Earn Money Online

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How do you Earn Money Online?

While most people using the Internet have heard stories of people making quick money online, or of others earning passive income from online businesses... few people actually know these individuals personally.

Combining this with the unfortunate spate of outlandish make money online scams out there, and the idea of making money online at home seems like a pipe dream.

It's not.

I will introduce you to dozens of entrepreneurs who know how to make money from online business, legitimately.

And can teach you to do the same - whether you're:

Just looking to earn extra money online,
Looking to Increase Sales for an existing business, or
You want OUT of the rat race ("Your money or your life" sort of thing... :)

Now please don't expect to make money online for free. It takes know-how, it tools, and a marketing budget.

But, having said that, if you can put in sweat equity, and you're willing to learn, there is a formula to successfully earn money online.

How to Make Money Online

Many people want to learn how to make money online.

With the right guidelines, skills, action, and perseverance. You can.
Unfortunately there is an incredible amount of misinformation about making money online... which has clouded people's honest assessment.

Common myths on How to Make Money Online

It is easy - anyone can do it.
This is a myth. It is absolutely true that it is easier, cheaper, and quicker than any time in history, to start a company from scratch, and become profitable. Unquestionable.

However, NOT EVERYONE CAN DO IT!

Think of it this way.

There are instructions on the Internet on how to do just about anything. Like how to replace your car engine, or fix your garage door, or fly a plane.

And the tools, in most cases, can be obtained.

But it doesn't mean everyone is equipped to do it.

A lot of this is mental. One's psychology. One's willingness to gain knowledge, gain experience, learn from failures, and persist. If you are willing to do all these things, then yes. It will be easy (compared to other ways of making money).

But the problem is that the people who are most attracted by this promise of making money quickly are usually individuals who are either desperate (desperation leads to short-term thinking, and reduces your chances of success), or to be frank, lazy (laziness leads to short-cut seeking, and reduces your chances of success.

Regular business rules don't apply.
This is a myth. Traditional business rules for the most part, still apply. But it is a lot cheaper to reach your customer, to advertise, and to distribute your goods.

It is all a scam.
This is a myth. There are unscrupulous snake oil salesmen on the Internet, as there are in most other industries. So while you should ensure that you trust the information source before handing over your credit card information... don't close yourself to the possibility of a different (maybe better) way of earning a living.

You can make "good money" quickly.
This is largely a myth. If you're starting from square one, results won't appear overnight. If you already have a following, however, you can introduce a brand new product to them, and make money quickly. For newbies, be ready for a lot of learning, a lot of time spent building a foundation of content and contacts... but also expect eventual success.
So it' s not easy.

But it's worth it.

Working hard at making money online for 2 years, could change the subsequent 50 years of your life. Instead of trading time for dollars, you'll get to a point where the dollars are flowing in with minimal care-and-feeding from you. And you can pursue your true calling at that point.

The product launch: You must get in on this NOW, or miss out forever.
This is a myth. Internet Marketing gurus have been studying human psychology, and realize that scarcity increases demand. Don't be swayed by the hype. Weigh every decision carefully. Then, take action one way or another.

If I build it, success will come.
Having a nice web site is not enough. You must generate traffic. You must build a relationship with your visitors, and build trust. Only then will they buy from you.

I don't have the time to build an online business.
If you've ever held down two jobs, this is the same thing. Work at night. Work on weekends. But ensure you have a guide or mentor, so that your work during these stolen moments is not wasted.

It costs too much to start an online business.
This is a myth. It's more affordable than ever. You can start a free web site (blog), sell other people's products and maintain no inventory (affiliate marketing), and even advertise for free (social marketing). BUT, it will take time. And it will take quality content and relationship-building.

I don't have a product to sell.
You don't need one, starting out. In fact, you shouldn't start with your own product. Learn the basics on someone else's product. Once you have your skills, system, and experience in place, then develop your own product.

Getting visibility on Google's front page will be next to impossible, unless I spend a ton.
This is a myth. There are tools to help you gain top rankings in Google. That won't break the bank.

There's too much competition.
This is a myth. You can beat the competition as long as you have tools that let you laser-focus on profitable keywords.

How to Make Money Online - The Basic Formula

he formula for how to make money online is actually straightforward:

Identify your niche.
That is - your target topic, and target audience. You could do it based on your existing interests, or based on profitable niches to go into. Ideally, you would find the intersection of the two. The secret on how to make money online is to do something you love (to help you persevere through the hard times) that is in high demand. (Videos on underwater cave basket-weaving may not exactly be the key to your riches.)

Determine what products of value you can provide to that niche.
Do some research. Find out what that audience thinks about, worries about, has pains about. Then, look for affiliate products that match those needs. (A google search on "pain + affiliate program" should do the trick.)

Establish a presence online.
It doesn't have to be a web site. It can be a blog, a Squidoo page, a series of eZine articles, Oprius landing pages, etc. This is how you start to make money online. Make it easy for people to find you. Once they do find you, we'll have to address the next step. Providing value, and building relationships.

Build your target audience, via a mailing list.
A mailing list is the key weapon to have in your arsenal. Oprius and Aweber are great tools to use here. You'll want this to enable dialog with your audience.

Create value for that niche.
Now that you have a web presence, and a mailing list tool, with useful, differentiated information

Create lead capture pages.
You'll need to give a lot of value away, for free, on your web presence. This builds trust, and lets your audience know you're a fly-by-night individual, who's just out for self. Sincerely help your audience. Since you're passionate about the niche you've chosen, you should have the drive and interest to help these folks.
The lead capture pages will come into play when you're ready to offer free eBooks, a newsletter subscription, or something else of value to the audience. At no cost to the audience.

Those who have enough of a need to submit their email address, for that free content, are your leads.

Monetize your presence online by linking to affiliate products.
Sites like ClickBank.com, CommissionJunction.com list thousands of affiliate products. As you learn how to make money online, you'll want to learn how to pick the best affiliate programs.

Build relationships with those people, provide more value, and sell more affiliate products over time.
Tools like Oprius will allow you to automate a lot of your email conversations. And automate your product recommendations to subscribers of your mailing list.
With a small mailing list, you won't get much (if any) revenue flowing in. But keep at it. See how the system you are building today, will be much more leveraged than exchanging an hour of work for an hour of pay - as you do with your 9-to-5 job now.

Create your own information product, and sell to your list.
After you have steady lead flow, and steady revenue, from affiliate products, you should then look into creating your own information product. Thus, instead of getting 5-50% of the profits, in commissions, you get 100%. And, you further build your influence and leverage, as other people sell your product for you (to get commissions).

How to Make Money Online - 12 Skills Required

The skills for how to make money online are as follows:
Market research

Copy writing

Relationship-building - Partnerships

Web site creation

Mailing list setup

Ability to learn to use web-based tools

Perseverance

Vision

Faith

Stubbornness

Willingness to teach

Goal setting

Best Way to Build the Skills to Make Money Online

Imagine for a moment how different things would be if prospects approached you... people who were truly interested in what you had to say.

After spending countless days, weeks, months, and years, developing my skills for making money online, I was fascinated to find newbies to the Internet performing better than I was.

I learned a hard lesson - it is much better to be EFFECTIVE than it is to be EFFICIENT.

Think of a cross-country race. One person is Lance Armstrong. The other is a couch potato who never exercises.

Lance has the latest technology in racing bikes. He has the experience. He's in the best shape of his life.

The couch potato has a plane ticket.

Who do you think would win?

It's much better, in other words, to find an effective system, and use that... than to work yourself to the bone, trying to squeeze water out of a rock.

What is Passive Income?

Passive income is money earned, regardless of whether you are actively working or not.
Or, more accurately - it is money earned, even when you aren't actively working toward generating it.

Now, it is rare, maybe impossible, for an income stream is 100% passive. The pump typically has to be primed before passive income can flow. However, like a primed pump, once the work is done at the beginning, the rewards flow bountifully.

See our continuum of passive income, below, for an illustration of how passive/active certain income streams can be!

Here are terms that help flesh out the concept of passive income more fully.

What is Leverage?

Q: How can 50 pounds of effort lift 1000 pounds of weight?
A: Only through leverage.

So rather than working non-stop on building your strength and endurance, so you can get to the point where you can bench press 1000 pounds... stop. and try to figure out how you can create leverage, that will enable your current 50 pounds of strength to move 1000 pounds of weight.

Earning passive income in a leveraged fashion involves generating income based on the efforts of others, as much as possible.

Network marketing is a great example of this. So is affiliate marketing. And creating a franchise, also epitomizes leverage:

How many burgers do you think Ray Kroc of McDonald's could have sold, if he hadn't created a franchise business model?

Robert Kiyosaki said:

"A job is a short term solution to a long-term problem."

(That problem being financial freedom).

Robert Kiyosaki is encouraging us to stop trading time for money, and instead to take some time out to figure out how you can generate passive income / create leverage / stop trading time for money.

2. Trading Time for Money:

This concept is best illustrated with hourly jobs. While a person on a salary still gets paid during holidays, vacations, and sick leave... a person paid an hourly wage only gets paid for the exact number of hours of work they perform.
Making this the ultimate trading of time for money.

People that work for hourly wages do some of the toughest, thankless, and often most undesirable jobs there are. They work harder than most of us do. But unfortunately, their financial reward is anemic. This is active income. This is the opposite of passive income. It may not seem fair, but it illustrates the importance of knowing how money works, so that instead of working for money, you make money work for you.

3. Making money work for you:

Robert Kiyosaki, in his book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", stated that the #1 difference between rich people and the middle class, is that while the middle class works for money, the rich make money work for them.

This epitomizes passive income again, and is why the rich get richer. Picture it this way - as an individual, you can only work anywhere from 40-80 hours a week. But imagine if every dollar you had could ALSO work 40-80 hours a week? Imagine if every dollar you had could work 168 hours a week (that's 24/7)?

That's what happens with the rich. And we're not talking savings accounts, here. (The return on savings accounts is so ridiculously low, banks should be ashamed.) We're talking assets. While the middle class (most of us) rack up expenses and liabilities, the rich rack up income-generating assets. This is why the rich can work less than the middle class, and make MUCH, MUCH MORE. ASSETS.

Passive Income Evaluation Tool

Comparing Passive Income Opportunities

Now that we have a good understanding of what passive income is, here's a simple memory aid that I've developed to help you compare specific passive income opportunities. I've found it useful, hopefully you will also.

P assive vs Active.

A rchitect vs Landlord.

S ell vs Serve.

S mart vs Hard work.

I nvoluntary (like breathing) vs. Voluntary (like eating)

V ehicle to a goal vs Being the goal itself.

E ighty-Twenty rule.

Passive Income Tip 1: Passive vs Active:

Having been an entrepreneur for over 10 years, I've learned that starting and running a business is not the same as being a business owner. Most entrepreneurs own a job, not a business.

Here's what I mean: Let's say your passion is making widgets. You've always enjoyed designing them, producing them... widgets are just awesome. You're the best widget maker at your company.

But you can't stand the politics at the office. SO... you decide to strike out on your own! You start your own widget making company, called Wally's Widget World! The first week is great - you can make your widgets in peace, with no drama.

But then, you realize that there is no one to do the accounting. So, you take on that responsibility.

And then, you realize that there is no one to do the sales. So, you take on that responsibility.

And then, you realize that there is no one to take and fulfill orders. So, you take on that responsibility.

Pretty soon, Wally's Widget World is becoming a nightmare of a job. You have much more responsibility than you did at your former job. And you don't even enjoy most of the tasks! You eventually get burned out after not making enough money, and working too many hours.

Robert Kiyosaki talks about this syndrome in his book "Cash Flow Quadrant". It is an excellent read - I highly recommend it.

You can also read Michael Gerber's great insight on this issue, in the book titled: "The e-Myth".

When you own a job, you are always active, doing that job. If you don't work, the job doesn't get done.

BUT when you own a business, you own a self-sustaining system. A system that needs care-and-feeding, to be sure, but on a much lesser scale than does an individual job.

Ideally, you want your revenue opportunity to be as passive as possible... so that it can free you to spend time on the things you really want to do

How to Increase Sales

How to increase sales up to 10-fold. Without spending a dime on advertising.

Every business wants to increase sales.

It's no different for those online. And as with our brick-and-mortar counterparts, pre-selling is more important than ever.

What is Pre-selling?

PRE-selling is the key to increasing sales.

PRE-selling is the online version of relationship-building.

PRE-selling warms up visitors, and builds trust and respect...

And it increases sales with alarming regularity.

What happens when you act like a car salesman?

I found this to be the case... in my eagerness to earn passive income, I experimented with sending my visitors directly to affiliate products.

No context.

No dialogue, about the visitor's needs.

No personal testimony.

No pre-selling.

How much did I increase sales by?

Zero.
Zilch.
Nada.
No one wanted to do business with me.

(I guess they could smell the desperation! LOL!)

Masters Course: The Best Online Business for Work At Home Moms (free eBook)

Best Work At Home Solution for Moms

You are in constant motion as a stay-at-home mom... loving, nurturing, helping, guiding, playing, comforting, organizing, mediating, laughing, managing, giving. Family comes first and you are loving it!

There is no other place that you would rather be than with your kids. But, at the same time, you would also like/need to contribute financially to the family.

So... if you stay at home, why not Work At Home, Mom (WAHM)?

The WAHM Masters Course will show you how. Four Work-At-Home Moms (WAHMs), the course's authors, will introduce you to a work solution that "fits" naturally with your family needs and yet is rewarding, exciting and soul-satisfying for you.

Just like they are doing, you too can create an information-rich Web site that is based on something you know and love. No technical knowledge or prior experience is necessary. You too can build a real, long-term business on the Net.

Learn from the experiences and advice of Elizabeth, Cate, Jennifer and Erin (and several other successful WAHMs) in The WAHM Masters Course. They are busy moms just like you and they know what it's like. They've escaped the Rat Race, and are doing what they love the most - raising a family full-time. All while supporting the family financially.

So they have taken the time to tell you everything, from reviewing all your options and getting organized to work at home. They progress all the way to the final desired outcome, including the nitty-gritty of how to actually build a substantial income online, illustrating with well-explained case studies.

An online business is affordable, flexible, and convenient. You can work at your Web business when you like, at the speed that suits you, and still put the all-important needs of your family first. In other words, you can take your family to work with you!

The most amazing part about this course for Moms?

It's free!

Masters Course: The Business Side of Webmastering (free eBook)

The Business Side of Webmastering

Thinking about becoming an independent Webmaster? The timing is right. More and more small business owners are looking for help as they make the move to online promotion. Most do not have the time or skills to build their own site. As a result, they are actively seeking affordable Webmasters.

Capitalize on this growing demand by setting up your own home-based business. Do the kind of work you love and reap all the financial benefits -- i.e., the profit!

Starting any type of business, online or off, requires solid preparation. Without it, the foundation is weak. And it leaves you, as the owner/operator, susceptible to costly mistakes and worse yet, irreversible decisions that could stunt growth.

The Webmaster Business Masters Course will start and keep you on the right track. Mark Frank, the author of the Masters Course, and owner of a home-based Web site design business, gives you an insider's perspective on what to do... and more importantly, what not to do on the "business side" of your new company.

Build Your Webmastering Business While Building Your Clients' Business... Attract, Manage and Build Your Clients to WIN-WIN Business Success!

The Webmaster Business Masters Course covers essential operational aspects, such as a well-developed business plan, targeted marketing, pricing of services, attracting clients, effective communication, and winning proposal/contract construction. It will provide you with the information and resources you need to bypass common mistakes, create satisfied clients, increase your productivity levels and generate recurring income.

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