Making Money Online-Questions....

After sending some info out to a few people, this is one of the replies I received.

"Hi Carole
Read your blog and it made very interesting reading. I also have read the Wealthy Affiliate
website a few times and it does sound too good to be true!
Hope you don't mind me asking you a few questions!
I understand that you have to get people to visit companies website but how do you get people to do that? By what I have read you make your own website with links for the various merchants but how do you get people to visit your website?

I really need to think seriously about trying to get a income just in case my husband is out of work for any length of time after March and this sounds ideal for me if I could get it to be a success.

Many thanks"

I really love answering "proper" questions, so I'll do my best to explain without over-complicating things.

Wealthy Affiliate-It's difficult to know where to begin to describe Wealthy Affiliate. When I began researching how to make money online, I knew I was going to need some serious help. With my sadly-lacking internet skills and my very limited knowledge about what internet marketing actually was, I needed quality information. I also needed a place I could go to to ask all those "newbie" questions without being laughed at.

After weeks of research on Wealthy Affiliate, I could only find good things and after reading about so many scams, this was a breath of fresh air. I decided that if there was going to be anywhere I could learn how to "do" internet marketing, then this was probably the place.

At this point, I had never interacted with a real person who was doing this as a job and although I'd read hundreds of accounts about how people were supposedly making lots of money, I never had the chance to email anyone or ask any questions. I then came across the lady I mentioned in a previous post, who had started from an almost identical point as me and we exchanged emails. Shortly after this, I took a leap of faith and paid for a 1 month subscription for Wealthy Affiliate which, from memory, cost me around $30.

I have been a fully paid-up member ever since.

Wealthy Affiliate actually exceeded all my expectations, and still does. It is soley responsible for teaching me how to make a good living on the internet (well, plus my own very hard work!).

When I got the membership, I literally "read until my eyes bled" and only another would-be internet marketer can really understand that phrase!

You do need to learn so much. It's not complicated, but the volume of reading is immense. It has every single resource you need, both in terms of actual interactive training courses and the tools you will need to build your business online. However, one of the best things about Wealthy Affiliate is the forum. You can post any question at all and be sure that one of the thousands of other members (and as well as lots of "newbies, there are some of the biggest names out there in the internet markting world)

Working alone online can be lonely and overwhelming at times and it's great to have other like-minded people around who can help you and, before you know it, you too will be helping other new starters.

My husband and children became very used to seeing the back of my head, leant over the laptop-day and night. They became used to washing and ironing not being done and having to "muck in". If you decide to build your own online business, you need to get the words "easy" and "quick" out of your mind. Building anything worthwhile takes lots of work. You are building a business, so you will need tools, education and good support and for me, this is where Wealthy Affiliate came in, and still does. I make full use of the free research tools, the website builders and the masses of tutorials and the Training Centre. I also visit the forum and ask questions whenever I get stuck.

Ok, enough about Wealthy Affiliate for now. On to the next point.

Getting People To Visit Your Website

You are right here to a certain extent in that people do have to find your "content" to be able to buy products you have recommended. However, there are many ways of getting content online and having your own website is only one of many ways.

There are many good article sites (for example, Ezine, GoArticles and Articles Base) which Google "loves" - meaning that content written on these free sites is likely to be posted depending on keywords (more later!!!).

You can also make use of very simple free website builders, such as the one I am writing on here (Google Blogger) or Squidoo, Hubpages, Zimbio, to name but a few of many.

There are other ways to get content online, for example, if you were an affiliate of a product which kills fleas on dogs and someone on "Yahoo Answers" asks how they can rid their beloved hound of fleas, you might post some useful information by way of an answer, plus a link to the product you promote.

Another way to get your affiliate links shown is to use "PPC" or "Pay Per Click". You have probably seen this being used everyday. If you search anything on the internet, you will find a range of "Sponsored Links" on the top and/or right hand side of the page. These are adverts which have been paid for, usually by other internet marketers, and each time a prospective purchaser "clicks" on the ad, the internet marketer is charged. This can be a great way to make money, but also a fantastic way to lose tons of money fast unless you really know what you are doing! I would never recommend anyone tries this out unless they have become familiar with making some money using free methods first!

It took me around 10 months before I built my own "stand alone" website and even then, it was an ugly, joke of a website. However, it did begin to earn me some money within a few weeks (and still does!). Up until then, I made full use of the free builders (especially Squidoo) as you really don't need any prior experience to use these, just dogged determination. To illustrate the learning curve, it took me the best part of a whole day to build one page in the Squidoo site-I can now build a very similar page in about three quarters of an hour.

At the time, I remember someone telling me that if you have no "content" (ie webpages, free pages or articles etc) online, you are 100% assured of making no money. Put some content online and you at least have a chance of making something-how very true this is!

My next post will deal with-

• Keywords-What they are and how they are absolutely crucial to getting your content found online
• Free keyword research tools

Following on from that post will be-

• My favorite affiliate site for new starters
• A simple step-by-step "blueprint" which will show you exactly how to set up a mini campaign for free with money-making potential
  

If anyone has any other questions, add a comment to the blog and I'll answer as soon as possible. Alternatively, email me on LivingTheDreamNow@hotmail.co.uk and I'll get back to you personally.

Carole

"No Content Online=No Money"

Update-For New Readers

I've decided to update this blog mainly for the benefit of a few people who have been asking about what I do for a living.

Making money online is a huge topic and lots of people believe it is a pipe-dream. It's no wonder really, there's so much mis-information and many scams out there. Well I am living that dream. I started writing this blog back in April 2009, shortly after I had begun to see success online as an internet marketer. I have left my older posts intact, incase anyone wants to see how I got started and the rather chequered journey I had myself.

I started writing the blog with the intention of helping others make it online. However, I rather selfishly never continued it at the time as my "success" overtook me and I became too self-absorbed with all the opportunities out there. Also, as a relatively new marketer, I did need to build my business to ensure continued success and to make sure that I was making the kind if money I needed for the lifestyle we were living and also to start to provide for a better future.

The main problem I had when starting out was that I had nobody to "ask". I had worked out for myself (as you can see from some previous posts) that Internet Marketing was "real" and that potentially, it was what could change my life. However, all the people I read about were just names and I still had that sneaking suspicion that it all sounded too good to be true.

One of my life-changing moments was coming across a lady in the US who appeared to have started out like me-with no knowledge, a family to look after and a really busy life. I posted a comment on her blog and was amazed when she replied and at that moment, it all became "real". I had finally found someone who was successful, who had started from scratch and who was willing to tell me a little bit about what she had actually done and this made all the difference to me.

I still have the email she sent me on June 12th 2008, and this is an extract:-

"Hi Carole =)

Thanks for your email!

Welcome to the internet marketing world! Don't worry about 'technical skills' - what all this takes is an ability and a willingness to learn.. AND to make mistakes...haha!

Yes, it can be hard to mix mothering of a house full of kids with learning a new skill (ie, starting your own business), but just remember - what you do the next 6 months to a year could potentially change ALL your years after that! If you keep at it and work smart, today, June 12th, can be very different for you and your family in 2009.

I wish you all the luck. If you need anything, please feel free to ask!"


...and that was it really. June the 12th 2009 was very different. By that time I had gone from earning nothing from internet marketing to earning what you would call a good, full-time salary. I couldn't believe it. I still can't.

However, if anybody thinking about doing this thinks it's an easy option, then think again. I do work long, long hours some weeks-especially when I was starting out, and there's nobody else to rely on to get things done. However, I now know lots of people I can ask if I'm ever stuck.

The benefits for me personally are amazing. For example, when we went to Florida last year, the money continued to come in, even though I just "maintained" my business via the internet when away. (I remember sitting on the porch of a beach house on Anna Maria, looking over the Gulf, doing a bit of "work", thinking that maybe in time, I could live there and work there).

Right now, I have an elderly mother who lives nearby, and I can work around her doctors/hospital appointments, I can still take and collect the children from school, and just make up the time on an evening. It's this kind of flexibility which I still find unreal!

I was able to virtually take a full month off over Christmas-and I still made money.

I am at a point now where I feel fortunate enough to be able to share what I do with others, so if anybody wants any more information, I'd be happy to chat or email me at LivingTheDreamNow@hotmail.co.uk .

Carole

"No Content Online=No Money"