Just like anything in life worth having, making money online takes some work.

A great example of this is when you VERY first got started online.  You probably didn’t even know how to set up a website.  FTP!!!  What was that crap?!?!

Now it’s a breeze each time you get a new site, slap on Fantastico and upload wordpress.

But after your site went live, it was time to start generating some traffic… it didn’t come over night.  And even if you just started buying traffic it still took time and energy to learn how and where to do it profitably.

A lot of people start off with more traditional free methods like article writing or submitting videos though and in the beginning, you definitely weren’t as suave as you are today.

Maybe this is even the stage you’re still in.

Or possibly you’re working now on conversion rates or providing high quality content to your list.

What ever part you’re in now…

It’s important to know that no matter what you do… NEVER give up!

Just like The Little Engine That Could and just like you, when you had no idea what an affiliate link was, there comes a time when you have it under control and you’re able to make a steady profit from your hard work.

In the beginning it can get frustrating, but just  keep taking action and focus on making one thing work for you.

Try not to lean too fast into new and exciting projects and forget about your original ideas.

That’s easy to do, I know.  But your success will greatly depend on your ability to stick with it until it works or you have determined that it won’t (sometimes this happens).

I see a lot of people on forums talk about how they’re not making any money and often times they’re about to give up and then BAM… it hits em!

If you haven’t had your BAM moment yet, don’t worry.  It’s coming, and the ones you have after that will blow you away.  A good internet marketers has a LOT of these moments, because a good internet marketer has never finished learning.  Keep your focus on and your mind open.

It’s a big internet… go ahead and take a share for yourself.

Is it…
-too many affiliate promotions?
-not emailing enough?
-not building a trusting relationship?
-content that’s not good enough?

These are all things that could hurt your list’s open rates, click through rates, and obviously your profits.  But even if you’re FAILING at these, but still driving traffic and getting optins… you can still make money building a list.

So what it is then?  Why do so many people fail at building a list?

It’s because they simply don’t take action.  Man, how many times have you heard the most important step is taking action?

Is it some sort of coincidence?!  NO!!

The people who start building a list and continue to work on and build a relationship with their readers WILL make money building lists.

How Can You Fix It?

Right now you’re either building a list or you’re not.  Either way, it doesn’t matter… here’s what you need to do.

Go to the checklist I sent you with the Advanced List Building Blueprint and see what step you’re on.  Now work on that step right now, until it’s finished.

Even if the step you’re on now is just to send traffic.. then it’s time to start back at the top!

Traffic is something that you work on every single day and should never stop. Never let that get in the way of moving forward with expanding the size of your list and it’s capabilities.

No matter where you’re at.. take the time and take action right now.  You owe it to yourself to build a list and not be one of the people who spend more money online than they make.

Keep working towards your small goals laid out in the checklist.

My results have been awesome.  I’m getting 1-2 requests per week on average.  (some weeks none)

The only rule I have set is that the content must be 100% unique and no more than 2 links are allowed to sites that I approve of being articles are submitted.  Linking out to bad sites can hurt the quality of your site, so I don’t link to any bad sites.

But I’m getting a consistent flow of people “doing the work” for me on the blog which is great.

So if you’re a niche blogger in several niches, I’d highly recommend adding a guest blogging page to your blog to let people find your site.

Just remember, you’re in control and not to point links out to shady sites.

Chances are, you already know that, or hopefully soon you’ll be learning more about it.

So I want to warn you about something that you MUST overcome when you’re building your list online.

It doesn’t matter who it is… me, you, your neighbor, my momma, some one in Italy neither of us know…everyone has the same fear every time they sign up for a free report, free video or anything they have to give their email address for.

That fear is SPAM.

Of course, technically it’s not spam if you ask for it.  But what is considered spam by most people isn’t just the technical definition.

I recently signed up for a free report, and the content within was awesome.  I learned a lot of valuable stuff in there.

But man…. every

single

day

I get an email from this guy.  And they’re good info, but like so many people I just don’t have the time to give this guy 10 minutes every single day to read another email.  Since it’s a project I won’t be able to get my hands on for another few weeks.

I think I’m on day 4 or 5 of his auto responder series and I just don’t want to see any more of his emails.

I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m complaining and not training right?   Well the thing is, I’m not the only 1 who gets annoyed by a constant bombardment of emails (even if they’re good stuff).

So when you’re building your lists, you need to keep in mind that having great content isn’t enough to a lot of people.

Why is this guy all up on my email address every day anyway…is he hurting for money, or just in a hurry to get me to his next offer?  It’s spammy feeling, and I want to take a shower after what happened.

There’s a fine line between sending emails, and sending too many emails.  And getting this wrong could leave your subscribers feeling like you’re a snake in the grass digital oil salesman who’s got a quick million for us to make if we sign up within the next 24 hours and push one big easy money button.

The really bad part about this guy’s list is that the content is fantastic!

But he’s absolutely killing me by sending too much too fast.

What if instead, his tips were so good that I couldn’t resist myself the next time I saw his email address because I had been waiting?  What if after every one of his emails I looked forward to his next email?  What if between emails I was thinking about when HIS email was coming next?

Then his list would be more responsive, and more profitable.

I wanted to share this little tidbit tip today, because I’m in the midst of writing a highly detailed list building report in which I’ll be covering loads of ways to increase the value of your list, and how to understand what your list is really worth. Even how to use your list so the subscribers and you get the most from it.

It’s in the works, and absolutely going to be a must have report for anyone looking to, or currently building a list that wants to make the most money with it.  Not in a scummy way, but a way that your subscribers will appreciate you for and be crawling over one another to see what’s inside your next email.

So keep your eyes out for this goldmine of information, it’ll change how you build your list forever.

Let’s say you have a brand new site.  You make a few post…3 to be exact.

Next you jump into your favorite article submission software like AMR and start shooting 100 backlinks to your site every day.

But uh… who’s linking to your site so much.. I mean.. if we look here at your traffic, you’re averaging 7 visitors per week, 3 of which are you.  So… obviously you’re out there gaming the system right.  There really is no other way around it.

So the question is, do you think search engines aren’t “smart enough” to pick up on this?

Well, the bad news is that they’re hip to the game.

That’s why a traffic building phase is always more important than a backlink phase when you first get a site started.

Sure you’ll be getting backlinks from article directories, video sites and bunch of others, but then when your site is brand new, instead of continuing to bombard your main page with backlinks…backlink your backlinks to make them stronger.

Never backlink a site with more links than it’s getting visitors.  It throws up a huge easy to spot red flag.

Just start off slow, and focus on getting some traffic rolling in, and backlinking your backlinks.  Your site will look like it’s getting natural backlinks, and be more likely to be put at the top than a site that is getting spammed hundreds or thousands of links per day.

But… I’ve always wanted to do this, so naturally I got back in…several years later.

And what I’ve found is that if you find someone who’s producing quality content, and following what they teach, it’s very do able to make a full time income online, I’m proof of that.

But I still see a lot of people complaining about how EVERYTHING is junk in this industry and nothing is new and they still aren’t making any money because everyone keeps ripping them off.

Now, don’t get me wrong…some of these people have literally been taken for thousands of dollars because they keep buying info products that never deliver results from the same people.

But honestly… there has to come a point in time when these people realize that just because XYZ says they should buy something that it means that they should actually buy it.  Especially when they’ve bought the last 5 things they were recommended and still not made any money.

There’s so much valuable information available for free or even cheap about any topic you can think of for internet marketing, so if you find yourself getting “suckered” again and again by these so called gurus, just stop.  Don’t buy their crap any more and start learning things on your own.

There are loads of internet marketing forums where you can go to get help and learn about how to do anything at all.  You’ll also find a lot of really great info products there for a lot less than a frickin’ fast food meal.

Just keep in mind, there really is money to be made online, and you really can do it.  But buying a product will never make you money, unless you use the information that you found inside that report.

The majority of reports that you buy will be 30-40 pages of stuff that you already know and 1 paragraph that could make huge improvements to your success.  Before you buy your next report ask yourself… is this REALLY something that will help you NOW, or is this a dream that you’re better saving until you’re done with your current project?

That’s how I got started.  I chose a niche I had some interest in at the time, and I built a site around it.

Yea it made money.  Within the first month I’d made my first sale.  About the 5th or 6th  month I started building a list, which I can still use today.

But after a while I lost interest in the niche.  Today I absolutely HATE writing articles or doing anything at all with that site.

So I turned to setting up sites in a different way.  Sites that were focused around keywords with traffic, and potential of big $$.

This was a little more my speed, because I was more interested in making profit than I was blogging and emailing content about a niche I’d lost interest in.

Most of the sites I set up in this phase today although they’re well ranked and getting traffic are quite lackluster.  Most only bring in a pretty small amount every month, and none of them are anything to be proud of.

Most, probably 95%, of the content was outsourced, and to be honest I really don’t care at all about those sites.

Turn to today.  I’ve started building a site and setting up multiple income streams in something that I’ve been passionate about my whole life.  Self-employment.  No, not just “making money online”, but actually working for yourself and living that good ‘ol American dream of self employment.

In highschool, my friends were all in shop or auto class, but I was in the marketing club.  After high school I started my own business and had fun with it for a few years before moving on.

I’ve done sales, although I’m a HORRIBLE sales person, I understand the ins and outs of how it works.  I’m just not pushy enough to close the sale.  I’m just not one of those “sell anything to anyone” type talkers.

So I’ve always had a passion about working online for a really long time, and finally I’m able to step up and share all of the information that I’ve been gathering year after year of having a passion for the niche.

You see, it’s not just something that I LIKE, it’s something that I LOVE.

The amount of attention I’m putting into this passion project is way more than I think I’ve ever put into all my other sites combined, and I’m still in the start up phase!

So for the longest time I considered the find something you like approach to be a cop out, but today I understand why it’s so important to pick a niche that you’re passionate about.

If you can enjoy the work that you’re doing online, you’ll be more likely to get tasks completed and follow through with your endeavors.  At least that’s what I’m learning for myself, and I’m sure many of you would agree with.

Where did you get started online?

So why did I choose just $10,000 in all of 90 days?

Well, like a lot of people getting started into internet marketing, I only work part time.  Also like most people online, while making huge piles of cash like this ARE possible, it probably won’t happen over night.

The people who are selling these products usually did make a lot of money fast, but there was also a lot of work done before hand that’s never mentioned.  So I wanted to open up and be transparent about the process I’m using.

Also, while $10k in 3 months isn’t a HUGE number, it’s enough for a large majority of people to reach their online goals.

Also, since I’m building a list and teaching to do so, the profits that I make in my first 90 days will simply be the beginning to a long term business online in which I will continue to grow my income.

A lot of people struggle with getting started online, and even making their first sale.

So these modest numbers were set in place to show people that it’s not all about fast money online, but there is more value to be had in building a long term authority site/business online through ethical work.

I’ve seen people on forums for years who are putting in the work online and just not getting out the kind of success they want.  It’s not that they’re not trying, it’s just that they’re getting lead into a million different directions all at the same time and it’s not very effective.

So I’ve set up a modest amount in a time frame that even someone working part time could accomplish with a long term business plan that could put a decent amount of money in someone’s pocket within a relatively short amount of time, and build them the kind of business that many marketers are making 6 and 7 figure incomes with.

I hope that brings to light the reason and importance of the system I’m using here, and if you’re one of those people, I hope you follow this blog closely.  I’m doing this to help people just like you.

During the last few days I’ve limited my access to certain sites, and my productivity has picked up big time.

I’m not just talking about the obvious sites like YouTube(major time sucker!) or Facebook either.

I’ve limited myself to checking my email no more than once per hour, and if I feel like taking a quick look, I look at the time first, if it’s been less than an hour, I don’t check it.  Normally I don’t check my email that often, but since I released a WSO, I get questions posted every now and then which are forwarded to my email address, so it’s important for me to answer those.

I’ve also cut down the amount of times I check clickbank and paypal to once per week, which is kind of nerve racking at times, because I always like to look and see how much I made today, but the reality is if I look today, I won’t make any more money than if I just look in a few days.

While it might not seem like much to not check out these sites every day, or twice a day, it’s the 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there that really add up.

Plus a lot of times when I land on a site like Youtube I end up doing the same thing… just watching ONE MORE video.. hm.. well maybe these two, and then that one looks good too, until I get annoyed by not being productive and just close them all.

I’m sure there are sites that you visit every day, probably more than once a day that are just killing time for you too, and I’d love to hear the sites you hate to avoid, but during crunch time you find it helpful.

But as I continue to create my mini reports, I consistently run into the same problem.

I know people will pay money for this…and be damn glad they did!

So now I’ve written my 3rd report, I’m about to start my 4th and I’m realizing I still don’t have a solid free offer to give away.  Mostly I’m wanting something that I can give away here on my site for free to start helping push people in the right direction of building a long term business by building a list online.

But I just realized that I can create a grade A killer report on list building, and I plan on making it WSO of the day kinda good.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about there, there’s a place on the warrior forum called the Warrior Special Offer section, and for $40 you can run an ad.  I’ve been selling my SEO report there for about $5-$7… it’s on a sliding scale with WSO Pro.

I’m breaking even with the sales, and turning a SLIGHT profit on the front end, but I’m also emphasizing the importance of my list to the subscribers, so the open rate, ctr and hopefully sales from the back end will be pretty good too.

Plus I’m providing such killer content in that list, the readers would be silly to unsubscribe.

So now I’ve got a report I’ve done on Niche Research as well that I could give away… I’d prefer to give it away, but for this site I just don’t think it would be a good fit for the theme of the blog.

Build a successful business…here’s a niche research report…meh.  I don’t think it’d get very many opt ins, because it’s not targeted well enough.  And targeting to your traffic is more important than anything else.

Woop, I’ve got it.  I’ll create my killer List Building report, then give away a sample here with a OTO for the full report at a discount.

It’s amazing how many times blogging brings out ideas for how to improve my business.. I think I like it.