Since my days recently are spent in an emotional state between a mixture of fear and excitement, I thought I’d talk a little about the fears I – and, I believe, all of us – experience on a daily basis.

“Fear is temporary, regret is forever”

“Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.” ~ Mark Twain

“Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Fear: False Evidence Appearing Real”

I have to keep telling myself things like this before I back out of what I really want to do.

Those of us who work online are certainly not taking the conventional path in life. Although there’s huge potential for making more money per hour than we would otherwise, and having more time to spend on things we truly love, the opposite is also true.

Many of us have faith that all the hard work we’re putting in now will pay off in future – this is certainly how I’m working at the moment – so we work long days and make many sacrifices.

There’s also the possibility that things can come crashing down completely, and it will all have been a waste of time.

The Worst-Case Scenario

But that really is a worst-case scenario – how likely is it that everything will go wrong? We’ve all personally been hit by changes, seen our friends take massive hits to their income, yet we’ve gone with the flow and changed our business to suit.

Often, if I’m scared of something, I ask myself “what’s the worst that can happen?” It’s usually nothing more than feeling embarrassed, feeling like a failure, or feeling that I’ve wasted my time. It’s not a life-or-death thing.

When I think about it, internet marketers are some of the most adaptable people I know. Many of us got into internet marketing not because we dreamed of this career since we were kids, but because we weren’t happy with our current life circumstances and wanted to improve things. We may not have achieved success right away, but we took action and we continue to take action every day to live the life we love.

Fear: False Evidence Appearing Real

What I’m trying to say is that there’s always a reason not to go for something. No matter whether it’s travelling the world, putting your writing out there, or quitting your job to work online, you’ll probably regret not doing it more than you will the mistakes you make while doing it. And your fears are probably unfounded to begin with.

It’s not easy to do something different to everyone else. But, if it works, it’ll be more than worth it. More freedom, more satisfaction, more happiness, more money.

This is what I keep telling myself as I worry that my business will fall apart as I hit the road, and I’ll end up having to come back with nothing. This is what I’ve been telling myself with every new idea that meant I had to put myself “out there”, and for the whole time I’ve worked online when I’ve worried about paying the bills and whether this is a viable long-term career.

But I won’t let fear hold me back (no matter how often I let it creep into my head)!

When I first started writing on the internet I didn’t do it because it was what I “wanted to do” in life. I just fell into it. I was blogging already, as a hobby (I didn’t know anything about making money from it apart from sponsored posts), and found my first paid work after a bit of Googling. I was honestly amazed that I had money in my account that very same day. It wasn’t much but I guess I got the “bug” for being my own boss. Even if the work was tough I was still free to do what I wanted!

Looking at the date on the calendar, I see it’s almost three years to the day that I started working online. I can’t quite believe how fast the time has gone and how I’ve changed my feelings about life and “jobs” in that time period. What started off as a way to pay the bills, little more than a hobby, has become a whole way of life.

I certainly make a lot of mistakes, and have a lot of flaws. My inability to stick to anything being the most notable. I am sure I would have seen more success had I worked harder on some of my first niche blogs, but I can’t change the past and I’ve certainly learnt from my mistakes. I know I can’t change the path I’ve taken and I’m happy with the direction it’s heading in.

My Big Goal

This post isn’t about my specific goal in particular, rather the way in which entrepreneurship can help you meet goals you didn’t think possible. That said, I think it’s worth mentioning (as if I haven’t already mentioned it enough in the past ) Since the end of 2010, I made it a goal to travel for an extended period of time. I still don’t know how long this will be, but I’ll keep going as long as it’s feasible.

I don’t know when I got the idea in my head. But I think it’s a lot to do with who I read online. Nobody I know “in real life” has a job like I do that you can do from anywhere with an internet connection. Nobody else has the freedom to travel and keep running their business at the same time. I’m so grateful that I do, and have been inspired others who have done it.

Travel isn’t the only goal that working online is helping me to achieve, though. I also know that someday, when I have kids, I’ll be able to spend more time with them, doing things more important than working. And I also have a creative platform (blogging) from which to, hopefully, make some kind of impact on this world (however small that may be).

Working Online Can Make Big Things Happen

Whether you’re interested in travelling or not isn’t the point – the point is building a career that allows you to do what you want to. I feel I’m getting a little too sentimental in my post, but I’ve decided just to let it happen. This is my chance to show my gratitude for everything I’ve learnt, the people who’ve helped or encouraged me along the way, and the seemingly negative circumstances that have led to my current situation.

The truth is that working online is hard, and it’s stressful. In these three years my income has yo-yod from great months to months where I barely earned a penny. My friends and family have wondered when I’d quit in favor of a “real job”, but for some reason I’ve kept going.

Success in this business is about focus and determination. Sometimes all the signals seem to be telling you to give up, but for some reason you find a way to continue. Even more so if you have a goal in mind and you’ve made the decision to make it happen, no matter what. Although I’ve made mistakes, nobody can deny that I have been determined to make things happen. I’m proud of that.

Success also comes down to taking action. We hear it so many times, but action alone is not enough. It has to be action in the right places. And, unfortunately, you’ll never really know what’s right or what’s wrong for you until you try.

Because of this, my whole philosophy on niche site building has completely changed, and I’m focused on a very small network of sites. I’m also firmly focused on my PLR business, and have faced many fears in order to start a membership site and push my business further forward.

This is what has finally let my dream stop being just a dream. I’m not just dreaming and thinking about doing it now, I’m taking the steps to make it happen! I’m planning itineraries, budgets, visa applications, packing lists and everything else. I am going to do what I planned. And my focus and simplification means I’ll still be able to run my business while I’m gone.

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of the journey so far!

I hope you’ll forgive me for what has become a rather self-indulgent and sentimental post, but I just wanted to share my happiness and pride. I’d love to hear about your goals or what working online means to you.

So it’s a new month which means time for a new goal I have done quite a few “challenges” here on Web Career Girl in the past. Basically it’s just the best way to keep me accountable to make sure I meet my goals. This month the challenge I’ve chosen isn’t something directly related to IM – it’s about getting active!

I don’t know about you, but I sit down far too much. When I’m not sitting down at my computer, I’m usually sitting down doing something else lazy. I’ve never been as inactive as I have been for the last couple of years working on my IM business. Thankfully I am not overweight but I feel it’s only a matter of time. And I know that I am definitely not fit!

So my challenge is to be ative every day in July! OK, not quite every day, I am allowed two rest days per week. When I’m exercising, I’m going to aim for a period of 30 minutes a day. There’s no excuse for not doing it then!

Why Have I Chosen This Challenge?

1. I work so hard to improve my life, but my life is nothing without my health (and exercise will help my mental as well as physical health by de-stressing me and helping me focus).
2. I need to go fit if I’m going to go travelling.
3. So many successful entrepreneurs have put their success and productivity down to regular exercise.

Here are the ways I’m going to get active…

• Going for a walk: for a period I walked every day at lunch time and felt so good for it. I saw the progress really quickly.
• Fitness games: yes I am a geek who likes to get fit by playing games I have a Wii Fit balance board and quite a few fitness games that haven’t been used nearly as much as they should have been!
• Standing up to work: this one won’t actually count as my “activity” for the day, but I am going to make an effort to stand up to work at my computer for a small amount of time each day and see how much it helps. I don’t have a stand up desk but I do have a counter that’s pretty much the perfect height.

Now I know my plan may not be the best according to fitness experts out there, but for me any activity is better than nothing right now!

This is going to be hard for me to achieve. I’ve attempted this challenge before and failed, usually because I get so achey (yes even from just using the Wii Fit!) that I can’t bring myself to exercise the next day, and just fall out of the habit. So I hope that by posting here I really will create a real habit for myself this time!

What about you? Do you find your fitness lacking since you’ve been working online? And are you going to join me in my challenge ?

I wonder if I still have any readers…

I’ve been away for nearly two months! Things got on top of me, and I had to prioritize. I also didn’t have much to write about here, so I decided not to even try. I still question exactly what I want to share on this site, but I’m pleased to say I do have some new things to share with you now.

In truth, I always compared myself to others and thought I wasn’t doing well enough in internet marketing – not compared to them – to offer real value here. But in truth I have had successes, and I just have different strengths to other people and there’s nothing wrong with that. So I might share a few different types of things from now on, things that I may have learnt from selling PLR, for example, but that also apply to other websites and internet marketing in general.

I thought it was a good idea to post an update of what I’ve been working on in the last couple of months. I am planning about blogging about some of the specific things I’ve learnt during this time, such as how to set up a Facebook fan page, some cool plugins I’m using, success with affiliate promotions etc.

What I’m Working On, Internet-Marketing Wise

• PLR Deal Guide: This is one of my newest websites, dedicated to posting about special PLR offers. The only PLR packs that get posted are ones that are specifically discounted, have coupon codes, or are otherwise considered a special offer. This includes my own PLR but also PLR from other sources that I’ve personally tested and recommend as high quality PLR. I’m going to give this site a few months to grow and decide whether it’s worth my time or whether it doesn’t earn enough. I’ve also experimented promoting other PLR sellers to my lists and have done quite well with it so far.

• How To Sell PLR: I’ve had this domain for a while, and I think it has great potential but I need to figure out my long term plan. At the moment I’ve done very indepth reviews of the two most popular “how to sell PLR” guides and also some very long posts based on my experience as a PLR seller. I get good feedback on the posts, and I’ve done very well promoting Tiffany Dow’s PLR ATM, but still, I am blogging there without direction so I need to figure it out. If you want to know anything about PLR, please check out the site

• Revisiting Older Niche Sites: I took a look at my Google analytics and saw one site is getting good traffic but next to no earnings because it’s very poorly monetized. I took a further look and realized it’s also very poorly written! I’ve made it my mission to work on revamping this site. So far I’ve given it a new design and added an opt in box. The opt in doesn’t even have any freebie offer promoting it but I’m getting a couple new subscribers daily.

• Other Niche Sites: I am only focusing on two main niche sites at the moment, aside from the one above. I think it’s more than enough for me at the moment and I need to make sure I don’t take on anything else.

• Building Lists: Following on from the point about adding an opt-in box to my older niche site, I’ve decided to do this on my other niche sites. I’m also focusing on building my PLR list and created a freebie WSO yesterday which has gone pretty well so far (it’s for 10 free product review articles, in case you’re interested )
  

• Setting Up Facebook Fan Pages: This is another way I want to increase my presence, but at the same time help build trust in visitors to my sites by looking more professional. This isn’t top of my list of things to do but I’m slowly learning a lot more about how to do this.
  

Stay tuned for some posts in the coming weeks on the things I’ve learnt from these projects.

What’s Been Going On In My Life

In my last post I mentioned I was taking a blogging sabbatical because of all the stress and busyness of moving home. Since we weren’t moving of our own choice, and only lived in our old flat for 8 months, it really has been a huge upheaval. I have realized I never really felt at home in the previous place. We had viewings from potential buyers for 5 of the 8 months we were there. Coupled with the fact that I went on holiday in January and February (to Barbados and up to the Lake District here in the UK) I’m starting to realize the toll it’s taken on my business.

Looking at my financial records, I can see a steep decline in income since the end of January. I still haven’t recovered from this. I admit, I’m not working as much as I should. I find it hard to focus and often waste time on unimportant activities. Moving home took a huge emotional toll on me, far more than it did when I moved last time in August 2010. In August, I was ready to “upgrade” to a nicer place, this time, I was forced out.

I am very pleased to report that I love my new flat. It has real character as it’s in an attic but it’s spacious despite being a “downgrade” (the only problems are the squirrels in the roof, but that’s another story). I’m getting a lot better at focusing on my work now and think I’ll be fully settled soon.

And I still have a goal to travel and become a “digital nomad” for a while. At the moment I’m really hoping I can do it when the contract on this place expires in October, or soon after.

Faith is definitely a part of the journey towards a successful internet marketing career, and I have really been losing my faith as of late.

<MOAN>The long and short of it is that I’m looking for a new place to live and it’s a really stressful time for me. I moved into where I am late August, and they started showing people around in November to buy. Needless to say it’s been hard to feel at home anywhere, especially now where I’ve got just over a month until I’m out. And I’m still looking for a new place, which is time consuming to say the least.</END MOAN>

OK, so now I’ve got my moan out of the way it’s time to be positive. It’s all I can be at the moment, and I truly do have many reasons to be. A couple of weeks ago I started to really freak out when my earnings weren’t as high as usual. I mean those kind of “I’m going to have to go out and get a job!” and “I’ll never make this work” and “There’s no way I’m going to go travelling” kind of thoughts.

In a word these thoughts are irrational. I’ve never not made enough money from my online business.

Steps I’ve Taken To Help Me Rebuild My Faith

No matter how many times I tell myself my thoughts are irrational, that my past experience does not backup my irrational thoughts now, it still doesn’t stop the stress. So I sat down and I took certain steps to help rebuild my faith.

1. Planning: Having everything planned in advance makes me feel a lot better. This means I know when I’ll release a new PLR pack – I have many, many packs planned over the coming months – and I know when I will have time to work on my niche sites. When it comes time to move, my business won’t come to a complete halt.

2. Looking At My Past Earnings: This helps me to be a bit more rational about things as I remember how well I did certain months, as well as working out averages and realizing that I don’t need to worry so much! Of course nothing is guaranteed but it does help to have rational evidence to help you feel better about your current situation.

3. Working Out What I Need To Earn In Future: Like I said in last Tuesday’s post, I sat down and really thought about what I need to earn to meet my goals. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be, and I can do a lot better than the bare minimum if I really put some effort in!

4. Reading About Other People’s Success: Everyone needs a little motivation sometimes in the form of reading about people who have made it work, who are making lots of money, and who also understand the stresses that you’re going through right now because they’ve been there themselves.

5. Remembering I Have A Fall Back: I have a fall back that I am sure will make me the money I need, if I really need to use it. That is providing services! I could always get clients before, but now that I have my list for my PLR site I’m sure that I’ll have even more interested buyers. It’s good to know I can make money like this if I need to. Oh yeah, and I suppose I also have the fall back of going out and finding a real job with a boss too (not that it’s so easy right now)!

I had to write this post for my own sanity. When I look at everything laid out like that, things really are good! Lets just hope that dream flat comes along sooner rather than later I wonder if any of you are going through, or have gone through, a crisis of faith like me?

PS. I’d also like to say that I might not be great at posting/ responding to comments/ keeping up with all your blogs. I am still reading but I’m really behind on leaving my comments. Things are just hectic right now!

As you know, motivation is always a problem when you work for yourself. Some days are fab and you just get everything done and more. But others… somehow clicking around Facebook all day seems more appealing that writing! So I’m trying to really motivate myself with my next big life goal – to go travelling for an extended period of time (how long it is will depend on how things go).

So yesterday I sat down and really did some calculations about how much I want to spend while I’m away travelling (hint: I am going to be a budget traveller!), and how much money I’ll need to achieve that. Ideally I won’t be working too much – though I will work- while I’m away, so I need to set my sights on passive income (otherwise it’ll probably take me years to save up in advance!)

This post isn’t actually going to go into exact figures about how much I earn or how much I want to earn, it’s more about the general concept of coming up with concrete goals.

Spreadsheets And Calculations

I don’t know about you, but I always keep a spreadsheet to track earnings from affiliate sources (Clickbank, Amazon, Adsense etc) every month and have done since April 2010. Before then I wasn’t tracking and it really wasn’t a good idea as I wasn’t really noticing where I was improving etc. Yes I made a note of it and paid my taxes, but not in a way that I could see my progress at a glance in each specific area.

I didn’t include any client work or PLR sales in this tracking, so technically the income was “passive”. However, when I look back I know that it’s not necessarily regular passive income. For example, when I reviewed Tiffany Dow’s PLR ATM product I got quite a lot of sales. Now I get a sale every now and again, nothing like what I earned back then. So I have tried to calculate what is truly passive. The earnings that come from those websites that I never ever touch, but that seem to be consistent.

So I put this improved, more realistic data, into a new spreadsheet. I also made it as simple as possible to glance at. It looks something like this…

Nothing special at all! I just added an average column and totals row so that I could see at a glance exactly what I was earning. Now I have a pretty fair idea of the minimum passive income I can expect for the future (and I am being conservative, because I don’t want to overestimate things here).

How Passive Is My PLR Income?

On a different table I also detailed my total PLR earnings right from February 2010 when I first started, to today. These are obviously not passive, but they are to an extent. Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible for me to judge how much I can expect to earn on a passive level from my PLR.

I was pleasantly surprised with my average total earnings per month across the year. I didn’t make much at all in the first 6 months of my PLR business (£50 GBP per month average!) but it greatly improved after that, and even the average across all 12 months isn’t bad. If I could sustain that by working on it just a little every month then it’d actually cover all my travel costs – but I’ll have to keep monitoring this for a while to see how the sales go.

My Expenses

Although I don’t have a mortgage or any expenses like that to pay while I’m away, I’ll still have certain expenses related to my business:

• Website hosting,
• Taxes and national insurance,
• Backlinking services (depending on where I’m at, I might cancel them),
• Membership programs (there are only a couple of cheap ones now and they will probably be cancelled),
• Aweber,
• Affiliates (not really a bad expense since I’ll only be paying them if they’re helping to make sales).

Coming Up With A Goal To Work Towards

Bearing in mind that my PLR income isn’t counted as passive (like I said, I am trying to be very conservative to work out a worst case scenario) I was able to come up with a goal. This goal is how much I need to increase the passive earnings of my niche sites in order to live off passive earnings before I go. It isn’t actually as big as I thought it would need to be, which is really encouraging! And I am only, in my conservative estimates, planning to do a small amount of active work while I am away (I am really planning to do more, but this is the worst case scenario where I can’t work because of concentration, lack of internet etc.)

I also have a second goal, and that’s to save money before I go. I would be stupid not to, even if I was almost certain I’d have the passive income coming in. You never know what’s going to happen, do you? So I’ll cover a certain amount of the trip with savings, and also plan to do active work while I’m away. The way that I’m planning, I’m hoping things will actually work out better than I expect them to.

Now I have a goal to work towards – one that isn’t too huge to seem impossible – I do feel quite a lot better about everything that needs to be done! It’s still a big task, especially if I want to do it in 7-8 months time – I’m honestly not sure if it’s even possible but I’ll try! If I don’t succeed by then, I will simply put off the goal for a few months until I’m ready.

As you know, I’ve had a hard time keeping up lately. I went to Barbados near the end of January, got back a week into February, and went for a week up in the North of England (still working a little) four days later. Despite leaving me feeling overwhelmed, the time away did give me a lot of time to think about what I want from my business.

Things Become Clearer When You Step Back

The truth is that it sometimes takes a while of stepping back from everything, not working on your business, to see things more clearly. The last time I did this was around August 2010, when I was moving home and not exactly the most relaxed ever. Going on holiday was exactly what I needed. I planned everything in advance so I wouldn’t have to work when I was there. But I couldn’t help but spend a lot of time reflecting on things.

What Do I Want From My Business?

Although I think I know what I want, I’ve come to realize I didn’t really know. I was just ambling along, taking the ups with the downs and remaining satisfied when things stayed roughly the same. But deep down, that’s not really what I want. I want to take advantage of being my own boss, and do things with that.

I mentioned at the beginning of the year that I’d like to travel. When I wrote that, it was a “maybe”, a “someday, sort of goal. But when I was away in the Caribbean, it made me realize that I want to travel for sure. It is going to happen, either this year or next.

Unfortunate events have thrown a spanner in the works, namely being asked to leave my flat (despite only moving in August) since it’s now been sold. This means a lot of expense, expense I could have saved towards the cost of travelling. Not to mention how much time it takes away from my business while I’m searching for a place. But that’s life, I’ve got to deal with it, and I’ve also got to remember that I have the privilege of still being able to earn money while I’m away! That is amazing when you think about it.

Still Battling With Focus

The best case scenario is that we’ll take off in October, once my partner has finished his part time Masters degree. It might not be feasible, though, since he is still working part time and getting very part time money. I’ve also spent way too much money in 2011, due to all these trips! But it will still happen within a year, sooner if I’m not locked into a rental contract/ have higher passive income than I do now.

What this above means is that I have something really concrete to focus on, but I’m still struggling. Really struggling. Since I made the decision to expand my PLR site I’ve realized there’s so much to think about, and so much to organize. Ironic that when I finally learn to focus on one or two niche sites at a time, I think of all this PLR-related stuff that needs doing and completely lose my focus again!

But I know it’ll be worth it to have these two separate income streams. I’ve just got to stop being paralysed when I think of all the tasks I need to do, and start breaking them down into small steps. I need to keep telling myself that every little thing I do is pushing towards my goal of being more free to see some more of the world!

Being the “workaholic” that I am, I’m still not that excited about my holiday – more feeling guilty that I just took some time off for Christmas and I’m going away! But really it’s a very good thing. If you didn’t read before, I’m going to Barbados on January 20 where I’ve been many times before as my uncle lives there. I’m staying with him and it’s going to be a cheap, relaxing holiday overall Lots of sea, sun, sand and rum!

So, I’ve got two weeks left before I go. And to ease my guilt, I need to get working. So I’ve decided to set myself a little “challenge” as I’ve done a few times in the past. These challenges have always kicked my arse into gear when I needed it!

The Challenge: Write 6,000 Words Per Day

I’ve decided to write 6,000 words per day (week days) until I go. This means I’ll have a total of 66,000 words done before I set off! What will those words be for? PLR content, website content, and backlinks. Pretty much every part of my plan for 2011 revolves around writing words, which is tiring but completely necessary work. So the theory is that increasing my word count will increase my productivity and my profits!

There are a few things I need to do that can’t be measured by a word count, namely setting up an affiliate program for my PLR site and taking stock of all the domains and pages I have out there (I want to compile a spreadsheet to keep me organised and on track). For the challenge, I’ll start each day with my words, and fill any other time (if there’s any left) with the other activities.

Tracking My Progress

I got the idea for this challenge after browsing the member area at the Keyword Academy. I didn’t sign up for the training, just for the backlinking tool they provide, but I noticed they have a nifty word count section where you can track your daily writing, so I thought I may as well use that to keep me motivated. I’ll post the screenshots here to keep you updated.

Hopefully this challenge will help me feel a little less guilty about taking a holiday so soon after the Christmas break

I’m now officially “back to work”. That is, I finished my two week sabbatical, and am back putting all my effort into my passive empire again.

Today was day one and it was one of my best days in a long while. I worked hard, I got that good-tired feeling when I finished – like I’d really accomplished something. And I’ve no doubt I’ll be up early tomorrow excited about what I’m working on. I feel re-energised and it’s thanks to new focus.

Focus: My Biggest Problem

When I look at what I know, my experience, how long I’ve been at it and how much I’m earning, I know that I’ve made a lot of mistakes. That’s fine, and it’s all part of IM and any other business. It’s fine, that is, as long as you learn from them. And one of my biggest lessons has been that I haven’t focused enough… on anything!

I’ve jumped from project to project, idea to idea, niche site to niche site, never really finishing any of them. Back in May, I decided to ramp things up. I started maybe 15 niche blogs, writing content for them everyday. I was focused, but only on the content. Once I did my 10-20 blog posts for each blog, I was no better off than where I started. None of those blogs got marketed properly, I didn’t have any sort of plan.

How Can I Change Things?

On this two week break I knew it was time to re-evaluate. I’d been procrastinating a lot recently, and I know procrastination can be a sure sign that something’s not right. I had to cut some things out of my grand plan, and find new ways to focus.

I actually sat down with a pen and paper (a rare occurrence these days) and made a list of ways to become more focused:

• Only work on one niche site at a time (or at least, fewer than 15!),
• Build authority sites rather than tens of mini sites,
• Only focus on Amazon product reviews from now until Christmas,
• Outsource more of the simple tasks that make me busy,
• Get rid of all my old niche sites,
• Do NOT buy into any new guides/ courses/ eBooks etc.,
• Give up ghostwriting,
• Take time out every day away from the computer (to read real books and so on),
• And, above all, have a plan (which may mean taking more time away from the computer to truly consider things).

What Did I Decide?

1) Giving up ghostwriting was top of the list. This is actually something I gave up a while ago, yet somehow it crept back into my life. It was fear that caused me to do it. I had to move and there were extra costs and so on. But in truth I know I can get by without it. If I need extra cash in the meantime I will a) sell sites as in point 2 below or b) take on more custom niche site building jobs.

• But for now, for active income, I’m going to focus at least one full day per week on writing PLR article packs. These may not earn as much upfront, but often sell better in the long run and create a truly passive income stream. Not to mention the fact that I pick and choose exactly what I write.

2) Getting rid of my niche sites is next. I read that Yolanda also decided to do this, and has actually followed through. I’m still on the fence. Most of them don’t earn me anything so I really haven’t got much to lose. I just know, psychologically, that when they’re gone I’ll feel like I have even more of a clean slate to work from. Not to mention the fact that even selling them off cheap will give me a nice chunk of cash.

3) From now on, the sites I create will be authority sites. Of course, some may not end up being profitable and I may leave them before they become an authority. But each and every new site I start (which won’t be many anyway) will be started with an honest purpose in mind: to inform, educate or entertain, and not just to make money from people who can’t click away from the site fast enough.

This really gets me excited about working on them! I have one in the green living niche which I’m especially looking forward too, and it’ll be targeted towards the UK market. I’m not even attempting to start it yet while I’m still working on my Halloween/ Christmas sites: I’m waiting ’til the timing’s right to make sure I don’t give up on this one.

4) Outsourcing more has always been something I wanted to do, but keep changing my mind about because of the money issue. Unfortunately I’m still limited by the money, but I’m going to try and work smarter and outsource the simple things leaving me to do what I’m good at e.g. the in-depth content that I really just don’t want to leave in anyone else’s hands right now.

5) And taking more time out. This one really is essential. I gained so much perspective on my business by not working on it in the last two weeks. It’s something I need to do more often. Not to mention start reading books again (which I’ve let slip) and get back into yoga etc.

Forging My Own Path

Underlying just about everything is the fact that I’m forging my own path in IM. I always have been, except that I got distracted by many shiny objects along the way. I’ve always known that it’s up to me to learn by doing things my way, yet somehow I never listen to what I know.

All I know is that now I’m working on roughly one thing at a time. Today, I worked on my Halloween site nearly all day. Tomorrow, I’m working on a PLR pack all day. I plan to rotate just a few tasks like this to keep things interesting, but the thought of spending a whole day doing only one things fills me with so much excitement right now!

PS. As soon as I typed the last word, I realised I’d reached exactly 1000 words. This has got to be one of the longest posts here (especially in recent times). If you got this far, thanks for listening!

As I write this I’m surrounded by boxes. I might get up and forge a path to my desk in a moment, but I thought I’d add a quick blog post now while I’m sat with my laptop on the sofa.

This will be my last post for a few weeks. I’m moving on Saturday, my broadband is being disconnected on Friday (!!) and I’ve got a lot to do before then. After I move, I’m taking a well earned break. I’ve even told every single one of my clients that I’m not going to be working until September 6th at the earliest! Wow – it feels really good

What I’m Going To Do In My Break

As you can guess, a big reason for this break is simply to unpack, to relax a little after a very stressful run up to the move, and to settle into my new place (I don’t know about you, but working at home I get very set into a routine and when my surroundings change it can take me a while to properly adjust).

I’m not sure yet how long my broadband will take to transfer over, but it could be two weeks from my move date. I’ve bought a mobile broadband dongle so that, in the meantime, I can connect to mobile internet via 3G on my laptop, but there’s a 30 day download limit of 2GB for this. I really don’t know how much 2GB will let me do, but I know I can’t carry on watching videos, doing everything I normally do.

The point is I’m going to try not to do all the usual things I normally do to waste time. Watching videos, getting sidetracked. As well as relaxing and not working to a fixed schedule (I normally try to work 9-6 every day even though, of course, I don’t have to), I’m going to take the time out to really consider my “grand plan”.

There are so many aspects to my online business: writing, custom site setups, blog flipping, writing PLR content, and the various different kinds of passive niche sites I’ve got. As you all know, I’ve tried a lot but I’ve still got a long way to go in terms of creating a full time passive income. That’s partly why I find it so hard to focus – because I need to do the client work etc to bring the money in now, yet it really does detract from my own passive efforts.

I hope that removing myself from this huge jumble of work for a couple of weeks will help to give me some clarity. Hopefully next time I see you I’ll have a renewed energy for my online business (and perhaps a tighter definition of what that actually is).