Productive online marketing can be a real challenge if you are new and haven’t defined a clear cut plan to follow. If you are searching for answers for an aspect of your business you may have experienced this feeling called information overload or paralysis by analysis. It affects all marketers at one time or another but is especially prevelant to someone just starting out. Here’s the scenario you just got up grabbed a coffee and start by checking your email. Six hours later you feel like Alice in Wonderland falling down the rabbit hole. Only the rabbit hole is a sales funnel and you are Alice.
“How cheerfully he seems to grin, How neatly spreads his claws, And welcomes little fishes in, With gently smiling jaws!” Lewis Carroll.
You look at the clock and realize your to do list hasn’t been touched and your at a mad tea party where the Queen of Opportunities is giving her schpeel and this amazing marketing product will make you so much more productive and help you so much to get your business off the ground and it’s only available for 10 more hours and then the price goes up! Someone just chop off her head please!
When you begin to market online you have a lot to learn, so much that you start to feel overwhelmed which of course leads to frustration and mix in a good portion of confusion. Combine all of these ingredients and you have what is known as information overload. You are like the rabbit staring at your pocket watch and running straight towards the hole.
Lets see there is article marketing, pay per click campaigns, video production, twitter, facebook, myspace, freindfeed, adsense, google guidelines, keyword research, FTC guidelines, SEO, SEMS, SERPS, split testing, auto-responders, LinkedIn, blogs, traffic, uploading, html, forums, affiliate products, creating your own product, the next big thing, conferences and the list goes on and on. Stop Being The Rabbit!
Now take a big breath and just blow it out real slowly, let your shoulders relax clear your mental desk and play with your dog or cat for 20 minutes outside, in the sunshine and get away from your computer. Guess what it’ll all still be there when you get back!
I was listening to Mack Michaels one day and these words still stick in my head. Just concentrate on one or two things that you do well and perfect those things. As Mack says things eventually all fall into place and I know thats true.
Remember the movie What About Bob? Richard Dreyfuss is a psychologist helping Bill Murray, he starts by teaching his theory of taking “baby steps.” Good advice for budding entrepreneurs.
Decide what you are good at, hone in on those skills every day until you perfect that one something so well you could explain it to your grandmother! Then move on to the next skill.
Managing Yourself is The First Key to Productive Marketing
Important Elements That Will Help Increase Your Productivity
“Procrastination is attitude’s natural assassin. There is nothing so fatiguing as an uncompleted task.”
• Work Environment – Make sure that your work environment is conducive to productivity. A quiet workplace to let all of your great ideas manifest themselves is very important. In my office I shut out the outside world this is my realm and I don’t allow interruptions because when I am in the middle of brainstorming it is difficult to get back on track.
• Emotional Friction – This is extremely important. If you have issues that have not been resolved than it is necessary to get these things handled so that your mind is allowed to remain focused. When I first started my better half and I had quite a few issues to hammer out in order to move forward it is just human nature, but by dealing with these issues and coming to an understanding we both feel very strong emotionally and I’m not subconsciously dwelling on issues that hinder my production.
• Create A Routine – It’s very important to develop a routine and stick with it. Decide what your perfect productive day looks like and map it out into time slots that fit into your lifestyle. Work in time slots of about 2 hours each for a single project try not to multi-task. Multi-tasking creates havoc and doesn’t allow your mind to stay focused.
• Get Healthy – Be good to yourself everyday. Start your day by getting a lot of oxygen into your system which stimulates your brain. Mornings are a perfect time to get outdoors for a brisk walk, it is quiet the air is cleaner and it sets a great precedence for the rest of the day. You will find you are happier too and your production will soar! Eat a healthful breakfast to fuel your brain.
• Create Self Love – If you are lucky enough to work for yourself it can be a lonely experience at times. Creating self love is necessary at times. Whatever it takes, if it’s through affirmations, great sayings, getting rid of negativity or reading from powerful positive authors it’s important.
• Don’t Start Your Day Reading Email – Set up all your tabs related to your work projects and go from there. My productivity soared when I put this into practice.
• Write a to do List the Night Before – This works for me so that I can pick up where I left off the day before, I tend to subconsciously think and resolve when I sleep and when I see the list first thing (after exercising and a healthful breakfast) I immediately remember and I don’t waste time.
• Quality Time – Don’t forget quality time away from the office. If its working in your garden, painting, reading a good book, hiking or getting outdoors and taking pictures, surfing, skiing or any type of adventure. Your going to feel supercharged and ready to slam into a production mode. Your mind and body need a reprieve.
Ok, my time block for posting to my blog is done and I’m moving on to my next project. But not until I spend 20 minutes of quality time with the Captain and my dogs. Last time I stepped out of my office he had a fishing pole out with Midgets toy tied to it! I think the months he doesn’t fish is really hard on him!
These are really worth a read, allegedly how the story goes!
- Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak Apple Computer founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and HP interested in his and Steve Wozniak’s personal computer “So we went to Atari and told them, ‘We’ve got this amazing thing, we even built it with some of your parts, what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you! “We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you.” They said ‘No’. Then they went to HP (Hewlitt Packard) and were told, “We don’t need you. You haven’t even gotten through college!”
- “640K ought to be enough for anybody.” Bill Gates of Microsoft, 1981.
- “A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say that America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make.” Response to Debbi Fields’ idea of starting the Mrs Fields Cookies business.
- “I think there’s a world market for maybe five computers.” Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
