It’s been almost ten years since I made my first money online and there are a number of things I wish I had known back then when I embarked on the journey of making money online. I am not a Guru and I do not claim to be. I have listed ten things that I think are important to everyone trying to make money online.
1. Multiple websites
You can earn money online without having a website. However, if you want to earn a living working online, you will definitely need a good web presence. Strive to have more than one website to promote your niche. It is much easier to earn $5,000 from 10 sites ($500 per site), than to earn the same $5,000 from one site. So when you’ve identified your niche, double down on your success.
2. Get ready to work
This brings us to the next point of working hard. There are so many promises of easy money online, but again, if you want to make a living online, then you must be prepared to roll up your sleeves.
3. Set clear goals from the start
It is very important to have both short-term and long-term goals. In the short term it will help you carry out day-to-day activities with confidence, for example setting a goal to write five articles each week. Long-term goals should be set pretty high, but they should be achievable eventually.
4. Generate traffic through organic means.
Targeted traffic is the key to your long-term success. Don’t even bother getting AdSense on your site first, if you have less than 300 unique visitors a day.
5. SEO
You need to know at least the basics of search engine optimization. So use gray hat tactics instead of pure white hat tactics. An example of a gray hat tactic is by buying well researched high page rank backlinks. Remember that search engines will rank your pages first and not your website. So make sure your pages are well optimized. Strive to get people to visit particular pages on your website rather than just the home page. Good keyword selection will allow you to rank well in natural search engine results and also target people who are looking for information on a specific topic.
6. Use article marketing
Article marketing is very useful if you are trying to generate backlinks and traffic to your site, so look for well-ranked directories to post your articles to. Be consistent in your posting and eventually you will see the traffic piling up through the search engines.
7. Forums and Web 2.0
Join a marketing forum and other social networks to get a broader view of the market. Your signature link on the forums also acts as a useful backlink generator. Some have even suggested that every post you make on high PR forums act as a backlink for your SEO efforts. So the more you contribute to a forum, the more backlinks you will get. Other members will also see you as an expert in your field and will be inclined to visit your website for clarification and more advice, ultimately leading to more leads and sales.
8. Have a mentor
I realized towards the end of my career that I needed to have a good mentor. By getting a good mentor like Stone Evans, I was able to shorten my learning curve by at least two years.
9. Create a mailing list
It is important to have a responsive list that you will post to regularly. Start the mailing list as soon as possible. So if you have a six month old website and haven’t built a mailing list, get started right away.
10. Research
You need to research your market regularly and be prepared to keep learning. Search engines like Google have continually changed their methods and algorithms, so you should adopt