Can I Make Big Money Online

I’m a big fan of doing my homework, especially when it comes to making money online.

In fact, in the span of time I’ve been working online, I’ve done quite a bit of homework. I’ve bought ebooks on the topic. I’ve scanned through forums. I’ve searched for free information. Heck, I even went to the bookstore for references when I wanted to learn how to make my own sites. Yes, I probably bought too much, and sometimes I took a wrong turn, but looking back, the knowledge proved worthwhile.

However, it’s not enough. Knowledge of how to make money online isn’t all you need. If you actually want to make money online, you have to put that knowledge to use. That means taking action, and that’s the tough step most people don’t take. Whether or not its fear, or because they were deceived by the bulk rate spin surrounding most ‘make money online’ products and services, they simply won’t act.

That won’t do at all. Knowledge is great, but by itself, it’s nothing. Without action, learning what you need to do is merely a mental exercise, and doesn’t have much use. On the other hand, action without knowledge is an invitation to chaos. I’ve taken a couple of classes in the school of hard knocks doing that, and I don’t recommend it.

To make money online, you need both knowledge and the initiative to act. While I’m not a fan of ‘just act’, once you learn you must act. Simply learning how to make money online and then doing nothing with that knowledge won’t get you anywhere. Yes, you’ll probably have to learn some more along the way, but once you have an idea of how to begin, get to it.

In my previous posts on finding the right niche to market to I said that it is much easier to build a business by sticking with one niche market that you LOVE.

While this is true, this assumes that you can find something you are passionate about.

What if you can’t find a niche market that you are passionate about?

What if there is no money in the niche markets you enjoy the most?

I have not seen these questions answered by many people. The first time I saw this answered was when I was doing religious study, but I have also seen it answered by a few business people.

So, what is the answer?

First, let’s take a quick look back at my 7 step niche finding system:

1. Make A List Of Your Passions

2. Make A List Of Things You Do Well

3. Merge The First Two Lists

4. Choose Your Favorite 3-5 Niches

5. Determine The Traffic Potential

6. Determine The Money Making Potential

7. Make Sure You Have Time For The Niche

If none of the niches that you are passionate about look profitable, then skip step 1 (1. Make A List Of Your Passions). At the end you will have a list of niches that you are good at and that make money. If none of the niches that you are good at (or have knowledge about) are niches that you can make money in (which is possible, but unlikely), then you need to skip steps1-4. Which means all you are left doing is finding profitable niches (steps 5-7).

After completing steps 5 through 7 you now have a profitable niche to target. That’s what you do when you can’t find a good niche in areas that you are passionate about.

“What about the passion? Aren’t you going to have a problem staying in this niche if you don’t have passion for it?”

That is the million dollar question… and despite what I may have said in the past the million dollar answer is that you need to…

Love the niche that you choose! Be passionate about the niche you choose!

Loving what you do is a choice. You can choose to love any niche. This may go against many of the things you have heard in the past, but it is an extremely important principle to learn. This is so important I am going to repeat it in big bold letters:

You don’t have to be passionate about a niche to make money online. However, you need to become passionate about everything you do in that niche (marketing, writing about it, etc.). You need to be passionate about what you are doing to make it easier to stick with it long term. And that passion is a choice. You can choose to love what you are doing, or you can choose to hate it. The decision is yours. When you choose to love what you are doing, then you will be much more likely to create the online business of your dreams.

Last week I got what I considered to be a hilarious request for a blogroll link exchange. In case you want to know how NOT to ask me for a link exchange, here is the email I was sent the other day (name of said person and sites have been removed):

Hi {find name of blogger and put here},

I am writing on behalf of the blog team at xxxxxxx, which runs the popular xxxxxxx Marketing blog.

We are hand picking a few really great blogs to add to our blog roll. If you’re interested in having your blog recommended on xxxxxx blog, please consider adding our blog to yours.

The name of our blog is xxxxxxxx.

Thanks!

I often get requests for links that I think are form letters. However, in this case it was an obvious form letter. I was laughing out loud when I read the line:

“We are hand picking a few really great blogs”

Really??? Hand picking???

If you ever handpick a blog to exchange links with, don’t start your email with:

Hi {find name of blogger and put here},

It kind of gives the impression that you weren’t exactly handpicking my blog.

P.S. My name is George.

One of my favorite programs for beginners, Site Build It (SBI), is on sale for only 100 dollars a year. If you have been thinking about creating a SiteSell site then it’s the perfect time to buy one.

SiteSell is one of the best programs around for beginners who want to make money with a content site. Click here for more details.

When you start an online business it’s easy to let your priorities get out of balance. One of my biggest weaknesses is staying balanced. That is why every now and then I like to write about staying balanced.

It is easy to let work and business take an unhealthy priority in your life and this is especially true when you are trying to make a living online. It is easy to put in that extra hour on the computer and skip that game of basketball you were planning on playing with your kid. It’s easy to stay up late at night working on your social networking profile and be too tired the next day to take time out of your day to write your spouse that love note you were going to surprise him/her with. It’s easy to work an extra hour writing that blog post, instead of working out at the gym…

You need to keep your priorities straight while you try to make money online. Otherwise you will risk losing the things that are most important to you.

Which brings me to a change in my priorities for the next few months…

The last 4 weeks I (and my family) have been fighting off colds and the flu. I have decided that in order to take care of things that I need to take care of before our baby is born in May, I am going to being spend much less time online the next two months.

I am not going to be spending as much time writing for the next two months. However, I will still be taking submissions for guest posts. Also, Ryan, Monika, and Trent will still be posting regularly on this blog.

You will still great advice on this blog, just not as much of it will be coming from me the next two months.

Keep your priorities straight… you and your loved ones will be glad that you did!

When you start out online you need to make a solid business plan. A business plan is your roadmap for success.

My father told me to create a business plan a long time ago and at first I didn’t listen to him (I should have). My father has made a REALLY good living helping new companies develop successful business plans designed to get these companies government funding. He is an absolute expert at what he does. I wish I had listened to his advice about making a business plan early on because he really knows what he is talking about.

However, you don’t have to make the same mistake I made.

All you need to do is find a good business plan template and fill it out. You can get a good business plan template for FREE by going to SCORE’s template gallery and downloading their business plan for start-up businesses. You don’t have to answer all the questions posed in the business plan template to have a successful business, but the more questions you answer the better understanding you will have your business.

Some of the questions covered in the business plan will be things we discussed earlier in the Getting Started series. Some of the questions are new questions that will help you better understand ALL the planning that you can do to create a roadmap for your success.

Creating a business plan will help speed up your quest for online success.

In the previous post in my getting started series we talked about the importance of knowing what you want. In this post we are going to discuss how to pick the right niche for your online business.

A while back I wrote about how to pick the right niche for your blog. The same process can be used to pick the right niche for your online business. Here is a quick outline of the steps you need to take (you can read all the details here):

1. Make A List Of Your Passions

2. Make A List Of Things You Do Well

3. Merge The First Two Lists

4. Choose Your Favorite 3-5 Niches

5. Determine The Traffic Potential

6. Determine The Money Making Potential

7. Make Sure You Have Time For The Niche

The Most Important Things To Remember When Choosing The Right Niche For Your Online Business

You should choose a niche in a target market that you CAN and WANT to spend a LONG time serving. While you can have online success by going from one niche to another and you can have online success by creating products in niches that you are not passionate about it is much easier to build a business by sticking with one niche market that you LOVE and catering to that target market. I am going to say that again , because it is SO important:

It is much easier to build a business by sticking with one niche market that you LOVE and catering to that target market.

To help target the right niche, you need to decide who your ideal customer is. You can do this by answering the following question:

Who will I enjoy serving?

Target your online business for a niche you would LOVE to serve (click here to read a previous post I wrote about the importance of choosing your customer first).

You want your online business to be enjoyable and easy. One of the best ways to do that is stick with a niche you are passionate about.

If you REALLY want to make big money online AND enjoy it, then do what you LOVE.

What is the first step you should take when starting an online business?

Many of us (myself included) start our quest to make money online by reading about it. You will read about SEO, Internet marketing, making money on eBay, making money with affiliate marketing, and anything else you can find to help you make money online. You might buy one or more info products about making money online. Then after learning how to make money online for a while you will either:

1. Purchase a web domain and start setting up the website to make money using the knowledge you have gained.
2. Continue to read and read about Internet marketing and never take any action on your knowledge.
   
3. Make a sound business plan and then take action on that plan to build a successful online business.
   
4. Make a sound business plan and then NEVER take action on that plan.

Which of these paths do you think is the best way to get started online?

The answer, of course, is number 3.

3. Make a sound business plan and then take action on that plan to build a successful online business.

If you start trying to make money online without a plan then you will never know where you are trying to go. You might get there on accident, but it is better to have that defined up front. In other words, choice number 1 is not ideal, but it is MUCH better than choices 2 and 4.

With choice number 2 you gain knowledge but never use it. With choice number 4 you make a plan and never act on it. Neither choice 2 or 4 result in an actual online business being created. You would be surprised how many people follow paths 2 and 4.

YOU WILL NEVER MAKE MONEY ONLINE IF YOU DON’T TAKE ACTION!

If you are just starting out trying to make money with an online business, then the first thing you need to do is make a plan for success. Not just any plan, but a good solid plan based on YOUR strenghts, skills, needs, and desires.

In the next post in this series we will delve deeper into planning the online business of your dreams.

Over the next few months I will be writing a series focused on getting started making money online, which will be aimed at beginners. I have a created a new page called “Getting Started” which will highlight these posts.

I want to make it simple for beginners to access basic information about making money online on my blog without having to search the whole site. I am planning other changes that will make it easier to find things. Most of those changes are connected to the new design I am working on with my web designer. In other words, this is the start of my blog makeover.

I’ll be starting the series next week. Stay tuned. And please pass the information along to anyone who is looking for a way to get started making money online.

PS. While I am writing this series for beginners, I will continue to write other articles as well as having guest posts and posts from my co-authors.