The Diary Of An Internet Marketer

My Family-Friendly Work Schedule as an IM Writer

One of my biggest challenges with freelancing has always been finding enough time in the day to get everything done.

What I’ve learned is that the only way I can make this work for me is to not take on too much work and work smarter not harder.I typically work 6-8 hours on my business. These hours are not the typical 9 to 5 hours. Instead I am a shift worker.

 I work throughout the day long. I take frequent breaks because I have to in order to take care of my family’s needs.To me, they are my first priority so I work my IM business around their needs.

Here is my family-friendly work schedule:

•  
  • Work 2 hours before the kids wake up. During this time, I check emails, prospect for clients, surf the ‘net and write 1-2 articles that I submit to Associated Content.
  • Take the kids to school, run household errands with the baby, complete housework, etc.
  • Work 1-2 hours when my toddler takes a nap. During this time, I complete my clients’ work consisting of web content, articles, press releases, whatever.
  • Pick kids up from school.
  • Work 1 more hour while kids play and complete homework. Here, I work on some more client projects.
  • Make dinner. Spend time with my family and get kids ready for bed.
  • Work 1-2 more hours once kids are in bed. Finish clients’ work and work on some more IM projects for myself. During this time, I review online forums, write my IM writer blog entry, and complete 1-2 more articles.

Weekends

On the weekends, I limit my work time to 3 hours max (if I work at all). During this time, I concentrate on my IM projects and don’t ghostwrite for clients.  On weekends, I typically write eBooks, articles and press releases, build new websites, market existing ones and read IM course material. Once I’m done with my assigned projects, I do fun stuff with my family.

As you can see, I work 6-8 hours Monday - Friday  and 3 on Saturday and Sunday. The rest of the time, I spend time with my family and enjoy my life.

This schedule forces me to work quickly and to get as much done as I possibly can. For instance, I speed write and typically write 2 high quality articles in about an hour. If it is PLR articles, I can usually get three done within one hour.

I work quickly and efficiently because I don’t have time to play around and this schedule works for me and my family.

Well, I hope this gives you a glimpse into the life of a IM Writer. Now, I’ve gotta finish up an article before the kids wake up.

Kristi
http://imwriterblog.com/

I hope you enjoyed part one of my story where I discussed my typical day as a part time internet marketer. If you have not read it, the link is here:

http://www.thediaryofaninternetmarketer.com/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-part-time-internet-marketer-alan-cheng/

Here is my typical day as a full-time internet marketer.

I decided to leave my office job on October 2007. It took me until February 2008 to finally have my last day with the company where all my colleagues wished me the best of luck. The next day I went to work in my own office.

It was a dream for me to have my own office and business. I’ve finally achieved it. Two months later, here is what my typical day of working as an internet marketer is like.

7am - Wake up, drink some water and go for a 15 minute run. I’m following a system called PACE where I can exercise in a short amount of time and lose weight quickly. Just what I need.

7:25am - Have a shower and healthy breakfast

8am - Plan my day using pen and paper. Put the tasks on my PDA.

8:15am - Read my emails. See what other people are promoting.

Marking down the ideas and any news in the internet marketing industry.

8:40am - leave the house

8:45-9:45am - Read an internet marketing ebook or any self development ebook during the bus ride on my PDA

9:50am - Arrive in office. Download the latest virus patches on my PC. Reply to any emails or MSN messages.

10:15am - Write to my blog

11am - Finish writing my article and submit it to directories and mail groups.

12pm - Work on a product. At the time being, I’ve just finished writing my ebook ‘Article Marketing Strategies’. It took me a full month writing it and setting up, preparing videos, getting testimonials etc…

It will be a lot easier next time, since I’ve written down all the steps I need for writing a book and releasing it. You can download a free copy at http://www.trafficbeast.com/ebook

1pm-2pm - Lunch (A relaxing one. Either with friends or old colleagues)

2pm - Work on a product. I switch off my mobile phone, MSN and emails for this session. I get a lot done during these 2 hours.

4pm - Build relationships. Either MSN, Skype or forums.

4:30pm - Buying traffic. Either pay per click, SEO or social media.

5pm - Studying. Watching videos, reading ebooks, information from membership sites etc… During this hour, I take notes on everything. For any ideas which I have from this reading, I put it in an ‘Ideas’ folder on my computer for later use.

6pm - Get the bus home. During this time, I write down ideas for blogs posts, articles and also continue to read any ebook on my PDA.

7:30pm - Dinner with the family.

8pm - Watching TV with the family. Making sure the show is suitable for the kids. Otherwise I’m going to get asked embarrassing questions!

8:30pm - Playing and speaking with wife and kids. This is my normal schedule. If you’ve read part one of this post, everything is the same until 10:10pm.

10:10pm - I only work for one hour after the kids have gone to bed. I have the living room to myself now. During this hour, I will check the statistics of my marketing, commissions and answer any emails.

11:15pm Speak with the wife. If she’s too tired I’ll read the Warriorforum on my PDA using WiFi. I normally fall asleep before midnight.

Bear in mind that I get a full 7 hours sleep since I’ve worked for myself. This is very important and I really hope everyone reading this will try and sleep more as well.

Since I’ve gotten more sleep and started doing some exercise, I find myself being more energetic and my brain is more active throughout the day. On the bus rides to and from home, I don’t fall asleep anymore while reading.

I can manage to focus for long periods of time and get a lot more done. I feel a lot happier and sharp.

On Saturday and Sundays, again I work for 2 hours each day. Normally I just think about the business, reply some emails, planning and building relationships with other internet marketers.

As you can see, my life is still not very exciting. This excludes Saturday and Sundays but that’s another story.

I have setup the routine above for all my weekdays however, I must stress that it changes depending on whether I have any projects on hand. As I mentioned, I was working on my ebook for the past month and the majority of the day was just spent on writing and studying.

Here you have it. The life of one internet marketer. You may notice that hard work is still much needed.

The major achievements I’ve had duing my full time as an internet marketer are:

- building my blog at http://www.trafficbeast.com  

- finished writing my free ebook ‘Article Marketing Strategies’

- wrote many articles

- built a lot of relationships with other internet marketers

- studied a lot of internet marketing products

- contacted a lot of friends I haven’t contacted before

- actually feel the freedom I have with the family and my life

At the moment I love what I am doing and I love my life. I thank God for providing me with such joy. However, if you notice, the life is completely different to what is advertised as the ‘internet marketing lifestyle’. Believe me. Hard work is required to succeed. Don’t believe in easy, set and forget systems.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my life as much as I enjoyed writing it. I know it’s probably not what you expected from a full time internet marketer but perhaps this is a wake up call for you to start working hard and build your own business.

Alan Cheng
Owner, Traffic Beast
http://www.trafficbeast.com  

I am going to talk about 2 different phases of my typical day in internet marketing.
One is how I spend my day on internet marketing when I had my full time job.
The second part is when I finally left my office job and did full time internet marketing in February of this year.

Part-Time Internet Marketer

I worked full time for many industries as an IT Manager. Investment banks, construction industry and the garment industry. Basically I needed to leave the house at 8am and return at 7pm.

Here’s my typical day.

7:30am - get out of bed and have a cup of coffee to wake myself up.
8:10am – during the 50 min. bus ride to work, I get my PDA out and plan on what I need to do for the day (this is regarding my internet marketing business of course). Sometimes I read an ebook using by PDA as well. It depends on the mood I’m in.
9:05am – have breakfast by myself and writing down any ideas I have for writing articles and marketing. I truly believe in article marketing so I spend a lot of time writing.
9:30 – 6pm – During office work, I take a few moments checking emails and submitting articles when I have the chance. Adds up to about 30 minutes per day. Wish I can do more but work is hectic.
6:30pm – During the one hour and 10 mins bus ride home (heavy traffic), I write an article using my PDA (it’s a Dopod 810. Can’t live without it).
7:45pm – Have dinner with my family.
8:15pm – Switch off the television. Talk and play with the kids.
9:30pm – Read bedtime story to my daughter.
9:40pm – Watch TV in the living room while my son goes on youtube with my laptop. My wife is in my daughter’s room reading and talking about her day etc…
10:pm – Read bedtime story to my son
10:10pm – My internet marketing work begins. I normally work 2 hours unless something disastrous happens.
- finish writing the article on my PDA (10 mins)
- Submit my articles to directories and publishers (15 mins)
- searching for affiliate products to recommend (15 mins)
- read my emails on the tons of internet marketers’ emails I have sign up for (30 mins)
- write content for my website or drive traffic to my website (30 mins)
- check my affiliate stats, adsense reports, update my expense report etc… (15 mins)

Midnight – Speak to my wife if she’s still awake for about 10 minutes.
12:10am – Read the Warriorforum using my PDA noting down any ideas I have.
1am – Falling asleep

On Saturday and Sundays, I work about 2 hours a days as well. I love my family life. My kids are still very young so I’m not going to miss any part of their lives.

About once very two months, I will stay in a cheap hotel with wifi and lock myself in the room for 7 hours. Either writing a salesletter, ebook or reports. I find these 7 hours to be very productive. No phone calls, no MSN and I don’t read any emails.

That’s it. Not very attractive I know. But it’s the sacrifice I made so that I can have my own business which I finally achieved.

What I would like to say is, there is no excuse for not having enough time to spend on your internet marketing. You have to make sacrifices. I’ve made lots during the last 4 years.

My sacrifices include:
- not able to watch TV shows
- not going out with friends as much as I want to
- no time to read fictional books which I love
- no doing as much exercise as I should
- etc…

Life was not very exciting at the time. This is why I prefer to keep Saturday and Sunday free. It’s time for me to relax and enjoy. Otherwise I’ll burn myself out.

In part 2 tomorrow, I’ll talk about my full day as an internet marketer. You’ll be surprised at the difference.

http://trafficbeast.com/

Many people can’t believe how much I get done in a day. Well, you don’t make 6 figures a year sitting around twiddling your thumbs. Earning a living online takes hard work…lots of it. Anyway, I was asked what my typical day is like. Honestly, I don’t have a typical day because I am involved in so many things. But here’s an example of how crazy my day can be.

The day I wrote this, I got up at 7 AM and immediately got to work. I eat breakfast as I work at my PC. I start my morning my doing my advertising. I use mostly FFA Hosting and safelists that I send to in the early AM. It takes me about an hour to complete these tasks.

I then start my article writing for Ezine Articles and the many guest blogs that I write for. This usually takes me up until lunch time. Today, however, there were a few wrinkles in the plan. See, I just started a mentoring program for which I now have 12 students. I heard from about six of them today. It was a real crazy day keeping up with assignments.

While all this was going on, I was also working on my new project with a member of the Warrior Forum. We’re working on a new membership site that we’re hoping to finish up by June. In the last three days, I finished up three different workbooks for this site.

And then there are the customer service emails from people who have purchased products from me. I always support all the products I sell. So that means answering questions when they arise. I try to always get back to people within 24 hours.

In addition to this, I moderate 2 forums. It’s not a lot of work and it does have its perks. Being a moderator for a forum that doesn’t have a ton of traffic is nice. I’d never do it at the Warrior Forum though because I’d probably burn out in a day…even with all I can do.

In the meantime, I’m always brainstorming to try to come up with new products. This is an ongoing process that never stops. Sometimes I’ll think of things in the middle of the night. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve woken up my wife with yet another brainstorm.

My day usually ends at about 10:30 when I take pity on the rest of the family and agree to go to sleep.

So when people ask me how I am so successful, I tell them simply, “I work hard.”

There’s no secret to success and making money online. It’s just a lot of hard work and knowing what you’re doing.

Oh yes…you DO need to know what you’re doing.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim
Learn The Real Truth About Making Money Online
http://www.stevewagenheim.com/btl_squeeze.html

Avery Berman has written on this blog as a guest blogger and I have mentioned him once or twice since.  Avery wrote this post on the Warrior Forum today and so I just wanted to share it with you……

Warriors… before I go to bed I feel I want to make this post.I just took a step back a few minutes ago, and an overwhelming feeling of euphoria, accomplishment and satisfaction came over me.
As I stared at my inbox, looking at several “CB SALE” and “Payment Received” notifications, I came to a realization.

I’ve really done it.

About 7 months ago, I told myself I was going to succeed online, no matter what it took, no matter how long it took.
Here I am, just 7 short months later, and I’ve done it.

I make my full-time income online.
I’m only 18, and I never have to hold down a “real job.”
I will be the one hiring.
It only goes up from here.

I just wanted to make this post to say, again, Warriors… everyone… ANYONE can do this… and it feels damn amazing when you realize that you’ve succeeded.

To everyone who’s where I am, pat yourselves on the back and realize that you have reached your goals. (Which will only get bigger from now on.)

For all of you that haven’t yet… YOU WILL MAKE IT!

The only way you will EVER fail… is if you stop trying.

Never stop trying. Never give up. You will succeed. End of discussion

Well done Avery, you have done well.

You find out exactly how Avery has made his success at ‘Super Successful Secrets’.

Thanks for reading
Take Care
Sheryl
www.stayhome-mum.com

I pretty much spend my whole day online. I get up at around 9:30 everyday.  After I shower and do a few other things, I head to my computer. I am not always working directly on my online business but I am usually doing some sort of business related task, even if it’s just reading other business blogs, internet marketing forums, or replying to emails.

 

The first thing I do each morning is check everything; all my email accounts, sales, statistics, private messages, make sure my main sites are up and looking good, etc…

 

Then, I move on to forums. I am a moderator of 5 online business / work at home forums and visit a few more on a daily basis. There are always questions to answer, posts to catch up on, new threads to read, and spam to delete.

 

After that I check out a few of my favorite internet marketing / make money online blogs to see what everyone is writing about. There’s always something to learn and blogs are one of the best ways to get information. Some days I will spend a little extra time on blogs to comment on a few posts or submit some posts I really like to social bookmarking sites.

 

Once I’m done with that I go check some of my main email accounts again and reply to any emails I’ve gotten. Then, I do a little work on any new sites I am putting up or just maintain ones I already have up.

 

It’s about 1 or 2pm by now so I take an hour lunch break. Sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, but an hour is about average.

 

At about 3:00pm it’s time to update some more of my sites and blogs.

 

For the next couple hours I write at least 3 blog posts; one post for three different blogs. Then, I write at least 3 articles. Again it’s one article for three different websites. Then I publish them all.

 

Keep in mind that I have about 50 websites/blogs, and I usually update at least three of them everyday, although some of my main ones get updated much more often than the others.

 

Now it’s about 5 or 6 and it’s time take a break from my computer for a while. Although sometimes I stay on it to get on Myspace or Facebook, or something else totally unrelated to my online business. I also eat dinner some time around now.

 

At about 8pm I get back to business and start by checking my email, sales, and all the other stuff I checked right away in the morning.

 

Then, for a couple hours, I do some miscellaneous online business tasks that change almost everyday. It might be writing guest posts for blogs I help author, doing some article marketing, working on a new product, writing my newsletter, researching niches, or any of about a million other things that are a part of what I need to do as an internet marketer.

 

When my work day ends, it’s usually about 11:00pm. Then, I watch TV until about 2:00am and go to bed. I do a routine very similar to this every Monday - Thursday. On Fridays I usually do a few major things that need done and end my work day in the early afternoon sometime.

Weekends are completely random, although I usually do get a few online business tasks done on those days too if I am at home.

 

That’s a typical day in the life of Trent Brownrigg - internet marketer, blogger, and online business consultant. I will help you make money online or start your own home business. Visit my sites for more details!

Hey what’s up? My name’s Avery Berman, and I’m an 18 year old Internet Marketer. I got started when I was 13, and it’s actually
a pretty crazy story…

(If you want to see the video about that crazy journey, I invite you to sign up on my squeeze page at http://www.supersuccessfulsecrets.com/ . The first email I send has the video with the story in it.)

Oh, you want a teaser? Alright, alright, just because you are so cool.

When I was 13 years old I played a game called The Sims Online, which was a MMORPG, or a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. This means that there were literally thousands of people playing the game together at the exact same time, interacting with each other.

I learned quickly that I was very good at making money (or simoleons, as they called it) and that I could go to eBay and sell my virtual cash for REAL cash!

So, at the age of 13 I was making hundreds of dollars selling fake money online.

Obviously through eBay I discovered “make money online” schemes, and my Dad gave me his credit card number…

That’s all you get! If you want to see the whole story in video form check out my site above! (I know, I know, it’s a shameless plug. Let me have it! )

(Oh, and don’t worry, there’s a happy ending!)

Anyway… a day in the life of Avery Berman, the Internet Marketer.

What a question!

Well, I am currently attending College, but because my work (Internet Marketing of course) is more important to me in my eyes, I am attending class two days a week so I have time to work on my latest projects.

So, without further ado, here is the day in the life of Avery Berman on a day when he doesn’t have classes!

THE DAY BEGINS!

I wake up around 11:00 to 11:30 AM after getting a full nights sleep of about 8-10 hours. (Waking up refreshed every day rocks, by the way.)

I get out of bed, turn on my computer which is in my room, and walk to the bathroom. I wash up after the night to wake up completely, then go downstairs and make myself some breakfast.

I walk upstairs with my breakfast and sit at my computer. I immediately open up way to many tabs on Firefox and start the “workday.” (I hate using the word work for this, because it’s so fun.)

Before anything I open iTunes and start listening to awesome music…

Then it begins…

I first check my email to see if there are any pressing problems. I then check the many forums I frequent to see if there are any awesome topics that arouse my attention or if my topics have been replied to.

(I know I should probably do my real work first, but hey I need my leisure time… even though I get a lot of it.)

I then leave the forums and my email open and open a new tab with my website stats or whatever project I’m working on.

I then will open Frontpage (I like it better than Dreamweaver) and open up my websites or whatever I am working on at the moment and start writing and changing it all up!

After a few hours or until I get a lot of stuff done, I’ll start doing some social networking stuff or other methods of traffic. Perhaps make a video. I do whatever I need to currently to get traffic to my page.

I’ll check adwords or adbrite and see how the conversions are going.

By this time I’ll usually have YouTube open because I was checking the stats on my videos, and then I’ll start getting addicted and checking out videos all over the place.

Now, by this time it’s usually getting late (maybe around 6) and my girlfriend will start calling me and telling me to come over and see her and stop working.

I usually give in, and stop working and go see her.

I’ll then get home around 10:30 to 11:00 PM and check my email again and resume everything I was doing before.

I’ll be talking on AIM, MSN and Skype to all my friends and fellow Internet Marketers about what’s going on in my business and sharing ideas.
(I’m a cool guy… if you’re interested in talking with me you can reach me at avenator3000 on AIM… just don’t spam me, alright? )

Around 1-3 AM I’ll go to bed.

It usually ends up being around 2, even though I tell myself at around 12:30 that “I should be getting ready for bed now!”

I then twist in turn in bed for anywhere from 5 minutes to another hour, thinking about all the great new ideas I have to make money now that I’m nowhere near my computer and trying to fall asleep.

And thus ends a day in the life of Avery Berman!

I hope you’ve received a least a bit of entertainment out of this little story, and maybe even a little motivation!

Just remember… if a lazy 18 year old can do it…

Later all you crazy people!

-Avery Berman

P.S. Hey, remember to check out how I got started in VIDEO (Oooohhhh) if you want a cool watch.
http://www.supersuccessfulsecrets.com/

Hi! My name is Melanie Bremner.

I have been running my online business for approximately 6 years now. I first
started off doing virtual assistance work and then got interested in selling
products online with a dropshipper.
I then expanded into the Resell Rights digital product sales and returned to
selling content writing for small businesses which I am still doing now.

I also have an 11 month old son who is quite the mommy’s boy so I have
learned to multi task with the best of them.

An average day starts around 8am. I get up to feed my son and put on a pot of
tea. I then boot up my laptop to check my emails. Completing my email
responses takes about an hour. By that time my son is bored of playing and
wants to spend some time with me. I spend a half an hour or so reading to my son
and playing various games with him. Then he is ready to play on his own again
for another hour before he has a nap.

For the next hour I post some responses on forums I have been keeping an eye
on. This way if my son does want to crawl over to sit on my lap I only need
one hand to type my comments.

When my son is down for his hour and a half nap,I try to get some writing done
for an article or whatever project my client may want.

I do all of my correspondence online through emails or Skype so I don’t have
to bother with a telephone. I find Skype calls I can do without having to have
a headset on so if I need to tend to my child, I can. Most of my clients know
I have a child and don’t mind the occaisional baby noises in the background.

We usually take a lunch break and go for a walk to get out of the house so
we can interact with other families at the library, park, or neighborhood
community center for an hour, then back home for another nap.

During the nap time is when I get the most of my writing done. On average I
am able to spend a dedicated 3 hours to writing without interruption during
the day.

When my son wakes up again, we have a snack and watch some “Treehouse”
programs together. Then my son will play again by himself for some time. This
is the time I add new content to my website, research topics, and try to learn
new SEO tips.

In the evening my husband will play with my son while I finish any projects
that have deadlines, or anything else that may be pressing. Then I make dinner
and we sit down to share our day.

Later on in the evening when my son has gone down for the night, I may spend
time brainstorming in a Skype chatroom with other internet marketers. I find
alot of my ideas for my research and writing by interacting with like minded
souls.

I usually have to remind myself to get off the computer and go to bed sometime
around 2am. That is an average day in the life of a work at home mom.

Melanie Bremner
Family Concerns? For helpful resources visit http://ebooks4families.biz
Need content for your small business, and can’t write? http://smallbizcontentwriting.info

Our blog has the category of ‘A Day In The Life Of…’ and we want guest bloggers to give us posts about a typical day in their life as an internet marketer.

So I am calling all you internet marketers out there to come and be a guest blogger on our blog and let us know about your day.  I’ts not hard, we have a couple posts on here already that may give you an idea of what to write. 

So what’s in it for you???   You get:

• a link back to your website or blog
• your post will be submitted to Blogging Zoom
• your post will be submitted to Digg
• your post will be made into a hub at HubPages and include the link back to your website or blog
• your post will be submitted to ezine articles and include the link back to your website or blog

You can include a photo if you like and if you have a youtube video that you’d like to use I can add that to the HubPage.

So come and be a guest blogger all you need to do is email me at sherylpatstayhome-mum.com - you know what to do just replace the at with @

Email us your post plus a photo if you want one included and don’t forget to include the link back to your website or blog

Thanks in advance
Sheryl

My name is Yvette Stokes and I have owned http://www.ysdata.com– an information processing services for 11 years. I just started blogging at the beginning of the year and wondered why I didn’t start sooner. However, I usually start my work day at 10 A.M. by checking my emails. Once I’ve done that I log on to the office site (if I’m at home) and check who hasn’t come to work.

Since my blog is so new, I tweet and search for new topics of interest. Once I find a topic I usually began writing my content and researching links to support the post. After I’ve made my daily post to the blog www.ysdata.com/bloglog I open the mail for the day and make phone calls.

After lunch, which is normally 2 pm I check my traffic stats to all of my online sites and the revenue that they have generated. If I see a post has really taken off, I write a follow-up post.

It’s usually around 4 P.M. when I check blogs that I follow – just to see what’s going on. During this entire process I’m funneling calls, emails, and staff. Once I closed the office I have dinner with my daughter which is between 6-7 P.M.

At 9 pm I changed into night clothes and go over the books. If I’m still not sleepy, I will start another blog post or read someone else’s blog. I usually fall asleep around 12-1 A.M. and then do it all again.