This is a subject that fascinates me. I have been working this part of the internet for only a short period of time, but one thing seems to happen over and over. People get the idea that they can earn an online income, and start a blog in the Make Money Online category.
Really? Why would you jump into a new job and immediately proclaim your expertise to the world? It’s as if I was interested in plastic surgery, so I went out and bought a scalpel and hung out my shingle.
The other thing is that they seem to start out by going to Clickbank, finding out what the best sellers are, and then setting up something to promote that item. It apparently doesn’t occur to them that those items are best sellers because the best marketers are pushing them. Also, can you imagine the competition levels for the ten best selling affiliate products? I would never think of going up against them.
At this point, you may be wondering why I have this blog up, if not to make money. Easy – the more I write, the better I become at it. The more blogs I have percolating, the more money I will earn from them over time. But do I expect to make even a small dent in this genre? Nope.
If I had someone come to me today, and ask how to work for themselves online, I would ask them what they were interested in. And then I would give them this sequence:
- Sell it on eBay. Now I do not care for eBay at all. I used to sell there, and have a perfect feedback rating of over 200. But it is a difficult format. The competition is fierce. The site itself is anything but user friendly. Starting out using eBay as a source of online income is like learning to swim by jumping into the deep end of the pool.
- Start a Blogger blog. It’s free, and already optimized for SEO. This would give them some experience writing, and writing is everything online. I would have them use their blog to promote their eBay listings.
- After a month of this, or once they had 25 or so eBay sales, I would point them to The Keyword Academy and Griz’s sites. Not before – I think it is too easy to become excited by dreams of internet riches, with no idea of how difficult the path can be. After a few months of dealing with eBay’s arcane bullshit, they’ll be ready for some straight talk and a work list, which is really all that Court, Mark and Grizzly offer.
The great thing about those sites is that the basic, where the rubber meets the road kind of SEO they teach is what you need regardless of where or how you are selling online. You can believe that I will be using everything they teach me to pump my Yahoo Stores up in the serps, not just my blogs.
There are a lot of different ways to earn your living in your underwear, but this is not an easy one. And it’s got nothing in common with the oldest one. At least not if you do it right.
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