It feels like forever that I have been working on the internet or generating some sort of income from a web based business. When I first started making money online, I was still working 40+ hours a week in the corporate world. I remember I would try to get away with doing some of my personal business at “work”. But the majority of my work was done after hours at night or on the weekends.

This was fine, as it got me started in affiliate marketing. I still remember how excited I was when I got my first $1000+ check from PartyPoker. Then I remember when I started getting multiple payments each month from a bunch of different affiliate programs. It was literally too good to be true.

Several years later, I look at where I am at now and still think to myself that it’s too good to be true. I can honestly say that I love my job, and even more so I love affiliate and internet marketing. Every full time affiliate marketer has a point in their career where they make the decision to leave the traditional world, and work as a full time affiliate.

When I began working full time as an affiliate, I was working from my home in a third bedroom converted into an office. A year or so later I realized this wasn’t working. I was in the house and would get distracted all the time, especially once kids came! So I rented office space by my home for $500 a month and set up shop.

This actually worked out well, but to be honest there was still a missing ingredient; my time management sucked. I never gave myself deadlines, and I had no formal way to keep track of projects. I would show up at the office each morning with no proper plan of action for the day. I would somewhat just do whatever felt right that day.

It was when I started the PAW Network that I finally got serious about being building wealth and running my business like a true business. It’s great to be able to come and go as you please, but so many affiliates will never reach their full potential because they abuse this fringe benefit.

Now days I manage my time very well. I know what my daily and weekly goals are every single day. I have a whiteboard in my office that I track my projects and progress with. Likewise I treat my work like a “real job.” Even though I work out of my home office, I always start work at a certain time, and end at a certain time. Don’t get me wrong, my start and stop times vary, and if I have an errand or two to run during the day, I have no problem doing it. The key however is that I can personally account for all my time each day.

So many people who work at home can sit behind their computer for 8 hours and have nothing to show at the end of the day. So back to the title of this post, it is true. Once I took time management seriously and made myself personally accountable for each hour of the day, my income doubled.

The reason it doubled is because at 5:00 P.M. I wouldn’t look back at the day and only have countless skype conversations and random forum surfing to show for. To be successful as an affiliate or someone who works from home, you HAVE TO adopt to a system of structure in your day. If you want to make more money online, start taking accountability for every hour you are working. It doubled my income, and I guarantee it can double yours too.

Please share your comments below with your thoughts on time management and how you stay productive each day. make it a great week!

Tags: Motivation, Time Management

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 8:28 am and is filed under Motivation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.