First and foremost what is success? It’s likely that what most consider ‘success’ is really the benefits of successful completion of a set or series of goals. You want success, but there are things you must do to achieve it, that being successfully completing the set or series of goals that lead to the success. To achieve success we must first successfully complete the goals.

There are many paths to success. There are many paths that do not lead to success, these paths are not failures they are just paths that did not lead to success. Even the paths that do not lead to success are not a waste if we learn something while on that path.

Success comes by taking one step at a time and staying on a single path to that path’s end. But it can be difficult to take just a single step and focus on just one path at a time.

There are two extremes that can cause us to not obtain success. On the one end is being anxious for results and wanting instant gratification. This comes from focusing on the success instead of on the goals. The other extreme stems from fear, fear of failure, fear of what others might think of us if we don’t achieve success. In between these two extremes of action and no action is “success” and on either side of “success” going towards either end are varying degrees of not achieving success, as opposed to “failure”. This is the attitude that a “failure is not failing to achieve success”, failure is not trying to achieve success or quitting before obtaining success.

“I read the book, I watched the video, it didn’t work so it must be a scam.”

What happens when we don’t succeed? Often this is seen when people jump into things to fast and when events don’t unfold the way they wanted them to, they blame someone else for their failure, such as the author of the book. This is the ‘It wasn’t me.’ attitude.

“I don’t know enough or the amount of information is overwhelming.”

Then there is not getting started because of the fear of failing. Never getting started keeps us from failing but it doesn’t lead to success. This fear stems from not believing in something. We need to believe in ourselves or believe that our God will cause us to prosper. When we fear that we might fail we look for reasons not to try. Perhaps we tell ourselves we are to old to learn something new, or perhaps that we just aren’t smart enough to understand it or that there is just too much information for us learn.

Whether it is leaping before we look or being petrified with fear, the result will be the same, success will not be obtained.

When success, as we want it, is not obtained many things can happen. We realize the doorway to failure has no door which can be shut to ensure that we do not fail again and we come to an understanding that, if we try again, we may fail again. We start doubting in ourselves or in God. We start second guessing the things we do. By these things we sabotage ourselves or what God is trying to do in our lives.

In the current day in which we live there is an extremely large amount information available on nearly every topic imaginable. Sometimes it seems as though there is too much information. But we don’t need to know everything to be successful. We only need to know what it takes to successfully complete the set or series of goals that will allow us to achieve the specific success we desire.

Let’s turn success into what it really needs to be, the successful completion of a series of goals. Picture the success as a Thanksgiving turkey dinner with all the trimmings and everything you like. How are you going to eat it? Let me answer that for you, one bit at a time!

We become successful by completing one goal at a time. But if you are focused on the success instead of the goal then why think you will obtain success? And at any time the goal seems to be too big, then we need to divide it into smaller more manageable bites.

There are many things that can cause us not to obtain success:

Doing nothing.

Not staying focused on one path until it’s successfully completed or we realize it doesn’t lead to the goal.

Not knowing when one path doesn’t lead to successfully completing the goal.

Thinking to soon that the path has ended when it was the one that led to successful completion of the goal.

Not realizing that we forgot a step or two and then doing them before continuing on.

 Success comes by:

Setting reasonable goals based on the effort and resources we are willing and able to commit to the goal.

Proper consideration of how and what we need to do to obtain the goal.

Taking the first step of the path. We often do not know if the path we’re on is the right one until we start walking it.

Willingness to repeat, do over or add steps we left out, when we discover them.

NOT quitting – If you don’t quit you can’t fail.

Let’s say you ‘read’ a book on “Affiliate Marketing” then decide to start walking that path. You pick an affiliate offer to promote then start writing and placing ads.

You are most likely already headed for failure. Why? Well, let’s break this goal of finding out ‘what went wrong’ into manageable bites.

Take a bite. Did you decide on what success means to you?

Take another bite. You did not define and write down your goals.

The appetizer is not yet finished. You did not define each step needed to complete the goal.

Hope your still hungry. You did not give careful consideration as to what you might need to know to do all the things necessary to achieve successful completion of the goal. Did you consider that everything you might need to know was not in that one book!

Still chewing. Did you carefully read the book, take notes, and not assume that you understand it just because you made it through the book once. Read it again, this time while reading it compare what you read with your notes. Do they still match or do you now have a more knowledgeable insight of “Affiliate marketing”?

Don’t bite off more than can be easily chewed. Do you have the financial resources for placing ads and are you willing to commit these finances and live with the consequences if these funds are forfeit because of lack of knowledge or experience?

There are yet smaller bites leading to successful completion of the goal. What goal? Oh yeah that’s right we didn’t define it yet! Let’s keep with a realistic goal. For a first time entrepreneur in “Affiliate Marketing” how about the first goal being to make a profit, any profit, even if it’s only .00 on a single affiliate offer.

Take a bite. Did the book just say you need to write an ad or did it also tell you how to write an effective ad? Keep in mind that you don’t know what there is that you ‘don’t know’. So it’s wise to assume that the book did not explain all there is to know about writing an effective ad and more research might need to be done on this topic.

How big was the book? How much did it cost? Is it a realistic expectation that everything you need to know about writing an effective ad was in that book? Was the book about writing and effective ad? No, it was about “Affiliate Marketing”.

Take another bite. Did the book just say related keywords are needed or did it also explain that related keywords are needed that draw targeted traffic? Did it explain that these keywords must appeal to people that already have a desire to buy the product or service, which you are promoting? Did the book explain how to choose these related keywords that draw targeted traffic?

And again the same applies here concerning the content of the book. Is it a realistic expectation that everything you need to know about choosing the proper keywords was in that book for the size and cost of the book? Was the book about choosing proper keywords? No, it was about “Affiliate Marketing”.

And yet another bite, did the book explain how to choose a good/popular affiliate offer?

Each of these things is a goal in itself and has it’s own steps.

And then there might be things that you need to do that are not covered in the book and until you start doing you may not find out that you need to know them. An example of this, related to “Affiliate Marketing”, would be the advertising policies of the platform on which you are going to advertise, such as Google, Bing, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

“Success may require you to repeat your efforts in a somewhat different way.”

So then, even after you have written an effective ad and chosen proper keywords for the good/popular affiliate offer you choose to promote, now you find out your ad will not fit in the space the ad platform gives you! This just means that you need to find out what you didn’t know, that being the advertising policies. Then you repeat writing the ad, choosing the proper keywords, etc. In the case of “Affiliate Marketing” and paid advertising, it would also be good to know how to stop/disable and start/enable ad campaigns before they cost money if you find out you need to learn more about ads, keywords, etc.

For Affiliate and Internet Marketers, and in the case of Google, did you know that Google has many documents and videos on the various advertising and analytic services that they offer? so even after you get done with the book, having understood it well there is still more to be done before placing ads.

MrCompTech – http://www.mrcomptech.com