August, 2011 | Finch Sells

10 Tips For Better Time Management

Aug 16 2011

This is a guest post by James Wilson. James is an internet marketer with six years of experience in the business.

If you work primarily online, you’re likely all too familiar with the dangers of distraction. Internet distractions abound – social media, games, news, YouTube – but work and family issues can also throw you off your game. It can be difficult to finish one project when other business matters keep stealing your attention.

However, if you can learn to minimize interruptions, organize your work, and plan effectively, you can make yourself more productive and efficient. If you’re familiar with the saying “time is money,” then you know why this is important.

Tip 1: Devote Days to Specific Tasks

While an online business naturally requires you to multitask for much of your day, trying to do too many tasks at once can kill your momentum, break your train of thought and make you less efficient in general. For instance, Robert Plank writes that he typically targets email on Monday, moving on to customer service on Tuesday and so on. A system like his can help you focus on one project and make you less susceptible to interruptions.

Finch: I devote different days to different traffic sources, and also different days to different verticals. My blog posts are usually mid-evening brainfarts when I have nothing else to do.

Tip 2: Close Your Email

Forcing yourself to refrain from constantly checking your email can be difficult, but doing so can save you from wasted time and unneeded distractions. Try setting rules for yourself that limit the number of times you can check your email everyday to two or three. Each time you check your mail, respond to only priority emails. At the end of the week, set aside a few hours to respond to all the other messages in your inbox. To make this easier, organize your emails in Gmail with labels every day, marking those that you’ll reply to on your designated email day.

Tip 3: Organize Your Computer

It’s easy for work-related files to pile up on your computer, and failing to organize them can result in a lot of wasted time as you search through them to find what you need. Use folders to keep track of different projects, labeling each folder according to its contents or using a naming system to help you more easily sort each folder. If you regularly work on more than one device, take advantage of software like Dropbox. Dropbox allows you to access your files from any machine at any location. As long as you have a mobile device or laptop with wireless internet, you can open and update any file without having to constantly send emails to yourself.

Finch: Dropbox is one of the best nomad resources of the 21st century. If you don’t have it, get on the bandwagon.

Tip 4: Stop Surfing the Internet

While this one goes without saying, sometimes you need to remind yourself just how much time surfing the web wastes when you’re trying to work. Learn to control your impulses to get on Facebook, read forums or check the news, making sure to set aside off-work hours for that. Turning off email and chat programs can help you avoid the random, distracting links that your friends send you throughout the day.

Finch: How do any of you get work done on AIM? It’s like dodging productivity bullets. LeechBlock is your best friend for avoiding the time wasting filth.

Tip 5: Set Aside Free Time

Being self-employed makes it easy to slip into a work mindset at all times, but you need to give yourself free time to maintain balance and, maybe more importantly, your sanity. If you make sure to set aside some free time for yourself every evening, you’ll have something to look forward to while you work and will be less likely to fall prey to distractions. During your free time, don’t check your email constantly or think about anything work-related. Having work creep into your leisure time can be just as inefficient as giving into distractions when you should be working.

Tip 6: Set Goals

You can work much easier by setting concrete goals for yourself to accomplish, in both the short and long term. For instance, you could aim to complete a certain project before the end of the week while setting your long term sights on increasing your job income by 100 percent in the next 3 years. Your goals should be specific, measurable and time-bound, providing you with a concrete target and a limited period of time in which to hit that target. Of course, they should be attainable. Setting unreasonable goals for yourself will only lead to further stress.

Tip 7: Create a Daily Action Plan

To help you work toward the goals you’ve set, make a list of every task you need to complete each day. As you finish each item on the list, check it off and move on to the next. This helps keep you on track and makes your work day go faster. After several weeks of making checklists, you can also become better at estimating how much you can expect to accomplish in a single work day, further improving your ability budget time.

Tip 8: Prioritize

In determining which tasks should be tackled first, it can be helpful to remember the adage that states, “80 percent of your profits are derived from 20 percent of your tasks.” The tasks that are most crucial to your profit-making potential should be given top priority. Try to spend most of your time taking care of critical tasks, saving other less important ones until you have more time.

Tip 9: Clean Up Your Work Environment

A messy workspace can promote mental clutter, making it important to keep your physical work environment just as clean and organized as your computer. For many people, simply working in clean and comfortable room can greatly boost productivity. Keeping your workplace orderly can also help you associate it with your professional life, making it easier to work without distraction.

Finch: I also find it helps to have lots of natural light in the room. Working from your mother’s basement is probably not the best way to stay chipper through the day.

Tip 10: Exercise and Eat Right

Staying in shape may seem irrelevant in regards to working online, but neglecting physical fitness can lower your drive, energy and efficiency. Try to spend at least 30 minutes walking, running, playing sports or otherwise working out every day. That may seem like a lot of time to devote to non-work activities, but the investment can pay off by giving you more energy and discipline.

Likewise, a healthy diet can make you feel less sluggish and can put you in a better mood while you work according to the American Dietetic Association.

Finch: Unfortunately, this is true. Try getting a campaign profitable after munching down a Village Pizza XL Meatfeast at 1am. Your posture is also something to pay close attention to, unless you want to follow the much travelled road of successful affiliate at 21, squared eye hunchback at 26. Priorities, affiliasphere!

Recommended This Week:

Slightly off-topic, but I see Spotify has finally landed in America. Being the long term Spotify fangirl that I am, I have a bunch of invites for those of you in the States who aren’t yet members. Email me if you want one (and trust me, you want one), or add me on Twitter and get in touch.
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The Reality Of Affiliate Markeconomics

Aug 10 2011

How lucky are affiliate marketers to be financially independent?

Whichever way you look in the press, percentages of individuals are doomed. 9 percent of the population is unemployed, 95 percent is too stretched to buy a first home, 47 percent is busy looting Asda for a packet of rice. Forgive me for my number crunching cynicism, but why are we so obsessed with percentages?

Since when did the individual view his professional crisis as a colour on a pie chart?

CNN and the BBC can spend hours dissecting every last tribulation of the economy to a fine detail, but ultimately, they can only deal in averages and sweeping states of the nation. We, as individuals, have to take responsibility for rising above the insufferable fate that awaits those who aren’t personally driven to swim against the tide of national averages.

When reading the newspaper fills you with a sweeping sense of dread, maybe it’s time to put down the shit rag, turn a blind eye to the latest headlines and continue with life and business.

There’s only so much scaremongering I can handle on the subjects of unemployment and business growth before it starts to turn really fucking old really fucking fast.

It’s tempting to blame our personal failings on the condition of the state. Tempting, but ultimately beating around the bush in spectacular fashion.

If you are one of the millions who cannot find a job, how about creating one? Or locating where the demand is, and adjusting your skills to match?

If you are one of the millions who cannot pay a debt, how about living within your means? Or finding the willpower to say “No” when faced with materialistic desires that you simply can’t afford but choose to have anyway because you’re a feckless tool.

Recently I’ve seen affiliate marketing as the perfect source of income during times of economic turmoil. It’s flexible, fluid and allows me to speak from a high horse of pro-entrepreneurism that simply isn’t possible for most honest businesses.

I don’t believe it’s mere coincidence that the last recession in 2008 triggered an almighty boom in the notorious “work from home” kits. Your average family was worried about the fragility of employment, and how it would service debt if his and her jobs disappeared overnight.

Fast moving affiliates jumped on that vulnerability and made an absolute killing with home biz kit rebills. They didn’t last forever, thank god, but highlighted how recession, depression or market euphoria doesn’t matter a damn jot to the entrepreneur who can change what he sells at the flick of a switch.

We have the power to move where the money is.

Online entrepreneurs don’t have to spend months in the trenches doing research, lobbying banks for loans or calculating intricate margins to ensure their stock levels are correct. Instead we can react to market trends, create digital products in a matter of weeks and have them available to download with none of the risk of tight margins.

No matter how grave the economy becomes, people will always be buying. Where there is spending, there is the desire to spend knowledgeably. And where there is people asking these questions, there is a shit ton of affiliates queuing up with ebooks that monetize the answers.

Thanks to the rise of the Internet, we know better than most how lucrative it can be to move quickly in to those buying markets.

Our price for this flexibility is the impending sense of business instability, the castle built on sand syndrome. These are shackles that most successful affiliates learn to cast aside, either through diversifying or by removing the word ‘complacency’ from their newspeak.

Even if our domestic economies were to face total annihilation, it’s never been easier to spread the wings and set up shop elsewhere. Is it so hard to advertise to foreign countries? To translate your products in to the native tongue of a more extravagantly spending nation?

Not really, it’s just another challenge we can overcome in days while the brick and mortar business is still occupied in the prison of distribution logistics.

Affiliate marketing clearly has a lot going for it, but with such rapid movement in to new markets, we are also guilty of filling the web with more useless crap than the average surfer could sift through in a lifetime.

This is where I see affiliates biting the dust in future. Our industry has grown so fast and so profitably that we’re going to have to become much more accountable for the information we publish and any claims we make. Dare I say it, we may actually have to start slapping our names to some of this shit.

Our landing pages are typically hidden in subfolders, draped in anonymity with WHOIS protection. We anticipate customers will buy through our links because we treat them like hopeless lemmings, selling them the moon and then shoving them off the cliff face. How long can it last?

Aggressive marketing has always existed. Yet with the freedom affiliates have, there’s never been such a whirlwind of false, bad and misinterpreted information.

We specialise in creating sales, but the actual companies we sell for are becoming more and more disconnected from the selling process. This results in more and more bullshit. More and more customers being shoved off the cliff.

Affiliate marketing, despite the rising costs and legal shitstorms, is still a very lucrative industry. It always will be, by virtue of the fact that it’s an industry composed of all other industries. How can it go out of fashion?

What needs to change is the culture of anonymity and the kamikaze any bold claim will do approach to selling. The sooner affiliates focus on providing genuine quality to the industries they choose to work in, the faster the bad press will disappear and the quicker we can get on with calling ourselves actual businessmen.

Recommended This Week

If you’re working in the dating market, check out Adsimilis. Definitely one of the better networks with a wide range of dating offers, all on high payouts, including lots of stuff in Europe and South America. I think you’ll like them.
Lots of Ads is the latest service to offer spying capabilities over Facebook’s most profitable ads. The great appeal for me is the ability to spy on International markets including France, Spain, Argentina, Brazil and many more. Save time on translations and tap in to the most lucrative markets on Facebook. Definitely a worthy addition to your toolkit. First 20 customers only who use code FINCH11 will receive 10% off their lifetime subscription. Enjoy!
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The Traffic Source Doesn’t Suck, You Suck

Aug 02 2011

What do successful affiliates have in common?

Is it fast cars, heavy wallets and eyes shaped like dual-screens?

Maybe, but there’s something else. I don’t think you’ll find a single successful affiliate who hasn’t shown a good knack for understanding his traffic sources. It may be one traffic source, it may be many. But without that working knowledge, you’ll find it painstakingly difficult to generate profit.

Self-serve advertising platforms like Facebook, Plentyoffish and AdWords are enduringly popular with affiliates. I mark this down to two reasons. The ease of launching a campaign, and the abundance of case studies readily available for digestion.

However, these platforms are only a small segment of the online advertising space. A few affiliates have commented on my Facebook related posts saying that, actually, it’s not even worth bothering with Facebook these days. The big money is in advertising on display networks and nailing down media buys.

While I would disagree that Facebook is no longer worth the bother, there’s definitely truth to the argument that display advertising is a lucrative and sustainable replacement.

The problem with display advertising – and by twisted logic, the incentive – is that affiliates find it much harder to launch profitable campaigns off the bat. They become disheartened when the inventory shrinks at closer inspection, many of the featured sites refusing to run ads in popular affiliate verticals. They see CPMs of $3.50 that set the alarm bells ringing.

In many cases, the control panel itself is a sprawling mass of more options than a “no bells and whistles” Facebook advertiser could shake a stick at.

So the affiliate does what could be expected of him. He runs back to Facebook’s loving arms, willing to sacrifice the great unknown for super tight margins and bitching interns. Whatever makes you feel at home, right?

There are hundreds of traffic sources that can be called upon. Why do so many affiliates choose the same two or three? In fact, let’s elaborate on that. Why do so many affiliates settle for being mediocre on the same two or three?

I’ve linked to this article countless times, but it’s value never diminishes. So once again, here is a list of traffic sources that could keep you busy for the rest of the week.

Now, back to the question of what do successful affiliates have in common?

The answer is patience, determination and perseverance to cancel out distractions, take one of those ad platforms, and sponge up every last piece of information about it.

You can do this by signing up and hacking together a campaign to test the waters. I don’t recommend it though.

Have you seen what happens when you try to port a Facebook campaign to Plentyoffish? It doesn’t work. No two traffic sources are the same, so porting a campaign to another in the hope that it will become profitable straight away is very optimistic thinking.

Before advertising on a new traffic source, I like to contact my account manager and interrogate him for some perspective on what other affiliates are doing. This shows that I need direct results and that I don’t have budget to piss my message in to the wind on a branded hope and prayer.

Once I have a good idea of how suitable the platform is for direct response marketing, I’ll make a decision on whether I want to go ahead and inject whatever holding balance is required. This is a small step, but it saves me the bother of 2009 revisited.

2009 revisited? Yeah, having a leftover balance of $982.94 in seven different traffic sources after losing my Google account and depositing a grand in to every alternative I could find. Binge depositing is bad, kids.

If you’re going to try a new traffic source, it’s only logical that you extend it the same level of patience as you would with Facebook. If the first campaign bombs, you probably had a shitty campaign. Don’t blame the foreign traffic source for your own ineptitude or one size fits all marketing.

Gather some test data and then drop your account manager another email. Ask for some advice on how you’ve configured the campaign. Does it look right? Are you missing any obvious tricks that other affiliates are cashing in on?

As always, it’s necessary to measure campaign variables in a strategic manner. You can only do this with a clean slate. I’ve been working with an adult traffic source lately, and even though I’m dealing in the same vertical (dating offers), I’ve had to assume the identity of somebody who knows nothing. I split test variables that I needn’t even worry about on Plentyoffish because I’ve had time to key in those campaigns already.

Small details cause massive ripples of change. Imagine if you’d never played with the browser targeting on Plentyoffish, or the geographic filtering on Facebook. Christ, just imagine the carnage if you showed Facebook the same disdain that these new traffic sources receive when you can’t get your first campaign profitable.

Successful affiliates know this, whether they’re advertising on Facebook, AdWords or some shitty display network based out of the Angolan jungle. The money is in the detail, the planning and the execution. Learn the traffic source and you’re halfway there.

Recommended This Week

Above All Offers has been gaining some serious traction lately and if you’re not already registered, now would be a good time to get in the door. It’s run by some of the smartest guys in the biz, with a good selection offers, weeklies and laser fast support. If you were ever a fan of Blue Hat SEO (check it out, it’s semi-alive again!), you should know that Eli most definitely knows his shit. One of the early inspirations that attracted me to the industry, it seems that his network is going to end up just as well respected. Sign up, homes!
If you’re not already registered on PPV Playbook, you are missing a beat sunshine! Easily the BEST place to learn from marketers who are actually making money. It has some awesome case studies. The catch is that you will need to pay some of your hard earned pesos to access it. I swear from the bottom of my black heart, joining is worth every penny
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