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August 14th, 2009 
Tom I’m not going to be talking about the great ebook Newbies Nightmare by my mentor Alex Jeffreys, but more so 2 of the major problems that we face when starting out online.
Technical Skills
Many people starting out online will be computer literate but not experienced webmasters, programmers or IT gurus. I fit into this category.
Therefore we may need to outsource tasks in order to avoid them taking far longer than necessary and to call on others expertise. Whilst I will talk in more detail about outsourcing at a later date as I develop more experience with the process and get some tangible evidence, I can assure you that it is not actually as expensive as it may seem!
Through being on Alex’s MWA2.0 Mentoring Program, I have made some useful contacts and had the benefit of a bit of help through the forum and its at this point that I must pay thanks to a couple of fellow students….
Adam Spiel and his team over at Pro Host Management who have been extremely helpful in setting up both this blog site and my List Building with Alex PPP site. Granted I do pay for the service but they have been nothing but efficient and helpful and I would highly recommend their services.
Also Gene Ilten for his useful video on how to make a Blog Header for free. I have finally managed to create and upload one, even if it does only turn out to be temporary if I decide to opt for something different. Probably about 3 weeks overdue but at least we are now getting there!!
Now I’m not usually one to make fun of other people’s misfortune but please spare a thought (and have a laugh) for the following unfortunate soul, who evidently uploaded an Adwords campaign without pausing and checking it before it went live, something of a technical error I think!
Time
Now I’m sure that I won’t be the only person who struggles with time and time management, namely that there simply are not enough hours in the day!!
I work full time and enjoy going to the gym and socialising and in addition I am starting an internet business which I am building from scratch. 24 hours a day is not enough at this moment and that doesn’t even allow for the 5 hour MWA2.0 Webinars or even any sleep!
So what is the answer? Well through my research and previous purchasing I had come across a program called Wake Up Productive from renowned Guru Eben Pagan (of Altitude & Guru Mastermind fame).
The program claims to be able to double your productivity whilst taking more time off. Whilst I don’t want to necessarily buy into all the hype, there are some good free time management videos available here which I would recommend that you check out if you also face similar issues – http://www.wakeupproductiveblog.com/2009/08/time-mgmt.php
The program is due to re-open shortly and I will be taking a look, anything that can help me organise my time and increase my efficiency is always good in my book. Especially as I can use it to complement my plans and move towards achieving my goals.
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Think most people suffer with time management issues, great resource for some new tips to try, the videos are useful. Thanks Tom.
Susana
There are no doubt Adam Speil from ProHost Management really make easy and save more times regarding any changes and question to solve any problems about your site since I'm using the service too.
I'm never thought about outsource until joining Alex Jeffreys coaching.
Time is the only thing you can't outsource, so it is vital that you identify task that have an impact on your business success and take action on the priority tasks.
Hi Tom
Thanks for stopping by my blog and I am going to use all of my past training in life to make the internet marketing business my road to my success.
I too have ProHost and I can't say enough good things with their service.
Adam and his staff seem to go to the end to help their coustomers by happy with the quality of their service: and it shows in our blogs etc
Also, thanks for the link on the video of time management. I will have to watch that for sure, if I have the time. HaHa
Stop by anytime!
Roger
Go out and make it a successful day! :-_
Hi Tom
Time management is definitely an issue for everyone. Also if you do not plan you can not have any focus, so you waste time going from one thing to another without achieving anything.
Keep up the great work and I love the header
Kerie
Believe and Achieve 09
Hi Tom,
I know what you mean when you say that 24 hours in a day is not enough. Glad you got your site up and running and that you are outsourcing some of your work. I have to get on board and get some graphics made for my site. I could probably do them myself but again how much is your time worth.
Take Care and great job.
Alvin Dawe
Hey Tom,
OMG your blog looks fantastic, so much info and easy to navigate around
To our success
Trude
Thanks for the nice mention, Tom. I agree as well that 24 hours does not seem to be enough. I am glad you were able to use the information in the videos. AS time goes by you will be amazed at what you can do.
Gene
Hi Tom,
Nice post and great looking blog,
However i have found that when you start out as a newbie a lot of adverts will turn your followers away, a more subtle way is to just put them into text links.
Once you get 20000 followers you can do almost what you want…..
Just a little tip .. i have done and been there and was given the same advice by jeff wellman.
Please dont take this as a neg, i am just trying to help you.
thanks mark
ps: you may want to download my FREE newsletter that has many great tips for newbies.
Mark
Appreciate the advice re. ads. I'll be taking a look at the site and cutting them down, as you say it doesn't make sense until you have built up a sizeable following and some good traffic stats.
All the best
Tom
Tom, a great, down-to-earth, useful post. I haven't personally found time management to be that big of an issue, even though I write every day. I've made sure to do a lot of guest posts. If I could say one thing to newbies–and I'm still pretty new–it would be that if you can write, you can guest post somewhere much bigger than your own blog.
I've had three Problogger posts. When you're starting out, any traffic spike is cool. But when you land something on a blog with serious traffic, the effect on your traffic is positively hair raising.
Always a pleasure. I really enjoy what you do here.
Take care friend
Hi Tom like your header and your blog looks fresh clean and easy to find your way around how did you install the text into your header Tom
cheers mick
Mick
I did the text myself using a free image editor called GIMP. Its like Photoshop but slightly more basic, but more importantly free! Gene Ilten actually has a good video on how to do it on his blog, see his comment above for the link.
Cheers
Tom
Hi Tom,
Good post, I know what your saying about time issuses, out sourcing is impotant to get anything done, I believe Prohost would be an excellent service,
Michael
Michael
Can't speak highly enough of Prohost. Always very helpful even if it is correcting my mistakes or offering advice on what may well be simple tasks. Great when starting out and relatively inexperienced!!
Tom
Hey Tom,
thanks for stopping by my blog, and your comments.
We have, I believe a golden opportunity with Alex's course
and Rich Schefren (if we join his membership) and I will definitely join.
I think time is our most precious asset, and how we use our time will
determine how far we go on the internet.
lets keep in touch even after Alex's course.
talk soon,
To your success,
Rich Cardarelli
Hi Tom –
Excellent post, brotha – I know exactly what you mean about both of the topics you wrote about. I would be interested to read a follow-up post about how you tackle the time management issue over the next few weeks.
As Alex says, you'll never finish EVERYTHING so prioritizing is the key. And now we realize this is a marathon and not a sprint! Keep the posts coming!
Paul
Tom,
Love your sincerity and honesty about your struggles… don't we all.
Cheers,
Rob
P.S. Have you seen the video of Eben walking around his personal library… This guy reads like crazy amounts of books.
My favorite these days is 'Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion'
Time management!!! UGGGGG!!! That is one of the biggest challenges that a 'newbie' faces!!! This is where Alex's advice to write-down a plan, have goals and then work the plan, to achieve the goals comes into play!! I would add only one thing…if you always achieve your goals, you are not placing the bar high enough! Failure (at times) can be the greatest motivator!
Take care,
Lee
Hi Tom,
I struggle with time and technical skills, too. And I appreciate your honesty and often wonder how well everyone is doing. Because I feel behind the eight ball myself.
The"time thing" is what I am working on now, and I am have taken a step back to plan. I have just "relearned" how to do it and prioritize and I think that's going to make me more productive and to teach me what to focus on and do each and every day.
And I would love to share this – I have experience with eLance. I have done it twice so far. My second time, I found a woman named Teresa West that has 25 years of online experience that did everything for me. All for $30. I ended up giving her $50 because she helped me with things that nobody else could figure out. So outsourcing is a great relief, time saver, and not that expensive to do.
If you need to know her email address just contact me on my blog, I am sure she would be happy to work with you.
You're blog is coming along wonderfully.
Take care,
Karen
Hey Tom,
You've got it on the nose. Especially as the lack of technical skill is what destroys the time. The amount of hours I have lost trying to figure things out. But, I'll know them the next time.
As for time management, that just takes practice as well. Develop routines and prioritise tasks and things will happen. Concentrate on the things that actually move us forward.
Thanks for the post and for stopping by my blog. Look forward to your next post.
Andy
Yes it seems like there is NEVER Enough time in my day,.and as a newbie I am always trying to learn and step up my technical skills GREAT POST-KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK
Hi Tom,
Thanks for visiting my site. You have some USEFUL information on your blog and one or two things I'm going to follow up.
I think I'm a bit like you in that I feel that I am computer literate but not experienced in web design etc. etc.
If only there were more time.
Your blog looks really good.
Veronica
Veronica
I think that we all find that time is our biggest issue/barrier! I think the key is to focus on productive use of our time, concentrating on areas of strength and outsourcing areas of weakness so that we can get things done and not feel frustrated. Hope its all going well for you.
Tom