m only about 9,450 behind you so watch your back…
…oh and congrats on the recent addition to your clan!
Best wishes,
Cliff
Nice post Paul, everything you listed and a blog, I only started mine 2 weeks ago and 7 years building sites I reget it big time for not getting on sooner.
Hi Paul
Great post. Easy to read and simple to follow.
All that is needed is now is action!
Thanks
Yvonne
Great post, and your overall point is right on target. Here’s the problem. Create autoresponder account: 15 minutes? Well, first, what’s an autoresponder? What’s the best one? How do you create an account?
An hour for a squeeze page? Find a product. Write the copy. Learn to write the copy. Need copy for the autoresponder emails.
Oh, and get a website. Is Blogger OK? How about Squidoo? Get your own hosting? Buy a domain. Well, you needed a better domain name.
Every task spawns a dozen tasks, things to learn, things to buy, going out in all directions. Keeping to a plan is like herding grasshoppers.
As I said, your overall point is on target. It’s just harder to implement than it appears.
Another informative post and one that I totally relate too. It’s really hard to break old habits. But it’s necessary to become successful. I generally do an outline for every project I get involved with.
One other thing Paul – How do you get Flexibility to display like this? I can only get it to display the post and everything else shows up only after you click to make a comment.
I actually look forward to you emails and posts.
And I thought my problem was indecision, only to find out it is lack of focus to my plan. It’s funny how I was looking for the answer this morning and your email headline was my solution.
thanks Joe
Hi Wayne,
Thanks for stopping by. For your theme, if you go to your admin area, and then under the “Appearance” section you will see a link that says “Flexibility Theme Options”. Click on that and you will see a whole range of different options you can set the theme too.
Cheers,
Paul
Hi Jan,
This is EXACTLY the reason why i said you need to plan. The pointers i put down in the post were a rough outline to give you an idea, but you have just highlighted the exact reason why it is so important to plan. Imagine going a task without knowing what you have to do. So BEFORE you start anything you need to have a good brain storming session, lay everything out on paper and then organize it into order. If you don’t do this planning then it will be like herding grasshoppers, but when you do it correctly you make things so much easier for yourself…thats the whole point of planning
Blogger and Squidoo are OK, and can certainly be a good place to start. But i would highly recommend using WordPress to build your sites. It is such and easy to use and flexible platform to build sites with. I will be making some videos soon that will show you how to install a WordPress Blog.
Cheers,
Paul
Hi Cliff,
Thanks for stopping by and for your kind words. Keep going with your list building Cliff, you’ll be amazed at how quickly it can grow once you get that momentum going.
Cheers,
Paul
Hi Joe,
. Hope you get some useful tips from the post.
Great, talk about perfect timing eh?
Cheers,
Paul
Joining giveaway events did not work for me. How do you get people to the event if you have not got a list to start with? I used my affiliate link in forum posts, made tweets, placed free ads but I had no sign ups. Consequently my gift was not only on the last page but the organizers threatened to remove it!
Have you any tips Paul?
Hi Paul
I completely agree with you about planning and focus.I was told from the beginning.Its so easy to be distracted.
In your short post you lay it all out!I suggest all newbies print it out and put it right in front of them on,the wall.Thats precisely what I intend doing the moment I finish.
I have followed your progress from 700 to 2000 list building progress.It is no surprise to me that your list is now 9000+.
I also noticed another similarity to other high list builders blogs.Theres only content,and precious little hype.I am learning very quickly on my visits here.
Thanks for ALL your advice.Now its time for action.Its starts with Your Plan.
Ray
Hi Paul
Yeah, I’m really good at writing lots of lists-the problem comes when I try to stick to the plan. Hey ho!
I’ve found that moving forward is the key, baby steps and all that.
Oh yeah, and not beating yourself up if it doesn’t go right first time.
Best wishes
Mike
Hi Sandy,
I would recommend that you set up a web page, either on your Blog or just a single HTML page and list all of the events on there. If you get your keywords right you can rank in the SE and get traffic to your links that way.
Don’t give up on Twitter either, this can be a good way to get sign ups through your link. Just keep adding more followers and keep promoting via Twitter.
Thanks,
Paul
Hey Paul,
Thanks a lot, what plugins do you use?
Nice post Paul and definitely one that hits home for me. I’m one of those people who’s been trying to make money online for around 3 years but keep straying off the given track with diversions.
One of the most difficult things for a rank newbie is to get access to the “how to do’s” without spending a lot of money by joining a membership site or signing up to news letters etc which of course means joining someones list.
As soon as you join that list, all with the positive intention of learning, you are inundated with affiliate products by the list owner who’s only interest is making money.
Being an addict to good sales copy tends to break the focus and sends many a budding entrepreneur, careening off in yet another direction on yet another wild goose chase searching for the “easy way”.
If someone could create a product besides hypnotism which was able to instill funnel vision within the mind, I’d be it’s greatest asset and apostle.
Sean K
Hi Sandy,
Giveaways are a proven resource for building your list…
..Don’t give up with it – keep plugging away and soon enough your list will start to grow.
If you haven’t done so already, get yourself a few gifts together and pay the small fee to upgrade for an event or 2 so that you will appear on the random downloads on page 1 (if the funds allow of course)…
…Why not ask a good friend to join a giveaway using your JV link?…or even go to an internet cafe and join up yourself using another email address…not the most honest bit of advice but you’re not gonna hurt anyone and once you start getting some subs to your list then you won’t need to do it anymore.
The main thing is not to give up Sandy
Best wishes
Cliff
PS
Sorry to hijack your blog Paul
Excellent info – I am on information overload right now and started timing myself, i found “cool Timer” on the internet- a free download-very easy timer.
Susan
Hi Paul,
Wow, 9400 subscribers. That’s awesome. I just started signing up for giveaways. It’s definitely been a learning process. Figuring out how to create a squeeze page and download page were a bit of a challenge for me. I figured it out though! 20 subscribers so far in my first giveaway.
Take Care – Heidi
Hello Heidi,
That’s great, you’ve made a start and now know how to set everything up and start bringing those subscribers in. Keep going and you’ll be amazed at how fast you can build your list
Take care,
Paul
Hi Susan,
Do you have the URL for the timer so i can share with my readers?
Thanks Susan,
Paul
Hello!
I would just add that, for me, it has been very beneficial to unsubscribe from many different lists. When I was getting all of the emails, I felt like I should read them to see what I would be missing! This took alot of time. I had 500 a day. Things are much better now.
Sincerely,
Ava
http://www.expertbusinessgurus.com
Yay Paul!
I sent this very question out into the Universe the other day, and here you are with THE ANSWER.
I suppose you aren’t the first to provide this answer, but you are definitely the first to put it into terms I can grasp and utilize. Like Ray says above, I will also print this out and keep it by the computer to help me stay focused. The distractions are a big part of my problem, along with information overload and wanting to learn all the great ways to do this. Plan and focus… plan and focus… by Jove, I think I’ve got it…
Thanks,
Roberta
Hey Roberta,
. Keep working to this and you will see your productivity go up no end. Let me know how you get on 
Excellent, glad to have been a help
Thanks,
Paul
Hi Paul,
How to plan and stay focused is something that I need to read many times to absorb the information and then feel compelled to implement it right away and never stop.
I believe that since it comes from you it will have a more profound impact on me.
I tend to resist planning by nature and because of my conditioning so it is not enough for me to just realize the value of planing intellectually.
Setting a time limit for each task sounds like a great idea. I will implement it right away.
Thanks for posting this. It reminded me again where I need to improve.
Vance
Paul,
This couldn’t have come at a better time for me. I have been losing my focus and need to get things back into perspective. I was using a calendar to write down daily tasks and got away from it. I now know why i feel overwhelmed and have been in a tailspin. Thanks for the post, very timely!!!!
Hi Paul,
Very true! I wish I was focusing on these things once I started trying to make money online. I lost hence a lot of time and money because of this newbies trap.
Most new internet marketers set a very high target that is almost impossible to achieve so they end up quiting the whole effort.
Well you CAN make thousands of dollars over night like Andrew Fox is doing it right now with his Affiliate Millionaire launch. However it required 10 years of learning and a lot of time to create the product!
The technique you mentioned giving each task an estimated time limit, works extremely well every time I use it. The only problem is to decide to start using it when you are on the computer. Everything else just follows!
Andreas
Hi Andreas, you’re right, i think to many people come into this business expecting to make a fortune overnight, with no training, knowledge or experience. It just doesn’t happen that way. Patience, persistence, focus and planning…get those four components right and you’re well on your way
Thanks for stopping by.
Cheers,
Paul
Hi Darren,
It is SOOO easy to lose focus, that is why it is so important to have something in place to help you keep that very important focus, your productivity will shoot through the roof once you plan well and use this strategy to keep your focus on the job at hand.
Thanks for your comment Darren,
Paul