Sorry this post is too long…but really if you were asking me for help and the email below was YOUR email you would want a thorough answer, not some quick answer that wouldn’t really help. If you are already making money online and don’t need any help then don’t bother with this post. If you are scrambling, worried about your job, your finances and plan on making money on the internet saving you…then read every word.
I receive emails like the following almost every day. The economy is hurting and lots of people are heading to the internet to make money. Who can blame them? With lots of people making staggering amounts of money online everyone hears about it. Many want in on it. Many NEED to make money NOW!
Here is a letter I got from someone I will call “Janet” (not her real name) who really needs help as many do. I want to help. So I put together a huge (long winded) response to her. Then I decided I should share it on my blog because the scenario fits many other emails I get as well.
Hi Janet,
You are wise to be skeptical. A lot of the opportunities out there even if they are NOT scams are much more difficult (especially for the newbie) than they portray in the sales letter. And to a certain extent who can blame them. Afterall, who wants to buy a product that says “If you work REALLY, REALLY hard we think you MIGHT be able to make a few bucks. But then again, maybe not. “ Nope, you aren’t gonna sell many “how to make money” products that way.
The answer to your question is difficult because it very much depends on YOUR skills, desires, tenacity and so much more. My stock answer is that affiliate marketing (where you sell other people’s products ) is the easiest place to start.
The problem is that you want money NOW! That is not really likely unless you already have built up some skills online. While it is entirely possible to make HUGE amounts of money online the more common scenario is that you work essentially for no pay while you learn. That is totally reasonable too…right? It takes 2-4 years to learn another trade or get a college degree and even then you need lots of on the job training to become really successful. Well internet marketing is really no different. It is not HARD really, so much as there is a lot of things to learn.
So if you don’t know how to make a website…
If you don’t know how to do pay per click advertising…
If you don’t have a BUDGET to spend for advertising…
You have your work cut out for you. I am not saying it can’t be done. It CAN. It just takes an UNBELIEVEABLE amount of tenacity and work to learn all the things needed to make money online. Sure you see salesletters where it is done everyday. And it IS. But usually there is a hidden piece of info. Like maybe the scenario “Joe was my best friend so I personally taught him, coached him step by step” secret and then this internet marketer advertises “A student of mine made $10,000 on his FIRST campaign.” So often there is a secret. Or maybe they have $2,000/day they can spend on PPC (pay per click) advertising while they learn. OH buddy. Not very many newbies will have that budget or SPEND it like that even if they had it.
So where does that leave you?
The SLOW and CHEAP method. If you have time and little money this is where you are.
A lot of time is needed, but the price is right! So on the front end you are working for $0-$2/hr hoping to scale that to $300/day.
I get a LOT of questions just like yours. If I have misread you I apologize. But since you didn’t indicate any previous internet marketing skills I am going to assume none.
So here is my suggestion as BAD as it may seem.
GET A JOB!!! (Don’t panic!) Get ANY job.
Get a job to bring in money for the bills while you learn what to do over the next 6 months. It would be irresponsible of me to recommend to you to go for the brass ring and have no fallback plan to put food on the table while you learn. AND it would be irresponsible of YOU to back yourself in a corner where you are going to take your family down the drain if you don’t succeed. Sorry to be so blunt here, but think of this as tough love. I am only trying to help here.
I know I am not going to sell as much saying this. I know other internet marketers are going to say I am wrong. I know SOME people can instantly make money online.
I DON”T CARE!!!
Internet marketing is a very difficult place to make money in a hurry with no knowledge on the front end. It is a process that you must learn. I had been doing internet marketing every night and weekend for 2 full years before I went full time.
So I would suggest you get ANY kind of “bring in the money” job so that you can come home and work DILIGENTLY on the skills to get to where you can quit your day job. I believe that you need probably 6 months of working like a dog to get to good spendable income. It could be more or less depending on you and other factors. You can work the job during the day and do internet marketing in the evenings.
The other thing is it is important to FOCUS on a technique that works and not bounce around from one idea to another. I am the product of this particular problem. It is very inefficient. As tempting as it is … DON’T DO IT!
So what are the SLOW methods that are cheap that I recommend so you can get started NOW???
Here are a couple of ideas: (Note that below are affiliate links and I make money if you buy from them…just want you to know.)
If you DON’T have any money to get started:
Cash by Choice Rob Fore gives amazing amounts of information for $7. How to make money without a website of your own and very very little money. I have talked with him numerous times. He is the real deal. While I (personally) I am not a big fan of his MLM send out cards opportunity, I do like his “cash by Choice system” and his monthly mentoring program. His coaching is $27/month. I started and have NEVER opted out. Highly recommended. By the way, Rob makes multiple 6 figures a year with his distributed approach that he teaches in his monthly coaching.
One Week Marketing by “Pot Pie Girl”. If you want the perspective of how to make money at home from what was a desperate stay at home mom… This is your guide. She is a breath of fresh air and seems as honest as the day is long. Simple how to make money at home with no website building skills using almost free methods. But it does take some work (REMEMBER?) I HIGHLY recommend her as well.
Pot Pie Girl makes over $150K/year with her methods.
Super Affiliate Handbook: One other GREAT product to teach you about affiliate marketing is Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook. It has been around awhile but is considered to be one of the classics as far as teaching you how to make money with blogs. She is a retired air traffic controller who makes about a million a year doing this. I have met her in person, seen her speak live and she is smart as can be, nice as can be and a pretty lady to boot. She inspired my wife to become an internet marketer as well. Gotta luv that!
If you DO have money to get started:
I include the products below in the “DO have a budget” category because they cost more than $50 to for the course. (You can usually get in with a cheap trial though). Now if you DO have a budget to work with that helps. It opens the door to not only a few little more expensive courses, but also an advertising budget. It doesn’t have to be a lot. You can do wonders with $20-$30/day advertising budget. (Remember you are planning on making more money than you pay for advertising…at least that’s the plan!)
Insider’s Secrets: No matter WHAT you buy or learn you will always have more questions. The one that fills the most gaps for most people is also MUCH more expensive. It is by the company started by the late internet icon, Corey Rudl. Now run by Derrek Gehl. It is reviewed as a “ship to your house” product on my website at http://www.megamarketingreviews.com/dg.htm It is now an online product so they no longer ship the binders to your house, but the information has been updated immensely. You can get a $2.95 trial or pay $157 one time up front. But it covers everything from A-Z
Commission Blueprint: This was my favorite course of 2008. It teaches you how to sell information products from Clickbank using PPC (pay per click) marketing. It teaches so many things and Steve is SUCH a great teacher I MUST include it here. The only downside to it is that it is missing the ultra, ultra basics. So it doesn’t do a thorough job explaining how to get a Google AdWords account for example. They wanted to focus on the important strategies not the how to click your mouse. Frankly that was a positive for me, because after you get past a certain level of expertise you don’t want to pay over and over again to learn how to use the mouse! This course teaches a much faster way to make money also, but at the expense of advertising budget. You MUST have some money to advertise.
All the above are highly recommended. I own them all. I spend ENORMOUS hours learning internet marketing and making money online. So keep that in mind. I have also spent over $20,000 on learning marketing. (How much does college cost?) Plus here the amount of money you can LEARN to make is virtually unlimited if you have the tenacity for it. Sure some people will be lucky. Some people win the lottery. But most of the success stories out here work a lot harder to get where they are then they EVER admit.
Just remember that NO business is like this where you can get in for almost no money. Just try and buy a McDonald’s franchise for $100. It ain’t happening! Even if you could you will probably find you are working for a wage instead of a future. In internet marketing you can slowly build a business that runs a lot on outsourcing and uses less and less of your own time. You can work toward the desirable 4 hour work week.
You absolutely CAN make money on the internet…a LOT of money. The above is not meant to say that you can’t. What I am advising is CAUTION! Make sure that you protect yourself and your family. Don’t believe all the hype (It is pretty obvious you don’t). And start learning NOW!
I could go on and on about all this but this post is ridiculously long already.
Now if I haven’t scared you off…welcome to the world of internet marketing. And if you have more questions let me know I will try to answer them.
Best of luck.
Rex Turner
I have written before about Rob Fore’s Cash by Choice System. I think it is just great! Well I guess he lost his marbles because he just lowered the price of his system from $17 down to $7.
If you are a newbie I GUARANTEE this is worth $7…cmon! If you are experienced I can say …so am I and I still learned some cool stuff in it. PLUS he keeps updating it as the rules change.
