Focus On Success

This is one of the topics that never quite made it into
The Bootcamp. And it's important because one of the most essential parts of successful marketing is to focus all your efforts. It's kind of like the difference between sunshine-- and sunshine with a magnifying glass. Alone it is warm-- but with the magnifying glass, it will start fires!!

This may seem obvious but, time and again, I see marketers losing their focus, especially when they just start out. And this can be a death trap if you are trying to succeed.

Here are some examples of what I mean and the way to correct each:

PROBLEM: SITE (Or Blog) THAT LACKS FOCUS
This can happen in a number of ways. Either because the content seems to be a mish-mash of information (everything from online opportunities mixed with health care tips and recipes), to a lack of organization on the site, with one subject following another down a long page, to every page having a different style and layout. One of the worst I've seen was for a commercial site selling herbs. Each page had a completely different style (background, fonts, link colors and placement on the page) to the point where I wondered if I'd just left the site entirely.

SOLUTION
Pick a theme and stick with it. It can be ANY theme, but whatever theme it is, each item and link on your site/blog should relate to it directly in some way.

WHY?

For the same reason that you don't sell craft items at a garage sale-- because when you advertise one thing and your customers arrive, they expect to find that thing -- not something entirely different. Not delivering what's promised or even delivering it with a bunch of un-related information makes the site appear unprofessional. And professionalism equals credibility, which equals repeat visitors. With enough credibility, that equals sales.

TIP:
If you find you DO have a lot of different interests there are two solutions.

1. Look at your list of interests and FIND a cohesive theme under which they WILL all fit. So many times, people try too hard to be unique-- but it's no crime to have a generic "online opportunities" page/site. If that's the focus and your main interest you will have much more success by simply being consistent and focusing on that. There may be many others like it-- then just make YOURs the BEST!

2. Blogs are free-- set up one for each separate interest. Link them together ONLY if they relate to each other.


PROBLEM: EFFORTS LACK FOCUS
Even worse than a site that lacks focus is a marketer who does not realize that consistent, daily/weekly effort pays off. And there are many out there who would love to tell you different-- and they will always be there as long as people are always looking for the "easy" way. The easy way... for some reason that always reminds me of that island in Pinocchio-- remember? Where the boys thought they could just have fun and never go to school? Yeah, they did-- until they quite literally, made donkeys out of themselves!

Same thing here. Believe me-- I was just like most when I started out. I thought I could find a simple, no-time, no-effort way to earn money. But if it exists, let me tell you, I haven't found it yet. In fact, the only thing I've come to learn is, if I listen to them, I will soon be parted with a varying amount of cash-- and have no more to show for it than feeling just like one of those donkeys.

SOLUTION
The ONLY way I've ever found success is by working steadily, consistently and realistically, both within my time-limits and budget. And to do that, one must develop a game plan. Now, in the bootcamp, I explain a wide variety of marketing options, most of them free. I don't expect ANYONE to do all of them. My advise is to TRY all of them, then pick two or three methods that YOU are most comfortable with.

For instance, I'm a writer and I find the best methods FOR ME are article marketing, safelist marketing and Forum marketing, as well as providing updates like these. But for someone who doesn't care for writing, there are other ways-- solo ads, network marketing, traffic exchanges, offline marketing.

Whatever you choose, the point is, to FOCUS on those efforts. KEEP doing them, consistently, every day if possible or at least weekly, if your time is limited.

To do one type of marketing then switch to another, then another will never bear any fruit. If something you like isn't working for you, then ask yourself, why? Many people still do not understand the whole idea behind Traffic Exchange tabbed browsing. Yet this is one of the most effective ways to market on Traffic Exchanges. Some even contend that tabbed browsing is unethical-- but it IS ethical, if you understand what traffic exchanges are FOR. They are not, after all, called Advertising Exchanges or Marketing Exchanges, but TRAFFIC exchanges.