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In any web business there are always hundreds (if not thousands) of things you could be doing: Updating your site’s look and feel, fixing broken links, writing a new post, creating a product, contacting potential affiliates—the list could go on forever.

So how do you decide what to do first?

Here’s a tip that has served me well over the last 7 years online (yeah, last Friday was the anniversary of the launch of my very first website): Do the thing that brings you closer to a profit before you do anything else.

So what stands between you and your money? Here are five questions, in order, to get you started:

Do you have a product to sell?

This can be your own or someone else’s, but you cannot get paid until someone buys a product. If you don’t yet have a product to sell, this is your first objective.

Do you have a website?

Once you have a product, you need a website. Even if you are selling other people’s products as an affiliate you need a website in order to succeed. Your site can be a sales site or it can be a blog, but if you have a product but not a website, get a website.

Do you have traffic?

Let’s say you have a website, but no traffic. Your goal, today, is to generate some traffic. I have written whole books on generating web traffic so I won’t go into this here, but if you have a product and a website you need to focus on traffic generation.

Are you capturing leads?

Once you begin getting some traffic you need to grab those visitors’ names and email addresses. Offer a compellingly titled free digital offer—an eBook, software or web based tool—as an incentive to get people to give you their email. Once you start getting traffic this is your next goal.

Do you have a value-packed newsletter?

If you are capturing leads you need to cultivate those leads by sending them great information on a regular basis. I like weekly, but bi-weekly works also. Make sure the newsletter contains great, free information that will build your credibility in the marketplace.

There you have it—exactly what you need to do today to begin making money. Now all you need to do is answer the questions for yourself and get to work!

Art here.

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