IM Project Manager

It’s been a few days since I posted about being involved in a contest through the Simple Cash Blog, so I wanted to give you a bit of an update.

First of all, I am falling a bit behind. I’m not listening to my own advice, and I’m finding myself all over the place. So yesterday I sat down and set up a recovery plan to get me back on track by 27th April. It’s going to require some work, but I think I can do it.

Aside from that, this really is a very solid plan. I can’t go into too much detail because that wouldn’t be right - I didn’t create the plan so it really isn’t mine to give. But I don’t see too much harm in talking about it in a general fashion, so that’s what I’ll do. Matt and John, if you read this and you disapprove, let me know and I’ll pull it right away.

Basically, the plan involves two attack vectors, content and relationship marketing. By content, I mean to say that we are expected to post more content on the web in a given week than I have usually posted in the span of several months, so this is a lot of content for me. However, they do a very good job of explaining exactly how to speed it up and do what they are looking for. At least in the revised versions of the instructions this is true. I found myself a little bit confused by the original.

The plan, especially for the content, is very detailed, and they really don’t leave much out. I prefer having daily milestones to make sure I’m on track all week, but that’s just my preference. Their plan is broken down by the week.

The biggest complaint I would have is that it takes me longer to do everything than they suggest. I’m just not as fast as they are when it comes to doing a lot of this stuff, so I’m moving along much slower. But I’m starting to get moving much faster, and it won’t really be fair to say whether I’m at pace or not until I catch up.

The relationship marketing kicks in right in the second week, and builds on itself week after week throughout the contest period. It makes use primarily of forums and a blog for the first few weeks, then moves into using twitter and Facebook, and then goes way beyond that too. I’m not a big fan of Facebook myself, but as they say, you’ve got to go along to get along. I can deal with it at least as long as the contest is ongoing.

In my opinion, it isn’t too late for anyone else who wants to try out this contest. I’m guessing (they haven’t said one way or the other) that the Rhodes brothers are going to be leaving this content up for members and/or selling this as a separate product when all is said and done, so why not get in on it now if you have an interest?

The Simple Cash Blog (NOTE: Full disclosure - if you use this link and decide that you want to give this a try, I will make a commission. This does not affect the price you pay at all, and it is certainly not the reason I am making the recommendation. If you do not wish to use that link, the one below goes to the same place but I will not get any commission if you choose to buy.)
Non-affiliate link to Simple Cash Blog.

When you are new to internet marketing, sometimes the hardest thing to do is to stick to a plan.  This is, in my opinion, the biggest reason most newbies fail.  Of course, it isn’t always as easy as that.

Let me say first that the point of this post is to hopefully give you some insight into the mindset you need to get started, and some advice on how to get started.  Before we get to that, let me give you some background and explain why I say it isn’t as easy as all that.

I am a trained and experienced project manager.  I’d worked at some of the largest companies in the world managing projects.  Even so, I struggled at times, and often openly admitted so here in this blog, when it came to transferring that training to my internet marketing efforts.

Oddly enough, I can thank Robert Kiosaki and Sharon Lechter, authors of “Rich Dad’s Before You Quit Your Job” for helping me to understand why and helping me find my way.  I still struggle, but I have a better understanding of why, and I consciously get myself past it now.

Ironically, I wish I had read this book before I’d left my employer.  It wouldn’t have changed my mind or the timing, but I would have been better prepared.

The problem, you see, is that even though I had operated side businesses and been entrepreneurial since I was a young lad, I didn’t think like an entrepreneur, I thought like an employee.  In the book they explain that this type of thinking is the reason most people become self employed, owning a job, rather than business owners, owning a business.  That is where I was, and to some extent I still am, but I’m working on this.

So, on to the meat of the post.  The point you hopefully gleaned from above is that your training and background, even if it appears to be entrepreneurial and well suited to the field, may not be if your mindset isn’t right.  And the mindset you need to have is that of a true entrepreneur.

An entrepreneur is someone who takes risks regardless of the resources he has currently under his control.  That is to say, he is more likely to say “I’ll find the money for that” when an opportunity arises rather than “I’ll try that when I have the money.”  Risks, of course, aren’t always monetary.

When you first start out, you may be afraid to put yourself out there and ask a question out of fear of sounding stupid.  Formal schooling teaches people that it is not OK to make mistakes, and that is usually reinforced in the workplace.  As an entrepreneur, you must be willing to make every mistake you can, and never let fear hold you back from doing what you know you need to do.

I could go on for hours about the right mindset, but I won’t do so here.  If you want more, please comment below or send me an email at chris (at) internetmarketingpm.com (replace the spaces and (at) with the @ symbol.) and I’ll be happy to respond.

With all of this now, how do you get started.  This is the hardest (and the easiest) part of it all.  Find or create a very simple plan, and then stick to it.  It is the easiest part because there are dozens of plans out there that will work that are already proven, many can be had for free or a very low price.  I’m actually considering making one available here.  This is the hardest part, though, because once you pick one, you have to stick to it.

That means stick to it through thick and thin, in sickness and in health, ’till…  OK, a little silly, but for all intents and purposes, you should consider yourself married to your plan, at least until it reaches the end.  Don’t multitask, don’t dabble, don’t fool around.  Just pick one plan and see it through.

Make it into a real project.  I’m involved in a contest right now that fits that bill exactly.  John and Matthew Rhodes, known online as the Rhodes Brothers, have a membership site known as the Simple Cash Blog.  I was a member for quite a while some time ago, and dropped out, but they have revived and reinvented it, so I rejoined.

That’s right, it was good enough the first time to make me want to go back again.  And they are having a competition right now called the Super Affiliate Competition.  This competition lasts for 11 weeks and then it is over, and they provided the plan for each competitor to follow for that length of time.

Once the project is over, the outcome is supposed to be a business that earns $1700 per month, which isn’t too shabby considering it only requires about 2 hours worth of work each day for the 77 days of the competition.

They also have other plans available in the membership area that can be used as the basis for projects.  For example, when I first rejoined, about two weeks before the start of the contest, I started a short project working on a plan they have called one hour per day.  As you might expect, it is a plan that requires you to work for an hour each day.

I did so for the two weeks leading up to the contest, and now just a couple of weeks later it is making me money even though I’m not still working on it.  It doesn’t make much, but if memory serves, they claim it will take 3-4 weeks of work before you start seeing any commissions, so since I only did two weeks worth, I’m certainly not complaining at all.

At any rate, if you have an interest in checking out the Simple Cash Blog, I would definitely recommend it.  I think I’m going to make a case study out of the one hour plan after the contest is over, and I’ll also try to give updates regarding my contest progress.

Check out the Simple Cash Blog right here.  (NOTE:  Full disclosure - if you use this link and decide that you want to give this a try, I will make a commission.  This does not affect the price you pay at all, and it is certainly not the reason I am making the recommendation.  If you do not wish to use that link, the one below goes to the same place but I will not get any commission if you choose to buy.)

Non-affiliate link to Simple Cash Blog.

Thank you,
Chris

One of the big considerations when you are planning your project is whether or not you will outsource (or out-task - topic for a different post). As I’m sure you know, outsourcing is the hiring out of work. This is done primarily to free up your time to work on the more important parts of your business, such as the marketing.

Many things can be outsourced, including content creation, web site design and management, security, and the list goes on. But why are we discussing this here?

When you are planning your projects, you need to know who will be doing the work. Not necessarily the exact “who”, but will it be you or someone else. If it is someone else, this is another resource you need for your project, and should be accounted for in your resource list.

Actually, the way I prefer to do this is to list out all the resources you need anyway, and then assign jobs to the resources, whether me or someone else. This way I can more easily reuse parts of my plans in future projects.

To explain another way, if you are the writer, and you are the web designer, and you are the graphics designer, and you are the script installer, and so on, you fill each of these roles. However, that doesn’t mean that your project didn’t need a script installer resource, or a graphic designer resource. Do you see where I’m going? You might be the chief cook and bottle washer, but all of these jobs still require a resource, even if that resource is you.

And often if your just starting out, they are all you. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take each job into consideration separately in your plan. Besides re-usability, there is another good reason to do this.

If, in the middle of your project, you determine you can’t complete the content in time. You can make the choice to hire this out. You have these tasks separated in your plan, so you can easily determine what you need him to do. On small projects, like what I’m showing you in the case study, it may seem obvious what is needed from each resource, but in a larger undertaking you might not find it so easy.

Anyway, just wanted to throw out this topic. Remember to always define each resource based on the job performed, even if you are the only actual human resource involved.

Cheers,

Chris

I feel like I’ve been all over the place. As I was sitting down tonight to write up some posts for this blog, it occurred to me that I wasn’t listening to myself. I love to teach, but I don’t have much experience in teaching. I realized that someone coming here to this blog would be inundated with an enormous amount of information, without any logical order to it, and without an overall cohesive message.

This got me thinking. In my day job as a project manager, I would never dream of starting a project without having every duck in a row. This doesn’t mean that everything is perfect there, but it means that I have a better vision of where we should be, and I can adapt, correct, report and do all the project management tasks more efficiently.

So, what does this mean for you, and for this blog? Well, good things are coming in the near future. First, however, I need to stop for a few days and regroup. One of the big mistakes I’ve made here is that I failed to treat this blog as a project. Actually, the blog itself, since it should be around indefinitely, is not really a project. However, things like the case study being presented, and presenting the things you really need to know as a project manager, need to be treated as projects, and need to be planned and worked as a project. And that is exactly what I intend to do.

By this coming weekend, I will have a plan laid out for the case study. Not just the revised and update plan for it, but also my plan for reporting status and for using what I’m doing there as a teaching tool. I expect to have regular status reports to go along with the other posts of what I’m doing for this project.

Well, that’s all for now. The next post should be on Sunday, February 24, 2008, and should give you a much better picture. I’ll lay out everything related to initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, and closing the project.

Cheers,

Chris

Most people consider risk to be a negative thing, or at least have negative connotations. However, when considering risk in a project, you have to consider opportunity risk and other possibly positive risks as well.

Lets say your project is to build 1000 content pages, based around a single theme. In planning this project, one risk you identify is finding decent PLR content on this theme. This is a risk because now you have to consider modifying your project to incorporate this PLR content, and change the project plan, and the schedule, and even the budget.

Often times project managers get stuck in the thinking that risks are bad things that could happen outside of their control. The reality is that risks are anything that could happen outside your control which could impact your project, whether good or bad. Therefore it can be beneficial to make a point of trying to think of potential positive risks for every project. Even if there aren’t any, thinking this way will at least help you to find these positive risks when they do exist.

There should always only be one primary objective to any project. Projects can have other requirements or minor objectives, but these should support the primary objective. If you find that your projects have multiple objectives, break them down into multiple projects, then make one larger project to manage these smaller ones.

For example, you have a project to build a web site, and your objectives are to build 100 pages of content, drive 500 unique visitors to the site per day and develop 1000 backlinks to the site. This should probably become three separate projects, with a parent project to manage all three of these concurrently.