Making Money Online: Where Do I Start?

In recent years, the internet has become the destination of people looking for a way out of the nine-to-five rat race that they can no longer tolerate for various reasons. There’s something fun and exciting about the idea of logging onto your computer and tapping into what seems like a pretty cool way to make a living. I mean, you can be hanging out in your living room wearing nothing but your pajamas and a worn out pair of fuzzy slippers, while generating oodles of instant cash.

Is that really how it works?

Yes and no.

The reality is that the fun and excitement of pursuing your dream of making money online will wear off pretty quickly. People who come online thinking that they are going to be making thousands of dollars in a matter of months are in for a major disappointment.

Don’t Believe the Hype

As soon as you dip your toe into the swirling waters of the “I wanna make money” world, you’ll be surrounded with an endless variety of hype and unrealistic promises of easy income. I’ll tell you right now, if you want to have any chance at all of making any kind of real money online, put your hands over your ears and tune out anyone and everyone who claims this is going to be a cake walk.

I know, this is easier said than done. Believe me, I’ve been there. My head would be telling me that this offer is too good to be true, but my desire (desperation?) to make big bucks would lead me to go down that easy-as-pie road time and again.

What did I get out of it?

Nothing but creating more frustration for myself and wasting good money. Don’t kick yourself if this has happened to you – it happens to pretty much every single person who is seeking to figure out how to profit from the internet. This is part of the learning experience. Eventually, you’ll be resistant to the hype, but right now you are a newbie and, therefore, very vulnerable to the siren calls of the opportunistic predators.

So, where do you start?

You start by seeking out credible information about what this online business thing is all about. You can do this for free by visiting internet marketing forums/blogs/websites and reading lots of freely available information.

The following forums are highly recommended:

Warrior Forum
Webmaster World
Digital Point

I know you probably want to rush into something and get going, but patience is a virtue in this case. The fact is, you don’t even have a clue about what it is you even want to do online yet. It might take you a month or so to get an idea of what activities you find interesting. There are so many options to choose from that many new people suffer from information overload. If this happens to you, don’t worry, it’s quite common. You will need lots of good, solid information before taking the next step on your online journey.

You will need to learn from those who have gone before you and have experienced real, tangible success online. Of course, there’s a lot of folks claiming to be wildly successful, who are lying through their teeth. The ability to determine who is truthful and who is full of bunk takes time. If you have doubts about someone’s claims, you can always go to a forum and ask others what their experiences were with this person.

Take all claims of success with a grain of salt, until you can verify that they are credible. Reputation is everything online. With a good reputation, you can achieve great success. Those who have ripped people off, or have shady dealings, don’t last long because others will expose them for who they really are.

Newbies like you are fresh meat for the opportunist. Try to keep a level head as you wade through the jungle of online marketing. There are some really great people who can teach you a lot, as well. The trick is to not get discouraged before you find these great resources.

Getting started online can be tough because there are so many decisions you have to make.

Do you need a website?

What kind of website?

What should you call your site?

Do you want to use Adsense?

Do you want to promote affiliate products?

Do you want to sell products on Ebay?

Do you want to create and promote your own products?

Do you want to learn PPC advertising?

How much money do you want to spend in getting set up?

Do you want to create a blog?

What’s your blog going to be about?

Do you want to use social networking (web 2.0)?

Do you want to start an email newsletter?

Do you want to write your own articles?

Do you want to use PLR content for your website?

What kind of marketing tools are you going to use?

Do you want to create and sell software to other marketers?

Do you want to create membership sites?

Do you want to promote CPA offers?

Do you want to build Squidoo pages?

Do you want to create and sell websites?

Do you want to make money from domain names?

Do you want to build a long-term business online?

Look over this list carefully, and start thinking about what it is that you may want to do online. This is your first task. Once you make a decision on what you want to do, then you can move on to the next step of figuring out how you are going to do what you want, and how it is going to make you money.