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How to make the switch to working online is going to be a short series on how to move from your 9-5 job to a life of freedom and flexibility of working online. This is how I made my move and how you can too, no BS involved.

First, it isn’t working online but rather playing online and earning money. If I did not love getting up in the morning doing what I am doing, I wouldn’t last a month. The biggest hurdle you have to overcome while pondering the thought of working online is to ignore what others have done to make money online and to do what you love instead.

When people first start out online, they look at the likes of John Chow and Jeremy Schoemaker and think, “I can do this.” What most people realize after about a month of trying is it doesn’t work out that way. Earning money online can be a lot harder than it appears.

First Step:

Start! I know that seems basic, but it is amazing that most people only think and talk about making a life change for the better. So get going and do it! Learn about the different ways you can make money online and what you are capable of doing.

Second Step:

Find what you love to do. Motivation is a huge factor in success. When you love your work, you aren’t working. Having fun is probably the most important aspect of doing what you love. Besides loving what you do, you will often know a lot about that particular niche, adding even more to your credibility and knowledge to the trends in that market. Knowing as much as you can about your niche market gives you the edge on top of the passion to pursuit it. It amazes me that even after blogging for a short period of time you will see so many other bloggers come and go as they slowly give up on their pursuit of money. It’s a pursuit of a dream that will carry you through.

Third Step:

Phase into your online work. I didn’t just wake up one day and start working online. I started by reading blogs. Then I started subscribing to blogs that I liked. I opened up a free blogging account on Blogger.com and other sites, learning the skills of creating a fluid site online. I learned how to and how not to make money online (selling ebooks is not going to get you anywhere unless you know how to market online well). Make the shift from part-time Internet entrepreneur to full-time self employed Internet marketer. Start small and allow yourself to have a life outside of the Internet and your work. As you grow and expand online, you will have to be the judge of when to quit your day job and pursuit your online business. I did this after roughly 4-5 months. I timed vacation and paychecks to give me the most coverage and financial buffer I could. This process wasn’t easy and I had to live on next to nothing for a few months in order to accomplish the transaction. I recommend saving as much money as you can before this part or already be generating a steady income stream from your part-time online ventures. Both are good ideas.

Fourth Step:

Find a balance in your life and establish a routine. It is a whole new world to work for yourself. There is no longer someone making sure you are accomplishing your work. You have to be your own boss. Treat your time as a commodity that you can no longer take back. Time is no longer worth a fixed dollar amount. It is equated in the terms of value added. You now get paid on performance and the value that you provide. It no longer matters how long it takes you to accomplish tasks in order to get paid but rather how much value you provide your customers. Never cheat your customers on value. You may find that in order to generate the income you want, you only spend 4 hours a day working for it. It is important to find that balance and treat that time like it is pure gold, because it is.

Fifth Step:

Diversify. The days where you set up a store front and sold hardware supplies to local people are fading fast. In a world that changes in a matter of minutes online, you cannot afford to be stagnate. As soon as you start generating a decent income from your flagship blog or virtual business, you should be creating the next. When you have 4-5 different but related businesses online, you protect yourself from failure due to lose of income. If one of those businesses or income streams disappears, you still have others to carry your through until your next idea is put into place. The winds of business change so quickly online that no one knows for sure what the next year will bring. If people claim to know, they are lying.

Sixth Step:

Give back. Giving back is a crucial part of business and branding. Giving back doesn’t always have to involve money, it can be in time to help charitable causes, giving advice to others, talking with and answering questions from customers, sending thank you cards and notes and just about anything else. Never forget where you were at one point, and remember to give credit to those who helped get you there.

I should really make a top posts section but until then you can enjoy them here:

1. Top 10 reasons you should quit your job
2. Postcard from Warren Buffett
3. The 10 Blogging Commandments
4. The power of one blue plastic blag
5. Blogging is a game of inches
6. Hi y’all, Sitehoppin delivers traffic and now 25% OFF
7. Michael Marcil: A man with a vision
8. 5 easy ways to build backlinks for you blog
9. Lessons learned from Sitehoppin
10. Internet Business Guide by Marcus Hochstadt

All of these posts are ranked on a variety of variables, including views, searches, comments, ping backs, categories and achieve views. If you want to know about your post popularity, you can download the Wordpress plugin here. What is your favorite Wordpress plugin?

I know that giving your customers what they want sounds like a novel idea. But a lot of people only think they know what their customer wants. This is why you see huge difference between companies that listen to their customers and the ones that refuse to (or at least are very very slow to). Recently the New York Times and Wall Street Journal have been cutting a lot of jobs in order to make up for the losses that they are receiving from a lack of subscriptions and advertising.

I really want to know why so many newspapers across the country are shelling out millions and millions of dollars to run AP (Associated Press) articles while continuing to watch their advertising revenue go down the drain. If one of your primary sources from news costs a lot of money to maintain and your readership is going down, something will need to change in order to stay afloat. It couldn’t possibly be that the same people reading your newspaper already read those AP stories online. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen an article in the paper that I read a day or two ago online. Wow, no wonder people are running from newspapers. They are old news.

In order to stay relevant and remarkable in a world that is instant, businesses have to change. The business of media, such as newspapers, radio and television are being flipped on their head because of the light speed of the Internet. So what can they offer that the Internet can’t? How about local news for a change? I know newspapers do report local news, but I can’t remember the last time I read about a debate outside of the Letters to the Editor section. Remember the days when reporters were more than reciters and were more objective in their reporting? God forbid if someone writes from their own opinion or stirs up some debate between two opposing groups in town. That used to be good news. It was entertaining and fun to participate in. Even if the news or facts were slanted people would talk about it even more, stirring up even more controversy. As long as the paper didn’t go to the length of offending people, they would sell lots of subscriptions. Could this be why blogging has shot to the moon while traditional media has fallen flat? I’ll let you decide that for yourself.

(Picture thanks to Get Clippings)

Lately, I have been reading through the book Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz and have come to really admire how simply he lays out word of mouth marketing. If you haven’t read his book, you should. Without further adieu, here are some ideas offered in the book:

1. Find the people who will talk about you

The people with enthusiasm for your message is a great place to start, but if you don’t already have people willing to talk about you, how do you get them? First, start by doing a lot of commenting either on blogs of in forums. As you build your presence, people will repay in kind and talk about either you or your product. As long as you are open and genuine, you will build a following. After some time this, following will continue to build itself. Another way to get people to talk about you is to have a product that is remarkable. Having a remarkable product can’t be fake. It has to be real, otherwise the backlash will highly outweigh the benefit of trying. People love Macintosh because of the product, not because Macintosh paid them to go out and say good things about the company.

2. Give them a reason to talk

This is the reason that you want to find and target the edge of your market. When you market to the edge, you are offering a product or service that no one else is really doing. When you offer that product, it gives people a reason to talk about it because not many people have heard of it or used it. When a product is good or exceptional, people can’t help but talk about it. Everyone has an opinion and most people like to voice their opinion when it comes to something they think they know better on. Why do people love talking about the newest gadget every time they get one? It’s because not many other people have them yet.

3. Help the message grow

In the world of blogging, this would be the Tell a Friend button on your posts or the easy submit buttons to your favorite social network sites. This would also be the weekly newsletter people can get in their inboxes and easily forward to their friends and family. What about a free coupon for a friend as your customer is walking out the door? Talk about a great way to get either your customers or their friend to return to your store. If they don’t use it, you aren’t out anything. If they come back, you probably have gained a couple customers out of the deal. What have you got to lose?

4. Participate in the conversation

People love to feel special and important. If someone feels like they are in the know or part of a special group like a beta tester is, they will find ways to tell others about their status. So give people that option to be a part of the “in crowd” and tell them all you can about the new features or open things up to Q&A. In turn, they will relay that message and knowledge to others. As the flow of conversation happens, more trust is built and ideas are shared resulting in a better service and product while including your customers in the discussion.

5. Record what is happening

Of course I don’t think it is entirely possible to record or track everything that everyone says about you or your product, but there are a few useful tools out there. I love using Google Alerts (GOOG)to find the new happenings about my selected keywords. Every day I get an email that lists different Google news of blog posts found containing my selected keyword. Some days I don’t get anything from a specific keyword, but when Google finds something it is sure to let me know. Another option is to open up your own forum to help people with their issues or questions. As membership grows, the forum will give you a pulse of the sentiment for your product.

Word of mouth marketing usually takes a little more effort and thought to ensure it is properly executed. Even then, you can’t be sure that it will work out the way you intended. It is impossible to say how people are going to react to different products or ideas, and giving them the microphone can be a double-edged sword. With that said, always remember to be honest in your marketing and tactics. If you aren’t, it will probably bite you in the….

Have you had a successful word of mouth marketing campaign? Go ahead and share it with everyone.

*Don’t forget about the contest for the best business card design for Unconventional Marketing worth $50, you can enter more than once.