Article for freelancers: Nine Proven Techniques To Stay Motivated Whilst Building Your Internet Business

Nine Proven Techniques To Stay Motivated Whilst Building Your Internet Business

By Richard Adams,
Founder of Merchant Account Forum

radams[at]merchantaccountforum.com

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It's a fact of life - sooner or later your motivation to continue building your Internet business may start to drop. Yet if you want to build the best possible business you can't afford to let this self- destructive tendency get in your way.

Here then is my own hotlist of methods that keep me constantly moving in the right direction...

1) Monthly Subscriptions

There are a number of high quality membership websites available which have the real strength of updating you every month with new information. If you're like me it will set your imagination going and give you a kick up the pants to get going again!

A few good examples I personally use include:

http://www.onlinemarketingletter.com http://www.netbreakthroughs.com http://www.thecopydoctor.com

2) Mentoring

There are mentoring programs available with successful business people though many cost thousands each year to participate in. However a cheaper option is to simply meeting like-minded individuals to share ideas, successes and problems with.

For best results meet up in person. Knowing you'll be seeing them soon will help spur you onto achieve more so you have something concrete to show for the period since your last meeting.

3) Success Stories

For me at least, possibly the greatest motivation of all is to read about other people who have been there and achieved great success.

Because when you see what others have done, it's so much easier to believe you can do the same.

A great resource is:

http://www.secretstotheirsuccess.com

4) Time-Sensitive Targets

Set yourself regular targets of what you're going to achieve - and when.

I plan months in advance, breaking down large projects into bitesize pieces then assigning each one a day.

Doing this keeps me focused as I have clear targets to meet and know that if I don't complete my tasks then my workload just starts to build up until it's unmanageable.

I aim to always do *something* to push my business forward before I go to bed every night - even if it's something simple like sending a few emails or reading a new marketing book. And yes, even if I'm ill or going out that day. This is non-negotiable.

Infact, I'm going on vacation tomorrow but promised myself I'd finish this article before I go - even though it's now 11.30pm!

5) Count Your Blessings

Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the everyday tasks of your business that you lose sight of your eventual goal.

Maybe it's working full time from home. Maybe it's taking life a bit easier. Maybe it's buying a new yacht.

Whatever it is take time to sit back and appreciate how much you're achieving.

6) Celebrate Small Successes

Sure, you may not have a million dollars in your bank account yet, but you *do* have numerous small successes every week, if not every day. Finished writing that article? Great! Managed to fix that script that didn't work? Fantastic! Managed to get a top ten position in Yahoo? Way to go!

Make sure you take time to celebrate these small successes - it'll help you realise you *are* making progress. It's all just a matter of time...

7) Reward Yourself

Your reward may be a fancy coffee with friends or a private island but whatever you choose (and can afford) try to reward yourself regularly. It helps make your success more tangible to you - and to reinforce *why* you're working all those late nights and weekends. It might also help you do the same to your cynical partner!

My vacation will just be a weekend away, but my business income is paying for it 100%. And while I'm away, my business will still be generating profits for me. What a nice feeling.

8) Self Belief

Sometimes it's a lack of belief in your own abilities that causes us to lose heart. Will my project really be a success or am I wasting my time? Will anybody really want to buy my new product? Will I ever be able to enter such a competetive market?

The fact is, if you don't get going, you'll never know. And whilst nobody is successful 100% of the time, you'll learn something every time. As the saying goes - it's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.

9) Continued Learning

Aim to learn something new every week. Once every month or two I splash out on a large collection of books or CDs from Amazon or buy an expensive home study course.

By consistently learning more and more about business, management, search engine optimization, copywriting and so on I continue to find new ways of looking at old problems, new solutions and possibilities and improve my results.

And when you're rewarding yourself for small successes, this can become a positive feedback loop very soon indeed.

Richard Adams is the founder of Merchant Account Forum, one of the net's most popular merchant account advice sites. Click here now => http://www.merchantaccountforum.com