Copyright 2006 Richard Adams
How many elements are there to building a successful Internet business?
- Search engine optimization
- Pay per click advertising
- Banner advertising
- Affiliate marketing
- Email marketing
- Building an email list
- Viral marketing
... and they're just for starters. The point is that there are literally *hundreds* of elements that can make your online business a success.
The problem is that this "range" can lead to procrastination or worse - total business failure.
One of the most important disciplines you can adopt in your online business is that of "focus".
Learn to focus on just one element of your business and doggedly keep working at it until you become really, really good.
Until it becomes second nature.
Until it's just so easy for you.
Then, and only then, are you ready to move onto the next element and start trying to focus on that.
This focus doesn't just apply to marketing your business either. It applies to the everyday running of your business. Even creating new sites and products.
The best way to maintain focus on a large project is with planning.
Break down a project such as launching a new project into tiny bitesize pieces - writing an email to be sent out to your mailing list when your product launches, creating pay per click ads, building the sales page, linking up your shopping cart and credit card processing and so on.
Then set a plan of action that will lead you through to your desired result without too much thought. Set yourself targets of what you will achieve when.
In doing this you can simply glance at your plan to decide where you need to focus today then apply yourself 100% to that task.
Only when the task is completed to a satisfactory level do you move onto the next stage.
In doing this you don't need to be thinking or worrying about other tasks you need to accomplish, nor do you need to be filling your brain with a to-do list of other shores to do "sometime".
Your plan is on paper so you can forget about everything else except that one step you promised yourself you'd finish today.
Establishing this focus has been the biggest lesson I have learned over the last few years and has had a massive result on my productivity and consequently my results.
My business is now growing at a pace I could only have wished for just a few short years ago.
One of the biggest mistakes I see new Internet entrepreneurs making is just "treading water". Making an advert here. Writing part of an article there. Creating half an ebook there. Starting a sales letter but not finishing it.
This unfocused time will never bring the results you crave.
One completed job will bring infinitely more profit than 100 half-finished projects.
So adopt this policy today and watch your results go through the roof.
I know it's hard when you first start, but trust me - once you start seeing your bank balance swell you'll never look back.
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Richard Adams is the founder of Merchant Account Forum, the world's most visited site on the subject of accepting credit cards online. Take a look today -
http://www.merchantaccountforum.com/top_merchant_accounts/
