A great way of getting to grips with managing your time is to begin by analysing how you spend it now.

I use a technique know as "Activity Analysis" with my own added twist..

Create a new Twitter account and change the settings to make it private. Then, all you need to do is make a tweet every 15 minutes that describes exactly what you are doing at that specific time.

If you want to get sophisticated, you can add #hashtags to organise your tasks into categories.

After at least a week, review all your tweets and you'll begin to see a picture of where your time goes.

Then you can eliminate those things that are not taking you towards achieving your goals and spend more time on the important tasks.

As is usual on the first day of the New Year, many people take a little time out to think about their goals for the next tweleve months.

Unfortunately, a significant number of those people seem to set goals which a perhaps just a little bit more stretching than last year's. If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting the same results!

I urge you to take a step back and ask youself: "What business do I want to be in?"

I've workied with lots of coaching clients over the years and one of the single most important factor that has held many of those people back has been having a piecemeal approach to their business.

I've seen people with websites covering an amazingly diverse range of topics.. from astrology to zoology. While I can see the attraction of spotting keywords with profit potential, assessing the search volume and competition and going for the easy targets, all you end up with is a bunch of totally unrelated sites.

When you decide that you're going to be in a specific business, you'll become much more focused. Your portfolio of websites will all be within a common theme. Your sites will all benefit from interlinking. As your business grows, so will the opportunity to build a targeted list with a common theme.

Rather than simply do more of the same as you did last year, look at your business with a critical eye. Be prepared to get rid of assets that no longer fit and plan to develop a strong presence in a single theme.

As you may have noticed, my Skype ID is plain for all to see in the signature of every email I send out. I welcome feedback.

So, out of the blue I get a Skype call from.. let's call him "Bert".

Bert's opinion is that it'll be impossible for him to make anything from Terry's farewell package because he doesn't have a list.

So, when I'd stopped laughing, I asked him if he'd considered that the package contains everything he would need to build a list and to make some cash on the back end.

Here's what I suggested Bert should do..

1. Select a suitable set of autoresponder messages from Terry's package, edit them to stamp them with your own personality and "branding" and load them up to your autoresponder service.

2. Set up a squeeze page and use one of the high quality reports as an "ethical bribe" to encourage people to sign up to your newsletter.

3. Select another high value product and position it as a One-Time-Offer that is shown to everyone who confirms their subscription.

Now you could stop there. However…

4. Set up a membership site with some more of the premium quality content and position that offer after the One Time Offer.

Can you see how that system could keep on generating a nice income for months and years to come?

But Bert wasn't happy yet…

"What about traffic?" says he.

5. Select yet more content, create some free reports, embed links to your squeeze page and post those reports to free ebook sites. Convert some more content into articles, put a link to your squeeze page in the resource box and submit those articles to all the top article directories.

6. make sure that your membership site has a good affiliate scheme and provide your affiliates with lost of tools and resources to encourage them to promote your site.

Bert didn't hang about, he took advantage of Terry's split payment option and he's already organising a domain name and setting up his squeeze page while he waits for all those DVD's to arrive.

Terry's package contains so much stuff and so many different options that it will be easy for you to put together a unique offer with just a little bit of planning and creativity.

However, relying solely on Adsense is not a great idea. Firstly because Google's terms and conditions explicitly forbid the creation of "Made for Adsense" type sites. So even if your intention is to monetize your blog with Adsense, you should also have alternative monetization methods in place.

One of the most effective monetization methods is to add a sprinkling of affiliate links to your site. The most effective affiliate link can be found within the text of a blog post. Some time ago I decided to automate the process of adding affiliate links to my blogs with "Easy WP Affiliate" a simple plugin that automatically formats a pre-determined keyword phrase with an affiliate link.

Blog readers are used to seeing links and, if the link leads to a relevant product, a click through will often lead to a sale. Of course it's important to presell the click by emphasising with your readers situation or problem and then offering a product or service that will provide them with a suitable solution.

If you wish to monetize other areas of your blog then you can offer advertising space in the form of a simple text link in your blogroll or by selling banner space. The most popular banners seem to be 125×125. Although I've had great success with other sizes.. especially "tower" style banners. If you don't want the hassle of managing manual submissions, there's an excellent banner management plugin that automates the entire process. Leaving you free to provide your readers with great content.

As, you may have noticed, a couple of the links in this blog post lead to my own products. And, if you want to maximise your income from blogging, then it's always worth remembering that you get to keep 100% of the profit from your own products.

I certainly haven't covered all the possible monetization methods, in fact I've barely scratched the surface. However, if you implement just one or two of my suggestions, you'll be making more income than the vast majority of other bloggers!

I suggested that she target each ad on a specific product, link the ad to a specific landing page for the product she was promoting and mirror the headline of the ad by using the same headline on her landing page.

Her bounce rate was reduced by 23% and her advertising budget is now generating a profit for the first time in weeks!

The moral of the story?

First of all, measure your critical performance indicators.

Secondly, design your process to optimise the route for the customer from advert to download by eliminating any unneccessary steps and making it easy for the customer to get what they want.

In my opinion building a wider entry point at the front end of your business does nothing but create a bigger hole in which you are pouring your advertising budget. UNLESS, of course, you have additional products that you can offer on the backend as upsells.

Unfortunately, this is not an unusual approach to building an online business. Far too many people start at the wrong end of the funnel.

The most successful online entrepreneurs begin with the end in mind. They have a vision of offering a high ticket product, seminar or coaching service and they design their sales funnel to lead their prospects through a series of steps from an entry-level product all the way through to their big ticket item.

So, instead of digging a bigger hole I strongly recommend that you take a step back, decide what your top of the range product will be and then reverse engineer the sales process all the way back to your lead generation system.

When you have a destination in mind it is significantly easier to plan the route. If you don't know where you are going you will undoubtedly end up somewhere else.

These days you can quickly and easily install a blog, add a few plugins, choose and install a suitable theme and you're ready to roll. All this can be done from within the Wordpress Dashboard.

You can set up a great looking and fully functional blog within just a few minutes and then all you need to do is to add some content.

And that's where lots of people fall by the wayside. There are literally thousands of disused and negelected blogs out there. Simply because the folks that started them didn't know what to blog about or, probably more commonly, they ran out of things to blog about.

Do you know what the most common problem is?

Having looked at lots of those abandoned and neglected blogs, it looks obvious to me.. Those blogs were started without any research into the market.

Yes, as a blogger you have a target audience. Just as there is no point in creating a product if nobody is willing to buy it, there's no point in publishing content to a blog if nobody is interested in reading it.

I publish a number of very successful blogs in a number of popular niche markets. Those blogs weren't created on a whim. Those blogs were created to satisfy a demand in the market for quality information. They were also started because I had identified a means of getting a return on my investment.

Yes, every single one of the blogs that I create are created because I know they will make money.

If you've ever considered starting a blog but not known what to blog about.

If you own an abandoned or neglected blog.

If you ever get "bloggers block" and can't think of a topic for a blog post…

My brand new special guide: "Blogging About" is a must read.

For the next few days Blogging About is available at a special pre-launch price. But only if you click the secret link..

To claim your "better than 50%" discount simply click the book cover on this page.

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I released a very limited number of review copies and all the feedback I received was incredibly positive. Be sure to check out the testimonials when you get to the sales copy.

I'm not sure how long it's going to take to complete my pre-launch preparations. I'm guessing it will be ready to roll sometime next week. This offer will be withdrawn as soon as the site goes "live".

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Many of these people are used to working as an employee and find the transition to self employment to be very difficult. After all, it's not easy moving from an environment where there is structure, discipline and support into an environment of uncertainty where you have to do everything for yourself.

It's especially difficult when the work is completely new and you don't know what you're doing!

For anyone is that position I strongly recommend that you seek out a coach, mentor or someone who's willing to take you on as an apprentice. There are a few pointers later in this blog post.

For anyone considering taking on an apprentice I recommend that you consider…

• You must be willing to set aside the time it takes to recruit someone with the right mindset and with the intelligence and aptitude to do the job.
• You must be willing to invest the time it takes to properly brief, train and monitor your apprentice on an ongoing basis.
• You need to set SMART objectives for all tasks so that the apprentice knows exactly what is expected of them.
• You need patience and understanding in bucket loads. Remember, the apprentice is way back where you were when you started out and they need to learn the basics and the terminology.
• It's not just about doling out task after task. You have to explain the big picture, the process and the why.. especially the reason why they are doing something.
• You have to be willing to accept the fact that they will screw up. Failure and mistakes are an important part of the learning process. How you handle failure and mistakes is probably the most important element in managing an apprentice .
• Motivation is also critically important.. your apprentice needs feedback, they need the reassurance that will build their confidence. Be sure to reward the behaviour you want.

From the apprentice's perspective..

• Your "Boss" is busy, they can't offer you full time supervision.
• If you have a question, invest some time in finding an answer for yourself before you ask the boss to confirm what you find out.
• If you don't understand something that your boss has told you or asked you to do, seek clarification. Don't go blindly charging off without making sure you understand what's required.
• Your time is not as valuable as your boss' time. Don't expect a fair exchange in hours. Consider how much business your boss could be losing while they are helping you.
• Keep your promises, don't promise what you can't deliver and be honest. Your boss has probably heard more lame excuses than you could even dream up.
• Show some initiative and make suggestions, but be aware that there is often a very good reason for your boss to do it "their" way.

The apprenticeship can be very rewarding for both parties. However, it requires a willingness to commit from both sides and, as in any transaction, the terms of the relationship need to be clearly established and agreed. And, that agreement should include what happens at the conclusion of the relationship.

If you think you have what it takes to apply for an apprenticeship, your first step is to contact me with a short pitch that explains why you should be selected as an apprentice.

1. Begin with the customer in mind. Far too many people start out with what they believe is a great idea and then look for an audience to which to market to. You are much more likely to be successful if you start by identifying a group of people who have a common problem or need and who are willing to pay to fulfil that need.
2. Establishing a clearly defined plan including a set of "SMART" objectives. In my view it doesn't matter if you intend to create just a single site or a huge portfolio of online properties, you must start out with the end in mind.
3. Stick with your plan. We all know how easy it is to be distracted by the latest product launch. However, don't let vendors dictate what you buy or when you buy it. Only you should be making those decisions. You should only be investing in products or services that will enhance your ability to achieve your business objectives.
4. Be willing to take risks, be willing to fail fast and be open to the possibility that there's a better way. While it's vital that you have a plan, it's also important that you allow yourself some flexibility to experiment with alternative methods, tools and techniques.
5. Track your results. You have to have a way of keeping score. It's up to you to define your critical success factors. It's also up to you to track your results. It's not just about profit and loss. You should also measure the effectiveness of each source of traffic, your optin rate and your sales conversion rate.
6. Play to your strengths. You've probably heard the phrase: "Jack of all trades and master of none". Well, although it's feasible that you could do everything, I strongly recommend that you do the stuff you're good at and outsource everything else. In fact, I'd go so far as to say.. build a team of experts and specialists around you and play to their strengths while you work ON your business rather than IN your business.
7. Have fun, relax and take time out! I've learned over the years not to take myself too seriously. I've also learned that too much work and no play really does make folks dull. And boring! On Monday this week I took Sarah, my daughter-in-law, and Grace, my gorgeous granddaughter, out for the day. We had a great time. It was a fun day and on Tuesday I returned to my desk re-energised.

So, there you have it. Seven steps to succes. I see myself as very lucky to be able to do virtually anything I want whenever I want thanks to the income and flexibility that my online business gets me.

I've built up a network of online friends, over the years, many of whom enjoy a similar lifestyle. Lifestyles built on similar success steps to the ones I've outlined above.

One of those friends is martin Avis. I told you about his "Newsletter Success Formula" yesterday. Thinking about it, Martin's "formula outline all of the steps he used to achive his success.