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photo credit: Dr. Jaus

Well, it looks like I’m about to enter uncharted territory. Despite last post’s prodding to do a little times-10 thinking, I haven’t actually sat down and written a new stretch goal beyond the one that has been in place for quite some time. A goal which honestly felt unreachable six months ago. Or, for that matter, two. Nevertheless, a goal which, assuming the trend that has been in place for most of the month holds, will be met sometime this weekend. Or perhaps already has been. (I’m always waiting on eBay.)

Whether that goal has been, or whether it is about to be met, I am definitely overdue in setting aside a little time with the ol’ pen and paper to see how far I can stretch my limiting beliefs.

Because, in three months, I have taken a really cool concept, worked my butt off, and doubled our monthly income.

photo credit: m-c

So, as I was saying, this month is going swimmingly. Those two campaigns recently restarted have kept up their end of the bargain, and even surpassed the return on investment I was seeing initially (one has jumped to 140%, the other 151%). While they are certainly active campaigns, their adspend isn’t as crazy as I was worried about. Or maybe I’m just getting more comfortable seeing that number get ever higher. Either way, I’m happy to see ‘em run, and even happier to see ‘em continue to earn at a healthy pace!

Nothing limits achievement like small thinking; nothing expands possibilities like unleashed imagination.
— William Arthur Ward

But now I’ve hit upon another problem. What was a stretch monthly earning goal has become too small. Assuming I keep at the pace I am, I should easily hit what was supposed to be a stretch. Which makes further progress difficult in the same way that having too small of a number on that sticky keeps your potential artificially capped.

So, I’m going to take a cue from one of the books I am currently reading — Be Unreasonable — and do a little times-10 thinking. Instead of seeking some arbitrary incremental increase, I choose the 1,000% solution.

We think too small. Like the frog at the bottom of the well. He thinks the sky is only as big as the top of the well. If he surfaced, he would have an entirely different view.
— Mao Tse-Tung

That should keep me busy through at least December…

photo credit: phunkstarr

Having a fine ol’ time this month watching all my work over the last few months really take off. I won’t go into specific dollar amounts right now, but my profit’s seven day moving average is almost 700% greater than this time last month. And last month, quite honestly, kicked the crap out of any prior month’s online income. Nevertheless, I’ve still been doing a little self sabotage.

I’ve got two campaign blasts in my stable that took off like a rocket as soon as I put them up. Enough so that I paused the first after less than half a day and in less than four hours with the other. And I’ll pause the next campaign that eats a sizable chunk of my daily budget that rapidly. That’s just common sense. You wouldn’t want an out of control campaign bankrupting you after all.

But what isn’t reasonable is discovering that those campaigns are actually profitable, to the tune of just over 78% return for both of them over that brief period. And then, despite that fact, letting them lie there paused because you were afraid to make the adspend. Apparently, I’m perfectly comfortable spending a dollar to make $1.75 in a campaign in a day. But not $50 to make $90. Or $1,000 to make $1,800.

So this evening I did a little more analyzing. Tweaked the campaigns ever so slightly. Added a zero onto those campaign budgets.

And resumed them.