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Going From "Zero" to Full-Time In Less Than 6 Months in 4 Easy Steps... Disclaimer Notice: This article should be considered as suitable for entertainment purposes only. No guarantees of any kinds of results, financial gain or success of any kind are expressed or implied, regardless of the author's own experiences. Business involves risk and potential loss. Please do your own due diligence before acting on any of the content contained herein. If your goal is to generate a full-time income from the net, then bookmark this page, print it or do whatever you have to do to remember & apply these steps. This is how anyone - not just me - needs to do things if they want to realize their dream of becoming independant, in whatever capacity that applies to you. These 4 steps aren't so much "method" as they are "mindset", but I will say this - you DO need to be building your own assets. You cannot rely on "free" sites, articles or "borrowed" space that you don't own. That will only put you into a cycle of having to constantly "spin the wheel" just to maintain your results, because all those things have a shelf-life and they're unreliable. So on that note - you might want to check this out:
Alright, let's get started...
---------------------------------------------------- 1. Recognize & Accept the Need for Change One of my qualities that has both negative and positive consequences is that I'm a stubborn bastard. There's no question about it. And it took me a long time to finally admit to myself and fully realize that my long string of failures, poor results and "dud" projects were simply the result of doing stuff that doesn't work. It's a simple equation. When you do things that work, you see results. When you do things that don't work, or only work to a small degree, you see poor (or no) results. Simple - but perhaps hard to accept. It certainly was for me. I'd been trying to get some things off the ground for more than 2 years, and it just wasn't happening. I was fishing in the wrong pond. One day, I finally had a breaking point. I knew that success was possible, and I had to accept that I wasn't going to get anywhere by trying to "force" my own ideas to work. Instead, I finally realized that what needed to happen was simply to find out what was already working for others, and then make that process work for me. Each of us are in different situations, but I can guarantee you that if success has been "eluding" you somehow, it's because the things you're doing and the actions you're taking simply aren't producing results. Whether that's the market you're targeting, the product you're selling/promoting or the content you're producing - something isn't "catching". Evaluate your own situation and identify the projects, actions and methods you've been trying in order to generate revenue. Assess each one and honestly measure it's value to you. If something isn't paying off when you've given it an honest shot, and to the best of your abilities - then cut it out. Recognize the need for change, and then figure out what works - and then copy it. This is the first essential step to becoming a full-time marketer. Many people are simply promoting the wrong things, taking the wrong actions, or targeting the wrong market. ---------------------------------------------------- 2. Focus on Numerous Small Successes instead of "One Big Hit" This next bit is likely going to contradict most of the advice you'll receive about building a business from traditional sources. At least to some degree... When I first started out as a hopeful internet biz junkie, my goal was to find a unique concept or "never-before-seen" product and make it a huge success. I wanted to hit a home-run with a great idea. I wanted a windfall. And it seemed logical. Doesn't it make sense to either "go big or go home"? I thought it did. Sometimes, someone gets lucky and their big idea actually makes it big, from nothing. But the odds aren't good, and skill isn't necessarily a factor, either. I'd honestly say that in most cases, people with little experience who make it big online are basically like lottery-ticket winners. The reality is that if your goal is to start making real money with this as quickly as possible, then you need to start doing simple things that work to build a base of reliable cash-flow, while simultaneously building the foundation of your buisiness, one visitor, one commission, one sale and one client at a time. Consider this example: Throughout my two-year "being an idiot" period, where I refused to focus on "simple" things and tried to create revenue through complex business deals, joint ventures, speculative ventures, projects that I thought had global potential and so on - I actually did have a small degree of passive, monthly affiliate income. I had one mini-site set up that promoted a $300 web script. It paid out a 30% commission, at $90 a sale. On average it would earn something like about $180 to $400 a month. The site only got about 5 to 10 visitors a day. I thought nothing of it, because it wasn't "big money". What I failed to see is that the site only took me one day to set up, and about another day to promote. If I simply spent even two months where all I did was build product review sites like that, at a realistic rate of 2 sites per week, that would be 16 active sites running by the end of 2 months. Even if only half of them performed well and earned just $200 per month (each), then including my already-running mini site, that would've provided a minimum, reliable monthly income of at least $2000.00 per month. That's at the very least - I truly am low-balling this scenario. And that would've been totally passive. Certainly not a fortune, but definitely not something to laugh at either when you're just scraping by. If I'd had that back then, life would've been a lot easier. And to carry the example further, by the end of 6 months, at that rate, I would've been earning, at the very least, $4800 per month. And of course, by around 10 months time, I'd have a passive, six-figure income. That's assuming that half of the mini-sites I'd be building would earn $0, which is obviously an exaggeratedly-low figure. But I want to paint as realistic a picture as possible. And more than that - I wanted to show you the power of compounding results from consistent, "simple", and seemingly "small" successes. The truth is obviously that some of my affiliate sites are single-handedly earning full-time incomes, while others only earn a commission here and there. It's all over the map, but the fact of the matter is that by simply building more and more profitable content - especially effective product-review sites - it's not only possible to reliably build a continually increasing monthly cash flow - it's actually probable. The odds are in your favor. The truth is that this is exactly what I essentially did, and it only took six months to have already earned more than $100k in affiliate commissions. That was in 2007, and I only built a handful of sites, albeit in very profitable markets. While this model can apply to adsense and similar programs, the visitor value is generally way lower than it is with effective affiliate marketing, creating & selling your own digital products, building opt-in lists and so on. It would simply take far, far longer to achieve the same kinds of results. So being smart still pays off, but realize that it's a million times easier to build a substantial income one site at a time than it is to hit the "motherload" with one big project. (Hitting the motherload comes later, once you know from your own positive results what really works in a market that's already paying off for you. That's when you scale it up...) Just like the Monopoly® Board Game, while everyone holds out for "Park Place" and "Boardwalk" - it's the guy who quietly purchases all those seemingly insignificant properties that eventually wins the game. ---------------------------------------------------- 3. Do Something Profitable Every Day If you're like me, you probably know first-hand just how hard it is to stay focused when you're online. There's email, YouTube, marketing forums, interesting blogs and everything else in between that can easily and stealthily eat up half your day before you even know it. This is a silent killer. There's actually a lot of folks out there who are so addicted to "interacting" online, checking their stats, checking email and then basically repeating the same process over and over again that they spend literally all day accomplishing nothing. I know, because I used to be one of them. And it's deceptive - you don't really realize how much time you're devoting to worthless activities unless you're keeping track of it. And until you actually start making money, it can often feel like "learning" on forums, someone's blog or whatever else is progress. It can be helpful, but it's not progress, because you're not creating, you're simply consuming. Make sure that each and every working day, you're actually doing something that will: 1) Create of Further Build Your Online Assets 2) Result in Profit If you go an entire working day without doing one of those things - then the day's been wasted. You've simply just passed the time, even if it felt like you were making progress. Yes, this means that if all you did was simply respond to emails (even customer support emails), "learn new stuff", look at your stats and then read your favorite guru's blog for a while - you, my friend, added absolutely nothing to the value of your business. There is no reason why you should earn more money if you're not increasing the value (reach, effectiveness, profitability) of your business on a continual basis. To clarify, here's a checklist of things that count as "something profitable". Do at least one of these things every day: 1) Add profitable content to a new or existing site. 2) Add profitable content to a newsletter or autoresponder series 3) Purchase targeted advertising to test an offer 4) Create a mini-site to test a new market, or new angle of a market you're familiar with 5) Create or add to high-margin product 6) Test a new landing page, process, layout or offer on an existing property that already produces results in order to increase effectiveness and visitor value 7) Hire/provide more work for a freelancer (writing content, creating a product, building links, etc) 8) Promote sites that have little exposure, or build further exposure/foundation for established sites 9) Conduct competitive analysis, document results and prepare a plan of ACTION and implementation for the following day 10) Email your list something that will result in profits (either building goodwill or sending an offer) 11) Work with existing affiliates to produce more sales in a mutually beneficial way (creating content for them to use, etc) 12) Recruit affiliates and/or promotional partners 13) Distribute content for the purpose of marketing an existing asset that you own (submitting videos, articles, software, applications, podcasts, etc.) 14) Invest in things that you need to streamline or act on any of the previous actions 15) Purchase existing websites in markets where you've already established effective marketing processes. 16) Anything else that puts you in the role of being a creator, rather than just a consumer or "cog in the wheel" of someone else's business. I can absolutely guarantee you that everyone who's actually earning a full-time income online is doing at least one or more of these things on a consistent basis, if not daily. Remember that it's a simple equation. All things equal and assuming that you're in profitable markets - the more websites, opt-in lists, products and other actual assets you own - the more you'll make, period. Yes, it starts out small. But it starts adding up real quick as you keep on adding to your assets. Think about it - if you can generate $20 a day, simply increase your reach by ten times, and you're earning $200/day, and so on. Once you've got results, building on them is easy. But nothing's gonna happen unless you start doing profitable things, each day. ---------------------------------------------------- 4. Scale Success & Leverage Others This step isn't necessarily a "requirement" to be a full-timer, but if you want to build a rock-solid business with multiple income streams that aren't in constant fluctuation according to Google's endless "dances" - then you need to start doing 2 highly profitable things: 1) Creating Hot-Selling Products for Other Affiliates to Promote 2) Building, Serving & Profitng from an ever-growing Client Base Ah yes - product and list. And while you can build prospect lists with free traffic, or where the subscribers aren't buying anything (and in fact I recommend that you do), you'd be surprised at how much more profitable your actual client-base will be when it comes to an average value per subscriber ratio. To put it in perspective, I have a client list of only 3,000 or so that will outperform "freebie" lists of over 50,000 on the same promotion. And when you've got a hot-selling offer that converts well for your affiliates, building a substantial client base can happen a lot more quickly than you might think... Does this really work as effectively as people say it does? Oh yeah. Hell yes. This is exactly how most internet millionaires are made - by making irresistible offers and having others promote them. And think about it this way - many of you know how profitable it can be to promote a hot-selling merchant, where multple daily sales is commonplace from even a single site. Now think about the compound effect of having 10, 20, or even 100+ affiliates all generating multiple sales each day. Yes, you need to be in large markets for this to work - and you need to be selling at the right price-point - but the fact is, there's no way you'd be able to drive that much traffic without leveraging the efforts of others. Here's a real life example, with something you're very familiar with - my little $29.95 ebook, "Confessions of a Lazy Super-Affiliate". In the last 24 hours (today is August 20th), for this product, I received 1,280 affiliate "hops" (referrals) from a total of 207 affiliates through ClickBank's network. 207 people sent me at least one visitor today. Some sent more than 100 visitors. (Are you starting to see the power of this yet?) Now, this might seem to contradict what I said earlier about simply creating a large volume of "small successes". That's actually not the case. What you want to do is initially build a large base of what will basically become profitable "tests" for you. Mini-sites, adwords campaigns, review sites, mini-courses and so on. These are the small-successes that you can later use the results from to show you where the money really is. So that by the time you get to this stage - you already know what's selling like crazy, because you'll know from experience as an affiliate. You'll already know the market, and how the market thinks - and what kinds of products sell (and thus, what to essentially "copy"). I'll deal more with product development and this overall strategy in later articles and resources, but for now, let's just say this - once you've got a solid hold on your market as an affiliate, if you really want to ramp things up - switch things to high gear by becoming the merchant. Not only will you earn more on each transaction for product sales you generate yourself, you'll also be employing the talents, efforts and time of potentially hundreds (or perhaps even thousands) of other marketers all over the web. The amount of traffic you can acquire with this approach is mind-blowing. Get a good server... ---------------------------------------------------- In Conclusion... Well, we've covered a lot today. I know it can be a lot to absorb, so let me sum up what I believe to be the most important concept in this article: Do today what others won't, so you can live tomorrow how others can't. Yes, it takes work. BUT - you can work smart. And when you're building one (profitable) site after the next when you start out, the results you'll inevitably see will only serve to simply drive your success because you'll be motivated and focused. The key is to get started today - right now... Sincerely, Chris
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