Schewanick Computer Services

I'm sure you think I'm going to tell you it's your list...or maybe Big Gun JV partners, or something along those lines. Yes, those are certainly valuable and can help you become incredibly profitable. But that's not even close to what I am talking about.

The single most important ingredient in Internet Marketing success is "focus". Focus? "Whoa, John you're nuts." Well, that may be, but focus is life or death in this game. Focus is what separates the men from the boys, the women from the girls, and the successes from the wannabe's.

Internet Marketing often highlights the brilliant successes and rarely speaks to the massive failure of 90+ percent of its business owners. Most of those 90% are basically what I refer to as the churn and burn crowd. Why? Because they don't focus.

They buy the latest and greatest "thingamajig" or get involved with the next "Super Fabulous Mega Pre-Launch", go at it for a couple of weeks, don't see the massive riches they were promised, and move onto the next great thing. Churn and burn.

Although I will agree that the Internet is awash with garbage programs that offer money for nothing; there are many good programs out there as well. And yet people without focus get involved with quality programs, fail, blame the product, and move onto the next one.

Now, I am not in any way taking shots at the focus impaired, because I too am guilty of distractions. In fact, I am probably two steps from ADHD. But I know that I will not win at this game if I do not make a plan, follow the plan, and execute.

Here are some simple little strategies I use to stay on track and keep focused -

1)I make a schedule using Outlook (use whatever calendar you want) and follow it as much as possible. I set appointments and tasks and all that happy jazz and if something comes up which takes precedent over my previously scheduled to-do, I reschedule.

2)I turn off my email for certain periods of the day and shut down my messenger programs. It's brutal being shut off from the outside world but when I have that stuff open I can get lost for hours..."Oh, I better get back to this email" or "Hey, Jerry's IM'ing me". Trust me, step away...it works wonders.

3)This one is more for the visually oriented like me. I keep a notepad next to my laptop and when I complete a task I scratch it off. I know this isn't very tech friendly in this day and age, but seeing a to-do get scratched off gives me a feeling of accomplishment and motivates me to move on to the next item.

4)When I start one of my to-do's I do not move to another until I finish; or until I run into a roadblock that forces me to leave it as an open item. Some times things happen and you simply can't finish what you started at that very moment. But for the lion share of the tasks where this isn't the case, finish what you start.

5)I limit myself to a certain number of purchases per month. I love toys, gadgets, and new fangled programs that will blast this and submit that...but when I get a new toy I have to go at it immediately, figure it out, and play with it. It costs me hours when something is cool. Those hours could likely be spent making money so it's best to keep this to a minimum and eliminate the distractions. This is just a hint at some of the things you can do to keep from getting distracted and staying focused. You have to stay with your programs and see them through. You need to make a plan, implement it, and stick to it. Eliminate your distractions. That kind of focus and determination will allow you to succeed on the Internet in ways you might not even have thought possible.

About the author:

John Hostler, aka the Internet Renegade, has been marketing successfully both online and off for 6 years. He released his widely anticipated book on the subject of Internet Marketing on 02-01-06. To find out more about John or his newest release check out http://www.internetrenegade.com