A new milestone

Two days ago I broke my goal of 225 RSS subscribers for the Month of June. Once again thank you to all who have subscribed. If you did not get your Entrecard credits for subscribing, you must let me know by email or message in order to get them.

First post series

This week was the first time I ran a post series and I enjoyed it very much. I got a lot of feedback and enjoyed the input that everyone gave. I will be working on another series for the upcoming week. In case you missed it here are the links:

• How to make the switch to working online Part 1
• How to make the switch to working online Part 2
• How to make the switch to working online Part 3
• How to make the switch to working online Part 4 

New blog theme

Recently I ran a poll asking whether or not it was time to change the blog theme and as the results came in, the majority voted to change. Let me know what you think of the new look.

Upcoming week

This next week is going to be very busy for me, and I would like to wish you all an early Happy 4th of July.

*Note: This was not a paid review nor are the links affiliate links. I am supporting Marcus and his product because I feel that both are of great value.

About two months ago, Marcus Hochstadt from the blog Internet Business Guide For First Class Progress asked if I would review a new product he was about to launch. Marcus sells and promotes tutorial videos and other helpful products for people who are new to making money online. So, onwards and upwards.

The home study course, International Market & Keyword Research, was designed by Marcus to help people understand how to properly find and select keyword marketing. If you have ever tried your luck at Google Adwords without putting much thought into it, you have probably spent a fair amount of money doing it. It would not be hard in the least to drop $1,000 on Adwords and not even get a measurable return from it. Marcus aimed to solve the issue of wasting money on Adword campaigns and did a good job.

What you will find is a step-by-step process for targeting the exact audience you are seeking with the exact keywords necessary to net the biggest conversions. Marcus laid everything out in a well thought out manner that will allow even the most novice Adword users to understand completely. I have used Adsense and Adwords before and was blown away by how the course guided me through the whole process. I have to admit, while watching the tutorial, I did some reverse research to look up the kind of content I wanted to provide on another blog in order to net the most per click off the Adsense ads running on that site. After finding the keywords that paid the most, it was a matter of researching which keywords in that category received the most clicks. Just using that information will pay for the series all by itself in no time at all.

I would not promote a product unless I felt it would benefit people, but also benefit people for a reasonable price. Marcus has informed me that he will be running a 72-hour special of the same International Market & Keyword Research home study course for $35. After the 72 hours, it will jump to $100. If you remember from my post the other day when I mention waiting before purchasing anything online, I would do the same here. Although I wouldn’t wait more than 72 hours, because the price will go up considerably after that. I can tell you that this course will pay for itself in a short timeframe either by saving you money that could have been wasted on Adword campaigns or by using knowledge and research techniques to promote targeted content on your blog to earn the most possible from your Adsense ads. I saw a significant jump in Adsense revenue on another one of our blogs by triggering those specific keywords.

Give it some thought and analyze if earning greater revenue from Adsense of saving money on Adwords is the thing you are looking for. If it is, I would invest in this tutorial.

Over the last few days I have been running a series on how to make the lifestyle change to working online. Here is part 1, part 2 and part 3.

The hardest part about making the switch from, say, a traditional 9-5 job to working for yourself online, is the ability to stick with projects and even more importantly, letting them go. Since starting out online, I have participated no less than 10 different ways of making money online over a 6-month period. I have made money or broken even on pretty much everything, but the downside was the amount of time invested in some of these ideas. Nothing beats the time when I planned on writing and promoting ebooks. I wrote wrote and wrote, only to discover I really didn’t want to do that type of work. It was too labor intensive on the front end and there were no guarantees on making any money from the ebooks themselves.

Think of your bottom line and how much time it is worth in order to earn that money. If you spend a lot of time just to earn a little return, you are fighting a losing battle. On the other hand, if you have to spend 100 hours without seeing any profit in order to make much larger returns, that is the better deal. Most of successful work online involves more front end work and higher rewards after the time, energy and effort are put in. This is why most make money online schemes don’t work, because they promise the returns before the effort. Rarely is this ever true. Like I said in the earlier posts, there is no magic bullet. The key is determining when to hold onto those projects and goals as they start costing you more money and time than you had planned or anticipated for. For me, I like to make a plan and return to that plan even if it is just mentally to reassess where I am at in the process. If I feel directionless and unmotivated, it is probably because I have strayed from my original plan or I am realizing the cost benefit ratio is changing.

I really don’t have a set guide for when to drop a project and when to keep it. I spent about 1 year working on an ebook site to help unpublished authors and ended up putting the idea on the shelf. That was a really hard thing for me to do, especially after all the work and time invested. Fortunately, I had only invested a tiny sum of money into the project, mostly due to the limited budget. The project could have easily cost me a lot. It was a hard choice to tuck the idea away, knowing it would probably never see the light of day again, but I had a couple quiet secessions with myself. I really dug deep and asked if that project was something I really wanted to pursuit, or did I want to cut my losses while they were still minimal and move on? I chose the latter and have been thankful ever since.

On the reverse side, I made the choice to stick to my guns and pursuit other ideas that have paid off much more in the long run. It is a hard choice to stick with a dream as you are watching your bank account dip into the double digits territory and just hope that some of the auctions you have on eBay are enough to carry you through til things pan out. It was slowly becoming a reality that I might have to pick up a part-time job to make sure I was able to pay my bills. Just for future reference, potatoes are $.67 a pound, hard not to be able to eat when some food is that cheap. I truly loved what I was pursuing and was going to stick with it until the last possible second. After being humbled by an extremely tight budget fit for a college student it did not take much to feel rich. This is why it is so important to be doing something you really love and would do even without pay. When times get hard, that desire to continue on will be the driving force to carry you through. What separates most successful people from others is the ability to make it through the dip, because I can promise you there will be dips when you start to question your sanity.

If you have forgotten what sunlight looks like it, might be time to reconsider how much effort you are putting into your project. I made the decision to have the freedom and lifestyle that working online allowed. Recently, I made a trip to visit and help family for 3 weeks, and nothing changed as far as my business was concerned. In fact, I saw a slight boom in business while away. This is not always the case, depending on the kind of work you have chosen or are preparing to choose online. My goal was not to choose a line of work that I had to babysit on a regular basis but rather work that molded to my desires and lifestyle goals. Lifestyle design is a really important aspect of choosing what online ventures you pursuit. If you are interested in lifestyle design, I highly recommend Tim Ferriss’s 4 Hour Work Week.

Having determination and a love for what you are doing is vital for making it through the rough times when things are highly uncertain. I lived off of about $800-900 a month for a few months in order to realize my dream of working online and the flexibility it brings. This is another reason to have a financial buffer while you make the switch. My reasoning of quitting my job and jumping in head first was to force myself to really work from day 1 at making money. I made a sign and posted it right above my computer that read “will this make you money?” For me, it was sink or swim, because there was no way I was going to return to my previous job, and I was willing to do anything to avoid another job just like it. This was not the easiest way to make the switch and being young without many liabilities aided in my ability to approach my new career this way. I would highly recommend for anyone else thinking of making the switch to really analyze your situation and make the proper preparations to ensure your success. Mostly, that involves saving a lot of money or phase out the old job while phasing in your new career as it becomes more profitable.

I can’t encourage you enough to pursuit your dreams, whatever they are. The neatest thing about those dreams and the things that you love is you can make good money doing what you would do for free for a friend. The biggest thing is asking the right questions and really targeting the people you most want to work with. I love helping small businesses because I can relate with so many of them and their desire to succeed in what they do. I get a sense of reward and accomplishment watching others succeed and knowing I was able to assist them in their efforts.