When I first started learning about making money online, I got all hyped up by reading that there were these great opportunities to just sit behind your computer and fill in forms for companies. And of course I fell for the illusion that I could actually make a lot of money filling in these forms without having to do anything else.
I guess I am not the only person who ever spent money on this type of program because of the large amount of “online survey companies” you can find when googling around a bit. I thought it was a great opportunity, especially after reading all these excellent testimonials of people who were claiming to make hundreds of dollars a month filling in these surveys, working only an hour or so a day.
I started calculated and soon found that if only I could do that type of work 5, 6 hours a day, I would earn plenty of money to buy myself a nice place outside in the country and live heapily ever after.
Looking back at that time I can still feel just how thrilled I was, I mean, I could give up commuting 2 plus hours a day and spend that extra time working even more and earning even more! I can still feel the excitement of being able to create my own job, my own workschedule and the starting of what I thought would be my pass to financial freedom.
Thinking that if I was going to persue this carreer as a Fulltime Professional Survey Form Filler I should really organize my stuff and learn as much as possible about it in order to do it right and make the most profit possible. So I bought a few books and joined a few programs and was ready for the money that was soon going to be rolling in.
Needless to say that it wasn´t.
Now, if you have been making a lot of money filling in surveys, the more power to you, but to be honest, the only surveys I ever filled in where the initital ones to join I can´t remember how many companies and all that I ever earned was $50 atmost. Of course, living outside the US didn´t really help a lot so maybe it was because of that, that I wasn´t making all the money I dreamt about.
I would say though that it was due to something else. I was completely missing the point of how to set up an online business that would generate money for the future to come. I started paying closer attention to the websites that I had signed up for and started noticing little links on the bottom of each page. I also started seeing a structure in all these, what seemed to be different companies, websites that were offering to teach you how to make money filling in surveys.
You see, about 90% of them were using the same payment processor, Clickbank and they were all gearing towards visitors who were looking for the same thing:
• changing their lives
• financial freedom
• working from home
• spending less time working
They were giving their visitors exactly what they were looking for and claiming that all these big dreams were possible to achieve. Now, don´t get me wrong, I still believe it is possible to achieve anything you set your mind on, and nobody will ever be able to make me think differently about that.
The whole point that I was missing though was that in order for me to reach those goals, I shouldn´t be filling in forms but rather learn how to do what they were doing, running websites and selling something.
I give you permission to call me stupid, but it wasn´t untill I read a certain ebook about Internet marketing that I actually made the link between those little links on the bottom of the page, clickbank and earning a living online and I can honestly say that ebook did make a huge change in my life.
Want to find out which book I am referring to?
Be patient, you will find out soon!
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on Oct 27th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Mirjam:
You don’t have to give permission. No one should ever call others stupid. It’s just not right!
I am glad that you’ve learned a lot. I just saw the Oprah shows, which Interviewed Zappos’s CEO Tony. Like Tony said clearly. The money came after your passion. You have to do something that you love to do and money will come.
Personally, I found the best way to get money is to help people first. By solving day to day issues, people will spread the words for you.
Think big and solve people’s problem will bring the most benefit to you after all!
Terence Chang’s last blog post..Sync Google Calendar with Thunderbird + Lighting - Travel with Google Calendar
on Oct 27th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
By the way! I finally dump EntreCard from all my blogs today. There are still thousands credits hanging there, but I have wasted thousands points to get no traffic.
I can tell you that it’s a relief to get rid of EntreCard!
Just one more suggestion. It will be a great improvement, if you can make your header image clickable. I was trying to go back to your home page by clicking on that eye candy header image.
You can use Google Analytic to track how many people click on the header image. At least, I am the one to click on.
Terence Chang’s last blog post..ExitCard to the EntreCard! Lessons learned from EntreCard!
on Oct 27th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Well I have to admit that I never fell for that opportunities where, as with filling surveys, you had to actually work a certain amount of time to get a certain amount of money. It’s linear, and you only have a limited amount of time in a day.. So this was clearly not the path to wealth for me. From the beginning I was looking into something that would have made money without my intervention after initial setup.
Easily said that done, though. Even today, almost a year after my “initiation” I’m yet to fulfill the dream/goal. Not doubting it’s doable, I have to say that you have to do this right once to get the thing going. I’m waiting for that “once”.
But waiting is not right, isn’t it?? You have to “do”. Here’s the tricky part where you mustn’t get discouraged by failures. And that’s exactly where I have my “down” times once in a while. Maybe I’m lazy, or something. rrrrrrrrr….
Alex at Net-Entrepreneur.com’s last blog post..MSI Wind Trackpad Scrolling
on Oct 27th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
hey Terence!
great comment, super advice, sure will look into the clickable header, it is probably easy to do LOL
about the Entrecard, yeah, think that was a good step, it was fun in the beginning to get to know my way around blogging a bit but the only time I spent there lately was to approve or disapprove campaigns and that was about it, so weighing the advantages against the disadvantages, it just had to go!
So now people can tip me instead, to keep this sorry ass blog going and get some prime time top spot in the sidebar
thanks for the heads up, as always!
Mirjam’s last blog post..A Special Message from the Universe
on Oct 27th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
hey Alex
oh yeah, I am not afraid to admit that I was trading time for money as the first online venture, aside my regular job where I was doing exactly the same LOL so I learned it the hard way.
Even now at times I do some of that, like writing content for others, which in a way is trading my time for money as well, to have some extra cash to invest if needed when times are rough LOL
yeah, don´t sit around waiting for it to happen, make it happen!
cheers pal!
Mirjam’s last blog post..Thoughts on the Mysterious Free Report
on Oct 28th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Interesting for the ‘O since Zappos has been in civil litigation and under Federal investigation practically since day 1
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..How, What, When, or Why Do You Recommend A Product or Service?
on Oct 29th, 2008 at 10:26 am
darn, missed that show or better said, it probably didn´t air here yet