12 Tips to Become a Successful Affiliate Marketer
by MTamura
Filed under Affiliate Programs, Latest Posts
Affiliate marketing is one of the first steps for anyone seeking to make money online due to the little amount of money needed to get started. Sad to say, many people don’t succeed as they lack fundamental advice that can help guide them along the right path.
Here are some tips you need to keep in mind and put to use in order to succeed with affiliate marketing.
1. Set financial goals. Before you dive into affiliate marketing, it’s absolutely essential that you set some goals and objectives. How much money do you want to make with affiliate marketing? Make sure you write down your financial goals and review them often. Begin with a reasonable amount that you can realistically achieve and increase it over time. Once you begin affiliate marketing you will then have a clear destination that you can work towards.
2. Follow your heart. If you’re just starting out in affiliate marketing then it’s really advised that you stick to niches that match your hobbies and interests. While more experienced Internet marketers have more flexibility in this regard, beginners simply lose motivation if they are promoting a product or service that doesn’t appeal to them.
3. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Once you find a market that interests you, make sure that it is one that is profitable. This may seem obvious, but many people end up focusing on niches that lack in profitability. Nearly any niche can be monetized, but for the majority of the time if you don’t see other affiliates promoting that particular product or niche then you should seriously think twice.
4. Ensure credibility. Make sure the affiliate program you decide on is managed by someone with a good reputation. This is to guarantee that the product not only sells well, but also that customers will be satisfied and not ask for refunds. Remember, a refund sale means no income for you so don’t waste your time on dishonest products and services.
5. Understand your audience. Prior to promoting the product or service you’ve chosen, take some time out to study those interested in the particular niche. By doing so you’ll be able to engage the people in a way better than others since you will be able to relate to them and understand their needs.
6. Provide value. When you launch your website to promote the affiliate product or service, make sure it is helpful, motivating, and rich in content. People will feel more likely to follow through and purchase the offer you’re advertising if you over deliver on value due to the feeling of trust you’ve established.
7. Optimize your site. Along with strong content, make sure you choose the best keywords and use them properly to increase your ranking in the search engines. If your site can’t be seen in the search engines then you’re going to have a hard time driving traffic to it.
8. Build backlinks. There are many different types of backlinks and your site needs a variety of them to increase in ranking. When building backlinks, be sure to include your top keywords in the anchor text of the link so that you rank higher for these keywords in the search engines.
9. Track your traffic. Use quality tracking software so that you know exactly how people are reaching your site, what they’re doing once they reach it, and where they end up going afterward. An excellent, free solution to tracking is Google Analytics.
10. Do article marketing. Make article marketing a strategic part of your overall affiliate marketing plan. Writing and distributing articles for free on various article directories, such as EzineArticles and ArticlesBase, still proves to be one of the best ways to generate traffic to your site. It’s also a fantastic way to put the reader into the buying mood.
11. Diversify affiliate programs. Never put all of your hopes in one product or service. If something goes wrong and you don’t receive payment from the merchant or the product simply isn’t selling as well as it once did then you will still have other programs to fall back on.
12. Don’t give up. Affiliate marketing is not about instant results. This business requires consistency so don’t be easily discouraged if some time passes before you see sales.
Melissa Tamura Writes about Accredited Online Colleges for Zen College Life. She most recently wrote about the best online psychology schools.
The Right Team to Take you from Zero to $5,000,000 in Four Years
by Kfrost
Filed under Cool Products, Latest Posts, Make Money Online
If there’s one adage every successful entrepreneur will agree upon, it’s “hire the best people you can afford.” No entrepreneur is an island – or a business– unto themselves. Even the most successful entrepreneurs are generally really good at only one or two things. Their secret to successfully making money online with business after business is bringing on board others who are really good at everything else.
“Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it… Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.”
— David Ogilvy
So who are the most important people to bring on board your team? What is the one weakness or gap in your knowledge that, if filled, would immediately result in a doubling or tripling of your income online.
For many first time internet entrepreneurs, the answer is bringing on board someone who’s “been there, done that.” When I started my first online business, it took months before I felt like I was finally getting down to business.
It's easy to get lost in the details when going it alone.
“If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings—and put compensation as a carrier behind it—you almost don’t have to manage them.”
— Jack Welch
How much easier would that process have been if I had someone experienced at my side that I could just turn to and say — “Hey Steve, how much should I price a product like this?”
That kind of advice, multiplied by the hundreds of such small questions that pop up in the course of establishing your online business, acts like an accelerant for your business growth. Mistakes that would have cost thousands can be avoided, and month-long research projects can be compressed into a few hours.
“The shortest and best way to make your fortune is to let people see clearly that it is in their interests to promote yours.”
- Jean de La Bruyère
How to Find your Five Million Dollar Team:
Ready to meet your $5,000,000 online business team?
- Hire Steve Peirce and the IncomeElite Team for Less than 5 Bucks!
Bringing the folks of IncomeElite on to your team just may be the next best thing to being Richard Branson’s favorite nephew: you get tons of personalized advice, answers to nearly all the questions that will come up in the course of ramping up your online business, and access to the website templates, marketing plans, and sales techniques that the Income Elite team members have used to build businesses generating over $20,000,000 in profits. The best part is that (unlike Richard Branson) Steve Peirce and the rest of the income elite team are specialized in exactly the kind of online businesses that you can build from your home computer in your spare time – lean, mean, cash-generating machines built upon time-tested online marketing techniques, not some “secret system” that Google will shut down after a month or two. Membership in IncomeElite (which is required to access all of the how-tos, resources, and Q&A from Steve and the team) usually costs $97 per month, but they’re currently running a promotion where you can try it out for 5 days for $4.95! - Other Options
Even 5 Bucks is too much for you to pay right now to get some quality people to join your team? Depending upon your situation, you may have other options as well. The Service Core of Retired Executives (SCORE) is one such option. SCORE provides qualifying small businesses with volunteer advisors experienced in that area of business. http://www.score.org/how_score_works.html If SCORE is not for you or you’re based outside of the US, you may have luck finding a retired exec who would be willing to provide similar mentorship on a more informal basis. Angel investors and other former entrepreneurs are often willing to help foster the next generation of entrepreneurs. Generally you’ll give up a small portion of equity (ownership) in your company in exchange for this advice, but it can be well worth it!
“Success has many fathers. Failure is an orphan.”
- Unknown
Looking for New Ways to Make Money Online? How About 101 Ways….
by Matt
Filed under Latest Posts, Make Money Online
Today I’m going to address another question frequently asked by our beloved MakingMoneyOnline.com readers:
Dear Making Money Online,
I’ve tried the blogging thing. Affiliate marketing was fun until Big G axed my money pages. Contributing posts to revenue sharing websites works OK, as long as I don’t want to earn any more than a Starbucks coffee (not even a Latte) each month. In short, I need some help: What other legitimate ways are there to make money online?
–Whiskey Pete
Well Whiskey Pete, you’re in luck, because this week I stumbled upon a site that’s intended for people just like you. My friend Brock Hamilton has put together what just may be the web’s most comprehensive list of legitimate ways to make money online. His website 101 Ways to Make Money is just the thing for anyone who feels like their online cash generating skills are in a rut.
Need to get a little more creative than the usual money making tricks?
Sure, you’ll find the usuals there, like making money with online surveys or blogging, but Brock has gone much further to help you find your own personal cash machine with such unusual tactics as scrap metal, animal ID tags, or even poetry.
Work Less, Earn More. Using the 80/20 Rule to Increase Productivity and Profit!
by Tom Sinfield
Filed under Guest Post, Latest Posts, Make Money Online
I don’t know about you, but for me as a child grow up I would look at successful businesses and think:
I would love to be the person who owns this business!
Notice that I didn’t want to work for the business, or even run the business. My whole goal was to own the business – because then I would be making a heap of money, and have everyone else doing all the work for me.
I’m not sure if that appeals to you, but to me as a young guy about the enter the workforce – this sounded like a dream!
That Was Over 10 Years Ago Now…
And I did go down the business road. I started out at University studying a ‘Bachelor of Business’ because I wanted to be that business owner, but found that they wanted to teach me how to work in one of those businesses (not run it) – so I quit after a year.
After that I decided that I needed to start building a big business if I was going to one day be able to live in my massive house and take one call a day to check how things were going (while living the dream).
That Started Long String Of Business Failures…
When I stopped to think of all the business ideas that I have had and the ones that I did and failed – I was surprised by the quantity.
Here is an abridged version:
- A Flyer Design Business
- Sourcing Properties for Real Estate Investors
- Website Design
- Online Golf Reservation Website
- Importing/Ebay Business
- Website Design (again)
- Product Marketing For A Architecture Firm
- Import/Distribution Of New Iced Tea Brand
I am sure there are a lot more, but that is enough to make me depressed at the bucket loads of potential that I let slip by.
Looking back, each one of these business could have been successful in their own right, but being the person I am – I gave up before the idea had the chance to flourish. You see, I am an ideas person. I thrive on creativity and find that processes and hard work seem to be incredibly large hurdles for me to pass.
Ideas Are A Dime A Dozen…
I remember frequently visiting entrepreneur forums discussing the latest ideas and seeing what everyone else was doing around the world, and every so often there would be one person who would say that they were ‘working on something that was going to be huge, but they didn’t want to say anything about it because people might steal their idea.’
This seemed logical to me until someone replied saying, ‘Everyone else is working on their own thing, and if anyone did copy you, the chances of them having the same drive and passion that you have for your project is incredibly small. It’s not the idea that counts – it is the effort that you put in to make that idea a reality!’
That is entirely true, and I knew that I couldn’t legitimately call myself an entrepreneur until I not only have a creative business idea, but I also followed it through to success.
I Turned My Attention To The Internet…
Now I know if you look through my list of business failures, you will see a lot of internet orientated ideas. However, these were all targeted at bricks and mortar businesses and everyday golfers.
In my time scouring those entrepreneur forums I came across the concept of ‘making money online’. The whole idea was that you get people to visit your website, get people to click through to affiliate websites and then when they buy – you get paid. Seemed like a simple concept, so I decided to give it go!
I started blogging, had a great time and for once – stuck something out for long enough to see some success. In about 18 months, I was able to grow my blog from nothing to over 1,500 subscribers and was starting to gain a lot of influence withing my niche. The problem was, that I was working crazy hours (like most entrepreneurs) – but was not making very much money (I think my best month was just $400).
I spent all my time focusing on relationships and writing what I thought my readers wanted to hear – but my readers were not the ones that were making me any money. In fact it was the complete opposite. while my commentators were making my blog look incredibly active and successful, it was actually the older posts that were getting a little search engine traffic that were making the sales!
Then I Discovered The 80/20 Rule!
If you haven’t heard of the 80/20 rule before, it;s really just an incredibly simple productivity guide that states:
‘80% of the results come from 20% of the effort’
So in my case, 80% (or more) of my profits, came from 20% (or less) of my efforts. You see, I wasn’t focusing on search engine optimization (SEO) in the slightest. Yet it was what was making me money.
So, all I had to do to make more money, was to put more of my focus onto SEO.
What Is The 20% For You?
The 80/20 rule is evident in all aspects of life and all businesses and can be seen in countless different forms.
80% of the complaints, comes from 20% of the clients.
80% of your traffic, comes from 20% of your sources.
20% of your staff will do 80% of your work.
Once you start to realize this – and look out for it. You will be able to fine tune your business to a productivity machine.
You can either optimize you business so that the 20% is fine tuned and the 80% is maintained, or you can drop the 80% altogether and put 100% of your effort into the 20% that is getting all the results (and freeing up a whole heap of time!)
Over the last 6 months, I have been working on the second option, and really ‘trimming the fat’ so to speak and fine tuning my online assets. This has allowed me to systematize the process that is working for me, even to the degree where I am outsourcing a lot of the work (making that dream I had as a kid of being the business owner – and not just the worker or boss, a much closer reality).
Tom is an Australian blogger that is currently researching and trialing the opportunity created by outsourcing jobs overseas. You can download his latest free ebook GEO Arbitrage, which explains it all in an easy to read format.
$100 in 3 Hours? The 7+1 Easiest Ways to Quickly Make Money Online
by Matt
Filed under Getting Started, Latest Posts, Make Money Online
If you’re a frequent follower of MakingMoneyOnline.com, you know that generally we advocate legitimate, sustainable approaches to generating passive cash flows on an ongoing basis. But sometimes you just need to make a little money fast.
One of the most common questions we receive is: “What’s the easiest way to quickly make money online?” As in, by tonight?!
The Scenario: Faithful MakingMoneyOnline.com reader Walter has a problem:
Dear Making Money Online,
I know that slowly building my reputation, giving value before I take, focusing on a niche, etc. etc. is the right way to go about making the big bucks online in the long term. But what about today? I don’t have the cash or the time to spare building my online empire: I just need to put some ka-ching in my pocket NOW. Please hook me up with some suggestions for things I can do today to earn a little extra cash without having to wait for months?
Muchas gracias,
~Walter
The Solution: Can we help Walter earn $100 in just 3 hours working online? Can we help you make $100 in just a few hours? For each technique, we’re going to assume that you have access to a computer with internet access, basic writing ability, and a healthy dollop of enthusiasm, but no existing website/ blog/ or mailing list with 10,000 subscribers (which, by the way, would make this whole endeavor quite a bit easier!).
Our Suggestions for the Easiest Ways to Get Started Making Money Online:
-
Become an Expert
Everyone's an expert in something. Might as well get paid for it!
Just Answer is about as simple as it gets: someone posts a question they need help with, and if you can answer it you’ll earn anywhere from a few dollars to $25. Perhaps the only downside to Just Answer is that it is difficult to get accepted as an expert (hence the 2 stars out of 5 for “chance of success”). If you’re interested in trying it out but would like help getting accepted as an expert, use the form to contact me and I’ll send you instructions for how to get in.
Ether.com is a similar service focused on helping you sell your expert advice over the phone.
MiNeeds allows bidding on a variety of tasks that need done.Earning Potential: $$$$
Chance of Success: ** -
Create the new Viral Sensation
The bad news is that online video advertising is still relatively young, and with most revenue sharing programs you’ll only earn a fraction of a cent every time your video gets viewed. The good news is that some videos can get a LOT of views. Viral hits like the JK Wedding Entrance Dance or “LonelyGirl15” rack up tens of MILLIONS of views, which means those pennies could add up pretty quickly!
If you're going to embarass yourself in front of millions of people on the internets, you might as well get paid for it.
YouTube only offers revenue sharing once you get big, so instead you might want to try http://revver.com/ or http://www.break.com/.
Earning Potential: $$$$$
Chance of Success: * -
Do 20 Tasks on Fiverr
Aye, these are desperate times, my friends. The things that people will do for a mere five bucks simply blows the mind: PSD to HTML website conversion, Joomla setup, even be your Facebook girlfriend. At rates like that, my advice would be to skip trying to earn money doing tasks on Fiverr, and instead set up some sort of task arbitrage scheme whereby you accept jobs from Craigslist for $25, and then hire someone from Fiverr to do them for $5. Yeah, now we’re doing it making money online style!
A measly five bucks and she can be your (fake) girlfriend (on Facebook)
Earning Potential: $$
Chance of Success: **** -
Test 10 New Websites
Usability testing is when companies hire random people to tell them what they think of their website. Think you could be that random person? If so, you can earn up to $10 a pop by completing a few simple tasks on the website, and filling out a report on your experience. Each test should take about 10 to 20 minutes, which means that this may be one method where you actually can meet our goal of $100 in 3 hours (while still having time to make a sandwich).
You can get paid to test websites, as long as you can make a pensive face.
Some sites to try include:
http://www.usertesting.com/betester.aspx – Appears to be the most generous, and the most professional.
http://www.usabilitysciences.com/contact-us/recruiting
http://www.testarmy.com/app/view/more-tester/
http://www.userfocus.co.uk/panel/index.html
http://www.usabilityexchange.com/uehowitworks5.php – UK based, for disabled usersEarning Potential: $$$$
Chance of Success: **** -
Pimp Out Peoples’ iPads/ iPhones
This one is inspired by a story on the founder of HungryPod, who (at least at one point) was making over $100,000 a year uploading CDs to peoples’ iPods. In my mind there’s a similar opportunity to profit from the iPad and iPhone craze: who has the time to wade through the Appstore to find all the most useful bits? If you know iPhone backwards and forwards, why not offer a “Pimp my iPhone” service to get peoples’ iPhones set up with the very best apps (along with music, photos, videos, or anything else the customer wanted on there). This one might be easier to work if you live in New York, where people have a lot more money than time.
Earning Potential: $$$
Chance of Success: ** -
Come up with 4 Cool Domain Name Ideas at PickyDomains.com
A good name is hard to find– and especially so when you need to find an available .com domain name to match. If you’re one of those people who just has a way with names (eg, you’re so clever your cats are named “José” and “Hose B”), then you may find your money-making niche at PickyDomains.com. All you have to do is come up with name ideas, and if your suggestion wins you’ll earn somewhere around $25.
Earning Potential: $$$
Chance of Success: ** -
Flip a Domain Name
OK, this one might be difficult to pull off in just 3 hours, but you also have a good shot at earning a lot more than $100. Here’s the gig: every day thousands of domain names expire and are auctioned off at sites like NameJet.com, SnapNames.com, and TDNAM.com. Although some auctions go in to the tens of thousands of dollars, most start at $60 (or just $10 at TDNAM.com). Since we’re just interested in making a quick buck, rather than getting serious about domain investing, you just want to find an opportunity to flip a domain for an easy profit. The best way to do that is to look for domains that offer a better version of an existing website’s domain. For example, if my website is YogaDVDs.net and you grab the domain YogaDVDs.com in an expiring auction, there’s a good chance I’m going to be willing to pay you something for that domain. Ditto for singular/ plural combinations, and hyphenated/ non-hyphenated domains. Most small businesses and website publishers don’t even know that expired domain auctions exist, so you’re actually doing them a favor if you sell them the domain at a fair price and prevent it from ending up as a permanent parking page in a mega-domainer’s collection.
PS: Make sure you only apply this strategy for generic descriptive domain names, not brand names like “Yahoo” or “Microsoft”.
Earning Potential: $$$$$
Chance of Success: *** -
Help 10 Students at StudentOfFortune.com
I saved one of my greatest finds for last. There are many variations on the “get paid to answer questions” theme, but StudentofFortune.com seems to be one of the more promising ones. After all, who is more desperate to answer questions than students? It might help to be a bit of an academic, but hey when questions pay up to $150 each, that’s a lot of inspiration to hit the books!
Textbook Rockstar? You can make money online helping out students.
Other sites where you can earn money online by tutoring students:
http://www.ehomeworkhelp.com/tutors.cfm
http://www.tutorandmentor.com/careers.html
http://www.tutor.com/apply/why-tutor-with-usEarning Potential: $$$$
Chance of Success: ***
Now Go Get Started Making Money Online!
Did you find any of these suggestions helpful? Any additional ideas that you would like to add? Please let me know if you found this tutorial useful or how you would like to have seen it done differently, and next time will be even more valuable for you!
Quick Tip – Where Not To Display Adsense Ads
by Doug Dillard
Filed under Latest Posts, Quick Tips
Today’s Making Money Online “Quick Tip” is going to real quick. When selling your own product or promoting affiliate products, DON’T put ads for your competition on the same pages you are trying to promote those products on.
I purchased a course online today, and I was having some issues downloading the product in the membership area… so I sent the merchant a support ticket. Well I have been interested in buying some type of Support Ticket Software for the last few months, but have never really done much research yet. The software the merchant was using seemed to work pretty well, so I decided to check it out… so I clicked on the referral link on the bottom of the page.
When I got to the Support Ticket Software site and read the features, it had all the functions that I desired, and they offered a FREE 30 Day Trial Version… which I liked. Once the 30 day trial was over it would cost $39.95 to purchase it, which I found pretty reasonable for this type of software.
I actually liked everything about the website; the design and graphics looked very professional, the sales copy and features were great… it just contained one “SALES LOSING” feature. It had Adsense ads across the top and down the right side of their sales page which displayed links to a lot of their competitors. Every single ad was for some other Support Software. To me, that tells me that these guys don’t really believe in their product, so why should I? I was planning on mentioning the company here, but I really don’t want to give them negative publicity, as their product does seem pretty good. I did however send them an email telling them why I did not purchase their software, and it will be interesting to see if they make any changes.
I have seen lots of people that are selling stuff online do this over the years, and it just doesn’t seem very smart. Sure, they are making a little bit of money if someone clicks on those ads, but they are losing the potential of so much more. Not only are they going to probably lose a sale, but they are also going to lose the ability to sell that person anything else in the future… which everyone knows is where the real money is at.
So my making money online tip is…. Don’t display Adsense or similar type ads on pages or posts where you are trying to sell a particular product, as you are just promoting the competition.
Would Love Your Vote for the “Rookie Blogger of the Year” Award
by Doug Dillard
Filed under Latest Posts
Hi everyone. This is be a quick post asking for a HUGE (but easy to accomplish) favor. This site Making Money Online is in a contest to win the “Rookie Blogger of the Year” award over at TycoonBlogger.com and we would love your vote if possible. We are actually up against several great blogs, so if you think one of them deserves it more, we totally understand if you vote for one of them. But if you really like what we are doing here, and you think we deserve to win… we would really appreciate your vote.
To vote, simply go to http://tycoonblogger.com/featured-articles/vote-now-for-the-rookie-blogger-of-the-year and make your selection. We are listed in the sidebar on the right side. Just check the circle just above our thumbnail and select “Vote” and you are done.
We would like to thank Dan, (the owner of TycoonBlogger) for all the hard work in putting this contest together and honoring us with a chance to win Rookie Blogger of the Year!
Also, we would like to send out a BIG THANKS to all of YOU! We really appreciate all the support you have given us so far and we hope you like what we are doing with this site so far. If you ever have any suggestions, we would love to hear them!
A Newbies Journey to Making Money Online (Part 4)
by Doug Dillard
Filed under Getting Started, Latest Posts
“Getting Started Series” (Part 1d) – A Newbies Journey to Making Money Online… Lessons Learned!
(…continued for Part 1c which you should read first)
I am sure that story ended a little abruptly for many of you, and I am sorry… but I know more than a few people that have had very similar stories to Johnny’s, and that’s how their making money online journey ended… they just gave up. I have spoken with lots of people that have started online businesses over the years, and many of them have had very similar experiences to Johnny’s. Some of them made it to a year or more, while others gave up in only a month, but their stories each ended the same.
Now I did not write this to discourage you from starting an online business, but I wanted to show you the fate of a large percent of the people that start out trying to make money online. Hopefully you can learn from Johnny’s mistakes (which we will go over) and that will “hopefully” help you in starting your online venture. So let’s go over some of the things that Johnny did wrong…
He jumped at the first thing that came along – Johnny did no research whatsoever when he started out. He typed in the search term, “Making Money Online” into Google and clicked on an ad saying he can earn $25,000 a month sitting on the beach… and he was sold. If Johnny were smart, he would have done a lot more investigating before jumping into any business. He could have visited blogs and forums to see what other ways people are making money online to see what the best fit for him was. There are lots of ways to make money online, and if you are looking to make a lot of money fast… it most likely will not happen as a blogger. I’m not saying you can’t make a lot of money blogging, because it is definitely possible, but it takes time and a lot of work… and it’s not for everyone.
He chose a niche he knew nothing about – Here’s a big mistake a lot of bloggers and internet marketers make, and Johnny did as well. Johnny chose a niche that he thought would make him the most money, even though he knew nothing at all about the subject. When starting an online or offline business you want to start one in a niche you really know well and hopefully love. One of my favorite quotes is, “Do what you love, and the money will follow”. Why not start your online venture in a business you are passionate about, so you can enjoy the time and effort you put into it?
He put no time or effort into choosing a domain name – Choosing a good domain name is a very important step when starting your business and Johnny put no time or effort into it at all. There are many factors to be considered when selecting a domain… which we will go over in more detail later in this Getting Started series. Let’s just say that Johnny’s way of grabbing the first domain that he found available probably wasn’t the best way to go.
He had unreal expectations – Okay… Johnny was a little mislead by the blogging course’s sales page, as he thought he would start making money online right away. He and every one of you just starting out (on your online adventure) needs to know that making money online takes time and effort on your part. There is no getting around it. There might be that one in a zillion person that stumbles across some huge money maker with not much effort, but the odds of that happening are like you winning the lottery. So before you get started you need to know that it will take a while until you start making a lot of money online and you will have to work to accomplish it… and not everyone will. As for me, I would recommend giving yourself at least a year before you see any significant amount of income coming in… especially for you bloggers out there.
He had no kind of schedule – When Johnny started out… he started with a bang. Some nights after he got home from his 9 to 5 day job he would stay up until 3am working on his online business. The next day at work he would be tired all day… which would make the job he didn’t like even less enjoyable to be at. What happened to Johnny happens to many new internet entrepreneurs. They start out working super hard, (putting in a ton of hours) and when success doesn’t come fast… they slowly start getting discouraged, and each week start putting in less and less time and effort into their business.
The smart thing to do is to create a schedule for yourself right from the beginning. Decide how many hours you want to put into your online venture each night and what days you want to take off… and try and stick to that the best you can. Maybe put 2 – 4 hours a night aside to work on your business and take the weekends off… it is totally up to you. Just don’t burn yourself out!
As a blogger you might want to put certain days aside to write posts and other days to leave comments and work on other tasks. It is a good practice to publish your posts on a consistent schedule, so your readers know what days to expect a new post from you. You can post once a week, every day of the week, or any amount in between… just try and keep it consistent each week.
For the internet marketers and the rest of you… you also want to create a schedule for your business activities. If you have a project that needs to be completed on a certain date… divide it up in manageable sections and give yourself a certain amount of time each night to complete each task. That is way easier then trying to get as much stuff as you can do… done in one night.
Throwing in the towel too soon – You hear these types of stories all the time… where someone was just about to give up on their business and it finally becomes super successful, and then others that gave up just before their businesses was about to take off. Now in Johnny’s case, could he have made his business work? Probably… but it would have taken a lot of time and a lot of effort on his part. I think it was better that Johnny stopped working on that particular project and hopefully he finds something to do that he really enjoys.
Hopefully you learned a few things from this story. I didn’t write it to discourage anyone from doing whatever they want to do to make money online. I wrote it to help you avoid some of the pitfalls that many new and old online entrepreneurs fall into when they start their online ventures.
Next in my “Getting Started” series I will go over some of the basics things you will need to know to get online business started like; how to choose your niche, registering a domain name, getting your domain hosted, what type of website you should start, some simple techniques to start making money online, etc…
A Newbies Journey to Making Money Online (Part 3)
by Doug Dillard
Filed under Getting Started, Latest Posts
“Getting Started Series” (Part 1c) – A Newbies Journey to Making Money Online
(…continued for Part 1b which you should read first)
So Johnny steps up his commenting. That night when he gets home from work he gets on his computer and starts searching for every making money online blog he can find. On each blog he writes well thought out and useful comments, as that is what it recommends in his blogging course. Before he knows it is 3AM and he has to get up in a few hours to go to work. So Johnny heads for bed, but this time he is so tired he has no problem falling asleep.
The next day at work he is dragging all day, but he is excited to get home to see if all his hard work from the night before has brought him in some cash, as he has still not made any money yet. When he gets home he sees over 20 new comments in moderation ready to be approved, so he approves all of them.
He then checks his Adsense account and affiliate accounts and he has still not made any money whatsoever. Now he is starting to get a little bummed, as he has been doing this for almost a couple of weeks now with nothing to show but some nice comments on his blog.
Well Johnny (though a little frustrated) continues following the same steps for the next couple of weeks, as he is at least starting to build some traffic. He has also learned from reading a lot of other blogs… that in reality it takes a while to start making money online.
During this time Johnny actually starts earning some money with Adsense. Nothing much though…. 17 cents one day, 40 cents another, even one day he made over a dollar, but most of the days nothing. By the end of his first full month Johnny made a grand total of $4.89 from Adsense and nothing from his affiliate programs. Not the kind of money Johnny was hoping for when he first started.
Johnny is really getting frustrated now, as he is putting in way more time than he thought he would when he started, and he is really having a hard time coming up with new things to write about. He thinks to himself, “This blogging thing isn’t as easy as they said it was in the blogging course, and it really isn’t that much fun either”. Also, his day job is getting even harder to go to… as he is so tired from putting in all the long hours into his new Internet business.
Now Johnny’s really thinking about throwing in the towel (only after a month), but he decides to stick it out a little while longer, as he told all his friends and family how rich he was going to become making money online. So Johnny continues running his blog, but with a lot less enthusiasm than when he started. He starts posting less often, and he pretty much gives up on commenting all together as it takes him too much time and it isn’t making him any money.
Finally after 3 months from when he started, Johnny has had enough. With a total of just over $10 in his Adsense account and no other income to speak of, Johnny says to himself… “This blogging stuff sucks” and he calls it quits.
THE END OF THE STORY, BUT THE BEGINNING OF SOME VALUABLE LESSONS…
(Click Here to read what lessons have been learned by Johnny’s first online venture. There are MANY!)
A Newbies Journey to Making Money Online (Part 2)
by Doug Dillard
Filed under Getting Started, Latest Posts
“Getting Started Series” (Part 1b) – A Newbies Journey to Making Money Online
(…continued for Part 1a which you should read first)
Well after a night of no sleep whatsoever Johnny heads to his 9 to 5 day job with a new bounce in his step, as he knows he will be turning in his resignation any day now.
Later that day when Johnny gets home from work… he rushes to his computer to start his journey to making money online.
He starts doing the things the course recommends… step-by-step! He chooses “Making Money Online” as his niche, as it seems like all the big successful gurus are making money blogging about it (even though he knows nothing at all about the topic). He then registers some “just okay” domain name, as he could not find any good ones available (in the 10 minutes he spent searching) for that particular niche.
After that… Johnny signs up for a hosting account, points his domain name to the webhost’s nameservers, installs WordPress (the blog platform) to his server (all things I will go over later) and he is ready to start blogging.
Johnny thinks to himself, “Wow that was a lot easier than I thought. This blogging stuff is easy!” Little does Johnny know.
So Johnny starts on his blogging venture. Since he doesn’t know much (okay… really nothing) about the topic of making money online, he starts reading all the blogs he can find on the subject and starts writing about similar topics for his blog. Once the site has a little content, he applies for a Google Adsense account as recommended in the course he purchased. A couple days later, after he has been approved, he starts adding Adsense code to his site. Again, he does exactly what the course says… he adjusts the color of his ads to blend in with his blog and he places the ads in just the right spots to get the maximum amount of clicks.
He then searches to see what affiliate products and services other bloggers in his niche are promoting on their sites, and he signs up for many of those affiliate programs as well. He then adds a bunch of the banner ads the affiliate merchants provided him to his blog. Now Johnny website is really starting to look nice, and he is getting more and more excited about all the money he knows he is about to start making.
It’s late and Johnny still has his 9 to 5 job to report to in the morning, so he heads off to bed. Again, he has a real hard time sleeping as he can’t wait to see how much money he has earned while lying in bed. He knows the cool thing about running an online business is… you can earn money 24 hours a day, even while you are sleeping!
Fortunately, he does manage to get a few hours of sleep this time. When Johnny wakes up the next morning… the first thing that he does is he hops on his computer to see how much money he has earned. He signs into his Adsense account and looks at his numbers and sees he didn’t even make one penny last night. Even worse, it looks like only one person visited his site while he slept. He quickly logs into his different affiliate accounts and he sees that none of his banner ads got any clicks either. He is a bit disappointed, but he figures most people are on the same schedule as he is and his site would probably do better during the daytime hours. So back to his 9 to 5 job he goes.
When Johnny gets home later that day from work… the first thing he does is he gets on his computer to check and see how much money he has made so far that day. Again disappointment hits Johnny, as he has still has not made any money, and it looks like he only had one visitor all day long. Johnny thinks to himself, “How can this be? I have a beautiful website, with a lot of great content… why aren’t people visiting?”
Johnny decides he probably should do some of the “Traffic Generating” techniques (which he was hoping to avoid) in his blogging course. So he visits other blogs in his “making money online” niche and starts commenting on other blogger’s posts. He also starts visiting different forums and leaves replies on different thread posts with a link back to his site in his signature file. He also wants to try guest blogging and article marketing… but he really doesn’t know that much about the subject (Making Money Online), and he barely has enough time to write 2 or 3 posts a week for his blog, so that is definitely not going to happen. He figures he will getting around to those other traffic generating techniques sometime down the road when he is not working his day job anymore.
Amazingly, right after Johnny started commenting on other blogs and replying to forum thread posts he starts to see some traffic to his site. People are actually commenting on his blog as well. Johnny is really excited now, as he thinks he has found the secret to success!
(Click Here to read what happens with the rest of Johnny’s first online venture)
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