Your Internet Business - Achieving Success while Avoiding Burnout

Hang around any internet forum for a while, and you're sure to
read a post from some exhausted, disillusioned 'apprentice'
internet marketer who is ready to give up.

It's not only internet forums that carry sad tales of endless
hours spent trying to 'break in'. You'll often see stories like
this in testimonials for a system that has finally worked:
relieved buyers tell of their rocky journey before finding the
solution that did it for them.

If you're one of those who are dealing with a fed-up spouse who
is urging you to find a 'real job', or credit cards that have
reached the red zone after huge sums spent on the next sure
thing, you may well be getting close to burnout.

What do you do? Keep trying - or give up? And if you do keep
trying, how can you know what will work best for you? What is the
best use of the hours you have available to you, without your
health suffering?

Here are a few tips to help you find your way through the maze.


1. Work on the Tasks That You Find Easiest - Outsource the Rest.


There are many ways to make money on the Internet, but most of
them require you to know how to work with two things: words and
websites. When you're a beginner, focus on working with your
strengths. For example, if you are a confident writer but a dud
with the technical stuff, spend your time and money wisely. Use
sites like Elance.com or Workaholics4Hire.com to find someone to
do the things you find difficult. (You could spend a whole day
trying to master something an expert could do in twenty minutes.)
Instead, let the professionals work on the geeky stuff, while you
write your own sales copy and tweak articles to make them unique.


If you're not so hot with either words or the technical aspects,
you have a choice: (a) you can pay others to do most of the work,
while you come up with the ideas; or (b) you can invest time to
teach yourself necessary skills.

The quickest road to burnout is trying to master everything at
once. ("I have to work this stuff out in the next three weeks or
get another job!") Be kind to yourself, and allow yourself
whatever training period you need.


2. Work With Your Personality, Not Against It.

By the time you're ready to embark on an Internet business, it's
likely that you have enough life experience to understand your
own work patterns. It is essential that you create whatever
conditions you need to work efficiently.

Once you have chosen the type of business that seems right for
you (for example: creating niche products, or building content
sites that will bring in money from AdSense and affiliate sales)
your first step should be to create a checklist of necessary
tasks. What is the very first thing you need to do? What is the
second? What is the third? Write them all down.

Decide on which tasks you will handle yourself, and which tasks
you will hand over to others. Arrange these tasks in two separate
lists. (If you have no money to outsource anything yet, then
you'll still have one big list.)

If you are outsourcing certain tasks, find the professional who
will be handling them and get things underway before you begin on
your own list. This will give you a mental boost, because things
are already happening! (Note that some outsourced tasks may have
to wait until you have completed a step on your own list.)

Look back at your past experiences with approaching projects or
new tasks, and decide which of the two following work patterns
sounds most like you:

- you work best with a 'to do' list that challenges you, ticking
off each task as it is completed.

- you become overwhelmed if you have too much on your list; you
work best if you have just one task in front of you at a time.

Far too many new internet marketers panic at the sight of a
seemingly interminable list of tasks. At the end of a day, if
they've checked only three boxes out of twenty-seven, they panic.
It all seems too much - and paralysis can set in. That, in turn,
leads to disillusionment and another failed business.

If you know that this will be your reaction, then put your list
away. Instead, write out the very first task on a piece of paper,
and put THAT in front of you. That's all you have to accomplish -
that one task.

Be careful that you don't look upon a whole complex project 'one
task'. For example: don't write down 'build a website' as Item 1
on your To-Do List! Break large tasks down into smaller jobs, and
focus on that. If your first task in building a website is to
download the necessary software and install it on your computer,
write that down as one thing on your to-do list.

Work your way through one task at a time, and give yourself
credit for what you have accomplished. One final tip: pretend
that you are hiring yourself, and treat yourself kindly - like a
new employee that has to learn the ropes. As a boss, you wouldn't
unfairly overload a 'newbie' starting out in the business - so
don't do it to yourself!

Ralf Dooley recommends SPIDERWEBMARKETING!!!