This is a guest post by Glen Allsopp
Why are you really here?
The obvious answer would be to read Pat’s excellent content, but I want you to dig a little deeper. Why is it that you spend so much time reading blogs each day looking for new nuggets of knowledge that you can hopefully apply to your online ventures?
The reason I ask is because introspection is the one of the most important things you can do to build a profitable business. Online or offline. I know that many of you will run successful projects online already and are here to take things to the next level, but I know others use resources like this as a way to procrastinate and try to have everything perfect before you actually start taking action.
I know, as I used to do the same thing.
My Own Mission
It took me three years to make a living online. Three whole years before I could quit my day job and work for myself. Yet, in the 10 months since leaving my job, I’ve built new properties that could have replaced my job income alone. Doing the same thing in 10 months that I could only achieve in three years is quite a difference.
Of course, I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t along the way and I can now really streamline the process to building successful websites. But there’s more to it than that. You see, in the first three years that I was building websites, only around 25% of my time was actually taking action.
The rest of my time would be spent doing things like:
- Reading blogs looking for more nuggets of knowledge
- Buying ebooks that promised to teach me the secrets
- Signing up for services like Aweber even though I had no use for them at the time
- Watching videos of those who had made it and seeing how they did things
- Following different trends and constantly starting new websites
Instead of just focusing on what I knew and continue to take consistent, quality action, I kept searching and searching and searching. It was until I had this realization and went from 25% action to 85% action that I started making money.
Can you relate to that? I hope so.
Log Down Every Single Thing You Do Tomorrow
Or whenever your next “typical” day is. You don’t have to write down what you had for breakfast – this is not a food journal. Instead, I want you to record your activities. So that might be chatting on Facebook, spending 9-5 at work, leaving comments on blogs and being active on Twitter.
Whatever actions you take tomorrow, I want you to record them. If you’re anything like me, when you look back over this sheet, you’ll be disappointed. You’ll see that you somehow managed to keep busy throughout the entire day, but you didn’t actually get anything done.
Nothing that is going to take your business further forward, anyways. If you don’t like the results, the worst thing to do is worry about it. The best thing to do is be happy because unlike hundreds of thousands of people out there, you’ve probably realized where you can improve and you’ll now want to take action.
That’s powerful.
Working With The Results
If you spend most of your day taking solid action that will provide results for you, then congratulations. You’re one of the few. On the other hand, if you’re like I was and see that actual work only takes up a small portion of your day, you can improve upon that.
One key thing I realized is that I was working on things that didn’t interest me. A good example is when I started a celebrity blog just because it was easy to drive traffic to them. I had no interest in celebrities, but I was writing 3-4 articles about them every single day just to try and make money. It wasn’t long before I slipped down to 1 article per day then nothing at all.
It’s so easy to follow the trends online and work on things that you can see are making money for other people, but that’s hard. Your work online does not have to be difficult, it should just be in a direction that you enjoy. I love writing articles about marketing and what seems like minutes can actually end up with hours passing by. That’s a real passion.
If you’re not working on things you love, change that, right now. If you don’t, then don’t be surprised if you’re in exactly the same position next year as you are in right now.
You should also find in your log areas that are completely pointless to your day. If you’re building up a Twitter profile but don’t even have a website, you’re probably wasting time. If you’re wondering why your blog isn’t making money and you haven’t tried selling ads or creating your own product, you’re wasting time.
Look at your log and give yourself an honest assessment. Only then can you start to make headway.
I’m Not Saying Learning Is Bad
I’m consistently making a five-figure income online every month but you’ll still see me leaving blog comments and reading websites like this one. Reading blogs or buying eBooks is never a bad thing, but you must put into practice what you learn instead of becoming an information junkie.
I recently picked up a copy of Tribes by Seth Godin and sat down to read it with a pen and paper by my side. Within a third of the book I had already taken 3 pages of notes. I could not get enough of the great information in there.
I continued to read the book at night, with no form of note taking available, and didn’t get anything from the next third. Not one note to take away. It’s not that I don’t think they were there, it’s just that the way I was prepared to take in the content and was reading for the sake of reading.
If you’re going to buy eBook after eBook or read blog after blog, actually apply what you learn from them and make sure you test things for yourself rather than blindly following ‘leaders’. You’ll probably get to the point where you realize most eBooks are rehashed junk and blogs with quality information like this one are rare to find.
In fact, I went from having 136 blogs in my feed reader, to just 15.
So why are you here?
Glen is the author of a blog called ViperChill which covers the topic of Viral Marketing. He helps people build remarkable websites that people naturally want to talk about.
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{ 34 comments (Click Here to Leave a Comment Below) }
Thanks for the opportunity, Pat.
I really hope that your readers enjoy it!
Glen, no – thank you. Your words are very powerful, and I think it’s exactly something that most of my readers need to read. Cheers bud!
Now I’m curious. What are the 15 blogs you read?
Hi Kyle,
Here are 12 of them: http://www.pluginid.com/my-favourite-blogs/
I added a couple more recently such as manvsdebt.com
And the proverbial morning ass-kicking begins. Good stuff Glen. Congrats on Viperchill, I’ll be sure to check it out.
To relate, I think it’s a process for some people to read as many blogs and ebooks as they can as a way to build confidence or belief (guilty as charged). I’ve found that I get the most motivation to take action after reading a success story of someone who did something that I’m in the process of achieving. I think the problems start when we end up living vicariously through those success stories and fail to make any personal headway.
Ron, I couldn’t of said it better myself. Sometimes I realize I’m living vicariously through other people’s successes too, and although that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it is when you don’t take action.
Great point Ron, very well said.
Nice to see you over here on SPI!
I think Ron in the comment above expressed my own thoughts. I love to read Pat’s blog because I want to emulate his online success. That said, I have not actually created a product yet and could certainly be using the time I spend doing some other things more wisely.
Thanks for the kick in the rear!
In due time Dustin, in due time. You’re on your way =)
I agree with Ron, that sometimes you need the right motivation. In fact, it was Pat’s “hand-holding” tutorial about starting a blog that got me to put my idea in motion this past weekend. It’s great seeing success stories and thinking “Wow, I could do that” or “Geez, That’s easy.”
There’s also the point that different people internalize things (information, goals, motivation, etc.) different ways. Sometimes you need to see just the right info in just the right way (at just the right time) to make things click. That being said, I’m a bit of a procrastinator so I generally don’t jump in until I’ve researched the hell out of it.
Pat/Glen, Thanks for the advice and support!
Reed, thanks for your comment, well said. Also, I just wanted to say congrats on your new site! I’m really looking forward to what you have to say =)
Fantastic post Glen. That log thing is something that works exceptionally well for me (I’ve done it a few times). Also the tip about taking notes and testing is something very valuable. Next time I’ll read something I’ll do it with another perspective.
Tell you what Glen, THE single biggest thing I see from stopping people working for themselves or becoming an entrepreneur is the belief that they aren’t good enough or don’t know enough.
The analogy I sometimes use is like driving a car. You really learn to drive AFTER you pass your test and get out on the road.
Most people don’t need to attend one more course, read one more book or think about it a bit longer, they just need to put their cock on the block and do it.
Of course there are also some complete muppets out there that definitely do need to learn a bit more before they start announcing to the world they are a Guru.
Tim, I’ve also found that what stops most people is their fear of failure, or like you said, they just “don’t know enough”. I say as long as they know a little it more than somebody else in this world, they can teach and become successful.
You said it here correctly… consistent, quality action.
A lot of people have the motivation and inspiration and the compelling reason to really “do something about it”. But after a while, everything stops.
You actually revealed that collecting valuable nuggets of information keeps you inspired and motivated, just like the very first time. And you’re sharing it with us so we could be successful as well.
Thank you for the sharing brother…
Great tip: write down what you do all day, and review it. Big wake up call.
I’ll have to check out manvsdebt. Been hearing great things about him.
Great to see you promoting ViperChill, Glen!
I’ve recently discovered manvsdebt recently too. It’s a fantastic blog, for sure. Thanks Brian!
Hi Glen and Pat,
Funny timing for me. I have been thinking a lot over the last few days about how to take my blog to the next level and offer my readers more value. One of the conclusions I had come to was that it wasn’t really about doing something different, but being different. Being confident and trusting in my own abilities and believing it will be successful and useful to others. As you mentioned at the beginning of the post, introspection is the key to success. i
I like your points Glen, about reading blogs, e books etc. It can be useful in balance and I have subsribed to some great sites, but as you point out only if you are using the information.
For me, the reason I am here is that I want to learn how to become a successful blogger and also how to make money on line. Some great reminders here Glen, definately time for me to look at my output and start making that consistent with where I want to go.
Jen
Very good blog post. Thank you for sharing.
It’s amazing how far you can move forward in productivity over a month, just taking a baby step today. It took me a very long time to be able to put this consistantly into my daily plan.
Marty
Good stuff. I also often struggle with this kind of perfectionism where I want everything to be perfect before I start doing anything. But, a brilliant quote from Guy Kawasaki always helps me get myself out of it:
“Don’t worry, be crappy.”
Oh, and I should mention RescueTime. It’s what I use to log all my activites at the computer. Very easy to use and great for getting an idea of how productive I’m being.
Cheers,
Shane
Great recommendation Shane. I love Rescuetime. I actually use it myself =)
Pat,
This write-up is like a jump start cable for a car! The much required boost to wake up and DO something. Few months ago, I got inspired by your EHOW experiments and started writing articles. I should say, I am already seeing ‘success’ flowing in.
My next venture is going to be an EBook. Again you are the inspiration. Thanks for making the difference!
-Bheem
Nice Bheem! I think eHow is a great place to start because you can almost see immediate results – it’s awesome. Glad to see you’re going to go a step further and work on an eBook. Exciting!
Interesting read. I don’t think many people realize they’re just spinning their wheels. Creating action just to have action isn’t doing you any good, but taking some solid action…that’s where success happens.
Heya Glen and Patt!
A great article, love your simple but logical writing style!
I agree that taking action is what brings the results, but those first months or years that you spend reading and playing are all part of the learning process to allow you to get to where you are now.
Indeed it is probably possible to reduce that learning time and get more effective. I know I am guilty of this. I have been marketing online for just over a year and still have no solid results to show yet. Only now am I starting to grow, but I have learnt a lot of things in the process.
Thanks for sharing!
Hey Diggy, well said. However like Glen said, it’s really easy to just “read” for the sake of reading, in which case it wouldn’t be as useful if notes were taken. This is something I’m VERY guilty of. I’ve hardly ever taken notes, but you can be sure I will now.
Thanks man, keep up the good work with your site =)
The logging time and actions idea is great. It absolutely works, just like tracking expenses or what you eat does. I’ve also found it helpful to start each day by asking, “What will I do today to move forward in my priority business?” — and then doing it.
That’s a great tip Jackie. Thanks!
Was this the first guest post? I think it is, right?
I like the clean look over at Viper Chill.
I’ve had guest posts before (a long time ago), but if you’re talking about from Glen, this is indeed his first guest post here.
This post is great Pat, I know it is a guest post, though I can hear everything you say in it.
Thanks again for everything you do!
Thanks Bobby, I appreciate that! I like Glen’s writing because it’s exactly how I would think/say things too. Cheers!
Wow Glen, you’ve been in my head! Thanks for that. I’ve been lying to everyone for a year now, including myself. I’m not really blogging; I don’t really work on a website. I am a blogger/website/ebook/ voyeur. Always looking for that one thing. Yes, I’m a master at wasting a day ‘learning’ more and more, but never applying it.
This was cathartic. This is the year I know enough.
LOL Pat you just described me to the T.