I’ve been trying to make a living online for almost 3 years now. While learning and doing different things, I’ve had some realizations that literally shocked me.
The biggest one was…if you take the most important principles for success, they’re the same no matter whether you own an online or an offline business. The systems you create, the principles of tracking results, the mindset…all the same. Let me explain.
1. Principles of success – objectivism
Have you ever heard about Ayn Rand? The “Rand clan” consists of individuals who attribute their success to her principles. Some of these individuals include Dan Kennedy, Donald Trump, Hugh Hefner, Ronald Reagan and the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales.
Some of Any Rand’s principles of success are 1) Loving yourself and your life 2) Pursuing your happiness above all else 3) Allowing reason to guide you 4) Facing the reality of every situation (either good or bad) and so on.
There are many schools of thoughts on how to be successful. I’ve found Ayn Rand’s philosophy to be working for me (and as you can see, for many successful individuals as well). The point is, there are some success principles that are working no matter whether you run an online or offline business.
I would say the most important one is (hint: comes from physics) the 3rd Newton’s law (action-reaction.) Take some action and you’ll get a reaction. Take a bunch of action and you’ll get a bunch of reactions.
In my experience, taking action and then seeing the reaction and figuring out (through observations and measuring) what works was the key to the success I had. That leads me to my second lesson…
2. Measure (almost) everything
Of course, there are things you can’t measure. And you shouldn’t. I will suppose you are familiar with the 80/20 principle (some call it 90/10, I prefer to call it 80/20) which says that 20% of the things you do will contribute to 80% of your results. So measure the most important things.
One of the best ways to measure is through using KPIs (key performance indicators.) Choose 3 or 4 important KPIs (remember the 90/20 rule?) and measure those on consistent basics. For example, if you own a content site your KPIs might be number of articles written, links built to the domain and AdSense revenue.
3. Focus on productivity
The more stuff you do, the better (remember action/reaction? 
) Well, focusing on doing more (of what’s working, hopefully) brings you more results!
There are a lot of good books on this. One that helped me a lot is “The Power of Full Engagement” by Tony. He has a new book on this topic now, haven’t read it but I’m sure it’s very good.
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Yup I agree.
An online business is like any other business, and it requires the correct mindset.
Taking action is one of the big parts of the correct mindset.
Nabeel
Hey Brian,
Really Great Post. Some great points there.
I think taking action is very important part for any business.
Thanks for sharing this great Post Brian.
~Dev
Those are indeed shocking lessons, I adhere to your ideas.
This is a very well written post with a very positive attitude towards business. Also i think the key message is correct, you have to monitor what is going on in your online business to know what is going right/wrong so that you can continue on in your business.
All good ideas. Attitude and activity can have a lot more to do with success than what you are selling, the current economy, and other similar factors. Definitely all good things to keep in mind!
I totally agree with you Brian. Success needs action. One needs to work hard in the beginning to taste the success later.
-Sandeep
Good hub, really liked it. You had some good things to say.
Good post staying positive, continuous learning, and taking action daily to achieve your success are 3 main ingredients.
I would also like to add concentrate on tasks that actually make you money such as.
Building your Email list
Bringing as much targeted traffic to your Website, or Blog as humanly possible. Traffic equals money!
I want to learn how to make money by online.
Could you advice me kindly ?
Thank you.
kunkiw27@gmail.com
Hi Lee
Go through the money making category archieve http://www.scopeformoney.com/category/make-money-online to get lots of ways to make money online.
Very good point were discussed here. These details are required to know by any individual who is going to start any kind of business.
Speaking of productivity, this is something I’ve always learned the hard way myself with the roller coaster ride I’ve had with making money online. I think for the most part whenever I’ve lacked productivity, my numbers slipped and the stats showed the impact it had. Whenever I started doing work, it continued to get better. But the momentum in productivity I find is the key part. Sometimes I tend to work in “bursts”, but whenever I productive at a consistent level, that is when I see the most reward.
Till then,
Jean