On-line Success is a Process, Not An Event

I was recently reading Kat Eden's excellent article "The X-Factor: Why Some People Effortlessly Stay In Great Shape" in her Body Incredible blog. In it, she shares the "secret" of success in physical fitness.

It's this: Consistent effort.

Consistently exercising. Consistently drinking enough water daily. Consistently eating a healthy breakfast. Consistently doing what it takes.

Not a very exciting secret, huh? She admits as much, but insists it is the only secret to success.

The same applies to your on-line strategy.

Too many business owners treat their on-line strategy as a series of one-off events. This won't work. Internet marketing is not about launching a Web site, creating a blog, publishing a video to YouTube, or posting to Twitter.

Success on the Internet is a process, not an event. It's about monitoring your Web site, posting to your blog (and other people's blogs), publishing a video stream on YouTube, and using Twitter regularly.

In high school, we learned that water is called the "universal solvent", because over time it can dissolve anything - even rock (mind you, that takes centuries!)
Be like water with your Internet marketing: Drip ... drip ... drip.

Just like your physical fitness, your on-line fitness relies on consistent effort.

I'll say it again: Consistent. Effort. Consistent effort.

The bad news is: This isn't exciting.

Sorry! Launching your blog is exciting because it's an event. But launching a blog and expecting it to bring business is like installing a phone line and expecting the phone to start ringing. Or printing business cards and waiting for the cheques to start rolling in.

Posting to your blog 2-3 times a week doesn't seem as exciting. But it's the true secret to success.

What does this mean in practice?

The good news is: Even if it's not exciting, it isn't very difficult! Especially if you're an expert, with lots to say.

Here's what I recommend you do:

• Write a newsletter article (about as long as this one) every two weeks and send it to your e-mail newsletter list. What - you don't have an e-mail newsletter list? Shame on you! But it's never too late to start, so start building one now (with permission).
• Every time you send a newsletter, copy and paste the article to your blog.
• Tweet about this on Twitter, with a link to your blog post.
• Update your Facebook profile, with a link to your blog post.
• Update your LinkedIn status, with a link to your blog post.
• Bonus points if you read the blog post out loud, record it and post it to your podcast (audio newsletter).

Is that all you should do? No, but it's a minimum, and a bloody good start. What's more, it will put you ahead of 95% - maybe even 99% - of Web site owners. And isn't that worth striving for?