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Internet Marketing 2007 Year In Review
By Alan | December 31, 2007
Today is December 31, 2007. There are only a few hours left of 2007. I can’t believe how fast the year zoomed by! 2007 was a very exciting year for me.
I Quit my day job
I left my job in corporate America in March of 2007 to work on my Internet marketing business full time. I had some good months and I had some bad months. On a daily bases, I worked more hours on my Internet marketing business than I did on my corporate job. It’s something overlooked by many of the Internet marketing hype peddlers but you can make “easy” money working your boring old corporate job and still get a steady paycheck and benefits. 
But even though I work more, it’s not the same as working my corporate job because I love doing this. I hope to continue this trend in 2008 but I won’t lie it can get tough. There have been times where I thought I would need to take on contract work (luckily as an IT business analyst, I can always find well paying contract job in a pinch). I haven’t had to that since quitting my corporate job so it’s been a great ride so far.
Proudest moment of 2007
As an affiliate marketer I knew I had to create my own product to progress my Internet marketing career. I started writing my “Niche Podcasting” e-book but left it unfinished until I picked up Michael Green’s 20/20 Challenge toolkit. This was the most expensive Internet marketing product I ever bought in 2007 (and any other year for that matter). This toolkit provided me with daily blueprint I needed to keep me focused. It showed me what I needed to do and how to focus. Although I haven’t made 20K in 20 days, I have completed my very first product.
I’m now on pre-launch mode and hope to be rolling on ClickBank by late January while I do some pre-launch promotions. FYI – sign up for the “Niche Podcasting” pre-launch notification list here and you’ll get a huge discount off the launch price!
The completion of my very first info product is my proudest moment of 2007. Even if I don’t make any money from it and it’s a flop in 2008, it won’t be a failure. Getting that first one out of the way has been a great boost to my product creating confidence. I have three more product ideas lined up already so 2008 should be a very busy year for me.
Lowest moment of 2007
Those days where I was lacking focus are my lowest moments of 2007 as an Internet marketer. It is so clear to me now that it is what separates the successful Internet marketers from those who fail. Focus. The second proudest moment for me in 2007 was my being able to focus better. It’s still a struggle for me since I am by nature a procrastinator. But 2007 has really been a turning point for me on this front. I don’t know why am this way but I know I am not alone. Like an alcoholic admitting that you have a problem is the first step of turning things around. I’m not being melodramatic here. Think about it-if you want to succeed and make money online you need to focus and work hard at it. So lack of focus is a very serious problem.
Here is what I have done to help me focus and grow my business:
Focus. Focus on one project at a time and work it until completion before moving to the next project. Before 2007 my hard drive was a landfill of partially completed websites, articles, e-books, etc. I don’t care what you’re working on-a new mini-site for a product you’re affiliate for. Your own product. A new mini-site. A new blog. A new marketing video. Whatever it is-DO NOT MOVE ON TO THE NEXT PROJECT UNTIL YOU FINISH THE CURRENT PROJECT. This especially applies to the folks who like me lack focus. I don’t care if you don’t make a single cent from that project, finish it before moving to the next.
Stop fad jumping. Folks online are looking for the “insider secrets” to making money online. Well let me burst your bubble-there is none. You need to focus and work hard. Stop looking for the next “hot” fad and jumping from one to another all the time. That is a surefire way of failing online. You’re like a little kid at Christmas with all those toys in front of you. Oooo , bum marketing-I’ll be rich. Oh, what is this new toy-niche marketing-this is great, I’m going to build 20 niche sites and write articles and then….oh, what’s this…website flipping oh wow this is the real secret of making money online. Okay you get the picture.
Stop buying stuff. As an affiliate marketer and someone who has just created my own product-you might think I’m shooting myself in the foot by advising you to stop buying stuff. But the truth is you don’t need all that stuff. I am big on continuing education but if you’re struggling stop buying stuff and take action with the stuff you have already! It’s that simple. And hey I bought a lot of stuff last year but I am doing this full time and once I focused myself I limited myself to what I bought.
This especially applies to the high ticket items that are heavily promoted by the hype peddling machine. You don’t need those $497, $997 and upcoruses or that $197 per month membership. If you’re making money and you want to check that stuff out then go for it but if you’re struggling-stop buying stuff. I avoid all the hyped up stuff but I still bought some pretty great e-books in 2007. Since I didn’t buy the high-ticket items, I can’t tell you if it’s good or not but I can tell you is that you don’t need it. You need to take action and if you’ve been buying product after product you already have what you need-now just take action.
Taking action. Yes it’s a cliche and your eyes might have rolled when you read that. But it’s true. What good does it do you to read all these e-books if you don’ take action? Explain it to me please. How will you make money from buying product after product and yet you fail to take action on any of them. All you will do is end up frustrated with a bad case of information overload. So stop buying stuff and take action! It’s that simple.
Really work. Huh? This has always been an issue for me which I’m slowly getting better at. I hate to break this to you but spending 8 hours on the Internet marketing forums, checking emails, researching the net, is not real work. Please do not get me wrong-doing those things are important but if that is ALL you do and you’re not creating your own product, writing articles and submitting them to article directories, updating your websites with fresh content, then that won’t do crap for you. What worked for me was to create a to do list and sticking to it. Then reward yourself with spending time on thefourms, etc. Allan Gardyne wrote a great piece that helped me out greatly. You can read it here:
http://www.associateprograms.com/articles/569/1/How-to-actually-get-those-affiliate-tasks-done
Go to #1: “How to actually get those affiliate tasks done…and sharpen your focus”. Read it, print it, follow it.
These are steps that have helped me a lot in 2007. I have lapsed on them, I’m not a robot after all. And I have had those days where I looked at the time and I was like holy crap, I’ve been on the forums all day. Bad Alan! But I now acknowledge it and so it helps me continue pushing on through.
I started applying these principles in earnest in late summer of 2007 around August-Sepetember and the difference for me has been night and day. I feel like I’m more focuses and on a mission to create a lot more of my own products in 2008 (which is going to be one of my major goals for 2008).
I learned a lot in 2007 and I am very excited about 2008.
I hope you have a pheneomenal 2008! We’ll be in touch.
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Topics: Internet Marketing | 1 Comment »
January 4th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Great reviews and isn’t it the pits that we believe the hype that this product or ebook or what have you will instantly solve all our problems or at the minimum the one we where “googling” about