Many online business owners are just guessing and shooting in the dark. They have no plan about what content they'll create, products to promote, or any of the information that they need to forge ahead to create a successful online business.

But, it doesn't really have to be that way. You can use data and information to stop guessing and know what works to build an online business that is successful.

Many entrepreneurs have gone before you and figured out how things work, so that you don't have to reinvent the wheel. You can follow what other successful online entrepreneurs have done and become successful doing it. Plus, you can learn about the tools you need to determine if what you're doing is working.

Understand Your Audience

If you don't know who your audience is and who you want to work with, it will be difficult to make an impact online. Many people think the product comes first, but the truth is, it's better if your audience is picked before the product for better marketing success.

Solve Problems

If you focus on solving problems for your audience, you'll make better products and services that they really want. This will work better than making a product and trying to find the audience.

Promote Your Products

When you create or find a product your audience needs, it's important to spend time and money promoting the product to your audience. You can promote via sales pages, social media, blog posts and more.

Build Traffic

One way to promote is to build traffic through good SEO, content, and social media to your website and ultimately your email list in order to market the products and services that you've made or discovered.

Be Consistent

Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to online business marketing. You don't have to blog seven days a week. You can blog once a week, promote on social media daily, and participate in conversations with your audience.

Test, Test, Test

Don't just assume something is working; test it to see if it does. Use different types of content, landing pages, and information to bring traffic and find out what works best.

Look at the Numbers

Data doesn't lie. It doesn't matter how much you personally liked a blog post that you wrote if your audience doesn't like it or didn't find it. The only things that matter are the activities that resonate with your audience and get results.

Perfect and Repeat

As you look at the data, you can correct what's not working, make better what is working, and repeat everything for every marketing campaign that you do. You'll only get better.

Every successful online entrepreneur has made mistakes in their business at some time or another. It's all part of the learning process. Although mistakes are going to happen, you can avoid a number of common business mistakes.