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However, as the landslide of people all across the globe began to flock to the Netmuch like they did to California in the gold-rush days, they find that making moneywhile you sleep might be a myth. They wonder if they ve just been led astray bywicked, evil people with nothing better to do than make fools out of innocent,hardworking folks.
What is the answer? Can you make money online? CAN you make money while you sleep? Idon t mean an extra $200 a month to pay for groceries, but a real living. If so, howdo you go about it?
It s True! I m Doing It Myself!
First of all, it s not a myth. I can honestly tell you that I am making a full-timeliving online. And yes, there have been many mornings where I ve awakened, turned onmy computer, and found notifications of sales that occurred during the night. I AMmaking money while I sleep, and you can, too.
Let me tell you what I think probably happened to generate this long-standing myth.
The early Internet pioneers discovered ways to make automated income. They realizedthis was a wonderful thing and began to spread the news to everyone they knew. Then,however, those unscrupulous types (you know... the jerks) saw this as an easy way tomake a fast buck. They began preaching that making automated income online was aseasy as pouring yourself a glass of water. In essence, they told half the story. Asmore and more people tried to make a living online and failed, the promise of makingmoney while you sleep became fiction instead of fact.
So How Do You Do It?
What s the real truth? How can you make a full-time living online just like me?There are several ways. Let me give you the unvarnished gospel when it comes toonline business. You may not like what you hear, but it is fact, not fluff.
ACTION STEP 1Plan, Plan, Plan - It won t happen overnight. Nothing good ever does. In thebeginning, you re going to create a plan then be ready to work that plan. You oftenhear about throwing up a website and making money while you sleep. Technically, yes,that s all there is to it. But... how does that site get up on the Net?
You have to create your site or have someone else create it. That means you have totake the time to learn professional website development (PLEASE, don t create somejunky, homemade-looking site!), or you have to pay someone who already knows how tocreate websites. And what will you have on your site? Your own products? (Havingyour own e-products is highly recommended.) Someone else s products? You ll need todecide before your site is created.
How will people pay for the products they buy from your site? Do you have a merchantaccount? Will you become an affiliate for someone else so you don t need a paymentsystem?
Will you go for high search engine rankings or rely on word-of-mouth, PPC ads, andother types of paid advertising? If you want good search engine optimization, you llhave to plan for that upfront. Again, you ll have to take time to learn how to do itor pay someone else who already knows how.
Before you take one more step toward launching your own Web business, find theanswers to the questions above.
ACTION STEP 2Be Ready to Work - Once your site is ready to launch, how will people find you? How,exactly, will you drive qualified visitors to your site? Will you use organic (free)search engine listings? Will you use Pay-Per-Click search engine ads? Will you buyezine ads? Do you have other means for getting customers to visit your site? Peoplewon t just come out of the blue, you ll have to bring them to your site somehow.
Even if you choose to go for the organic search engine listings, you ll have about a4-week to 4-month wait before seeing your new site listed. What will you do in themeantime to drum up business?
ACTION STEP 3How Will You Keep It Going? - Prosperous businesses are continually growing to keepup with customer demands. How will you keep your online business moving forward?Will you do research into what consumers want? Will you guess? Will you just followthe crowd?
You ll want to have some method for gauging customer responses so you can know whatyour site visitors want and how to provide it for them.
One such way is to use Survey Monkey (http://www.surveymonkey.com). You can createonline surveys in order to keep up with the needs/wants of your site visitors.
ACTION STEP 4Service Is Key! - In order to make it in the long run, you simply must provideexceptional customer service to your clients. Those who lie, steal, cheat, or hideare destined to fail.
Understand this: Your success depends on your customers success. If they aren thappy, you won t be in business long. Make every effort to treat them as the kingsand queens they are.
See? The people who turned the "make money while you sleep" fact into fiction did sobecause they skipped all the important information. Now that you know what toexpect, you can see that it is most definitely possible to make a full-time livingonline. It is even possible to make money while you sleep. However, you must have aplan, be ready to work, look for ways to keep your business growing, and treat yourcustomers as true V.I.P.s.
When you do, you ll have all the tools you need to develop a long-standing businessthat - with time - will produce for you.