One Important Tool to Success

by Matt Bacak

 

Successful Internet marketers do one thing that many newbies in this business do not. They keep track of their numbers. Keeping track of your numbers is essential to your accomplishing your goals and realizing your financial dreams. Why?

REASON ONE: Numbers don’t lie. (I’ve said this time and time again and will continue saying it until the day I die because it’s so very important to remember. Numbers give you indisputable data that enables you to make better choices to achieve success.)

REASON TWO: How do you know where you’re going or even how to get there if you don’t have a clear understanding of the fundamentals of your business? (Meaning, you cannot set clear goals for yourself if you are unaware of your past performance and current performance.)

REASON THREE: Knowing your numbers can help you determine where the leaks are in your business. If your numbers show a steady decline and you aren’t consistently growing, all you need to do is take a look at what your numbers are telling you. Are your subscribers low? Are your clicks low? What does your EPC look like? (For example, after taking a look at your numbers, you realize that your subscriber count is significantly lower than last week. Aha! There’s a leak you can plug up quickly by getting more traffic and consequentially getting more subscribers. Without your numbers, you may not have realized this was the issue causing your decrease in money.)

In my office and my business, I keep a visual representation of my numbers on display. I urge you to consider this as an option in your business as well because you should NEVER make decisions based on your gut; you should make decisions based on cold, hard facts and these numbers will tell you what to do. Some people aren’t whiteboard kind of people like me. If whiteboards don’t interest you, you can always use Google Spreadsheets (with your Gmail account), Excel Spreadsheets or even a three ring binder with regular notebook paper. It doesn’t matter your method of recording your numbers, it just matters that you do.

On my whiteboard, my preferred visual representation, I have three different sets of data recorded. First, I have a daily view that covers each day of the present week. So I have seven columns that correspond with Sunday through Saturday. From there, I have four rows. These rows are labeled subscribers, clicks, EPC and the amount of money made per day. Second, I have my data from last week consisting of average subscribers, average clicks and average EPC. Third, I have a month to date and year to date amount of money made.

Now, with this information, I can make a concrete goal for the current week and the upcoming week. The goal you should always be striving for is to beat your previous numbers every week. So if your subscribers were X last week, set a goal to increase your subscriber rate by a certain amount. If your clicks were X, set a goal to increase the amount of clicks to a certain number or by a certain percentage.

When creating your goals, be realistic. You will set yourself up for failure if your first goal is to make $10,000 next week when your previous average was $1,000. Set attainable goals that require hard work from you to achieve. Don’t be complacent. To prosper in this business and in any business, you must set goals and continue trying to do better than you did the day before and the only way to know where to go is by knowing where you currently are.

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