Day 13.1: Investments: When Spending Earns

One of my unofficial rules for this 30-day experiment was to come into the game without a cent. The only money I was allowed to spend on advertising or optimization was money that I'd already earned. Fortunately, I've been able to keep that rule with little discomfort, using only free program to help me out. But what if I decided to break that rule?

I've had many options over the past 13 days to spend money as an investment to do better than I have been. Looking back, I'm glad I stuck to my rule, because there are so many things out there that I wouldn't have any funds left at this point, and most would have been spent on products I would later find were total ripoffs! But I've also begun to develop a strategy for when I do get enough money to invest (probably in a week or so, at the rate I'm currently taking it). How should I go about it? How can I know for sure something is worth it? I put together a bit of a list to help figure it all out:

1. Can I get a refund? Is there a money-back guarantee, and can I be sure to return the product/service if it doesn't pay for itself in the specified length of time?
2. Is it credible? Who is using this, and what success have they had? Can I find any dissatisfied customers on the Internet?
3. Is there a free alternative? I've been surprised at all the times I've found completely free alternatives to services that were charging an annoying amount of money.
4. Is this something I'd really use? There are some tools that I've gotten that, in the end, didn't do a thing for me. They did everything they were guaranteed to do very well, but it wasn't something that helped me. This goes back the the notion that you shouldn't go into online business unless you have a defined strategy to begin with. Does this service fit my strategy perfectly?
5. Is it a one-time payment or a subscription? Depending on the price and service, either one might be better than another. But frankly I don't want the horrible surprise of finding $20 taken out of my bank account every month for something that only gives me $5 in return.

There's my list so far, and I'll try to work on it more as the week progresses. I do think I could make a lot more with the right investment, but I don't want to be spending my money willy-nilly. Please follow me on Twitter (@onlineincome) for updates and tips, or join me in my Free Internet Money endeavor!

Day 12.2: Begging vs. Selling

"Please buy this. Please? It's a great thing to have. Super nifty. No, wait! Don't go. Please? Come back!"

That's just about what I sound like whenever I try to sell things, both online and in person. Whiney, annoying, and all-around obnoxious. No one wants to buy things from a person like that! I can't sell, and that's a problem. Pretty much every industry requires people to sell something--skills, impressions, tangible objects. Some people are fabulous at selling. They can get anyone to do anything just by saying things in the right tone of voice. How do they do that?

I've tried everything I can think of. I've tried to be bold; I've tried to be subtle; I've tried to make it as friendly and personal as I can, but nothing works. What do I do?

 Perhaps I need a new approach. I've quite proven that I am useless a salesmen myself... but there are others who can sell easily. What I need to do is find someone--or something--who can do the selling for me. I get frustrated when I see that sites that claim to be able to help with advertising only give me the tools but not the knowledge of how to use them. So far Traffic Exchange Profits has been the only company I know of that actually covers that part of the business, and it's very clever about it--it does its own selling. You'll notice that I haven't mentioned it very much on this blog, and there's a reason for it. I don't need to. Actually, the site advises against it. It's designed to be advertised only through traffic exchanges, and that makes sense. I'm selling something to people who, by definition, could use it. But it is a useful system, and if nothing else I'd recommend joining it just to see the training videos.

But that's the approach I need... a product that is literally designed to sell itself, placed in front of an audience who will actually like it. I know my sites are all awesome and that you should all join, but I just need to find a way to communicate that without getting you to tune out.

Please feel free to follow me on Twitter (@onlineincome) for more updates and tips, and by all means check out Traffic Exchange Profits or Free Internet Money. I'm going to keep saying that even if you don't respond.

Day 11.2: Free Internet Money

I've been out running errands ever since my last post, so I'm afraid I really don't have anything exciting to say. I don't even have a picture this time around because they're not loading onto the blog. As I can tell none of you have clicked on the link to the Free Internet Money site I keep mentioning, I guess I'll ignore your apathy and tell you a bit more about the strategy.

Basically, there are several good PTC (paid-to-click) sites out there, and it's a good idea to join the best ones. They're listed easily on Free Internet Money, so it's easy to go from one to the next and join the ones you haven't joined yet. The site also tells you how to bookmark them so you can open them up to open them every day easily.

There's also a lot of tools on Free Internet Money to aid with publicity and training for getting the best out of the sites. It's the training that's valuable. Learning from the experts how to get started is a great way to set out in the right direction, and all the sites listed have proven to be honest and paying sites.

Take a look! You'll be glad you did.

I'm sorry this post has been rather pathetic as far as my other posts, but I have been busier than usual. Hopefully if you visit the site, the information that you glean there will make up for it.

Day 10.1: When PTCs Pay Off

Today it happened. It finally happened. I was going about my merry way, clicking adds and collecting pennies this morning, when I noticed that my Clixsense account had more money than it had last night. What??? I quickly checked the referral page, and it's started! If you're reading this (and you know who you are!) I really want to thank you for totally making my day today, and I can assure you that you'll feel the same way when you get your first referral. One of the things that I like about Internet marketing and PTCs is how the more I work it, the more the money score adds up and the closer I get to cashing out my first Internet pay check. And for you skeptics out there, I'm actually intending to cash it out by Monday.

Referrals make it all worthwhile in the end. Even without referrals, you can earn a steady profit and work your way up in many sites, and often sites will allow you to rent referrals as well. But the feeling of actually having a downline lets you know that you're doing something right. So I can assure you, if you've been thinking about going into this but still aren't convinced, it's worth it. It's so worth it.

So, the Free Internet Money plan is working! All I had to do was to follow the instructions on the site. Easy peasy, as one of my professors used to put it. Just have patience and stick to it!

And, for current and future referrals of mine...

Again, thank-you very much for making my plan a success, and I hope it works for you too!

Day 9.3: The Ten Rules of Conducting Business Online

1. If it feels like a scam, it probably is.
2. No one wants to buy, but everyone wants to sell.
3. You are the most gullible person in the industry.
4. Traffic does not equal money.
5. There's no such thing as fast, easy money.
6. There is no single perfect approach to online business.
7. If you're alone, you're dead.
8. Forget rule number one. If it feels like a scam, it might still be worth investigating.
9. You'll never be done optimizing your online business. Never.
10. Free Internet Money rocks.

A short post, but true. Please follow me on Twitter for more updates and tips!

Day 9.2: Making Traffic Work for You

When it comes to any kind of business on the Internet, whether blogging, marketing, or even just posting a cute little webcomic for the fun of it, there's one thing we can all agree on: traffic is awesome. Every site need traffic to survive, and when you know you've been getting it, that's a good feeling. Trust me. But for some of us, traffic isn't enough. If your online business is primarily for entertainment and recreation, traffic might be all you need--just the satisfaction of knowing that you've brightened someone else's day or spread awareness of an important issue. But if you're trying to make a living online... you'll need more than just traffic. You'll need active traffic. People who are willing to try out what you've got. People who like what you stand for so much that they decide to stand for it themselves

This blog is now at almost a thousand views. Considering it's only been up for a little over a week and that I'm a total newbie to online marketing, that's substantial. I get a warm fuzzy feeling whenever I think of someone else reading my own words or joining my Twitter feed. It's an author's dream come true! But one of the goals of this blog was to generate cash. Obviously, I knew that no matter how good of products I advertised and how well I advertised them, only a fraction of a percent would click a link, and even fewer people than that would go through with something--even if it was free and easy and awesome, like Clixsense. Almost a thousand views... and not one click. Not even out of curiosity. I'm giving this blog a full thirty days to generate so much as a cent, but my point is this: if I'm getting traffic, if I've got the whole world hanging on my words, but no one clicks, I can't make a cent off of this. Traffic without action is dead. (Well, not entirely, I really do love views and readers!)

So what can be done about it? My problem is simple. I need to find a way to make my traffic work for me. Unfortunately, I lack the tools and the knowledge to do so. As the old adage goes, you can bring a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. This is especially frustrating when I consider my own willingness to be an active member of traffic. I always want to explore and learn, and it's hard for me to understand why not everyone does.

So what's my strategy? I might not know the secret to making my traffic work for me, but there are people out there, masters of the Internet, who do. I have taken it upon myself to figure out what there secrets are and how I can replicate them! I've already got a start. Traffic Exchange Profits (I dare you to click the link!) is a program built around the idea of driving traffic to action. While it hasn't fully answered all my questions, it has a free video series explaining the concepts involved. I highly recommend them.

I don't know how to move my traffic to action, but I'm going to find out! Follow me on Twitter for more updates and tips, and to take a look at my own strategy on making money online, check out Free Internet Money and Turbo Income Charger. Cool stuff's happening!

Day 9.1: Setting Standards, Setting Limits

Two things that are especially on my mind this morning are the importance of setting standards and the importance of setting limits. Since I started this blog, I personally set a standard for myself that I have practiced every day since then--write three posts per day, share it on the right websites and search engines, look for ways to improve the system. I've said again and again that it's a lot of work. You could easily make a full-time job out of doing exactly what I've been doing, and if that's something you can't afford, then you'd better look out. The Internet is a vast and growing whirlpool. If you have Facebook you know what I'm talking about. It draws you in, and before you know it, hours have passed and you've hardly done a thing that would help. Hence, the importance of setting limits.

Hopefully you already know the grand rule of bidding. When you're bidding on something from Ebay or Amazon, you need to decide beforehand how much you're willing to pay. If you don't, adding just a few more cents and a few more cents becomes all too easy, and before you know it you've paid $65 for something that should have cost $40. Ouch. You need to set limits, and you need to stay with them. It's the only way to get a genuinely good deal on business sites, and it's also a vital tip for any form of freelance work online.

Let's say you decide to start up a blog, like this one. You'll go for one post a day and get all the publicity you physically can without paying. You travel from site to site, search engine to directory, posting links to your blog article everywhere. You investigate all of the different methods of publicity, join more programs than you can keep track of, and sign up for all the newsletters. You do your homework, and you're not going to leave any stone unturned. You've got patience and you've got grit, and you're going for it! While I have to say it's a brilliant start, and I have to applaud you if you can keep up with that for even so much as a week, let's get realistic. Do you have time for that? What about your actual day job/homework, family, social life? What about giving your mind a break from it all and just playing a dumb game or reading a book for a while? You need to take care of yourself. You can't stop living all for the sake of a program.

Fortunately, there are solutions to this, and they're easy. The first is to plan. Decide what path you'll follow, and stick to it. You'll save a lot of time and energy if you don't even bother with alternatives after a certain point. Does it fit in with your goal? Include it. Is it a bit different? Don't even bother. The second is to set limits. How much time are you willing to put into this daily? An hour or two? Before opening or turning on your computer, look at the clock. Pick a time you'll be free, and work diligently until then. When the time's up, exit your programs and go on to enjoy the day.

You can be an Internet entrepreneur without selling your soul to the Internet. Remember--you shouldn't work for it, but rather make ways for it to work for you. That's how it's supposed to be, and that's the best way to succeed.

Please follow me on Twitter for more follow-up tips and updates, and check out my strategy by visiting Free Internet Money today!

Day 8.3: Is Online Marketing for You?

This has been an exciting day for me, because today I was finally able to put my money-making plan into action! Please see my last post for information about that. But my work on that, and on this whole project, is far from over. Today I spent hours figuring out how to optimize my new system, visiting and joining site after site so that I could learn more about what's out there. Things are clicking into place brilliantly, but there are a few things I thought I should make note of in this blog, primarily that my system will not work for everyone.

It's simple, it's logical, and it works. Guaranteed generated income. But it's also time-consuming and repetitive work. You can't passively just sign up for Clixsense and expect others to sign up under you. You have to promote your link. You have to be active in getting others to notice. And while my system provides all the necessary venues to do that, it will still take a good chunk of time out of your day. There's no such thing as easy money, and even in a system this simple you have to earn every penny. But don't get depressed--there are plenty of good things about online marketing too!

If you're thinking about getting involved, but not entirely sure, here are some questions to ask yourself:

1. Am I willing to follow leads? As a marketer, you'll be interacting a lot with other marketers, exchanging services and providing traffic. You'll have to join a lot of sites and stay active to keep your accounts open. If you want only a one-stop-shop, online marketing probably isn't for you.
2. Am I willing to start small? Remember, you probably won't make anything at first. You'll be working long hours while seeing few results, all to invest in a hopeful future. It's an investment.
3. Will I stick with this through thick and thin? Remember, patience is the key! There will be days when you want to quit. It's going to look bleak and hopeless, and you'll feel like you're losing a lot of time for nothing.

Any form of online marketing is serious work, but with patience and determination it can really pay off.

My new system focuses on optimizing the process to generate maximum referrals in the shortest time possible, and as I continue to work on it, things will hopefully keep getting faster and easier.

Do you think you have what it takes? It's surprisingly simple and automated, so don't be afraid to poke around and see what works for you. Check out Free Internet Money and Turbo Income Charger for all the information you need to start generating an income! In the meantime, please follow my Twitter feed for updates and tips and hints for making and saving money online.

Day 8.2: Getting Rich Online

Ok, I think my plan's ready to go live! More than that, I've actually already started putting it into action, and I'm really excited! So what is this plan?

First, let's look at things logically. The other day, I was investigating various cases of people who actually did get rich from PTC sites. I tried to find a pattern in all these stories, and I found it. There are two things (well, three things, actually) that are required to make any serious money online. Nothing else matters--having a large Twitter following, owning your own website.

What are these three things? Let's put them in a list.

1. Patience/Perseverance. All of the cases I looked at were people who have been working at this for years. They didn't start earning $500 paychecks over night. If you want this to succeed, you need to be willing to work consistently with little immediate progress.
2. Referrals. I've already written a post entirely about referrals and how they're practically impossible to get. However, I've been doing careful research lately and I think I have found the key! It will take some setup effort, but it's possible to get your message out to all the right people in a way that will draw them in. I've gone through the whole process now, and I can tell you it is very doable!
3. God's will. Please don't laugh here. I am a very strong Christian, which I really should have shared much earlier in this blog. I pray over my decisions every day, and if there's one thing I've learned it's this: God's will trumps man's logic. You could get everything right, but it'll fail if it's not in God's will. Also note that God is not a magic genie who grants all your wishes. It is a serious matter, and if this plan is not in God's will I will not succeed. I heavily urge any of you Christians out there to pray about this before going any further. Ask God if taking this path is really a wise decision and examine your motives.

All right, now that we have all of the pieces, let's put them together. Over the past couple days I have been researching how to build downlines like crazy, looking for one good option that worked that wouldn't cost me a cent. I found two, and they link together perfectly to generate solid, high traffic that will be loyal to your site. Let's take a look!

1. Step 1. Get a gmail account. If you already have one, get another one. This is a surprisingly important step, and the sooner you take care of it, the better. This is the site you'll use whenever you "subscribe" to things.
2. Step 2. Go to freeinternetmoney.biz. It's a very simple system that not only allows you to consolidate multiple trustworthy PTCs under one URL but also gives you fantastic tools to manage them and organize them. It's a very user-friendly service, and if you just follow the steps offered for setup you'll be well on your way to success. It's a brilliant site and very handy if you want to do anything at all with PTCs.
3. Step 3. Once you're done with freeinternetmoney.biz, go to turboincomecharger.com. This is how you'll get your traffic. It has tons of different venues available, such as forms, safelists, and a company that guarantees you tons of traffic and referrals (I haven't tried that part out yet, but it seems to be good). Remember: this is a tool. You need to have initiative to get it to go. This site just shows you what to do with that initiative so that you won't waste your time.

There you have it. All the tools for generated a solid online income. Of course, the plan is flexible. You don't have to do it at all the way I recommend if you don't want to. I simply tried to find the best way to simplify the referral problem for free (oh yeah, none of these sites cost money). And if you can get good referrals, you've got it made, simple as that. Just keep in mind that you won't make a fortune overnight. You have to work it, and you have to be intentional about it. But now there's no excuse! So get plugged in, make money, and enjoy!

And in case you were wondering, I'm still going to keep up with this blog, and I'm still going to look for ways to make my system even easier and simpler. I hope you enjoy the system and that it works for you as well as it is for me!