All My Glasses Are Half Full… And I’m Drowning

Strange title, but I can explain.

See, I’m an eternally optimistic sort.  I almost always see the glass as half-full.  The only time I’m not optimistic is when I’m looking at myself in a full-length mirror in a department store dressing room, but let’s not go there now. 

I’m also a dreamer and an ideas person.  I can come up with several business ideas every single day – good, mediocre and second-thoughts (second-thoughts are when you think about the idea the next day and say “On second thought… that sucks”).  But many of my ideas are good, and I can grow them in my mind from baby seed to full grown mature tree complete with treehouse.

So those are some of my character strengths and I’m pretty proud of them.
But how is that working out for me with Internet Marketing?  Being optimistic?

So-so.

Everywhere I go in this Internet Marketing world, I see fantastic business opportunities.  It’s like this Walmart of business models. 

“Ooooh, that’s not going to cost me much and I think I’d wear it well, I’ll take that!” 

“That’s my favorite color, even though it doesn’t really fit me, I KNOW I can make it work!”

And I find myself in this IM Walmart constantly, even though I don’t need anything else.  I have what I need – a good idea, a perfect color, the right size.  All I need to do is work it, 200%.

This brings me to the bigger problem… TIME.

Oh sure, I have the same 24 hours everyone else has and I work my rearend off but I’m not putting all my efforts into one big project; I’m adding content for a site, videos for another, emailing my list for a 3rd, SEOing another, creating a new one, and all are unrelated. 

It’s crazy!

I’m afraid I don’t have enough fingers to count all the Internet Marketing projects I’ve got going.  It’s not like I’m trying to have multiple income streams, it’s because I’m curious and want to give new things a try. 

Also in my defense – dabbling has allowed me to figure out what I DON’T want to do and has given me a well-rounded education in Internet Marketing (which also  helps me to write really authentic Internet Marketing PLR).

But this has also made me a jack of all trades, master of none. 

But I now have clarity, blinding clarity.

 I can have a big project with my strategies mapped out beforehand (not just winging it) and really work it til it’s working for me, OR I can continue on with lots of suboptimal projects that don’t “complete me”.

Which leads me to the glass half full thing…

 
All my darlings have such great potential!

“It’s a GREAT topic and a really beautiful blog theme! If only I had time to add more content, I KNOW I’d make more sales.”

“I like article marketing, I bet I could really drive traffic to my other site if I had time to set up an article marketing campaign and submit a lot of articles to Ezine Articles…”

“Someday this site is going to be big!  Well no, it hasn’t made me gobs of money yet, but it’s got lots of potential!”

Until now, I haven’t been able to let go of these subprime projects.  It’s like having a closet stuffed full of clothes two sizes too small and not being able to get rid of them because they’re really cute and might fit me again once I finally lose those 10 pounds I’ve been meaning to lose.

But I’ve seen the light.  The hardest part has been to decide which projects to keep.  I can’t base it totally on how much money each one is currently making me.  I also have to consider my strengths, my passions and desires, and where the project can go.  And by where it can go I mean the backend.  It seems funny to think about where something is headed by what’s at the back, but you know what I mean.
 

So anyone care to join me in cleaning up their Internet Marketing business by starting a big bonfire with all the little pieces of projects they have lying around that don’t fit the bigger picture? 

 

I’m throwing in several blogs at various stages, quite a few services I offer, some partner projects that were started and shelved til later, a bunch of domain names I have plans for, some ebooks I’ve written but not marketed, and anything else I can find that muddies my vision and steals my time without giving back.

Whew, I feel better already.  I will now have only 2 sites I’m working on.  Both are sites I had already spent more of my time on because I enjoy them, I’m knowledgeable and talented regarding the subject, and the backend is wiiiide open!  That means when I want to be creative with a new optimistic idea, it needs to be related and work as an upsell.  :)

Are You An Expert?

Thom left a comment on the last post about being an expert and just in case you didn’t see it or my answer, I’m posting it here:

“I think one thing that people don’t realise is that everyone is an expert at something. For you, it’s PLR.

Most importantly, it doesn’t haven’t to be something relating to online marketing. There’s no reason why, if you’re great in the kitchen, that can’t be your expertise angle (feeding a family with healthy food whilst working full time, for example). It’s really a case of finding something that you do, something that you’re passionate about, or something that you’re just good at.

I’d go further, and say everyone reading this is a real expert in at least five things and could put out information products on them pretty quickly. Anyone disagree?”

My response:

“And I agree with you that everyone is an expert in at least 5 things.  Upon reflection some of mine are: 

 Writing articles/PLR
 Helping kids learn with everyday activities
 Making up dishes with only ingredients I have on hand (because I hate grocery shopping)
 Doing research
 Quilting

Of course there are varying degrees of expertness! ”

I say you’re an expert to someone else if you know more than they do about a subject.  You might not think you know very much about something until you start talking to or teaching someone who knows absolutely nothing about the subject.  I think some people get hung up on the term “expert” because they feel they have to know absolutely everything. 

How about you?  I’d like to see your list of 5 things you’re an expert at!
And if you’d like, we could explore what you could do with any of them online.

Internet Marketing Expert at Something?

I am sooo thankful I can work at home and set my own hours.  I’ve been busy – both online and off, and it’s nice to be able to work around my kids’ schedules.  Okay, they are older and it’s not like I play Legos with them or take them to the zoo, but I do like to go to their sporting events and try to stay in their lives without being a really annoying or pushy parent.  I’m still working on the not being annoying part.

    

We’re having a big family reunion/graduation party in a few weeks.  Nothing like an “event” to make you notice all the projects that need doing around the house.   So I haven’t been spending as much time with my Internet marketing as usual, and you know what?  The world is not crashing down around me.

My niche sites are still making money and my products are still selling, even when I’m outside tearing out the old deck and using muscles I didn’t know I had.  I’ve worked hard to lay a foundation for my business and it’s paying off. 

I hope you’re doing that too!  Become an expert at something, become known for that something and brand yourself!  Have your own products regarding the something and put the time in promoting those products.  Resign yourself to the fact that the Easy Button doesn’t work and you’ll have to use the Work Hard But Smart and Success Will Be Your Huge Reward Eventually Button.

So my expertise is PLR – writing and selling PLR, and telling people how to use PLR.  What’s yours?  Feel free to leave a comment here.

And if you need help coming up with your own products, remember that PLR can be a good jumping off point.  If you’re wanting to be a WordPress blogging expert, consider my latest PLR package: Power Blogs and Beyond With WordPress.  I’ll showcase it in another post, but I just wanted to get you thinking about creating products to help with your IM success.  

Awaiting your comments… 

Online Marketing Partner – How’d That Work Out?

Since I’ve been working with Alan Petersen on our big project – Maximize PLR – I’ve learned a lot about partnering.  Yes, I’ve partnered with others before, like with Pat Graham on MyNichePLR, but this particular   product is a bigger and involves many different skills and strengths. 

I’m going to just put this right out there… You can achieve much more success, fame, money, whatever, if you have a partner(s).

When you look at how far you’ve come, has it been as far as you would have liked?

You can be held back by your lack of knowledge.  It takes time to learn every single aspect of Internet marketing.  The time you take to learn everything could be better spent by letting a partner handle the parts of the project you don’t know how to do. [Pick a partner who has strengths where you have weaknesses.]

If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll admit you’re not good at everything, even if you do know how to do it all.  My weaknesses are some of the more techy stuff and video.  My strengths are in the written word and I have an eye for the small details.  Alan’s strengths totally compliment my weaknesses.  Together we are bigger than the sum of our parts. 

We’ve learned from each other when we’ve wanted to, but I admit there is quite a lot of relief on my part when I can ask Alan to take care of some technical issue I’ve been trying to sweat through! 

The result is a huge product I am very happy to put my name to.  Here’s the big question – Could I have done it by myself?  Hmmm, doubtful.  This is what would have happened:

• I probably wouldn’t have added video, or if I did, there wouldn’t have been very much video and the quality would be have  been… iffy.  Not good because video is absolutely necessary in this product.  It’s a How To product, and you can’t totally do that with a bunch of screencasts and pdfs.  Alan shot over 11 hours of video!




• I wouldn’t have had the expertise in some of the areas to be able to teach them.  For example, I’ve not turned PLR into a real live book and sold it on Amazon.  Alan has.  So Maximize PLR would have been a much smaller and different product, certainly not a membership site.  Our combined knowledge is huge!




• It would have taken FOREVER to complete.  Although I’m blessed/cursed with a Type A personality, I am only one person who needs her 8 hours of sleep a night or she gets really cranky.




• I would have been limited by the number of relationships I have with other internet marketers.  Instead, we’ve got my contacts and Alan’s contacts.  This helps with recruiting affiliates.




• It wouldn’t have been as much fun.

 Finding the right partner(s) is a winning solution.  You can have the expertise of others, get everything done faster, in effect – know who they know, and increase your chances for success.

Okay, now you add your comments about partnering so this isn’t a one-way conversation.  Good experience?  Bad experience?  Yet to experience?

Nicole Dean and Rapid Product Formula

There’s a new product on the market, Rapid Product Formula, by a marketer I trust and respect – Nicole Dean. She’s teaming up with Ronnie Nijmeh from PLR.me to help people throw aside their frustrations and create their own product quickly.

I have not seen the product yet, but I just watched the first video and it’s got some good info (as opposed to those prelaunch videos that say they have good info but are a not-very-well-disguised sales pitch. You know the ones).

There’s also a free download worksheet. Not a lot on it at first glance, but they give you 3 steps to do that will get you past a HUGE stumbling block that many marketers never get past.

If you want to watch the video and get the worksheet, you can start here: Rapid Product Formula

And they’re going to do a call April 14th, so be sure to listen in!

I like what I’ve seen, and I know Nicole Dean (and Ronnie) are going to provide the answers in their easy-to-grasp way.

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