It is easy to stay motivated when things are going well, but how do you keep motivated when the home business you had such high hopes for just isn’t making the money you thought you would. Motivation is the key to having a successful home business because it will be the one thing that keeps you going when the chips are down.

One of the most important attributes a person who wants to become an entrepreneur must have is self-motivation. Everyone wishes they were self-motivated, but the truth is, not everyone is. It is not some terrible personality flaw if you are not, but don’t fool yourself into thinking you can operate a home business if you don’t have this vital character trait.

Keeping motivated can be difficult and lack of motivation is one of the main reasons so many people start a business, but quit after just a short time. Network marketing and affiliate marketing online businesses, in particular, have extremely high attrition rates because people get easily discourage when they don’t immediately see success.

Here are some strategies to keep yourself motivated when you’re feeling discouraged.

•Read about others who are successful. Nothing is more motivating than reading about or hearing about someone who has taken a business like yours and found success. Such stories can breathe new life into a business that you’re about to give up on.

•Set realistic goals. If you are just starting out, don’t set your sales goals so high that they can never be reached. Talk to someone who has been there and get some realistic ideas of how much money you should expect, then cut it in half. It’s much easier to feel motivated when you reach a goal than if you fail week after week because you expect too much.

•Give yourself a reward. If you make a sale, buy a little something for yourself (nothing too big, you don’t want to dip into your profits). Even if it’s just a cold beer or a nice bubble bath, if you deserve a pat on the back, by all means, give yourself one.

•Learn something new about your business. Keeping up to date on the latest industry news can be another way to keep motivated because you never know what you’ll learn and how you can apply it to your business. Having an online business is not a stagnant thing and you should always be striving to learn more.

•Try something new. If you hear about a new way to market your business, or a new sales pitch, try it out. The worst that can happen is nothing—and the best is that you’ll increase your business. This will help to keep things fresh and fun.

Keeping motivated may not always be easy. But it’s a must if you want to be in your business for the long haul.

Having a successful online business means having a good marketing plan. And Internet entrepreneurs who have found success develop top marketing strategies that work to pull in business to their website.

Most ordinary people who start an online business, start slowly and can’t afford to hire a marketing firm to help them. But you can still have a good marketing plan without mortgaging your house or eating canned soup for the rest of your life. Good marketing is easier than you might think, but it is also something you cannot skimp on if you want to make money online.

Why? Because the Internet has thousands upon thousands of websites all competing for the same eyes. To make your website stand out and to get those vital visits, you must do some basic marketing to drive traffic to your site.

Here are some top marketing strategies that everyone with an online business should use to amp up their traffic—most of which cost very little or nothing to accomplish.

•Develop an e-mail mailing list. This can take time, but it’s vital if you want to increase business, keep your customers or increase your recruitment in the case of network marketing businesses. You can buy mailing lists, but people who do report widely varying results. The best bet is to slowly build your list, email people information that is useful, and be diligent about keeping it up to date. One way to build an e-mail list is to offer something for free on your site, be it a free e-book or a free newsletter. E-mail marketing is still considered one of the best ways to reach customers.

•Issue press releases announcing news events about your business. Search engines consider press releases “quality” content, and this will help boost your website’s page placement. Ideally, you want to have your website pop up on the first page or two of a keyword search. This is one area where it’s worth it to have a professional write and issue your press release.

•Article marketing. Writing an article about some aspect of your business can be one of the best ways to market your site. No matter how small your business is , if you write an article with a pertinent keyword and submit it to an online article directory, you will increase your website’s SEO (search engine optimization). The key here is to write an article that people will actually want to read. You put your website address at the bottom of the article and hopefully get the clicks you need to grow your business.

•Blogging. Start a blog about some aspect of your business. For example, if you sell jewelry supplies, you could blog about ways and methods of creating jewelry. People will go to your blog for information, and then click on a link to your site to buy jewelry-making supplies.

•Social networking. If you have a business, you should be on any social networking site that exists and visit often. Talk about something that might actually interest your potential customers; don’t just tell them to visit your site. For example, you could provide a link to an article you’ve written.

Marketing isn’t brain surgery, but is something you absolutely must engage is if you want to grow your Internet-based business.

I look forward to posting quality unique aticles that will motivate and inspire my new forum friends. I live and work in Texas. I am a soldier, family man, and a business man.

Joel Martin