Keeping Yourself Accountable

Been a bit busy lately with teaching. I teach English part time here in Taiwan just to make ends meet so far I’m quite enjoying it. It can be quite frustrating sometimes but I’ve definitely learned quite a bit. I’d say that I learned most of what I know from teaching from actually teaching which is to say that I learned by doing so now I just need to take this lesson to heart when it comes to IM success.

So where were we? Ah, yes my $1,000 a month goal by Amazon. The other day I was looking at some guides for flipping sites so this might be something I’ll be interested in doing in the next few weeks. I do have a few sites that still make a few dollars a day so I may just consider selling these for a few hundred dollars.

As of now though, my plan is to focus building one site a week. I have an entire weekly plan that I wrote out which includes writing content, getting backlinks, etc. I’m not going to post it up here yet as I want to prove the effectiveness of it first. But the gist is to write the majority of the content the first week then have it drip fed for the following weeks while I focus on getting backlinks through article submissions, 2.0 site creations, profile backlinks, etc.

The mini niche site model is quite common and there are some that would argue that it has its place. I’m definitely a newbie so I see this more as a stepping stone. Then once I actually start making real money the plan is to reinvest that towards larger based sites that earn $1,000+ a month on its own. I purchased a guide from Lisa Parmley as a WSO which talks about her methods but it does require upfront investments in terms of paying for submissions to press release sites and directories.

So my plan is to build one niche site a week which focuses on Amazon products. I won’t share my niches here but all I’m doing is simply browsing through the categories, taking root keywords and doing additional research through Market Samurai and Scrapebox. Right now, this is Week 1 for me. I’ve actually already written all the content for it but now I just need to upload them and get the backlinks ready so I can focus on a new site next week.

From now until August 24th, I have about 17 sites. If everything goes according to plan, then I should realistically have 15-16 sites each with 5 product reviews and relevant articles to bring in additional traffic. My goal is to have each site earn a minimum of $75 a month. At 15 sites, this will be about $1,125 total. I’m sure some sites will do well and some will do badly as that’s the nature of the game.

I’m definitely prepared to stick it out for as long as possible but I’m pretty confident that I can hit this goal.

I purchased a piece of software called this software The Action Machine which was recently updated. I got this a few months back but never really put it to use but it is specifically designed to make you take action, which is exactly why I’m aiming for here so I decided to fire it up and put it to use.

Here’s a screenshot and some timers that I set up for it:

Here I set aside about 5 hours worth of work today that I expect to be dedicating to my sites. You’ll see that I have each broken down in either 30 or 60 minute increments. The objective here is that once you start a timer, you focus on the task at hand and nothing else. This means no Facebook, Twitter, phone calls, breaks, etc.

This really helps to plan out your day too as I know that I’m one to do random work here and there without much direction. Now I have a pretty clear visual along with alloted times of what needs to be done. Starting tomorrow, I’ll give daily updates on this blog here on what I have done and what I have planned for the following day. Til next time!

Alright, this is my first post here so I think that it’s appropriate that I state what this site is all about. I’ve been in the internet marketing game for well over two years and while I did make a little over $10,000 last year in 2010… It’s definitely not anything to brag about. I hate to admit it but I’ve been at this for a while now but I can’t just seem to get that extra push to really send me over the top.

And I think it’s mostly because I’m not taking enough massive action as I would like so I’ll be using this site to keep myself accountable and to keep track of goals, monthly income, etc. By doing this, I’m hoping that I can push myself in a new direction of online content publishing and hit my income goal at the same time. It’s a brave undertaking but one that is absolutely important for me. I’ve been trying to make money online for a while now and I do feel that I know a lot but sometimes I have a lack of confidence.

Ever have that feeling that the more you know, the less you feel like you really know about it? That’s exactly how I have felt especially when it comes to building sites, finding a niche, finding a product, writing content, building backlinks, etc. to the point where I feel analysis by paralysis. Believe me when I say that I’ve spent thousands of dollars on internet marketing software and on guides so I know a bit more than the average person does in MMO.

Right now, I’m only making a few hundred dollars (about ~$400-500) a month through adsense, ebay and amazon put together. It’s not a lot by any means but I haven’t touched these sites for a while now so it’s passive income that’s coming in. I’d say that’s certainly better than most people who are just getting started. However, I want to take it the next level by earning at least $100 a day and I feel that I’ll reach that by taking action, and lots of it.

My first goal is to earn at least $1,000 by August 24th. I’ve actually made that much in a month before but with so many algorithm changes, a lot of my sites have taken a hit so I would like to see that income again. I think that four months is a reasonable time frame too but as long as I hold myself accountable to what exactly what I am going to do.

Anyways, I do have a system somewhat in place and I plan to build Adsense and Amazon based websites in the coming months. I’ll be building two of each per month and will be evaluating them as I go along. This weekend I’ll be spending time on research and starting next week I’ll be keeping track of my daily tasks and what needs to be done so it should be a fun ride!