By chris angione
It's that simply really, you need to know:
-Where you are now -Where you want to go -How you are proposing to get there -What you think it will cost -What tools or skills you will need to have or acquire to make it all come together -and how much time you have to devote to the effort.
What you need to DO FIRST is simple. Grab a piece of paper and a trusty pen (or pencil, whichever you prefer) and start writing a basic outline of your goals and desires along with a rough sketch or how you might get there.
This preliminary game plan will be a bit more than just rough; it will be a big hairy knarled creature dripping with muck and mire. But, if kept on a tight leash, it will be a great starting point to enable your new financial freedom to blossom.
What happens next is the testing and learning phase. You will need to try many things to find what works for your campaigns. This is where we look at “fishing poles and holes” mentioned last time. Will you be exploring a Google PPC campaign, SEO (search engine optimization), CPM/CPA networks, Email broadcasting, purchased leads, self generated leads, or ad distribution and site submission software? And, to manage the business of your endevoure, you will also need to explore back office systems to execute your campaigns and manage your work.
All these methods and systems are valid and can lead to high profits if done right, but they all can be financially damaging if done wrong.
You will need to know where your contacts/customers/leads are coming from. And know what it cost you to acquire them. Know your metrics.
Stop and take a close look at an unfortunate experience of mine for a minute. The first $9 commission I ever received just appeared in my account with some ambiguous number attached to it. (Apparently I was supposed to know what that meant.) I didn’t know where it came from, what campaign generated it, or whom that actual person was that shelled out the money.
I had nothing. I was beating my head against the wall to figure out how I might duplicate that success. If I could have funneled that through a large CPM/CPA network it could have been multiplied a few hundred thousand times over. (what an idiot)
Now let’s say that $9 profit cost me $100 in advertising or whatever promotion I had used. That $9 looks like chump change I realize, but it could have turned into (if I was half smart enough to plan properly, if I tracked my responses) an absolute bonanza. Yet, I didn’t, I lost out. (yes, I was not that smart)
This brings us back to education, probably the most important part of the puzzle. You will be spending money to make it happen for you, don’t get me wrong. More often than not the old saying, “you get what you pay for” holds a lot of merit.
One important point to remember – one VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY, HUMONGOUSLY IMPORTANT thing to remember is not to pay good money for anything you will not LEARN from.
Free trials are fantastic, 30 day, 45 day, 60 day money back guarantees are outstanding. Also many pay systems will even back you up on products. These trials give you the ability to see if it (the product or service, whatever) works for your campaign. There is no need to be left holding something you paid good money for that doesn’t work for YOU.
I personally swear by the products and services I am currently using including back office systems, autoresponders, lead capture page production, Google AdWords training, and promotion and distribution.
Article Source: www.ArticlesBase.com
Christopher is an independent internet marketer who has admittedly made all the classic and not so classic mistakes. He now shares advice from marketing greats through his site Profit Method. Or contact personally by email: support@cjwave.com.
