Online Marketing From Home

I can’t remember when I heard the saying the first time but “failing to plan means you are planning to fail” stuck with me. It may sound like an obvious statement… The type of statement that when you hear it for the first time you nod your head in agreement but do not do anything different in line with it.

It is amazing how often we as internet marketers do not understand the importance of careful planning. We are constantly looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and we always seem to be chasing after rainbows. There are many types of rainbows and they go by various names… Affiliate Marketing, Cost Per Action (CPA), Product Creation, or Website Flipping to name just a few.

All of these different types of rainbows hold the promise of a better life, an easier way to make money, the prospect of being able to spend more time with your family or to go on exotic vacations at the drop of a hat. And, I am not even mentioning the Porsche in the driveway… That’s obvious.

We buy into the dream of easy money. We believe that great wealth is ours for the taking and is only a couple of weeks away. We are convinced that internet marketing is the real lazy man’s way to riches.

When something does not bring us a lot of money in a short period of time or it seems like too much hard work we simply start chasing after another rainbow.

However, at some point in time all internet marketers reach a crossroad…

We realize that it’s possible to make a lot of money online but that we have been going about it in the wrong way. We finally understand that there are no shortcuts to great wealth and that it takes careful planning. We come to understand that it’s not all about working harder but also about working smarter.

It’s at this point that we truly understand that if we fail to plan we are really planning to fail.

There are no secrets to making money online. It’s all about giving people what they want. It’s about finding and serving a hungry market that is prepared to pay for products or solutions to problems.

So how do we go about it in the right way?

Well, for one we need to be realistic… Don’t complain that you are not making $5,000 a month when you have decided to write articles for other people at $5 an article and you only write 6 articles a day.

You have to reconcile your actions with your goals. If they fit, great! If not, you either have to change your actions or your goals. Complaining does not help.

Back to our example of writing 6 articles a day for $5 per article… So what are our options?

1) Do something else.

Find something more profitable. For example, inside of writing 10 articles for $50, add the articles to a website as unique content and sell the website on Sitepoint for $150.

2) Write more, charge more or work longer. 

If you enjoy writing articles but are hot happy with the amount of money you’re making you have three options:

a. Write more – Work on improving your writing skills so you are able to write more articles per hour. You should be able to write at least 4 articles per hour of about 300 words each. If you charge $5 per article that means you are making $20 per hour. Not very good…

b. Charge more – Do not be afraid to charge for your services. Starting out cheap may get you off the ground, provide you with a lot of work but will burn you out. Once you have established that you are a good and reliable writer, and have the testimonials to show for it, you should increase your rates.

By the way, you may actually get more customers since many people think $5 articles are rubbish and will gladly spend $10 or more per article. If you can write 4 articles per hour at $10 per article you will be earning $40 per hour. That’s a lot better!

c. Work longer – The average person is always complaining that there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done… What I have learned is that if you want to get something done you give it to a busy person. Being busy is not an excuse for being more productive.

If you can write 2 more articles per day at $10 an article taking 15 minutes per article it means an extra $20 a day in your pocket. That’s $400 extra per month if you only work Monday to Friday for 4 weeks. Not bad for working an extra 30 minutes a day!

3. Leverage.

There is only so much one person can do in 24 hours. Smart people understand the power of leverage and use it all the time. It basically means getting more done for the same effort. And, getting more done means getting more money.

Let’s continue with our article writing example. You can only make so much money in a day if you charge $5 an article and if it takes you 30 minutes to write an article. Even if you can achieve the impossible and write articles for 24 hours every day without a taking a break you have an income ceiling of $240 a day.

But, assume you can charge $10 an article and can outsource the actual writing part for only $5 an article to someone else how much money can you make per day? How about getting a team of writers together that will gladly write good quality articles for you for only $5 an article? Well, that takes care of your income ceiling!

Writing articles for cash is only one example. The above principles apply to most online marketing money makers. Take product creation as an example. You can write your own report but you can also buy a report with private label rights and turn it into your own product in less than half the time it would take you to write your own report.

Furthermore, you don’t even have to turn a private label report into your own report. Make an audio recording and sell it as an mp3 or submit it to podcasting directories. Make a power point presentation and record it on video. Submit the video to sites like YouTube and include a link to your squeeze page where you will capture the contact details of prospects in return for access to another video or free report, thereby building your mailing list. The list of things you can do is endless.

In closing, focus on only one thing at a time and look at ways you can gain more mileage. Rather try to improve what you are currently doing than jump around from the one thing to the order. Think outside the box. Plan in advance and make sure your actions will enable you to reach your goals.

All the best,

Francois

P.S. If you are still looking for good ideas and methods on how to make money online I highly recommend you get a copy of “The Definitive Job Slayer Warriors Guide”. It contains 99 different strategies! Pick a money maker that you feel the most comfortable with, do your planning, think outside the box and take action today.