2 things: First, I don’t typically put articles on my blog, but I wanted to share this one that I wrote recently about finding focus in your online business. It was originally published in the WC, which if you’re not a subscriber, you must get your free subscription now by clicking HERE.
Second, if you haven’t yet listened to the PLR audio with Kelly and Nicole of Easy PLR, DO! I listened and even got some great new ideas on how to use PLR myself, which kind of surprised me! Get it here: PLR Audio
Now for the article.
Internet Success Tip: Put Blinders On
I’ve been focusing on focus lately. You see, Kelly McCausey interviewed me as a case study of a work at home Mom who finally found some focus, with great results. Let me share the story of 3 work at home Moms. I hope their experiences will help you realize the importance of putting on blinders with your internet business.
Distracted Darla
Distracted Darla started learning about affiliate marketing. She built a small site and when it began to earn income, the wheels started turning in her head. She was doing direct sales when she started this website, but was feeling burned out. She wanted to truly be home and so decided to put her energies into affiliate marketing exclusively. Not long after, however, she heard about a new hot direct sales company with a product she loved and a great pay plan. She joined up and had great success for a few months, until the company went bust.
If Darla had put blinders on and focused on her affiliate marketing business, she would not have wasted those months. Her websites would have been much farther along than they were. She lost so much momentum as a result of allowing herself to become distracted!
Bandwagon Brenda
Being new to the business world, much less internet business, Brenda was unaware of the concept of a target market. When she built her first niche website, she went for what she thought was “hot”. She gave almost no thought to “who am I trying to sell to?”
Although her website experienced some initial success, she became bored with the website concept and had no motivation to continue. She had no idea who her target market was and therefore didn’t know what kind of content to add to the site or what to say in the newsletter (which was growing surprisingly fast!) Later on she repeated her mistake by buying up some crappy private label rights articles in a “hot” niche. That ended up being a big waste of time. Because they were outside her area of expertise, she couldn’t write any articles to help drive traffic and had to rely on search engines alone. Growing traffic to the site was a constant uphill battle every time Google did a dance.
Focused Franny
Fran stumbled around for a while on the internet and had some success, but then she joined Mom Masterminds. Her friends and mentors there kept suggesting that she choose a target market and focus on it for maximum success. She noticed that the wahms who were making the big money had a tight niche and grew their online presence by constantly building new sites and new products to offer to that same target market.
Unsure of what her strengths were, she decided to listen to what her Mastermind group was telling her. She realized that sometimes it’s difficult for you to recognize your own strengths unless they’re pointed out to you by someone else.
At first glance, it seemed that choosing her target market would limit her and would get boring after awhile. But that was not the case at all for Franny. In fact, the opposite was true. Once she chose her target market, she kept thinking of new ways to serve them, new ways to find them online, and new products to market to them. The possibilities were endless and she was excited about her business again!
Additionally, the more she served her target market, the more they began to recognize and find HER online. The more they asked her questions, which she could answer and create articles and products for them and the more her market referred her to other people. Her business kept growing, and at a much faster rate than before. When she launched a new site or product, she was able to tap into her existing subscribers, customers, traffic and affiliates to promote it. She was no longer starting from scratch each time she had a new idea.
Ladies, I have a confession to make. I know the stories of these 3 wahms so well because they are all real women. I don’t suffer from multiple personality disorder, but I have been Darla, Brenda AND Franny. My question to you is this: who do you want to be?
p.s. (You may use this article on your site, blog or newsletter if you include the following bio. Thanks!)
Carrie Lauth (http://www.CarrieLauth.com) is the host of Natural Moms Talk Radio and the creator of the Natural Moms Business Guide (http://www.NaturalMomBusinessGuide.com). She owns a network of sites including Natural Baby World and Natural-Moms.com. Want to guess who her target market is?
by Cloud and Townsend is excellent.