Now that you have read some amazing stories of how others are achieving their dreams, it's time to get focused on the results you can generate.

You will notice something common among all the success stories; every one of them intensely enjoys what they are doing. The first thing that leads to most affiliate's failure is the lack of real interest, passion, or love for what they are doing.

In fact, most people assume that they should just sign up for every program and chase customers down. They set up sites with hundreds of programs on it, putting up banner after banner on their site.

In the following chapters, we'll show you how to set up your Web Site and marketing. For now, remember the most important lessons the success stories have taught us all:

1. Measure your success in your own terms. For the Cybrary, it may be paying its hosting fees and breaking even. For others, it may be money. But if you look closely at those success stories, every one has an extreme joy in helping others achieve their goals.

2. This joy is part of their success; if you do not enjoy what you are doing, eventually you will get cynical and give up. Your customers will pick up on it, even if you don't think you are being negative. As the saying goes, "Life is a state of mind." Prepare yourself with a positive attitude.

3. Begin with the end in mind; determine what is important to you, set realistic goals, and pursue your goals. Test your efforts cheaply and when you find what works, then you can sink your money into it. You want to find the best affiliates programs for you; target ones that you can sell a product a day, and make $20 of off each sale. These are the ones that can build your business.

4. Remember that none of these stories happened overnight; promises of instant success is not what this book is about. Focus on your long term efforts and building an Internet business that fits into your life and doesn't make you work too hard.

5. You only have so much time in life; enjoy what you have. Let the Internet help you further that enjoyment. If you find yourself complaining instead of doing something to solve the problem, you have missed the point.

6. Abraham Lincoln put it so well: "The pessimist sees the difficulty in opportunity.
   The optimist sees the opportunity in difficulty."

No achievement comes without its challenges -- and that's where the real fun comes in. Ask any successful person about the most enjoyable, alive time of their lives and it inevitably comes down to when they were just starting their idea. These really are the good days.

Time: 10 minutes

Goal: Make a list of the following:

• Every job you may have had
• Every hobby you may have, or would like to have
• Every personal interest, hobby, related topic, business, or special interests you may have

High profit ideas can be found with a little fishing. Don't think too hard, just write it down. And limit yourself to 10 minutes. You are looking for those subjects, interests, and related products and services that you can offer.

Imagine yourself 5 years from today, the day you made a decision to change your entire life, and you will look back on this moment as the time you took the next step. Picture yourself doing what you would like to do; what sort of people would you like to meet? How much vacation time would you like to take?

Take some time to take your dreams and put them together with what you are thinking now. What can you realistically achieve and within what time frame?

Time: 10 Minutes

Goal: Take each item from Phase 1 and ask:

1. What are the major problems facing people interested in this subject?

2. What are the important goals that people interested in this subject would like to achieve?

Do this as quickly as possible, 10 minutes only. Remember not to think too hard; if you cannot list them quickly, it is likely your target customers cannot as well.

Think of yourself traveling up in an elevator with one other person; this person will get off on the next floor. You have 30-60 seconds to describe exactly what you do and make it so interesting, that they do not want to get off.

Don't worry if this doesn't come too quick; in fact, you should work on your elevator speech throughout your business. It will change and adapt as you do. What is important is to focus your efforts on being able to exactly and quickly explain what you do in the time it takes to ride up an elevator.

Let's start judging what you wrote. Which ideas are worth your time and which are wasted time?

Go back through your list from Phase 1. Ask two questions of each:

1. Can I write about the solutions or goals these people want to achieve?

   People who write about something based on their own experience put out more interesting materials than "experts". Don't think of yourself as an expert, can you simply write their goals and solutions from experience? If you can, customers will pay for it. The real challenge is to provide a new twist to the subject that no one else has.

2. Can I provide products/services to supply my customers? Is anyone else doing what I'm doing?

   This question is usually assumed by most businesses; if no one is selling what you are, you have to create a market. If too many people are selling what you are offering, your competition may hinder your results. Be honest and don't use your own opinion only; get feedback from others. It is often easier to take part of an existing market than creating your own.

Phases 1 and 2 are for letting your ideas go. Use Phase 3 to sort your ideas, check them out. Do this for yourself and work with a partner. Make sure you are honest in Phase 3 and take only those ideas that are workable, and throw out the rest.

Remember that competition is not necessarily bad; it has been proven that in a town with a McDonald's burger restaurant, that opening up another McDonald's in the same area can actually improve sales in both stores. People want more of a good thing, but be sure you don't pick out a business with an 800 lb. Gorilla that owns the market.

For example, it would be silly to create a Personal Computer software system to compete with Windows. But if you could sell something that Windows users would want, you gain part of a natural market. What you are looking for is your natural market, things that you understand and can easily explain, and offer, your target customers with affiliate programs.

The first step was brainstorming exactly what it is you are selling:

1. A solution to the problems your customer has.

2. Supplies to help them solve the problem.