If you're like me, you probably know first-hand just how hard it is to stay focused when you're online. There's email, YouTube, marketing forums, interesting blogs and everything else in between that can easily and stealthily eat up half your day before you even know it. This is a silent killer.



There's actually a lot of folks out there who are so addicted to "interacting" online, checking their stats, checking email and then basically repeating the same process over and over again that they spend literally all day accomplishing nothing.

I know, because I used to be one of them. And it's deceptive - you don't really realize how much time you're devoting to worthless activities unless you're keeping track of it. And until you actually start making money, it can often feel like "learning" on forums, someone's blog or whatever else is progress. It's not.

It can be helpful, but it's not progress, because you're not creating, you're simply wasting time. Try and do something profitable every day. Each day ad content to your website, research another marketing niche, write an article, work on your auto responder campaign, or start a new website. Do something to add to your assets.

All of us in this or any business need help focusing. You should have written goals. Yes you do have to write them down. Divide your goals up into short term, next 30 days and long term, next 12 months. Start with the long term. Write down where you want your internet business to be next year. Make the goals reasonable. Now decide what you have to accomplish each month to reach that 12 month goal.

Now work on the short term goals. What do you have to accomplish every day to reach your 1 month goal? I know this is very basic, but it works.

For example, if part of your marketing strategy is to use article marketing decide on how many articles you need to write next month. OK let's say you are going to write 20 articles to be submitted. You will need to write one per day 5 days a week. This is a realistic goal and it will drive a lot of traffic. You must set goals and monitor them.

Internet marketing businesses are built one small step at a time. You have to stay focused on the little steps each day. In the beginning you will only make small gains. Your income may only increase by small percentages monthly. Stay focused during this time. Remember, your income can be quite large and you're on auto pilot. Think about coming back from a long vacation and you've made more money while you were away than you spent on that vacation. You are building residual income whether you know it or not.

It will be easy when starting your business to drift away from your goals when you're not making much money. All your time effort and small investment seems to be going out the door. Well, if you're focused it's not going out the door. You are building assets that will work hard for you.

Stay consistent. Get into a routine to build your assets every day. Remember in this business it is very easy to get distracted. No, don't follow all those ads promising no work. Limit you email time and focus on the goal. Don't stop until the goal for that day is met.

Remember that it's a simple equation. All things equal and assuming that you're in profitable markets -the more websites, opt-in lists, products and other actual assets you own - the more you'll make, period. Yes, it starts out small. But it starts adding up real quick as you keep on adding to your assets.