The Momentum Forces

July 19, 2009 by Russell Hall
Filed under Articles, Momentum

Momentum is an awesome and formiddable thing,- harness it and you’ll be unstoppable, but be at the effect of it and it’s like trying to shake the weight of the world from your shoulders.

How does this relate to Internet Marketing? Whether your focus is on the "IM" "niche" or whether you’re marketing to some other specialist niche,.. you first have to consider "momentum". Get it working for you otherwise by default it will start working against you. Let’s take the Internet Marketing niche (in which we could include any kind of professional online consultancy, whether that be in email etiquette or SEO management or whatever).

When you first decide to commit to this aspect of the online marketing realm then you’re approaching it as a relative novice who is about to embark upon a steep learning curve (the steeper the better actually!). It doesn’t matter whether you’re already successful offline in the same or a related field such as corporate consultancy, marketing, selling, success coaching, wedding planning or cake decorating,.. the fact is that the Internet is a whole different ballgame and the moment you stick your toe in the water you’ll start to get sucked into the Inertia and momentum of the Internet because whether you like it or not the fact is that the Internet and online marketing (in virtually every single niche you can think of ) is already charging along at an enormous rate of knots and therefore if you don’t recognize or understand the dynamics of the momentum of that then you’re likely to get swept away in the undertow of that mighty wave and get dumped very heavily on the sandy shores of disappointment and frustration despite the stellar effort and enthusiasm that you started with. On the other hand, if you go into it with a firm strategy and adequate knowledge and are willing to perform daily tasks that will be VERY difficult to stick to then you can succeed.

So,.. what are some of the ways in which you can get the power of momentum working for you when you’re actually setting off from a standing start?

I can list just a few here, although there are many more than I’m listing here (some of which we’ll visit in later articles).

Get yourself on top of your task management (some people refer to this as "time management" but I don’t like that term because it infers that we "mere mortals" can control or manage time,…which of course we cannot (although many scientists have tried to figure that out including Einstein). However, we can control the way in which we manage our tasks and control our own behaviors and set patterns of productivity. I’ll confess right here and now and say that this is not one of my strong areas and I tend to let distractions and procrastination creep in too often, but in knowing that I do implement some systems and use some software that helps me greatly, one such product which is really quite brilliant and so easy to use allows me to set tasks and then to assign time quadrants for each of the tasks. I then just activate that task when I’m ready to get the task done and I stick with it until its completed while the software and the timer keeps me focused on the outcome being delivered on time. Then, upon completion a report is recorded and I can review these reports at the end of the day to see how objective I was in (A) allocation of adequate time for the task,. and (B) getting the task completed as specified. It really does help. I’ll be featuring this product very soon as soon as I write a proper review.
Identify your daily goals and split them up task by task BEFORE you start the day. If you wait until your day gets rolling then you’ll find that by the time you’ve checked your emails and clicked a couple of "must see now" links that you’ve already wasted the first couple of hours,… and if you’re working on your Internet projects in your spare time (say after dinner of an evening) it can be 11pm before you realize that you’ve done zip and just added further weight to the tide of inertia puching against you. I like to write down the following day’s tasks the evening before,.. just take 15 minutes to really focus on what’s important and then stick to that list in the morning and you’ll find it really helps a lot and motivates you further because you can see results happening!
Getting a mentor, accountability partner, or facilitator to work with. This is a really powerful way to get the momentum forces working for you because you’re immediately harnessing the experiences and skills of another person that’s working with you to keep you on track and help you avoid mistakes, pitfalls, and all kinds of results producing negative thoughts and emotions. However, just be careful that if you are hiring a "mentor" or whatever, that you know that the person can really help you and that the objectives of the engagement are put in writing before you start,. like having a working agreement that you can keep referencing against. If you can’t afford a mentor to personally work with (usually a mentor will cost you anywhere from $100 per month to $1,000,.. many of which are very worthwhile,..but some are absolutely useless,.. or worse…they can be damaging) there are alternatives you can employ. If you can’t afford to hire a mentor of be a part of a mentoring program (where the mentor works with a small group of say 20 people) then you can assign yourself one or two "guru mentors" for FREE. Yep,.. I said the "F" word… "free". How to do this,…. There are many really worthwhile gurus out there that have fantastic programs and write a lot of articles, e-reports and videos to help people achieve certain objectives (usually centered around IM success). Most of this content that is FREE,.. is really great and very worthwhile and powerful if applied properly. Of course the "guru" is enticing his "free" content followers with enough excellent content to convince them that their (the "guru’s") programs and products are worth subscribing to,- which in such cases of excellent free content,. the paid subscription is much more powerful again and can be the difference between mediocre achievement and remarkable permanent success. The key here to bear in mind is to NOT make the huge mistake of subscribing to 3, 4, 5 or more free programs because you’ll just get buried in information overload and conflicting methods and processes that can either really slow you down or stop you due to frustration and lack of focus. My advice is to select ONE guru (two at most) and stick with his or her free program until you’ve really got the most out of it. Follow all the information and read all of the content and watch all of the videos and then take notes and apply what you’ve learnt. If you do that you’ll find that it can really help you to move forward and clear up your focus. Once you’ve arrived at that point you’ll then be in a much more commanding position to make an objective choice about committing to some payment based course, but at least this time you’ll be able to justify $197 to $997 as being a sound and practical investment rather than a fear based emotional reaction to the need to advance too quickly. I’ll be featuring some of the free content programs and courses in m review pages shortly, so stay tuned or subscribe to this article via RSS feed.
Another example I can give of seeking out and assigning yourself a free mentor is in my own case where I’m very interested in successful copy writing. I’ve written many things and have created some very good sales and landing pages,..BUT,.. I certainly do not consider myself a guru and I always review and analyze other expertly written pieces of copy and research cutting edge techniques that are know to be getting good conversion results. I have several sources for this purpose and constantly use Google search to help me find new things, however, the main copy writing guru that I constantly refer to is Michel Fortin. I frequent his blog several times a week and I’m a member of his mailing list,… and that’s another thing,- his emails are great and always loaded with great free value and references. Now I don’t wish to present myself as a Michel Fortin freeloader,- and in fact I so far have never spent a dollar with him, but there’s a distinct probability that one day I will buy something from him or via one of his site links (if not, I really should start hitting his "tipping jar" because I really do appreciate availaing myself of his "free" mentoring support). One final and important codacil to that remark is that it only becomes "mentoring" material if you take it seriously and respectfully and then apply it,.. otherwise you may as well add it to the volumes of other free info gathering digital dust on your computer’s hard drive!

Cheers,

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