Do I Need to Suffer Information Overload to Start an Internet Home Business.?. Yikes…
Posted by Tim on September 5, 2006
When I first started years ago, I remember bulletin boards where everyone spoke but no one did any serious marketing to sell their wares. Offline marketing was used more than online marketing methods. Online sales efforts looked more like craigslist today.
I didn’t start to really investigate an internet business until about three years ago. Imagine.. All those years and never once did I think of marketing online. I could almost kick myself now.
Over the past three years, I started to learn more and more about the business of being in business online. Part of the problem is sorting the good information from the bad information. What a challenge! You may be there now. Maybe, you’ve been through the process already.
Irregardless, we all tend to accumulate a great deal of information. How do you know what do when? After a while, you actually feel like purchasing anything that remotely sounds like the next greatest idea- the next “Pet Rock” on the internet.
Since you love this internet thing so much, you decide you to purchase and purchase and purchase….Then, you decide. I need my own home business!
What happens is that each new product you purchase, you put aside to soak up the next product you purchase. Eventually, this turns into a vicious cycle of purchasing and never stopping to learn. You begin to suffer from “Information Overload” .
What’s the cure? You can’t take PeptoBismol for it. You can’t exercise and diet it away.
What’s the cure? Taking Action and Focusing on the task at hand.
I went to an internet marketing conference recently and had the pleasure of hearing an up and coming internet marketer, Sterling Valentine. Sterling really made things happen in 2006. He came out with a product called “JVFormula” and made over $100,000 in less than 90 days. He was mentored by an veteran internet businessman and marketer, Ken McArthur. I, like Sterling, am learning from Ken. See jvalert.com and affiliateshowcase.com for some of Ken’s contributions to the net
At Ken’s conference, Sterling spoke after making all this money and what he said still sticks in my head and is relevant for our discussion. He said that whatever you do, you need to get outside of the box first. This means think outside the box, and do things out of the ordinary. Then, when you’ve decided on what you want to do, what do you do? Answer: Get right back in the box and FOCUS……
How many of us think like this? From this day forward, stop and promise me you’ll adopt this motto as well. Learn it, and make it happen..
Forget about all that extra stuff and concentrate on one thing at a time
Is your mind numb? Let’s cure this…
What else can you do? Don’t scream.. Just listen…
First, admit your an addict. Really.. An addict to information..
Next, do the following:
1. Clean out all that email clutter. If you haven’t read it after six months, and haven’t filed it before this, delete it… I had 6 email accounts with big volumes in each. What do think I spent most of my time doing? And I had a full-time job to boot..
2. Think about newsletters and ezines you currently subscribe to. Does their content coincide with your business and personal goals? If they don’t, unsubscribe. It’s the same thing as cutting up a credit card or putting the credit card in a jar and freezing it.
3. Look at those ebooks you’ve bought or downloaded. In this case, I would move all these to a separate folder. Each day, go through the folder and consider whether the ebook supports the aims of your business or teaches you something worthwhile.
If it doesn’t, don’t just delete it. Instead, at the same time, look to see if you have reprint rights to the ebook. If you do, save it, but save it in a Reprint Rights folder. You can always look to sell these later or give them away. Remember timing is everything. Focus on them when you have a relevant project. Otherwise, go on with your life and don’t look back.
4. Get organized. One simple suggestion is to use a tool like Roboform to keep track of all your logon’s, passwords, subscriptions, etc.
5. Schedule some time for yourself each day. Don’t become so inundated that you become isolated from the rest of the world. Exercise and have some quiet time each day. My wife and I make habit every weekend to go to a beach about 10 minutes from our house in Rhode Island. It is only us, the beach, the sea gulls, the sound of the ocean and any other creatures that join us for our early morning walk. What a destressor!! Try to fit activities in your life to keep balance in your life. The end results are nothing short of amazing….
No more “information overload” for me. I’ve recovered!
Tim Cleaveland runs a home business ideas website that focuses on educating people about current home business ideas and proven inexpensive businesses to start on the internet. You can read the latest news and ideas on home business on the internet at his site @ http://homebusinessideafactory.wordpress.com
