Multiple Income Streams: Huge Key to Online Business Success!

For the past few months now, one of my huge focuses in my online businesses, has been to bring in multiple streams of income, so that there is always a security blanket, if one of my income streams are struck down for whatever reason. For years, I've worked on bringing in my income from my cell phone site, and that has done well, but as with anything, there are ups and downs, and nothing is totally 100% secure. If there was ever a roadblock or a change in search engine ranks for my phone site, I'd need something to fall back on....basically, you don't want all your eggs in 1 basket. This blog was one of the original ideas we had to expand out, and build some other sources of income, being that I'd seen a few other online business people blogging, and sharing their ideas on making money with blogs. Google Adsense was the first step, and pretty easy to do some research on the best ways to set up and utilize it. Then it was moving on to learning about affiliate sales. Basically seeing what's out there and related to your website or blog, then offering it to your readers for a % of sales in most cases. Finally in the last month, I've seen revenue come in from 4 different sources, with others building as well. So I've reached a small goal as far as the security of having 4 sources earning me income, now I just need to build them so the amounts are a nice big secure number. The whole idea here, as I stated, is to build different sources of income, so that you can afford any disaster that may happen to one of your sources, and be backed up by so many others, that you're never left in a tight spot, and your income is always protected. Also keep in mind, you don't want to spread yourself all over the place. If you start 1 thing, and it doesn't work in a month or less, don't jump to the next thing and drop the first. Sometimes building 1 stream can take a long time, but usually pays off in the end if you put in the work required. When you have 1 stream working for you, then may be the time to look at what else could be done. Once your rolling well, 5-6 sources paying you in the thousands each month, will give you security, and a very nice monthly income, just be careful which programs you go with, and explore all options and narrow down to what works best for your site. I personally hope my current 4 streams, will soon be up to 5-6, and hopefully I'll be reporting back here that the streams have grown, and the stability I've been working at for the past few years may be reachable very soon.

Finding Motivation, Do It or Go Flip Burgers!

So I find myself here in the same position pretty much, Google hasn't brought back any of my previous keyword ranks, so I'm having to scramble to make up for it with any PPC i can, and keep building and working all I can. Problem is, sometimes I'm just here doing nothing, when in the back of my mind I know I should, and I know i should be using my time more wisely. With the position I'm in now, I've got free time to do all the work I want and not have to worry about getting some 9-5 burger flipping job to get by. I've even taken up some link work that will pay me for submitting links to directories and is a generous compensation for that type of work. So basically last night, after a convo. with my business partner, realization set in that right now I don't have my former income from my unreliable day job, my credit is good, but I cant live off credit, so why am I not in super work mode and doing the directory submission work that's sitting in my lap. Its at the point where I have to ask myself, do the work that you like doing from right here on the computer? Or go flip burgers and take orders from some schmuck who's telling you when to come and go, what days your working, etc. I am not the type who wants to be told what to do, and I like working for myself, but as I stated in my blog about working from home, I need to take my own advice and put the work in. Right now I'm getting by, but if I ever want to get married, have my own place, and be truly financially independent, AND do it from home on my own time with my own business, the work has got to be done, and it has to be done daily. The directory submission work is there, in my lap, all that's left is for me to do my part and get it done.

So after the conversation last night and thinking about all the things that COULD happen if I didn't get some financial independence, and realizing if I didn't get off my ass and DO it I'd be flipping burgers and I'd lose the battle to not get a 9-5 job that I'd hate, I finally got it together today n did some directory work and made some $. I find one big trick for me personally, is throwing a CD in the computer, letting the music play, and get your blood pumpin some, and I find myself gettin work done steady. I think TV is too distracting with its visuals, doing work in silence is too boring, but music gets the job done for me and I find myself working at a steady pace. Now I figure if I can do this daily, and get at least a couple of hours of work in, I can be making money on the side with directories, hopefully with this blog, and my phone website as well. So now I'm on a mission to make as much as money as I can on the side, while waiting for search engines to wake up and get some good rankings back. All I know is, if I can have a day like i did today, then I shouldn't be sitting on my ass doing nothing, because it's not hard to get a couple of hours of solid work in, especially when your riding the line of success or failure!

Motivation Anyone?...A Review of John Chow dot Com

So when I started all this blog stuff, I had read a few different ideas and stories about how blogging could help your site grow, and just like I am now, I"m willing to do anything to help my site and grow. After a few months of doing blogs about phones that were featured on my site, and then later on some blogs about some entertainment topics, I stumbled across some stories about people who were actually making great money off their blog itself, and that was an idea I'm a big fan of, so what better place to find a blog that is making great money than the top, in other words John Chow dot Com.

John Chow dot Com was one of the top reasons I decided to create this business blog. After hearing the story and some of the facts, I was surprised to find that John Chow dot Com wasn't a a super site with bells and whistles and filled with super graphics like I expected. It was in fact just a normal blog that featured great content, especially on how to make money online. This blog was highly appealing because it showed me that even with a basic layout and some knowledge on using ads and tools like Feedburner properly, combined with a drive to type up loads and loads of good content (such as John has), achieving financial success with your blog was indeed possible. John Chow's blog basically set off a light bulb in my head, that I could blog about my everyday business experiences, and maybe even get some readers who could add some knowledge on certain topics or maybe even get help themselves in their businesses, which is the type of environment John Chow has created, while also keeping a fair amount of humor and entertainment content as well, which I'm sure keeps his readers going back for more and more.

And now while John Chow dot Com is one of the top blogs on the Internet, he is willing to help other peoples blogs and will link to you if you review his his blog. I think this is awesome to see someone who is at the top still willing to help out those of us who are striving to make it. If you are someone who is interested in making money online, I highly recommend John Chow dot Com as the first place to visit, as I've learned a huge amount of different information in a very short period of time.

Simply Stated...

I ran across a short and simple article on making money (a six figure income specifically) with your home based business from Business Program Reviews. It goes right along with what I've said in my previous posts about people not getting or wanting to get the knowledge that is necessary to succeed in what they are doing. Patience is a huge factor in home based business. I've seen people literally drop hundreds of dollars into a program because they believe every word they've been told about how "You'll be buying your dream car" and "You and me will be walking the beach together." Uh, that's nice to fantasize about, but I've learned that there has to be something fishy about this guy I met 10 minutes ago telling me how excited he is to talk on a beach with me, and if he's been doing this and is so rich already, why isn't he on the beach already?? (I'm sure some of you have been in situations like this when your being told about some GREAT program that will make you RICHER than Rich.) Luckily I don't fall for that type of stuff anymore, but i know people and even family members that have and still do. Then reality hits, you've been doing this program for 3-4 months, or even less, and you have no money, so what is the answer? Usually just drop it and hope the next "big thing" is better than this one. It's an ongoing cycle of "Get Rich Quick" mentality. The first key in getting into a program or starting a business is knowledge. You have to know exactly what you're getting into and THEN decide if it's for you, only after you know all the details you can.

After some mild success with my website, I've had people who are in similar businesses or own websites and are trying to achieve the same things I am, ask me how I do it or what I do. Well when i reveal that I spend hours doing link building and exchanges, and read entire lessons full of pages on just one small topic that has to do with what I"m working on at the time with my site, they either don't believe me, or get inspired to follow what I'm doing, then run out of gas and just give up. So basically to succeed, you have to learn various areas of how to make money with your business, and then put it all together. Having someone help you who is knowledgeable in the area and can pass along good info. is great if you can get it, I've gotten great help in various money related subjects from my webmaster G.C., and have learned a great amount, as where others are just too lazy to do all the work or they look for a shortcut that they THINK will accomplish something. I"m 100% against the shortcuts. Too much of a chance to get penalized somehow and destroy your entire business. Hard work and consistency is the only way to make it.

I want to reference another outstanding article from Business Program reviews, this one explaining How to Start Working From Home. They list things that I have done and have worked for me. And this article also explains, that contrary to what the majority of people think of "working from home" or "online business," it is still WORK, and LOTS of work if you plan on making this your primary business. Remember, there is competition out there, and they're not going to wait around while you sleep and watch TV all day. I can tell just by the way people question me at times, that they think sitting at the computer all day isn't a "real job." Well I can tell you it is if you make it a real job. As stated in the above article, sometimes you can do all the right things and get off to a great start, and STILL not be making money, simply because more work is required.

Hopefully this will give any of you who have just started out with your business or those of you who have started but haven't found direction yet on how to get things rolling. It took me a little over a year to get a direction and find out exactly WHAT I needed to be doing, but actively searching for good info. such as the articles I've provided should start things out on the right foot, and once your focus and determination to make it work are there, you can build upon that solid foundation that has been built.