Newbie needs HELP with strategies and practical steps to make money online.

Thank you guys for replying so quickly to my post.

So building a list seems like the highest priority.

I know this sounds like a dumb question, but what do you do after you build a list?

These are my guesses:

1. Sell them an ebook about a topic they're interested in
for eg. an ebook on "how to make money online"?
2. Sell the list to a company related to the niche of people who wants it?

And what advice would you give me on how to start this list in the first place?

I know these are a lot of questions, but thank you so much for your patience and input.

Hi THE WAY. Okay well the answer I am going to give you is mine and may or may not be unique, but I think therein is the answer to your question.

I know very little about Internet Marketing and I just learned about it around March of last year. For seven years I have been in financial services helping businesses build credit and get loans. As a former employee of Dun and Bradstreet I learned quite a bit about business credit and had used that ever since.

I say this because I knew NOTHING of Internet Marketing. For many years I have been hiring sub contractors to try and sell my services to business owners over the Internet. Problem was finding good people hungry to make money online were hard to find locally. I would spend days teaching, coaching and helping only to find without them trying they would one day not show up for work. I had a couple people doing very well, but I needed 10x that number of people. So it was like I had to go through 100 people to find the one gem who would produce.

The idea was for me was that if I could find 100 people for me to teach my system where each made $10,000 a month, that would mean they make money, I make $10,000 x 100 people (because i make dollar for dollar what others make), the business owner would get a loan and finally the bank makes money from the interest it charges. The point is it is a win-win situation... so I launched a WSO that became almost an overnight hit and am in the process of releasing a second one. So why not launch your own WSO?! Find something that is a win-win for everyone and do that. It's a great experience. I know a 15 year old who launched an awesome plugin.

What is my point? In life you have skills. Where I learned about finance and turned it into a living, you (as an example) have learned about different languages. Maybe you can teach people how to get a job online translating for doctors' offices, hospitals, etc. Everyone says building a list... these are internet gurus.. I for one have never built or care to build a list. The only list i have are business owners that have opted in to learn how to get a loan and then each month i have one of my guys send them an offer or two.

There is one other matter. You are young and sound very smart. You think working from home is a dream come true. Let me tell you, it's not. While your eyes twinkle over the soothing thought of being your own boss, coming and going as you please, doing what you like to do, living the free life, taking those long trips and working on the road... let me give you a reality check.... I work about 16 hours a day because my work never leaves me. I go on vacation, but when I do, I have to take my computer with me and work where ever I go. Coming and going as you please, yes, but then if you are dumb enough to leave, what will happen is you will come back to 1000+ messages waiting for you which means now you are not realllllly working because you are busy answering all the messages. Being your own boss sucks... sometimes its great to have a boss you can dump things on and walk away.

When I had my job at Dun and Bradstreet I would go home from a day's work and actually enjoy myself and not think about my job. I would go on vacation and actually enjoy being on vacation. I liked the structure of being told what to do and when to do it. But it too had the down sides. I guess what I am saying is you can't win. Whatever you do is going to have the good and the bad... which really brings me to the last point I want to make. Do what makes you happy because you will wear it for a long while and the longer you wear it the more it will become a part of you and you will not be able to change it. Why do I say this? Well because the Internet and WF is FILLLLED with many opportunities. It's like a freaking forest of do this or do that. If you are not careful I can see why people jump from one offer to another trying to find the one offer that they can do and enjoy it. I did find an offer on the internet that I liked. It was the one I created.

Everyone can make money in IM but not everyone wants to. That's why I bring on IM'ers to work with me, because I don't want to do it. They make money, I make money and everyone is happy. Here is another suggestion... I don't know much about this, but maybe go back to school and learn to become a programer and learn how to build WP plugins all day long. I see a ton of people interested in that who would pay you to build plugins. The point is you are still very young and you have options that many us older folks don't.

Either way the fact that you are searching and asking tells me that regardless of the forest you find yourself in, you are the type to create your own path and I hope in the end that is what you do. Well, that at least is my two pennies I throw into the pot, lol.

What a load of rubbish... There are many methods out there which can produce the same income as someone with a list. Yeah, lists can make money but don't assume it is the only method which can make money. It is a combination of methods which yields the best results.

Ok, I'm self promoting here (it's free)...but this is my strategy: Nate's Marketing Solutions.

Once you have a list of prospects (or better yet, a list of buyers) in a particular niche, then you send them affiliate offers (or better yet, your own offers).

For instance, I got my start by creating a WSO. I was very fortunate in that my first WSO sold very well. So I had a list of buyers, and I promoted other WSOs to them as an affiliate.

You don't have to create a WSO to get a list of buyers, though. Another strategy is to create a short report on some specific topic, then contact WSO creators and offer to put your report on their download page as a free bonus to their buyers. The buyer has to optin to your list in order to get your report, and now you are building a list of WSO buyers.

Your report has to be of real value, and it should complement the product being sold.

As a hypothetical example, you could create a report that lists, say, 25 sources of inexpensive, high quality, custom written articles - these could be fiverr gigs, or people in the "Warriors For Hire" or "Warrior Classified Ads" section.

Then find Warriors who are selling WSOs related to Article Marketing and offer your report as a bonus for their buyers.

Once you start building a list of WSO buyers, you can promote WSOs to your list and earn affiliate commissions.