There are many life lessons you’ll learn in your first 6 months as an Internet Marketer, but these would probably be the two most influential lessons to your bottom line:

1)  There is more opportunity to make money than there is time.
2)  If you can’t scale it, it’s a liability.

Before we continue, if you have been doing this for more than six months and neither of those thoughts has occured to you, I’d recommend unplugging the computer and heading over to get your learn on at DeVry.  This isn’t for you.

Now that we’re on the same page, I’ll make this brief (see #1).  If you aren’t hitting reasonably-forecasted cash flow goals, quit.  Move onto something else.  Get in, get off, or get out.  Quitters never win in the offline world, but the smart quitters are making more cash than you on the Internet.

First, let’s be super-cheesy and rate all of your projects’ cash flow forecasts as baseball baserunning values.  Internet Marketing project management is an exercise in swing discipline.  If your project looks like it’ll be tough to get to breakeven profitability, it’s single.  Do not even consider this unless there is some sort of long-term strategic value (like proposing to Jessica Alba) or you feel it is a worthwhile learning expedition.

Next you have Doubles.  I’d venture that 75% of all legit affiliate programs are doubles, particularly if you get in early enough.  In the early days of an offer, nobody really knows what the market values should be…and the chaos usually favors the smart affiliate. 

(As an aside, the nice thing about establishing yourself as a proven winner is that many of the Affiliate Managers will let you in on these programs before the rest of the world starts spamming up the SERPS and paid search.  If you are Joe Arbitrary Affiliate, there will be less easy doubles for you, so always make an effort to form relationships with your Affiliate Managers.)

Doubles sound really good but if you can’t treat them as the Butterfaced Gal at the bar and keep moving, you’ll end up an Internet Marketing burnout.  Set up the campaigns, push the button, check on them once every couple of weeks, and get ready to start swinging a heavier bat.  Just like Domain Tasting, I call this “Affiliate Tasting”.  If you think about it, most domaining returns would probably be called doubles (although, admittedly, a hundred thousand doubles at a time is going to win you a lot of ball games!).  But I digress…

Your Triples will define you as an Internet Marketer.  As in baseball, Triples are actually harder to hit than Home Runs (by about 50% if you look at the All Time hitting leaders).  Triples aren’t about brute force, they are about speed and, many times, due to your competitor’s error.  If a Double is earning you $50-$100/day, a Triple is earning you $500+/day and forcing you to question whether it should be a standalone business.  A Triple usually requires a ton of time upfront in research and planning.  It requires daily oversight if not hiring somebody cheap to keep an eye on it while you’re using your honed expertise to source new fishing spots.  Triples are what you should be doing in “The Grind“.

Home Runs are flashy and you hear about them the most but, unlike baseball, there are very few of them online.  There are so few of them because the barriers of entry, switching costs, and audience loyalty are so low on the Internet that Home Run sustainability requirements turn many into Foul Balls.  I think most people who’ve stumbled into a Homer would admit luck had quite a bit to do with it.  Not that they weren’t prepared to take that opportunity and maximize it, but 75% of the stuff I’d call Homers fell into people’s laps rather than originating from genius.  It’s also important to point out that if you spend all your time trying to turn your Triple into a Homer, you’re going to miss out on a lot of Triples and Triples are probably the last level where you can impart scale.

At the end of the day, your Doubles are funding your Triples and your Triples may let you steal Home.  Just don’t leave any baserunners stranded or move to the Bay Area and guzzle HGH….err, VC money.  Good luck out there and keep your eye on the ball.

Ridiculous baseball analogy over.  Get your metaphor fix here!

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