What I have Learnt About Earning A Living Online

By Terry Sparing © 2006

In my short time on the Internet, I have learned a few key lessons that might help you also in your quest to find the success you seek through your Internet connection.

1. Success Can Be Found In The Company You Keep

Finding and surrounding yourself with good people, who share common goals and a willingness to help one another, is important. We are all learning how to be successful, each and every day. And by working together, we can accelerate our knowledge to the benefit of all.

2. Selling Other People's Products Is The Easiest Way To Get Started

When people first come online, they know that they want to make money online, but they don't have the first idea of how they intend to accomplish their goal.

For those who are looking to get on the fast track of making money online, Affiliate Marketing and Network Marketing was developed to help them to reach their goals more quickly.

Affiliate Marketing requires you to register with an Affiliate website to sell their products through your website or newsletter. The Affiliate website will give you a special Tracking URL to use in your advertising, and every time one of your reader's visit your Affiliate Tracking URL and buy a product or service, you will earn a commission.

Network Marketing or Multi-Level Marketing is a step up from Affiliate Marketing. Through Network Marketing, you can take the same approach as with Affiliate Marketing, except that you can develop a network of like-minded individuals who are interested in selling the same product or service as you, allowing you to make a tiered-commission from their sales in addition to any commissions that you can earn from your own sales.

Multiplication is the most important benefit of Network Marketing. It allows you to multiply your earning capability with the specific company, by multiplying the number of people who will contribute sales to your bottom line.

3. Multiple Streams of Income The Foundation for Our Long-Term Success

We should "never put all of our eggs in one basket." We should never put all of our energy into one company, product or service.

Not all products and services are created equal. Not all compensation plans are created equal. Additionally, some companies offer products and services that have seasonal selling cycles.

Multiple Streams of Income allow us to find a more even balance in our income levels, year-around.

4. It Takes Money To Make Money

It does not take a LOT of money, but it does take money. If you are afraid to spend money on your own business, why should people trust you enough to give you their money?

When you sign up as an Affiliate for a company or as a Network Marketing Associate, the company you are dealing with will always give you a special Tracking URL to refer your potential clients.

The reality is that you don't want to directly market your Tracking URL.

Some advertisers will not allow advertising to appear if it contains an Affiliate Tracking URL. If you use articles as I have done to promote your business, most article directory managers expressly forbid the use of Affiliate Tracking URL's inside the body of the article and in the About the Author information that follows the article.

When you advertise, you ALWAYS want to promote yourself and not someone else. Suppose for example that two years from now you decide that you don't want to promote a specific Affiliate Program anymore. If you have spent all of your energy promoting your Affiliate URL, then you will have nothing left to show for your time and efforts. On the other hand, if you have been promoting your own domain for the same length of time, changing affiliate programs mid-stream will not affect your bottom line. All of your link building will stay with you once you have made your decision to move on to another program.

For ten or twenty dollars a year, you can register your own domain name. For an extra five to ten dollars a month, you can get your own web hosting account for your domain. This $70 to $130 a year is really the only money that you HAVE to spend. All other expenses are optional.

At the end of the day, you should only be advertising your own domain, which can in turn redirect traffic to the Affiliate Programs, Network Marketing Programs, products or services that you want to recommend to others.

5. Sometimes It Makes A Lot Of Sense To Hire Out Third-Party Service Providers

Let's face it. All enterprise is a trade of "money for time" or "money for products".

Some people can do a job on your behalf for a specific rate, and that person can deliver superior results in much less time than it would take for you to do it yourself. Pay the expert to do his or her thing on your behalf, so that you can stay focused on the tasks that you can do economically.

In the end, I know your finances might be tight, but some people will be able to do things for you that you either cannot do on your own, or you cannot do in a reasonable amount of time.

Be willing to try a new task on your own, but if you find that you are not getting the results that you want, figure out how much time it will take you to do it on your own, and don't be afraid to multiply that number of hours by a minimum of $10 an hour to figure out what an equitable trade of money for time would be in your case.

6. Don't Forget To Tell Your Reader's What You Want Them To Do

Many new webmasters forget to tell their visitors what they would like for them to do. There is a reason why you have taken steps to bring people to your website. Don't be afraid to tell your readers what they should do and why they should do it.

It really is not enough to say, "Great new program, Click Here." You must tell your reader how they will BENEFIT from your recommendation. People make "buying decisions" based on what the product or service will do for them. You need to help your reader to make the decisions that you would like for them to make.

7. Promote Yourself Always

Set up your own domain and promote all of your programs through your domain. Once again, "don't put all of your eggs in one basket." Promote your domain through various methods. In time, you will learn that some methods generate better results than others, and you can start to trim your promotional activities to just a few systems, but never ever rest your laurels on one method of promotion. Always keep your eyes to the horizon to find other methods that will generate the kinds of results you are looking for. Don't be afraid to try new things. And don't forget to measure your costs versus your results.

Your customers have diverse interests and activities. Your goal is to get into their line of sight, so that you can attract them to your website. A certain percentage of your visitors will always buy what you are selling, so the secret to your success will be to put as many eyeballs on your website as you can, through whatever methods you can use to get them there.

8. Never Stop Learning

Having the knowledge to run a successful offline business does not necessarily translate into having the knowledge to run a successful online business. There is a lot to learn, and the best way to keep up and to succeed is to make the effort to learn as much as you can as often as you can.

You never know exactly where you will find your next gem of information that will help take you to the next level. The next article you read might be the one to give you the idea that will make you a millionaire.

Keep on reading, and never stop learning.

About the Author:

Terry Sparing works with a team of people who believe in helping others to develop their own successful online businesses. If you would like a coach and a mentor to help you to realize your own financial dreams, please visit Terry's website http://www.ExerciseYourFreeWill.com for more information. "Success Can Be Found In The Company You Keep."