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Have you taken a step back from your pc monitor lately and really taken stock of where your online business is going?  Do you truly make the best of your time so you can work smarter, not harder?

My guess is, you  probably have not done for some time.  It is the easiest trap to fall into.  You feel you do not want to spend time planning as it is time that you could be writing articles, adding content to your blog or sending out Tweets like there is no tomorrow.

I think it is fair to say that some days you will be more productive than others.  Sometimes you can look back and really feel you have done quality and worthwhile efforts on your business, while other days it just seems that you have gone round in circles, not settled into it and basically ended up being a busy fool.  That is not meant to insult – heaven knows I have had plenty of days like that in the past.  Here are some tips that I have found to make your day far more productive and identify the culprits that drain our precious time.

Here are a few sneaky little lurgies that can infiltrate your business and kill your efforts online and my solution for each one.  See if they sound familiar!

The Inbox Infection - This can result in massive amounts of time being wasted and is also highly addictive.  My inbox was getting totally out of hand.  I was being lured my very clever marketers promising guaranteed success and offering free video course only to find that after watching the video they really have not told you anything apart from the bill you would have to pay to find out the real ‘secret’ to their success.

The cure was simple. I went through my inbox and unsubscribed. This task took me about an hour to do but has gained me an extra two hours productivity per day – a valuable trade for this ‘cold turkey’ treatment.

The Butterfly Mind Syndrome – A common mistake and easily rectified.  It is so easy to sit down at your pc, scratch your head and ask yourself what to do first.  “Should I write an article?  What should the article be about?  Let me think of a killer title”……blah, blah, blah.  Behold, an hour has flashed by, no article has been written let alone published and now you are thinking about what to have for lunch.

This is usually interrupted by various tasks such as making cups of coffee, trips to the toilet, having a quick look at Facebook to see who has written on your wall and not forgetting the odd sms message as well.

Easiest cure for this common ailment is a basic pen and paper poltice.  Take a clean sheet of paper or notebook if you prefer and write a list of tasks that you intend to complete that day.  Do not make your expectations too high, better to complete two tasks properly than list eight and only manage three.  Tick them off when they are done.  You will feel a great sense of worth and achievement if you stick to this method, not to mention a calm and clear mind.

The ‘Finish What You Started’ Virus – this is a hybrid of the Butterfly Mind Syndrome and the ‘Faffing About’ disease that is closely related to Inbox Infection.  It results in a clutch of half finished tasks and no completed ones.  You find you have a half completed opt in page, a half constructed blog, a half written report, and so on, and so on….  If untreated this goes on to be an unproductive business that never gets off the ground (or crash lands very quickly)

Your list of tasks is the first place to start to get over this one.  If you can imagine that your list is not a piece of paper, but an orange instead – sounds a far stretch of the imagination but stick with me.  You would not attempt to eat the whole orange at once would you?  You would end up choking, coughing and spluttering and probably be seriously put off oranges for life!  The logical way is to separate the orange into segments, then eat it a piece at a time.

Try not to make your list too long as this will only set you up for disappointment if your expectations are to complete it all.  Prioritize each task in order of importance.  Then work your way through and do not stop till they are fully completed.  Far better to totally complete one task than have five that are not finished.

Childrenblains -  This one is a lifestyle choice and one that we love dearly and are proud of having.  There is no doubt that children are a blessing.  They bring us tears of joy and whilst they fleece the bank account on a regular basis they make us rich in so many other ways.  That aside, add children, working from home and a good dash of school holidays and you’ve got yourself a fatal concoction.

Be sure to separate your work time from your family time.  Resign yourself to the fact that working is impossible and relax and enjoy your family – they won’t be young for long and you won’t get today again!  Choose suitable times that fit round them to work, even if that means when they are in bed (failure to follow these guidelines may result in extreme stress, temporary insanity and unhappy, rebellious siblings)

If all else fails, a simple sign on the office door stating…..

“Only Knock If You’re Bleeding”

…..usually does the trick! 

Are you still trying to find a group of hungry buyers to make money affiliate marketing?  This is the hardest part.  There is no use spending your valuable time and efforts promoting a ‘dead duck’.  So, I have outlined 3 ways that you can save time on the front end, the research, so you can get to the exciting and profitable part of promoting and marketing your product.

Step One – I know it sounds a cliché but Clickbank is a very useful resource, even if you do not want to promote a Clickbank product.  Why?  Well, quite simply, you can see what is selling and what is not.  Start by heading over to their Marketplace, then go through by Category.  Do not choose or entertain anything that does not interest you – that is the fastest way for Internet marketing to become a chore instead of the fun it should be.  If it isn’t fun, do not do it!

Scout through and pick a topic that interests you or you would be interesting in promoting.  Searching by ‘category’ will automatically bring up the most popular products.  Take note of the ‘Gravity’ of the product.  Gravity, in Clickbank, means the amount of affiliates that have made a sale of that product in the past week.  It does not mean that is the amount of sales.

For example, if you look at a product with a gravity of one hundred and fifty it means that one hundred and fifty affiliates have made sales with that product, not that the product has only made one hundred and fifty sales.  Some affiliates may have made just one sale, some may have made ten.  That aside, if so many affiliates have successfully made sales then people are buying and you can make sales too.

Try not to be too concerned about whether the market for that product is saturated.  Skilful marketing in the right places will always enable you to have a slice of the pie.

Make sure you choose a product that has a gravity of over seventy for it to be classed as a ‘hot’ niche.

Step Two - Once you have selected a potential subject to promote head on over to Google and enter a search.  Once the search has returned the results, click on the link at the top left of the page that says ‘Web + show options’.  A list will appear.  From here you can select forums.  Take a look on some of the forums in your chosen subject and read what the forum members are saying.  See what is a hot topic.  For example, if you input dog training, you may find that the biggest challenge that dog owners are having is trying to stop their dog from being aggressive.  By doing this you can identify what people want.  There is no use promoting something that no one wants is there?  Get to the core of the niche.

Take the opportunity to be a valuable contributor in the forums, that way you can take note of what products will provide a solution to their problems.

Step Three – Keep a watchful eye out whenever you see best selling magazines when you are on your travels.  Skim through them and take note of how many advertisers are spending money with them on advertising.  If they are doing this then it will be because they are making more back than the cost of the advertising.  You can do the same online by noticing if there are any paid advertising advertisements on the right side of your search page.  If other affiliates are paying for traffic you can bet that it will be a profitable niche to enter into.

In Conclusion

‘Think twice cut once’ – These are just three simple and basic steps that anyone wanting to make a living online must do to ensure their success and one of the key pieces to the jigsaw.  The more you can get into a customers mind the more success you will gain.  If you have the talent for spotting hot niches and take a topic and add your own unique twist so you stand out in a crowd then making a living online in affiliate marketing could prove to be a very fun and rewarding work from home venture.