A new year brings with it a new beginning, and a new start. You can look at it as the same old same old, or you can look at it as an opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start fresh. Here are my top tips to make 2017 your best make money online year ever.
Don’t Try To Reinvent The Wheel
Being a well-known Internet marketer, I get presented with some of the craziest make money online ideas. Everyone one of them was supposed to revolutionize the way money is made online. All they needed was some seed capital, or an endorsement, from me to get it off the ground. Keep this tip in mind when trying to make money online in 2017: don’t try to reinvent the wheel.
Oh sure, you can become a billionaire if your idea hits like Google or Facebook. But most likely, you’ll join the millions that failed for every Google success story. If do you want to reinvent the wheel, then I recommend you become successful first. Then you have money to play with. In the meantime, follow the next tip.
Use Proven Business Models
The secret to making money online is not to try to reinvent it. Instead, what you should be doing is following business models that have proven to work, and try to improve upon it. For example, the affiliate marketing model is a proven business model, but the model the industry promotes as the one that can make you rich is extremely flawed. I modified the model to make it work better. I wrote an entire eBook on this subject.
The Ultimate Online Profit Model details the business models I use to make six-figure monthly income, and live the Dot Com Lifestyle. You can download a free copy here. Remember, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Start Your List Today
I’ve said many times before that the money is in the list but it bears repeating. The money really is in the list. Look at all the really big affiliate marketers. What do they all have in common? They all have huge mailing lists. And because they have huge lists, they don’t have to spend hundreds or thousands per month on advertising. My friend, John Reese, refers to his list as his ATM. He just goes to it whenever he needs to make a withdraw.
If you want to become a big player in this industry, you absolutely need an email list. That is your customer base. Without one, you’ll just be another hit-and-run affiliate marketer working for peanuts. Stop building other people’s customer base and start building your own.
My recommended email service is Aweber. I’ve been using them for years and they are by far the best in the business.
Aweber offers a free trial account for all new customers. The account is just like a normal Aweber account and includes unlimited email campaigns, newsletters, broadcasts and follow ups. It’s a great way to test drive Aweber to see what it can do for you.
Stop Thinking And Start Doing
Most people think more about a project than actually doing the project. How long have you been thinking about making money online? Now, how long have you been doing it? If you’re thinking more than doing, then it’s time to reverse the two. The best way to do that is by taking the first step. I made the below video back in 2014, but the message applies today as it did back then.
Attend At Least One Industry Trade Show
If you have never attended a show like Affiliate Summit, then make 2017 the year you attend at least one industry show. Not only will you learn a lot, but you’ll also meet many interesting people and form many new friendships that will help you down the road.
The sold out Affiliate Summit West starts in ten days. I look forward to it every year. For many people attending, it will be the turning point in their online careers. The fact that it happens at the start of the year is a major bonus as it can be the push they need to take their Internet business to the next level.
Be A Highly Effective Internet Marketer
If you ever read the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, then you’ll know about the time quadrant. Basically, Every activity we do during the day can be put in one of four quadrants:
Answer this question: What one thing could you do in your personal and professional life that, if you did on a regular basis, would make a tremendous positive difference in your life? Chances are, whatever you name, it’s a Quadrant Two activity.
Quadrant Two is the heart of effective personal management. It deals with things that are important but not urgent, like building your business, forming relationships, long-term financial planning, exercising – all those things we know we need to do, but seldom get around to doing because they are not urgent and can be put off until some other day. Well, we all know that someday never comes.
Don’t put off what you know you need to do just because it’s not urgent, and you can always get to it someday. For most, someday will turn into years or never. I know people who told me they were going to get into blogging ten years ago. I’m still waiting to see their blogs. The difference between a highly effective blogger and an ineffective one is the effective blogger knows blogging may not be urgent, but it’s important enough to get started and keep going.
Take Your Internet Business Seriously
Because the cost of starting an Internet business is so low compared to a regular business, most new Internet marketers don’t take it as seriously as they should. If you want your online venture to advance beyond the hobby stage, you need to take it seriously and treat it like a real business. Don’t let 2017 be the year you’ll give Internet marketing a “try” or make a half-hearted effort to start blogging again. Instead, make this year the year you take your online business to the next level because your business is just as serious as a “real” business that cost $100,000 to start.
I know many businesses that cost over $100K to start that makes nowhere close to what I make online. Yet, my blog was started for the cost of a $10 domain name. Very few normal businesses can be started for $10 and grow into multi-million dollar business. But that is the power of Internet marketing if you take it seriously and continue to work at it on a consistent basis. Treat this like would treat a $100,000 business, and your entire outlook will change.
The Biggest Obstacle Standing In Your Way
I get asked what’s the biggest obstacle standing in the way of Internet success a lot. The answer is something that most people will not want to hear.
It’s You.
When it all comes down to it, you are the only thing that is stopping you from achieving whatever it is your heart desires. Success is an attitude. It is not money, wealth or power. Take away the money of a successful person and he’ll have it all back and more in a few years. Give an unsuccessful person a million bucks and chances are he’ll lose it all in a few years. The difference is their attitude.
The unsuccessful person blames his misfortunes on outside factors – it’s the tax man’s fault, the economy sucks, Obama didn’t change a thing, prices are too high, my wife won’t let me, etc. He’ll blame everything else except the one thing that is truly keeping him down. The successful person doesn’t blame outside factors for failing. He accepts failure as a requirement for success and learns from it.
They say successful people think differently than unsuccessful people. That’s not entirely true. They don’t think differently, they think opposite. An unsuccessful person hates failure. A successful person welcomes failure. An unsuccessful person works hard for money. A successful person has money work hard for him. An unsuccessful person takes. A successful person gives. An unsuccessful person will let someone else write his paycheck and determine his net worth. A successful person writes his own paycheck and determines his own net worth. The list goes on, but the point is a successful person has an opposite attitude from an unsuccessful person.
If you want to be successful, the first thing you need to change is your attitude. If you have the attitude of an unsuccessful person, then no amount of reading, couching or training from me is going to make you successful. Once you change your attitude, things will open up for you.
At the end of the day, it’s not going to me or any other make money online guru that’s going to make you successful. You are the only one standing between where you are now and where you want to be. Stop blaming outside factors and start to take responsibility and change your attitude to that of a successful person. You are the problem, but you are also the solution. Success begins, and ends, with you. I look forward to hearing your success story 2017!