Michaela Cernescu’s Blog

Jolly Judicious Jetsetters.

It started as a buzzzz… I didn’t pay a lot of attention as I was working on 2-3 projects at a time… and wanted to get rid of my information overload… sweet dreams…And the buzz culminates with a personal invitation from Joan Adams: Giant Squid, Squid Angel, 100 lens club, a person I like, and respect, we are squidoo friends. 
Can I ignore my friends?  Never!

I start reading, I find out that Joan is a Greeter – she has her own team called “Jolly Judicious Jetsetters” and I am invited to join.

Meticulous as she is, Joan creates a lens about her team, she explains the purpose, the mechanism of participation, even the name of her team:
http://www.squidoo.com/jolly-judicious-jetsetters

Then I educate myself with other info coming from the fabulous Squidoo team.

 At this point I was in. It wasn’t just another challenge, it was:

• the spirit of Squidoo 
• the dedication of hard working people 
• the excellent team habits and manners
• the joy of shooting for the stars
• that type of creative togetherness which brings the best from each of us 
• and Joan with her optimism, dedication to a cause, and her impeccable credentials.

Now I am a member of “Jolly Judicious Jetsetters” and I invite you to join and discover our team, time sensitive you can do it until first May, click on this picture, and trust me, it will be a joy:

Joan's JJJ Team

Just live a message on the Squidoo lens and you are in!

Thanks for reading
Michaela

Popularity: 5% [?]

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Advanced Solutions For Information Overload

All I said in previous post is true, and I hope was helpful to define the problem and find a solution for an isolated instance. But the endless information overload requests a permanent and elegant solution. By the way, when I got back after the 2 weeks of productive isolation, I found out 1026 e-mail in my in-box. I spent one day just to sort them out, and to come back to the real world. Must be a better solution, and this is what I come up with.

I start analyzing some patters.

I lay out the facts first:

• When it is a new release, I noticed that I use to get 10-14 or even more emails for the some product. If it is a good product, every Internet Marketer and his dog is promoting the “big launch” 
• When it is a mediocre product I get only 6-8 emails, because there are a couple of honest IMs that don’t advertise based on volume, they advertise based on quality of a product, and I put the Quality Crowd on a separate list 
• Among people advertising the same product, 70% are using the materials (e-mails text, pictures) provided by the author. I call them Lazy and Novice Marketers and I keep them in a separte list
• And 30% of IM are inventive, they want to separate themselves from the crowd and they advertise creating their own advertising materials, they are unique in what they are doing. I call them Professional Internet Marketers, and I put the on a separate list.

Then I put my buyer hat, I took an example of a launch with 14 e-mails, read them one more time, and I asked myself from which marketer I want to buy. I put him on a list and I wrote a note why I buy from him.

Repeat and rinse with other 9 examples. Surprisingly, on the last list instead to have 10 different names, because I search 10 examples, I end up with a list of 6 persons because same names repeat themselves; I call this list People I want to buy from.

Then I intersect:

•  People I want to buy from list with
•  Professional Internet Marketers list, and with 
•  Quality Crowd list.

I come out with a list of 3 names.

Following my logic, those 3 names are people that

• do a professional work on Internet marketing
• they advertise only products of value as they do want their  business to be respected, and
• they convince me to buy from them.

This is what I did, I cancel all my memberships and I keep only the 3 memberships from the last list, which in my mind produce the best value for me.

Now I sleep well, I replace 14 e-mails, with 3 e-mails from people I trust, respect, and the most important they are able to produce value for me.

Find a way to automate repeating tasks.

I bought a great software which can automate tasks for me and gave me back a lot of time to use for creative work.
Please, take a look to this product, it is a learning curve to learn how to use macros on your advantage but is the best buy with the best results if you have the patience of learning to use macros.

The package contain really

• Everything you need to know if you are a beginner
• Everything you need to know to run pre-build macros (they produce instant automation)
• Document all macros which are part of the automation

You will get:

• The Software
• An incredible 338 pages Macro Marketer User Manual
• Training Videos
• Automation Videos
• Automation Blueprint ebook
• The instant automators

The software itself is very intuitive and easy to use. You must start watching the videos and immediately you can start using some of pre-build macros.

Note 1: Sorry, this is a brutal analysis for avoiding Information Overload, but I think is a method to bring value to your business and in time pays off a great deal for you. There is no value on whatever you are doing if you cannot distance yourself from the crowd.

Note 2: This can heart me as well, as I am working to publish soon a new membership site in a very competitive marketing. About some “friendly” commentators, it is a mistake to do it. I don’t think so, as I make the effort to be honest with you, add real value, help others to get in top, and believe in me and in my readers. It is a challenge, Yes, it is, but it isn’t a mistake to work with a competitive marketing.
Ultimately you will be the judge.  I think it is fair! .

All the best for my readers Michaela

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Theoretically I know from years that Information Overload exists, and I have to get rid of it to produce work in a reasonable amount of time.  From time to time I am guilty of it again and again, and I have to discipline myself and implement drastic rules.

In my case is happening because I am doing a lot of Affiliate marketing along with my products marketing and I have to advertise a new product when is release to the public, not after a month when half of the world already know about it. Nowadays it seems like a new product launches just about every day, doesn’t it?  It is hard to keep a balance and again I find myself working on a main project and on other 3 other projects on the same time.

I can hear you saying: sure, excuses, excuses, what you can expect from a Affiliate marketer? But if I tell you that 70% of my income is coming from Affiliate marketing and only 30% from my own products, you maybe will keep reading.

What is the Information Overload? This is the definition in Wikipedia:

“Information overload refers to an excess amount of information being provided, making processing and absorbing tasks very difficult for the individual because sometimes we cannot see the validity behind the information. As the world moves into a new era of globalization, an increasing number of people are logging onto the internet to conduct their own research and are given the ability to produce as well as consume the data accessed on an increasing number of websites. As of February 2007 there were over 108 million distinct websites and increasing…  More and more people are considered to be active writers and viewers because of their participation. This flow has created a new life where we are now dependant on access to information. Therefore we see an information overload from the access to so much information, almost instantaneously, without knowing the validity of the content and the risk of misinformation.

… As a result, there is a downfall or a negative impact within this issue. Together with the amount of information being produced from various people on the net, the problem of Information Overload arises. The implication arises from the psychological field, society and individual.”

I consider this an accurate definition, with a clear explanation of the negative impact.

Two weeks ago happened  to me gain, but the difference was that all 3 extra projects I was working on was vital, in critical stages and supposed to be ready yesterday! I analyzed the results on my last month, I found out that I am not proud of myself, the pace was too slow, I kept missing dead lines, and I had to admit that a had to take action to get out of Information overload, and come back at working on just one product at the time. 

The main project was my Squidoo Challenge which was time consuming because I drove free traffic with Social Media, sometime 1/2 day I was working just on that task.

The other 3 projects:

• I was writing an eBook, 2/3 was done (60 pages), 2 more chapters to go
• I am learning to set up a Membership Site - important task which will produce recurring income if it is set up right
• An affiliate product of an exceptional value, it is written by one of my mentors, person I trust and respect, I definitely want to be part of his success, he deserve my effort as Affiliate

As you can see I cannot give up on any of them.

What I did under those circumstances?

I put in hold the main project for 2 weeks, hoping to finish the other 3 and come back to work only on this one later

I decided to completely isolate myself and work on the other 3 until I finish them or a part of them:  

• I stopped reading e-mails, and answered the phone
• Stopped tweeting, squiding, and anything else related with Social media
• Stopped watching TV News, shopping, even cooking (I improvised the dinner in 15 min, and breakfast or lunch in 5 min.)

I just slept, ate in minutes, drink coffee and worked around 12 hours per day burning the midnight oil.

The first 2-3 days was hard to follow this schedule but I resisted to open the Outlook as I knew that I couldn’t stop answering e-mails, checking sites and so on.  After that it was like a normal habit, the work efficiency was rewarding, I was able to finish my ebook, to learn all I need to know and set up my membership site, and I did a really hard work to advertise the affiliate product.

In summary – isolate yourself from the world and ignore the new “Holy Grail” daily promises if you want to finish what are you doing. Having said that, it is just one “Holy Grail” – your hard work, your perseverance, your consistency, your desire to be a winner.

Until next time, all the best

Michaela

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