A great affiliate marketer shouldn’t have to force himself to work. Work should come natural to him, normally from a good amount of drive, effort and want to make things happen. You are working, pretty much, without consequences of someone working at an office below a boss. If he doesn’t work, he gets fired. Where as if you don’t work, you miss an opportunity to make money, but you can still go back and catch up on work tomorrow. But what if you say the same thing tomorrow? And the next day and the next? Being lazy is one of the largest hazards of being a stay-at-home business owner.

So how can you avoid being lazy? I’ve got a few tips to give to you.

Goals

Give yourself a set of goals you plan to achieve throughout the day. Make this one of your first activities of the day to make sure it gets done. Some nights I sleep next to a notebook and a pen so I can wake up and jot down any good ideas I may have dreamed about and want to test in the morning.

To make sure you carry through with your daily goals, write down a reward for completing all tasks. Rewards for myself include going out to the club later that night, enjoying a nice Wagyu steak dinner, buying myself something new, playing a game, or something else simple like that. Just make sure you’ll enjoy and fight for the reward as the end of your work day nears. If you don’t reach your goal, you don’t get your reward and you continue working.

Employees

Having employees has made my life 100 times more simple than it was before. They’ll carry out a lot of the tasks I’m too lazy to do, or things I just don’t know how to do. However, there is a huge pitfall for me and that is with relying on my employees to do all my work. Some days they’d come to the office while they work and I play video games. With my new office setup in the house I’ll move in to soon, I’ll make sure everyone can see everyone else. This will ensure that, while I still might not get any consequences if they see me playing a game, it certainly might make me look like a bad boss.

Thinking Back

Another good exercise to do is to think back at what you were before your own business. Were you miserable at your old 9-5 job? Did you live in a tiny apartment and drive a crappy car? Did you have less time to do the things you really wanted to do? I think back a lot and it helps drive me to work further to avoid sinking back to that. I love where I am at now and want to keep pushing higher. It’s a huge motivator for myself.

So how do you keep yourself from being a lazy Internet marketer? Leave your comments below!

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So you made your first $50 in one day. Pretty ballin’, right? Well, lets put that number into an equation. Let’s say you put in 15 hours of work per day to get there, and to keep making that kind of money you have to put in 15 more hours each day. $50 divided by 15 hours = about $3 per hour, or a couple dollars an hour for each hour of the day. Honestly, you’d be better off working at McDonalds for 8 hours to make that kind of money.

You need to put a value on your time. If you are constantly working on a campaign that is making you some sort of profit, but that is only a couple dollars an hour, perhaps it is time you move on to something else. The amount of money you make is not just equivalent to how much effort you put into your work, but what types of work and campaigns you are doing.

There are some things to consider here. Most important is the long-term value of your work. If you are constantly putting in 15 hours to post on Yahoo Answers or e-whore for a few bucks, the moment you stop is the moment you won’t be making anymore money. However, if you are putting in 15 hours a day on an SEO campaign making you $10 now, but could eventually turn your site into an authority site (I don’t see why people bother making tiny niche sites when the money lies in authority sites), that is some nice long-term value. Of course, that means sacrificing now-money for then-money.

What I am trying to say is that you as your own boss in affiliate marketing need to decide your wage/hourly pay. If you try something and, even if it makes you money, it only brings in a couple extra bucks an hour, maybe it’s time to drop it (or better yet, outsource it to someone that can manage it at a low cost for you *Indians and Filipinos are? a great option here*). Don’t underestimate the value of any part of your work. If it isn’t going to back out for you now, or in the long run, try something else.

Falling ill while having work to get done used to be hard to get out of when you were stuck at a 9 – 5 job at the office. You’d have to call in, explain your situation to your boss or manager, and in some cases, get a note from your doctor that woud excuse your absense. I hated that! Now that I am a freelance writer, I don’t have anyone to deal with except my clients.

Talking to your clients isn’t always as “great” as it was when you had to explain your situation to a boss. Some lousy clients don’t see why you can’t just perk yourself up in bed and write the freelance writing projects they’ve sent you. I mean, you get to work at home! It’s not a real job, right? To us freelance writers, it is our job, and being ill is being ill. How should you handle your clients when you just don’t think your body could take 8 hours in front of a computer screen?

[image by cutglassdecanter]

Got the Morning Jitters

When you wake up and you get that feeling that you won’t be able to write, not because you are too lazy to do it, because your stomachs urging to show its contents to you or you are breaking out in fascinating sweats, be sure to take a good look at yourself. Are you really ill, or is it just that morning sickness crawling over you. Hop in the shower, throw on some clothes and sit at your computer. Still feeling sicker than all hell? If so, it might be time for an extra nap or maybe even a doctor’s visit.

Get in Touch with Those that Matter

If you’ve decided its time for you to take a freelance writer’s sick day, you aren’t scotch free and in bed, yet. You’ve got to let your clients know, especially if you had a project due with a deadline within the day or those coming. If you’ve have your clients phone number, put it to good use. Explain your situation to your client, and ask for a deadline extension or something else you can offer in trade for turning in their work late. I’ve offered a client a few extra articles in return for an extra day extension on a writing project I once had.

Take a Helping Hand

In some instances, your client may let you live out your illness only working you when you are high and dry out of the sick spells. There are those that still won’t understand why you can’t just work in bed, though. This is why I highly suggest you network with other freelance writers for hire. No one says you can’t hire them to help you out with work. Whether or not you want to inform your client that you are outsourcing the work they’ve sent you is up to you. I do it to stay honest, and always let them know the contact information in case they’d like them as a more permanent writer than me. It may lose me work, but it develops trust between you and a client. Trust brings many more clients running back to you for future projects.

Sometimes You Just Gotta Do It

Some cases leave you no other options. You asked your client for an extension with no love. You can’t find a freelance writer you trust enough to work on this project. You are the only one you know that can do this project. If you are truly ill, spread the work out over as much time as you have available. Take numerous breaks, sit the computer on your lap in bed, and drink plenty of water. Don’t forget to use medication. Working while sick isn’t glamorous, but sometimes clients don’t leave us with any other choice.

Have you ever fallen ill on an important deadline date? How did you handle it? Let me know through the comments or send me an email at contact@justindupre.com. I’m always open for a chat or ready to give some freelance writing advice if you have any questions for me.