Blogging is an incredibly creative endeavor. The marketing side of it is pretty simple: find keywords to target and write content around them.

The writing content is probably the most difficult aspect about blogging, because frankly, you have to create A LOT of content.

I currently have 1,025 published articles on my site. That’s a lot of content, which took a lot of time to develop.

So how do you continue to develop high quality content while keeping things fresh, relative, and creative?

Here’s the thing I’ve realized about creativity: I’m rarely ever creative when I try to be. This is why for the past few weeks I’ve been trying to “deload.”

To essentially work less, and be more active. I get my ideas when I’m working out, with my friends, or talking on the phone.

I also sometimes get ideas when I’m just sitting and watching TV or reading a book. So sometimes sitting in front of a computer all day is not a practical approach to blogging.

When an idea comes to my head, I try to make something of it right away. I either go to my computer and start working on it, or write it down.

That is why my working hours are so erratic. Some days I don’t even work. Other day’s I’ll work up to 5 hours!

Its all about how creative I am that day. Some days you just don’t have any mental energy to get the job done.

And that’s perfectly fine.

One of the biggest reasons I chose to become a Professional Blogger is so that I would be able to choose my own hours and work on my own terms.

However, at some point, especially if you’re a beginner (and most people reading this blog are not beginners) you need get your hands dirty and focus.

Focus is extremely important. Once you have those ideas in front of you, it takes discipline to turn those ideas into content that users can consume.

Realize that blogging is based on a consumption model, and if there is not enough content for users to consume, they will not return to your blog.

How do You Focus?

The key to focus is to get rid of distractions. Shut off your phone. Lock your door. X out of your Facebook page.

If possible, turn off the internet. Now, I work online using Google Docs. But when I’m working on an article, nothing else comes into my mind.

It’s all about starting and finishing. I don’t get up (unless I have to use the bathroom really badly), until I am complete with my work.

The article may take 20 minutes or 2 hours to complete. It depends on the subject matter. But I do not get up half way unless I absolutely have to.

For some more affiliate marketing tips and tricks, download my free manual here.

“Always do the right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” – Mark Twain (1835-1910)

It’s been a while since I’ve done an update on my Clickbank stats. But that’s because the numbers haven’t been very good. Here are the numbers for the past few weeks:

As you can see, there’s been a dramatic improvement in my sales for the past two weeks. It has to do with a brand new website I started,WorkoutWithouyWeights.net (WWW). On WWW, I promote only one product: Bodyweight Blueprint for Fat Loss (BBFL).

BBFL is a $77 product. Yes, I know. Never would I have thought that you can sell a $77 digital product online. But you can, and the product converts better than a lot of my lower end products. Just take a glance at these stats:

Bodyweight Blueprint for Fat Loss ($77)

Average $ per sale: $48.44
Hops per order: 1/86
Hops need to get $200 = 355

Gladiator Body Workout ($27 for basic, $47 for combo)

Average $ per sale: $20.52
Hops per order: 1/67
Hops need to get $200 = 653

Average Joe Workout ($6)

Average $ per sale: $3.41
Hops per order: 1/58
Hops need to get $200 = 3402

Workout Without Weights ($19.95 for basic, $47 for combo)

Average $ per sale: $8.90
Hops per order: 1/169
Hops need to get $200 =3798

So, right off the bat we see that BBFL converts better than Workout Without Weights. Both are bodyweight training products, but Workout Without Weights costs $57.05 less thanBBFL. And my chunk of commission is much bigger for BBFL than Workout Without Weights, hence I need to send less traffic to BBFL’s sales page in order to reach  my target income.

As you can see, last week I was extremely close to reaching my target income. If I stick to the plan, I should be able to hit it this week.

Why I stopped Working on Shah Training

Two weeks ago I realized the biggest fault with Shah Training: too much stuff going on. I was trying to promote almost 10 different products, plus build up a mailing list. It was just too many things. Hence, I experimented with creating a single site with just one page and one product.

Simple, and to the point. I’m sending traffic through ezine articles, primarily. However, I’m not 100% sure if the sales are coming from ezine articles readers. I’m also sending traffic through PPC. Here’s the main difference between PPC and EzineArticles: Targeted Traffic

You can create campaigns where the traffic is extremely targeted to the kind of market that you want with PPC. So far, I’ve only had a few clicks from PPC to my site. So I’m not spending a whole lot of money on PPC overall. But, on days were I turn PPC off, I have absolutely no sales.

So for this week, I need to design some sort of experiment that will really help me understand where the traffic is coming from that are converting into sales. The reason this is important to know is because I am now spending $97 per month as anezinearticles premium member.

That means that my articles get approved faster, hence sending me more traffic to my site. But if the traffic isn’t converting, then I’m just wasting my time and money.

My goals for ShahTraining.com have changed steadily since February 2007, when I first started blogging seriously. At first, I wanted to create a website to promote myself as a personal trainer. Then I decided I wanted to focus on Online Personal Training.

But somewhere along the line, and partly due to me reading “The Four Hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferris, I became addicted to Internet marketing. I loved the idea that I could be making money with limited to no work.

Of course, this is a long term goal. But the money making potential is what’s keeping me going. The goal is not to become a millionaire. A million dollars is nothing if you have not time to spend it. I do not want to work 100 hours a week for my money.

As I mentioned a while back in another post, people measure success as how much they make per year, month, or week. When in fact what you need to be measuring is how much you make per hour. So lets say two guys are making a $100,00 per year.

One guy works 100 hours per week, or 5200 hours per year. The other guy is working 40 hours per week, or 2,080 hours per year. Guy 1 is making around $20 per hour, while guy 2 is making around $48 per hour.

So guy 2 probably has the weekends to spend his money, plus he may have less travel and Starbucks expenses than Guy 1. But, we want to be Guy 3. Guy 3 makes $60,000 per year, but works less than 10 hours per week.

He makes $115 per hour. The rest of his time is spent doing things he loves: practicing martial arts, hanging out with friends, trying to learn a new language, working out, starting up other projects, visiting his parents, etc.

So, what are my goals for ShahTraining.com now? Really simple: develop my site to a point where I’m making a steady $100 – $300 per day. Then I can finally start living the life I want to live without listening to anyone else.

Right now I’m make $16.25 per day through my website (which is more than most people make online). It may seem like a huge jump between $16 and $100, but it’s not. The thing with Internet Marketing is that it’s easy to scale, once you realize what’s working for you.