Whoa!, hype here, hype there, everywhere some hype!

I don't know about you, but sometimes it starts to sound a little absurd. Doesn't it? Kinda like this:

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Here's a way to make HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars online, and it only takes a few days to implement!

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But wait, here's a way to make MILLIONS online, and it takes only a few hours to set up and then works automatically year round while you're on vacation!!

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But wait, here's a way to make BILLIONS online and REVERSE TIME AND GROW YOUNGER while I do all the work for you…!!!

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Okay, I'm exaggerating. I admit it. I haven't heard any hype lately that goes quite that far. But close. Yep, kinda close.

(I know, I know. You wait eagerly with the greatest of expectations for each and every precious word I post (right? I mean your very destiny hangs in the balance), and it's been way too long between posts — but I've been BUSY! And better eventually than never, right?)

But anyway, putting my delusion of grandeur aside (just for the moment), it's Monday, the start of a new work week! So let's ignore all the hype for a sec and get serious. Here's how to make money, online or off:

• Get in touch with your passion. Find a related need and fill it. Unless you are mentally ill, no matter what your passion is, it is very likely that someone out there has made a successful business out of it — or something closely related. Why not you? Why be halfhearted? Why not be passionate instead? Especially since much of your success (or failure) may depend on it.

• Develop a clear and compelling vision of your business goals. Know what you are setting out to accomplish. If you have a clear vision of what you want to achieve, you are already ahead of 95% of the competition. If you don't, you're already falling behind. If you are pursuing goals you haven't even defined, you are wasting your time and energy.

• Do. Take action. Do the work. At your first inkling that you may be over-educating and over-preparing, stop. Then do what you already know. Just do it. Now. Don't be afraid to fail. Fail fast and fail often. Learn by those failures and enjoy them. Enjoy them? Yes! Celebrate! Jump up and down, do a little dance and pat yourself on the back. Heck, go ahead and gloat. With every failure, you're learning and growing! Learn to understand and appreciate that.

• Understand the power of your own mind. Don't hope for success. Expect it. Positive expectation is far more powerful than hope. Unlike hope, expectation does not include a consideration of the possibility of failure. Be positive, stay positive, pursue positive. Avoid negative people and negative influences and negative self-talk. Focus on developing strong belief in yourself and your vision. Remember the vision? Focus on that, not on what you are having to go through to get there. Know that the vision is worth it.

• But keep initial day-to-day expectations realistic. Stop striving for perfection. If you're just starting out, start out walking, begin small, be patient.

• But be prepared and willing to learn and grow and run.

• Don't be afraid of the competition. Today's competition may be tomorrow's customer or partner.

• Network with successful people, and remember, companies don't do business with one another, people do.

• Know your subject. Don't scatter your attention too broadly.

• Refocus daily on your top two or three goals, and stick with that focus until you are sure you have maximized potential.

• But be flexible. If something isn't working, be willing to change course, even be willing to re-envision and refocus if necessary. Be willing to cut your losses. If a strategy is failing, drop it. Move on.

• Be willing to invest — your time, your energy, your money — whatever you have. And be willing to outsource. Unless you enjoy and get a great deal of satisfaction out of the work, outsource what is not making you money or drop it, and spend the majority of your time and energy on what is.

• Document your successes. Any approach that works has the potential of becoming a system. Systems are easily repeatable. Replication of a successful, working system will often be the best possible return on your investment. But don't be afraid to tweak and test the system. Just because it works doesn't mean it can't be improved over time.

• Celebrate your successes, too (not just your failures) — but be willing to re-invest. Sure, go ahead and reward yourself for a job well done. You deserve it. But don't be too eager for lavish celebrations that will simply eat up your earnings. Re-invest a reasonable portion to ensure your long-term success.

• Work steady but stay balanced. Balance your work and your schedule. Don't lose sight of who and what all the hard work and money are for. Be willing to take time off for your health, and your family and friends, and (sometimes) just to play.

That's it. Everything else is a tool. There are useful ones and useless ones and all-shiny-and-new ones, but they are all nothing more than tools.

And we're all just tools when we let ourselves believe anything else.

Let's all try to help each other remember that.

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