I still remember every kungfu master will tell :” Your cup is full, how can you fill the tea”.

Instead of keep it simple strategy, I will always ask to Keep it simple steady. From step to the next step with a condition. Throw away all the knowledge that you have and start with only one that you will you can mastery well first.

If you choose social networking, select one of the social networking site and master it. If you choose twitter, master the twitter. I told everythings about twitter in my blog.

And nice idea for doing a specific task each day. I really need to put that into action!

It is not about taking action once and then quitting because something did not work for you. You have got to test and test and test until you get the desired results.

There are other people who test something and it does not work out for them. So they keep doing the same thing over and over again thinking that things will work out better next time. This is not true. A person must change the way they do things if they want things to happen for them.

If you aren’t consistent and persistent then things are not going to go the way you want them to go.

Thanks Terry for this article.

Tal Fighel

I’ve fallen prey to the “bright-shiny-new-thing” syndrome many times … and still do on occasions . But when I focus on one thing at a time and practice, get the feedback, and learn … and then repeat the cycle … my momentum and results go through the roof.

Thanks for this timely reminder, Terry

Simon

I think you just woke me up. When I first started to market my website, I went from one marketing method to another in a week. I did not even bother to master one technique before going into another. I just “hope” that one of these methods can drive tons of traffic to my website and make me rich.

I guess I read so much hype about getting fast and massive traffic that I ignore this fundamental. You are one of the honest guy and I enjoy reading your posts. Look forward to your next post.

I have been online about 18 months after ten years away and have been on what some people call “a steep learning curve”. Not a single contact from 2500 vsitors. I break your rules all the time. For example: what am I doing right here, right now? Except that I am featured on your picture gallery above John Manley; I wrote him today for his lovely comment above this one, and his generous help in it – online. Meanwhile I waste time that I haven’t got at 69 and counting. Some of us are addicted to this sort pain, it seems.

This post proves again why I consistently read your blog and only a couple others. Your insight is always just right.

The hamster wheel pattern you describe is the most common killer of my very own productivity.

Frankly, sometimes I’m surprised I’m successful in SPITE of myself – although I could be 10X better if I consistently did what you describe on your blog for a more disciplined approach to marketing.

It has honestly never occurred to me to write 5 blog posts in one day – and call that day good – to focus the other days on the specific parts of marketing to obtain the momentum of focus – but I’m darn sure gonna do it!

Thanks for this important article – it is going to have a huge impact on me and my business.

Rick Butts

Imho, you’ve identified half the problem, the student.

It’s surely completely true that many of us aren’t serious enough, expect overnight results, give up too soon etc. A major factor for sure.

What’s usually left out of this classic conversation is that the weaknesses of students isn’t the whole story by a long shot.

1) Since 1995 a dizzying array of net business models have come and gone.

By the time one has fully mastered a marketing strategy, one can pretty easily wake up to discover the fad is over. Hesitation and doubt in this environment is quite understandable, especially for students who often arrive at the end of a cycle, after more experienced folks have talked it up to the breaking point.

2) Quite frankly, most of the teachers of marketing strategies simply are not credible.

Even those who do truly know what they’re doing usually introduce themselves in sales copy seemingly written for emotional fifth graders, and so that is the kind of students they tend to attract.

When we combine rapidly changing business models, with sales copy scientifically crafted to attract people making business decisions with their emotions, we get an environment where many students will be unable to develop the faith necessary to keep going past the inevitable obstacles.

The bottom line perhaps is that this is a selling environment, not a professional educational setting, and many students will intuitively sense they aren’t being led to success, but to the next product launch.

They have my empathy.