Knowledge is Only Half of Making 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.

What If You Can’t Find A Niche That You Are Passionate About?

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.

Create A Business Plan For Success Online

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.

How To Pick The Right Niche For Your Online Business

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.

Planning The Online Business Of Your Dreams

How To Plan The Online Business Of Your Dreams

In the first post in my getting started series we talked about the importance of planning out the business of your dreams. Before you come up with a business plan you have to know what you want to accomplish with an online business.

In other words the first step to creating the online business of your dreams is to define the online business of your dreams.

You can’t create the online business of your dreams if you don’t know what it looks like!

The best way to define your ideal online business is to ask yourself questions that will help you create a clear vision of your ideal online business.

Here is a small sample of the kinds of questions you should ask yourself:

• Why am I starting a business?
• Why do I want to make money online?
• What am I willing to do to make money online?
• How much money do I want to make per year with my online business?
• How many hours a day do I want to work?
• Do I like to deal with customers?
• What are my strengths and weaknesses?

When you ask AND answer questions like the above question you can get a picture of your ideal online business. With that picture in mind, you are well on your way to creating the online business of your dreams.

PS. Here is a bonus question for those of you who are religious:

What online business can I create that will best serve God?