How to Make Money

That is the question of the day. How to make money? I'm working like crazy trying to establish a presence online with my Squidoo lenses, blogs and other ventures just waiting for the money to start flowing in. So far it's been pretty much a trickle, but I'm seeing movement. Slight increases in visits and clickthroughs, a spike in traffic here, a dollar earned there. Nobody said it would be easy. Well, actually a lot of people said it was easy, especially if just "buy my (insert SEO or affiliate marketing) product for the low, low price of..."

Set Your Goals

How much money do I want to make? I like everyone else I have visions of piles of loot, big boats and scantily clad women celebrating all that is me. I know that's not about to happen any time soon, so what I would like is to make enough money online to wave goodbye to my day job and concentrate on becoming a one-man show. That means having enough money in the bank to tide me over if my online business crashes and burns. That means, enough to cover my mortgage payments, loans, food, everything. Right now my online businesses don't do that. So I am required to hang on tightly to my current employment. For now.

One of my goals is to shake hands with the boss slap her on the back and thank her for keeping me on as long as she did. Don't burn bridges if you leave your job. Even if you hate it, don't turn over your desk and storm out, flipping off everyone on the way. One guy I worked with did that and the new job he thought he was going to didn't pan out. Needless to say, he's not welcome so much as a toe in the lobby. Your former boss may turn out to be your biggest customer. You just never know.

Now, What About Goals

What I would like is for each of my Squidoo pages (I currently have over 120 and I'm making more daily) to earn me a dollar a day. Sound's easy, doesn't it? Well, it's not. A dollar a day from one site, so just make a hundred similar sites and you'll be making $100 a day. That's $36,500 a year. Simple. Now here's my ebook on how I did it for the low, low price... I'm kidding. I don't have my book started yet. That's because this 100 site nonsense is just that, nonsense. Yes you can make a living off of the internet, but it is not like turning on a faucet. I'm still searching for that elusive plumbing outlet. Right now, I'm hauling my water in small jugs. Hopefully I can get a pipe connected this faucet soon, but in the meantime, I'll be doing a lot of hard work.

My goals are to make $5,000 a month total from online income a month within 2 years. Simple and (more importantly) achievable! It isn't happening right now and it won't happen next month, but in 2 years from today - I will be making that amount (maybe more) every month. Now, how do I do that? Ummm...

My Blueprint For Online Success

Okay, what are the steps I'm going to follow to make this goal happen? I don't expect this to happen overnight. It hasn't yet and it likely won't happen when I wake up tomorrow morning. The secret (well, it's no secret really) is expansion of my little network.

More blogs, more Squidoo lenses, maybe add a dash of hubpages, throw in some adsense, some social networking, maybe a swig from article marketing and an affiliate link here and there. So far, this has been an appetizer. I currently have some blogs (underperforming, but getting some traction), my Squidoo lenses, pretty much the same, but they are getting better all the time and are starting to throw off a small stream on money.

I haven't made my presence known on Hubpages yet, but as I've elbowed my way into Squidoo, I've picked up a few ideas. I expect I'll have about 500 lenses at Squidoo by this time next year the way I've been cranking them out. It's a lot of fun, hit and miss, but more opportunities avail themselves as Squidoo evolves. I'm currently putting together some Facebook groups that are starting to garner memberships. Those will expand and more are coming.

But others are already doing all this. What makes you think you can succeed? Well, they don't have my determination, skill, or patience. Like I said, I am going to succeed. I know it. If you don't believe me, fine. Come back later and check on my progress. In the meantime, I'll be writing, reading, testing, measuring, re-writing, reading some more, etc. If I'm not where I claimed I will be, call me on it. Call me a liar, a fraud. Whatever. November 2010. Mark it on your calendar. I know I will.