About 8 years ago I was inspired by the book, Your Money or Your Life. I wanted to break the connection between making a living and spending my time, which is actually my life, to do it. I wanted to stop trading my life for money.
My ideal solution was to make money online. The potential seemed unlimited and it would allow me to perpetually travel. I got suckered in by every Internet marketing guru that came along. In retrospect I think the way to get rich in the Internet marketing niche is to act like you already did and sell an info product telling others how to do it.
My first website was a template, like thousands of others selling an Internet privacy product. I don't think it ever had a visitor except me.
Then I tried an Internet marketing info product review website. It was one of the first ones, now there are thousands. So I bought $1,000 in clicks from Google. It took about 10 minutes to use them up and I had made no money. Trying to save the site I spent another grand on a coach. I thing the year the site was up it made about $100.
Then I started to realize making money online was actually going to require some real work. So I found another guru that said you could get rich in 33 days by writing an ebook. I eventually wrote a very good one with valuable info that was never before published. It sold for $49.97
It took several months to do all 33 days. I was getting praised by leaders in the industry, I was getting interviewed and trade journals were asking me to write articles. Yet I wasn't selling very many ebooks. I was doing everything I was “suppose to” and I wasn't getting rich. One guru in the niche wanted to interview for his monthly audio cd subscription service. I suggested a joint venture and he laughed. He said my price point was much too low and that I should be charging $397.
I knew I needed more traffic to my sales letter page so I tried buying it from Google again. It turned out that a click was worth $.50 to me but cost me about $1.00. I realized I would have to attract free traffic from search engines. I now had about 2 years of experience failing behind me.
I built a content website. For the first time I did real keyword research and realized this wasn't a good idea, but I had already come this far so I went on. I wrote content pages, a special report, a course and an ezine. I exchanged links and paid for others. The site was a PR3. Many pages ranked in the top 30 but the traffic just dribbled in. I was selling some books but I couldn't make a living at it.
I realized I could make more selling my traffic to Google instead of trying to sell them my book. I added Google ads to all of my pages and stopped developing back end products.
I got discouraged and stopped working on it. I was going to cancel the site at the end of the year but then I realized it had more than it cost. Now 6 years later it has dropped to PR2, but it is making over $3000 a year. I am making money without trading my life for it. I did the work once and was getting paid for it 6 years later.
I have a much greater passion for learning than doing. I still devour Internet marketing info products. The time has come to put those years of knowledge into action. I recently started updating that site and doing some other stuff. My efforts have been sporadic.
It's going to take me over 5 years to get out of debt on my current income. If I was happy with where I was that would be fine. I am not and I can not afford to change my life right now. I obviously need more income.
I know what I have to do to make money online. I have the tools to do it. I just need to do it, day after day. So I am committing to working 20 hours a week developing a second income. I will work 52.5 hours a week for someone else and then 20 for myself.
I will work in super intense 25 minute sessions followed by a 5 minute break. After 4 sessions I will take a 30 minute break. After two sets, I will take an hour break. This is the Pomodoro Technique for increasing productivity. The ebook is free.
My goal is to make as much after work as I do at work. Then I will continue doing both until my debt is paid off and I have 3-6 months living expenses saved as well as moving expenses.
My Second Income and New Goals
October 30th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
October 30th, 2010 at 01:04 pm 1288443840
It's just not that easy.
October 30th, 2010 at 01:30 pm 1288445417
October 30th, 2010 at 01:51 pm 1288446696
I got "direction not speed" from Stephen Covey.
Mostly the Tortoise persona was inspired by Robert Ringer...
"Robert Ringer adopted The Tortoise as his alter ego in his first book, because so many of the anecdotes in that autobiographical work were reminiscent of the legendary tortoise-and-hare tale. The Tortoise is the unglamorous plodder who always seems to find a way to come out ahead, no matter how harshly life treats him along the way. He isn't flashy or impressive; his strengths are consistency, perseverance, resiliency, and resourcefulness. He's the kind of reptile who, upon being told that he can't play in someone's game, simply goes out and starts his own league.
The Tortoise is the quintessential antihero, reflected in such characters as Ben Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman), the shy, stuttering boyfriend in The Graduate; or Colombo, the fumbling, stumbling detective played by Peter Falk in the old TV series of the same name, slow when it came to figuring things out, but always catching the villain in the end; or Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) in the Rocky film series, the late starter who overcame all odds to become world heavyweight champion.
The Tortoise is the ultimate icon of perseverance, the reptile who demonstrates that the outcome of most situations in life are decided over the long term. His motto succinctly sums up his view of the world:
Quickly getting out of the starting blocks may get people's attention, but all that counts is where you are when the race is over. Relentless, nonstop action beats a fast start every time. "
October 30th, 2010 at 04:13 pm 1288455202
November 12th, 2010 at 09:44 am 1289555070
Jerry