What I like to do before heading to the US each time and order a bunch of books from Amazon and send it to my hotel.

Observer say we’re likely to be in the information economy for a long time to come, and a lot of times what separate you from your competitor is using one extra technique or website or service that they aren’t using. So every little bit of “intellectual juice” helps.

On this trip, among the books I’ve picked up were:

• WordPress for Dummies
• Instant Income by Janet Switzer
• Blogging Heroes: a series of interviews with bloggers
• Various titles from the Dan Kennedy “No BS” series of business books

I fall into the trap sometimes of having the books in hand, but not putting in the time to read them, and by extension putting the knowledge into action.

Being successful is hard work…and not putting in the investment into your own knowledge can be like taking a step back in a fast moving marketplace.

Here are a couple of techniques to give yourself that added edge:

• Make time: Block out 30 minutes before you turn in for the day, or when you wake up in the morning (or better yet, before you sleep and when you wake up) to go through a book which will help you up your internet marketing game. If you can block out at least an hour a day, you’d be ahead of 90% of the marketers out there.
• Mark it up/Take notes: The human tendency is to forget information over time. Go through the book with a pencil, mark out relevant points, write notes in the margin. That way when you go through it a second time, you’ve already noted the important parts.
• Take action: Some feel that “knowledge is power”. But then a wise monk once told me “Knowing without doing is like not knowing”. So the lesson is you need to put your knowledge into action, and do something.

The bottomline is that if you do nothing, nothing will happen. If you do something, something will happen.

Simple logic…but I wonder why many fail to do anything about it…

Any suggestions?

• Take on more projects than you can reasonably handle?
• Have no problem starting a new project every day, but counting completed projects, you don’t go beyond the five fingers on one hand?
• Receive an email or a phone call for a JV (joint venture) opportunity and 30 seconds into the call, your first questions are: “what’re the payouts like?”, followed 2 seconds later with an “I’m in” before the guy finishes his pitch?

If you’re answered “yes” to at least one of these questions, you might be suffering from “Internet Marketing ADD”…seek professional help immediately.

A common refrain heard on the forums is that experienced Internet Marketers have difficulty focusing on a single project and are constantly “project flipping” as often as switching stations with the TV remote.

Here’s a realization:

To be an entrepreneur, you need to be able to multitask pretty effectively. I don’t mean only being able to work on a couple of things at the same time… You will also need to take on a couple of roles at the same time – CEO, COO, CFO, CTO, CMO, etc. You need a broadbase of skills, or at least an elementary understanding of sales, finance, marketing, product development, technology, as well as keep an eye on the strategic direction of your business.

In contrast, I know a number of professionals (lawyers, bankers, engineers) who are experts at what they do, they’re the archetypical “inch wide, mile deep” specialists, but their lack of a broadbase means they have great difficulty managing a business, given its myriad requirements. But give them a single task and they can chug away at it for weeks or months on end.

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If you’re reading this, you’re probably an Internet Marketer. What can you do to deal with this problem?

Here’s my take:

• Go with the flow: You know you’re not cut out to do one thing for weeks on end, so don’t fight it. Break your day up into several pieces. Focus on product development in the morning (or whenever your peak periods might be), talk to joint venture partners or strategic partners as you feel you’re moving out of your zone. Answer email and tackle customer support issues during your downtime.
• Focus, focus, focus: This was a major problem for me initially when I was doing consulting. You can take on 20 projects, and deliver below your optimal performance on all of them. OR you could charge a premium and work with your preferred 3-5 clients. If you work in performance incentives and revenue share, you might end up doing better with a select few, rather than attempt to take on the market.
• Recalibrate, reorient and refocus: Take time out to audit your efforts. Is what you’re doing helping you move toward where you want to be? Evalute and do the equivalent of “testing and tracking” in your business. Jettison projects that are stumbling or backsliding. Declutter experts say there is limited space in your life. If you cut and clear away stuff that isn’t helping you (people, projects and places), you’ll free up more “space” for new things to come in.

I’ve been at this for about 6 months and I’ve only earned about $86.73.

From the looks of things, I am gonna have to work 24-7 to make a decent living from this. What am I missing out on?

Here is a list of ebooks and blogs, forums and other sites I’ve been reading

[list of 50+ websites follows]

HELP!!!

-Angelo”

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My answer:

First off, I think you’re reading way too many websites to do anything productive. From your list, it looks like you’re trying to master AdSense, eBay auctions, ebook product creation, teleseminars, affiliate marketing, SEO and PPC.

I am not sure what your focus is on, but if you haven’t yet, you should read this post: What’s A Good Niche To Get Into?

I’d suggest you focus on just one area for now, and most Internet Marketers will likely start out as either AdSense Publishers or Affiliate Marketers.

I personally prefer affiliate marketing not just because it generally gives a better return (ie pays better) than adsense publishing (where you’re paid when a lead LEAVES your site by clicking on an external link), but it’s more in line with my personal style – I like to build personal relationships with my readers.

So lesson 1 is “be focused”.

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Although you didn’t mention it, you might not have a goal in mind.

“Making money on the Internet” is not a concrete goal.

You’d need to set a specific target and deadlines to achieve that target.

I’ve seen my fair share of new marketers who go on the big forums and say “I want to make big money on the Internet by the end of the year”. And they spend a couple of hours reading the forums, swayed by different ideas in the various discussion threads. They’re like a blade of grass swaying in the wind.

And I’m quite shocked that some of them might have drifted into adsense arbitrage or domaining a couple of weeks later, and the worst is that they’re a couple of hundred bucks in the hole with nothing to show for it.

I’d suggest setting a goal of making your first $10 on the Internet within 7 days is a good first goal.

You might end up doing directory submissions or writing articles – among the odd jobs you’d find in the “buy/sell/trade” or “help wanted” sections of most major forums or websites.

It might be small money, but I want you to understand how easily money is made on the Internet.

Once you’ve gone through this small exercise, your view changes, and possibilities open up.

Remember, Internet Marketing is not a “mental sport” where things happen just because you had an idea. You need to take action on that idea.

Write down your goals, look at your goals regularly, and focus on achieving them.

Lesson 2: Have a plan. More importantly, act on it.

–

It can get quite lonely in Internet Marketing sometimes and it can take a lot of time, especially if you’re a writer and you’re trying to pick up programming skills. Or you’re a programmer and you’re struggling to put up your sales page.

If you don’t have the necessary skills, look for people who do and pay them.

There’s no shame in paying some freelancer $100 or $200 to do something that you don’t have the necessary skills to execute and which would take up 10 hours of your time (and probably ended up with a badly coded application or badly written sales letter).

If you’re really struggling to come up with the cash to pay someone, then get a small business loan, a cash advance or work at your regular day job till you build up your savings.

If on the other hand, you’re working on a major project, find partners with complimentary skills. Work out a win-win arrangement by coming up with a profit-share arrangement.

Like my friend James Brown (the Internet marketer, not the Godfather of Soul…) says “share the load and share the cash”

Lesson 3: If you don’t have the skills, outsource it. If it’s a major project, find partners and form a joint venture.

–

In short, Internet Marketing should be something that’s fun, fulfiling and creates the lifestyle you desire.

If it’s creating pain, look at ways of simplifying your life and getting back on track.

In “Easy method of gaining quality backlinks and building a database of users” Keiron has bypassed the traditional strategy of asking webmasters for backlinks or a link exchange, in favor of a premium giveaway.

The pens costing 20 pence (or about $0.41) each are a viral and guerilla method to gain a backlink.

He’s also engaged in using press releases to distribute his message/content and some viral marketing on forums has occured.

As the marketing is done partially offline (through the delivery of the pens), you’ll get the link love from a backlink, compared to a 2-way link.

At this point, some readers might be thinking “why didn’t I think of that?”

A key reason is many Internet Marketers are overly focused on:

1. Technology: Trying to signup for some automated bookmarking/viral software that’s just been released.
2. Following the advice of a guru who’s had a successful campaign (Note: once something has been done successfully once, it’s difficult to repeat it verbatim with the same level of success. Those familiar with Economics will know it as the law of diminishing utility).

Likewise, “value creation” is a buzzword in corporate circles, but to get more out of it requires people to do more than sit in a circle on Friday afternoons, chomping on doughnuts, sipping cappucinos, talking about improving work processes, but never doing anything about it.

I used to conduct entrepreneurship training focused on business building skills in the Singapore schools. It was particularly frustrating to sit in on meetings where it’d take 2 weeks to figure out who’d be a project manager and who’d form the team.

Then they’d be offer to conduct “research” for a couple of weeks and finally decided that there were too many obstacles, so they needed to find some other project (or niche in Internet Marketing speak).

They’d then bang into some other challenges in the midst of their “research” and give that up too.

Which kind of reminds me of what many new Internet Marketers do.

They start out with AdSense publishing, then maybe make a switch to eBay auctions. Then they decide it doesn’t work, and before you know it, they’d made a full circle of adsense publishing, affiliate marketing, product creation, online auctions, PPC arbitrage, CPA marketing, and somehow come to the conclusion that “nothing works”.

Is it due to the “Honeymoon effect“?

Maybe.

And it feels like old ground is being covered, like in “Why 90% of Internet Marketers Fail” and “Facing the Internet Marketing Failure”

Lest you think it’s some isolated example, take a look at Amit Mehta’s “One Thing I Learned at the Affiliate Summit”

So the takeaway from all of this?

Buy pens and get backlinks?

Not exactly.

Think a little deeper, go beyond the “honeymoon effect” and you’ll start to see a little Internet Marketing fireworks.

Whether it’s from Google or from affiliate marketing, you can’t help experiencing that top of the world feeling.

You’re invincible.

You’re 10 feet tall.

Your bank account looks set to ballooon into the stratosphere.

But wait…

What’s going to happen next month?

Will you be able to repeat your feat?

Was that just a one shot wonder?

What if. What if.

A sense of doubt may creep in.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that planning can reduce a lot of this unnecessary stress.

Many times we put ourselves under undue stress.

Some may feel that the previous month was a fluke.

It’s just a flash in the pan.

Some might even start making alternative plans ‘just in case Internet Marketing doesn’t work out’

Freeze a second.

Is all this really necessary?

You can control the adsense and affiliate marketing market just as much as you can control the weather.

Not too good a feeling is it?

But consider instead, there is something you can control.

It’s even better than being able to control the market.

You can control yourself and you think and feel about a certain situation.

Look at this:

Is your locus of control:

• Within yourself?
• Outside of yourself?

I know a ‘locus of control’ is not a tangible object, however, where you see it located is very important.If you feel control is something outside of yourself, you’ll be setting yourself up for lots of frustration, especially when an adsense or afiliate marketing campaign doesn’t turn you like you had ancticipated.

Too many people choose to let themselves be controlled, rather than actively choosing to control destiny.

How does an internal locus of control manifest itself?

This is my take:

• You set goals.
• You develop a concrete plan of action
• You take action

What’s even more important is what happens after you take action.

Do you actively analyze your results?

Do you think through how you can get better results the next time round?

And when the chips are down.

Do you decide it’s a lost cause and drop everything?

Or do you decide that enough’s enough and you take concrete action?

The difference is whether you are content to let life do with you what it will, or will you actively shape your own reality.

Easier said than done, but if you are able to:

• Visualize the outcome you desire
• Develop the action steps you will take
• Take action
• Examine your results
• Take corrective action

You will only end up faster, stronger and more effective in whatever you do.