5 Tips to help you take your business to the next level

One of the great things about making money online is that if you do it correctly, you can set your business up on autopilot so that your business is more automated and as you build, you don’t have to work as hard as you did in the beginning. When I decided to try to start making money online, one of my goals was to be able to eventually have my business work for me, so that I’m not busting my “behind” month after month trying to pay my bills. Since then, I’ve learned a number of strategies that have helped me to automate my business  and I wanted to share 5 of these tips with you.
Tip #1: Build a website/blog
Yes, I know it sounds like a no brainer, but many people try to make money online without a website. Yes, this is possible to do so, but if your goal is long term sustainable income, then a website should be somewhere in your planning. It doesn’t guarantee you will make a bunch of money, but it’s your online real estate that can end up being extremely valuable if you do things right. You can secure a hosting account from Hostgator for under $10 a month. Hey, that’s much less than the price of renting your own office.
I would recommend starting with a blog. Blogs are great for getting traffic from Search engines and very easy to start. It wasn’t until I started this blog that my business started working for me.
Tip #2: Build a list using an autoresponder.
This is something that is often overlooked, but it’s something that can add a significant amount of automation (and MONEY) to your online ventures. Having a list allows you to be able to communicate with your readers and build relationships. These relationships can turn into a very profitable relationship for both you and your subscribers.
It allows you to send emails over specific time intervals. These emails can be sequenced to arrive at specified times after the initial signup. Just think about it. If you are teaching your subscribers how to do something (i.e. freebie trading), you can automate that entire process, by sending follow up emails without even thinking about it.
Not only that, but you can also share other business opportunities with them automatically. If your system is set up well, this can result in a very profitable situation. The autoresponder that I use for my Freebie Cheat sheets is Aweber. I highly recommend it, because it’s a great service. It does cost $19 per month, but if used well, it can be THE thing that takes your success to the next level.
Tip #3: Follow people who are doing what you want to do.
No, I don’t mean stalk them. You shouldn’t show up by their house uninvited and peak through their windows or anything like that. However, if they are doing what you want to eventually accomplish, there’s a lot that you can learn from them (without even paying one cent). Observe the techniques they use, and try to implement it in what you are doing. You can learn a lot from watching a person. Much of what I’ve learned has been from watching other successful internet marketers who I know and respect.
Tip #4: Outsource early.
In my opinion, this is essential to online success. If you are going to be successful online, you will have to learn how not to do everything yourself. For some people, this is easy to do. Some people don’t know how to build a website (for example) or set up an autoresponder. I’m not one of those people, and because of that, it took me a while to grasp this concept and I wish I grasped it earlier, because since I started outsourcing, my life got much easier, and YES, I started making more money. The internet makes it relatively easy to do this. If you need suggestions as to how you can go about doing this (very inexpensively), I recommend reading my article on How to Outsource Your Business.
Tip #5: Test everything and make everything better.
The best way to know if something works well is to test it. Many people make the mistake of thinking that if it sounds good, it will work. I’ve made this mistake myself. One thing I’ve learned is that it’s not a good idea just because I like it. Unfortunately, everyone doesn’t think like me. So in order for me to know what people think, I need to put stuff out there and then test the response of my visitors.
A GREAT tool for testing what works and what doesn’t is Google Analytics. It allows you to see exactly where your traffic is coming from, which allows you to see what traffic generation techniques work for your particular situation. However, it doesn’t stop there. It also allows you to see how well each traffic source converts. This is one of the most beneficial aspects of Google Analytics. I would recommend checking it out, because this FREE software gives you more than many other programs that you would pay hundreds for. You can find out more about it by visiting the Google Analytics Page
These are a few of the tips that have helped me take my business to the next level and implement some automation in how I do business online. I hope you find it useful. Of course, there will be challenges when trying to make money online. That is to be expected. However, with persistence, it is possible to live the “internet lifestyle”. I’m heading in that direction and LOVING it
What are your biggest challenges when it comes to making money online? I would love to hear about them in the comments below.

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