The Key to Online Business: Do Something Small

If you want to have success in blogging / internet marketing, I think that you should consider starting small. Think "micro business" - zero start up costs, get profitable, and build from there.

That is what I have done. I created free Blogger blogs, wrote articles, and monetized them with Adsense, Kontera, Amazon, Clickbank, and paid posts from Payperpost, Blogitive, and Blogsvertise. After starting this, I began to sign up for all the free "infomercial" newletters, ebooks, webinars, and videos by the gurus.

Now, as I am making money, I am slowly investing some of it back on advertising, and buying books, ebooks, and MP3s. But, I am not going to invest in $2000 seminars until I start making $20,000.

In my first 10 months online, I made about $1500 and spent about $250. I made my first $750 before I even spent a dime. This was all from paid posts. I haven't counted my Adsense, Kontera, Amazon, and Clickbank, because they were still all under $100. Until I got checks, I don't count it.

I can't stress how powerful this is when you are getting started in internet marketing / blogging.

Sure, the books and seminars are valuable. But, unless you can prove this business to yourself by actually earning money these resources are more a hinderance than help. Newbies get paralyzed by all the info out there, and spend money on websites, marketing courses, etc. and then don't make much. Their business is in the red, and they are discouraged.

Last month, in fact, I was attending a free "infomercial" seminar, and an older man on there said how he was talked into paying $20/month for an autoresponder, and ddn't even know what they did.

You need small wins, small successes. In fact, I have to keep telling this to myself even now. I get ambitious ideas, but then they stay on paper. The only way to make them a reality is to implement something, even if it isn't perfect. You can tweak it later.

I learned my lesson in the offline world 14 years ago, when I bought get-rich-quick and direct marketing courses. I bought into a turn-key business to resell books through mail-order catalogs, and I lost about $2,000.

Now, I have seen criticism about making money through paid posts because it is active (like a job), not passive. That is true. You are limited by the time you have to post. You won't make money 24 hours in your sleep.

However, you can take this active money and convert it into a passive income stream.

You can reinvest your paid post earnings in setting up passive websites, and in advertising. In fact, I have signed up as both an advertiser and blogger with Payperpost. So, I can, for example, write 10 paid posts on my blog. Then, use that money to pay 10 bloggers to post about my products on their websites. So, in effect, I'm building infrastructure for free.