My success story (friday's feel good post)

Caveat: No success story is ever complete, so mine is a work in progress

Figure I'd take a moment today to reflect back on a good start to 2009 and share with new and older members alike on the benefits of making money online from many different channels and the determination to succeed. There are some of us who say that it was easier 7-9 years ago to make money online, and I partially agree. However in today's world, there is so much information and feedback online of what works and doesn't work in the online money making world that we have almost no excuse NOT to make any money.

That's a mouthful, i know. But it's true, stay with me.

I'm not a guru, and i don't have a ton of lists. I don't pop on message forums to preen my feathers and i'm not in the buddy buddy groups with other marketers. I'm kind of like a lone wolf out there, preying on my next niche so to speak..and i like it. Because it works for me.

It helps that I started years ago building websites in dreamweaver, and then moved on to joomla and wordpress. I've seen the ups and downs of pagerank battles, seo tools and tricks, and site linking methods by the dozen. I've bought and read countless ebooks, more rehashed than original unfortunately, but there are always diamonds in the rough. The key is to get positive feedback from new and older members alike. If something looks like it can help one of your processes, and the price point looks good, jump on it. I'm always looking for ways to refine my processes and procedures so that i'm not working HARDER, but SMARTER.

I can't stress that enough.

To me working smarter means that I have an established method to my online madness. I draw income from 3-4 different types of channels. Remember, it's all a numbers game at the end of the day. The trick is to finding a process that allows you to put your presence on the web in the best position to garner someone doing SOMETHING that earns YOU money. And once you find that process, replicate it over several different niches, and hone it so that you can make it better.

I started with Adsense back in the day. That was my first true money maker. Thought it was positively awesome i could make $200/month to pay my electricity bill or food bill. I struck it big in Adsense in several different niches. Think information sites with 90% unique content, keyword rich domain name (.com,.net,.org) and good layouts.

That plan still works for me today. Some sites have maybe 10 pages, others 100 pages or more. The key is variance: different markets, different content, and different domain names (but targetted). But what stays the same is my process behind each site. The keyword research, the writing, the article submissions for backlinks, etc. It still takes work to make money, make no mistake.

I'm an athlete by background, so i'm competitive to start with. In college, I competed internationally in Karate, and rowed varsity crew on a heavyweight 4 man team. I love to push myself and be the best I can possibly be..even making money online. But i wasn't always like that. When I was 13, I was 6'1, 312lbs. Biiig kid. But through an incredible journey of self finding, weight loss, and athletic accomplishment, I realized i could do anything. I graduated high school weighing 170lbs, a high jumper, member of a 4x200 relay team and attained a partial scholarship to play soccer(which i didn't take).

So what i like to do today, is to take all my experiences of weight loss hardship, athletic competition on a national scale and my knowledge and desire to make money online and I make it happen.

No one is born knowing this stuff. We all come from different backgrounds, but at the end of the day we all have the same drive to succeed. If I could lose over 100 lbs as a kid, then i can definitely make money online. Why? Because it was harder to run in 90 degree weather as a fat 300lb 14 year old kid, laboring under his own weight trying to breathe with every step. All i had was myself to rely on.

Now apply this to making money online. You've got motivation stories to rely on. You've got small successes of your own to rely on. You've got more information online now on HOW to succeed than ever before. The trick is to FOCUS and keep building on every small success until you get that A-HA! moment.

And all it takes is that one small step forward with the determination to succeed. Even if the path you take does NOT pan out, the next one might. And if that one doesn't, another might as well. You're already succeeding by identifying what DOESN'T work for you. Eventually, even after all the failures, your experiences will start to coalesce together and you'll have even a better picture on how to do well. That's been my experience so far.

So in short. Adsense is still doing well. Marketing ebooks is still doing well. Making money off a list is really still doing well, and being an ebay affiliate is still a great thing.

Which path are you going to take today?