Steps to Success – #1 [Baby Steps]

[this article was originally posted on my WA Blog.]

Most optimists keep looking for a magic shortcut to success. Most pessimists are sure that success in any form is an urban legend and most realists work hard on putting the pieces together, knowing that success is just a puzzle.

When I started Internet Marketing in 2007 I believed in success but I didn’t have a plan of getting to it. Well, first of all do you know what success actually is? Success means totally different things to different people, so I wrote what success meant to me and how I see my “perfect life”. Financial freedom was one of the points in that success plan, although as I thought, unachievable back then.

In this blog post I will reveal one of the puzzle pieces to success; either wealth, health or relationship-wise. I call this part: Baby Steps.

I’ve always had this same issue for the past years; I called it laziness. You see, when I was just starting, I wasn’t making any money which would get me discouraged and I would “quit” IM for a few days or even weeks… until I would finally get back into it.

When I started making a nice income online, I had a similar issue but I called it differently: lack of time. When I was working only a few hours a week and making money, I would completely ignore work and spend all of my time with friends, playing around with hobbies, cars, etc… Until I would see a significant drop in my income – that’s when I would get back into the game. Social time and hobby time are important but shouldn’t be abused to the point of affecting your business because that’s your goal after all – a successful business.

Now I understand that in both situations it was the same issue: LACK OF ACTION.

Yes, sometimes we get fed up of writing articles, doing keyword research, writing e-mails… Sometimes we have no creativity or simply aren’t in the mood for anything. This is when it’s crucial to take baby steps. Make progress. To do something that would move us forward and help us (and our business) grow. Baby steps, my friends, baby steps.

Not taking action is the main reason why most marketers fail at the very beginning of their marketing adventure. This is why you constantly need to take action. One thing at a time; baby steps.

So now you must be thinking: Well, what kind of action can I take? I think I’ve done (learned) everything that I could do (learn) and I am still not making any money!

I understand exactly how You feel because I’ve been there hundreds of times… In my daily planning I write something like: 11am-1pm = Baby Steps. And if I can’t plan a “baby step” in advance, I simply figure it out at 11am. Here are some examples of what could serve as baby steps:

1. Research a new niche. You don’t have to do the full research but you might get some ideas about entering a new industry.
2. Fix your website. Your on-site SEO might need some tweaking or you might have some errors (404 pages). Take care of that. Google webmasters tools will help.
3. Re-design your website. This is extremely easy to do if you’re using WordPress. Simply update your theme or change it completely to something more relevant/modern.
4. Write a fresh article for your site, blog or an article directory. Fresh content never hurt anyone.
5. Socialize online. Wealthy Affiliate is a great place to help people out, get help and meet new potential clients or business partners.
6. Make a new youtube video. For your niche site, for your training program, for your outsourcing team…etc. If you are just starting in online marketing and need a quick buck – you could even post a job on Fiverr and make videos for others.
7. Come up with a new business idea. Just recently I have noticed that Spa Salons in my city have horrible reviews and I thought: Maybe I should open my own Spa Salon and provide incredible service to clients? I probably wouldn’t open a salon any time soon however, I now know more than 99.9% of people about starting and running such business because I spent 2-3 hours researching it. This knowledge might come in handy at some point.
8. Pick up a phone and call some local businesses; they probably need a website, or a mobile website, or a Facebook page, or a Local Google+ listing. Yes, they can do it themselves but they simply don’t have time to do so and they specialize in cooking hamburgers and not optimizing their online listings.
9. Make a detailed plan for next week. Set goals such as: Monday – write 10 articles for my niche site #2. Tuesday – design a logo for client XYZ. Wednesday: Find 50 keyword phrases for sites #5 and #7. Thursday: Recruit 5 new affiliates to promote my new video course… etc.
10. Write a page for your book. You will probably re-use that content later on your blog but who knows, maybe you are actually an awesome writer who will get published and make a New York Bestseller list. 😉

… The possibilities are endless. Each “baby step” on this list will get you closer to your goals and in the end of the day you would feel like that day wasn’t wasted and you have achieved something. Take consistent action, daily. Now, when I really don’t want to touch the computer – I pick up a book and read for an hour, or 2, or 12 😉 There are tons of amazing books out there on marketing, selling, social media, customer relations copywriting, etc. Take action. Get closer to your goal.

Baby steps, my friends, baby steps.

To our success,

Alex