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2007-11-13

Five Top Wasted Ways To Trade Time For Dollars

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Five Top Wasted Ways To Trade Time For Dollars

Is marketing the hardest part for you to get around in your business? That question is totally inane on the one hand and probably describes a good 90% of marketers on line, on the other hand.

Why is it inane? Because marketing IS your business. Not the product, not the service, not you specifically though you do play the key role, but how you market to the masses.

The saddest thing to see is 'busy' marketers trading time for dollars.

The Five Top Time Wasters

1. Trading your time for Mail Call

Spending time reading mail that has nothing to do with building your business.

We all get into this trap at one time or the other because we sign up for this newsletter, that free gift, the latest give-aways and sorting plain old time-wasting spam.

Downloading and checking your mail for items and new subscribers or customers that specifically have to do with what you are trying to accomplish on line, should take mere minutes to scan and pick out.

Getting into the right habits of doing your mail to work for your earns you more time to work your business.

Clean your mail on your day off when you just are too tired or cannot get into regular marketing. We all have those days, so use them for the mail route.

2. Trading Your time for Rah-Rah

Joining more programs than you have time to work.

This one is the all-time dollar making killer. How can you keep up to the many programs you are joining without losing your focus and direction, if you have either, when you only have 24 hours in each day?

Severe housecleaning is heartily recommended BUT he careful what you throw out. I have seen subscribers throw out the very things they need to keep. Like advertising methods that will work if they only worked them.

Are you guilty of wasting more time for dollars by keeping the rah-rah of daily to do tasks from companies that keep raking in your time and your dollars while you stagnate on what you should be doing to build your focus?

Heck, half these programs do not even have a product for you to sell to recover your investment with them. Often their best product is some acceptable amount of cash if you bring in enough new members and your name is drawn.

With a little concentration on what you should be doing, couldn't you clear an easy $250 an hour or even a week of this time wasting effort they offer?

3. Trading time For Negative Returns

Failure to look at the numbers that tell your profit margin with what you are doing.

Take the programs that offer you lifetime membership at say $150 or even $160 - sometimes more but we need one figure to look at.

Now you have been with this company for three months and have won their bonue offering ONCE, have followed what they say to do and there you sit still waiting for the promised income.

To figure our YOUR self-imposed value for your time - divide the $160 by 24hoursx( 3mos=) 90 days.

Sometimes we need a reality check on what it really is we are doing to ourselves when trading our time for dollars.

4. Trading Your Time For One-Shot Advertising

Promote or Die!

When I first read that statement, I had goosebumps. It was like someone was telling me if I did not do it right I would physically die.

Well I didn't and you won't either but your business will if you fail to promote on a consistent basis.

Marketing and advertising go hand-in-hand and for some mean one and the same, especially if you are interested in creating a steady income from your efforts.

There is no ONE way that works best in promoting. You need to incorporate as many on line and off line methods as you can to gain the best results from your promotions.

I hear your complaint on this one. Now you are back to the fear of time-waster #2 point. Are you really?

You can join hundreds of safelists, FFa, and classifieds to work your business, or you can learn how to do all of these effectively, withut the throw-way email addresses to carry the cross promotions, and probably build a good contact list of your own and all by using the power of ViralClassAds, viralVisitors, Clickaholics, Lemmingrun and Tsunami Gold.

Why do you think the original founder developed these programs? He saw the trap of cross promotions and wasted time in email accounts. He saw the frustration he was feeling so knew you were too.

The only two things you have to do using these programs, is click for credits to pay for your advertising and learn to write good ads that draw the target market you are searching for.

You have to put writing good ads at the top of your marketing promotions anyways so why not learn from the best programs where the training and support is 24/7 and you have no fear of spammers filling your mail box?

5. Trading Your Time For Dollars Lost

are you trading your time for dollars in the worse way possible?

Not only do most marketers not have a business plan or an exit plan in case what they are testing does not work, they do not block out the time they do have for on line promotions so that that time works for them.

Not everyone has all day to work on line. And even if you do, I am sure you waste more time than you invest in your on line business growth. Time is money and time wasted means your perceived value of your time goes down the toilet.

Do you keep a "honey-do" list of things that need to be fixed, done or just kept up to date in your home? If you do then you know that list is open to choosing what you can do with the time you do have.

Borrow from that concept and make a list of the things you MUST be doing on line. That means a daily task list that brings forward the things you did not get done the day before.

By priortizing the MUST dos, you will have a record of how you spend your time on line, and a way to assess what is and what is not working for you. This way you will learn to use your time wisely.

We are all creatures of habit. Bad habits can cost you time and dollars. Teaching yourself habits that pay off is far more satisfactory then falling into some of the traps you are reading about today.

If your marketing is not going the way you expected it to, then be sure to print this article out and keep it handy. I am sure you will find ways to improve your productivity without having to feel so frustrated and overwhelmed.

One step at a time is how we all learn. It is how we all can make a difference in changing our attitudes and stop the trap of trading time for dollars.

Fran Klasinski
SEO Basics

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