I just finished cleaning up my lead generation system, which I keep organized in BackPackIt.  It now looks a little something like this.

Monday:

• Post guest article opportunities on BloggerLinkup (1 incoming, 1 outgoing).
• Post incoming guest article to blog, if available.
• Write three articles (1 outgoing guest post, 1 for WebWorkerDaily, 1 for blog).
• Post to Twitter.

Tuesday:

• Post guest article opportunities on BloggerLinkup (1 incoming, 1 outgoing).
• Write four articles (1 outgoing guest post, 1 for WebWorkerDaily, 1 for blog, and 1 for newsletter).
• Post to Twitter.

Wednesday:

• Post guest article opportunities on BloggerLinkup (1 incoming, 1 outgoing).
• Write two articles (1 outgoing guest post, 1 for ActiveRain network).
• Send direct mail pieces to 20 local businesses.
• Post to Twitter.
• Work on a "monthly to-do" (I have several things that I only do monthly, so I alternate working on each on Wednesdays), including wallpaper for Smashing and working on the Give Back Project.

Thursday:

• Post guest article opportunities on BloggerLinkup (1 incoming, 1 outgoing).
• Write five articles (1 for blog, 4 for newsletter).
• Work on Solopreneur Camp & Connect.
• Post on Twitter.

Friday:

• Post guest article opportunities on BloggerLinkup (1 incoming, 1 outgoing).
• Post incoming guest article to blog, if available.
• Write five articles (1 to personal blog, 4 for newsletter).
• Post on Twitter.

That's a lot of writing, a lot of posting, and a lot of work, but I'm understanding more and more that it takes a lot of the same thing - over and over - to generate consistent results. 

I think we all want to believe that it will be easy.  Stick a sign in the yard (or a site on the web), and people will come, but that's not realistic for most people.  We have to build our followings through hard work and effort.

The hype (those "too good to be true" marketing books about "the easy way") are just that, in most cases, a lot of hype.  Sure, the system can be easy (and should be, if we ever hope to maintain it).  In my own lead generation system, there's a lot of the same thing repeated over and over again. 

The actual work, though, the writing or whatever you do (cold calling, door knocking, whatever) is not always easy, and I'm not sure that it should be.  I think we've all come to expect great things without putting in any effort, but I'm not sure that builds lasting success (it might not be sustainable, that is).

If you put in the work and learn how to consistently generate leads for your business, you have something that you can maintain for the long haul, and that's no hype.