I’ve Got Zero Experience And I Want To Be Rich

Aug 17 2010

I seem to have accumulated a lot of readers with little Internet Marketing experience. It’s flattering that people read my shit without actually caring a jot about affiliate marketing, or even knowing what it is, but those same people have started to ask me questions. Questions like “I’d kinda be interested in making money online, can you show me where to start?”

Ahh, yes, that one.

Zero experience, never made a website before, you thought FTP was some kind of late night porn channel, and now you want to make money online. You just need to know where to start.

This post goes out to anybody reading who isn’t an affiliate marketer, but simply an everyday guy or girl with a full-time job who wants to make some extra income online. And by that token, I’m suddenly speaking to half of the fucking Internet.

Your first challenge is to sign out of the forums. Stop visiting Warrior Forum, cancel your Digital Point account and don’t even try to digest what you’re reading on WickedFire. Forums will only complicate your objectives.

I swear, The Warrior Forum reminds me of the scene in The Wire where Bubbles tells a crowd of junkies the story of his drug addiction. I sit here listening to another buffoon reel off his Russian novel of “Warrior Advice!!!” and then when he’s finally stopped bashing his keyboard, the other Warriors stand up and cheer…THANKS FOR SHARING! As if his own pandering to the gutter is their new ambition in life.

Shitty ideas put forward by shitty marketers, sodomizing each other with tales of pity, and rubbing the only ego their four cents can afford. But the shit never stops smelling of roses when there’s a retarded “Thanks for sharing!” at the end of it all. Right?

Okay, I’m getting vicious. I don’t mean to hate on the Warrior Forum, but it’s too much of a swamp to help you. If you’re spending all day reading these forums and looking for a magic formula to start making money, you’re wasting your time.

Find something you’re passionate about, something you could sit there and write about every night.

To enjoy success online without delving in to paid advertising, you need to have an asset. To develop an asset, you need to have a website that other people would want to visit. While a select few of us can develop money generating websites based on topics we couldn’t give two shits about, you will nearly always have more success when your project is something you have a genuine passion for.

It’s a simple concept called appealing to your strengths. If you burden yourself with weaknesses by trying to build a website in a niche you’re hopeless with, and can offer no expert opinion on, you’re going to fail. Especially in these early days. Passion is everything.

Whenever I’m guiding people with the “online business bug”, I try to focus on their strengths. If you can find what they’re passionate about, you can guide the mentality away from “MONEY MONEY MONEY” and channel it towards a more positive energy. Such as “what kind of website can I build to appeal to people who share my passion?” My opinion is that if you don’t love what you do enough to do it every day without a single penny of profit, it won’t work. Not if you’re a bumbling technology tard who’s doing this for all the wrong reasons.

It’s so easy to setup a WordPress blog, grab some cheap hosting, and give yourself a web presence. In fact, it’s too easy. WordPress is quite possibly the greatest software ever developed for those who know nothing about coding. But people forget that building a website is like planting a seed. Just because you can see it, that doesn’t mean you’re ever going to make a cent from it. To make money, you need to water it every day with fresh content and spend a lot of fruitless hours wondering when anybody will visit but still chugging along regardless.

I can’t remember who posted this, so I’m sorry I can’t credit you, but one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever seen for making money online was posted on WickedFire last week.

“Pick a topic you love, setup a blog and write about it every night. Come back in six months and I’ll tell you how to make money.”

So, so true. It’s only when you suspend your fixation with the making money part that you’ll begin to prosper and develop quality assets. If I had ever let money dictate my decisions and willingness to work, this blog wouldn’t be here. It’s here because I love writing and I love my job.

Everybody has to start somewhere. So if you’re looking on, a keen bean to make money online, first ask yourself “What is my passion?”

What can you write about every night? What do you have a special talent for that other people would like to have? There’s a niche for fucking everything on the Internet.

The next step is to setup a WordPress blog. Grab yourself a free template that looks nice. It doesn’t have to be professional. Now spend every night contributing something, no matter how big or small, to your site. The snowball effect will slowly gather pace over the months, but ONLY if you keep supplying new fresh content. Most people fail because they give up if their empire of riches hasn’t materialized in the first week.

They’re snobs of their own creations.

Not enough comments? Not enough people reading? Still got zeros in your commission columns? The loser walks away with his tail between his legs and probably spends the rest of the week being angry at life flipping burgers in his day job. It takes time to hit success. And that success might not change your life. Christ, you might only make $100 on the side in a month. But the experience of your journey will become knowledge.

With knowledge, this whole world of making money on the Internet will no longer seem so alien. Some of what you read on this site may slowly begin to make sense.

We all had to start somewhere. But if you want to catch up, you better get your feet wet and start learning fast. There are enough passionate individuals out there to run those who only want to make a quick buck out of town. Focus on your strengths, forget the money objectives and let Father Time and hard work open those doors for you.

Networking and connecting

I decided against making the trip to New York for Affiliate Summit East. Mainly because Adtech is rolling in to London, my hometown city, next month. If you’re going to be at the event, feel free to hit me up and we’ll arrange a meet. And by meet, I mean a pint. And by pint, I mean several. Read more about London Adtech here.

Do you have a UK based blog covering similar themes to this site? I’m currently looking for guest posting opportunities. If you’d be interested in letting me post a piece for your site, please get in touch via email.

Looking for more affiliate advice? Want to read the 140 character drivel of somebody who actually makes money on the Internet? Follow me on Twitter.

About the author

Finch

A 29 year old high school dropout (slash academic failure) who sold his soul to make money from the Internet. This blog follows the successes, fuck-ups and ball gags of my career in affiliate marketing.

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I’ve Got Zero Experience And I Want To Be Rich

Networking and connecting

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