A needle mover is any activity that makes the needle on the results machine move, you know, kind of like a scale.  In my case it is an activity that makes my blog income go up.

I spend a lot of time on the computer.  I think that I am getting a lot done and moving my business forward and that the money truck is just around the corner … ok, Tonka truck will do for starters.  It is now almost a year since I decided to stop playing at internet marketing and to make it a serious business.  I remember that moment of decision as if it was yesterday.

In November I review the current year. In December I plan the coming year.

Last November’s year review was telling.  I was looking at a line item in my expenses – internet marketing courses, travel to and from those courses, time spent on those courses. It all added up to a pretty penny.  Then it hit me like a bolt of lightening.  Sure I was learning and doing the homework, even had a practicum or two tucked up my sleeve, but I wasn’t doing anything concrete with my newfound knowledge.  That’s when I decided to get going.  I didn’t know everything I needed to know but that was OK.  Mike Litman always says “You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going.”

So I did.

I chose blogging as my preferred method of making money online. This blog is one of the results of that decision.

I sat down and made a business plan – paying attention to the needle movers in that plan.

My first move was to block a chunk of time daily that would be devoted to blogging.  I thought that if I calendared in four hours daily, five days a week I would be well on my way to a decent return on my investment of time.  Nine months into the game but the needle hasn’t moved all that much.

What gives?

Kevin Wilke of Nitro Marketing talks about the 100 hour rule, i.e., put in 100 focused “needle moving hours” of time into your internet marketing and your efforts should deliver at least $100 to $500 a month on a recurring basis.  OK … I’ve met that.  The next one is 500 hours which should gain you a replacement income, i.e., you should be able to cover your living costs at this point.  If you do the math at four hours a day five days a week in 25 weeks you should be pulling in the replacement income.  At this rate I have long since passed the 500 hour rule and if it weren’t for my other sources of income, I would still be doing the commute to a paid 9 to 5.

Kevin was talking about this recently and I got to thinking  – is the time I spend on the computer quality, productive needle moving time?  I decided to keep track. For two weeks I slavishly noted the time spent on various computer related tasks.  Boy!  Was I ever shocked!  Four hours?  Try one hour, two at best on most days.

It’s easy to spend time on the computer and think that you are “working” on your internet marketing. I found that of the four hours I calendared into the day for internet marketing the bulk of the time went  into:

1. Opening and reading email
2.  Replying to email
3.  Sending email re info I think might be of interest to colleagues
4.  Checking statistics (this one has just increased now that I am watching my “new” stats since    being on WordPress for the majority of my sites
5.  Reading other blogs & commenting  – this is the first “needle” moving activity:  commenting on other blogs, but it is not a high gain activity.
6.  Researching & writing blog posts
7.  Repurposing my articles
8.  Publishing articles to article directories
9.  Other marketing activities which mostly include more publishing.

Only items 6 through 9 are high gain and I can tell you they did not get much attention on a daily basis, in fact items 1 through 5 took so much of my time that I was really short changing myself and not paying much attention to the real needle movers.

I’ve changed that.

Priorities have been re-arranged.  I do start the day by checking the stats.  I give this about 15 minutes.  While this activity of and on its own is not a needles mover it is important as it is a measuring stick and tells me if I am making headway in my marketing efforts.  I see day to day what is working and what is not and make adjustments as needed.

My mind works best in the morning, so research and writing is the next item.  I calendar in 2 hours.  After that I take a short break, pour myself some tea and relax for a bit.  Then I check the emails.  I have become ruthless with the delete key.  I flag anything that looks like something I would like to look into and get back to those items end of the four hour block.  I now have an hour and a half left to do some marketing. If this is Monday I decide which “site” to devote this time to for the week.  I check in to Market Samurai and see how I can tweak my efforts for this site, find a new affiliate product perhaps and set up a mini campaign for the current week.  That means that the selected site gets seven and a half hours of focused time for that week.

Do I follow this time schedule?
No.  I still get distracted but I am getting better at it.

Is it working?
You bet! Things are beginning to happen.

I have seen an increase in traffic, the stats look better, clicks are higher, conversions are on the rise.  Most importantly my motivation factor is up 100%.  I am now excited.  I get an adrenalin rush every time the needle moves. It gives me the feeling that I am in control of my business and that’s an awesome feeling.

What about you?  Does any of this resonate with you?  What do you do to keep the needle moving?  I’d love to hear from you … post your comments below.

Happy Blogging!

Valentina
Blogger for Money
…. and the cheese ain’t bad either!

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