I’ve spent the last three years working towards actually earning money online. In most of that time period though, the money has been leaving my wallet faster than it has been coming into my wallet.
“EARN MONEY FAST OPPORTUNITIES”
In my first year online, I tried all kinds of “earn-money-fast opportunities” — everything from MLM to turnkey websites. I hate to admit this, but if I didn’t make any money the first couple of months after I had signed up for one of these programs, I just gave up and moved on to the next opportunity.
Then I would begin the whole process all over again. I found a new site that promised to all who joined, that they would earn a lot of money fast, and they would earn their money without hard work.
I know the truth now, it was just another line of bulls**t!!!!
Twelve months later, all I had to show for my first year online, was many wasted hours and lots of wasted money.
THE MAKING OF A WEBSITE
As I began my second year, I realized that I had to make my own website. I didn’t know anything about HTML. And, I knew nothing about where to find a hosting company, or even why I needed one. So the first six months of that second year, I was learning the basics of how to become a webmaster. I read through all the forums about web-mastering and SEO that I could find on the Internet, and tried to build a website that finally could make me some money.
I finally got my website up and running.
For the first 8 months that I had my website, I did not earn any real money for all of my hard work. The worst thing that could happen to a person began to happen to me… I began to lose hope. I began to believe that making money from the Internet was just a far-fetched dream that I could never attain on my own.
I was not alone. Hundreds of thousands of people have met or will meet this same crossroad in their Internet careers. Some will take the easy road and walk away from their dreams. Others will push on, not willing to let their dreams die.
I decided to push on.
I added new pages of content to my website every week. I exchanged links with other websites as often I could. Slowly and steadily, the visitors were starting to come to my little corner of the internet to browse and buy.
In the early stages, I had 30-50 visitors each day. Then, I began to see 100-150 a day. And soon, the first small amount of money was earned through my website.
Now it’s 4 months after my first payday, and the traffic is still getting higher each week. Even though I’m not earning a whole lot of money now, I believe it’s just a matter of time until I can leave my day job.
THE FIRST LESSON LEARNED
Looking back on these last three years, I have learned a few things that I would like to share with you today.
First of all, you should never join any of those scam sites that claim you will make a lot of money fast without working hard.
The cold, hard truth is that there is no way that you can make money online unless you are willing to work hard!
The next time you read about an opportunity where the promoter is telling you that you will not have to work hard to be successful, Stop! Stop and ask yourself “how hard this person is working” to part you with your money?
What about that email opportunity you are reading, where this anonymous person is telling you that you will not have to send other people email in order to make money? If he is being honest with you about the nature of his business, why did he have to send you an email to get Your business? If his way is best, why is it that he is not practicing what he preaches?
You have to approach new programs with your eyes wide open! Be willing to read between the lines to see if the promoter is lying to you to part you with your money. Be willing to research on the internet what other people have said about the program that you are looking at. Be willing to discover and separate the people who are trying to sell the program, from the people who are giving you an honest appraisal of the program, from the people who are just complaining about everything to hear themselves talk.
In the end, it comes down to this. If you get involved with one of the myriad of scam opportunities floating around out there, you will end up spending all of your money with zero rewards in your pocket for your time or effort.
THE SECOND LESSON TO BE LEARNED
Find a niche product to sell or promote. And then make your own website. If you don’t know anything about how to become a webmaster, use Google to find forums about the subject. Or, you can buy a ebook about web-mastering.
Don’t expect to earn much money the first year your website is online. Look at it as your learning period. Be persistent and don’t take any shortcuts. It takes time to build a money making business, whether you make your business online or offline.
And finally, try to have fun while you are working on your website. It’s much easier to become successful if you like the work you are doing.
Good luck!
Torgeir Sunnarvik is the owner and webmaster of: http://www.everypleasures.com/. His site offers free ebooks, ebooks with reprint rights, and marketing articles.
