Wake Up Cloud » Money

How I Wrote Beginner’s Guide to Blogging

Henri — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:57:55 +0000

For the past month, I’ve been working on my next book, Beginners Guide to Blogging, which will be out this ~~Thursday, October 13^th~~is now availble. As usual, I’ll have a certain amount of early-bird copies available.

The truth of the matter is that creating paid products is scary. In this article, I’ll reveal the process I went through in creating Beginners Guide to Blogging, so you can see first-hand what goes on when I create an ebook.

Although I say it’s scary, it’s a very simple process when you break it down into manageable steps. The mistake most people make is they make it more complex than it has to be.

It’s always one step at a time, whether you’re freaking out or not.

Uncovering the Initial Idea

Since being in this space for the last few years, I’ve noticed where people tend to get stuck when it comes to earning a living doing something they enjoy.

Most new product creators and digital authors believe that they have to be the best in their field before they can teach anyone anything.

The truth is that you only have to be one step ahead of your customers. If you’ve just started a blog, you can show someone how to do it.

I fell into this trap, but after listening and getting feedback from my readers, I discovered the most pressing topic—blogging.

That’s where my journey began.

Cultivating the Idea

When I knew that I wanted to write Beginner’s Guide to Blogging, I asked what my readers were struggling with when it came to starting a blog.

Often the easiest way to discover what products you can create is to ask your readers what they have trouble with, and then find the intersection between that and what you know.

That’s what I did with Passionate Living, and that’s what I’ve done with Beginner’s Guide to Blogging.

I have a feeling that’s why Passionate Living is my most popular product—it solves problems and makes your life flow just a touch easier.

Action

Once I had taken notes on the survey results, it was time to take action.

I began brainstorming. I started with a title for the book, then the chapters, and then the sub-chapters.

My goal for the book was simplicity. I wanted to eliminate overwhelm and help you start your first blog with a minimal amount of confusion.

This was the scariest part of the creation process, because I was sitting at my computer staring at a blank page.

Re-Organizing

My goal was to write 2,000 words or more every day. I did this to disengage the editor, the chattering mind.

I knew from experience that the first part was getting everything down on paper. The editing and rewriting came later.

I re-organized chapters, sections, and ideas several times during the creation process. I was okay with that, because I knew that’s how these things go.

It was not through planning that my book grew into a finished product, but through taking action and tweaking as I went along.

Feedback

Once the book was in okay shape, I sent it out to my Early Access List test group.

The book wasn’t done, but I wanted feedback. I was surprised when several of my testers started their first blogs without any trouble whatsoever.

It showed me that the book was already doing a great job. Now all it needed was polishing.

I went through it one final time, making it flow and read better, and I was done.

The Beginner’s Guide to Blogging is now available if you’re interested in grabbing a copy. If you want, you can read the sample before you buy.

See you then!

Steal My Book – 21 Ways to Get Paid to Do What You Love

Henri — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 10:53:31 +0000

In the last few months I’ve started working on the first ebook in a series of ebooks on how to move from A to Z when it comes to earning income doing what you love.

This book is called 21 Ways to Get Paid to Do What You Love, and it is available right now.

Further down in this article, you can download a juicy sample of the book and take a look inside.

Why I Created 21 Ways to Get Paid to Do What You Love

There are a lot of books, ebooks, and information out there on how to get started making money with your passion.

When I was thinking about writing this book, I did some research, and I kept bumping into products and books that weren’t helping anyone but the creator.

They promise you the world, but they don’t tell you the truth.

Or like Isabella said in the comments below: “They promise you the world, and give you an atlas.”

Also, I frequently receive emails and questions about how you can get started. All of that got my creative juices flowing, and the end result is this book.

Why Buy 21 Ways to Get Paid to Do What You Love?

Like most people starting this journey, you’ve probably felt confused, overwhelmed, and uncertain about where to go.

If you’re sick of spinning your wheels, this is a great place to start, because even if you only pick up a few ideas, those ideas can grow and catapult you into action.

And considering the price of this book, it’s a no-brainer if you’re serious about really making your dreams come true.

What Are the Details?

The book is available for $5.99 for the first 200 copies, after that it goes up to $9.95.

It is 113 pages, and when you download it, you get instant access to it, so you can start reading right away.

I will be writing more about the series I am producing. Also, I will be looking for a test group who will get special privileges, but more on that later.

Download Your Sample Here

With all that said, I’m sure you’re eager to take a look inside and discover how 21 Ways to Get Paid to Do What You Love can help improve your life and get you moving in the right direction.

To download the sample, right-click this link and choose save-as.

How to Grab Your Copy

The book is available right now, and the first 200 copies are flying off the digital shelf, which is a nice image when you think about it.

If you want to grab your copy, simply click here and you will be taken to the page that will allow you to do that.

Have fun!

No More Shortcuts

Henri — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 13:16:39 +0000

If you want to build an online business, you have to think long-term. Stop looking for shortcuts, and stop trying to force things.

Yes, you can build a profitable website around a topic that you love quite fast, but the way to do it is to do the fundamentals really, really well.

This means do your research, write content, promote your site, and monetize. The steps are simple, yet so few are willing to follow them.

Why?

I don’t know. Sometimes it’s because of something they came up with that they think is better (which it really isn’t).

Whatever it is, it is a form of self-sabotage. You will start succeeding when you realize that success comes from rocking the fundamentals, which are really simple.

There are no secrets, no shortcuts, and no magic bullets.

Building a profitable website that makes over $1,000/month will probably take you 6-12 months of daily effort, if you know what you’re doing.

Getting to $100/month is a lot easier, and I could show you how to get there in a month if you were extremely motivated.

It takes patience. It takes determination, and it takes that “I’m-sick-of-not-getting-anything-done” mindset to make this work.

The reason you haven’t gotten started is probably because you think too much, and you’re trying to come up with new stuff instead of following something that works.

I talked about following your heart in my last post, and that’s essential, but you also have to be practical if you want to create something that sustains you, whether it is offline or online.

Let’s say you wanted to create a profitable website, I could show you exactly what I do to build my websites, and within a year you would probably be making at least a few hundred dollars each month completely passively (probably more, but I like to make conservative estimates).

But most people won’t succeed, because they won’t even start, they will talk themselves out of it when they aren’t seeing results in 2 weeks, or they will try to modify the game plan and start focusing on stuff that doesn’t work.

As I’ve started going from creating profitable websites to showing people how they can do the same thing, I’m amazed at how few people actually take action.

If you’re an action-taker, this gives you a huge opportunity, because if you came to me, and you were ready to make this work, and you actually showed me that you were willing to do more than ask me to hold your hand, I would be thrilled to help you.

We all want shortcuts, but success doesn’t come until you throw the shortcut mentality in the river with a stone attached to it.

Bury that mentality forever and get to work, but only if you want to make great stuff happen and free yourself from the chains attached to your feet.

Image by Peter

Why Most People Fail Online

Henri — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 11:15:10 +0000

The sales page promised me results, it felt good, so I went for it.

I got instant access to the back-end, just as they had promised, but something was wrong…

I quickly realized that what I had bought was just like any other course out there. The difference? Packaging.

At that very moment I looked back and thought about the thousands of dollars I’d spent on courses like this without using them.

I had nothing to show for it.

Absolutely nothing.

“I’m not cut out for this” I thought, and silently gazed at the sky, hoping for a miracle.

But that miracle never came, at least not in the form I expected it to come. I desperately wanted to succeed. I wanted to start doing what I loved, but it wasn’t working.

The problem?

I had no focus.

I was all over the place; buying new products, but doing nothing with them.

The Urge to Buy

It’s not always about you when you read the salespage and get caught up in the latest product launch.

Your buttons are being pushed, and you may not even be aware of it. You may feel drawn towards the products, and it just feels good to buy.

Robert Cialdini talks about this at great length in his book Influence: The Power of Persuasion.

In it he quotes a renowned British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, who says “civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them.”

This basically means that we unconsciously create all these internal triggers that help us navigate our increasingly confusing and fast-paced outside world.

These triggers can then be used to manipulate you. But if you know what’s going on, or are even aware of the fact that sales pages and launches are made to get you into a buying mood, then you can step back, and make a real decision.

How to Get Out of the Chase

Even now, when I’m doing fairly well, I still get caught up in product launches. I still want to buy everything that comes out.

It’s so shiny.

But I don’t really need 99% of the products out there, so I don’t buy.

Simplicity is essential for me. I keep my focus on as few things as possible.

Whenever something new comes along, I ask myself “will this REALLY help me in what I’m doing right now?”

And that’s what you should be asking when you’re thinking about diluting your focus.

You can keep collecting information, but it won’t do you any good if it isn’t relevant, and if you aren’t going to use what you learn.

I wish I could magically get you to understand this, but sometimes it takes a while. It took me almost two years, so hopefully not that long, otherwise I’ve completely failed with what I’m doing here.

Stop chasing.

Be aware of what’s going on.

Simplify.

Focus.

Image by Jesse

How I Wrote 20 Articles A Day Doing Article Marketing

Henri — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 11:52:58 +0000

In late ’09, I stumbled across something called article marketing, which is the art of writing, and submitting articles to article directories.

I saw a testimonial with someone that was living in a caravan because his previous online business had collapsed. He took himself from living in a caravan to a very comfortable life with article marketing.

That simple story convinced me to try this thing called article marketing. I had already built up my niche site which was making around $500/month and growing without me, so I thought I’d jump into article marketing.

I put 100% of my focus into it. I was determined to succeed. I had tasted success with my niche website, so I knew that what mattered was relentless, and massive action.

I Wanted To Make Money Online

My desire for making money online was huge. I loved writing, I loved building websites, and I wanted to make a living doing this online thing.

Sure, writing was boring at times, but I was okay with it, because on some level I enjoyed what I was doing, and I was energized by the future income that was waiting for me.

You Can Almost Figure Out The Mindset I Had

I knew that thinking, doubting, and uncertainty wasn’t the way to succeed. Only action would take me to my final destination.

I had my instructions. I knew what I needed to do to make money with article marketing, and I followed those instructions to a tee.

I had confidence in the training program, because I had been chatting with the owner, and the people doing article marketing. All I had to do was write. The more articles I wrote, the more money I made.

I kept distractions out. That meant no looking at new launches, and other information that increased self-doubt.

How I Motivated Myself

Many have trouble motivating themselves, but I never had problems in that area. I constantly thought about the freedom I’d have, and the people I was helping. I was promoting an high-quality company, so I felt extremely good about it.

Sometimes I’d write 10 articles before noon, only to lie down, re-motivate myself, and start writing again. The mind is a powerful tool. Either you use it, or it uses you.

Article writing can quickly get boring if you let it. I kept my writing fun by playing with new article structures, new voices, and I switched things around to make it more interesting.

How I Did It – The “System”

Keep in mind, these articles were mostly short 300 word articles, so you can’t really compare them to a blog post like this one, which is a lot more in-depth, and requires more thought.

With that said, my system was very simple. Here are the main steps:

1. Research

I usually wrote about three main topics: skin care, omega-3 fish oils, and natural multivitamins. I already knew a lot about these areas, because I’ve been interested in natural health since I was 16.

I did my research up-front, and kept many of the websites open if I needed to refresh my memory.

2. Pre-Planning

Let’s take an example, say I was writing about the health benefits of omega-3 fish oils. I would gather together 20-30 benefits, or as many as I could find.

I would then split these benefits up and put three to four of them in each article. Then I might’ve written about the possible side-effects, and done the same thing.

There are a lot of small strategies like this that I used that made writing infinitely easier, and faster.

3. Outline

I always started by outlining my articles. Sometimes I would outline ten to twenty articles before I began writing. This would give me structure, and help me write unique articles.

When you outline, just imagine a five-year old asking you questions. The questions you need to answer are simple: what, why, how, where, and when.

4. Mindless Writing

The outlines helped me get my mind out of the way when I was writing. I eventually got so good that I only had to do a minimal amount of editing once I was done.

It was crucial for me to be able to write without going into editing-mode. I wasn’t fast when I started writing, but a few thousand articles helped me practice my chops.

5. Awareness

My mind wanted to get distracted. It wanted to do easier things, such as check my e-mail, hang out on facebook, or just browse the web, but I gently pulled it back to writing when I noticed this happening.

It’s not easy, but I’d trained my discipline muscle a lot while playing poker, so I had a pretty easy time doing it, plus I’m really good at motivating myself when it matters.

But Don’t You Run Out Of Things To Say?

This is something you may run into depending on how deep you can go within your niche, but if you’re writing about topics like I was, there are just so many nuances and perspectives you can write from.

It’s also natural to sometimes repeat what you already know. As long as you aren’t copy and pasting, you won’t get sent to the penalty box.

Action + Determination = Success

I no longer do article marketing at the level that I used to, but I still use it for things here and there. It’s highly effective for starting to make money online fast.

The practice I got from doing article marketing has proven to be very useful when writing blog articles, guest blogging, and creating products. It’s interesting to see how the skills I’ve learned in the past carry over to what I’m doing now.

All in all, I did what I did working full-time. It took me about 4 hours to write 20 articles. Sometimes more, and sometimes less. That doesn’t mean you have to go crazy like I did. Work with what you’ve got.

One of the most important points I want to get across is that it is the amount of action that determines how successful you will be.

You of course will have to pick a system, course, or program that has been proven successful, but assuming you do that, all you have to do is take action, keep learning, and keep crushing it!

Photo

How to Write Your First Outrageously Awesome Ebook

Henri — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 12:13:26 +0000

Writing your own ebook is a great way to build authority, and above all, a great way to help a lot of people.

I’m writing an ebook right now, so I wanted to write a post on it while it’s fresh in my mind. The ebook I’m writing will be completely free, and will be revealed next month (hint: it’s going to replace my current Discover Your Passion course).

I’m extremely excited about it, because it finalizes the new direction this blog is taking. It’s going to be professionally designed, and full of practical content. I could’ve sold it, but I wanted to give it away to you guys instead.

Learning how to write an ebook gets a lot easier when you’ve done it once. It’s a confusing process at first, but it gets a lot easier, trust me.

Step #1: Find A Demand

You could write your first ebook for the hell of it, but if you’re reading this, I’m guessing you probably want other people to read it, right?

Ok, cool, just making sure

Let’s take Passionate Living as an example. It was my second paid ebook. I kind of stumbled onto what people wanted, because my readers kept asking me the same questions.

Then, to confirm the demand, I e-mailed my e-mail list and asked them what their biggest problem was, and that is how I got the framework for Passionate Living.

And now, I’m working on another ebook, which again was born because of the questions I received from my consulting clients, and from you, the blog readers.

If you aren’t receiving feedback from your readers yet, other great ways to find problems to solve is to go to forums in your niche, and see what problems people are having.

You can also go to Amazon and take a peek at what books are selling, and what content is in those books. A lot of hours went into the research of those books, so it’s a fantastic place to get some ideas.

Step #2: Outline

I outline obsessively, because it gives me focus. It lets me see if anything is missing, and it helps me look at my ebooks from a big picture view.

With the ebook I’m in the process of writing, I went to a peaceful park and sat down with my notebook. I started writing down everything I wanted to cover in my ebook, and within an hour, I had my outline.

Your outline will change as you create your ebook. That’s normal, and to be expected.

I know some can do without outlining too much, but I’m not like that, at least not yet. I like to outline as much as is humanly possible. I like to write down the chapters, sub-headings, and notes on what the sub-headings will contain if I can come up with that. If not, I just leave it.

If I don’t have this structure, I find myself worrying about if I’m missing something, or if I’m writing too much in one chapter, and not enough in another.

In summary: outlining keeps me on track, and gives me focus.

Step #3: Freewrite

When I’ve got my outline in place, I start freewriting. It’s not exactly freewriting as it is defined by Wikipedia, but a more controlled form of it.

Freewriting means writing without editing. It means getting everything from your head and onto a piece of white, shiny digital paper.

When I’m doing the first round of writing, I do my best to get out of my own way, and not pay attention to how I’m wording everything. My main focus is on getting everything out.

This is how I write most of my articles. If you’re trying to edit while you’re writing, you’ll end up pulling your hair out. I think this is one of the main reasons why most people have trouble writing.

The magic happens when you’re editing, so don’t worry about getting it perfect right off the bat. In fact, I recommend you write, and wait 24 hours before editing.

One of the reasons my writing has improved over the months is because I’ve started letting my articles simmer until I edit them. Sometimes I might write an article on Wednesday, edit it on Friday, edit it again on Sunday, and publish it Monday.

Step #4: Stay Focused

When you’re creating your ebook, it’s easy to keep adding, perfecting, and in general, never finish what you’ve started.

That’s why I always have an outline, so I know when I’m done. If I find something I can add, that’s cool, but I never go overboard, because the outline should already contain the bulk of what I want to say.

It’s really easy to fall into perfectionism, and delay putting out whatever you’re creating. You can always keep adding more if you want to, but you have to kill perfectionism, and get on with it, even if you think your ebook isn’t perfect.

So one solution is to outline your ebook really well, and another is to stay aware of the ways you try to avoid putting your work out there. It’s scary, but the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

Step #5: Convert & Design

I write my ebooks in Microsoft Word, and I convert my documents into PDF in Adobe Acrobat, which is pretty expensive, but no worries, there are great free options out there, such as Cute PDF.

I personally think design matters, a lot, but in the beginning you might not want to spend a few hundred dollars on a nicely designed ebook, and that’s okay.

However, there are cheaper alternatives out there. If you just need a very simple ebook design, you can easily find someone to do an awesome cover for you + a few banners for under $100.

If your ebook is going to be up for sale, or an e-mail sign-up incentive, it’s important to have something that looks awesome.

If you want to do it cheaply, then there are plenty of tutorials all over the web that you can search for. I’d rather spend my time doing what I do best, and pay someone like Charlie to take care of the design.

Keep It Simple

Remember to keep it simple. What helps me get things done is that I don’t get caught up in worrying about stuff that I’m not good at. This doesn’t mean I don’t worry about it, because I do, but I keep going.

For example, when writing my first ebook, I knew that it wasn’t going to be perfect. I accepted it, and created it anyway. It turned out fine, and I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback, which just goes to show you that what you think is perfect, may not be what other people even want, or need.

The good thing about writing an ebook is that it’s so easy to start. All you have to do is open a word document and start writing. When you’re done, you’ll figure the rest out.

One step at a time, my friend. One step at a time

Image by Lucas

7 Lessons I Learned from My First Very Small Product Launch

Henri — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 11:35:08 +0000

If you’ve been paying attention, you know that I just launched my first product: the Article Marketing Traffic Booster.

It’s been rough, but going through the motions and creating my first product has taught me a lot.

The number one thing I learned from getting my first product out there is this: there will never be a perfect time to launch your first product, so just get started.

I’m going to repeat this later in the article, because it needs to be hammered into your head. Once you understand that you do not have to create a huge first product, it’s going to be so much easier.

You can create a small podcast, report or video course and sell it for under $10. It doesn’t matter, you can always improve the product and raise the price.

What matters is that you get started, get your product out there and get feedback. That’s the only way you’ll learn how to make this work.

1. Fear

Having that a-ha moment of “hey, the earth won’t fall out of orbit and destroy the universe if I charge money for my stuff” is awesome, but unless you take action, it won’t happen.

The fear will always be there, especially if you’re producing your first product. As long as you’re solving a problem, being genuine and helpful, you have a very good chance of succeeding.

Sometimes you may not be entirely sure whether or not people will buy your product. I had the same problem, which is why I made sure there was competition out there before I started.

I surfed over to ClickBank and looked at the competition for article marketing guides. There were oodles of them, which confirmed my suspicion: people wanted this stuff.

You may think that competition is bad, but it isn’t. It’s good. If you have or are building your own audience, competition doesn’t really matter.

2. Procrastination

Procrastination can easily provoke you into a tail-spin if you’re not careful. I minimized procrastination by setting a schedule for myself.

My goal was to write at least 1,000 words every morning, before I did anything else. I also had a firm goal in mind of getting my first product done and out there. For me the early morning routine worked, but you have to find your own groove.

The hard part is getting started, which is why getting into a routine of writing every morning was crucial for me. Some days I wrote the minimum of 1,000 words, but often I wrote more.

Once you get into the zone, it’s easy to go keep going.

3. Reclaiming My Power

We’re born and brainwashed into thinking that we have to look for answers outside of ourselves. Sure, learn the basics, but avoid procrastinating by learning too much.

Take responsibility and take action. I guarantee that your progress will explode if you’re willing to just try, fail and learn.

There will always be something that comes up where you’ll have to improvise. These are the moments we live for, without realizing it.

You want to be self-employed and free, but you try to avoid failure and challenges. Why? Don’t you want to utilize the magnificence that is your creativity?

When you take full responsibility, it hurts to fail. The reality is that it doesn’t hurt so bad. We think of it as breaking a leg, when it’s merely a scrape. Put on a patch and in a few days there’ll be no sign left. No war wounds, just delicious and useful experience.

4. The Brick Wall

The brick wall stares you down. Its mission is to keep out the tire-kickers. It’s going to make you question what you’re doing. The brick wall is going to ask you if you’re sure about this.

No one told me about the wall. When I ran into it, I was surprised, but as someone who has faced and conquered the wall, I have to say it’s a nice and friendly wall, if you’re prepared.

The only way you’ll know if your product is good is to get it out there and get feedback.

Remember, your product doesn’t have to be your masterpiece. You can create something small and sell it for $7. If people like it, you can keep adding to it and raising the price.

5. Pricing

I first launched the product at $19 to give my loyal readers a chance to get it for a severely discounted price. I then raised it to $27 after a week.

As time went on, I got more and more ideas, which meant new additions and a higher price.

When you’ve created and launched your first product, you can see the big picture, which makes it exponentially easier to make your second.

You can literally create something for your audience right now and sell it for under $10. You CAN do it. Ask yourself what’s stopping you and throw those thoughts in the freezer, for now. You can always let them out later.

You want to make a living doing what you love, right? Now is the time to act. There’s absolutely no reason you should wait. Get your first product out there. If it flops, so be it. You’ll learn and try again.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with getting paid to help people. It’s a belief you have to eliminate from your system if you want to make your passion a reality.

6. Customer Service

If a company has great customer service, I’ll pay double. If they get my name right, I’ll pay triple.

I love good customer service, which is why I have no trouble answering every single e-mail I get. I don’t care if someone only paid me $19.

If you’re my customer, I’ll do my best to answer any question you throw my way. I’ll even recommend you to the competition if I think it’ll improve your life. This game is not about money, it’s about relationships.

It’s easy to get caught in the money game. I frequently remind myself of my purpose, which is to help and connect with awesome people, like yourself and I’m extremely grateful to be able to do this.

When you launch your first product, make sure you go above and beyond for anyone who buys your stuff, especially if they want a refund.

That brings me to an interesting story. Ingela’s laptop power adapter went kaput the other day. She needed a new one, so she went to a store that had helped her before.

She bought a generic adapter. It didn’t work. Ingela returned it and the guy was pissy. Long story made short, he lost three potential lifetime customers that day (we told my brother).

7. The Launch

I wanted to get my product out there, so I didn’t recruit affiliates and I didn’t even try to get people to mention my launch.

All I did was mention it on Twitter and tell my very small e-mail list about it. You don’t have to tell the world to have a successful launch.

My goal wasn’t to have a big launch, it was to get a product done and on my website. My eyes are more on the long-term benefits than the short-term gains, although the short-term income is nice, too.

The Results

I’m sure you’re curious as to what the results of the launch was, so that’s what I’m going to share.

It has made $624 in about 2 weeks, which is more than I expected. I am eternally grateful for not only all of those who bought it, but for all of my other readers as well. You are all awesome!

What I learned was that urgency can play a huge part in how well your product sells. I sold the most amount of copies the first week, when I had the text “price going up” under my buy now button.

After that I didn’t have any urgency, so my sales dropped. Suffice it to say, if I wouldn’t have made any money during this launch, it would all have been worth it, just for the experience gained.

Photo Credit

How to Write Effective Presell Copy and Make More Affiliate Sales

Henri — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:50:17 +0000

Have you ever thrown up a website, managed to get some traffic, but failed to make any affiliate sales?

That was me in the beginning. I had no clue what I was doing. I only knew that I was angry because I had worked so hard just to see $0 in my affiliate account.

An extremely large part in getting affiliate sales is writing effective presell copy, which essentially warms up your reader to the product you are recommending.

The more you love the product you’re selling, the higher your chances of making a sale. People can sense if you’re genuine and honest, so please don’t try any shortcuts.

I promise you, it will come back and bite you, hard. There are a lot of potential problems if you’re not making sales, but in this article we’ll focus on writing awesome presell copy.

If you have something that could improve someone’s life, you owe it to them to learn this stuff and to get them excited enough to buy.

5 Ways to Make Your Presell Copy Rock

This is by no means a complete list, but if you’re completely new at this, it’s a good start. I don’t want to overwhelm you by throwing all sorts of unnecessary details at you.

I’m by no means an expert in copywriting, but I do think I’m somewhat okay at writing presell copy. I could be wrong of course.

1. Underlying Emotion. What do your visitors really want? If you’re recommending a skin care product, the underlying emotion might be the potential to attract a soul mate, feeling accepted and getting validation. Now, everyone is different, so you can’t nail them all, but at the same time, you can’t generalize because it simply doesn’t work.

2. Objections. What objections do people usually have? Sticking with the skin care creams, they might be something like how there are so many skin creams out there, why should they buy this one? Is it another product that will be a waste of their money? Address the objections right away. Ignoring them will only make things worse.

3. Proof. What proof do you have that the recommendation you’re making will help your reader? Have you had any results with it yourself? The most powerful proof is if you make a video telling how you benefited from the product. Think about what you yourself would want to see. I personally love seeing genuine recommendations on video and hearing about someone’s story.

4. Personality. The more you can add your personality and your story into the recommendation, the more powerful your presell copy will be and the higher your conversions will be (i.e. you will sell more). This might mean before and after pictures, video and whatever else you can come up with.

5. Disqualify. You might be afraid of telling who the product is not for. After all, you want as many to buy as possible, right? Well not really. When you disqualify people that it is not right for, you are helping them and making the people who really need it more excited, because they are getting further confirmation that it will help them.

Our Twisted Way of Looking at Selling

I’ve always thought selling something was distasteful. Recently I figured out that this was completely backwards.

I think inaccurate beliefs like this are very dangerous. Once I noticed it, I realized what was wrong and changed to something like this: selling something that doesn’t improve or help the customer is distasteful.

Sounds a bit better, doesn’t it? If I have something amazing for you that could change your life, wouldn’t you want me to write at least okay sales or presell copy to get you interested?

Somehow we learn that selling and money is bad, so we get caught up in this loop of wanting money, but thinking that it’s bad.

Suspend that little voice in your head and just move forward. Promote good products that improve lives and you’ll be well on your way.

Image by Markus Rödder

7 Deadly Niche Website and Blogging Mistakes

Henri — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:00:18 +0000

I’ve done a lot of stupid things when it comes to making money online. When I started trying to make money in early 2007, I had no idea what I was doing.

I thought I’d be up and running within 6 months making a full-time income.

I can now see how delusional I was. I see this a lot though. If you’re new to this scene and want to start making money on the internet, please realize that it isn’t something that happens overnight.

Look at it as a brick & mortar business, only with the internet, you don’t have to invest a lot of money.

All you need is money for a domain, hosting and a paid course or mentor to help speed up the process and minimize mistakes.

I started out with a coach, but I still screwed everything up. Sometimes you’re just not ready. I certainly wasn’t at that time, but I kept going at it and here I am.

1. Research

The first mistake I did was in the area of research. When you’re beginning with all this internet stuff, research is the last thing you want to do. You already have your great idea and you want to jump right in and get started.

I felt exactly like this, but let me tell you, research is the foundation of your future empire. If you neglect your research, you might strike gold, but often you’ll end up being one of those people who claim that making money online is a scam.

Research can involve many different things, depending on what your goals are. For example, with my niche websites, I did a lot of keyword research because I was going to optimize them for the search engines.

But with this blog, I thought mostly about branding, my personality and how I could stand out from the crowd. This is why I recommend everyone join a paid course, because you get a mentor for an affordable price who can point out any mistakes you make and steer you in the right direction.

I personally an a member of Authority Blogger (aff link), which is run by Chris Garrett. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Chris and when I saw that he was offering a course, and that he offered comprehensive e-mail support, I was sold.

2. Design

I used a free CSS template for my first website, which was fine in the beginning, but as time went on, I kept adding to it and it started looking messy.

I never got the motivation to clean it up, so now it just sits there collecting cyber dust. Don’t get me wrong, you don’t need a super fancy design when you start, but something simple and clean will make a professional impression on your website visitors.

For example, when I launched the Wake Up Cloud in December 2009, many people after a few weeks were telling me that they thought my blog was a lot older than it was. I made sure to get a good designer to make a simple customization of the Thesis theme for me.

It cost me $300, excluding the price for Thesis. There are great designers out there that are very affordable if you know what you want. I’ve found it helpful to sketch down what I want, scan it and send it to my designer. Works like a charm.

3. Links

I was naïve enough to think that I didn’t need to build links to my website. I guess we’re all retarded sometimes and I’ve learned a lot since then, but this was definitely one of my biggest mistakes.

If you want traffic, especially from the search engines, you have to build links. You can do this by being friendly, writing guest posts or asking nicely.

With this blog, I’ve done a lot of guest posting and connecting with people. It has helped a tremendous amount, because not only have I made a lot of friends, but many of them link to me from their blogs because they like what I’m doing.

I also get high-quality links and traffic by guest posting regularly on other blogs. Guest posting is a great way to get your name out there and meet new people.

If you have a blog and are wondering why you aren’t getting traffic, you’re probably not doing the right kind of stuff.

4. Connections

I’ve noticed that actually putting your face behind your website or blog gives you more credibility and allows people to get to know you, which is essential if you plan to make your own products and offer services.

My first website was almost completely anonymous. On second thought, I did have an about page, so I guess I had a face there.

My point is that I didn’t actively go out there and engage fellow bloggers and website owners. I was sitting and waiting for something magical to happen.

If you’re starting a blog around your passion, you should connect with anyone and everyone that you can. Networking can do huge things for you.

This doesn’t mean that you go out and tell people about your website and/or products, because no one wants to listen to that guy.

It means that you hang out with like-minded people and have fun. That’s how you make solid connections. At least that is how I do it.

5. Search Engine Optimization

I completely neglected search engine optimization with my first niche website. I think search engine optimization is not as important for blogs, but it definitely doesn’t hurt.

My first website was meant to get search traffic, so it lived or died on how well I did my research, optimized my pages and built links.

The bad news was that I didn’t pick my keywords well, because the niche that I chose had no good keywords.

It was a highly saturated market with companies spending millions on getting their websites ranked high in the search engines. Suffice it to say, I had no chance.

I was lucky though, because I went to the Site Build It! forums and asked for help. That’s when someone told me honestly and bluntly that my website was never going to make it with the keywords I was working on.

I could’ve gotten mad at him, but instead I chose to leave a broken website behind and start a new one.

My new website is more in line with my passions. It’s also a Site Build It! website. I’m glad I chose to move on, because I am now making close to $1,500 passively from this new website each and every month.

There are times when you have to realize that quitting is the only option.

6. Shortcuts

A few other lessons I learned the hard way was to look for shortcuts. I bought links, I outsourced a bunch of bad stuff and it didn’t help me one bit.

All it did was lighten my bank account. I don’t regret making those mistakes at all, because without them I wouldn’t be where I am today.

If you’re actively looking for shortcuts and how you can become an overnight success, chances are that you will fail miserably.

When I realized that working hard is the only thing that will bring me closer to my goals, everything started working much smoother.

When I started the Wake Up Cloud, I realized that guest posting was a great strategy for me. I’m a fast writer, so I have no problem churning out content for my blog and for other blogs.

This has helped me build links, connections and traffic. It isn’t a shortcut, but it’s a strategy to works extremely well.

7. No Plan

Last, but not least, I had no plan. My grand plan was to start a website and hope that everything would work out.

You have to have a plan if you want to make money. With my second, and successful niche website, I knew how I was going to monetize it.

With this blog, I had a vision in mind before I started. I am open to my vision changing, because that happens a lot.

I am not saying that you should make a plan and stick to it no matter what. I’ve found that the best results in my life have come from me being open to new and surprising possibilities.

Have a plan, but also be ready to modify and adapt it to what is happening around you. As you go through your journey, you will learn new things, your perspective will change and so will your plans.

In order to calibrate and head in the right direction, there is one thing you must do, and that is to take action. Don’t put off going after your dreams.

Even if you don’t know what you’re doing, it is better to start, because you will learn a lot in the process, which will equip you for future success.

Image by Éole Wind

You Deserve to Make Money Online (or Offline)

Henri — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:50:10 +0000

If you’re anything like me, then you were brought up with the belief that making money was bad, but at the same time it was something to strive for.

Do you see the conflict? When you realize that your beliefs aren’t really working for you, you can let them go.

I realize that it may not be that easy, which is why I’m a big believer in taking everything in small steps. There’s no need force things.

Start working on helping others and following your passion to the best of your ability. You may not even know what your passion is, but if you’re taking action, it will come to you sooner or later.

Sometimes it’s helpful to do the things that don’t work in order to find what does work, which brings me to the point of this article, making money.

Express Your Creativity

I love making money. It’s challenging and it’s fun. If you’re skeptical about whether or not you can make money online, that’s too bad, because I’m living proof that it is possible.

Take a look around, and you’ll discover that there are millions of websites and blogs out there making money every single day.

The sheer creativity involved in delivering value and helping people is amazing. You can practically create whatever you want and sell it to people.

You may fall flat on your face a few times until you figure things out, but that’s part of the game. When you get too serious or try to force things, that’s when you’ll feel the resistance and frustration.

I Give Value, You Give Money

Most people get a bit too serious when it comes to the topic of money. I view it more as a playground, as a game.

I create something that gives you value and in exchange you give me money. It doesn’t even have to be money, it can be anything. In essence, all we are doing is exchanging energy.

Money doesn’t have to control you. It doesn’t have to be this evil thing. It can be used as a tool for getting what you want and living the life you desire.

There are a lot of people that condemn, judge and spread negativity when their life isn’t the way they want it to be.

Who cares about them? I have no problem ignoring people that do not add anything to my life. I’d rather focus on doing what I enjoy.

It’s much more constructive to realize where you are and start improving your situation instead of blaming something external.

Focus on helping people and you will go a very, very long way. When you have something of value to offer (and everyone does, no excuses accepted), the money will follow.

Image by Toby Keller

How to Create Lifetime Passive Income with Affiliate Marketing

Henri — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:17:08 +0000

When most people think about affiliate marketing, they think about getting a one-time commission. About one year ago, I thought so too, until I discovered that there are better alternatives.

You can create recurring, passive income from affiliate marketing, if you can find the right companies.

Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t promote companies or products that only give you a one-time sale.

If that product helps your readers, by all means promote it. Your priority should always be towards helping your readers and making their lives better.

If you can position yourself and work on growing passive income, while at the same time helping people, wouldn’t you want to do that? I know I would.

I think every company should offer lifetime commissions to their affiliates. You should be getting a piece of every customer you recruit for the rest of that customer’s life.

It took me a few years to even realize that these kind of affiliate programs existed. I hope I can spare you that by writing this article.

One-Time vs. Lifetime

All in all, one-time and lifetime affiliate programs work in the same way, except when customers come back, the lifetime affiliate programs give you more money.

This is a long-term strategy and if you work hard, lifetime income opportunities can really start to snowball. I’m already seeing this in my article marketing and my affiliate commissions. They are growing by themselves without me having to do anything.

Imagine if you were making one sale a day with a commission of $20. That means you’d be making somewhere around $600 a month, which is a nice sum, but that income never grows, unless you make an effort to increase your sales.

With a lifetime affiliate program you might start off at $600, but after a year that number might’ve doubled or even tripled. This, of course, depends widely on how many new customers you bring in, but I think you see my point?

Even if you left everything and were making one sale a day, your income would keep growing.

This Isn’t Rocket Science

This doesn’t have to be hard. The reason I like article marketing is because it’s easy and you start getting sales almost instantly after you start submitting articles. This is assuming that everything else is working, such as your presell, the product you’re promoting and so on.

You don’t have to have a lot of traffic to grow a nice income stream with a lifetime affiliate program. It all builds up. But what you do need is patience and persistence. If you’re writing and submitting a few articles a day, it can feel discouraging to not see huge checks coming your way in the first 6-12 months, but that’s how things are.

You have to work hard to make things happen. Most people give up and claim that making money online is impossible. I sincerely believe I can teach anyone to make money online if they are willing to work hard.

Lifetime Income Programs

With all that said, how can you actually find these affiliate programs? Well, sometimes they are hard to spot and require some detective work.

You should also try out the products you’re promoting and preferably love them. Don’t start promoting something because of the money. It will usually back-fire on you. Believe me, I’ve been there and done that.

To get you started, below are four companies that offer a lifetime affiliate program. I am an affiliate most of these companies, so if you sign-up through my link, I make some money as well. Just thought I’d let you know. This in no way affects your commissions. It just gives me some money to support my rent and food habit

1. Xtend-Life is a New Zealand Company that focuses on making the best natural supplements and skin care products. This is the company that I promote the most at this moment in time. I use their supplements myself on a daily basis. Ingela uses their skin care products and supplements. I have even recommended them to my mother, who also uses them now. She likes them so much she’s raving about them to her friends. The only bad thing is that their affiliate program is invite only. If you’re serious and want in, contact me and I’ll see what I can do.

2. DreamHost is a hosting company that offers hosting at a very competitive price. I used them for almost two years before I moved onto a more expensive company. They are a good starting point and a lot of people love them. They offer 10% revenue share on people you recommend and 5% revenue share on people your people recommend.

3. Market Health is a company that sells health related products. They have very aggressive sales pages, which can put off many people, but they do convert. They offer big recurring commissions on their products, so if people come back for more, you’ll get paid. The only thing I’d say is to test their products out for yourself before you start promoting them, if you don’t like them, don’t recommend them.

4. Aquasana is a company that produces water filters. They are very affordable. I have used their water filters myself and they are excellent, so I can recommend them from personal experience. I think they offer 20-30% commission on their sales and 10% on second tier sales. Their affiliate program can be tricky to find, so I got the link for you, clicking here takes you directly to their sign-up page.

As you can see, I’m a huge believer in knowing what you’re promoting. The more you believe in the product you’re recommending, the better you’ll do.

This is just a taste of the affiliate programs I am involved in at the moment. I’m sure there are plenty more great affiliate programs out there. I am going to keep an eye out for them and see if I can find enough to create a big list for you to pick from.

Image by Ed Schipul

My Journey to Making Money Online

Henri — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:05:05 +0000

Becoming good at something takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears, which is one of the reasons why you should only pursue what you are passionate or interested in.

It gives you the fuel to blast through the obstacles that will pop up on your path.

100% passion is not required, only interest and the willingness to move forward.

Most people tell me they don’t know what their passion is, but this isn’t the problem. The problem is being afraid of missing out.

Everyone has many passions and interests, and we don’t want them to slip away.

The good news is that choosing one doesn’t mean you abandon the others. You only need one passion to create a lifestyle business around, and then you can pursue the rest on your free time.

Pick one passion and give it all of your attention.

If you try to make them all work, you will fail. It’s not impossible, just improbable.

I struggled with this for several years. But luckily I learned how to make it work.

The focus I had allowed me to build a lifestyle business online, which allowed me to live in Spain for 11 months and learn the language (or at least part of it ).

$8,000 Up in Flames

Back in 2006, I was still playing poker. I enjoyed it, but I had an itch to do something else. I realized that I didn’t want to keep playing online poker for the rest of my life.

At the time, I knew nothing about SEO, affiliate marketing, advertising, blogging, or online business in general.

So, the first thing I did was sign up for 1-on-1 mentoring, because mentoring had played a big part in my success as a poker player.

The mentoring program lasted for about 6 months and cost me $8,000. There were a lot of unanswered questions during this time.

It might’ve been bad coaching, or just bad implementation on my part. Either way, it’s not something I regret, because I learned a lot about myself.

What happened was I built up a website, wrote a pretty fluffy e-book and wrote a salespage. I never gave it a chance. I just deleted the whole thing within a few months. I was confused and had no idea what to do.

The coaching had ended, so I had no one to turn to. I felt like more coaching wasn’t worth the money, so I stopped and jumped on board another opportunity. Sound familiar?

Niche Websites

Site Build It! (aff link) spoke to me. It was simple. It was reasonably priced and the community was awesome, so I joined in 2007. I had actually tried it in 2006, but given up on it as well.

My two Site Build It! sites bring in between $1,000-$2,000/month. The income goes up and down, as I no longer focus on those sites.

The first site was a poker site, which was a horrible failure, but I managed to monetize it somewhat, which helps me pay for the hosting and then some.

The biggest reason my first site was a failure was because I neglected to follow the instructions. I think this happens to a lot of people; they join a course, don’t follow the instructions and then blame the course.

It’s all part of a learning process I went through. After 2 years I realized that my poker site wasn’t going to cut it. I received help from the Site Build It! forums and started a new site in the health nice.

I got in touch with another SBIer called Tomaz from Freedom Ideas. He was kind enough to help me for free.

This time, I was determined to succeed. My mindset had shifted and I was willing to do whatever it took. I followed the advice I got from Tomaz and the other people I had got in contact with and built my first really profitable website.

Article Marketing

Then I moved onto article marketing. What I did was put up a small site, and then drive traffic to it by writing almost solely for EzineArticles.

I no longer recommend that, as it’s much better to build up your own real estate and create an authority site, like I teach in Online Income Mastery.

I wrote thousands of articles, and I got really good at writing. And to this day, I still have a few sites that bring in a nice passive income because of the work I did.

It’s nice to have the money come in, but I wouldn’t recommend people go after this way of making money online unless they are absolutely determined to succeed.

It’s not something that was enjoyable most of the time, which is why I started this blog. What I truly love is helping people create the freedom in their life so they can do what they want.

The Shift

Everything changed for me when I realized, in early 2009, that my poker website wasn’t going to help me make a living.

I had to stop fooling myself. It’s easy to believe that you’re perfect and the fault lies in the course, program, ebook or even Google.

When you’re honest with yourself, you learn to let go of what doesn’t work. Now, I am not talking about trying something for 3 months and buying each new course that comes out.

I went on for 2 years until I realized my mistakes. We all have to make mistakes until we learn enough about ourselves to actually take in what people are saying and apply it correctly.

In the end, you will determine your own success, so be kind to yourself, and keep moving forward.

Image by Wolfgang Staudt

17 Ways to Make Money Following Your Life’s Passion

Henri — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:04:59 +0000

Knowing your passion is easy in comparison to learning how to make money doing it full-time.

Luckily, there are an incredible amount of ways you can monetize your passion. If you really want it bad enough, you’ll figure out a way.

Pretty much everything is possible in this day and age. What if you can’t make money doing what you love?

Should that stop you from doing it?

What if a shift happens in the marketplace in two years from now and suddenly you can make a living selling, writing, creating or talking about your favorite weird stuff?

With all that said, here’s a simple list I compiled just to show you a few examples of how you can make money following your passion both online and offline. Enjoy!

1. Direct Advertising

If you’re passionate about swimming, write about it daily and provide massive value to your readers, you will gain a following and you will be able to monetize your website. Most people do not even consider the possibility of calling companies directly and telling them your website rocks and they need to buy some advertising.

How do you find potential advertisers? Here are a few examples that should get your wheels turning. Get creative with this, try new stuff and be amazed at the results.

1. Google is an excellent way to find potential advertisers. Type in your search term, look at the sponsored ads that pop up, go to their website and call them up. These are companies already spending money on clicks! Here’s an example of Gary Vaynerchuk doing this in real time.

2. Other websites are good to look at for tips on who’s advertising where. Check out some big websites on swimming and look at who their advertisers are. Click through to the companies in question and call them up.

3. Yellow pages or other places where you can find offline businesses that are related to swimming. Magazines, sports stores or even events about swimming would most likely be interested in your website.

4. Put up an advertising page on your website that tells potential advertisers that you’re selling advertisers. Tell them where, when and how to get in touch with you for more details. The easier you make it for them, the more chance you will have of landing a good deal.

2. Contextual Advertising Networks

Advertising networks are very popular and easy to use, but they are often not the best way to monetize. However, this does not mean that you should avoid them, because you never know. The way contextual advertising works is you join, get a simple code, put it on your website and ads will start showing.

Every time someone clicks on your ads, you make money. The amount of money you make can vary wildly in different markets, which is why you want to test them out and see how profitable they are. A few examples of solid networks are:

3. Affiliate Networks

Being an affiliate means you get a share of every sale you make. If you’re promoting swimming wear on your website and one of your readers buys through your link, you can make a percentage of that sale.

Different affiliate networks have different percentages. It usually depends on the profit margin that the company itself has. For example, digital goods such as ebooks usually give upwards of 50-75% share if you’re an affiliate.

Physical products like supplements, books and sports gear pays a lot less, the amount is usually somewhere between 5-30%. With all that said, there are many ways to monetize your website and being an affiliate is definitely a very good option that many live by (including yours truly).

Here are a few examples of affiliate networks that you can check out and see if they have anything in your market that you might be able to promote to your current or future audience:

Another cool tip is that you can often find individual companies that have affiliate programs and are not a member of any affiliate networks, so it pays to do your research and look around.

4. Text Link Ads

Monetizing your site by selling links is not something Google likes. It might get your site penalized and even removed from their search entirely, so selling text link ads can be risky. However, by putting a no-follow tag on the links you sell, you’re okay says Google.

A no-follow tag is a piece of code that you can easily put on your links. It tells the search engine that your link should not help the target website rank better in the search engines. Many still sell text links, so if you’re interested here are a few brokers:

5. Paid Reviews

You can write reviews and get paid for it. There are networks where you can register, put up your site and let advertisers get in touch with you if they are interested. This can be controversial and is not liked by many because you’re “selling out”, but I have no problems with it as long as you tell your readers what you’re doing.

Bloggers and website owners that do write a lot of paid reviews and have large audiences do make some good money from it. You can also do this without the paid review networks and have a page on your blog announcing that you do paid reviews, nicely cutting out the middleman.

Again, there are many ways you can get creative with this, so jump out of the box and enjoy the weather. Here are a few networks that can help you out if you’re up for writing paid reviews:

6. Donations

Believe it or not, people do make money by putting up a donation button on their blogs. I personally have no experience with this, but I do know a few bloggers who are making a decent income from donations.

A donation button can easily be implemented through PayPal where visitors can pay safely with their credit cards or PayPal account. The strategy is to simply put it up after your blog posts or website articles and ask for a donation if they like the content, or even tell people to buy you a beer as thanks for the content .

Now, you probably should not expect huge amounts of money to come your way, but it can be a good way to boost your income, especially if you’re providing excellent value to your audience. If you’re giving a lot of stuff away for free, you might want to check out the next option to monetize.

7. Create Your Own Products

Creating your own ebooks, audio programs or even DVDs is an excellent way to monetize your passion. The drawbacks are that you have to have an audience that is willing to buy from you, or better yet, an e-mail list that likes you.

That shouldn’t be a problem if you’re passionate about what you’re doing. You’ll naturally learn new things and there are always people one step behind you that will pay for high-quality, step-by-step instructions on how to progress.

You can also borrow other people’s authority. For example, you can interview experts in your industry and create products out of that, or just sell the interviews. This has been done many times.

A good example is the Rawkathon, where Kevin Gianni interviewed 14 raw food experts and sold the whole package. I watched all the interviews myself and they were awesome. There are many ways to go about creating your own products and it is still one of the best ways to monetize your passion.

8. Workshops

As you gain more and more authority and popularity, you can begin to organize workshops. How soon you can do this will depend on your niche, your audience and your creativity.

There are many niches where a hands on approach is best and getting together in real life provides substantially more value. You could start this early on by holding very small workshops of 5-10 people and charging small amounts, or even doing them for free, as experiments.

When you get excellent testimonials from the participants and learn more about how you can improve, you can raise the price and let more people in. The possibilities are endless!

9. Partnering

If you’re awesome at something but do not have an audience, you could partner with someone who does. If you’re a dog trainer that can solve a pressing need that dog owners have, there’s a big chance you can work together with someone to produce a product and sell it.

This requires some business sense, because you do not get into any business trouble, who does?. Make a deal beforehand and put it all down in writing so everything is clear and you’ve decided on who will do what.

A very common split is 50/50. If someone else has the audience and you have the knowledge, it is only fair, right? However, do not be limited by this. Negotiate and see what you can come up with.

10. Freelancing

Freelancing is an excellent way to make a living. If you love writing, designing websites, programming or anything that can be outsourced, then you probably don’t mind doing it for other people. By throwing up a freelance service, you can be in business practically overnight.

Don’t get me wrong though, it takes work to get your rates up and you may have to work for low pay in the beginning, but if you love it, you’ll make it work in the long-run. There are many ways to get noticed as a freelancer.

For example, you can throw up your own blog, start writing about writing or whatever you love. You then put up a page on your website that says “Hire Me” and promote yourself on your blog now and then.

If your work is good then you’ll get paid. There are plenty of low-quality freelancers out there making money, so there’s plenty of room for high-quality.

Here are a few websites that act as middle-men between freelancers and employers:

11. Article Marketing

Article marketing is one of my favorites, since I use it myself quite a bit. It is very simple to get started, but you do need to have your own website, hosting, a domain name and some technical skills (not much though).

There are many ways to go about article marketing, but the way I use it is to get direct traffic to my websites. I submit articles to Ezinearticles on the niche I am targeting. In return I get targeted visitors (and some links) to my website.

These visitors can be monetized in many different ways. I have mentioned many of them above, such as selling your own products, putting up a small content website with google ads or selling affiliate products.

12. Teaching

Teaching online is becoming increasingly popular. It is a convenient and affordable way to learn online. If you’re passionate about teaching math, science, english, biology, physics or any other school subject, you might want to look into teaching.

Below are four different online tutoring sites that you can get in touch with for more information. They almost always require you to have a degree though, because that’s the way these things work. Here are a few websites that you might want to check out:

13. Consulting

Could you provide a service for people that would improve their lives or their business? If so, you may want to look at consulting. A consultant offers advice, solves problems and makes recommendations based on their experience.

There are an endless amount of areas that you can consult in. A few examples of consulting areas are: gardening, green living, organization, office design, internet marketing, image and style and home security. There are many areas, so start researching and looking into it.

There are always risks with becoming a consultant. You work your own hours and pick your own clients. But you also have to hustle to find clients and take care of other business tasks. It’s well worth it in my opinion. If it makes you love life, then do it.

14. Write for Hubpages, Squidoo or eHow

Writing for Hubpages, Squidoo or eHow is all about putting out a lot of articles, putting up your adsense ads or other monetization methods. These platforms allow you to publish content on their website and put up your own ads.

They get more content and you make money, it’s a win-win situation. I do not recommend going this route because there are a lot better ways out there to create an income. Still, many are making a living doing just this, so if it resonates with you, check it out.

The reason I don’t like them is because you’re creating content for others and all the control is in their hands. Article marketing is partly the same, but your monetization happens on your website, so there are some differences.

15. Sell Stock Photos

Do you love taking photos? You can sell your photos online in various ways. Not having to hire a professional photographer is a huge plus for many people, especially website owners who often need a quick, high-quality image to go with their articles.

The failure rate is high, but that shouldn’t scare you off, because the failure rate is always high in anything that has a low cost of entry. If it’s easy to do, then people will start and give up as soon as it doesn’t work. If you love taking photographs I suggest you look at selling stock photos as one of many ways to make a living.

Here are a few good articles that will help you get started:

16. Get a Job

Find work that you love. They may be hard to come by, but they still do exist. Using social media to get connected is a powerful way to find a position in a company that does something that you stand for and are passionate about.

The only problem is that you may find work that you love, but the times you work aren’t flexible and you might not like your boss or coworkers. There are a lot of dominoes that have to fall in place for you to really love it.

With that said, you never know, because often the universe just gives you what you want. If you truly believe that working 9-5 is a good fit, then kudos. But I advise you to have an open mind, because unexpected things can happen and opportunities that you never even thought about can come along.

17. Get Creative (and Crazy)

If nothing else works, you can always get creative (or crazy… or both). There are a lot of different people that have created ways to make money doing what they love. Why not you?

Don’t expect it to happen overnight though. If you really love what you do then keep doing it every chance you get. Get your face out there. Connect, write, talk, scream and throw stuff. That’s how you crush it!

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