If you’re just starting out in Internet Marketing (IM) , have you thought bow you will measure your success?  For some members it is when they’re earning enough money to give up their day job and become their own boss, for some it’s earning some extra money to supplement their income and for others, it’s not about money at all, it’s just an opportunity to learn something new.  

One of the above examples may resonate with you or perhaps you have a different measure of success.  The thing about success is that it will mean different things to each of us.  

Whatever success in IM means to you, it’s important that you use that information to influence the goals you set and the actions you take to ensure that the dreams you have when you sign up, don’t stay as dreams but are turned into reality.

I've  followed many of the threads in the forums and one of the most common is members expressing frustration,  disappointment or even anger with their progress and  the failure to reach the success they require or think they deserve.

This can be particularly difficult if you’re struggling to maintain your monthly membership fee, or if your family are moaning about the amount of time you’re spending in front of a computer, or if you’re feeling stressed that you can’t work quickly enough...

However, it’s really important that you don’t make it all the more difficult for yourself by failing to have a clear idea of what your success would look like, a flexible plan on how to get there and take actions to make it happen.

One of the things I’ve learnt from talking to people that their ideas of success are not really defined – eg “giving up my job and working for myself”.  Okay that’s a starting point but it won’t actually get you very far.  Define what that means for you.  Do you need to earn the same amount of money?  How soon do you want to leave work? Who else will this affect?  How much time have I got to devote to this? .....etc...etc...

I’m an NLP Practitioner and Coach and I always advise clients to start with the ‘end in mind’ and then work backwards, working out long term, mid-term and short term goals.  You may be thinking what a waste of time but over and over again I see people failing to reach their idea of success and becoming very stressed because they haven’t thought through what it really means,  how they’re  going to get there or whether they’re being realistic in the context of which they’re operating.

Here are my tips for measuring your success:

• Define your idea of success: This is entirely personal to you – it may be financial success is yor ultimate goal, but not necessarily. (It certainly wasn’t for me)

• Set goals: Long term, mid term and short term (The most successful people have  clearly defined goals)

• Manage your time: Be realistic – there are only 24 hrs a day.  You have lots of commitments. Work out how much time you have to devote to IM.  Always build in some ‘wriggle room’.  Normal life has a habit of encroaching on things you want to do, so always leave extra room. Also if you plan a task will take you 2 hrs add another 30 minutes because jobs generally take longer than you think.

• Work smart:  I know lots of people try and multi-task, I do myself, but it’s not the best way to work.  Schedule the time you have to work at IM and stick to it.  Try and shut out external distractions.  Better to do 45mins  of focussed work than three hours of being distracted every 10 minutes.

• Control perfectionist tendencies:  Don’t spend too much time on one single issue.  There is no such thing as the ‘perfect domain name’ or the ‘perfect theme’ or ‘perfect header’.  Of course you want to do a good job but sometimes you need to ask yourself whether you really need to spend the amount of time you did on a task.
  

• Be realistic:  if you only have  2 hrs a day to devote to IM and you are trying to learn how to build a website, install plugins, understand SE0, write articles, create backlinks .... for the first time, it’s probably a little unrealistic to think you’ll be earning 10,000 a month after 30 days. (Happy to eat my words if you’ve reached those heights).  Things often take a lot longer than you think. If you’ve planned something will take 2 hrs – it will probably take 2.5hrs to start with.

• Review and evaluate your progress:  It’s important that you know how your progress is going.  I like to review every 7 days.  This allows me to adapt what I’m doing. It's important that you review what you're doing on a regular basis.  It will help you to stay focussed.

• Accept you will make mistakes:  We all make them – how else do you learn?  Don’t waste time thinking if only – learn and move on.

• Acknowledge your achievements: It’s easy if you’re worry about lack of progress to forget about your achievements, however, an important part of maintaining a positive mindset is not acknowledge your achievements.  It will help you to stay motivated.
  

So how do you or how will you measure your success?