Personally, I see myself as extremely successful.  I’m not yet as successful as I know I can be someday.  In the future, I see myself having enough money to help others on a regular basis through charitable donations.  Once I am making enough money to not only pay my own bills, but to help those less fortunate without harming my own lifestyle, I will consider myself as successful as I personally wish to be.

You may feel that if you don’t drive a luxury vehicle and live in a mansion, you’re not yet successful.  And that’s fine, in my opinion.  Whatever you personally feel successful means is just fine for you.

The point is, how will you know when you’ve become “successful” if you don’t know what that means?  Success in business is very arbitrary.  For me, I consider myself already successful, even though I’ve cut down my bills to bare essentials in order to scrape by.  While most people would see turning off their cell phone and eating rice and beans at almost every meal as a massive failure, I see it as success.  Why?  Because I’m doing it on my own.  I don’t answer to a boss, I work my own hours, and I am free to choose my own destiny.

Am I as successful as I want to be?  Not by a long shot.  But do I consider myself a failure?  Absolutely not!  I have done more than I ever thought I could, and it will only get better from here!

There were so many times when I just wanted to give up.  Sometimes I was so down on myself that I just felt worthless.  I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t making any money when I felt like I was trying so hard!

As time went on, I began to realize that my failures were my fault.  Some would let this realization sink them into despair, but I saw it as an epiphany!

It wasn’t that I was stupid, worthless, lazy, or in some other way deficient.  I was simply unfocused.  I kept skipping around from one thing to another, and I never stuck with any one thing long enough to really be successful!

I also realized a few other things that made a HUGE difference in my success:

1. I was unfocused, as I mentioned above.  That was my biggest problem.
2. I was afraid of failure.  The more I failed, the worse this got.
3. I was letting my fear and self-doubt consume me.

So how did I resolve these issues and go on to become more successful?

First, I had to focus.  I figured out which method of making money I was best at and that I really ENJOYED doing, and I made the commitment to stick to it for at least 60 days.  Once I did this, my income improved DRAMATICALLY during that time period!  That was a HUGE motivator!

Next, I had to get over my fear of failure.  This was actually a LOT easier than it sounds.  You see, I realized that YES, I might fail.  I might spend hours and hours of my time working hard on something and then not make any money with it.  But, more importantly, I realized that if I didn’t do anything, I would DEFINITELY fail.

So put this on a sticky note on your monitor, scrawl it on your wall, tattoo it on your forehead, whatever you have to do…

“If I try, I have a chance to succeed, however small it is.  If I don’t try, I have NO chance to succeed.”

Or, to put it another way:

“If I don’t try, my odds of failure are 100%!”

Finally, I had to pull myself up out of the pit of despair I was in.  I managed to do this by committing to something for 60 days and seeing results, but I kept myself motivated my constantly reading motivational books and watching motivational movies in every spare moment I could find.  Once I started seeing some money coming in for the hard work I had done, the rest was easy!

So, the bottom line is this:

1. Choose ONE business model and commit to stick to it for a period of at least 60 days.  Work HARD on it!
2. Remember, if you don’t try, your chances of failure are 100%!  If you try, at least you have a chance!
3. Don’t let yourself get down.  You CAN do it.  Once you believe you can, you will succeed!

Don’t give up!

Fortunately, I finally came to my senses!

You see, as a freelancer, your time IS money.  If you let them, some clients will suck up all your time an energy and actually end up COSTING you money.

Let’s think about this for a moment.  Let’s say you average $25 per hour when you are actively working.  Now you have a value on your time, so you can use that to calculate how much money you’re losing on a particular client.

Now, let’s say you have a client who is extremely picky.  They’ve asked you to redo or edit your work several times, they’re constantly harassing you for updates, asking dozens of questions, requesting meetings and telephone calls again and again, and all over a simple project that they paid maybe $200 for.

In your head, try to estimate the total amount of time you’ve spent trying to please this client.  It is 2 hours?  Is it 4 hours?  10 hours?  Now multiply that by your hourly average, and you’ll arrive at how much this one client has already taken from you.  If  that number happens to surpass your hourly average, you’re actually LOSING money by keeping that client on your roster!

Whenever you encounter one of these vampires, it’s best if you just let them go.  That’s right, fire the client!

You don’t have to be rude about it.  Just be completely polite and honest, and as professional as you can possibly be.

You might say something like:

“I’ve really enjoyed working with you, and I want you to know that I really appreciate your business.  Unfortunately, I just don’t think we’re a good match.  It’s obvious that I’m having trouble completing your project to your satisfaction because of all the revisions you’ve requested, and I don’t want to waste any more of your time.  I have already sent you a full refund of the money you paid for this project, and I wish you all the luck in the world.”

Just send a polite, professional message like this to them after you’ve given them a refund.  Hopefully they will be understanding.  If not, just cut them off.  It’s honestly not worth the hassle to waste any more time on someone like this.

Remember, they’re people, too.  It’s easy to forget that when you’re frustrated, especially if you’re dealing with someone you’ve only ever met online.  But by being polite and professional at all times, you’ll have the potential that they may refer more business to you simply based on your professionalism and courtesy, and the fact that you treated them well even though you felt you couldn’t work with them anymore.

Whatever you do, NEVER feel guilty if you have to fire a client.  Your time is worth too much to let people waste it!

It’s difficult to narrow the list down to just ten.  There are so many books that have been incredibly influential to my business life and my personal life.  I’m going to do my best to offer up my current top ten, but I may have to add to this list later!

1. The Richest Man in Babylon

Without a doubt, The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason is my favorite business book of all time.  I have read it DOZENS of times, and I carry it with me everywhere I go.

This book uses an ancient setting to describe some incredibly motivational concepts in easy-to-understand terms.   You’ll learn the importance of paying yourself first, working hard, and making wise choices.  I have given out many copies of this book to friends and relatives, because I feel it’s just THAT powerful.

2. The 4-Hour Workweek

The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss has been incredibly influential in my business life.  This book helped me realize the importance of valuing my time by putting a dollar amount on it.  Once I assigned a real dollar amount to my time, it was much easier to start outsourcing some of the menial tasks that eat up so much of my time, so I could concentrate on more important aspects of my business!

3. Pursuit of Happyness

If you’ve ever seen the movie The Pursuit of Happyness, you may be surprised when you read the actual book by Chris Gardner himself.  The real story is quite a bit different from the movie in many ways.  It’s a little hardcore and edgy, and it’s filled with colorful language and adult situations, but there’s a great message behind it.

Chris Gardner is a real person.  He is flawed, and he is a bit raunchy, but he is real.  His story is extremely motivational and inspirational, and his courage continues to inspire me every day.  I heartily recommend this book if you need a boost of motivation from a TRUE rags to riches story!  Just be warned that this book is NOT for anyone who can’t deal with some real in-your-face, adult situations.

4. Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire

Bill Gates has been one of the great motivators of my business life.  I know some people dislike him, but he is tremendously inspiring to me.  He built a massive global empire than no one can dispute as one of the driving forces in global culture, and his drive and ambition is contagious!  Reading about this dynamo in action kicks my butt into action every time.

5. Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can’t Get a Date

Along with Bill Gates, another one of my business heroes is Steve Jobs.  Actually, almost any of the icons of the computer revolution are tremendously motivating to me.  I am a big fan of learning about these business icons.  Accidental Empires by Robert X. Cringely is the story of how Microsoft, Apple, and many of the other revolutionaries in the early computer industry became the legends they are.  I learned a lot about business, marketing, motivation, and more from this one book!

6. You Call the Shots

You Call the Shots was written by Cameron Johnson.  This millionaire whiz got started in business at the tender age of just 9 years old, when he turned his family’s computer into a greeting card business completely on his own.  He went on to become a serial entrepreneur, starting and running around a dozen successful businesses before he was 25, including many of them while he was still a teen!  His level of ambition makes me ashamed that it took me so long to find success, but it also motivates me to catch up!

I found this book inspirational, enlightening, and chock-full of REAL ideas that actually had tangible merit!  I got some killer marketing ideas, which is something I can’t say for a lot of the business books I read.  This one gave me some practical information I could use in addition to the standard motivational stuff.  It’s also a really fun read!

MORE COMING LATER!

I will add the other five books at some point in the future.  They’re coming soon!

The answer will vary depending on what your goals are for your business.  You need to take a look at the features of each network and make an informed decision based on your own goals and preferences, and the type of affiliates you will want.

Let’s look at some of the popular affiliate networks, and what type of marketing each one is appropriate for.

ClickBank

The most popular affiliate network for information marketers is ClickBank, by far.  There are thousands of active affiliates promoting products through ClickBank, so products can get a lot of affiliate attention pretty quickly.

The major benefits of using ClickBank are the fact that there are thousands of affiliates available to promote products, and many affiliates trust ClickBank to pay them.  Because of this trust, it will be easier to recruit affiliates than it would be if you used a lesser-known network.

There are several drawbacks to using ClickBank, though.  For one thing, they’ve had tracking issues for years that have made some super affiliates wary of using them.  For another thing, they limit you to charging a maximum of $47 for your product.  If you want to charge more than that, you have to specifically request it, and they may or may not approve you for the higher rate based on their perception of the quality of your product!  Their 8% fee is also pretty expensive, and they charge $50 as an upfront fee just for the “privilege” of selling your product through their network.

PayDotCom

PayDotCom is run by master internet marketing guru Mike Filsaime.  They charge no money up front to get started, so they are great if you’re just getting started.  They are also much more lenient about the type of products you can sell, and how much you can charge.

There are a couple of major drawbacks to using PayDotCom.  Since they are newer, there aren’t nearly as many active affiliates promoting products via PayDotCom.  And because the payments come from the product owners instead of the system itself, this isn’t likely to change anytime soon.  Many dishonest product owners have failed to pay their affiliates, making a lot of potential affiliates avoid promoting products through PayDotCom.

Also, according to reports on some of the forums, they have allegedly been having trouble with their processing in the last couple of months of 2009.  People would go to the sales page and were unable to process their orders, so product owners and affiliates were losing money.  They may have lost quite a few product owners and affiliates because of this.

e-Junkie

E-junkie.com isn’t so much an affiliate network as it is a payment processor that will automate digital product delivery in a secure fashion, but they also happen to have a built-in affiliate program!  They don’t have a huge network of built-in affiliates, though, so you will need to actively recruit your own affiliates.  You will also have to pay them yourself, because e-Junkie doesn’t provide affiliate payments.  Of course, since payment can be taken through PayPal, you will receive your money instantly!

PayGear

PayGear is the new kid on the block.  They have a system that is very similar to ClickBank and PayDotCom.  Time will tell whether they become a major player or not, but they look very promising.  They might make a great choice for a backup processor, but I don’t think I would make them my primary affiliate network just net.  I’d wait to see how things go for a few months before jumping into using them full-time.

Any other networks you’ve tried and liked?  Leave us a comment and let us know!

In short, the gravity score is a method of figuring out how many affiliates are promoting a particular product – no more, no less.  In other words, it’s an indicator of competition from other webmasters promoting the product. 

It’s a little confusing as to how the gravity score is calculated.  CB Graph has a great article about gravity here.  I’ll give you a quick excerpt from that article:

• Gravity is recalculated everyday;
• It is a sum of scores received by individual affiliates who sold at least one copy of the product for last 8 weeks;
• Each affiliate may add at most “1″ to the product’s gravity;
• Each affiliate adds to the today’s gravity:
  • “1″: if he/she sold at least one copy of this product yesterday;
  • “0,96″: if last affiliate’s sale was 2 days ago;
  • 3 days ago: 0,96^2 = 0,9216;
  • 4 days ago: 0,96^3 = 0,884736;
  • n days ago: 0,96^(n-1) (n is not deeper than 8 weeks)

As an example let’s consider a product which is being promoted by two affiliates. We know that first affiliate had sold 3 copies of this product yesterday and 7 copies 2 days ago, but second affiliate had sold only one copy of the product 2 days ago. So, to find today’s value of the gravity we have to add affiliates’ scores. The first affiliate adds “1″ (because he sold at least one copy of the product yesterday) and another affiliate adds only “0,96″ (his last sale was 2 days ago). And the Gravity = 1 + 0,96 = 1,96.

So what does the gravity score mean to you?

Unless you are the product owner, it means very little.  If you are considering promoting a product, the only thing you need to know about the gravity score is that it means you will be competing against a lot of other people who are also promoting that product.

Many people believe that if a lot of people are promoting a particular product, it must be because it converts.  After all, people wouldn’t be promoting a product if the conversions suck, right?  Nope.  Sadly, a lot of people don’t even realize what a good conversion rate would be, so they mistakenly think a product is converting just fine, when it may not be.  Plus, a lot of people promote a product simply because they like the graphics, or they like the name, or because they’re buddies with the creator.  So essentially, gravity means very little.

I actually get most of my sales from the products that have a lower gravity.  I’m not sure why.  Maybe it’s competition, or maybe it’s because I have a knack for choosing products that will convert.  Who knows?  But don’t choose to promote a product based solely on gravity.  There are a lot of GREAT products out there with little or NO gravity!

Traffic is especially tricky, because there is so much competition in almost every imaginable niche.  With so much competition, everyone who is competing ends up getting less traffic.  Most of the traffic goes to the few authority sites that dominate the search engines, and the rest have to fight for what’s left, like a pack of wild dogs fighting over a carcass that’s been picked over by a mountain lion.

Search engine traffic is, by far, the easiest and best way to get traffic.  That is, if you know how.  The good news is, other traffic methods actually help your search engine rankings significantly by giving you backlinks that help boost your authority.  So using these other traffic generation methods will actually help your search engines rankings, too!

Let’s look at a few traffic generation methods that can not only bring you direct traffic, but will also help your search engine rankings.

Article Marketing

Perhaps the easiest way to get traffic and improve your search engine rankings at the same time is through writing and submitting articles to article directories.  Article directories often have great search engine authority that they can pass along to your sites, plus, your articles there will often rank well and get you plenty of traffic, too.

Try these directories:

http://www.ezinearticles.com

http://www.goarticles.com

http://www.articlesbase.com

http://www.buzzle.com

http://www.articlecity.com

You should know that some article directories use the “rel=nofollow” tag on their links, so check that before you submit.  You could still get some direct traffic from them, but they won’t help you with your search engine rankings.

Social Content

Social content sites like Squidoo.com and HubPages.com are great for getting traffic.  The pages you make there can often rank high in search engines and get you direct traffic, and the links you put to your site on those pages can also bring you some very nice backlinks.  Just remember to make quality pages.  If your pages aren’t high quality, your account could be banned, your pages deleted, or you could have your links tagged with “rel=nofollow”.

Blog Commenting

Yes, commenting on blogs like this one can bring you traffic.  Not only will you get direct traffic, but you could end up getting a lot of link juice for the search engines!  Just be aware that most blogs have the nofollow tag on their links by default.  So check out some of the dofollow blog directories to find blogs you can comment on!  (HINT: This blog has dofollow links, so comment away!)

Here are a couple of dofollow blog directories to get you started:

http://www.dofollowblogs.com/

http://followlist.com/

I’ll get more in depth into traffic generation later.  I just wanted to give you a very quick overview of a few tactics you can use.