A couple years ago I was standing in the kitchen with my husband. We were having a heated discussion about money and he finally looked at me and said “I think you’re gong to have to go get a job”. I had a one year old baby at the time, was still breastfeeding and getting a job was NO WHERE on my radar. It was not even in the realm of my possible futures.
I burst out crying.
I was doing everything I knew how to do and it just wasn’t working. I was in front of my computer more hours a day than I would be working if I had a J-O-B and still had nothing much to show for it. It was at that moment I knew I was at a crossroads. I could feel it. I could feel the decisions I made that day were going to paint the picture of my future, and I had better choose well.
I decided there was a piece I was missing ~ there had to be, I WAS working, I WAS doing something online every single day, but it just wasn’t coming together. At about that time I saw an ad on a website I read quite often offering personal one on on coaching. The person offering the coaching was very successful, and I liked his teaching style, very down to business and straight forward. Even though the coaching was VERY expensive I decided to go for it. There had to be a piece I was missing, and if I could just get that piece, then I could break through.
I took this coaching program, it happened to be about making adsense sites, and while I realized adsense sites are not really my cup of tea I did learn about KEYWORD RESEARCH. I made some money (not by any stretch what I expected, but some) and I gained confidence. No, it was more than conifidence. I gained FAITH, that this could really work.
That confidence and faith pushed me to develop my own product based on keyword research and it started to sell pretty well, then I found Andrea and we put together LearnItStepByStep.com to help people walk through all the little pieces of One Week Marketing. It is still an active website over 1 year later ~ which is pretty exciting.
After the content creation and the big launch for Learnit was over things settled down and I began to realize just how important focused daily action is. I started thinking about my success and realized it was when I had a specific goal I was working on that I had my most success. Creating the book, creating the membership site, working on this blog ~ all of those goals helped me move forward and find success.
Now I hadn’t really done that all on purpose and it got me thinking. “What would happen if I did this on purpose??”. It was a pretty exciting thing to think about, and I’ve decided to make it next year’s challenge.
It doesn’t matter what project or internet marketing strategy you’re using, it’s about being clear, concise, and focused. It starts with a big goal ~ a fairly medium to long term goal. Just about everyone has goals, but what I ‘ve realized is those big goals alone just won’t cut it.
When we decided to start the membership site, neither Andrea or I had ever done anything like it. It was a huge goal, and with a pretty short deadline. If we had looked at it closely it might have just overwhelmed us and we might have quit! (if it had been me alone, I’m pretty sure I would have lol). What we did was break up the overall goal into sections. Set up the membership software, set up this, set up that, write this piece, write that piece. We gave each piece a bit of a time frame ~ ok this week I’m going to work on “this”. Then we broke that down even further. What’s it going to take to get this piece done? Find out this, learn that, find someone who can help us do this etc, until that piece was done. Each piece built on the last, and finally ~ actually quite quickly we had it all put together.
I know for some of you building a membership site may seem completely out of reach, and that’s fine, you don’t need a membership site ~ you could choose to focus on building squidoo lenses, or wordpress niche sites, whatever it is, just decide.
Making a decision is huge in this business because there are just so many other things that can distract you. You try this method for a week ~ don’t really give it your all, see something else that claims it will make you money quick and easy, and you jump ship. You try that for a week, don’t give it your all, and then see the next shiny thing come through your email.
It’s a VICIOUS CYCLE and the only person this cycle serves is the person you keep paying money to for every new shiny thing you see. It does not benefit you at all. You are not getting involved deep enough, thoroughly enough in any given thing to give it time to actually work. Yes, this is where that faith I talked about earlier comes in. You have to on some level have faith that whatever internet marketing strategy you’ve chosen IS going to work, if you work it. You have to make that decision, and stick to it no matter what.
Here’s your mission ~ should you accept.
Decide: What is your goal? What do you want to accomplish in the next 6 months? Is it a monetary figure? Is it $100 a month? $1000? $5000 a month? Decide what you want.
Choose: Choose 1 internet marketing strategy you will work non stop, in a focused, diligent, and consistent manner for the next 6 months.
I don’t care what it is ~ but you have to pick something. Whether it’s building squidoo lenses, wordpress niche sites, 1 authority blog, a membership site, article marketing for affiliate products ~ I don’t care, but you have to choose 1.
Plan: Create a plan for yourself, break the strategy down into pieces that you’re going to have to accomplish. Smaller pieces that aren’t quite so overwhelming.
Take Focused Action: Everyday take action. Break your pieces from the plan phase into even smaller parts. Action steps, if you will, and every single day do something.
I personally like to write down what the action steps I’m working on for the day are on my calendar, which sits right in front of my keyboard so I can easily stay on track, focused on the specific steps I have to take today.
So what do you think? Are you game?
You know I’m not one to tell you to do something if I’m not willing to do it myself, so of course I’m playing! Here’s an outline of my plan:
Decide: I decide to increase my income by $5000 a month by my birthday which is April 30th. This will be a consistent and passive income stream.
Plan: I am going to build niche sites based on one niche, with many related and relevant keywords. I will build these sites consistently and in a focused manner, as many as I need over the next 6 months to reach my goal.
Take focused action:
1. keyword research.
2. Identify domain name.
3. Install wordpress on domain name
4. Add necessary plugins
5. Create content
6. build links
7. Rinse and repeat
This is the basic outline ~ and of course they can be this wide because I’ve done this before and those are good sized chunks for me, if you need things lined out even smaller, cool, go ahead and do that.
I will be blogging about the process, and about my journey with this challenge as time goes on, so if this sounds like an internet marketing strategy you might want to work on, I’ll be here to help.
Here are a few resources I recommend depending on the strategy you may choose. If you’ve chosen another strategy that I don’t mention and wonder what’s available on it, let me know and I can tell you if I know of one.
Mini niche wordpress sites: Commission Ritual ~ I just picked this up last week. It offers both ebooks and tons of videos to cement the learning. It is excellent.
Larger niche blogs: Niche blogger. I took this course last year, and it is excellent. Amy Bass does a fantastic job of helping beginners learn how to set up a niche blog and how to get traffic to the blog. She uses a lot of text and video to help you understand how to do things. Very good step by step stuff on working with wordpress.
Squidoo marketing campaigns. One Week Marketing. If you want to stick with something that’s free, but works I totally recommend One Week Marketing by PotPieGirl. This is a great method to dominate a niche with squidoo.
If you already have OWM and you’re having trouble implementing I recommend you check out LearnItStepbyStep.com. It will walk you through each step of the process. I wrote the content, so if you like my teaching style, you’ll like Learnit. Just like here, we are very on top of questions, so if you have them we will answer them.
Short Reports: Small Reports Fortunes Learn how to write 7 to 15 page short reports on any topic. Sell them for a profit. This is one of Jimmy D Brown’s courses, it is quite good, and a very doable internet marketing strategy for just about anyone.
Authority Blogging: Blog Mastermind. If you want to build a big blog on one topic ~ like this one, but on any topic, it certainly doesn’t have to be on internet marketing, I recommend Yaro’s course Blog Mastermind. It is very good, his teaching style is easy to understand. He provides many extras including monthly Q and A calls that are live, and many audio recordings of interviews he’s done and information.
These are just a few of the internet marketing strategies available, but there are many more. Here’s a fun book that will show you 10 different ways you can make 10K a month online. It’s free. If you don’t really have an idea of what you’d like to do online, check it out, it’s pretty enlightening. Remember this is just to help you in the plan phase. Once you’ve chosen a strategy you’ll have to stick with it for the next 6 months ok?
So I showed you mine… now you show me yours! What are you going to do to make next year different than this year? Tell me your plan in the comments section ~ let’s do it together!
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Jackie,
Which of the following strategies offers the highest rate of earnings in the shortest timeframe for similar work efforts in your opinion:
1. One Week Marketing(Squidoo)-article writing
2. Mini Niche Websites
3. Niche Blog Sites
trying to zero in on the best strategy to focus on with the biggest upside.
Thanks.
Tom, those are all kind of different sides of the same coin. They will all take about the same type and amount of work to make happen. It’s a matter of what you prefer really.
If you can afford hosting I’d go with one of the second two… then it depends on if you want to buy a bunch of domain names and target single products, or do a bunch of keyword research and target a bunch of keywords on one site.
it really is about what is going to work best for you, and what you’re going to be able to stick with, and actually DO the work involved.
Hi Jackie,
Regarding the method of strategy to meet my goal, i.e. $1000/month within 6 to 12 mos, would your Christmas Cash Blueprint work? I’m looking for a strategy that’s “free” (no hosting or web site fees, at least initially). I have “zero” capital to invest, but I have time, LOTS of motivation, and Internet access. I figure if I could create 50 to 100 Squidoo lenses and can make a minimum of $1 a day from each using adsense, Amazon products, and other affiliate offers, I should be able to hit that number. What do you think?
It will definitely get you started and moving in that direction. Ads on your lenses including adsense is totally controlled by squidoo ~ you will get paid according to their tier system for the ads that run on your lenses. I don’t think it will be the easiest way to 1k a month ~ but you can do it if you put the work in.
Also keep in mind that the 80/20 rule applies everywhere. You may build 100 lenses but you’ll find that 20 of them provide you with 80% of your income. I guess what I’m saying is 50 to 100 lenses may be a low estimate.
I really sympathise with how you felt, I stayed at home for quite a few years when my kids were young, but I did some ironing for other people to raise a bit of extra cash, there was no way I would have gone out to work and left kids with a childminder.
Great piece thanks. Thought you might like to know that when I clicked through to OWM from your link above it appears to be broken….
thanks Jackie, so for that account of mine where the lenses got locked and I deleted them I can still use the account and build new lenses on them? Good news for me thanks. I tried to delete anything that does not comply but apparently I missed some!
Yes, I don’t believe they shut down entire accounts ~ just the lenses that don’t comply with TOS.
Hi Jackie,
Is the the lens advice of $25 for 2 lens available or is it close.
I have done 13 lenses after reading your squidoo tutorials but after 2 weeks
still not in first page (Google).
I have done blog for my lens and backlinks. What is your advice Jackie
Hi James ~ Yes the offer for 2 lens reviews is still available.
I can already tell you one of the problems with the lens that you linked to in this comment ~ your keywords and onpage SEO.
Before you pay me any money I suggest you go to the articles page and reread all the posts about keyword research and building a lens.
Thank You Jackie, I wil do as told and put action.
By the way, do i have to get the Micro Niche Finder?
What is your suggestion?
Thank you
You do not HAVE to get anything. It certainly helps, and makes things faster, but I’ve outlined in all the posts ways to use free tools as well as MNF.
Thanks Jackie. I will use the free tools and again i will read the squidoo tutorial.
Hope to make some income to light my financial load.
Thank you
If you have lenses that you think will get your account closed I suggest you delete them.
However, I’m not sure that Squidoo will close your account ~ they may lock the lenses though.
Anyway ~ if you feel more comfortable you’re certainly welcome to open different accounts for general topics ~ it will be easier to promote/brand that account for the topic as well.
Jackie, me the late one again! I would like to concentrate on Squidoo lenses, but I’m scared as you can so easily lose your account. I have some bad baggage following me because of some really bad advice I followed at one stage. So, now my main Squidoo account may topple any time.
So, I’m wondering, in the one week marketing way, or rather more or less, is it a good idea to open an account for each “broader niche” such as cooking, sewing etc. I think you get the idea? Will that give a bit of security?
I really need to reach the $1500 mark as we have no income, I am not healthy enough to work and that is what we need to live off! Some advice here would be appreciated.
Really you are teaching me such a lot, that is why I am coming back again and again to refresh my memory.
Hi Jackie,
Thank you for sharing on how to make this year different one. I made a plan after reading your post
1. I am going do the squidoo lens next 6 months
2. I am going get the OWM and learn from it
3. I hope to make an income of 5k by 6 months
Thanks Jackie
Sorry about that ~ here’s the link: One Week Marketing
I couldn’t access the link for the one week marketing product. Do you have another link? That is something I’d like to explore.
After reading first few lines, I just went to Hanna’s photo and looked at it for some time. I then thought, what a mom. Inspiring story to a lazy, unmotivated fellow.
Hi Maya,
I would see it as fitting in any one of those strategies ~ because it’s part of the promotion and linking piece. The keywords you use in the anchor text need to be the keywords or a variation of it that you are trying to rank for. It is ok, as long as you have some content about the keyword. It’s going to be hard to rank for a keyword that doesn’t even appear in your content. For each additional keyword you want to rank for you can either add some content to one lens or you can do another lens on the new keyword and point the article at that lens instead. Up to you.
Using it alone and pointing directly to the sales page is not something I’ve really done so I guess it didn’t come up on my radar
but yes, it is a viable strategy as well.
Hi Jackie, Thanks for the great post! I’m up to the challenge as I REALLY want to quit my job. I have been learning and experiencing with article marketing for the past 6 months and no sales yet. After reading your last post, I know why. I haven’t been consistent and taking action EVERY DAY. My efforts have been sporadic.
I read your post on internet marketing strategy and didn’t see article marketing as one of the strategies. Does article marketing fall within one of the strategies and I just didn’t understand it?
Also, when creating an anchor text link in a resource box does the anchor text have to be on the same keyword than the keyword used for the article? I have several articles on various keywords linking to one lens on a specific keyword but the niche is the same. Is that ok?
I’m really glad I found your blog (the Law of Attraction at work!) the information and feedback are priceless.
Maya
Great topic and article. I think you hit the nail on the head with this subject. Finding ways to improve your future is essential to success. I also think that its important not to entirely forget about the past especially if you are able to learn for your past mistakes. However, looking towards the future and developing new strategies and practices will help you in the long run.
Hi Jackie,
What a wonderful article – so nice to read! I work with a lot of businesses (and myself) and the biggest challenge I find is that people are overwhelmed – there is so much information.
I believe deciding, taking action, measuring and analyzing and adapting is the only way to go. Most things take time to come to fruition and require attention and if we allow ourselves to be distracted by the ‘next best thing’ we won’t achieve success.
Thank you for providing some great guidelines and advice to move forward with.
Charly!
Hi, Dennis!
I found a few good Do-follow blogs that allow keyword names. Try dofollowblogs.com
-Roth
I am actually in that crossroads right now, where I am thinking whether to get a real job AGAIN or not. Which I HATE to do (the job and thinking whether to get one or not). It is such a nice feeling to realize that someone also experienced this.
I hope my savings keep me alive while I work on my new career! Thanks, Jackie.
@Dennis, Take a look at what others are doing. If they aren’t using keywords then I probably wouldn’t ~ or I would write my name from keywords. I do that a lot for this blog ~ Jackie from Beginners Internet Marketing strategy . It feels a little less spammy ~ and it may or may not feel that way for really niche sites.
If you find blogs that use the keywordluv plugin you can certainly use your keywords there (and a lot of them are do follow as well). But really ~ if you make a really good comment that adds to the conversation a lot of people won’t mind giving you the link. Just don’t leave comments like “great post” that doesn’t usually go over very well. 
Jackie,
When we find some good blogs that are “dofollow” such as yours, and allow comments just like this, would we be able to get a good backlink by using our normal name, but submitting the website as our lens URL. I’ve done it in this comment and I know some other people do as well, but I was wondering if it’s a waste of time unless we use our exact keyword as the anchor text for the name section. I’ve found some blogs I would love to comment on but I don’t want to look like a spammer! Thanks for the help!!
I’m up for the challenge and believe my focus is getting stronger with each passing day. I’ve gone cold turkey this week from watching my girl on the Wendy William’s show.
I’ve had some success online this year but certainly need to ramp things up.
I came to the conclusion that Wendy is making hers and I definitely need to stop watching the gossip tube and focus on making my income grow going forward.
Here’s to even bigger accomplishments in 2010!
What a fabulous post! After two years, I am finally learning to narrow it down and focus. I am looking forward to a super successful 2010!
@Lynn, depends on the niche. I’m part of a few affiliate networks ~ like shareasale.com and commission junction ~ I’ve been able to find something for most everything there. I had a great idea and bought the domain for a mountain bike site ~ but couldn’t find a way to sell bikes other than ebay and scrapped it for now because I’m not sure it will be worth the time/effort to put the whole site up.
Thanks, Jackie. May I ask who you use instead of ebay?