Posted on May 06, 2008 under Internet Business |
It can be very difficult to try to make money online while you are still working in full time employment. Family responsibilities and work related problems often eat into the time you have available for building your online business. One option would be to outsource some of the work but this then means you need to make much more money in order to start making a profit. It doesn’t help that many guru’s assume that you have all day to follow their programs.I have lost count of the times we’ve had new members sign up who have spent hundreds of dollars on e-books and programs but have put none of it into practice because of lack of time. Or even worse have put it into practice but haven’t had the necessary knowledge to take it any further and make a profit.
I talked to several people who have already spent over $1500 and don’t know why they haven’t made any money. What they haven’t realized is that no matter what the program you are going to need to promote it.
Earlier this week I was in a forum I usually visit and a guy way laying out his plans for the week. he was going to build 30 sites and then see which ones performed. I tried to explain that his time would be best spent just building 1 or 2 sites and spending time promoting these. With out promotion none of the sites will prosper so he will have just wasted a week and the money he spent on 30 domains.
You need to look for something that’s quick to set up, requires very little maintenance and is easy to promote. Once these initial sites are making you money then you can re-invest some of the profit into outsourcing and take on much bigger projects. It’s also preferable to make mistakes on small projects.
When I started out I created a series of Adsense sites, they were quick to build, I added some unique content to them on a semi regular basis and did a small bit of promotion work. This income soon built up until it was at a level where I could afford to undertake bigger projects and know that I would still have an income at the end of the month.
You should look to use as many of the free resources available to you as possible when you are starting out. Use tools like Wordpress to build your sites, you can then easily add Adsense or affiliate programs to earn money. Use google alerts to get topics you can write about on your Wordpress site. I created a site with Wordpress and a datafeed from Goldencan which has already made me over $300 this year. All for a cost of an $8 domain.
It makes sense to use as many free resources as possible. Every cent you save means that you will be in profit much sooner.
The example above was just one way that you can build sites cheaply that require very little maintenance. Anything that can save you both time and money should be a priority when you are starting out.
Posted on May 01, 2008 under Make Money Online |
Listening to most of the so called “Guru’s” you could be forgiven for thinking that it is easy to make money online. Unfortunately for most people online wealth will prove to be very elusive. Whatever the reasons you choose to try to make an income online it’s important that you try to avoid the 5 basic mistakes that most people make.
1 Failing to Plan Is Planning to Fail
Just like with any real world business you should produce a business plan before you start your online business. Create the plan around your strengths so that you can keep your initial costs low. If you lack many of the skills you’ll need then use the first 6 months to learn them. This short apprenticeship will pay dividends in the long term
2. Don’t the believe the hype
An Internet marketers job is to make you think that you must have whatever product or tool they are promoting this week. I’ll let you into a secret here…You don’t need it! The best thing you can do when you are starting out is to learn to do things manually. This will give you a greater understanding of how things work and will pay off in the long term.
3. You don’t control your spending
I’ve met lots of people who have spent thousands of dollars on tools and e-books and have yet to make any money. It’s simple economics if you spend $1 you need to make $1 to break even. Before you invest in anything visit forums and see whats working for the members. Ask questions and test their methods yourself, if they make you a profit then consider investing the profit into tools that will help increase your income.
4. Not Focusing
I am sure that if you’ve been online for any length of time you will have met someone who jumps from one method of earning money to another almost every month. Last month they were buying and selling domains and were going to make a fortune. This month they are affiliate marketing because there was no longer any money in domains. It’s not that there is no longer money to be made it’s just that they don’t give any method a long enough chance to work or they haven’t mastered the skills required yet.
5. You think you know all you need to know.
It’s all to easy to think that you know all you need to know about your business model. Recently I’ve had newsletters from 3 or 4 well know marketers telling me that I need to join Twitter and Hubpages as these are going to be the next big thing. I’ve been using both of these resources for the last 9 months. It’s vitally important that you try to keep up with the latest sites and technologies and not just wait for an email from some guru, by that time it’s generally too late.
Making money online is not easy but that doesn’t mean it’s overly difficult. If you find you are making some of the mistakes above then now you know what to do to rectify them. Take some time to Annalise what you are doing and where you are going worn and you will find that you’ll soon be on the path to a good online income.