I often get asked by people to tell me how I make money online; and a whole load of sub questions about what tools I use, which services I subscribe to, which offers I promote and with what types of advertising. I always like to help and give snip-its of information away. Most the time people thank me and disappear off to try out whatever I’ve recommended. It’s not however a particularly useful way of giving out that information, as messages can easily be misheard, Skype sessions crash, etc… so I’ve been thinking about how I can put down my suggestions online so everyone can benefit.

Hence the IM Make Money Now Masterclass was born!

I’m not trying to re-invent the wheel here, there are numerous resources across the internet where you can find out the theory about what you need to do and a mixture of both free and paid info products that will guide you there. All I’m proposing here is to lift the lid on the process I follow, showing you the tools I use day in, day out to drive my business.

Why would I give away my specialist knowledge for free? Well I’ve been doing Internet Marketing for some years now and when I started out I didn’t have a clue where to begin. I actually begun, like a lot of people back then, with what was ultimately a copycat website system. I’m not going to mention the name as I don’t want to encourage people to run off and try it. It barely worked back then… well, it kinda worked but the effort you needed to put in vastly outweighed the benefits. There was an element of recruiting people to join below you and ultimately, those above got most of the benefit.

However it did serve me well another way. It gave me a good understanding of the basics. I learned how to create and manage a website, including skills like FTP’ing, doing WordPress installations, and basic on page SEO. It taught me the basics of forum marketing and generating links to my site, albeit back then it was much more around link swaps than anything too complicated. It got me into the mindset that ultimately everyone needs to understand; whilst there are great rewards for making money online, it takes hard work and commitment.

Ultimately over the years I learnt the hard way, picking up some good information along the way and a whole bunch of junk. Yes, I wasted my money on some real turkeys but luckily, I am a stubborn guy and I stayed focused, never letting myself give up even if it often seemed like the easy or sensible approach.

IM Make Money Now Masterclass: Part 1 – Focus or Fingers In Too Many Pies

From my first day out when I probably went to Google and searched for a keyword phrase like “Make Money Now” to today, one of the biggest challenges I believe I have faced and I’ve witnessed other people facing, is where to focus my time. Like yourself reading this article, I too spent many hours glued to the screen hopping from post to post, taking in the information as best I could, soaking up as much advice as I could do.

Then whilst I was busy putting some of it into play, I’d get an email promoting a new product or service that seemed like a good fit to help with my current project, so off I would go and get it. Whilst implementing it, I’d find that it actually was a bigger job that I originally believe (or the sales pages lead me to believe) and therefore I’d look for ways that I could automate some or all of the process. Namely by looking for another tool or service! Before you know it you are trying to do more than is possible, you are spinning too many plates and at least one of them comes crashing to the floor.

Or put another way, you have your fingers in too many pies! I’m not sure if that is a global expression, they certainly use it in the UK, but it basically means that you are trying to do too much and with one set of hands, you simply cannot do everything!

However being an Internet Marketer requires you to step up and do more than your competitors, so how do you do that effectively? Well you need to Focus on your main idea most of the time and allow yourself some time to explore and develop. This is where I’ve come to operate, as best as possible, on the 80 / 20 rule. I dedicate 80% of my available time on the my main project at anyone one time, and allow myself the other 20% of the time to work on side projects or initiatives. Does that sound restrictive? It is and it isn’t, because I have a secret rule.

The project that gets 80% of my time has a clear deliverable; for example if I was launching a new site in a new niche, I’d dedicate 80% of my time to getting the site operational and functional to a point that it could be acceptable, to visitors and search bots. That’s it, its done and that 80% can be applied elsewhere. It that scenario, I may use so the remaining 20% going forward to tweak and develop the site, but it is out there and I’m off!

I often see people that never really get past the website creation. I was talking to someone in a forum recently who had spent the “last 4 months perfecting his index page” but still felt it wasn’t ready to drive traffic to! Come on, that is madness! Throw the site up (using 80% of your time) and then throw some traffic at it. Come back and tweak it (with your 20%) whilst you are working on your next project!

IM Make Money Now Masterclass: Part 1 – Summary

I hope this introductory post helped set the scene for what I’m going to be doing here. Also, whether you are a brand new IM’er or someone who has been round the block, got the tee shirt, seen the film…. I hope my ideas for focusing most of your time (but not all of it) on a project helps you.

There will be plenty more to come as the masterclass continues next week where we will start to drive out the tools and services I use to make money now!

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