Tending
to my garden is one of my favorite pastimes. It is very meditative to me. Some
of my best ideas have come to me while literally “digging in the
dirt.”

While
working in my yard last spring, one area I focused a lot of attention on was
near my driveway. There was an overgrowth of weeds that seemed to crop up
overnight.

Rather
than use poison to get rid of them, I wanted to pull them out. To make my job
easier I decided to water down the weeds, let the water be absorbed into the
ground for a while, and then get down to some serious picking.

You
can well imagine what it must have looked like to anyone passing by to see me
holding my hose watering a bunch of weeks. As one neighbor walked by I got the
distinct impression he thought I might be a bit eccentric to be watering my
weeds. With a look of pity on his face, I felt he thought I didn’t know the
difference between a weed and a flower. What he didn’t know was what motivated
me to water the weeds.

By
spending a little time up front to soften the ground, pulling the weeds out
became almost effortless. Had I tried to pick the weeds without the prep time,
it would have been more of a struggle, taken me much longer and chances are
more of the root would be left in the ground.

Once
I got into some serious picking I found myself comparing what I was doing to
marketing with the Internet. One of the main reasons people do NOT succeed
online is not for lack of desire. It is for lack of preparation.

So
often, people simply jump into marketing without laying a proper foundation. By
doing this they often get some result, but not the kind of result they could
have gotten had they done methodical prep work.

Sadly,
many don’t see the prep work as completely necessary or they just want to jump
into the fun stuff.

As
you think of your own marketing and the results you are (or not) getting, have
you been diligent about laying a solid foundation?” Have you put your
systems in place? Are you consistent about what you are doing?

True
success lies in laying a very solid foundation. By putting time and effort into
what you are doing upfront, the rewards can be incredible.