Next actions are those things that need just as much care as any other parts of your planning. They are those daily activities people just jump into or don’t organise at all. They are your tasks and action plans.

1 Jumping in. Someone sees an opportunity, grabs it and starts taking action on it. The problem is they have no long term strategy or goals, except vaguely about making some money. They are not really in charge of their own business life.

2 Drift. This is politely called surfing. People searching for a quick financial fix drift or jump from one scheme to the next.

3 Purpose. This is the opposite scenario. With a clear strategy in place, next actions are easier to work out and you know they’re leading to your final goals. You have control of the situation.

4 List. You simply have to list the tasks you need to do until you have achieved a task. For example, if your objective is to set up a website, you could list: getting a domain name, hosting and HTML editor. Then, creating the site, including PayPal(TM) button and so on. You’ve allowed time for learning and doing so it’s attainable. In any case you’re being flexible, as the point is to achieve your goal, not give up.

5 Why bother. If you plan next actions, you don’t miss anything. You use your time most effectively and you can see daily regular progress. Also, there’s less stress in the doing.

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Planning involves “knowing ahead of time”, that is, before you take action. But without spending time planning you never get anything done. In fact, the onlypoint of planning is to be able to take the correct action as soon as possible. This is because a plan is not written in concrete. It is adjustable at each stage if necessary, in order to fit new and unforeseen circumstances.

You need to know your longer goals, you objectives or staging posts to get there, and your next actions to get you to your objectives.

1 Goals. List or mindmap ideas about why you want an online business. The prioritize those ideas so you can see what your main purposes. Sometimes these can be very surprising. Repeat this process regularly as your experience and knowledge grows.

2 Objectives. If you like, these are mini-goals to get you to the main ones. These are decisions about such things as what niche you’ll be in, getting a website, deciding on products, deciding on your traffic strategy.

3 Actions. This means the daily and weekly things you will do to get to your objectives. These also need prioritizing, otherwise you’ll be trying to do everything at once. Some of them will be routine and others will be one-off, such as uploading a website. You may need to allow for learning about these things first, in your planning.

4 Timing. If you can, put items that need doing on a time line. At least, put some sort of timing beside each one and always allow for problems.

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Planning, like having directions for a journey, is vital for you to achieve your goals.

One way of working out your direction is to get two sheets of paper. On one write why you want to start an online business. The usual reasons are money, house, car and so on.

On the other write exactly what you’re going to achieve, such as a whole or large internet business, or just one or two websites.

You could leave these sheets for 24 hours or so. Two things will happen. You’ll think of other items to add on or take off, and you’ll think some of the items are definitely more important that the others.  

So, prioritize them. Put a number one beside the most important one, a two beside the next most important item, and so on.

Prioritizing is making decisions.

Take decisions now, not later. You can always change them later but with much more experience behind you.

Think of this as an on-going process – I guarantee you will not get it right first time. Which is one reason why most people fail: they think there is one, and only one, answer.

Now you can get down ideas about how you’ll get to your goals. That is, what do you think you need to do, by when and in what order? For example, you’ll need to have hosting – but when?  Also, you need a product to sell – your own or be an affiliate? And when do you decide this?

Do this, and it will show you how complicated it all is, and why people give up. Or they end up in a such a simple system that they’ll never make much money. But you are different, as you’re already building your plan for your business.

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What is the best internet marketing solution? There is no  one action which will solve everything but there is one action you need to take which will “solve” many problems for you as you build your business. And that is planning.

Without some sort of plan you’ll end up with a confusion of websites, offers and overall organisation. That is, if you end up with anything at all, as most people don’t. Even if they get websites up, start selling products and get prospects on their list, it’s unlikely they’ll last more than 2 to 5 years. Of course, lots of people don’t even get that far. So, you need to plan your  future, being flexible as to how to achieve it.

Firstly, presuming you’ve decided on your niche and types of product you’ll offer, write down a vision of what your business will be like at some point in the future. Think big – it doesn’t matter if you’re starting with nothing. This vision, which may take you some time to clarify, will be like a guiding light to you, constantly there and drawing you on.

Secondly, write down what values you and your business will stand for. You might be going for quality of products or massive customer service or creative originality. This is sometimes put into a mission statement. Whatever you go for ensure you decide exactly what you mean by your value. For example, decide how you and your business define or describe the value in terms of what you’re doing.

Thirdly, write down what steps you’ll need to take to reach your vision. This is where planning as the best internet marketing solution comes into its own. Because, while you might benefit from other marketers’ courses, ebooks, copywriting and so on, you’re really deciding about your own way to your own vision in your own business. This gives you freedom and the ability to take the initiative.

Fourthly, following on from the last point, there is importance of the link between the sales success of a product and keywords, the importance of traffic and what to do with it, and the importance of email and search engine marketing. But your prime requirement is to be as organised as you can from the start.  Get as organised as possible so you can follow through with your steps, and take action as soon as you can.

Fifthly, include in your plan how you will track your results so you can improve the efficiency of your business and how efffectively it creates the values you’re after.

Lastly, write in how you will build relationships with subscribers and customers so they can be long-term ones.

If there is one internet marketing solution, planning is it. That, together with flexiblity as you put it into action.

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There are usually two main problems causing  indecision: lack of information or experience, and the habit of procrastination.

First, lack of knowledge and experience. Should you go to Paris or Rome for your holidays? This seems a great choice to have but not if you’re indecisive, on top of which you know nothing about either place. By the way, we could back up here: some people don’t know why they want or feel the need to take a course of action in the first place. They haven’t thought about it. But let’s presume we have this choice.

To get knowledge, research is needed on the internet, bookshops, libraries, friends. You can get vicarious experience through other people who’ve been there or, at least , near enough to have useful information about what to do.

Second, a clear plan of action will overcome your procrastination, especially of you decide to do certain things by certain times. In the example, ending research time, setting an end time to decide by, buying what you need, booking tickets.

In terms of setting up your online business, you need to decide what niche you’ll be in and why – what’s your purpose? Follow this with what type of business you want. Then, set out a plan of action to get you there. Finally, follow the plan in a consistent but flexible manner until you get there.

If you have a habit of indecisiveness, planning and doing the actions of the plan will keep you to your purpose.

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