Sometimes an online entrepreneur gets confused.

There are so many things to do that you get overwhelmed. You can’t finish anything because you’re frantically jumping between tasks. Until you just can’t take it any more…

And the people who are supposed to help you don’t make it any easier either. One “guru” says you need to post more often. Another “guru” tells you to do a podcast… or a webinar.

And elsewhere you read that you need to create video so your visitors can see you and make a stronger connection.

Thing is, these suggestions don’t help you when you’re confused and lost in a sea of urgent to-do list items.

And you’re getting more worried by the day. This online venture is costing you all your time, effort, energy and innovation, and you’re yet to make $100. Never mind $1,000!

Let’s talk about finding, and doing, your money task.

Your money task is the one task that you absolutely need to do.

If all goes south and this online venture of yours fails, it’s that task you’ll look back on and regret not doing more often.

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So, how did I end up writing about productivity and online business success? Why am I spending my days helping online entrepreneurs?

These are good and important questions. Allow me to share my story, and I’m sure you’ll get great insight into my motivations.

It all started with a photography hobby

It all started with a serious wildlife photography hobby back in 2003.

As a born and bred South African, I had ample opportunities to visit some of the most amazing wildlife sanctuaries in and around Southern Africa.

I took photographs in the Kruger National Park of South Africa, the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park between South Africa and Botswana, and in some of the famous Botswana reserves, such as the Moremi and the Chobe.

Not long after starting I wanted to showcase my work, and I realized the Internet is the perfect medium. I could self-publish my work, and write about my passion.

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Being a struggling artist sucks.

It might seem romantic, but next time you see Joe sitting on a tube station with his open guitar box, playing a tired song and hoping for donations, imagine yourself in his shoes. It can’t be easy.

How often do you throw money into a guitar box?

Many online entrepreneurs do the same thing as Joe. Their boring, quiet blogs remind of open guitar boxes in many ways. And they don’t do much more than showing up at the tube station every day to sing yet another false, unexciting, over-played song.

That’s not romantic. It’s bull. If you’re such an online entrepreneur, you don’t have to imagine yourself being in Joe’s shoes… You are!

Now…

Imagine Bono was able to work with that struggling guitarist. Do you think some of Bono’s presence and skill would rub off? Imagine what Bono could teach him. Would Joe still be stuck on a tube station in six months time?

I doubt it.

In the same way, online entrepreneurs need support. They need people who have achieved what they’re trying to achieve to give them advice and feedback, and to keep them heading in the right direction.

And that’s why I use a coach (or two) to keep me accountable.

Can’t afford a coach? Don’t worry. At the end of this post we’ll get creative with some alternative solutions. Let’s first see why you need one!

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Okay, so this is not my first post.

It’s my fourth post.

And I have a confession… I wrote the first three posts on this blog with double intentions.

I wanted to raise some eyebrows and create content that was linkable, remarkable and sharable. And if you go back, scroll down, and check the social proof (comments, retweets, likes and +1’s) on those posts, you will see that I had huge success with at least some of them.

In fact, maybe you subscribed because of one of those posts? And we wouldn’t have wanted you to miss this important post.

Today I don’t have double intentions. This post is not primarily about going viral on Twitter, or getting mentioned on other large blogs.

What I want to do today is simply to introduce you to the Productive Entrepreneur blog and to me, Dries Cronje, the founder and author of this blog.

I won’t talk too much about myself today. But I promise to share my story sometime soon.

What’s this blog all about?

The topic of this blog is productivity. And my target audience is online entrepreneurs.

And, thus, the headline of this post is productivity advice for online entrepreneurs.

Thing is, I’m passionate about online business. I believe we live in a world where the playing field has been leveled. True freedom and independence is on offer to brave souls.

An entrepreneur with enough savvy, time, and opportunity can do something amazing online. This will help her become financially self-sufficient while creating a better world for her clients and those around her.

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Few people talk about this great productivity tip…

You will reach your goals faster and easier if you’re willing to learn from others. Using brilliant, well-crafted resources created specifically for online entrepreneurs improves your online productivity.

Below I have a long list of resources, most of which I’ve used myself. The rest come highly recommended from my mentors and online business friends.

Enjoy the list. Pick a resource that will help you be more productive. And get something awesome done!

I’ve arranged the resources from those helpful to beginners to those suited to more advanced entrepreneurs. Feel free to ignore the order if you want to.

The links to these resources are not affiliate links. I don’t make a penny if you buy one of these. In fact many of these resources are 100% free. I recommend them simply because they’re useful and will help you be productive and successful.

Helpful from the word go…

If you’re new to online business, you’ll find value in the following resources.

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Chances are excellent your online business will fail.

Research shows that nine out of ten new blogs fail. It also shows that 90% of all online entrepreneurs aren’t making decent money.

You’re at risk.

In fact, unless you’re diligent, you’ll be the next statistic.

Procrastination is the problem.

You know the feeling. You’ve decided to write a helpful article today. But somehow, you’ve been really busy with all kinds of urgent tasks and you haven’t written a word.

And it’s 4 p.m. already!

So you’ll try again tomorrow.

Only to realize that once again, for some truly unfathomable reason, you leave the most important work ‘til last, and you don’t finish it before the end of your day.

It all seems so mysterious, as if you’re working against your own best intentions.

Warning: You have an identity crisis

You have Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde parts to your identity. One wants to work cleverly, be successful and achieve his dreams. The other wants to waste time and remain where he is.

If you understand what’s going on, and know what to do in the midst of this identity crisis, you will eradicate procrastination before it gets to the jugular of your business.

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As an entrepreneur, you have a too-long list of urgent tasks ready before you start your day.

But by 10:30, you realize you haven’t even started one of these urgent tasks.

You swear you’ll get going right away. But you just need to finish typing this email or reading that article.

Before you know it, it’s lunchtime.

After lunch, you finally get going, and around 5 p.m. you realize you are almost done.

With the first task. Not your whole list.

The rest of your list? That’ll have to wait ‘til tomorrow… or the next day.

You start to think you’ll enroll in an expensive time-management course, or get a personal assistant.

But that likely won’t help you much.

Try this instead: Learn about the 10 secret productivity killers. Watch out for them, avoid them, and you’ll dramatically increase your personal productivity to reach your goals.

1. The Saboteur Inside You

Whenever you set out to do something remarkable, a sinister force tries to sabotage your efforts.

Steven Pressfield calls this saboteur the “Resistance.” Every creative person struggles with this.

To overcome self-sabotage, you need to be aware of this force. You need to remember it when you don’t feel like working.

Don’t allow the little saboteur to steal your success. See through its efforts to divert your attention or nick your motivation.

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