It has been a while since my last post, and I would LOVE to tell you that during my hiatus I was relaxing on a beach in Tahiti sipping tropical drinks.  

But I would be lying! 

Instead I have been working my tail off.  

Many Internet Marketers make a point of selling the Internet lifestyle.  You know…work a few hours a month and live like a King (or Queen) the rest of the time. While this may be true for some people, the majority of successful people I know have worked hard to get to where they are…and continue to work hard to stay there.

The difference is that the truly successful people realize that is isn’t just about money…it is about enjoying what you do to make the money.    Working hard doesn’t seem like work if you enjoy what you do.

Successful people also realize that if they leverage their time and resources wisely, they can get more work done in less time.  They can also do something once and then reap the benefits of it for MANY years to come. 

Here’s what I mean…

You can become an affiliate for a product and make money when people purchase that product through your affiliate link OR you can invest the time and money into creating a product yourself and then have affiliates promote it for YOU for years to come.

Given the above example…which would you choose?

Or what about this?

You can spend a lot of time creating sources of traffic to your sites, or you can partner with people who already have traffic to send to your sites.  This way you leverage THEIR resources to get your traffic a whole lot faster and easier.  

Here’s a real world example…

I recently created a system where I was contacting people in one of my niches to see if they were interested in a mutually beneficial partnership…also known as a Joint Venture partnership. 

I initially created, tested and refined the process myself so that one of my employees could follow my system exactly the way I had done it.  I created the spreadsheets, the emails to send and all of the follow up material.  This way I could explain EXACTLY what I wanted him to do and he could continue to contact people while I spent my time focusing on other projects.

I created something once and now someone else (in this case my employee) can use it in the future.  I am also leveraging other people’s resources by finding partners to promote my products for me.

So far the response has been incredible.  (We are seeing 10% to 20% response rates of people who are ready to partner with us, and to promote our products, not just time-wasting “lookie loos”.)   We actually had to stop sending emails for a while because we were getting so many positive responses that we just couldn’t keep up. 

We have had people write reviews about our products and post them on their web sites.  Others have written articles and submitted them to the article directories.  People have sent emails to their email list about our products.  Others are finding new and creative ways to incorporate our marketing message into their marketing efforts.

Instead of my staff and I doing all of this work, we are now leveraging other people’s time and resources (customers, subscribers, web site visitors, etc.) to help grow our business.

Because this system has been working so well for us, one of my business partners will be interviewing me next month about the entire process.  I’m very excited to share this information with you, so make sure you check back to get all the details.

Actually, if you are a subscriber to our Marketing Demystified Newsletter you’ll be the first to hear about this exciting way to grow your business. (You can sign up for our free newsletter by visiting: www.marketingdemystifiednewsletter.com ) 

So again, here’s the lesson of the day…

As you are spending time in your Internet Marketing business (or whatever type of business you are in), think about the things you are doing and whether you are really leveraging your time and resources wisely.  If not, make a change.  It is worth investing the time in your future.

Well I have to get going…its back to the grindstone for me!  ☺