Online Income - Beyond the Hype - A Step by Step Guide

Quick and easy money online is what everyone seems to be looking for these days.Hardly surprising given the number of people out of work and general state of the economy. But apparently for every 100 people who try to develop an online income - 99 will fail.

Why is that? I think because the barriers to entry to an online business are so low few people actually think before they get involved. Here's a step by step guide which may give you a better shot at being in the top 1%

1. Realize that you are starting a business. Just because you don't need to go out and lease a shop and a vehicle and get a bank loan, people miss this point. You still need to think about planning you business, and how you are going to fund your living expenses until the business starts turning a profit.

2. Realize that to make money you are going to have to sell. Not having selling skills was my single biggest handicap when I started out. The good news is that you don't have to be cold calling to make money online, but you do need to understand something about buyer behavior and copywriting.

3. Decide what business model you are going to focus on initially. There is an almost infinite number of things that you can sell online - everything form children's toys on eBay to high-end cameras on Amazon, hotel rooms in Las Vegas and "How to Cure Gout" eBooks on Clickbank. You need to pick one method and stick with it for a while. Then you need to diversify to other options - but sticking with a single method at the start is a good way to avoid information overload.

4. Learn how to attract search engine traffic to your website. This is the key to your business - without buyers you are nothing. Without motivated buyers you are still nothing. Getting a whole lot of visits from Stumbleupon or Digg, is nice, but those visitors won't buy from you. Instead focus on learning enough SEO so that you can get motivated searchers to your site.

5. Don't give up. It takes a while and its said that many people quit just before they succeed. For months you may only make $100, then suddenly your income will double, and double again - its exponential the growth, when it comes. As you learn more you will get better and finding money-making opportunities, and also your sites will get more trusted by the search engines, that results in not an incremental improvement in your online income - but an exponential one!