Time Management & 2.0 Social Networking

And traditional media still takes up some of your time and attention – books, television, radio, magazines, trade publications, newspapers and print newsletters. While “traditional media” is under assault from the Internet and online publishing, there’s still value and pleasure in reading the old fashioned way. Although that is probably coming to an end with new sophisticated e-books.

Also, there are new viral product launches all the time. If you’re in the Internet marketing industry, the “learn how to make money” information products, ebooks, blogs, etc, then every few days something new comes along to distract and tempt you. Even if you have no intention of making a purchase, most launches offer free resources and information that are useful, since many marketers today realize how important it is to offer “value” and appear generous and helpful to others by giving away free products. How many times have you heard the line, “I’ve made so much money in the Internet marketing business and now I want to help others make money too!”

Every day there were more resources, tools, articles, books, reports, e-books, videos, Diggs, software, viral marketing launches (“This is the ONLY time you will see this page . . .”) podcasts, newsfeeds, tweets, magazines and updates inundating you that if you try to give your attention to just a few you are overwhelmed, and worse, distracted from the important concrete steps you must take to build your own online viral Internet marketing business.

We all contribute to this problem, which isn’t really a problem so much as a challenge – a new way of processing information. I’m doing it right now by publishing this article and releasing a steady stream of content such as free reports, videos, blogs, tweets, Facebook, photos, Digg, websites, emails, newsletters, seminars, and like any conscientious netizen, making comments, posting in forums and providing good customer service.

How will this work if we all contribute to an information overload problem that’s getting worse, yet we know success requires that we study and manage information and create it to gain experience and profit? In other words, how do we manage information in the age of information? How do we manage information – and our limited time – in an age of informaion overload?

The solution, especially for information publishing entrepreneurs who are attempting to establish themselves as experts or authorities in their chosen field, is to apply the 80/20 rule to everything they do.

Niche Marketing

Although one of the greatest benefits of the Internet as a commercial medium is gaining access to the global market, this also creates the problem of information overload and a tremendous amount of competition. In order to compete you must focus on fewer people, not more, although your cusomer base can be worldwide.

This is called niche marketing , and you must create a loyal following of fans.

We distinguish ourselves by focusing on a targeted niche market and offering the best solution to one problem. This will attract loyal customers because they benefit from what you teach and sell, and also feel a rapport with you because they share an interest in the same target market. You are addressing their particular needs and concerns. Also, if you have marketed successfully, they will like and trust you as a person, and come to regard you as a valuable resource to help them become better at something or solve a particular problem. You can establish a growing, solid reputation in the social networking community of your choice as someone with something valuable to offer, who is honest and has integrity. That is the ultimate goal: establish yourself as a a brand with a loyal following.

People are not, like Stephen Hawking, looking for the “Theory of Everything”. They want the best answer to their specific question in a specific niche market. You need to be the answer, but only to their specific needs. You don’t have to be an expert about everything, nor can you be.

Your job is to be the filter and source of reliable and pertinant information for what your customers seek. You help solve their information overload problem by being a trusted filter and source. They can ignore everyone else and focus on your websites to find the information that is relevant to their needs. You become one of their 80/20 resources; part of the minority they pay attention to and not the majority they ignore.

This is obviously good for your Internet marketing business since people who pay attention to and trust you will eventually buy your products. However, this is also a position of great responsibility. You need to offer quality information and products to maintain a good reputation, and to do that you have to master your own information overload.

Time Management

The 80/20 rule, applied correctly, means you work less and achieve more in the same amount of time . This happens because you focus your attention on the things that produce the greatest results, and leave aside less significant tasks. As one important example of this, many top internet marketers are now outsourcing a great deal of their work, from website design and development to article and content generation.

The explosion of PLR – Private Label Rights – products is a symptom of information overload, and one way people are trying to cope with it. Why write your own content when you can buy it? Saves time, right?

For the 80/20 rule to work, you need to identify and understand what is not essential to the real growth of your business. Once you know what is NOT important, then you can focus like a laser and leverage your attention on the tasks that produce the most results – that are most effective. The results will be viral and explosive!

First, figure out what you need to do today in order to get immediate results. What is holding you back right now? Your job? Your wife or girlfriend? Your children? Fear? Doubt? Inability to get organized (I have ADD, so I know what you may be going through)? Lack of knowledge? Identify what you can do right now – what decision you can make right this second – that will bring you a step closer to the results you want.

When you discover what is really holding you back in life – unconscious fears or distorted ideas about your self worth, for example – then you are on the path to real success. Don’t know how to build a website? No problem – learn, or if you can affort it, pay someone else to do it for you. But the important thing is – START NOW. DO SOMETHING TODAY. DO SOMETHING EVERY DAY . Notice I didn’t say start as soon as you can find the time, because that will just allow you to keep making endless excuses for why you cannot start at all. You need only work on eliminating each constraint one by one and success will find you, not the other way around.

When you spend time on tasks that do not produce immediate results, you are wasting your time, at least from the standpoint of your online Internet marketing business.

Who Do You Trust?

Just as your customers look to you for information that’s really important to them, you need to find the information that is really critical to your business. The people you follow – your mentors – are your 80/20 filters. You take their knowledge and experience, filter it through your own lense of priorities and serve it to your customers.