Time Management For Your Online Business

One of the first things that I had to change was the way I used my time. When I first started doing affiliate marketing I thought I would learn how the big super affiliates did it so I went to all the forums and spent hours and hours reading. Although some information was useful my problem was I spent too many hours on a forum. Next thing I knew I had not built any web pages at all that day. The next day I logged into my affiliate accounts and seen that I made nothing yesterday I got pissed off. I blamed everyone but me. I kept saying things like tracking wasn't working or my merchants were ripping me off. Most of the people reading this probably do the same thing complain and blame everything on someone else. Now I was very new to affiliate marketing and really had no clue as to what I was doing at all. I had about 15 pages of just banner ads, I think back now and just laugh. I was so nieve as many are when they venture into this. For some reason most newbies have a bulid it and they will come and buy from my site theory that just doesn't work. Don't get me wrong I still love forums but you have to manage the time spent there. It was tuesday afternoon around 3pm that I changed what I did online. I set up a time management schedule that I follow everyday. I set a time up for certain things like Email, creating links, checking stats, making web pages, and learning. I don't follow that exact order at all. I always make my web pages first, but that wasn't always the case. I use to log in to my email first where I would get all these "join our affiliate program" E-mails. The first thing I would do is join them, every single one of them. This was the biggest mistake I made as they didn't fit my site or category at all. All of a sudden I had 100 affiliate programs that I belonged to and none of them made me a dime. I knew this had to change and change quickly. I now have a Must Do List - Notice I didn't say a "to do" list, that is because these things must get done. I set up the schedule the night before, it takes 3 minutes to make my next day effective. If you think about it there is always going to be something to do and you can't do them all so you might as well just do the things that you can and get them over with. This will give you a good feeling when it is done then you can go and check your stats. The funny thing is your stats actually improve by checking them after you make web pages on a steady basis. The emails will be there in the afternoon after you make pages and you know what so will the forums. Although these things are addictive then can be done last. After I make pages I spend a half hour learning something new. By doing things this way I have been able to learn what RSS is and what CSS is. If I had learned what these things were six months ago I would of had extra time as my sites would have been easier to update. Set yourself up with a schedule the night before and stick with it no matter what your online business will be more effective and the money will come easier to you.