Baby Steps To Big $$$

[Steven Wagenheim]

Okay, this is a "condensed" game plan for anybody just starting out. It is
roughly compiled from 5 plus years of blood, sweat and tears. This is not a
detailed step by step approach. This is more like an overall battle plan. The
details, you'll have to fill in.

As you know, or don't know, I have recently begun making some major
changes to my business plan. What I am doing today is going to save me a
lot of time and make me much more money.

Having said that, I would NEVER have attempted to do what I am doing now
when I first started. I would have never been prepared for it. So I still
wouldn't change one thing about how I got to where I am. I might have
just sped up the process a little bit and not procrastinated so long on
moving on to certain stages.

So here is the overall battle plan. You will need to fill in the details.

First thing first.

As somebody first starting out, unless you have a great off line job, you
probably don't have any money to invest in your business. So you need
to start making money on the real cheap.

Best way to do this, and how I started, is by freelancing. If you have a
skill, head on over to Elance or some place like that and hawk whatever
skill it is you have. Don't worry about how much you're going to make.
Right now, you're just trying to make a few bucks in order to invest in
your business. I wrote articles for $5 a piece. I did 3 a day and made
$450 a month.

Next step is to take some of your money, get a domain and hosting. You're
going to get into affiliate marketing. You don't have to worry about
product creation expenses or anything like that. You can do dirt cheap
affiliate marketing with a blog. Hosted at your own domain, which you
now have, would be the best solution.

Find a product, review it, put the review on your blog with your affiliate
link to it. Write articles about the subject matter. Submit them to Ezine
Articles. They're the top directory. Don't bother with anything else. I made
5 sales the other day from one affiliate product ALL from articles I sent to
Ezine Articles using the blog review process. Pick the right niche and it's
gold. Write an article a day. Keep doing your 3 articles a day freelancing.
By now, you should easily be making over $1,000 a month just 2 months
into your IM life.

Okay, you've become a successful Internet marketer doing something
OTHER than selling make money products. You have REAL credibility
outside of the IM niche. So now you can cross over to this niche with
your credibility and make money IN the IM niche legitimately. None of this
fake it till you make it crap. That's how I made my first product. I talked
about how I made money doing other things. That first product sold over
200 copies monthly for a year.

Okay, next step is to build on your success. You've got some real success
to show now. You're making about $4,000 a month. Time to come out
with more products. Okay, here's where the problems of time come in that
I didn't learn soon enough that I am learning now.

Don't do it all yourself. Don't continue to kill yourself writing articles all
day. Get other people to do it for you. Outsource whatever you can.
When creating products, get as much help as you can. JV with others.
You've got quite a bit of credibility so it shouldn't be hard to do. They key
to getting others to work with you is to not be such an opinionated SOB
like I can be. I've killed more JV opportunities than I can think of until I
finally figured out you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

At this point, increasing your income is simply a matter of getting as much
done for you as you can. That includes product creation, promotion,
everything. Make sure your products have back end offers. Create a
membership site in your niche if you can. Again, don't do all the work
yourself. You have money now...spend it.

Within 2 years tops, you should be making well over 6 figures.

I apologize for this being so short, but it's hard to condense 5 years of
work into a post. But use this as a guideline. Start small. Take baby steps.
As you progress, invest in your business. Spend less time making more
money.

I wish I had done this 3 years ago.

[macchiavelli]

I never got article marketing to work for me.
I had more luck with cpa marketing.

But I agree, in order to make big bucks you need to focus on MAKING SOMETHING.
Great post.

[Francois du_Toit]

Okay, next step is to build on your success. You've got some real success to show now. You're making about $40,000 a month. Time to come out with more products. Okay, here's where the problems of time come in that I didn't learn soon enough that I am learning now.

$40,000 a month?

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by Francois du_Toit

$40,000 a month?

LOL. Ooops. That was a typo. I meant $4,000 a month.

I'll go fix it LOL.

Yeah, I wish LOL.

[lakerk]

Your posts are great man. Thank you for the advice. I need to continue writing articles for people, while still working on my own article marketing. I seem to forget one and focus on the other and I always end up back at square one.

Thanks for the solid advice.

[JamesD]

great article. Thanks for taking the time to share it. i've been a noob forever trying to figure out what to do, where to start. all the time getting no where. i feel i have a decent sense of step 1 now. Thanks, again!!

[Danyelle]

It all sounds so easy.

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by Danyelle

It all sounds so easy.

The "how to's" are easy. What's hard is actually taking action and doing it.
And that comes down to all sorts of reasons, fear, laziness, etc.

I sincerely believe that most people who fail do so because of what's
between their ears and nothing else. You don't need money to start out
so that can never be an excuse. Even today, I spend very little money,
though that is going to change. But I was making 50K a month spending
just a few dollars. I was as cheap as they come. So being broke is no excuse.

If you put your mind to doing it, it can be done.

One step at a time.

[YoYoPro]

OK, this one's going on the wall above the computer.

Don't know what else to say but THANK YOU!

[Max Ramocsai]

This was thorough yet very easy to digest. Thank you very much for this.

[kumar]

Thanks Steven.

I started freelancing (on oDesk) 2 months back and I've just taken my first baby step on creating a profitable blog. Looks like I'll be using your blueprint quite a few times.

Thanks again!
Kumar

[Andrew Maule]

Originally Posted by Danyelle

It all sounds so easy.

I think it is.


p.s. Awesome post! I'm in the transitional stage in some of these steps so it's great to see this all written out.

[freudianslip27]

Awesome post!

The great thing about writing articles for $$$ is that anyone really can do it. People don't realize that.

One thing I've found is that sometimes you can pick a niche that you think will do well and it falls flat. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, and give up just cause your first attempt doesn't land gold. The gold is out there!

Matt

[dlynch66]

Thank you so much, Great post

[Aggressor]

Yeap I agree with this post.

The key is not setting out rageous goals to start but also sticking to it and scaling up. $4k a month is a nice baseline and entirely possible.

Thanks for sharing.

P.S. Man you have a lot of posts here!

[Tristan Bull]

Nice post again Steven

Cheers,
Tristan

[GoGetta]

Great Post! Thanks Steven

[Dan Briffa]

But I was making 50K a month spending
just a few dollars.

Do you do them kind of figures now steve?

[Roy Carter]

Hey Steven,

I can make an extra $450 much easier than that. I just need to give up smoking the Cuban cigars! ..... But....Will I take Action???

i.e: The "how to's" are easy. What's hard is actually taking action and doing it.


Seriously though, another great post from you. Very informative for newbies.

Roy

[lazavas]

yes i agree

this post is brilliant, makes it sound so simple as someone else mentioned

[VegasVince]

Wagon Man's post reminds me that we live in a day and age...where anyone who gets handed the basic tools and blueprint.... can make money with nothing more then a public computer in a library.

And it reminds me that homless shelters, prisons, and politicians et al...really miss the boat in terms of solving the promblem of poverty in this very abundant world we live in.

Seems to me....that despite the cliches to the contrary...most people would rather have personal and financial freedom.....because that's inherant in most of us....unless life has beaten us up so bad we've tossed in the towel.

I often wonder what could be accomplished if someone could walk into one of these battered womens shelters, or homeless shelters...and actually spend a couple days running down a program like Steve mentions in this OP?

To me.....it would positively liberate more then a few people....and would be far more effective then the status quo...which pretty much keeps people enslaved in the system anyway.

Because specialized knowledge would open up an entire new world to people....and if ALL these places did was simply institute an Ebay site for their shelters...it would be a great start. 3 hots and a cot....is better then sleepin' on the streets I guess...but it's a temporary fix...show someone how to get paid for that art he created, or the copper wire he picked up off the street...and you help liberate him.

Specialized knowledge doesn't require a college degree. It can often be learned in a day.

I don't personally know **** about article marketing...or much else in terms of modern IM jargon.....I just know how to sell stuff.

But I know that no matter what happens to me......I'm never going hungry. If I lose it all today...I'm gonna hit the streets tomorrow...and be just fine.

That realization is something that gives me strength...something I wish for everyone.


xxx Vegas Vince

[tamtu]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Okay, this is a "condensed" game plan for anybody just starting out. It is
roughly compiled from 5 plus years of blood, sweat and tears. This is not a
detailed step by step approach. This is more like an overall battle plan. The
details, you'll have to fill in.

As you know, or don't know, I have recently begun making some major
changes to my business plan. What I am doing today is going to save me a
lot of time and make me much more money.

Having said that, I would NEVER have attempted to do what I am doing now
when I first started. I would have never been prepared for it. So I still
wouldn't change one thing about how I got to where I am. I might have
just sped up the process a little bit and not procrastinated so long on
moving on to certain stages.


So here is the overall battle plan. You will need to fill in the details.

First thing first.

As somebody first starting out, unless you have a great off line job, you
probably don't have any money to invest in your business. So you need
to start making money on the real cheap.

Best way to do this, and how I started, is by freelancing. If you have a
skill, head on over to Elance or some place like that and hawk whatever
skill it is you have. Don't worry about how much you're going to make.
Right now, you're just trying to make a few bucks in order to invest in
your business. I wrote articles for $5 a piece. I did 3 a day and made
$450 a month.

Next step is to take some of your money, get a domain and hosting. You're
going to get into affiliate marketing. You don't have to worry about
product creation expenses or anything like that. You can do dirt cheap
affiliate marketing with a blog. Hosted at your own domain, which you
now have, would be the best solution.

Find a product, review it, put the review on your blog with your affiliate
link to it. Write articles about the subject matter. Submit them to Ezine
Articles. They're the top directory. Don't bother with anything else. I made
5 sales the other day from one affiliate product ALL from articles I sent to
Ezine Articles using the blog review process. Pick the right niche and it's
gold. Write an article a day. Keep doing your 3 articles a day freelancing.
By now, you should easily be making over $1,000 a month just 2 months
into your IM life.

Okay, you've become a successful Internet marketer doing something
OTHER than selling make money products. You have REAL credibility
outside of the IM niche. So now you can cross over to this niche with
your credibility and make money IN the IM niche legitimately. None of this
fake it till you make it crap. That's how I made my first product. I talked
about how I made money doing other things. That first product sold over
200 copies monthly for a year.

Okay, next step is to build on your success. You've got some real success
to show now. You're making about $4,000 a month. Time to come out
with more products. Okay, here's where the problems of time come in that
I didn't learn soon enough that I am learning now.

Don't do it all yourself. Don't continue to kill yourself writing articles all
day. Get other people to do it for you. Outsource whatever you can.
When creating products, get as much help as you can. JV with others.
You've got quite a bit of credibility so it shouldn't be hard to do. They key
to getting others to work with you is to not be such an opinionated SOB
like I can be. I've killed more JV opportunities than I can think of until I
finally figured out you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

At this point, increasing your income is simply a matter of getting as much
done for you as you can. That includes product creation, promotion,
everything. Make sure your products have back end offers. Create a
membership site in your niche if you can. Again, don't do all the work
yourself. You have money now...spend it.

Within 2 years tops, you should be making well over 6 figures.

I apologize for this being so short, but it's hard to condense 5 years of
work into a post. But use this as a guideline. Start small. Take baby steps.
As you progress, invest in your business. Spend less time making more
money.

I wish I had done this 3 years ago.

I've tried most of what you stated but it doesn't click that easily and its quite dejecting when you don't get consistent sale, most of the product I tried for affiliate marketing was IM and I figured it is a bad niche to try so those who are new move away from IM and find a good niche to try otherwise you will be disappointed.And I think competition is too fierce now a days and not as easy as when you started over. what I mean is your strategy may work but not as easily as you make it to be.

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by tamtu

I've tried most of what you stated but it doesn't click that easily and its quite dejecting when you don't get consistent sale, most of the product I tried for affiliate marketing was IM and I figured it is a bad niche to try so those who are new move away from IM and find a good niche to try otherwise you will be disappointed.And I think competition is too fierce now a days and not as easy as when you started over. what I mean is your strategy may work but not as easily as you make it to be.

Who said this was easy?

That's the problem and why people fail. They're looking for easy. Nothing in
life is easy. Nothing.

Prepare to work and work hard at first to make your business a success.

Nobody is going to hand it to you.

[Dan Briffa]

Its true, You do need to work hard to build a succesful business. Rome wasnt built in one day was it..

[cylwac]

Thanks Steven,

Very inspirational post.

I have talked to a few new IMer's and most of them say how easy it's going to be making money online. I haven't been at IM for a long time but I knew coming into this it wasn't going to be "easy money". Nothing is easy or free in this world, if you start a business offline you need to put money and time in. You don't see any real profit for awhile, and when you do you usually (if you run a good business) put that money right back into your business. A lot of newbie's expect IM to be so different but it's not. It's still a business that needs to be run like a business.

Thanks again for the post,

Victoria

[Tirmizi]

great post steve, this will surely help newbies on the forum , should make it a sticky for newbies who want to learn how to make money online

[MikeHumphreys]

Great post Steven for the newer or struggling marketers. I'd like to add one thing.

Some of you might feel you aren't real good at writing articles. Or you don't like to write. That's okay. Using a SKILL to generate an income for yourself while you build your online business is a really sharp way to go.

Instead of article writing, maybe your thing is graphic design. Or building high-tech websites. Or video or audio editing. Whatever. Just pick a skill that you enjoy and are good at.

Using that skill can pay your bills while you build your business. Then as your online business gets stronger, you can focus more of your time on your own online business and less doing work for others.

It sounds like it worked for Steven. It worked for me and plenty of other successful online marketers too.

Best of luck,

Mike

[Internet Stores]

Hi Steven,

Thank you so much for this great information! This information came at exactly the right time for me! I am just getting started online and as a newbie, I don't know exactly where to start. There is a lot of information out there, but nothing that is easy to understand, and in small bite size chunks. I will definitely paste this information into a notepad and refer to it frequently!!

Thank you,

Umberto Pucci

[vare]

Great post Steven!

I'm now starting with my "first baby steps" with affiliate marketing.

I create a blog Site-Sell Success

My english is not so good, so I use some original content from the original web page.
But I don't submit this content to article directories.

What should I do to improve my blog?
Would it be problem if I post some articles related to the content(web hiosting) ?
And the blog is on blogger, I know it would be better with other host an real domain, but for the beginning maybe is not problem !?

[wellymulia]

Great tips Steven.

I agree with Mike. Writing articles may not be everyone's cup of tea. If you are good at something else, then do that. The point is to make enough money to start and maintain your online business.

Cheers,
Welly

[ShayRockhold]

Thank you so much for this post!