Surprisingly early this week. I might be going to Birmingham on short notice so I'm getting this out of the way just in case.

I'll return to my "by project" style I used in the early days this week, and follow the progresses by 3 of my projects:

= JV

Last week I aimed to finish some tasks that I had been given for my JV. I DUNN one fo them and has made progress on all the others. I expect that I will be able to get closure on many of the others if I manage to get to Birmingham this weekend
I'll continue to progress the tasks I have for this. When I can give you more details, I will.

= Publishing Business:

last week I said I would write 5 articles. I have written one. If I am not travelling to Birmingham this weekend, I will be writing another 3 or 4 tonight
Our book is going to be available in the shops from the 15th of March and I need to create a marketing "torrent" between now and then and I have already committed to deliver a plan to the CEO ( the missus ) before Sunday for how to create this.

= Internet business

To be honest, there is not a lot of profit here this month. The campaigns do pay for themselves and then some, so it is really becoming pressing to get some products of my own out there. But will I get it from Ain't Done to DUNN?
Consider this, I have 10 to 16 hours available every week. Sounds like lots. Right. There is only one thing for it.
Use Nice Portal Builder!

No. It'll have to wait. I need to work on some templates, I have 3 domains to fill with content but other things are more pressing at the moment. It would be SO easy to get these things done and it seems to be a great idea to tap into these micro niches to generate some income. I might get to it if I manage the time properly this comming week.

=> Lessons Learnt:
Loads!!

One, There is time to create some focus again. I have had a look at what I do in the evenings and there is unfortunately a lot of time spent NOT pursuing the things that will accellerate my business. Easily done, but now that I am aware of it I will focus on eliminating that behaviour.

Two, what a great Idea to-do lists are! Rob And Kim has started their own blogs to make themselves accountable for their progress. The competition has spurred me on, but it has also allowed me to revisit a trick that I apparently used a while back but have forgotten about: Daily to-do lists!
BOY has this made a difference! Have I achieved everything on it? Erm - NO, but I have most definitely achieved MORe than the week before.

Three: Top priority post it notes. Thanks Martin. It helped. Did all three of them before Tuesday. I wonder though, should I add a new post it when I'm done in advance? ;o)

There was also something else I learnt yesterday, but I forgot what it was. I have forgotten more stuff this week than what I have achieved. Like where my credit card is...

=> So to Summarise:
Top priority is the marketing torrent for my publishing business.
Second priority is the JV related work.
Third priority is the Internet business product creation for passive income creation.

But apologies, I am off to find my credit card...

Marlon Sanders Progress

Get the blimmin bubbly out the latest book by our publishing company has gone to the printers!!

I'll continue the Marlon Sanders style assessment of my progress this week. For those of you that have met him ( I haven't!! ) imagine him standing in the back of a seminar room heckling me when I read out the progress:

=> I will begin to go to the gym.

MS: DON!

Yes indeed. Although ONE session in the pool for 15 minutes hardly counts as a lifestyle change it is a step in the right direction.
As this is the HEALTH section, let me dash off to weigh myself 3 times again ( although the digital weight at work this afternoon at roughly 3pm declared in glaring red diode light that I weigh 118.2 kg )
Office: 116.5 kg
Hallway: 117kg
Bathroom: 116kg

Why 3 weights? Check out this post for an explanation:
http://newbiealert.blogspot.com/2005/01/weight-watchers-atkins-diet-and.html
Even though the mental health visitor my wife called in on me assured her I was sane, I think I will restrict myself to weighing myself at work every Friday on the digital scales...

I don't think someone who buys their husband a gym membership for valentines day should questions MY sanity!

(I got her a HUGE box of chocolates instead of the mouthwash by the way. Talk about cutting off my nose to spite my face...but it seemed a good idea at the time )

=> I will write the blurb

MS: DON!

hey. yes. Doing well so far. This one got completed as well. Although in the end all that was needed was ONE sentence.

But I thought about it for a long long time so it's really good!

=> I will work on the marketing plan & the partnering plan for the JV.

MS: AIN'T DON!

Well, I'd argue that a marketing plan is never really finished, but even though I worked on it, there are still quite alot that I haven't covered yet. I suspect it should really be done in a much simpler way, and possibly include my JV partners!

=>I will take some books with me and learn stuff while pauline is getting her photos taken for this mag.

MS: DON!

thanks for that. 3 out of 4 is a vast improvement. I bought an ebook on how to create a memorable marketing message and I must admit that when I realised that about 9 of the 27 pages was just marketing and sign up forms etc I was a bit miffed as I would have expected that from a FREE book - not one I paid for. So with the remaining "content" printed out we headed off on our 3 hour drive. Pauline drives for 15 minutes and I have finished the book. ( damn that speed reading program! ) But it helped me in identifying what it was that we really wanted to achieve for our clients with the JV though.

You know what I think of being accountable for what you set out to do - and you can see for yourself what that has done for my life! So that is an important part.
I don't think I'm great at setting goals, but I think I have a fair idea of how to
set some that work!

But if people want to be successful, all relevant things has to be taken into consideration. The thing we get a kick out of is thinking about what our clients could achieve with this. I know in my own mind what I would like to stand up and be proud of. What ever it is will have to offer genuine value to all parties, including any customers that our clients may have. I know what I don't like about the internet business.

I will NEVER stand by something that I didn't believe could make my client more successful than me.

LESSONS:
I still waste quite a lot of time forum hopping. I say waste as I only have about two hours a night to work on this internet business AND my publishing business. The bulk of the load falls on Pauline at the moment and we're a far way away from being able to take out any dividends from the business just yet.

And don't you know it, the gremlins have been out again.

My browser Crashed again while I was writing this blog entry.
I'm smiling though. I wasn't using the browser to type this in :)

=>
Next week?

Now there is a good question.

I bought a copy of Niche Portal Builder a month or so ago and did create a site last week: http://www.citybreakcentral.co.uk

I am tempted to spend some time on this sort of thing as it seems to make some money to help out our finances. money IS an issue but I'm sure it'll work out!

So this week I will do the following:

JV business. Tasks given on Sunday will have to be completed.

Publishing business. Have to start writing lots of articles for our websites. I'll aim for 5 articles around 600 words or so. I also will have to pick the 5 subjects.

Internet business. make sure I make money on the google adverts!

Now that I have spent an hour typing this up, I wish I could learn speed typing! beyond that, I am going to dig out that Champers and pop the cork!!

Time to get hammered!!

Mind Over Mattress

Having deleted an hours work this evening, I am now typing this entry for the second time.

Mind Over Mattress seems to be a repeating theme for me this week.

There is the JV to work on, there is our imminent book launch to work on, there is google to keep a close eye on.

Oh and work.

Whops. Hang on a sec. let me weigh myself as I forgot to mention my weight last week:

117kg in the bathroom,
118kg in the hallway &
119kg in the office.

I guess I'd better start using the gym membership my wife gave me as an early valentines day present. grumble.

I'm considering giving her dental floss or mouth wash or something...

Work work is manic at the moment. I thought I was busy before but the sheer volume of admin stuff to do in addition to the selling is just stupid.

Well it seems a little excessive at least.

Excuses?
Could be. The results these week do look as if they need justifying:

=> write two sales pages and get them critiqued on this forum

Ain't Done.

If someone wants a nearly ready product to promote and know how to write copy, let me know!

=> research for my JV.

Done.

Great stuff in fact. If you're interested in partnering with me and a couple of other guys from this forum - we'll be looking for partners shortly. I'll let you know more when we're ready. This is no me too offering by the way. We're not the only one's plugging this hole, but we're just ahead of the competition.

= > for my business: write the coverblurb for the new book that we're about to publish.

Ain't Done.
I must admire Martin alot as I have never met Don Aint Don Marlon Sanders but I use the Don / Aint Don catchfrase Martin attributed to him..

Either way you look at it though. 66 percent of my targets were not even progressed this week. At all. There is only one reason for that though.

So how can I change? Sadly. It seems that going to the gym to build up more stamina and stress resistance will be tremendously beneficial to the amount of work I can get done.

Which gives me a REASON to go to the gym:

I WANT TO GET MORE STAMINA, IMPROVED ABILITY TO CONSENTRATE AND INCREASED RESISTANCE TO STRESS BECAUSE THESE THINGS ARE ABSOLUTE key TO GETTING THE WORK DONE FOR MY PUBLISHING BUSINESS, MY JV, MY JOB AND MY OTHER INTERNET WORK.

And those things are important to me because they are the vehicles that will give me what I am looking for from my life.

I'm feeling a little run down at the moment so for next week I'll be focusing on the JV marketing plan and formulating our USP.

Everything else Internet related will NOT be touched. Apart from google monitoring.

I can't remember if I mentioned that we were in the local rag a few weeks back. As a result of that double page spread we're off to stay at a hotel for a night this weekend as we need to go to a photo shoot for a weekly womens mag. So that is the weekend taken care of with business.

Oh yeah, and I need to finish the blurb on the back of the book before Friday as the book is going to the printers that day!
So in short,
I will begin to go to the gym.
I will write the blurb
I will work on the marketing plan & the partnering plan for the JV.
I will take some books with me and learn stuff while pauline is getting her photos taken for this mag.
I will NOT do affiliate marketing stuff

Nor will I just surf!

And that's it!

Cheers,
jon

Where Did The Car Insurance go?

Forgetting all sorts of things this week, like returning the signed car insurance documents to get the insurance confirmed!

Anyway. Let me have a look at the tasks for this past week:

= Finish the tax return.
Yeah done. With a day to spare. Already started to collect the information I need for the next return, which I will work to finish as much as possible on the May bank holiday weekend!

= Book an MOT & get my new tax disk.
Done. Erk! Tax disk!! Forgot that! Guess where I will be queuing up tomorrow!??

= Work on the money product.
Well I managed to get it off to one of my reviewers this week, and I also had a look at the sales pitch I want to go for.

= Set out my money making strategy for the year.
That sounds very materialistic a goal, but it's not THE goal. It is actually more of a one year task to be honest a achieveing the financial goal that I have set out will mean that the business will have generated enough to cover the next printing of a book, all the loan payments and enough of a financial buffer to handle the swings and roundabouts of the business. Having a revenue target also helps us focus on what we need to do with the business to drive it forward. So it's only there to serve a higher purpose. Which is why it'll work.

this week:
write two sales pages and get them critiqued on this forum
research for my JV. Not that I can tell you much but you will NOT have seen anything like this before - AND we are only doing it because we have confirmed that there is a "need" hole to be plugged.
for my business:
write the coverblurb for the new book that we're about to publish.

I've been asked twice this week what I think this Friday post has ment to me and I gave prety much the following answer:

I've learnt that the best way to achieve anything is to focus on finishing one thing. ( Look at my money book - It's not finished yet as I never seem to give it much focus! )
It's also ment that INSIDE one year I have:
launched 3 websites,
bought a publishing company,
generated over £500,000 in revenues for ONE affiliate merchant
half written two books
bought more software and ebooks than I ever will read ( or use )
got to know some really nice, helpful people,
got to learn more about myself than I had in the previous 30 odd years
got to learn more about marketing
got to challenge my comfort zone
got to go to Las Vegas
and got to JV with two seriously knowledgeable people
got to make myself accountable over the phone to 5 excellent people

and I haven't even BEGUN to scratch the surface of this internet adventure ahead of me.

But now I am off to enjoy some american pie wedding!