1. Why Are You in this Business?
There’s a reason that I put this question first, even though on the surface, the answer may seem pretty obvious.
Most people believe that they get into marketing online to make money.
And while the seductive allure of “quick internet money” may have been the initial trigger to explore the realm of online marketing, it takes much more than that to keep the momentum going to be successful.
For every success an online marketer will enjoy, there are generally at least a few failures he or she endured and learned from to get there. It takes perseverance, determination, and the knowledge that success is attainable through trial and error and testing to get through those first few projects that don’t quite pan out.
So even though the money can be really good, there simply has to be something that you enjoy about online marketing to keep you going through the rough patches.
Is it helping people? The joy of transforming an idea into a product? The no-nonsense analytics of PPC/SEO/media buy campaign metrics?
Personally, I love taking an idea that springs on me unexpectedly, conducting the research, and developing a product around it that people not only buy, but thoroughly enjoy.
That, to me, is what makes this business fun.
Whatever it is that you enjoy most about this business, when you fully identify it and fully wrap your head around why you enjoy that aspect of it, you’ll truly begin to find your true strengths that will help you excel.
2. What Constitutes a Successful Project?
Keep in mind for this one that when I say “project,” it’s a fairly loose term.
A “project” in my mind is synonymous with describing anything that you’re currently working on, but doesn’t envelop your entire online marketing career. It’s a facet of it. A cog. A phase. A temporary thing.
Examples of projects:
- A PPC campaign for an affiliate offer
- An information product
- A new website
- A joint venture
- A brokering deal
So what constitutes a successful project for you? The obvious answer is, of course, money. But that’s not entirely accurate because money comes in different stages, as we all know when considering the backend.
I’ll often willingly net 0 profits and even go into the red on the front end for the greater good of coming out on top and back into the black on the backend in terms of rebills, upsells, etc.
So if we were to talk about the front end as the project in question – or even just the promotional strategy pushing it – it can still be considered very successful even if it results in a net loss (until the subsequent promotional strategy kicks in, of course).
Now, bear in mind that every project you embark upon will have a different “success” threshold that you’ll want to establish beforehand. But it’s important to identify that threshold before the project starts so that you’ll know not only if you’ve achieved it, but also whether or not you achieved it on schedule.
3. What’s Your Short-Term Plan? Mid-Term Plan? Long-Term Plan?
I think this is far more important than many people realize. It keeps you accountable not only today and this week but also next month and next year.
We’ve all read the advice that we need to write down our goals and visualize them and focus on them and keep plugging away at them.
And yeah, that’s good advice, to be sure.
But there are different kinds of goals.
For example, this month your goal may be a profit of $1,000, increase your buyer’s list by 50, and your subscriber list by 200.
And if you met that goal, then next month you could feasibly double those numbers.
So with that short-term goal in mind, you may say that your mid-term goal – in a year – is a profit of $50,000, a buyer’s list of 3,000 and a subscriber list of 15,000.
Your long-term goals of 3+ years will probably be less tangible. You’d like to pay off your house, be completely debt-free, $200,000+ per year, etc.
And these goals are always changing. Evolving. Becoming more specific and more realistic.
Becoming more REAL.
But how real are they if you don’t acknowledge them by writing them down?
“Yeah, yeah I know all this. I’ve read a million times that I should write my goals down”
Oh yeah? Then why haven’t you?
I, probably more than anyone else, used to scoff at practices like these. That is, until I realized that I had had goals for well over 3 years that I hadn’t met.
And it’s not from lack of the ability to. I had simply forgotten what I was working toward and lost my way along the way.
Now I keep three lists at all times that are constantly being updated: my short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals.
Without these lists, I can honestly say that I’d be lost. I hope you consider doing the same.
Did I miss anything? Let me know your most important questions in the comments below.
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