I recently got an email from a guy who has been reading my blog here, and he was asking “What is the key to climbing the ladder of success online?” He has struggled to do anything successfully, and is pretty much on the verge of giving up. Since this is a common problem, I decided to make this post for everyone to see.
The #1 key: Outsourcing ASAP
Outsourcing and hiring help is the number one key to climbing the ladder of success in IM. Whether it is posting links, writing new content, or getting some cool new graphics. This is one thing I see a lot of people miss, and sometimes it is hard when you just start out.
Most people that I know who are looking to succeed online start out trying to do everything, and wind up not making any progress at all. This is because they get overwhelmed with trying to learn every nuance and detail of every step that they take.
Getting started when you don’t have any Money
Your job is not to be an expert at EVERYTHING. Focus on learning the basics. You don’t have to pick perfect keywords, the perfect niche, write masterpeice articles, or any of that. Your goal with your first site should be get it up, make it look decent, and try to make just a few sales. Focus your attention on getting it moving forward. Sometimes good enough really is good enough. Dont’ try to perfect everything. This is what leads to overthinking and analysis paralysis, constantly looking at things, and failing to take action. If you try to do that with every detail, you wont make any progress.
Instead, do what you have to do to get off the ground, with as little analyzing as possible. Just do something. If it works, repeat it if it. As soon as you see some results, start repeating it over and over again. Focus on traffic, and getting links built, not making sales. Those will come later.
Now, as soon as you make any money at all, (5 sales if you are using Clickbank, and have to pass their threshold), Don’t stick it in your pocket. Pay someone else to write more articles for you, or buy a link building package and have someone do that. Pick the one thing that you are the worst at, or hate doing the most and pay someone who is good at it to do it for you. This will free up more time for you, and you will then be able to relax just a little.
Moving Forward
Take a new action every day, even if it is just a simple article, or 10 article submissions. If you submit 10 articles a day, it is not as overwhelming as thinking about submitting 200 or 300 articles. As you outsource more, you can increase your daily production goals a little at a time.
When I started out, I did everything myself. I lost my job and started freelancing on top of running my sites. I had to pocket the money I was making to keep myself afloat. This made it much harder to get anywhere. Even if you can only spend $20/month on outsourcing, that will take a lot of stress off of you. Over time, you may want to build it up and hire people to work for you full time. This will give you a team of people working to build up your business, and will help you take the stress off.
Your ultimate goal as you climb the ladder of success should be to not be doing any of the actual work yourself. That is one of the secrets of the super affiliates that I have learned. They pay others to do the work, and they spend their time helping customers, planning new projects, and managing the business rather than working in the business.
So this brings us to our question of the day. What is your biggest obstacle to outsourcing? Is it the cost? Is it the trust factor? Let me know what stops you from outsourcing.
This post was written by...
James Pruitt – who has written 234 posts on IMRelations Media.
I Started my internet marketing journey in 2008, as I began building simple affiliate sites. Through the years I have worked as a freelance writer, publishing my own blogs and websites, written several ebooks, and now work mainly to help others build their online business through my marketing consultations, personal coaching, and relationship building.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey James, another great post, thanks.
We have two factors that we have to consider when outsourcing #1 – is getting the most from our money. While I hate spinning articles with a vengeance, at the moment it makes more financial sense to outsource basic bookmarking and bulk article backlinking.
#2 – We are still in the ‘trial and error’ period of our backlink building so are unsure which links will actually bring us the best traffic at the best ROI.
There is just so much to do in this game that you do have to seriously look at outsourcing simple stuff and it is easy to become overwhelmed, but as you said, by doing at least one thing a day you can say that you are closer to your goal than you were the day before!
Hi Chris, thanks for coming back.
I agree with you. I understand getting overwhelmed with it all. Outsourcing things like spinning is chancy, and you have to find someone who will do it properly. otherwise you wind up with a bunch of wasted content that you cannot use. That is why I stay away from places like Elance, and prefer to outsource to people that I know from forums and social networks. This way , you get a chance to build up a relationship first. Also, when outsourcing I always recommend hiring someone new to do one or two articles for you , so that you can see the quality of work that they do. Samples are good, but too many times I see people give out their best work on the samples, and the actual stuff that they sell is crap.
i actually have a whole new blog coming out soon dedicated to content creation, and outsourcing tips and strategies, ( this post is kind of a teaser to test some things).
James, great article, great tips, very inspirational…
To get started in online money making, i also suggest to work as a freelance link builder. From there, you would understand how SEO works and eventually, make your own blog and make money through affiliate marketing. On the other hand, If you’re a blogger and if you really want to be successful and make money online you should manage your time to avoid procrastination. Being successful online needs good values and self-discipline just like a day job.