#1.  Stop Learning and Start EARNING

Running an online business requires you to stay up to date on the latest trends and techniques since online marketing changes so rapidly.  However, at some point you need to stop buying courses and start doing some work!

Take a look back at the year.  How many marketing courses did you buy?

Now ask yourself…How many of those courses did you put into action?  How much money did those courses make you?

To make money online at some point you need to stop buying into the latest “must have” course and start taking action.  You can not make any money online if you are not putting offers out there.

Choose a method, put it to use, get a website up, drive traffic to it, test it…TAKE ACTION.

#2. Focus On One Idea At A Time

I bet you have a notepad or sheet of paper with at least 10 different ideas or projects you want to complete.  I bet you also have several half done projects or websites.  Here’s the problem…ideas and half done projects won’t make you any money!

Take a look at all the ideas you have and put them in order of how quickly they can make you money.  Now take the project that has the potential to make money the quickest and get it done.  All the other ideas can wait, just put 100% of your time and focus on the immediate cash project.

Focus on the project that has the best chance of putting money in your pocket right away.  Save those BIG ideas for later when you already have some cash coming in.

Once you have it complete then move on to the next one.  I promise you’ll make more money back putting all you focus on the quick cash projects first and getting them done.

#3.  Focus On Making Just $1

This is a continuation of the previous tip.  Everyone has at least one “million dollar idea” but the success rate on that idea is likely pretty low and you probably don’t have the resources to pull it off.  Instead of trying to make a million dollars, just focus on making $1 first.

If you can make $1, then you can make $100.  If you can make $100, then you can make $1000.  However, if you can’t make just $1, then you are going to struggle to make a million dollars.

Choose the idea or project that has the highest probability of making money and see it through.  Work it until it makes you some money and then continue to build from there.

#4.  Build An Email List

I bet you’ve never heard that one before  Let’s face it…nothing produces long-term profits like having a responsive email list.

If you are struggling to make any money online then my best tip is to completely focus on building a responsive email list.  Take you best product and give it away for free.  Or offer it for a low price and give affiliates 100% commission (easy to do with the $7 script).  Either one of those strategies is the best way to grow your list.

Give up short term profits in order to build your email list.  The long term profits of a responsive email list will easily make up for it.

#5.  Be Accountable

One of the best ways to reach your goals is to take accountability for them.  Share your goals with a spouse, friend or family member.  Post your goals on a whiteboard or on a piece of paper by your computer.

Just do something to make yourself accountable for them and you will be much more motivated to achieve them and work as hard as you can to reach them.

If 2011 was not the year you had hoped for then I urge you to put these 5 easy tips into use in your own business in 2012.  These tips can make all the difference in your business and put you on the right track for success in 2012.

What are your goals for 2012?  Post them below and we can all work to keep each other accountable…

At the start of 2010 I wrote out a list of goals that I wanted to achieve that year. After writing them down I set the paper aside on bookcase and pretty much forgot about them and never referred back to them ONCE in 2010.

Well, just a couple days ago I was cleaning up my office and getting rid of the clutter and I came across that piece of paper with my goals for 2010. I was pretty amazed that I had accomplished almost all of them (the several that I did not accomplished were actually goals that no longer applied due to changes I made in my business).

I have read in numerous different books that when you take time to write something down, such as a goal, your mind actually files it away and keeps replaying it in your mind without you consciously thinking about it (if that makes any sense!).

So while I didn’t go back and continually read my goals throughout 2010 to see if I was keeping on track and working towards them, my mind was doing it for me. I personally feel this played a large part in hitting almost all my goals and having my best year ever for my business.

With that being said, I am a big believer in writing down my goals from here forward. I should note that it is actually best to review your goals throughout the year to check your progress, which I will be doing a better job of this year.

I would urge you to take 30 minutes to think about what you want to accomplish this year and write out some goals for 2011.

Tips For Creating Goals For 2011

When you write your goals you want to make sure they are specific, measurable and achievable.

Instead of saying “I want to make a bunch of money with your online business in 2011″ (not measurable and not specific), instead you should say “I want to make $35,000 with my online business in 2011″.

Even better yet, “I want to be making $3,000 a month with my online business within the next 6 months”.  The is very specific, measurable and achievable.

But don’t stop there.  You should now set goals for how to get to $6,000 a month.  Write out what steps you need to take to get to $3,000 a month and give them each a time frame as well.

Here is what it may look like:

I want to be making $3,000 a month from my online business within the next 6 months

-I will create my own information product on how to grow your own organic vegetables and have it completed by the end of January

-I will write my sales letter for my product and have it completed by the end of February

-I will locate and get in touch with 25 website and products owners in this niche and talk with them about promoting my product as an affiliate by the end of March

-I will start a Pay Per Click campaign for my information product on Google and Bing by the end of April

-By the end of June I will be making $3,000 a month from my information product via affiliates and PPC marketing

Writing goals and them assigning step by step tasks to reach those goals is a great way to increase your chances of success and also a great way to stay on task and remain focused.  Share you goals with a friend, spouse or family member and let them know that you want them to help keep you accountable for your goals as well.

The 30 minutes it will take to complete this will pay great dividends throughout the year!

“Be productive and not busy”

That is a great thought to think about. As business owners running our own business it is very easy to stay busy for 8-10 hours a day. But are we being productive is the big question.

Here are 2 examples of being busy:
-Answering support questions
-Responding to emails

But are these tasks productive. On the outside looking in most people would say yes they are. But in all honesty are any other these tasks adding to our bottom line?

NO.

Being productive means doing work that will lead to more sales. Like writing articles, creating new products, improving our sales processes and so on.

Answering support questions and responding to emails are important tasks that need to be done but they can most likely be handled by someone else to free up more time for you to work on tasks that help grow your business.

We only have so much time in a day and that time needs to be spent on the most important tasks.

So next time you are working on your business, ask yourself if you are being busy or productive. If you are just being busy, jot down what you are doing and hand that task off to someone else like an outsourcer or your assistant.

Here is a list of them:

Google Apps Gmail – I have a personal Gmail address that I use but I also use Google Apps for all my domains. So instead of having 20 different email accounts to look at each day, they all go right into my 1 Google Apps Gmail account. I can not even estimate how much time it saves me on a daily basis.

Google Website Optimizer – This is a great tool for split testing landing pages, salespages, and affiliate pages. Pretty much every single salesletter I have is always running a split test. Testing is one of the easiest and quickest ways to increase your income. You can double the revenue of any site by either doubling the traffic (hard work!) or doubling the conversion rate (much easier, especially if you have never tested before).

Google Analytics – By far the best analytics program I have used. I used to use Statcounter but once I tried Google Analytics I was hooked. It gives much more in-depth stats and you can hook it up with your Adwords and AdSense accounts to get some really cool features.

Jing – Jing is a free screen capture and screen recording software. While I do still use Camtasia for recording longer video, Jing is great for short videos because you can quickly capture the video, they host it online, and then give you a link you can email or post.

Firefox – I said good bye to IE a long time ago and switched to Firefox. I find Firefox to be much faster, easier to use, and the features and add-ons are awesome.

SEO Book Toolbar – This is a great tool for SEO purposes. Way too may features to list but you can read all about it for yourself.

OpenOffice – I wouldn’t say I use this one daily but I do use it quite often to turn documents into pdf format. Writer let’s easily export any document as a pdf. Great time saver.

Google Keyword Tool – For quick keyword research I always use Google’s keyword tool and several of their other tools as well (Sktool & Insight).

WordPress – Of course every online marketer should be using WordPress in their business.

iGoogle – I use iGoogle to subscribe to the RSS feeds of the blogs that I read daily. There are obviously a ton of RSS readers but this is my favorite way to do it.

Ok, so there you have my 10 free online tools that I use daily. Sorry for all the Google love but they know how to make some great free tools. Hopefully some of these can help you be more productive in your daily activities and increase your business.