About Making Money Online

The truth about making money online...

When I first started out in this caper I was hoping to earn some extra cash from home. I wasn't trying to get rich quick. I was just looking for a little extra pocket money on the side (so to speak). It's not that I really needed the extra dollars. It was more of a game really or maybe a challenge. Could I, from the comfort of my own home, manage to generate a little additional income on the web?

Like many beginners, I started doing things like participating in online paid surveys. There are heaps of these sites out there. Marketing companies are looking for your opinions on all sorts of things. What are your thoughts on breakfast cereal? Are you planning an overseas trip? What sort of non-alcoholic beverages do you drink? How often? On a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being most enjoyable and 5 being least enjoyable, how do you rate the flavor of our new deep-fried-custard-in-a-bucket range?

Okay. Maybe I went a little overboard there, but you get the idea. After the initial fun wore off - you can actually have fun filling out these paid online surveys if you're creative enough. Play with the demographics a little. Adjust your age and salary level a bit (or a lot). Make helpful suggestions about how some of the products could be improved. Have they considered chili flavored ice-cream? What about cornflake flavored energy drinks - much more appealing at breakfast time, is what I told them.

Anyway, I digress. They probably discarded my answers as being outside of the statistical norm anyway. As I was saying, after the fun wore off, it became just plain hard work. At just a few dollars per survey, it took a while to earn enough to get paid. I didn't mind too much at first because I was just spending time I would have wasted watching television anyway.

At this point I should probably describe my personal situation a little. I'm married with young children. I work full time in a reasonably well paid job. When I first started looking for online money making opportunities, I wasn't looking for an alternative to my day job - it was more of a hobby really. But as time went on I realized that if I wanted to put in the time and effort it might become a realistic alternative to full-time paid employment. I'm not there yet, but things are progressing.

So I eventually I worked out that getting paid to fill out surveys was not one of the better "easy money making ideas" going around. After dabbling in a bunch of paid-to-surf programs and the like, I discovered blogging. I liked the idea of writing stuff, posting it on a website then selling advertising to companies who wanted to reach my readers or selling affiliate products to my readers.

It was at this point that I made a big mistake. I started a blog was about blogging. While I enjoed myself and met a whole bunch of great people, the cash didn't exactly roll in. The only people reading my blog were other bloggers. And they were all pushing the same products or showing ads for the same advertisers as me. It was a fatally flawed plan right from the start.

But then something interesting happened. As I lost interest and posted less and less frequently, the traffic died down. The regular visitors lost interest and the only hits I got were from search engines - anonymous searchers showing up each looking for something very specific. But here was the revelation. The amount I was earning stayed the same. It was still a pitance, but it proved that the search engine visitors were the ones clicking on ads or buying things. Because of the topics I wrote about, these guys weren't arriving in huge numbers but it was enough to convince me to change my strategy and start again.

The upshot of all of this is that my preferred method of making money on the internet now is to create blogs or other websites about products and services which people are searching for and are willing to pay good money for. Then by optimizing the websites so they appear high up in the search engine results for my chosen keywords, I receive free traffic, a percentage of which click on an ad or buy something, in which case I get paid. My main methods are pay per click programs and pay per lead affiliate programs.

What's the point of all these ramblings? I guess I just wanted to share my experiences and leave you which some key ideas to consider.

When setting up an internet business, or any home based busines for that matter, the key is to make it scaleable. Getting paid to take surveys is fine but the income is linear. If you put in more time, you'll earn more money, but if you stop, so will your income. The same goes for most other legitimate online jobs. However, by setting up a website, it will keep generating income even if you're not there. A steady stream of visitors will show up whether you're there or not - day and night, weekends too.

Another key concept I want to convey is the importance of persistence. Keep at it. Experiment and try out new ideas and approaches - there's more than one way to skin a cat. And there is no single right way. We each possess a unique set of skills so what works for one person may not work for another. The key is to keep your goal in sight as you keep toiling away.

I want to leave you with something I read at the Warrior Forum recently (one of the better internet marketing resources by the way):

"People need to remember that there is no instant gratification and that most businesses that are successful take time energy and commitment to grow and build."

I think that sums up the truth about making money online perfectly.