Have you ever wondered why some internet marketers make it and others don’t? Could it be that they’re smarter than others? Could it be that they know some secret and are not willing to share this secret with others? Well, I believe that they aren’t necessarily smarter or know a secret – they just have the right mindset. That is, these clever marketers expect to win no matter how long it takes. They don’t see internet marketing as a good rich quick scheme. Instead, they see it as a work hard now and it will pay off technique. They consistently use their knowledge  and their mind to make things happen.  For instance, I have a friend named Mark that started a website called Help Me God. His mission was not to make money or to monetize his site but to help others get closer to God. He was determined to succeed so he built the site Help Me God and is working steadily to make it the best site ever. Although it isn’t monetized, it is making a positive difference in the lives of others and this is a success to Mark.

If more individuals would create sites to help others, they too would succeed. This is because the right mindset and heart, revives ones passion and truly helps them help others.  Take me for instance, I now concentrate on creating valuable sites and the money always comes. I am consistently persistent and committed to helping others and with that mindset, I suceed.

This isn’t to say that the right mindset is all you need. You also need to  put in a bit of elbow grease to make it work. However, if you know in your heart and your soul that IM WILL work out for you, you will discover the true secret of  IM success.By believing in yourself, creating sites of value, and trusting that what you are doing is working in your favor, you can’t help but succeed.

So, I challenge you right here and right now to change your mindset and change your life.

Some days I am a producer that gets all of my internet marketing tasks done with ease and other days it seems as if I struggle and get absolutely nothing done at all. On those non productive days, I have every intentions of getting my work done but somehow my intentions and my actions don’t connect.  If you find yourself in a similar situation, you may be wondering how can you become more productive on a daily basis? Well,  here are some guidelines that seem to help me accomplish more and play less. Are you ready? Let’s begin.

Be realistic about what you can accomplish.  Although we would all love to complete every one of our to-dos on a daily basis, it isn’t always humanly possible to do so.  Therefore, it is much better to set smaller goals and then accomplish them instead of setting unrealistic goals that you can’t achieve. By doing this, you’ll not only feel better about yourself but you’ll be more motivated to accomplish additional tasks the next day.

Use a prioritized to-do list. Everyone needs to use a “to do list”.  By having one at your disposal, you can easily see what items need to get done and which ones do not. I typically find that it is best to limit your to-do list to 4-5 things per day. This way, I am more likely to get them all accomplished.

Give yourself rewards. Everybody loves rewards and accolades. So, make it a point to reward yourself when you accomplish a task.  For instance, you can give yourself a small prize or treat when you complete an article, 30 forum comments, backlinking, etc. This will definitely motivate you to keep going.

Focus on one task at a time. Although it can be extremely hard, you must focus on one thing at a time. The best technique for doing this is the Pomodoro technique that forces you to work on one task at a time. With the Pomodoro technique, you set your timer for 25 minutes and once you’re done with that specific task, you can either move on to the next task or continue working on that one. Then, when you’ve finished three Pomodoros, you can take a 10 minute break. Not only will this force you to be more productive, you’ll enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that you are a real producer.

Evaluate  your daily accomplishments and be honest with yourself. Every single day, figure out how much work you did and how much playing around you did and then make it a goal to better the next day. With practice you can improve and have more productive days and less fooling yourself ones.

Good luck!

Almost every single day, I hear frustrated spouses complaining on message boards and forums that their spouses don’t support their internet marketing efforts. But, can you honestly blame them? Internet marketing is like a jealous mistress that requires a lot of attention – attention away from your spouse and it is totally normal for them to “not understand your passion to succeed or for them to see the big picture of what you’re trying to accomplish”.

After all, you spend so much time on the computer and when you’re just starting off, you don’t make much (if anything) to show for the time you’ve spent.  In turn, they  feel like you’re wasting your time and neglecting the relationship.  As a result, your marriage suffers and your you experience stress.

So, what are you to do? Should you give up your dreams or should you to persuade your spouse to be more supportive? I believe that you should never, ever, ever give up on your dreams. Instead, you should gently persuade your spouse to support you with these proven strategies.

Trust Yourself – It will take some time for you to make money and there is definitely money to be made in internet marketing however it may be hard persuading someone when you don’t have much to show for it. Therefore, you absolutely must trust yourself and believe that you can do it and don’t let anyone (including your spouse) stand in your way of your success.

Make Your Relationship A Priority – Most spouses don’t like internet marketing because it takes a lot of time away from them. So, keep reasonable hours and be respectful of your relationship. Spend time with your spouse and tell them how important they are to you and how you appreciate them supporting your work. By thanking them for even the smallest things, and letting them know how much it means to you, you strengthen the marital bond.

Show Them the Numbers – If your spouse doesn’t know the potential with internet marketing, educate them. Show them statistics or information regarding the amount of money you could be making. If you’ve done research for your own internet marketing business, show him the projected income if you continue on your path. Sometimes, letting them see what you will be making in the future is enough to make them more supportive and tolerant.

Remind Them That You’re Working – I think every person who works on the internet has had someone ask, “What do you do on the computer all day?” To people on the outside, it can look like you’re relaxing or spending your days playing flash games. Show your spouse the kinds of things you’re doing so he or she can see that you really are working. You can even ask them for their help.

Share Your Success with them – And, the most important thing is to share your success with them. Not only will this open up the walls of communication but it will also prove to them that you are indeed making progress toward your dreams – one step at a time.

Today is September 1, 2010 and I am very proud of my accomplishments this past month. Oh happy day! I was finally able to pass the $2000 a month residual income barrier and I did it by a whopping $271.00. Now, that might not sound like a whole lot but how many employees can ask their bosses for a $271 raise and get it? Welll, if I continue with this pattern, I will have a whopping $3,252 extra at the end of the year and that is freaking awesome!

That said, today is a brand new day/month and it is now time to evaluate my strategy for this month. My plan is to continue building traffic to my 5 winning sites and also to try and get all my sites ranked using multi-backlinking strategies which consists of forum posting, Yahoo Answering, article writing, and Web 2.0 submissions, etc.

By diversifying my marketing strategy, I should be able to protect my interests and really market my sites and get them the traffic they need to be successful little niche money makers. After all, building sites and leaving them to fend for themselves is never enough. You have to optimize them for their keywords and backlink them like crazy if you want to increase your organic traffic and your income.

Only then will you rise up the SERPS and make money. Well, enough chatting – it’s a new month and I’ve got work to do. Make it happen!

I’m really beginning to feel as if most of the big gurus – you know the ones who brag about making a six figure income from internet marketing are not really making their money from traditional internet marketing. Instead, they are making their money from selling the hype of “ internet easy riches”. That is, they make their money by selling product after product after product to newbies who really don’t know the difference. Take me for instance, I spent so much over the past few years purchasing materials from self-proclaimed gurus who promised to teach me the next best way to make money online. And, all I had to do was pay a small fee for their precious information. Now, mind you some of the books were good and contained great background but none of them told the full facts about how much work was involved. Instead, these gurus only told me what I wanted to hear and encouraged me to buy more books for more information.

It was like a vicious cycle that I couldn’t get away from and I fear many newbies are experiencing the same thing. Well, now I realize that there is no “magic bullet” and no easy way to master internet marketing. Internet marketing is hard work and takes persistence, patience and a strong desire to succeed. Some days you make money (a lot) and some days you don’t (or very little). This is frustrating but it is the way the IM cookie crumbles.However, to be successful you must remain faithful even when it doesn’t seem like you’re making much or anything.

Now, back to the gurus that make their big incomes is by selling “the promise of easy riches” to unsuspecting individuals who don’t know any better. Just think about it – would someone really divulge all of their secrets for a mere $19 or $29 bucks simply because they want to help? Most marketers would not however, there are a select few that would. Instead, most of these gurus simply give their “desperate readers” a tiny bit of information and then encourage them to buy more.

But, what about those marketers who give out free information, what is their motive? Well, some of them really want to help you succeed however some just do it to build rapport with their readers so that they could hit them up later to buy more stuff – yes, sad but true. In 9 times out of 10 cases, most marketers are out for themselves when it comes to internet marketing and only a select few want you to succeed at the level that they’re at.

So, where does that leave me? I’m one of the good ones of course. My goal isn’t to become a six figure guru that sells the hype of internet marketing. Instead, I want to become a respected internet marketing teacher who makes a six figure salary by teaching others the fundamentals so that they can make a respectable salary for themselves and leave the rat race once and for all. I get no satisfaction of fooling anyone and I absolutely won’t prey on unsuspecting victims. I want you to succeed and I will tell you the truth. Internet marketing is hard but you can succeed at it!

I am a proud member of an incredible community of internet marketers at the Wealthy Affiliate and it always amaze me when one of the successful Wealthy Affiliate members posts some advice to other members to motivate and inspire them to achieve greatness too. Today, I read such a post and it really changed my mindset and gave me hope for the future. This post discussed the fact that over 95% of internet marketers will fail at internet marketing. It isn’t because they don’t have the education or knowledge to succeed in this business – it is simply because they allow their self –inflicting negative thinking to permeate their minds and they give up too soon. According to this Wealthy Affiliate member, we must be grateful for all achievements (no matter how small) and must continue to take actions that will increase those successes.

I totally agree with this member. Here’s why – for the longest time, I was stuck at $2000 a month and although this is not entirely chump change, it was not what I had hoped for. Instead of being grateful for this amount and doing more to increase this amount, I simply gave up and allowed my negative and self-limiting behavior to kick in and I totally stopped working at internet marketing for a while. I started freelancing more and put my internet marketing dreams aside. Luckily, the passion to succeed in internet marketing was too great and I honestly couldn’t give up.

Now, I realize that in order to succeed, I must be grateful for the success that I previously experienced and know the facts. My past success (be it $2,000 a month or merely $.20 a month) is PROOF that internet marketing works and that I have the knowledge and skills to make internet marketing work for me. What about you? Will you join me as one of the 95% that succeed or the 5% that don’t?

Ok here’s the deal – I started this blog in 2008 and I had high hopes, dreams and aspirations for making a 6 figure salary within 2 years and showing others how to do the same. After all, I fell for the hype – you know those “make money quick” schemes promising riches within a short period of time. In fact, I bought so many courses, ebooks and other crap on new and innovative money making strategies that I still can’t believe it. Plus, I let my competitive nature take over – I watched other internet marketers pay off their debt, build successful IM enterprises and I really, really, really thought I could too. In fact, I was 100% sure that I could do it. Looking back, I was extremely hyped and very pumped to succeed. After all, I thought I had the knowledge (from all that stuff I bought) and enough marketing savvy to pull it off and I was super determined too.

To make a long story short, I did OK with my goal and was was even able to make about $2000 a month of residual income. I posted 4-5 times a week and then something happened. I got burned out, bored and frustrated with this blog and myself. I was frustrated because I couldn’t figure out how to improve my traffic, didn’t make any affiliate sales and the only comments I received were from people who wanted to advertise their own product and services within my comments. I was like, what is the point to all this? I felt as if I wasn’t making a difference, wasn’t learning anything new and simply quit.

I guess you could say that I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. I was so tired and frustrated with myself that I did something that I always advise others NOT to do, I accepted defeat. I accepted that I couldn’t get past the $2000 a month mark and believed that no one cared what I had to say or teach them. So, with my head hung low, I went back to freelancing and tried to forget about my internet marketing dreams.

Well, I did that for 9 months and I made some money but my heart wasn’t in it. I soon got even more frustrated than I was before. I was frustrated at clients who wouldn’t pay me for my services, mad at myself for giving up on internet marketing and upset because I couldn’t get over the hump. Well, a few weeks ago, I decided that I could not take it any longer – the passion to make it with internet marketing was too strong. So, I made a recommitment to myself and vowed to make it work. I vowed to become more focused, stronger and to never, ever, ever give up until I reached my goals of success.

So, here I am now. I have joined Wealthy Affiliate and am on a mission to make it as a successful internet marketer. I am committed to making at least $333+ extra every single month so that I can increase my monthly income of $2000 to $6000 within a year. I am now taking it a day at a time and am confident that I can succeed if I put my heart and mind into it. Won’t you please rejoin me in my efforts? I promise not to simply disappear this time around – no matter how frustrated I get. Promise.

I’m going to be completely and totally honest with you – I am not a technical person but I am a successful marketer and I know that if you seriously want to make money online that you must take advantage of technological advances, like computers and computer software if you want to leave the broke struggling phase and hit the money making phase. That’s right, if you want to compete with the big marketing gurus or simply want to make more money then you need working hardware with properly optimized computer components, up-to-date software and you must be willing to take action by using them on a daily basis. You’d be amazed but many broke marketers use slow running PCs that are virus infected and this causes them to not make money and doesn’t motivate them to work hard. Duh! Without, a working and up-to-date computer, you are putting yourself at a huge disadvantage.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to break your marketing budget. In fact, if you shop around, you can find really good computer deals and obtain a multipurpose computer that propels you to take action. Take me for example, when I tried working on a broken down, old, super slow and virus-infected laptop, I wasn’t motivated to work at all. I would simply stare at the screen and do nothing and I made nothing. Then, I upgraded my laptop, and that action alone changed my outlook and propelled me to work harder. After all, there is nothing like a brand spanking new laptop (or a looming credit card bill to pay for the spanking new laptop) to motivate you and make you want to work. With my new laptop, I was able to complete my internet marketing tasks and felt good doing this. I was able to take action and make money. What will you do?

Photo: Francesco Marino

If you’re like me, you’re probably bombarded with messages from internet gurus who want to share with us some get rich quick scheme. I used to be one of those “get rich quick types” junkies. Yes, I admit it. I used to buys a ton of internet marketing crap and then dream of hitting it big with the newest super IM technique. Then, I would get overwhelmed with too much information and do nothing because the newest and greatest method just didn’t work for me. Then, I would hear about something else and buy the next method and start the craziness all again.

It was ridiculous and this went on for way too long. Now, I don’t do that anymore. I set realistic daily income goals and I use the methods that I already know. My new motto is “If it isn’t broke then don’t fix it.” And, you know what? I am less stressed and I have miraculously realized that I don’t have to figure it all out at once.

I can take my time and go at my own pace. I can relish in my small successes and experience joy when I meet my daily goals and then be happy with that. After all, evidence has shown, over time that the “slow and steady” wins the race.

 So, my question to you today is, are you on the slow and steady course or the fast track? How is it working for you?

Photo: jscreationzs

I just figured out that I’ll never know enough about internet marketing to make it work for me. I have spent over 1 year learning various methods and half-heartedly put my effort in. Yes, I did a bit of this and a bit of that but I didn’t get gazelle intense. I wasn’t focused.

Instead, I kept trying to learn the next best thing in order to find the magic formula.Although I had a bit of success at IM, I really didn’t reach the goals that I set for myself and this is fine because now I am on the right track. Now I know that I have to change my ways. No more dream chasing – now it is time for massive action.

The truth of the matter is that I already know enough to succeed. I just have to act. I have to apply my knowledge and expect to succeed. I have to use my favorite IM techniques (article and press release marketing, forum posting, and social bookmarking) to create informational products that help others and make a difference in their lives. I have to focus on these methods every single day. By doing this and trusting in myself, I can’t help but succeed. Watch me soar.