Context note: Grandpapa is a newbie to Internet Marketing. He wants to enter the world of e- commerce by blogging. His grandson, FreeChoice, has agreed to teach him the skill and art of blogging.

Tutorial 3: 6 Tips to Stay Focused While Learning to Blog

“Howdy, Grandpa. I can’t believe it, but it is a whole week since our second tutorial. I hope you have not lost focus and forgotten everything that we discussed.

“Not on your life, Freechoice. I’ve been extremely focused and busy on the Internet, and also quite productive. In fact, I have earned my first $50.00!” I can’t wait to tell you about it!”

“Wow, Grandpa! That sounds exciting, but I am sure it wasn’t by blogging.”

‘No, of course not, that is your department. But I must tell you some other news as well. I am not sure whether it is good or not”.

‘O’K, fire away, the ‘bad’ news first.”

‘Well, Freechoice, I spent many hours hopping around on the Internet, and I discovered many wonderful sites. I just can’t believe how people give away things for free! When you buy something for $27.00 or $47.00 or $97.00 you always get about $400.00 or more in free gifts. Many times you don’t even have to buy anything. You just leave your e-mail address, and you get the most wonderful free reports and tips to earn money online!” I feel like my head is bursting with all the information that I have received.

“And everything goes so fast! Within seconds after I have left my address on some site I find a response waiting for me in my inbox. And all the people are so courteous - they always ask your permission before sending you stuff and all of them also promise that you can request to be removed from their list, and they will remove you instantly. (I wonder how these folks are able to stay in touch with all their clients without forgetting about them?)

And, FreeChoice, my popularity has suddenly increased with leaps and bounds. I made a count this afternoon, and I now have 87 different people sending me fantastic e-mails and wonderful gifts, all with my own name on them. And all of this within one week! Just think of it, if I kept at it for another few weeks I might have a junior edition of the Library of Congress right on my own hard drive!” It seems to me that if I could get 87 e-mails in one week, I should at least be able to generate 800 visitors a day, considering the millions of people who surf the ‘Net every day.

And, to top it all, FreeChoice, these new friends of mine are all stinking rich, and not shy to talk about it either. In fact, many of them actually publish their income statements and one can see exactly how their different income streams flow together to give them 6-figure monthly totals. I can’t wait for my blog to get going. From the information I now have it seems that $500.00 per week is, after all, quite possible.

But, you know, FreeChoice, there is one thing I hate – and that is the long letters that many of these people write! It seems as if the letter never ends, it goes on and on for ‘kilometers’ at a time. It seems as if the authors just cannot stop adding free gift after free gift, and discount after discount. And, most frustrating, is how they hide the price of their product! The way they write their letters forces one to read carefully and over and over, in order to find the price. To top all of this, Freechoice, is how urgent things are! I read a letter this afternoon in which the author states that I will see this particular letter only once. He says that there are only 50 ‘places’ left and that If I don’t buy immediately, I will never get a chance again. The only reason I did not buy this wonderful product is that I couldn’t immediately put my hand on my credit card.

Well, FreeChoice, talk about passion! I think I have just discovered a new passion, making money online! Here I am waxing eloquently about my journey through the Internet this past week, and you have not said a word!

‘Wow, Grandpapa, you have definitely not been idle since we met last time. Unfortunately I cannot share your new found enthusiasm and passion. I love you, and therefore I’ll have to burst your bubble! Most of what you are so excited about, is unadulterated crap. ‘Internet robbery and rape’- to put it mildly!

“Let me ask you: How many of the free reports have you actually been able to read?”

“FreeChoice, somehow I expected you to be less enthusiastic about my discoveries. To answer your question, I have not read much. I’m just too busy trying to cope with my in-box and downloading all the articles etc. But, I did read a few things, and thinking about it now, there is something that troubles me. Many of the articles and free gifts are very similar. The words are different, but the content is very much the same. Why would that be?”

‘Grandpa, your observation is astute, I will, however, not fully answer your question now. For now I will only say that the similarity between the articles and reports relates to what is known as ‘article marketing’. I will remember to spend one whole tutorial on it sometime in the future.

“Now let me ask you another question: Did you actually spend any money on these programs?”

“Yes, FreeChoice, I have not kept an accurate record, but it must be around $200.00.

“Sorry again, Grandpa, I think you have wasted some good money. But, let me not be too negative now. We could look at the details of some of these programs later on, and I am sure that we will be able to garner some snippets of useful information.” Whether it will be worth the $200.00 you spent on it, is a question that only the future can tell.

For now, however, let me just give a few simple pieces of advice:

1. Go through your in-box and start unsubscribing from most of the newsletters. Identify a few that relate specifically to blogging, and keep them in a separate folder.
2. Create a second e-mail address and direct all business type e-mails to it rather than to your personal address.
3. Resist the temptation to buy. Remember, the long sales letters are mostly written by professional marketers who have learned all the tricks of milking your credit card.
4. Be especially on the lookout for marketers who charge a very small fee for some product, but ask you to pay on a monthly basis. In many cases it will be nearly impossible to reach them again and get them to stop the monthly debit order.
5. Do not fall for the age-old sales trick that tell you that the ’special offer’ will disappear if you do not buy immediately.
6. Do some research and enquiry before you buy. I have found that I can get useful information just by typing the name of the person or the name of the company into the Google browser tab. Many times you will find some good evaluations of the particular product or of the person who is trying to convince you to purchase.

‘Well, Grandpa, we are not going to get to your $50,00 earnings now. I will be back tomorrow evening, when we will talk about your first Internet earnings. In the mean time, I suggest that you refocus again, and get blogging more clearly into your vision. I do not think your exploration of Internet Marketing was a waste of time. It is a process that we all go through and hopefully, if we’re wide awake, we will learn some valuable lessons from it.

‘Cheers, Grandpa, I must run.”

“Goodbye, Freechoice, I will start unsubscribing.”

Further information and additional resources can be found HERE

This post on maintaining focus when you prepare to start blogging was researched and written by FreeChoice from http://www.mygrandpapa.com

He may be e-mailed at pc.freechoice@gmail.dom