Can I rise to Tony's Challenge?
I suspect that the present economic downturn has changed things considerably. More people are considering an online opportunity out of necessity. Additionally, I see the emergence of more sophisticated and articulate “gurus” joining the ranks of the original Internet Marketers (IMers). This is great because as the competition increases I am seeing more competitive and professional product offerings and services. And during the last three months there has been some excellent free webinars available to newbies (or noobies as some prefer) and the more experienced IMers.
For many, the problem is where to start. At a generic level, there seems to be three ways of making money online: emailing your list; PPC/CPA activities; and affiliate programs. (If you are not sure what these terms mean see my 10 part series Internet Marketing For Newbies.) Depending on whom you listen to may determine your entry point to IM. Many will say that your list determines how well you will do. This is partially true. At the beginning you do not have a list! So you need to start somewhere. Of course, all of this assumes that you have something that customers want to buy.
The promise of IM is Freedom. That is financial independence so that you do not have to work full time any longer. Freedom is Time to do what you want to, when you want to with no financial constraints. That is what I want. So I have set myself a challenge. In IM terms Tony’s Challenge is modest: between 1st August 2009 and 31st July 2010, I must achieve net earnings of $100,000; in the process I must build my list up to at least 12,000 people; and I must be active on social networks. For instance, when I was thinking about the challenge I wanted to set myself, on Twitter I was following 10, had 38 followers and 12 updates. I need to put a couple of zeros behind these numbers and also get up on other key social networking sites. And to achieve this I am going full time!
I would like you to follow my progress. This will both motivate me to keep trying but also tell you what is working. I will be doing a summary report on progress in my blog at least twice per month and writing a monthly newsletter. Please do leave a comment on my blog. It is only in my monthly newsletter that I will be revealing more detailed actions that I have been taking. This will discuss what works and what does not work for me. And yes, I do have a strategy in place and a pretty good idea on what I am going to do. I need to focus on my action plan.