As someone who works in front of a computer on a daily basis, it is easy to become distracted. After all, there are so many things going on at the same time. I mean, there's email, there's social sites and all the other distractions are almost too much to mention, like the phone and so on. However, when you are running a business, it is imperative that you are concentrating on that task. As a side note, tidying up your files and rearranging the paper clips on your desk does not constitute direct work. However, I do think and sometimes look like I am staring out into space.

Before anyone jumps up and down, this is the creative side to running a business. You see, so many people are busy working in their businesses, they are not running the business, in terms of planning new campaigns and strategies to move ahead in an ever more competitive world. If you are a one man show, it is very hard to balance, but it is vital to be dreaming up new ways to maintain and then increase your clients.

Frankly, there are ways I have not even thought of yet, and am sure there are others that will come up with brilliant ideas. This is why networking in professional seminars is so important, where even if you think you are very skilled, you will inevitably find some nuggets that are just worth the whole experience. As a general rule, I would recommend you attend at least one big seminar once a year, but with technology, I attend many webinars, where you effectively remove all the hassles of transport, accommodation and expense. You have the whole presentation in front of you at your computer screen. As an added bonus, the seminars can even be in a different country. By attending these various events, you will be able to think of ways or even be given new ides and plans on a platter, figuratively speaking.

I am well aware that you may still think that you know enough, but in the world of marketing and promotion, the fact is that your techniques that are working well today may become stale. If you;'re not at least aware in your mind of other methods that are working you can miss great and important opportunities. One example to illustrate the point of thinking outside the square with list building is with the writing of eBooks.

All right, I know that is not so big an issue, but with the expansion of major network websites dedicated to digital content, affiliate links are being inserted into these books in the form of diagrams or pictures that look like the traditional coupons in old news papers. There are boxes with dotted lines around them suggesting a call to action. When they are clicked on, they take the reader to an opt in form on a squeeze page. This may be old news to some readers, but I took it as a great idea in aspects of marketing that I hadn't considered. You too, can improve your marketing by following some ideas out of the box.