What is the Secret to Making Money Online? Let’s Find Out…

So… what is that online money making secret? By now, you probably already know it. While knowing how to make money at home is no longer a “secret”, it is the implementation of the “secret” that tends to slow people down, or stop them dead in their tracks entirely. It’s all in your implementation. If you already know how making money online works and yet you’re still not earning any money, the problem lies somewhere in your implementation (or lack of perhaps).

For those of you who aren’t up on what this make money online secret is, I’ll say it one more time: Find profitable (and obtainable) niches, build blogs around those niches, create high quality content based on the keywords in the niches, get backlinks and social signals to build your rankings and traffic, and monetize the blogs with Adsense and/or affiliate links. It’s so boring and repetitive, but it works.

The problem most people face with following those guidelines is that they keep trying to get fancy and go way off track from the original make money online plan, which is… If you don’t know, read the previous paragraph again.

Sticking with that same boring agenda day in, day out is the closest thing to sure way to making a living online. It couldn’t possibly get any simpler, and yet many people are making it complicated. Stay with your plan and it won’t fail you. Sure, there will be some failures along the way due to a bad niche selection, choosing the wrong keywords, a ranking drop, algorithm update, or whatever else, but the overall strategy will be a success if you continue to work it. It may not be as fast as you would like, but that’s life. There is no such thing as “easy money” or “fast cash” in the world of legitimate internet marketing — unless you are only looking for a small amount.

Another problem a lot of people have is that they get discouraged too easily. You are not going to rank for the phrase “make money online” in 1 week – or in 1 month, and probably not even in 1 year (unless you have a lot of friends in the MMO niche who can help you out with backlinks), so stop getting all disappointed when you don’t! Give it time and go for easier niches first. Go for keywords that are in your league and work your way up. Once you have small successes with easy keywords, you will have the confidence and backlink support network available to give you a chance to rank on page 1 of Google for more competitive terms.

The most common question I get when people email me from my various websites is, “How long did it take you to start making a living online?” It took me 2 years before I was earning enough money to consider it a truly livable income. It could take you longer or it could take you less time. It really depends on your level of resourcefulness, your ability to follow a plan, the amount of time you have available to work online, and your persistence. You will be able to make money online, but you have to be willing to do the work and tolerate the waiting period required in order to rank for keywords, build up traffic, learn the ropes, and so on.

A Home Based Office – How To Set One Up

So you have taken the plunge and are setting up your own home based business, or maybe your employer has given you flexible working arrangements so you can work from home. Whatever the reason – you now have to find room for a home office – and you don’t happen to have an empty room just waiting for you to occupy?  So how do you find space for a home office? Obviously some home workers will need more space than others – but most people these days will need at least a computer, an internet connection, possibly a telephone, and a desk.

Beyond these physical requirements most people will need a space which is free of distractions – particularly if there are children in the house – and which they can close the door on when the time for work is done.

So how to find the space for your home office?  Well if you are working online you need surprising little space. In fact, as I write this I am working on a small desk in the corner of a living area. Its hardly an ideal arrangement – and wouldn’t work if I had to share the space with someone else – but it works just fine for my needs.

The most common approach many people take is to convert a spare bedroom into a home office. If you have the money – replacing a bed with a more flexible piece of furniture such a convertible sofa means that the room can still work as a spare bedroom but you will have space for a work area. One bedroom I would never use as an office is your own – enough to give you nightmares – and make it way too easy to check email in the middle of the night.

Another area often successfully converted is a basement or garage area – though this may cost a bit if you need to add insulation and internet/phone lines.

Even if you don’t have a spare room, some place such as the kitchen table can be used temporarily. The space under the stairs can sometimes also convert to a surprisingly large amount of space if a built in desk and lighting is added. The problem with this arrangement is lack of peace and quiet. A door is highly recommended in this case as it will prevent little things like pens and mouse pads walking when you aren’t looking.

So if your home based business is just getting started or has outgrown the current working space, look around – you may be surprised to find a home office just waiting to be created in a corner of your existing home.

50 Success Quotes for Entrepreneurs

Below you will find 50 inspirational success quotes for current or aspiring entrepreneurs to start the new year off the right way.

It doesn’t matter if you want, or have, a home based business, an online home business, a brick-and-mortar offline business, or any other type of business. All that matters is that you are succeeding as an entrepreneur, and living by these quotes will be very helpful in achieving your goals.

1. “Obstacles are those frightful things you can see when you take your eyes off your goal.” -Henry Ford

2. “Success often comes to those who dare to act. It seldom goes to the timid who are ever afraid of the consequences.” -Jawaharlal Nehru

3. “Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.” -Napoleon Hill

4. “Have the end in mind and every day make sure your working towards it.” -Ryan Allis

5. “If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.” -John D Rockefeller

6. “There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.” -Christopher Morley

7. “The best use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts it.” -William James

8. “Anyone who has never made a mistake, has never tried something new.” -Albert Einstein

9. “Wherever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” -Peter F. Drucker

10. “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t so you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.” -Unknown

11. “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” -Thomas Edison

12. “It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it.” -John Crowe

13. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” -Thomas Edison

14. “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell

15. “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” -Vince Lombardi

16. “Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe, and enthusiastically act upon must inevitably come to pass!” -Paul J. Meyer

17. “The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer.” -Nolan Bushnell

18. “Keep away from small people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you too can become great.” -Mark Twain

19. “Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.” -Booker T. Washington

19. “To be successful, you must decide exactly what you want to accomplish, then resolve to pay the price to get it.” -Bunker Hunt

20. “Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, ‘What’s in it for me?'” -Brian Tracy

21. “One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.” -Mooie

22. “What is not started will never get finished.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

23. “The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will, and I am. Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have or would have done, or what they can’t do.” -Dennis Waitley

24. “What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” -Napoleon Hill

25. “Not many people are willing to give failure a second opportunity. They fail once and it is all over. The bitter pill of failure is often more than most people can handle. If you are willing to accept failure and learn from it, if you are willing to consider failure as a blessing in disguise and bounce back, you have got the essential of harnessing one of the most powerful success forces.” -Joseph Sugarman

26. “I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.” -George Patton

27. “Effective people are not problem-minded; they’re opportunity-minded. They feed opportunities and starve problems.” -Stephen Covey

28. “A professional is a person who can do his best at a time when he doesn’t particularly feel like it.” -Alistair Cooke

29. “I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.” -John D. Rockefeller

30. “I know the price of success: dedication, hard work and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.” -Frank Lloyd Wright

31. “You say I started out with practically nothing, but that isn’t correct. We all start with all there is. It’s how we use it that makes things possible.” -Henry Ford

32. “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” -Les Brown

33. “To guarantee success, act as if it were impossible to fail.” -Dorothea Brande

34. “Life is a series of problem-solving opportunities. The problems you face will either defeat you or develop you depending on how you respond to them.” -Rick Warren

35. “I learned that the only way you are going to get anywhere in life is to work hard at it. Whether you’re a musician, a writer, an athlete or a businessman, there is no getting around it. If you do, you’ll win – if you don’t you won’t.” -Bruce Jenner

36. “Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential.” -John Maxwell

37. “Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, really believe, your mind will find the ways to do it. Believing there is a solution paves the way to a solution.” -Dr. David Schwartz

38. “All successful men and women are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose.” -Brian Tracy

39. “Never be afraid to tread the path alone. Know which is your path and follow is wherever it may lead you; do not feel you have to follow in someone else’s footsteps.” -Eileen Caddy

40. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.” -Aristotle

41. “Our business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves.” -Zig Ziglar

42. “Opportunities multiply as they are seized.” – Sun Tzu

43. “Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted.” -David Bly

44. “Enter every activity without giving mental recognition to the possibility of defeat. Concentrate on your strengths, instead of your weaknesses… on your powers, instead of your problems.” -Paul J. Meyer

45. “The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows.” -Aristotle Onansis

46. “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” -Henry David Thoreau

47. “Successful leaders see the opportunities in every difficulty rather than the difficulty in every opportunity.” -Reed Markham

48. “If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can’t, you’re right.” -Henry Ford

49. “Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing. It’s when you’ve had everything to do and you’ve done it.” -Margaret Thatcher

50. “The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success: Concentration, Discrimination, Organization, Innovation and Communication.” -Michael Gerber

Whether last year was a good year for you or not just know that this year will be amazing! You will take your business to new heights and nothing can stand in your way!

Dedicated to your success,
Trent Brownrigg

What Do Horses And Carts Have To Do With Internet Affiliate Marketing, Anyway?

Have you noticed something that most of the top internet business owners have in common?

Yes, of course they all make a lot of money, and quite a lot of it is often from affiliate marketing commissions. However, more importantly than that, they have all created their own unique brands and products.

In contrast to the leading marketers, you will find that the great majority of affiliate business marketers try to make money exclusively by selling other people’s products. The problem with this approach to internet marketing, however, is that it puts the cart before the horse. The most successful online business entrepreneurs know that it is much better to have the affiliate marketing sales cart driven by the horse of unique products with the owner sat prominently in the driver’s seat for the purposes of personal branding.

You see, the problem with focusing solely on affiliate marketing is that that is what everybody else is doing. You only have to search the web for one or two leading affiliate products to realize there are far too many internet marketers out there who think the key to success is selling other people’s info products or business packages. Unfortunately for them, if you want to succeed with online marketing you have to begin promoting yourself and producing products and services of your own.

It need be no more difficult to produce your own product than it is to write a short report. Anybody who has been working in a particular field any amount of time will have a fund of insights and ideas to offer. Once you have written a report you can turn it into an e-book and promote it as your own product.

Even if you use it as a free incentive to get people to join your list, the very fact that it is a unique product that you have produced yourself with your name on it will give you an advantage over much of the competition. It will help you to brand yourself as an expert in your field.

But you don’t need to stop there. Once you have turned one report into an e-book, begin to plan your next e-book project, or online training course.

The next step could be to make a video version of your e-book. You can post the first video on your website to promote the whole course.

These are just a few ideas for creating your own unique products if you don’t yet have any of your own.

Now that you have something unique to offer, you will find that you have a more solid platform from which to promote affiliate products to generate extra income for your business. That is a much better way to think about making money with affiliate programs. Your primary income should come from your own product (the horse) and your secondary income can then be much more easily generated from affiliate commissions (the cart) generated from follow-up sales – just as a cart follows a horse.

Remember, it always pays to promote yourself first and other people’s business second. That is why you need to be visibly in the seat as the driver of your internet marketing “horse and cart.”

Here’s to your whipcrackin’ success!

Increase Your Search Volume And Online Business Earnings With The Long Tail

If you’re like many online business owners today then you’ve set up your internet presence within the framework of a blog.  This is a smart move because, as any savvy internet marketer will tell you, blogs tend to perform better in the search engines than static sites and people tend to like them more too.  This is due to a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the major search engines place a higher value on sites that offer new information on a consistent basis, and the content is more “sharable” on social media.

If your business model is centered around generating revenue with contextual advertising or affiliate programs then you may already know that churning out a large volume of high quality posts and information is vital to increasing your profits.  It is true that you can still earn a decent amount with only a handful of high-ranking posts that target highly-searched keywords, but experienced bloggers know that going after so-called “long tails” is also worthwhile.

By going after “long tail” keyword phrases I’m referring to those which tend to be three words or longer and have what could be considered relatively low search volume.  They are more obscure terms that are easier to rank for but deliver less revenue because few searchers use them when looking for information.  For example, getting your blog post ranked highly for “cheap platinum wedding engagement rings” is much easier than ranking for “wedding rings”, though the latter phrase might see a hundred times more search engine traffic than the former.

Essentially it comes down to two different strategies.  Either you can write huge numbers of posts that target long tail terms or you can focus on targeting more popular keyword phrases with less frequent posts.  Each has its pros and cons, but I feel that the long tail is overlooked much too often.  By using the long tail approach you can worry less about having to earn inbound links, and focus more on simply pumping out consistent and useful content for your site.  The challenge becomes not so much fending off competitors but rather finding the motivation to write one or more informative posts per day, which in my book is a pretty good trade-off.  Of course I’m not saying to ignore keyword phrase volume altogether, but it might be a good idea to think about zeroing in on phrases that might only draw a hundred visitors a month instead of ten thousand.  You can make up for it with volume.

As I said, this might not be new information for some online business owners, especially those who earn a living with contextual ads or affiliate programs.  I have noticed, however, that people who use a blog as an ecommerce platform tend to be less disciplined about generating site content.  They tend to be satisfied when all their product pages and posts have been published, and they completely lose sight of the benefits that consistent blogging can provide them.  In essence, they might as well have a static site, and this fact seriously limits their earning power, even if they’re pursuing one of the best online business ideas.

When I approach these folks and inform them that they are not leveraging their blogging platform to its full potential they usually complain that they don’t know what to talk about.  For these people the concept of the “long tail” has either been forgotten or discarded, but ignoring it is a huge mistake.  If you have an online store that was built using WordPress or any other blogging platform then you have an enormous opportunity to take market share simply by coming up with weekly or daily fresh content!  If you’re trying to figure out how to make a lot of money with your online store then you should know that you can greatly expand its reach by adding more posts to capture more potential business.

Let’s say, for example, that you sell yard signs via your site.  You could blog about everything from how to keep yard signs clean, to how to design it for maximum impact, to what qualities to look for in a sign maker, etc…  The possibilities are endless.  It’s not even so important that each post tackles a major concept or issue; you just need to write as much content as you can in order to capture as much of the long tail traffic as possible.  This way there is less pressure on you to rank #1 for “yard signs” because the hundreds of other posts on your site are combining to pull in a huge amount of targeted traffic on their own.

It’s really just a matter of going wide or going deep.  Ideally, you would do both, but it’s easier in the beginning to rank for the long tail keyword phrases, and then you can go after the “big fish” later on down the road.