Learn - and Earn - Like a Superhero

Ongoing Training is Inexpensive and Yields Rich Dividends

By: David Anderson

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit “

Some things never change. The above quote by Aristotle is more than 2,000 years old, but the need to make excellence a habit remains paramount in the new millennium.

What is different, though, is the path to excellence.

If you're just starting your first online business, you are (I hope) open to the need for training. If you've been in business awhile, you may feel less inclined. But ongoing training is important, if not critical, to your success in business. And this is never more true than it is for online companies.

As an online user, you demand speed. If it takes more than a second to open a web page, you'll move on. As an online business owner, you must respect the need for speed in all areas of your business. You need to act like Superman, not Clark Kent.

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet: Internet Marketing

If it's been more than three months since you've educated yourself about online marketing, for example, you are probably behind the times as much as a person who still backs up computer data on floppy disks. The pace of Internet marketing is lightning fast, measured in weeks, not years.

At the moment, current trends in content marketing - blogs produced from curated newspaper articles, for example - are helping a lot of online retailers boost their brand and credibility. By the time you post your first curated blog - maybe by the time you finish reading this - curated content may have outlived its marketing usefulness.

That's how quickly what's hot on the Internet becomes, at best, lukewarm. And you're not going to make money with your online business if you're chasing old trends rather than keeping up - or moving ahead - of new ones.

More Powerful Than a Locomotive: Online Training

So, how do you keep up to date with online business trends - and still find time to run a business?

First, if you haven't already, take a Wealthopedia or similar course to obtain your basic training in online moneymaking skills.

Second, make it a daily habit to read online business publications. It's something you can do while you're eating your morning bagel or working out on the treadmill. Here are some great resources:

• Forbes
The online version of the magazine is not just for the well-established company or super-rich entrepreneur. It contains a wealth of information - for free - about topics pertinent to running an online business. A recent article by Jeff Bercovici , for example, can help you avoid making embarrassing social media blunders. You'll also find ideas about the benefits and risks of using Cloud databases for storing company information and how to manage a virtual staff among hundreds of articles about online businesses.

• Business Insider

Check out the "Small Business: Big Results" series, including an article about when to start marketing your new online brand and business. And Business Insider is very social. Pay attention to the comments sections of articles. Find out what your peers are thinking - and learn from their successes and mistakes.

• Entrepreneur

This publication is aimed at you. Want to know what search engine gives the best results? Want to know how to get the best website for the least amount of money? Entrepreneur will show you how.

Ongoing training about online business won't make it possible for you to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but it will help you leap over your competitors - and turn you into the superhero as an online moneymaker.