At a recent seminar, one of the attendees reminded me of why most seasoned Internet marketers are not more successful. This seminar attendee and I were sitting at a table in the hotel's lounge with several other guests and speakers. He began to enumerate all of the things that he had done the first NIGHT of the seminar. He'd gone back to his room, and, in the middle of the night, implemented three proven techniques that speakers had shared on the first day.
I wanted to yell "YES!" He'd discovered the golden "keys to the kingdom." He understood that nothing happens until you take massive action. He was one of those rare individuals that doesn't over-analyze but just DOES the things he understands he needs to do.
As I sat there at the table, I wanted to grab the others, shake them, and ask, "Why didn't you guys do the same thing last night?"
By the time you've been in Internet marketing for a year or so, if you've studied everything you could get your hands on, you "know" all that you need to know to be successful online. Then it's just a matter of DOING it.
Here's a list of thing you probably already know but aren't acting upon:
1) Follow-up Is The Key. We all know that most customers won't buy on the first contact. You need to capture their contact information and follow-up. Many Internet marketers have this part down, BUT they stop after only 5-7 follow-ups. You need to follow-up FOREVER. Make sure that you have at-least 15-20 follow-up messages in your autoresponder sequence. You need to be there when your prospect is ready to buy. If they are no longer interested, they will unsubscribe.
2) Procrastination Kills Most Projects. You don't have to do things perfectly the first time, you just need to get started. You can always refine and revise things later. Your perspective customers/subscribers/clients can't buy from you until you present your offerings to them. Get over the perfectionism, and get it "out there!" Get over your fear of making mistakes by MAKING a few and seeing that it won't kill you. In-fact, there's a very good chance that your mistakes won't even be noticed :-)
3) Test And Track Everything. If you are not constantly trying to improve your results, they won't improve. If you're not tracking the results of what you're "testing" then you don't know what's working. Don't just talk about testing and tracking - do it. Then, stop doing the things that don't produce results and keep doing those that do.
Amazingly, most people know that many things they're doing are not producing the desired results, yet they keep doing them!
4) Practice Your Copywriting. It's the words on your webpages, in your ezines, and in your emails, that sell. The only way to get better at writing more convincing copy is to study what others have written and practice. Over time, if you really practice, you get better. Your nervous system becomes conditioned to write better copy with much less effort.
Build a swipe file of proven, effective copy. Model and "rip-off" elements from stuff in your swipe files. Get a huge head-start in this area by grabbing Yanik Silver's complete copywriting course at: http://www.ultimateonlinecopymanual.com
It's what I use - EVERYDAY!
5) FOCUS For Greater Results. Decide on an objective, lay out the steps to reach that objective, and then force yourself to ignore most other things. Learn to shut out distractions and take projects through to completion. Stop worrying that you may miss something. You're not likely to miss anything REALLY important.
If necessary, set aside specific times to read email, answer the phones, even to walk the dog. During the times you've set aside to get a given project done, just focus on that project, and you'll get it done.
Also, force yourself to spend less time doing non-productive things such as watching television, or reading questionable opinions on discussion forums. When you do watch television, study how they use marketing. When you do visit discussion forums, look for commonly discussed problems that might suggest a new product to you.
Repeatedly ask yourself during the day, "Am I just procrastinating?" This will bring you back into focus.
Force yourself to do just the five things above (that you already KNOW that you should be doing) and your results will shock you. After you've actually made these five things HABITS then you can focus on implementing other, new, more-productive habits. Form the new habits one at a time, but start today. NO, start now!
About the author:
Willie Crawford has taught PROVEN Internet marketing techniques to thousands of successful Internet entrepreneurs since late-1996. Grab a free copy of his comprehensive, 20-Lesson Internet Marketing Success Course now at: http://WillieCrawford.com
