Last month in January, I wasted my December earnings. Believe me I was pissed, luckily it was not everything but still I wanted to come out even at least. January was all about trying to duplicate what I did in December, PPC marketing via various means. January I tested out several PPC networks other than Adwords. I played around with Yahoo Search Marketing, Adsonar, and Clickriver. I do not just want to limit myself to Adwords since there are other popular means of PPC marketing out there.
So last month while everyone is posting their last months earnings I am saying I lost money! Now I need to either read more or find out what my mistakes were and how I can improve or duplicate my December work with more tactics and strategies. It seems that the more money you make the more you spend it and you spend it much faster then when you do not have money.
Finally, you have started to earn some decent income from the internet, now how do you manage that earnings and turn it into more money? First thing is to get organized, where do you spend your money, where did you earn your income, how was it spent (credit card, paypal, cash, etc). These are all questions you should ask yourself if you want to know where your income flow is coming from. Being real basic is the key. I started to file certain things in binders and organize a lot of my stats via Excel.
One mentality I have, which I need to get rid of or control is "Since I earned X amount, I can spend X amount." I find myself doing this all the time. I earned X amount last month so this means I can spend X amount this month. BUT did I take in consideration my true ROI? What happened is I became happy with the earnings last month that I lost control of my 'business' and I lost control of my thoughts.
Last month I started spending money on testing other PPC networks: Adsonar, ClickRiver, Y!SM, etc. I really was not thinking of my spending because I only spent this amount this month, which is covered by last month's earnings. WRONG!
I should have written where I am spending my income and where am I spending money. As I have stated in prior posts, I will be tracking where I am spending my money and check to see if I am earning and income. This way it gives me a visual of what my ROI is and where I stand with profits. Since I am slow on my earnings from last months, I might be slow this month. But this does not make me slow down my marketing or tactics.
I might spend less money on Adwords and PPC all together. I might concentrate more on other means of marketing, forum, article, backlinking, etc. So this month I need to up my game and up my status. There was a great article on Freelance Folder about ways you are spending money.
- Mistake #1: Not using something you’re already paying for.
- Mistake #2: Not spending time to get better results with the tools you have.
- Mistake #3: Not investing money in additional high return tools and services.
I have made all these mistakes and I kind of known it too when I was not making any return in the month of January. For example I was not resourcing my list properly - I have been caught up with PPC I forgot about my fellow subscribers. I emailed them prior and provided them a gift for my lack of interest.
Spending time, I wish I had more time! But resourcing my time effectively again was an erroneous error on my part. I should have become more organized with my time, give myself a repetitive schedule that I need to follow - a business model! With my mind being filled with ideas and though, I have to some what manage them and organize it. I should not let my emails lose my focus on a project I am currently doing or an IM window. I need to focus!
It seems that if you get excited about earning money and you finally saw your first dollar, STOP and think what can you do with that dollar to help increase your earnings next month? STOP and relax your mind from the excitement you have received and think logically. STOP and decide what has brought you that dollar and how can it be duplicated. STOP and organize your thoughts and your spendings vs earnings so you have a visual of what your real earnings are.
Earning money from the internet is a great feeling, but controlling that emotion and thinking logically can mean the best of your success or the worst. For me luckily it was only 1/3 of my earnings from December and now I have driven myself to look and make my Excel sheet a little more powerful to visually show me my lost vs earnings. Do not get yourself carried away with excitement, pause for a moment, think, execute.
