Poker69's Affiliate Blog

Great topic as always Kevin - I think we are all guilty of wasting time on things. I find myself catching up on Seth's blog, or Shoe, and checking my poker forum, the PAL forums, Randy's SEO forum, etc. Some of it I can justify, but a lot of times I get lost reading things that have no affect on my business or my life.

Over the past couple months, I have made myself stay off PAL and other sites that do not directly impact what I need to be doing day to day.

I went on an office shopping spree today, and the first thing I did was buy two very big whiteboards which will essentially cover one wall of my office. Tomorrow morning I will be detailing out tasks and priorities for me and people that work for me. The first week will be trial and error, and prioritizing things. But after that the goal will be to get everything on the board, off the board and done.

Like you, I have new ideas for new markets to get into, new ways to make money, etc. But most of it has been just planning and zero execution. There will be a section for ideas on the new boards, where will be details the foundation of no more than 2 new marketing ideas. The big issue is always focus, and finishing things we start. I recently bought a site which makes decent money, but needs work. I've owned it like 2 months now and still don;t have all the trackers changed lol - <------ Stuff like that is silly and is a great example of either being lazy or spread too thin without focus. Again, I think the big thing is focus.

It is all too easy too jump around from task to task because it gets tedious and boring. But would we be doing it if it wasn't important? A lot of times I don't consciously think of exactly WHAT is the most important. so for us, the big thing is prioritizing these issues.

It amazes me how just a little bit of work can result in such quick money online. I will use my buying supplements online guide as an example... I posted an ad for a writer for the site, hired someone who wrote 7-8 articles for me for $10 a piece, put the articles up on a template of mine, pointed a few links to the site, and already have made close to $200 without ranking high at all. If I can spend more time doing things that actually make me money maybe I will finally be where I want to be as an affiliate when 2011 ends.

that is a great point and I did something similar a few months back. I jumped into the MMS market because I'm a huge fan and love that stuff. We spent money on a domain, design, content, etc. The site saw hundreds of visitors within the first month and we even got Sportsbook SU's - Now that site hasn't been touched since, even though we know its a viable market, but I get too distracted and spread too thin.

So yeah, the thing for me is prioritizing and follow through. I'm the type of guy that needs goals and needs something like a whiteboard staring me in the face. I tried using some online task managers, but I hated them and since I had to login to check things, I got to where I just wouldn't login.

So for me whiteboards and task lists are essential.

Anyway, I've spent 10 minutes writing this when I could be working hehe - Great post and great topic man.

Thanks for the response Randy. I actually have the same problem with prioritizing. I have slowly been figuring out that I am wasting time on things that aren't profitable and ignore things that are profitable.

Recently I took out a piece of paper and split the middle. On the left side I wrote everything that isn't making me money, and on the right side I wrote things that are making me money. Made me realize that I spend just about as much time working on things that barely make me money than I do the money makers.

2011 will be the year of working both harder and smarter for me...

Good idea with the piece of paper, Kevin.
But I think it depends on how old the sites are that are not making money. I think its a good idea to invest time into building up new sites - even if it takes 6-9 months before getting any return in the time invested (of course you must be convinced that your ROI will be positive).

Interesting topic as I'm going full time in a few weeks and have been questioning what my work ethic will be like.

On the one hand, the thought of leaving a regular job should be enough to motivate me to work a regular day and get a fair bit of stuff done ...

... but then on the flip side, I'll be sat at home with all the temptations that that brings with it.

Equally, I've been thinking a lot about how I'm going to be able to figure out whether I'm working smart or not.

What with switching from doing a few hours a few hours in the evenings to spending whole days working on my sites, it's going to be easy for me to just assume that the extra hours I'm putting in are going to be beneficial, when it's quite possible that it's far from that.

All in all, I think it's going to be a steep learning curve - thanks for the idea about the paper though. I may well give that a shot and post up any learnings if/when I find them.

Originally Posted by KevinMcC69

I have slowly been figuring out that I am wasting time on things that aren't profitable and ignore things that are profitable.

Well at least it only took you 3 years to figure that out. It took me 4 or 5! lol

In my case, lack of time has always been a problem. Balancing life with work and affiliating is a challenge and I realize that I can only dedicate X ammount of time to my web projects. As such, I have to go for a lot of low hanging fruits where there is an ROI. The longer term strategy i salways in the back of my mind, but I have stopped attempting to build things that I can't keep up with because that is truely were I have made my errors. On the upside, it's also where I gained a lot of knowledge so in that sense it's not a complete flop. At some point you have to put things into perspective. If you calculate how many hours you put in since you started and try to figure out your hourly income, it's very depressing for the 1st two years.

For my part, I've decided to work in other areas and I am finding it A LOT easier than in gambling so far. Obviously, when you find the right niche that has relatively low competition and apply the knowledge I have gained over the last year, well it's almost like taking candy from a baby really. So I have a few pet projects that I will dedicate my attention to in 2011. They are small scale projects. If I can get a couple of those going on auto pilot, then I can build more and more over time. So that's my approach now. Keep it simple, keep it small, and don't spend a shit load of time on things that don't have a positive ROI in the short term.

There is also the matter of self discipline. Like it or not, a lot of the things we are required to do to succeed are just plain boring. I'm pretty sure no one here is passionate about link building! lol! Even writing new content gets to be a burden over time. I find it difficult in general to keep the motivation up when the work is repetitive. In order to succeed, I really have to set my mind to focus on the task at hand. Sometimes, I fail.

I wouldn't worry too much about being totally efficient - it's about getting a work-play online balance that means you are enjoying your time working - and getting things done.

Some "down-time" checking forums, watching YouTube, playing Mafia Wars or whatever is perfectly acceptable and probably boosts your overall satisfaction with the lifestyle that you have now.

Many people "work" 8-9 hours a day in the office - an yet could probably do their actually productive things in 1-2 hours.

Good comments guys... I've been super productive so far in 2011, mainly because I'm excited about the projects I'm working on. Mixing things up and trying new things seems to make it a bit more fun.