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 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!