In my last post, I talked about just how busy life becomes for Leanne and me once the ski season gets into full swing here in the Snowy Mountains.
Managing two motels during winter doesn’t leave us with a lot of spare time.
There are guests arriving and departing, bookings constantly changing, cleaning staff to organise, rooms to check, enquiries to answer and those inevitable maintenance problems that seem to appear when you least expect them.
Yet every day, I’m still finding time to work on my ClickBank Profit Club affiliate marketing business.
So how do I manage both?
The answer isn’t some complicated time-management system.
I’ve simply learned to make the time I have available count.
I Don’t Wait for the Perfect Time
One of the biggest mistakes I think we can make when building an online business is waiting until we have a completely free day.
Right now, I could be waiting a long time!
During ski season, there is rarely a day when I can say:
“Great, nothing happening at the motels today. I’ll spend the whole day working online.”
That’s simply not realistic.
Instead, I’ve changed the way I think about my online business.
Rather than asking:
“How many hours can I spend on it today?”
I ask:
“What’s the most useful thing I can accomplish with the time I have?”
That small change has made a big difference.
I Concentrate on One Important Task
When you only have limited time, trying to do ten different things usually means finishing none of them.
So I try to identify one important task.
That might be writing another article for my blog.
Another day, it could be preparing an email for my subscribers.
I might spend my available time reviewing a traffic campaign, creating promotional material, researching another marketing method or working through more of the ClickBank Profit Club training.
The task changes.
The principle doesn’t.
Do something every day that moves the business forward.
Sometimes I can spend a couple of hours on it.
Other days, motel responsibilities mean I might only have 30 minutes.
But those 30 minutes still count.
I Focus on Building Assets
This has become increasingly important to me.
When I have limited time, I want to spend as much of it as possible creating something that can continue working after I’ve finished.
A blog post is a good example.
I might spend time writing it today, but once it’s published, it remains on my website.
Someone can discover it tomorrow, next month or even much later.
The same applies to building my email list.
A new subscriber isn’t just a click on a screen.
It’s someone I’ve now been given the opportunity to communicate with again.
That’s one of the reasons the list-building side of ClickBank Profit Club appealed to me.
Instead of constantly starting again from zero, I’m gradually building an audience.
Email Follow-Up Helps When I’m Busy
Another important part of managing my limited time is follow-up.
I can’t personally sit at my computer all day sending individual emails.
Nor would I want to.
That’s where having an autoresponder and an organised email follow-up system becomes so useful.
While I’m dealing with motel guests, talking with cleaning staff or sorting out a maintenance problem, my previously prepared follow-up emails can still be doing their job.
They’re introducing people to what I’m doing, sharing useful information and keeping the conversation going.
That is one of the things I really like about building an online business.
You can put systems in place that continue working while you’re doing something else.
I’m Learning to Protect My Productive Time
I’ve also become much more aware of distractions.
If I’ve managed to find 45 minutes to work on my affiliate business, I don’t want to spend 30 of those minutes scrolling through social media or checking statistics every five minutes.
I try to use that time deliberately.
Write the email.
Finish the blog post.
Create the promotion.
Check the campaign.
Learn something — then implement it.
That last part is important.
It’s very easy in affiliate marketing to spend all your available time learning.
There’s always another video, webinar, strategy or new product to look at.
But learning without implementation doesn’t build the business.
At some point, you’ve got to take action.
Consistency Is More Important Than Long Hours
This is probably the biggest lesson I’m learning.
I don’t believe you need to spend eight or ten hours every day building an affiliate marketing business.
But I do think consistency matters.
Imagine spending just one focused hour a day on your business.
That’s seven hours in a week.
Around 30 hours in a month.
Over a year, those small daily sessions become hundreds of hours invested into building something of your own.
That’s why I’m not allowing our busy ski season to stop me.
I’m Building Toward Something
There’s another reason I’m determined to keep going.
I’m not building this business simply because I need something else to fill my day.
Quite the opposite!
My days are already full.
I’m doing it because I want to build something that can give Leanne and myself more freedom in the future.
After many years in business and hospitality, I understand that nothing worthwhile is built overnight.
You build it piece by piece.
That’s exactly how I’m approaching ClickBank Profit Club.
One subscriber.
One email.
One blog post.
One campaign.
One lesson implemented.
One productive day at a time.
What If You Only Have 30 Minutes?
If you’re reading this thinking:
“Graham, I simply don’t have enough time to start an online business.”
I’d encourage you to look again.
Could you find 30 focused minutes?
If you could, what would happen if you used those 30 minutes productively every day for the next six months?
Don’t try to do everything.
Choose one task that moves you forward.
Complete it.
Then come back tomorrow and take the next step.
That’s how I’m doing it while Leanne and I manage two busy motels through another Snowy Mountains ski season.
Life certainly isn’t slowing down for us at the moment.
But neither is my online business.
I’m continuing to learn, build my list, create content and promote my ClickBank Profit Club business whenever I can.
Because I’m not waiting until I have more time.
I’m learning to make better use of the time I already have.
To Your Success,
Graham Hill
