One of the biggest reasons people fail when they start a business…

Or why some guys make a few thousand a month when they could be making 5-6 figures a month, is a lack of motivation.

As a freelance marketing strategist/copywriter/marketer/whatever the hell I feel like calling myself, I have no boss barking orders at me…

Sure, I have deadlines, but I always allow myself plenty of time to procrastinate “just in case”, however, and in the last year specifically, my productivity has gone through the roof.

I’m more productive than ever before.

I make more money than ever before.

And my “system” really is so simple that it’s surprising it works so well. After talking with some friends, I’m not the only one it works so well for.

So here it is…

I simply write down 3 critical tasks. I write them down at the end of the work day, and start on them first thing in the morning.

Like for today I have…

1. Write daily email.

2. Voice over sales video.

3. Finish OTO for client.

All of that should take 3-6 hours.

But the more I keep a focused effort, the quicker I’ll get it done. For me staying on task means leaving the office early on Friday…

And procrastinating means I’ll be stuck in here working on a Friday night.

Here’s the critical part, I allot blocks of time for each task, set a timer, and do NOTHING but what I’m supposed to be working on while that timer is going.

It could be 15 minutes, it could be an hour, but whatever time I set I focus and work on nothing else during that time.

I use The Action Machine (and have for nearly 2 years) to stay on task. I load up my daily tasks, set the timers, and hit “go”.

When I’m racing a timer, for some subconscious reason I get things done a lot more efficiently.

A notepad and an egg timer can almost work just as well…

But with The Action Machine you can load up tasks days or even weeks in advance, it’s always right there in front of you, and it generates reports letting you know what you’ve accomplished over time….

…And those reports are probably my  favorite thing about it. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing just how much you really can accomplish during a really productive week or month.

If you have problems with procrastination, maybe it’ll work for you too…

Have a good weekend!

Peace,

-Scott Murdaugh

P.S. Think about this, how much more money would you make if you could squeeze just 30-minutes of more PRODUCTIVE time into each day? That comes out to roughly 10 hours a month. If you make $20 an hour, that’s an extra $200 a month in your pocket, just for training yourself to accomplish a little more in the same amount of time…

This can help you get there…

http://www.makestuffsell.com/action

First of all THANK YOU to everyone who replied to my survey yesterday. The feedback was awesome.

One suggestion for an email subject was “how to find your place online”, and I think it’s a good subject. I suffer from “entrepreneurial ADD” as bad as anyone I know…

Over the past 5 years I’ve…

• Worked as a ghostwriter creating products for big name Clickbank marketers…
• Promoted dozens of affiliate offers, from CPA to information product.
• Created and successfully marketed several of my own products.
• Created, bought and flipped more websites than I can count.
• Worked as a freelance copywriter and marketing consultant for some of the best people in this business.
• Acted as lead copywriter and consultant to multi-million dollar businesses.

And a whole lot of other stuff.

Basically, if it’s online, I’ve been there and done it.

Right now I’m in a copywriting and consulting groove. I dig it because I’m always working on new projects, always working with new people and I don’t get bored with it.

I’m also working on several of my own products. I have PPC campaigns set up as an affiliate. I’m ALWAYS looking for innovative ways to grow my list (and doing my best to keep putting out content worth reading).

I’ve done almost everything online, and I’ll keep trying new stuff, because that’s just how I am.

My suggestion?

Work on whatever you happen to be passionate about at the time. When you’re passionate, you’re motivated, you’re having fun, you get things done and the money folllows.

Focus on one thing at a time. Go for the “fast money” projects first to keep you motivated over the long term, never get married to your ideas and be prepared to fail, and when you do fail, fail as fast as possible so you can get back on track.

Now go make some money

-Scott Murdaugh

P.S. For nearly 2 years I’ve been using a “secret weapon” to help plan my day, stay motivated, focused and to work at peak productivity. It’s had a DRAMATIC improvement on my productivity, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

http://www.makestuffsell.com/action

Version 3.0 is coming out this week (along with a price hike) but you can grab it now at the normal price and you’ll get the upgrade for free. It’s been a life changer for me, you can check it out here…

http://www.makestuffsell.com/action

I’m sort of a “recluse” during the day…

I stay invisible (or signed out of) Skype and other instant messaging.

Unless I have a call scheduled there’s ZERO chance I’m answering the phone while working.

I sometimes hang out at forums but rarely spend time posting.

You won’t find me on Facebook or Twitter during the day.

And it has nothing to do with not liking people. I love people. I love networking. I love chatting it up with old friends and clients…

It’s just that I’m VERY aware that all of those things are competing for my time.

And they drain your time too, probably more so than you think.

For example, if you’re in the middle of a project, and you stop to read an email or answer the phone, you’re going to lose a lot more time than the 2 minutes you spend on the phone…

Because when you get interrupted like that, you fall out of motion. And if you’re like me once you lose that focus it can take 20 minutes, even an hour, to get back into the swing of things.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of “pseudo work”…

You tell yourself you’re on Twitter to network…

Or that you signed in to Facebook to see if a business partner is online. But when you look back on it, you spent the whole time making plans for the game next weekend or an hour debating the plot line of “Inception” with a total stranger…

I’m not saying avoid social networking.  Or that phone or instant messenger are necessarily bad things…

I’m just saying it pays to be VERY aware of how little distractions like that can add up and rob you of HUGE chunks of time.

Peace,

-Scott Murdaugh

P.S. Speaking of time savers, my buddy Andy Fletcher just released his product launch platform for WordPress… I’ve been playing with it this morning and it’s SWEET. Point and click interface, Sexy sales letters, Kajabi style launches, and a ton of other cool things. And since he just launched he’s giving it away ridiculously cheap, you can check it out here… http://www.makestuffsell.com/afwpt.php

Here’s a trick I use all of the time.

When you’re staring at a blank screen, or you get caught up wasting time on forums or email or doing things that don’t make you money, there’s an easy way out.

When you feel like you can’t do anything, it’s usually because you’re not moving at all.

And if you’ve ever paid attention on one of your really productive days, it seems like you’re just flying through work, right?

It’s because you’re MOVING.

If you’re stuck and not doing anything, it’s hard to get yourself in motion.

But once you get going, and you’re in motion, it’s almost just as hard to stop yourself.

So here’s the trick…

The next time you’re procrastinating, set yourself a dead easy goal. Something that only takes 5 minutes or less.

In my case I may say I’m going to come up with an email subject. Or write a couple of new bullets for a sales letter.

If you’re setting up an Adwords campaign just tell yourself you’re going to add a couple of new keywords, or create a couple of new variations of an ad.

There’s no stress or pressure there if you have a small goal that only takes a minute or two.

But you’ll find, just the act of getting yourself in motion, just focusing for a minute or two on what you’re supposed to be working on, you’ll end up getting sucked in, you’ll be working on it, and you’ll find it’s just as hard to stop as it was to motivate yourself to start in the first place.

A couple of quotes I like…

“Movement Beats Meditation.” – Gary Halbert

“Money Loves Speed.”

I’ve found them both to be profoundly true.

The next time you’re stuck, give yourself an EASY task. Anything to get you started. More often than not, once you get moving you’ll look back a few hours later and see that you’ve accomplished a ton of work.

Peace,

-Scott Murdaugh

Here’s a startling revelation…

As a writer, I spend a good chunk of my time not wanting to write.

If you write, you’ve probably experienced staring at a blank page for hours on end. Or getting “something” down on paper but throwing it out after a few hours of work because it’s just not cutting it.

For me it can be because I didn’t get enough sleep. Or it’s noisy. Or I’m just not “feeling” it when I sit down to write.

I can come up with a million excuses to avoid writing.

But, when it’s your job, even if you don’t feel like it you have to do it anyway.

I find writing (and just about every other kind of work I do) is A LOT easier when you feel like doing it. Sometimes you just feel like you’re “in the zone”, you fly for a couple of hours, and you come up with something great.

I’ve found 2 ways that help me get “in the zone”.

The first is doing my “money work” first thing in the morning. In my case that’s writing. That’s nothing new, it’s something I’ve heard a lot of successful people talk about. But for whatever reason it does work for me. Once I get past the first 5 minutes or so in the morning I’m usually on cruise control for the rest of the day.

The second is when I can get myself truly fired up about a project.

I’ve written an entire sales letter overnight for a client after waking up with a headline idea.

I’ve created entire products and sales letters for them in less than 24 hours.

Whether you get fired up because of a new idea, or a new project you want to work on, wherever the inspiration comes from I’ve learned it’s CRITICAL to feed on it while it lasts.

Work that would normally take me 20 hours to do suddenly gets cut down to 4 hours when I’m in that zone.

Projects that seemed mind numbingly boring suddenly become a blast to work on.

I get much more accomplished, and I have a lot more fun working when I’m in the right state of mind.

The trick is getting into that state of mind.

And to do that, you have to figure out what motivates you. It could be money. It could be providing for your family. Or doing a good job for a client you want to work with again. Or breaking your own sales record for the month.

Point being, we all have different ways to motivate us to get there.

But if you want to get a lot more accomplished in a lot less time, you’ve got to figure out a way to motivate yourself to get into the zone, and always take advantage of it when it happens.

Peace,

-Scott Murdaugh

In 2002, I joined the US Air Force.

I served one term. I traveled the world. I went to war.

After all of the crazy things I experienced, when I think back today, the time that I remember the most vividly – It feels like yesterday – Was my first 8 weeks of Basic Military Training.

My first mistake was assuming that Air Force BMT would be “easy”…

The first night in we had about 2 hours to “sleep”, although I don’t think any of us got any sleep that night.

At about 3am, we’re all laid out in bunk beds Full Metal Jacket style, and the room just fills up with guys screaming at us to get up and start moving, to “move with a sense of urgency”.

About 20 minutes later we met our main “TI” (training instructor) for the first time. I can still remember that feeling of shock.

SSGT Dillon was literally 7′ tall. He was hands down the biggest, loudest and meanest guy I’ve ever met in my life.

He’d smoke us like crazy. Push-ups, flutter kicks, running until you think you’re going to die, and then doing it all over again…

About 7 weeks in we returned from some field training. We felt like we accomplished a lot. We thought our TI would finally give us a little credit, maybe even tell us “good work” for a change.

That didn’t happen. Some of the guys didn’t fall into formation fast enough for him. So there we were, after a week in the field, wanting nothing more than a full night of sleep, on the ground in 60lb packs doing pushups.

To this day, about the only thing I can think of that could motivate me more than SSGT Dillon could was fearing for my life…

The thought of pissing him off and having him take it out on you and the other ~40 guys in the flight was about as scary as dying.

Looking back today it was a GREAT experience. Because I’d never been exposed to something that  incredibly stressful before.  He had a way of pushing us to do things we never thought we could do.

And the biggest thing I can thank him for is teaching me how to “move with a sense of urgency”, no matter what it is I’m doing in life.

If I’m not in the mood for writing, I can think to myself “What would SSGT Dillon do if his job was to make sure I finished this project?”

The answer would be along the lines of screaming “Hey stupid-ass, what the $@*& do you think you’re doing? Get the $*&# down on your face. NOW!!”

I wouldn’t have admitted it at the time, but that’s actually turned out to be a good voice to have stuck in my head whenever I need some motivation.

Maybe you’ve got a war story of your own.

It doesn’t have to be related to the military, maybe just a time in your life when you fought tooth and nail against tough odds and came out a stronger person in the end.

It’s kill or be killed out there.

Money loves speed. And those who can “move with a sense of urgency”, and just make stuff happen, they’re the ones who get ahead.

To this day, SSGT Dillon never told us “good work”. Silence was our reward.

And when you’re working for yourself, it’s rare for anyone to tell you “good work”, especially when you’re working on your own stuff.

I’ve got SSGT Dillon forever stuck in my brain…

Beyond money, what’s your motivation for getting things done?

I’d love to hear your ideas.

Thanks,

-Scott Murdaugh

I woke up sick today.

I haven’t been sick in years.

Right now I’m running a fever, my nose is clogged up, I’m nauseas, and if this keeps up it’s looking like a trip to the doctor tomorrow.

All I feel like doing right now is slamming some Nyquil, curling up in my bed and sleeping until this all passes.

In fact, I’m using that as my “incentive” to write this email.

One of the downsides to being a freelance copywriter is you can’t change deadlines. I have to deliver  to my clients when I promised I would, barring disaster, I’m making sure that happens, sick or not.

And I have to write a daily email, because that’s a promise I made to myself.

Writing isn’t real high on my “I feel like doing right now” list at the moment.

But it’s #1 on the “this is what I do for a living so I need to do it” list.

And that’s the lesson here.

When you decide to make the leap to ditch the job and be your own boss, you’re making a commitment to yourself.

You owe it to yourself to create products, write content, generate traffic  or whatever it is you do that makes you money.

That stuff is easy when you’re fired up about a project…

It’s the times when you don’t feel like working – But you do it anyway  – That’s when things get tricky.

Sometime it takes that “gun to the head” mentality, that “if I don’t get this done right now, I could lose everything” feeling to get through the day.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt like “not writing” more than I do right now.

On the bright side, if I can still get things accomplished when I’m at my worst, I shouldn’t have any problems getting things done when I’m at my best.

Is this the best email I’ve ever written? Not by a long shot.

Will it accomplish more than if I did nothing at all? Absolutely.

It’s Friday.

Enjoy your weekend!

Now where’s that Nyquil…  It’s self-induced coma time.

-Scott

This is a case study of a project I worked on with Andy Fletcher a few months ago…

Andy and I had never met prior to this project; we were introduced through a mutual friend. Andy had an awesome SEO course that he wanted to bring to market, and he needed some help selling it.

The guy is an SEO genius, the product and software was solid, and it was a perfect fit for me…

There were a few problems… Andy had very little marketing experience and a very tiny list. I asked him how he planned to market it and he said “probably just a WSO (warrior special offer), I don’t expect it to be anything too big.”

I almost dropped Andy right there. A $27 WSO, even if it sold well, would take well over 100 sales to even cover my fee, let alone make any money for Andy… And I don’t take on a project unless it’s going to make me and my clients some serious money.

But Andy Had A Secret Weapon

In certain circles, Andy Fletcher is considered a genius at SEO… He’s always on the cutting edge of tools and techniques that send websites flying up to the top of the search engines…

He’s also got some very influential contacts in the business. Not to mention he’s a genuinely great guy and has a very magnetic personality.

So we devised a plan… We were going to make this thing a hit, and we were going to do it using the power of relationship marketing.

Andy had some major contacts in the industry… So after we decided that this product was going to be HUGE and not just a “little WSO” Andy paid my fee and I went to work.

Little Ideas Go A Long Ways

Andy has a very cool product. You can see it at Backlinkflood.com.

It’s an SEO product about getting your websites ranked higher in the search engines in the shortest amount of time possible.

I coined some terms like “Rapid Link Indexing”, “SEO 2.0”, “Underground Link Ninja”… But more importantly I covered all of the important aspects of the copy. I consulted with Andy about some minor changes to the product that I thought could help sales.

I created several different USP’s to use throughout the copy, from faster indexing of links to how to build “authority wheels” and answered many of the questions that people in this niche would like to know.

To be completely honest, this letter wasn’t perfect  (sorry Andy). It could have used some more punch in the bullets.

I had planned for videos to accompany his software so users could get a quick overview. That never happened…

And even though I tried to convince Andy otherwise, and encouraged him to test, I wasn’t a fan of the price point.

But it does go to show you that there’s no such thing as a “perfect” sales letter… But a “good” sales letter can still make you a nice chunk of money.

The Secret Recipe For Success

Here’s why Andy’s  product was a success…

Andy knew what his market wanted. He knew how to solve their problems.

Andy hired a professional copywriter (ahem) who is familiar with his market to handle his copy… He outsourced one of the most critical components in his marketing funnel, the sales copy itself.

I also wrote some emails for affiliates to use in promotion… Andy did an AMAZING job at making the site as enticing to affiliates as possible…

From the professional design, the professional copy, the tools…

He even offered a 15% second tier affiliate structure so that affiliates would be encouraged for other affiliates.

He worked with MiniSiteFrog.com for the design, they do pretty awesome work.

The REAL Secret To  Success

The real secret to Andy’s success was his ability to go out, create some amazing JV’s and drive some traffic to the offer.

The 10% conversion rate I mentioned? To be fair, it was only a few hundred visitors, and they came off of a previous SEO products buyers list.

You can’t get much more targeted traffic than that, these are people who have shown an interest in spending money to learn more about SEO.

The site did convert around 3.5% on “freebie” lists and 1.5%+ on cold traffic, so overall the sales page did its job well.

He also had other very good JV partners… In fact the product was featured at the top of the Warrior Forum for about 2 weeks.

Andy gave me permission to tell his story, but it’s not my place to tell you how much money this little project has made him… Although I DO know he was extremely satisfied and more than covered my fee.

Moral Of The Story

You don’t need to be a “guru” or have a huge list to make a lot of money.

Andy found a market and created a product that solved a problem for that market.

He spared no expense when it came to outsourcing the essentials, like copywriters (I like to call them conversion multipliers) and design.

He worked like crazy to create an awesome product and to go out and make things happen… He didn’t create the product, have a sales page designed and then sit around waiting for something to happen. He made it happen.

It was a simple product… But because he had specialized knowledge, because he didn’t half ass anything, he worked hard and spared no expense when hiring people who he knew he could count on for a great job, he was rewarded in the end.

Whether he made $1,000 profit or $100,000 profit is irrelevant…  He created something with his own 2 hands, went out and MADE it happen.

And you can do the same. This whole internet marketing stuff isn’t as complicated as it seems.

As a former client and good friend of mine would say “Just F’n Do It”.

Peace,

-Scott Murdaugh

P.S. Stay tuned for an AWESOME interview with one of the world’s greatest living copywriters (who I’ll reveal shortly)… It should be out early next week but you need to be subscribed to my newsletter to be able to hear it.

P.P.S. Do you want your next product to be a success story? Head over to ResultsCopywriting.com and we’ll figure out a way to make it happen.

I’m the first to admit that this is my biggest problem…

A few months into my freelance copywriting career, I became jaded. I had clients falling into my lap with hardly any marketing on my part, and I was earning enough money to be “comfortable”…

Don’t get me wrong, ALL of my clients get 100% effort out of me, but I’d lost some of my drive…

It used to be I’d get a new project and that same night I’d sit down, do some market research, and try to bang out a rough draft… I was EXCITED to be working on any new project that came my way.

Lately, it’s been more like “It’s not due for about a month… I’ve got plenty of time to get around to it.”

I’m not lazy. I’m human.

I’m also 27. I still run around with a lot of the same people I did in High school, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, BUT it can kill my productivity… Why?

My best friend is a foreman on a roofing company… He makes good money for where we live, and he worked his ass of to get there…  And aside from grabbing a cold beer after work from time to time he’s one of the most responsible guys I know.

However my best friend is the exception… (And no offense to anyone who may be reading this).

Most of my friends are always wanting to go out and have some fun, even if it means staying out until 3am on a Tuesday night…

I love having fun, but my days of treating life like a full time party are over. So I’m going to slowly be cutting ties with a lot of these people, because they’re not helping me to become the person I want to become.

I’ve been doing some serious thinking about where I want to be a year from now, and I’m FAR from it at this point.

Here’s a few steps I’m taking to help me get there…

Identify Your Time Leeches… Here Are Mine..

Television: This is a big one for me. I’m not saying to give up your favorite shows, I have my fair share… I also record them on DVR so I can watch them on MY schedule, not the other way around. So if you’re not game for throwing out the “idiot box” completely, consider using DVR or even Hulu to watch your favorite shows on your time.

Video Games: I used to be an addict. Not as bad as some, but probably an hour or so a day. As much as it hurt to do, I sold all of my video game systems. I miss them, but when I’m at the point in life where I truly want to be, I’ll be able to afford them again… Until then I can’t afford the wasted time.

People: I’ve already talked briefly about cutting ties with those who aren’t helping my life. But I’m taking it a step further… Even for my clients I’m no longer going to be accessible 24/7… I’m not going to jump when my phone rings for anyone (I have voicemail for a reason) or return an email the second I get it… I will still communicate, but it’s on my terms.

Time Wasting Websites: Forums, Facebook, Twitter and others can be VERY helpful for your business… But only if you’re using them the RIGHT way… Browsing forums all day long can be addictive, but it doesn’t put much money in your pocket… For me personally websites like Digg.com and other fun but time sucking sites are on the “block list” on my computer. (To block sites, use Leechblock for Firefox (free).

How To Be Passionate About What You Do.

I mentioned earlier that when I’d get a new project, I’d lose sleep over how excited I was to get started… I think I’ve figured out how to spark that passion again.

Here are a few tips to help “light that fire”…

• Only take on projects, whether they’re your own or a clients, that get you EXCITED… The “I can’t wait to finish this, we’re going to make a TON of money” type of projects.

• Don’t take on more work than you can handle… I’ve been guilty of this in the past and nothing burns you out and kills your motivation like biting off more than you can chew.

• Only work with people you like…  I can’t stand negative attitudes, I want my clients and partners to be EXCITED about their projects… That energy and excitement is contagious.

• Set yourself an ultimatum…  “If I don’t earn $x in the next 2 weeks, I’m getting a part time job as a waiter for a month”… I don’t know about you but going back to a minimum wage job were no  one values your time and people treat you like crap is a pretty strong motivator for me.

• Set realistic goals that get you excited… New car, family vacation to Disney World, Backpacking trip across Europe… Ask yourself what you’d rather be doing more than anything else right now and use that as fuel for your fire.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading, most recently Kennedy’s “No B.S. Time Management” and Craig Garber’s new book “Make Maximum Money With Minimum Customers”… (non-aff)

They’ve both already inspired me…

Mainly, because I have a “magic number” that I believe an hour of my time should be worth… And if I’m not doing an activity that directly contributes to that “magic number”,  I need to STOP immediately and either get off of the computer or get back to work that directly puts money in my pocket.

I find that I work best when I write down specific daily goals on a checklist… I also estimate the time the goal will take, set a timer, and do nothing but work on that goal during the duration of that time.

I personally use The Action Machine (non-aff) but to be honest, aside from the reports and a few bells and whistles  pen,  paper and an egg timer works just as well.

Another VERY cool (and free) tool is Rescue Time… It tracks EVERYTHING you do on your computer, from the apps you have open to the websites you visit, and shows you some neat charts and graphs so you can see where you spend the majority of your time on the computer.

I HIGHLY recommend you grab this… It’s free and the information it provides about your work habits are extremely insightful.

If you can add one more PRODUCTIVE hour per day to you schedule, that’s 5 hours a week, or 20 hours a month…

If you value your time at $100 per hour that’s an extra $2,000 a month, and it’s not THAT hard to squeeze an extra hour of productivity out each day.

Your Time Is Your Most Valuable Asset…

Time is one thing money can’t buy, and you’re constantly running out of it… So you NEED  to use it as wisely as possible…

And if you set daily goals and schedules you’ll be A LOT more productive during your working time… So you can either make more money or spend your time doing something that you enjoy doing…

THAT’S freedom… I don’t know about you but that’s EXACTLY why I went into my business for myself. It’s the ultimate freedom.

Peace,

-Scott Murdaugh