Are We Having Fun Yet?

Actually .... yes I am! Had a bit of an "aha" moment yesterday while reading the opening section of Mike Filsaime's "7 Figure Secrets". There he says "Ask yourself this question: if you are making all the money you could need, and you were doing this job, would you still come to work? When you can say to yourself, "I'm the luckiest person on earth right now. I was made for this job!", you truly have it made."

My quest for online business success is still relatively new, but I'm amazed when I look at the date on emails from the time I began to get really serious, and it's only a little more than one month ago - seems more like 6! Happily though, I'm free to spend almost unlimited time searching out and investigating opportunities and tools. While I tend to get distracted at times and "waste" hours on things that turn out to be mostly worthless, in the end even that CAN be worthwhile. One sees the common threads running through so many of the "terrific opportunities" and becomes more adept at evaluating possibilities. Anyway, bottomline is that YES! I WILL still want to be doing this when I really don't have to.

In today's economic climate there are countless individuals looking for a way to make income online - as I am. But that's an awfully general goal, and I've discovered that you can run yourself ragged and accomplish nothing that brings your goal of making money closer if you don't think about a number of issues upfront:

1) are you wanting a "get rich quick" type of program (set it up and watch the money roll in)?
or do you want to build an ongoing legitimate business online (something you work at ongoing)?
(no judgement implied either way, just a question to determine direction)

2) have you an idea or a product of your own you want to market?
or would you rather promote and sell someone else's product (affiliate marketing)?

3) do you already have the computer and internet skills you will need to build a website from scratch?
or will you need a program that does that work for you?

4) even if you find opportunities that seem to offer you all you need for free or very little cost, have you the financial resources to pay for advertising?
or if you don't have the money, do you have the time and persistence it will take to search out effective free or low-cost advertising?

I say "effective" because there are countless "schemes" out there which are offering "free" anything, but will get you exactly what you pay for (or worse), whether it be in time or money.

The most basic and important TRUTH you MUST UNDERSTAND about anything you establish online is YOU CAN BUILD THE MOST WONDERFUL SITE EVER MADE, with the most fantastic idea or product ever thought of, BUT UNLESS YOU PROMOTE (ADVERTISE) IT NO ONE WILL EVER SEE IT!

Therein lies the thing that will determine success, as much or more than, having a great product and great site.

For this time, I'll say just one other thing. Assuming you've looked around and the "program" you've chosen has a good track record and has all the elements you need, don't quit when you get discouraged - that's what causes 95% of those who start to fail. If you know anyone else who's involved in the programs you are check with them. It could help both of you.

A List of things I've liked so far:

Online Guru types: Ewen Chia, Stone Evans, Brad Callen, Leslie the Freebie Guy

Programs: Profit Plan, Project Payday, any of Ewen Chia's stuff, the Traffic Jam and more later

Free Advertising: Traffic Swarm, EasyHits4U, Free Viral, Free Advertising Forum, plus forums and social networking sites like twitter (my user name ann_breck). Will add more as I come upon them

Blogging: Yaro Starek (how to set up), free blog software Wordpress, eblogger.