Article by Internet Guru Willie Crawford

Kathleen's Recommended Reading - Another excellent article by Internet Marketing Guru and Expert - Willie Crawford

Will 2007 Really Be Different For Your Online Business?
Copyright 2006 by Willie Crawford

"Will 2007 really be different for your online business?"
That's a question that I asked myself, and that I had many
of my clients honestly evaluate at the end of 2006.

The answer has to be that unless you do something differently
in 2007 than you did in 2006, then 2007 is very likely to be
a repeat of 2006.

That reality should horrify many people!

For many "Internet marketers," which is the category that
most of my clients put themselves in, having 2007 be
drastically different means focusing on making five major
changes. Here they are:

1) Better Time Management

We all have only 24 hours in a day, yet some of us get 100
times more done in those 24 hours than others. There are a
number of secrets to getting more done in less time. One of
those secrets is to actually calculate the value of your
time. Simply take your income goal and divide it by the number
of hours that you are willing to invest to reach that goal.
That will give you a crude dollar figure to use for the
"value of your time." It will also make it easier for you
to end "time-wasters" such as calls from tele-marketers.

Once you have a dollar value for your time, then you only
need to DO those things that you can't afford to get
someone else to do cheaper (provided it's something that
merits doing). For example, if you value your time at $100 per
hour, then you should not spend 2 hours designing a web graphic
that you can hire someone else to do for $25. Although that
makes perfect sense, many people worth $1000 per hour spend
a lot of time doing $5 per hour work.

Don't you fall into that trap.

To learn to properly value your time, I recommend getting,
reading, and implementing things taught in Dan Kennedy's
time management book. It's called "No BS Time Management
For Entrepreneurs - The Ultimate No Holds Barred Kick Butt
Take NO Prisoners Guide To Time Productivity & Sanity.
It's a great book that you can order through online bookstores.

2) Focusing On Things That Provide The Best Return On Investment

This is closely related to number one, but it means that
you need to decide which of the hundreds of possible business
models and methodologies you should be using as your business
model.

Everyday, you'll be exposed to dozens of proven ways to grow
your business, your website and your income. You can only
realistically learn and implement a few of them!

Choose one or two methods,or tactics, to grow your business,
and then IGNORE the rest. My friend Russell Brunson does
this brilliantly. For example, when he looks at website
traffic generation, he works on just the things that does
best. He actually has staff members who each specialize
in different methods of traffic generation. This is
something Russell recently shared with my subscribers on a
teleseminar.

Russell is a master at doing the things that provide him with
the best return-on-investment. He is also a master at
outsourcing the rest. You should check out this brilliant young
marketers system! You'll find it at:
http://DotComSecrets.com/willie/

3) Stop Jumping From Project To Project

Inability to focus on one project, and see it through
to completion, "kills" more Internet marketers than anything
that I've observed. We all have dozens of brilliant idea,
and we don't know which one to focus on. We're afraid that
if we focus on one, we'll miss out on another.

By failing to select ONE of our ideas/projects and focusing
on implementing it, we end up not seeing anything through
to profitability. That tells you that the very simple
solution is to "just choose one." It's a little more
complicated than that, in that you should choose the one
that means the most to you, and that fits in most with
your long-term objectives. However, you DO at some point
have to simply choose.

Don't worry about making the wrong choice. We live in a
universe with millions of choices, and any of them can
take you down a different path. Being too paralyzed by fear
to choose, is making the decision to make no changes.

If it helps, allow me to share with you several of my choices
that I made while transitioning to 2007.

One choice was to spend less time in the minutia, and to spend
more time on high value transactions. To do that I turned to a
friend who has earned 8-figures online in the past two years. I
figured that he could teach me a thing or two, so I'm learning
from him. I'm so committed to the projects, that he's leading
me to, that I registered a domain just for that purpose...
http://8FiguresIn2007.com

The domain name above shows you why I focused on that choice.
I saw the level of potential and committed to making it a
reality.

A second choice that I made was to revamp my coaching and
mentoring program. I coach and mentor aspiring online marketers
primarily because I enjoy seeing struggling individuals with
dreams make those dreams a reality.

Where I revamped my coaching program was to change my pricing
structure, and the application process, so that only those
willing to put in the necessary effort are inducted into my
coaching program. That way, my new clients and I don't waste a
lot of time dealing with people whom we shouldn't be dealing
with. This frees up more time for me to work with very focused
people who have "a burning desire," a willingness to put in the
effort, and simply the right personality that enables us to work
together.

With coaching and mentoring in particular, it is a one-on-one
venture, and you should only work with those that are appropriate
for you to work with. Doing otherwise merely cheats you, and
those that you should be working with instead.


4) Get A Manager/Mentor or Accountability Partner

Back in 2002, one of my "heroes" told me that I needed "a
manager." That shocked me at first, but then he explained that,
left to our own devices, most of us will spend most of our time
doing things that aren't the highest and best use of our time.

He went on to explain that this is why top athletes, politician,
celebrities, and savvy executives have "managers."

Reflecting upon my career in the military, I once served as an
"executive office" to a commander. My job was to plan and
control his schedule. He would come to work and I'd tell him who
he was meeting with that day or that week... and why. I even
told him when he had lunch appointments with family :-)

Not all of us are so in-demand that we need someone to help
decide what we should be spending our time on. Some of us just
need an "accountability partner"... someone that we can tell our
plans to and then ask them to hold us accountable for
accomplishing them. This would be a person that we give
permission to push us a little. We give them permission to tell
us when we're doing ourselves a disservice.

An accountability partner can be someone you meet at a seminar,
or even on an online discussion forum. It can also be a formal
coach or mentor. I serve as an accountability partner for
several dozen people. They ALL have to go through an application
process (set up on my website) first. You can see the process
at: http://WillieCrawford.com/mentoring.html

A coach, mentor, or accountability partner can help you to get
more done is many areas of your life. For example, many people
make resolutions this time of the year to exercise more. The
secret is to have a workout partner (an accountability partner)
that you jointly make that commitment with. Then, on those
mornings when you'd really rather sleep late, it's knowing that
you have someone at the track or gym waiting for you that will
get you motivated.

5) Form Strategic Partnerships and Joint Ventures

We all learned long ago that "no man is an Island unto himself."
If you're trying to do everything yourself, you're not going to
get very much done. In the online world "lone wolves" never
succeed massively ... that I've seen.

You need to partner and form joint ventures with others who
compliment your skills and interests. For example, if you are
great a starting projects, but never finish them, then you need
to partner with "a finisher" (generally someone who pays close
attention to the details.

Over the past 2 months I've interviewed DOZENS of the top
online marketers. I often asked them how they got to where they
are. Our conversations also often drifted to other online
marketers and those marketers' secrets to success.

Without exception, all of the top marketers that we discussed,
and that I've studied, did NOT get their all by themselves.
They had mentors, they formed alliances, and they sometimes
had people who gave them a big break.

Going back to my career as a military office, the single biggest
identifiable factor that I saw that enabled an office to rise
from "Second Lieutenant" to "General" was having a "sponsor."
This was someone at the top who took an interest in them
and guided them.

When I look at Internet marketing, I DO see a similar system.
When someone already near the top reaches out and guides you,
and introduces you to their influential friends, it does
increase your chances of moving up the ladder. This is only
common sense.

I'll close this article by sharing with you that the online
community set up to facilitate many of the things outlined
above is called "The Internet Marketing Inner Circle."

Yes, there is such a creature. You'll find it at:
http://TheInternetMarketingInnerCircle.com

Now back to the original question...

"Will 2007 Really Be Different For Your Online Business?"

It can't be different unless you do things differently.

Just food for though as we transition into a new year.

---------------------

Willie Crawford has taught thousands how to build successful
online businesses since late-1996. His membership site
contains dozens of interviews featuring leading online
marketers sharing their views on "How To Break Into The
Internet Marketing Inner Circle." Access those powerful
interview at: http://TheInternetMarketingInnerCircle.com