One of the most important things that you can do to keep your business on track is to keep yourself on track!  In my online marketing business, it’s very easy to get so wrapped up in the constant flow of information from various sources, including the news media, forums, and various blogs that I subscribe to, that you actually never accomplish any real work!

For a new marketer especially, it’s important to spend a certain amount of time reading the forums and blog posts in order to learn the basics, however, any marketer – new or old – can get so caught up in reading the latest Google update analysis, or the latest offering from the gurus, or even the latest rant, that they lose track of time and spend money they do not need to spend on products that are, at best, marginally helpful in your quest to earn online.

Recently, after several years of frequenting various forums, and reading several guru’s blogs, I decided to *NOT* spend any time reading anything that didn’t directly relate to some concern that I had for my business.  The reason?  Because, honestly, the forums are full of people just like me…everyone is speculating on the effect that this change or that update will have on their overall business.  And, since my business was actually affected by the recent Google algorithm updates, I was desperately reading and TRYING different approaches to regain my lost ranking and lost earnings.  The result?  Utter chaos!  Over the past six months, I have changed every one of my sites no less than 3 times, many more than that.  I have purchased this plugin or that piece of software, all in the hopes of regaining what should have been only a temporary setback.  Instead, I turned it into a  half year saga…every week I bought some new plugin, some new report, or some new theory that other people had as to why MY business might have been affected!  

Finally, after months and months of frantically restructuring site after site after site, I realized what I was doing…if I hadn’t already been set back by an update to the algorithm, I was definitely setting myself back with all of my wild, erratic changes…I was setting myself up to be branded as a fly-by-night, ever changing, spammy marketer. 

As an experienced brick and mortar business person, I already know that!  But in my foray into the online business world, where every change you make is noticed immediately by your visitors, I forgot that consistency is still the key to stable, long term growth of your business.  Think about it…if every time you went to the web site for CNN, it was a totally different website, would you trust their content?  NO.  When you go to an established website, you expect a certain degree of continuity.  You don’t expect it to look like it’s been hacked, or redirected to a site that in no way resembles the site you found last time you visited.

So, rather than continue to repeatedly change and rearrange my entire business in the hopes of emulating the supposed success of another marketer…I completely cut myself off from purchasing any new plugins, software, reports, etc., aimed at improving, changing, or magically solving my problem.  I no longer spend more than 15 minutes in the forums.  I read each blog post with a grain of salt.  And, when I’m tempted to hit that BUY button, I look at the list of things that I have purchased in the past six months, and realize that I’m not using any of them.

So, this home business tip is simple:  Don’t buy into someone elses hype.  Build your business in a stable, consistent way.  While you might see the occasional setback, and you might need to adapt to changes in your market, make sure that you’re the one deciding what needs to change…not some “guru” who’s trying to sell you some report or some tool that will magically change things overnight.  Real business doesn’t work that way, and neither should your home based business.

Interested in Making a Living Without a Job?

With the nation’s unemployment rate still hovering around 9%, and even higher in many places, there really is no better time to start your own business!  Especially if you’ve been unemployed for some time, you know how thin the job market is, and you know how vital it is to find a way to earn money without depending upon an outside company (a job) to provide a stable financial future for you and your family. 

• Making a Living Without a Job, revised edition: Winning Ways for Creating Work That You Love
• List Price: $16.00
• Price: $9.40
• Read Reviews

Instead of wasting your days of unemployment staring at the television, updating your facebook status, or simply hanging around the house, get busy and start making things happen in your own life!  Don’t depend on another “dream job” to fall into your lap and solve all your financial problems – because the sad truth is, those days are long gone.  Now, if you don’t learn to earn on your own, your future could be pretty bleak. 

Amazon.com describes Making a Living Without a Job as: 

“Barbara J. Winter’s guide to successful self-employment, newly revised, is now more relevant than ever before.   Drawing on the techniques and ideas of her popular seminars as well as her own thirty years of business expertise and that of other successful entrepreneurs, Winter offers the practical, proven way to launch your own profitable venture. Her indispensable advice ranges from why creativity is more important than capital to how to avoid the most common pitfalls of self-employment and how to develop multiple profit centers.”

Important things covered in Making a Living Without a Job:

• Finding Opportunities in a Poor Economy
• Tips for Your Own 21st Century Business Model
• Harness the Power of the Internet and Find Fresh, New Opportunities
• Resources to Help You Create and Grow Your Own Unique Business
• Building an Entrepreneur’s Mindset

Making a Living Without a Job simply has all of the tools you need for getting the most profit out of life both professionally and personally, and I wouldn’t even consider starting my business without reading it cover to cover!

Got an idea for a home based business that you want to share? Become a guest author for The Best Home Business Ideas! We’re now accepting Guest Posts from other home based business owners…so share your ideas! Share your method! Visit our Guest Post page to see how!

One of the most important things that you can do to succeed in your home based business venture is to study! Study everything you can about the business you want to start, potential businesses to start if you haven’t decided upon one yet, and success stories of others who started and succeeded in business.

Over the next few weeks, we’re featuring a series of books about home based businesses. We’ll present the ones we learned the most from, the ones that offer the best ideas, and the ones that might help you to succeed. So, come back often!