and then sticking with it!

A lot has changed since I started this blog. In the beginning I was mingling with others in the blogosphere, reading up on a lot of blogs and my inbox got crowdier and crowdier.

The traffic for this blog started growing steadily and I got more and more comments, gotta say, I loved the attention but at one point I was spending hours daily knowing that I was not going to make a penny with this particular blog and other projects that I was setting up got put on a sidetrack, eventhough the attention there was to actually make money.

What a stupid way to go in “business”, all play and no work!  If I were to do this working for a boss, I would have been sacked ages ago, but I kept telling myself I was just in the learning stage and trying to figure out what really worked.

So, I have gone through quite some changes recently, but the most important change is my focus. Instead of wanting to learn everything there is, instead of signing up for a zillion programs that were going to teach me, and others that were going to make me money for sure, and buying domain names left and right with the purpose of setting up that million dollar business thought that popped into my head, I am now sticking with what I already know and have at my disposal.

And I am wondering, just how many people are auto-sabotaging themselves?

In the first few months of running this blog, I met some really nice people in this field, all trying their hardest to make money, some do make a few bucks left and right, a few actually make a lot, and then others are having a hard time not to throw in the towel completely.

Most still are stuck at the level of being able to buy a cup of coffee from what they earn online, and are struggling to get where they could actually buy dinner from their earnings. I have gotten to the level of where I can pay my foodbill, but man, looking at return of investment, I have been a complete sucker so far!

So far, my paycheck is still way below minimum wage per hour, but I get by because of the huge amount of hours that I am putting in.

Think about… if I were to work for a boss, I would have been stamping my feet in a tantrum for the low hourly pay, and would have left ages ago.

If you have been reading my last entries, you know I have signed up for moreniche, yet another one of the affiliate programs out there.  So far I have not made a sale yet, I have some sites set up now that I am quite happy with though, and have started to systematically build links to them. I am convinced though that this time around it is all improving, because I am cutting out a lot of my time-wasters and focussing on the bigger picture and roadplan I have set out for myself.

When going into the support forum where other members join and ask for support, there is one thing that stands out to me.  It seems there are still a lot of people who think that affiliate marketing does not require having to work. They seem to think that as soon as they have set up a site, no matter how louzy it is, money will come rolling in, so they sit back and pray for traffic, eager people who are looking to buy.

However, when that doesn´t seem to happen after a day or a week, they are becoming upset and start screaming the program doesn´t work. They start looking around and some even start  buying “unique hits”, thinking that that traffic will get them sales. So they spend $25 on 10.000 unique hits, without realizing they are throwing away their money. At no point do they step back and have a closer look at their page, thinking whether or not they themselves would fall in their own “trap”.

Others leave a message saying they just signed up for the program and “what to do next”? They are asking for help and it seems they are still in the frame of mind of thinking there must be some “secret” to making big bucks, but nobody is willing to share it. So instead of reading the free guides the program offers and actually following the advice, they want to know the shortcut to bring in those bucks.

Well, there aren´t any shortcuts, especially not if you don´t have a few pennies to spend on outsourcing most of the work.

What happens? They give up, maybe go to another program, another way to make money, but as long as they don´t realize that affiliate marketing is just like any other job, they will not make it anywhere.

This morning I received an email from another blogger I have been in contact with over the past few months. We talked about MoreNiche a few times and about a program he had signed up for (read about it on here). And I noticed myself again just how volatile my own mind is, there still is a tiny part in my brain that wants me to think that there must be a secret to making money, although by now, fortunately a larger part of my brain knows there is only one secret and it is called “work at what brings you profit, ditch all activities that don´t bring in cash and keep working at building links”.

You see, too many of us want to do it all perfect and therefor don´t undertake action. We are tweaking and perfecting all sorts of projects without them making any money yet, while I believe we should find whatever works for ourselves, and only then start tweaking the projects that have started bringing in cash, no matter how little.

Instead, we tweak and perfect projects that are not working yet,  see no results, jump to the next “big thing to sign up for” without giving ourselves a real chance to make money.

Anyways, I´d be interested to see all your comments and experiences. I have been deleting a lot of comments lately though, because it seems this blog got onto different D-lists (lists of blogs that do-follow) and many posts seem to become spammed, with stupid “great post comments” or comments that just show the post wasn´t read at all.

If you arrived here because of one of those lists, realize I have no problem with giving away linkjuice, just don´t abuse me!

You want the free link, work for it! 

If you are looking for a place to learn and make money, you should consider signing up for moreniche, the free guides are offering some valuable information and blueprints on how to set up websites, how to build traffic, how to improve your website, improve SEO, good templates to set up professional looking websites, graphics, very good customer support, the lot!

And once you make your first sale, there is an extra bonus upto $45 to show how much they appreciate your work ;)

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