It amazes me that so many people think there is some secret or way to make money quickly or without investing any money to start.
Starting an online business is a heck of a lot cheaper than starting one offline. So before you complain about having to pay for a $7 per month website, think of the expenses you'd incur if you were opening up a store in your neighborhood. The cost of rent for the space alone would deter most people.
But for some reason people don't see starting Internet businesses the same way they see offline ventures. I think all the Web hype has convinced some people that starting a business online is somehow easier.
Now, don't get me wrong. It is easier in some senses.
1) You don't need to rent any land.
2) A website can be completed and coined "open for business" a lot quicker than an offline store or establishment.
3) No license needed.
It does take work.
If you read any of the successful Internet entrepreneurs online they will all tell you that it took time to get where they are and they had to put in a lot of hard work.
Yes, my story sounds glamorous.
I now make enough money from my sites to work at home full time and I can work wherever and whenever I want. My sites work on autopilot and I could leave town for months and come back to the same income (or more).
But the not-so-glamorous part of the story that you don't see is that I have invested a lot of time over the years.
I've been doing this since 1998 and it took me until 2004 to make what I would consider a full-time income. Yes, six years! But people don't want to focus on that aspect of success. They only want to learn about the end result.
How much money can I make?
How long will it take before I can quit my job?
Those are all valid questions, but you have to remember that making money online is a business, whether it appears that way or not.
1) You need a plan for your site/business. (Who are you going to target? How are you going to reach them?)
2) You need to learn and understand the basic concepts of marketing (writing to communicate and appeal to your audience's emotions). And this is true no matter what kind of site you create.
3) You need to be patient and understand this will not happen overnight.
4) You MUST enjoy it.
5) You MUST enjoy it.
6) You MUST enjoy it.
Sorry, I had to emphasize that last point three times because let me tell you this.
If it ever feels like a job or you begin dreading any part of this, then you will never succeed. You have to enjoy the ride, otherwise you'll never get to "destination money."
So many think that the love for money or the love for financial freedom should be enough to motivate you, but it isn't. Making money takes work, so in order to get to your ultimate goal you must enjoy the ride.
And that means failing at some things, investing time, subscribing to Net Marketing newsletters, reading and learning from other successful people, etc.
It's amazing how many questions I get about how long it took me to make a lot of money, but no one ever asks me if I enjoy myself.
You know why?
Because people assume that OF COURSE I'm enjoying myself, my sites are generating a nice income. Why wouldn't I be enjoying myself, right?
But let me tell you something.
I was enjoying myself even when I was making $30 per month. At the very beginning my very first site (may it R. I.P.) only received a few visitors per day, but I thoroughly enjoyed learning and continuing to hone my writing and Internet marketing skills.
Getting e-mails from people thanking me for helping them was enough to keep me going, even though I wasn't making a lot. But I always knew that if I kept at it, I eventually would be rewarded.
And sure enough, it eventually happened.
Did it happen quickly?
Nope.
In fact in 2001 and 2002 my income dropped drastically from my first 5-figure year in 2000. But I never gave up. I kept building new sites and trying new ideas until I found a combination that worked.
Now, am I saying it takes 6 years to make a full-time income online?
For some it may not take nearly as long, and for others it may take even longer. But the point is, there is work involved no matter how you slice it.
Here's The Good News
So I've stressed that making money online is a lot of work. I'm sure you get that now, but here's the good news. Once you do find that successful combination you can take what you've learned and build even more successful sites.
And you'll often find that it won't take nearly as long for them to succeed because you now understand the formula, plus you can use your existing site(s) to promote your new ones.
That's what happened with my fitness site. I realized some things that work well when building and promoting this site, so I applied those principles, and it earned money a lot quicker than any other site I created.
