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.  :)