Learn To Really Focus To Succeed
By Willie Crawford

Many starting on-line businesses fail simply because
they fail to FOCUS. They fail to focus on doing the
most important things first. They fail to focus on
seeing one project through to completion before
starting the next. They jump from affiliate program to
affiliate program and never make any real money with
any of them. They fail to identify and focus on what is
most important to their ultimate success. How can
you avoid these all too common mistakes?

The easiest way to start an on-line business is
simply to begin marketing someone else's product.
It's easiest because you don't have to research the
need for and then develop your own product. The
downside to this approach is that you usually only earn
a one-time commission and have to constantly search for
new customers. For many just starting out on-line,
marketing affiliate products while learning the ropes
and developing your own product is the best approach.

However - as an affiliate you still need incredible
focus. Without focus, you will find yourself signing
up for far too many different affiliate programs and
not having any real success with any. It's best to
find 2 or 3 products that you absolutely LOVE and that
are a perfect match for your audience. Then put 100%
of your energies into marketing these products. This
allows you to focus on really getting to know the
products and producing promotional materials that really
promote (sell) these few products. Then you can test
different ads, different banners, and different
approaches to marketing the few products you really
know. Your time won't be so fragmented and it will be
easier to analyze your results.

With this kind of focus, you could build a thriving mini-site
around the theme of the product (s). This will allow you
to get better search engine placement and more targeted
search engine traffic. You will attract people looking
for a specific product or to solve a specific problem.
This approach also allows you to begin building a list
that you can market related products to. Once the
list members has come to your site demonstrating an
interest in the theme of the site, it's easier to know
what other products or services your list members may
be interested in. Use you mini-site to pre-sell
affiliate products, capture the visitors contact data,
and send him on to purchase the product that your web
copy pre-sells. It's a great formula.

Since you are building a list the interest will
gradually shift from frantically building a list, to
building a higher quality, to giving that list the
products, services and information that they need.
The long-term success of the list ultimately depends
upon how well you identify and provide your list
members' needs.

As your list grows you look for a few more related
products to offer the list, or better yet, develop your
own. As you introduce each product into your line-up you
use a formalized system. You use a step-by-step system
for locating and then following up with prospects. An
ezine and follow-up autoresponders are ideal for this.
One system is to place ezine ads to attract hits to
your website or autoresponder. You get these hits to
opt-in to your list and you develop a relationship with
these people (a mutually benefit-filled relationship).

As you gradually grown your list - and your sales begin
to grow at the same time - you will need to continue
demonstrating incredible focus. There are so many little
things that will keep you from reaching your full potential.
You need to develop several skills. These skills are:

1) Learn to do the most important things first. Many of
us have more business-related chores than we can ever
finish. The key is to do those chores which are most
important or generate the greatest return first. I do
this by physically writing out a to-do list every day.
I also note which one or two chores on this list are
THE most pressing or important. I do these before I
give myself permission to work on anything else. If they
are big chores, I break them down into smaller steps but
still require myself to accomplish several of these
smaller steps before I give myself permission to do
anything else.

2) Learn to use others to help you do things you don't
do well yourself. If a task that will take you hours
to do will only take others a few minutes to do because
they are more proficient, it often makes more sense to
hire them to do this. That frees up your time to do
the tasks that you do best. It also keeps you from messing
up things that you will only have to hire someone else to
correct lately. This is a lesson I learned the hard way :-)

Along the same lines, admit that you simply can't do
everything. If you are a one-person business, as many of
those I communicate with are, you have to decide WHAT
you will specialize in and not dabble in too many things.
Maybe you can hire assistants to manage certain chores
or even get family members to do business related things
for you. I do both. The time spent training someone to
take over a task so that you can give it to them and then
forget it is time well spent! If you operate a business
you simply must learn to hire out and delegate certain
chores or your business CAN'T grow beyond certain
point.

3) Make sure you take care of yourself. Take time
to rejuvenate your mind/spirit and to keep your body
physically fit. If building a business is giving you
ulcers and high blood pressure while your also growing
incredibly unfit, then you're setting yourself up for
failure. What use is a fortune if you're bedridden and
can't enjoy it. Strive to maintain some balance and you
will be better able to enjoy the success that will ultimately
come to you.

The bottom-line is that you need to force yourself to stay
focused. Know what you want all of your efforts to ultimately
accomplish for you. Constantly ask yourself if the activities
you are doing are moving you in that direction. Constantly
examine your efforts and stay focused while maintaining
balance. That's absolutely required for most definitions of
success.

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Willie Crawford has taught thousands the secrets of
operating a successful on-line business through his free
Internet Business Success Course. For hands-on training,
join him at the Internet Marketing Power Workshop. Leave
the workshop with you very own product, which easily sells
for $300 (100% profit). Only 30 seats available - Register
Now: http://williecrawford.com/cgi-bin/tk.cgi?testimonials

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Note:
This article first appeared in our ezine, Limitless
Marketing Ezine. I publish original material
similar to this in each weekly issue. If you are not
a subscriber please sign up today using the form at:
http://williecrawford.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi

Feel free to publish this article in your ezine,
in your ebook or on your website. A note telling me
that you published the article would be appreciated.
My email address is willie@williecrawford.com

Thank you,
Willie Crawford

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