Despite what all the so called Guru's may say it's not easy to make money online. There are many reasons why people want to earn an online income often it's to supplement a low paid job or get out of a job they hate. It's sad to say that many of these people won't get to realize their dreams on online wealth as they will make several mistakes. Many of these mistakes can be easily avoided.

1. Failing to Plan.

Just like with any real world business you should produce a business plan before you start your online business. Create the plan around your strengths so that you can keep your initial costs low. If you lack many of the skills you'll need then use the first 6 months to learn them. This short apprenticeship will pay dividends in the long term

2. You Believe all the hype in sales letters

It's a successful Internet marketer's job to make you believe what you read in their sales letters. Having read the sales letters or email you'll be certain that you need whatever product they are promoting this week to be successful. STOP! You don't. There is no replacement for hard work. Learning how to do things yourself without relying on some tool will be the best long term investment you can make.

3. You fail to control your spending

I've met lots of people who have spent thousands of dollars on tools and e-books and have yet to make any money. It's simple economics if you spend $1 you need to make $1 to break even. Before you invest in anything visit forums and see whats working for the members. Ask questions and test their methods yourself, if they make you a profit then consider investing the profit into tools that will help increase your income.

4. Not Focusing

I am sure that if you've been online for any length of time you will have met someone who jumps from one method of earning money to another almost every month. Last month they were buying and selling domains and were going to make a fortune. This month they are affiliate marketing because there was no longer any money in domains. It's not that there is no longer money to be made it's just that they don't give any method a long enough chance to work or they haven't mastered the skills required yet.

5. You think you know all you need to know.

Technology and the Internet are changing at an ever increasing pace. 18 months ago Blog and Ping was the best way to get your site indexed and ranking in the search engines then almost overnight social bookmarking and RSS feeds took over. You need to keep an eye on upcoming trends and ways of marketing. I've had well known marketers email me recently telling me that Hubpages or Twitter was the next big think in marketing...sorry guys I've been using them and writing about them for the last 9 months.

If you are reading this and can confidently say that you aren't making any of these mistakes well done. You are on your way to a good online income. If you do find yourself making some of the mistakes above well now you know what you need to do to make money online.

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If you would like to View more articles like this then please visit The Income Academy Blog Mark Thompson is the writer of Wordpress Goldmine and writes for various online ezines.