Realistic Goal Setting

[Chris Norman]

Hi All,

Hope this finds you all well. I was pondering this subject for quite a while last night. I am new to internet marketing, still wet behind the ears. I have learned so much in the past 3 months.

My concern is that I may be going around in circles, spinning my wheels, getting ahead of myself and any other cliche you can think of! :D Seriously I do tend to get ahead of myself especially with the excitement of learning a new venture.

What would be helpful not only to myself but I am sure to others as well, would be a possible quick, say, 10 Step outline of how to start an affiliate marketing business. Definitely in chronological order would be a help. Perhaps a checklist even!

There is also the concept of a business model that I keep hearing of. Undoubtedly there are many. How to choose?

Mind you I am not asking for anyone to do my work/homework for me. Just a little simple step by step outline would be awesome.:)

Thank you all so much as usual, Chris Norman

[Baggs]

Chris,

Do you mean specifically affiliate marketing, or internet marketing more generally?

I take affiliate marketing to mean promoting physical products and earn a commission

on that basis my plan would be

1. research the product and market you want to enter including competition, keywords and commission available. Don't be affraid to give up on a niche if it does not look like it will make money as there is nothing worse than spending days going through the next steps and promoting a venture only to find that you get no commissions or when you do they amount to not very much.

2. However you are going to promote the product, I would start a website, so get a good keyword rich domain

3. Write articles based on the keywords you got in 1 and publish to your website

4. decide if you are going to add blog, shopfront style website, forum, articles, mailing list etc

5.Promote through forums, link exchange, blog comments, etc

6.go back to 3 and repeat.

Sorry, it is only 6 points, but point 1 is probably the most important.

[ScottTousignant]

I'm not a big fan of the word "Realistic" when it comes to goal setting. I find that it limits what's possible. If everyone set realistic goals we wouldn't have people on the moon and we probably wouldn't be communicating on the internet like we are right now.

I'm talking about your big goals and dreams.

I'm also not a big fan of "blue prints" when it comes to affiliate marketing. There are so many different methods of affiliate marketing and many of them will probably not suit your strengths.

Some of my friends have made a fortune through pay per click. They've always been willing to share their 'blueprint' with me, but every time that they try to teach me I get a blank glare across my face. I'll probably never learn it because I just can't take it ;)

I've also tried to teach them some of my blogging and social media strategies and they get the same kind of blank stare on their faces :)

There are several strategies that I haven't applied yet such as article marketing that I'm committing to starting this week. I'm looking forward to seeing how that impacts my business in addition to the other strategies that are already working for me.

I have a question for you...

What strategies have you already learned that seem to be a good fit for you, but you haven't applied 100% effort toward?

Lynn asks a great question of us in the Elite community... What one task can you complete today that will bring you closer to achieving your goals and moving your business forward?

[Lynn Terry]

Your first goal should be to spend a specific amount of time every single day actively working towards your end result. That's vague I know but there are a lot of variables involved such as how much time you have to devote, what you envision working towards, etc.

And actively working towards your end result doesn't include reading blogs or emails, but rather specific tasks that create a foundation for achieving that end result.

One year from now, where do you see your efforts leading? Are you most interested in setting up a successful affiliate-based site?

[David Jackson]

HWhat would be helpful not only to myself but I am sure to others as well, would be a possible quick, say, 10 Step outline of how to start an affiliate marketing business. Definitely in chronological order would be a help. Perhaps a checklist even!

Chris, I use a very simple system that's been very successful for me. I call it PACLR:

P= Promote your business daily.

A= Assess your results, and make the necessary adjustments.

C= Communicate with your list regularly through your newsletter.

L= Learn something new everyday that you can apply to your business.

R= Rinse and repeat.

David Jackson