The "Anti- NOT making money" thread
Holy cow, me starting a thread like this one in the WF. I must be nuts.
But well, here it is. Most probably nothing new in here but always good to read again.
Very soon in IM I understood that there are a lot of levels you need to pass first, before you can get to the really meaty stuff like full blown PPC (sorry, but I don't recommend it to newbies) or having our own "How To Guide". So think very well at what level you are BEFORE you buy the newest book about "making money with BLA BLA BLA", even if the sales letter states that it's for all IM's.
I am no rich affiliate marketer, even not making a living online but I've learned all and my problem is that I'm a lazy bitch having problems to focus. The rest - I know.
So here are my tips if you still have some hair on your head after days, weeks or month trying to make money online - without to make it.
TIME
- Unsubscribe to ALL email subscriptions (sorry marketers, that's necessary) which are not really valuable. Don't surf around, visit forums or do unrelated stuff which distract you before 6 PM when your "working day" is over. Start your day early and take a little break each 2 hours. I started to control myself to max. 8 hours a day being PRODUCTIVE (Not being online).
SOURCE
- Pick ONE book, course or whatever you have at your Desktop and which really shows a proven method to make money. ANY method is valid if you can identify with it and like to apply it, while the traditional - get traffic to website, convert it to a sale and/or opt in, market over a sales funnel - is the best.
But there are folks which make money Blogging, or only over Squidoo or MySpace etc. Irrelevant as the mindset is the same.
YOURSELF
YOU are most probably the biggest problem to all this. I made once a survey at the Wealthy Affiliates about "Is it you or the tools why you ain't having success ?". 99% confirmed that it's our BRAIN. Don't PROCRASTINATE and put your brain on "success mode", meaning that if you can boot a computer, set up a website with a Optin box, write articles and set up a Squidoo lens, Hub page etc. writing decent ad copy, then YOU CAN MAKE MONEY ONLINE. You control the action, the rest is only software and Google.
GOALS AND PLANS
Set first small goals, let's say $1'000 a month. That divided by 30 days and divided by the average commission of 20.- a sale you need only 2 SALES a DAY, achieving that and you will be ahead of that goal.
Then set a plan for your tasks with hours for each. Expl. I need to research xyz keywords = 2 hrs, write 10 unique articles and submit to EZ = 4 hrs, build a new Sduidoo Lens = 1 hrs. etc.
FOCUS - FOCUS and ....focus
Pic ONE NICHE AND FOCUS (my big problem) - Don't mix any other niche till you reached that $1'000.- from your goal. If you have problems, CHANGE your plan but DON'T change the niche till you have sure that it's not making you money. Perfectly if you pic a niche you have some to talk about because the net is all about quality content. And with all you have to setup, build, follow up, digg, stumble, blog posting and link building and ........(out of air) you AIN'T have time to get serious in more then one niche.
RESEARCH THE NICHE .....and even more - YOUR CLIENTS
Get to know ALL about them. Forums are the best place for that. You need to talk their language to connect to the readers. Maybe a slang is used (WOW users) which you must know or you are "out".
THE SITE
That is the easiest part besides picking a product to offer. Just look at the websites which are there for a given keyword. Don't invent and use what works. FIND A - YOUR - USP.
THE TRAFFIC
Principally in the begin stay away from PPC and other payed ads. BUM MARKETING still and will always work, and is free.
Getting 2 sales a day needs about 200 visitors to your site in the worse case, if you have a funnel (opt in) you will get a better conversion. That amount of visitors is no problem to get over article marketing. But write good, unique articles thinking about the reader in first place (don't write for Google), get Squidoo Lenses (yes, more is better), Hub pages, Propellers, Scribits, A WP Blog at your own domain, and then Digg, Stumble, bookmark it and ping over RSS. That all will help you to achieve that traffic goal.
If you managed to get sales, and made the TTT stuff below explained, then you can risk PPC. Only play with what you can afford to lose. But in general, IF your monetizer (site) can make sales with article marketing, it as well can make sales with PPC.
TTT
- Set up Tracking codes. You need to eliminate your losers to leverage your time and your investment. TTT = Test,Track and Tweak
ALWAYS OVERDELIVER
Help your audience, always. Regardless what you do, if you HELP you will be rewarded, sooner or later the value you put in a business will come back.
Almost impossible NOT making money if you follow those points.
Feel free to add what you like.
G.
But well, here it is. Most probably nothing new in here but always good to read again.
Very soon in IM I understood that there are a lot of levels you need to pass first, before you can get to the really meaty stuff like full blown PPC (sorry, but I don't recommend it to newbies) or having our own "How To Guide". So think very well at what level you are BEFORE you buy the newest book about "making money with BLA BLA BLA", even if the sales letter states that it's for all IM's.
I am no rich affiliate marketer, even not making a living online but I've learned all and my problem is that I'm a lazy bitch having problems to focus. The rest - I know.
So here are my tips if you still have some hair on your head after days, weeks or month trying to make money online - without to make it.
TIME
- Unsubscribe to ALL email subscriptions (sorry marketers, that's necessary) which are not really valuable. Don't surf around, visit forums or do unrelated stuff which distract you before 6 PM when your "working day" is over. Start your day early and take a little break each 2 hours. I started to control myself to max. 8 hours a day being PRODUCTIVE (Not being online).
SOURCE
- Pick ONE book, course or whatever you have at your Desktop and which really shows a proven method to make money. ANY method is valid if you can identify with it and like to apply it, while the traditional - get traffic to website, convert it to a sale and/or opt in, market over a sales funnel - is the best.
But there are folks which make money Blogging, or only over Squidoo or MySpace etc. Irrelevant as the mindset is the same.
YOURSELF
YOU are most probably the biggest problem to all this. I made once a survey at the Wealthy Affiliates about "Is it you or the tools why you ain't having success ?". 99% confirmed that it's our BRAIN. Don't PROCRASTINATE and put your brain on "success mode", meaning that if you can boot a computer, set up a website with a Optin box, write articles and set up a Squidoo lens, Hub page etc. writing decent ad copy, then YOU CAN MAKE MONEY ONLINE. You control the action, the rest is only software and Google.
GOALS AND PLANS
Set first small goals, let's say $1'000 a month. That divided by 30 days and divided by the average commission of 20.- a sale you need only 2 SALES a DAY, achieving that and you will be ahead of that goal.
Then set a plan for your tasks with hours for each. Expl. I need to research xyz keywords = 2 hrs, write 10 unique articles and submit to EZ = 4 hrs, build a new Sduidoo Lens = 1 hrs. etc.
FOCUS - FOCUS and ....focus
Pic ONE NICHE AND FOCUS (my big problem) - Don't mix any other niche till you reached that $1'000.- from your goal. If you have problems, CHANGE your plan but DON'T change the niche till you have sure that it's not making you money. Perfectly if you pic a niche you have some to talk about because the net is all about quality content. And with all you have to setup, build, follow up, digg, stumble, blog posting and link building and ........(out of air) you AIN'T have time to get serious in more then one niche.
RESEARCH THE NICHE .....and even more - YOUR CLIENTS
Get to know ALL about them. Forums are the best place for that. You need to talk their language to connect to the readers. Maybe a slang is used (WOW users) which you must know or you are "out".
THE SITE
That is the easiest part besides picking a product to offer. Just look at the websites which are there for a given keyword. Don't invent and use what works. FIND A - YOUR - USP.
THE TRAFFIC
Principally in the begin stay away from PPC and other payed ads. BUM MARKETING still and will always work, and is free.
Getting 2 sales a day needs about 200 visitors to your site in the worse case, if you have a funnel (opt in) you will get a better conversion. That amount of visitors is no problem to get over article marketing. But write good, unique articles thinking about the reader in first place (don't write for Google), get Squidoo Lenses (yes, more is better), Hub pages, Propellers, Scribits, A WP Blog at your own domain, and then Digg, Stumble, bookmark it and ping over RSS. That all will help you to achieve that traffic goal.
If you managed to get sales, and made the TTT stuff below explained, then you can risk PPC. Only play with what you can afford to lose. But in general, IF your monetizer (site) can make sales with article marketing, it as well can make sales with PPC.
TTT
- Set up Tracking codes. You need to eliminate your losers to leverage your time and your investment. TTT = Test,Track and Tweak
ALWAYS OVERDELIVER
Help your audience, always. Regardless what you do, if you HELP you will be rewarded, sooner or later the value you put in a business will come back.
Almost impossible NOT making money if you follow those points.
Feel free to add what you like.
G.
"It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled. -- Mark Twain
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