The Hard Truths about Easy Money on the Internet

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Everybody wants to get rich on the Internet. Sit back, let your computer fill your bank account with fresh money every day. Big money for very little work. Sounds great, doesn't it?

Sure does. Too bad that for most of us, it's an absolute crock. We probably have a better chance of becoming national bowling champions than Internet millionaires. We probably have a better chance of getting picked in the next NBA draft.. for most people, Internet "riches" means coffee money. A couple of bucks a day, maybe. That's reality, folks.

Not that it can't happen. Some people do make decent money for little effort, some people make decent money with a bit of effort, some people make obscene money.. as I said, most make coffee money or less, but there certainly are exceptions. That's what this book is about: arranging things so that you have more chance of being one of the exceptions rather than one of the coffee money folks.

Right here is where the folks writing books like this tell you how rich they are to show you their "qualifications". I'll get to that in a minute, but first I wanted to tell you that I really hesitated about writing this book. First of all, there are plenty of other people who have written books about making money on the Internet. Some of them are pretty good; why do I think I can do better?

Well, because I'm an egotistical sort of guy.

No, that's not it. The problems I have with everything else I've read are summed up here:

Of course not all books suffer from all three of my complaints, but most hit at least two.

Overpriced

You'll probably pay less than twenty dollars for this book. Most treatments of the same quality and depth are sold for much more - sometimes for hundreds of dollars, which is absolutely ridiculous.

Why is it ridiculous? Because there is nothing here or in any one of those other books, courses, and white papers that cannot be found for free on the Internet. Let me repeat that in case it's not clear:

I'm not going to tell you anything here that you cannot learn for free and nobody else will either.

They'll tell you about

Internet Income Secrets!

but honestly, there aren't any secrets. Not when we're in the realm of honest and legal, anyway. Unless we're talking about illegal activities, everything you need to know is all out there on the web, freely available. Every bit of it. Really.

So why should you even pay twenty dollars for information you can get for free? Well, because you have to find it. You have to sift through it, separating the good advice from the bad, making sure that it's still current and not out of date. You''ll have to organize, collate, sort, arrange.. it's a lot of work.

That's what I've done for you here, and that's why it's worth paying for. This book is organized and current.

Out of date

The Internet is changing all the time. The advice I might have given you five years ago is not the advice that I will give you today. Five years from now, I'm sure it will be different once again. Yes, some things are basic, but other things change.

I'll keep this book updated and any time I do make changes or additions, I make sure you will get an opportunity to download the new version for free. No "Our updated edition is available at a special price" - free. I promise.

Overly enthusiastic

This is probably my biggest gripe. Too many of these books set you up for bitter disappointment by implying or even flatly saying that you just need to do these few easy things and the riches will roll on in. Bunk!

Yeah, it could happen. People get lucky, people sometimes are in the right place at the right time and Internet lightning hits them, making them rich and famous over night. It happens. It probably WON'T happen to you. That's reality again.

However, that doesn't mean you have to settle for coffee money. Maybe we can get you to lunch money, or rent money, or maybe even better. Maybe we can't, because unless you get that lucky lightning strike, it takes work. Like most things, the more effort you put in, the more you are likely to take out. If you don't make any effort, you probably won't get much out. So that's what this book is about: doing the things that should help you become successful on the Internet.

My Qualifications

I'm not an Internet millionaire.

Well, that frosts that little cake, doesn't it? What's the point of buying a book about how to be successful on the Internet if the guy who wrote it isn't a multi-millionaire? Forget this guy, we're outa here!

Hold on a second. I'm not an Internet millionaire and you probably won't be either. Some of the people who SAY they made millions on the Internet didn't. That little oversight didn't stop them from writing books. Some of them never actually even said they were rich, so they didn't lie to you outright. They just made it look like they made a lot of money.. but they didn't.

Some told you a little half-fib. I could do that. A lot of my income comes from consulting, programming and troubleshooting. Not only do I do a lot of that over the Internet, but a lot of my customers find me through Internet searches. Well, gosh, if I've been on the Internet since 1991, and have made a couple of million dollars since then in gross income, couldn't I say:

I made 2.5 million dollars on the Internet!

Well, yeah, dude, but that was done over eighteen years and it wasn't all profit either. Some of it was equipment sales, software resales.. the reality is that I made a decent living and the Internet was certainly useful and helpful to me, but it would be a bit of a stretch to put up that headline and mean it.

People do things like that..

But I have made over $70,000 from Google Adsense alone. Right here at this website, running those silly little Google ads, over $70,000 in just seven years! Most people who run these ads count themselves lucky if they make more than $1 day!

Truth is, I don't know how much of my income is really due to my Internet efforts. I know what part of it is: I know how much money I make from Adsense, from affiliate sales like Amazon, from e-books like this one, but I don't really know how much consulting business I get that is directly and fairly attributable to my website work and effort. I can guess: it's probably north of $40,000 a year. That's a heck of a lot more than coffee money, but it isn't "buy an island" money by a long shot.

So there it is. As much as I'd like to, I can't give you the

Proven Formula for Internet Millions

Sorry about that - I just wanted to see another one of those dumb headlines.

What can I do for you? I can tell you everything you need to know about making money on the Internet. I can tell you everything I know, and I will.

Actually, when I think about it,

The Internet has made me RICH!

(Sorry again). That one is only a little misleading. The Internet hasn't made me rich in dollars, but it has made me rich in freedom. I'm 60 years old and PMR (Pretty Much Retired). Most days, I do whatever I like. I might do a little billable work, I might not. There is money coming in whether I work or not - not a lot of money, but some - so I don't have to bust my hump every day. I can research things I'm interested in, just goof around on the 'Net, go for a walk, read a book.. yeah, really the Internet has made me "rich" in that it has given me the lifestyle I want: work from home, make a decent living, and have very little stress. For me, that's "rich".

Watch out, I feel another one of those silly headlines coming on. Here's the thing: I wish I could honestly say

And I can do the same for YOU!

but I can't. I can tell you what I know, I can tell you what you should and shouldn't do, but I can't even promise that you'll make that coffee money, never mind having

Millions for almost no work!

Nope. If you think any book can do that for you.. well, what can I say? Go buy one of those books that cost twenty times as much and are advertised with lots of vague promises and misleading half-truths. You'll get the same advice (if it isn't out of date!) and hey, what's a little extra money? Maybe that book has fancy graphics and some work books you can fill out to chart your progress.. won't that be fun? Definitely: some pie charts, some work books, maybe an evaluation test? That stuff has got to be worth a lot more money, right?

Sure, whatever you say. You go on, now. The rest of the folks are going to click the "Buy Now" button so that they can read the rest of the book.

Just $4.99 - instant download!

Search the full text of this book

iPhone readers and others: This book is formatted for computer reading and printing. I'm working on offering it in other formats, but for now, just buy this and then write to me telling me what you need and I will get it to you asap.

I wish I had seen it awhile ago. It's brilliant and answers many questions I didn't even know to ask. - Bob

Check Out the Table of Contents!

Promotion-Networking 103

Does the Community Exist? 105

Forums 107

Newsgroups 111

Blogs 113

Google Alerts 113

Digg, Del.icio.us, SlashDot et al. 115

Facebook, Orkut, LinkedIn 117

Guest Authoring 119

Trackbacks 121

Carnivals and Topic Chains 121

Visitors 123

Newsletters or RSS? 127

What gets attention? 129

Buying Traffic 131

Buying Websites 131

Other Income Sources 135

Selling Web Sites and Domains 135

Selling through Affiliates 135

Direct Advertisers 135

Paid Reviews 137

Failure 139

Extras 143

Using Open Office to create E-Books 145

Adsense and Analytics 147

Google Friend Connect 149

Full or Partial RSS? 151

Seesmic 153

Other Search Engines 155

Page Views Per Visitor 157

Using YUI Grid Builder 161

Just $4.99 - instant download!

As of October 2011, I'm using the proceeds from these books to fund Kiva loans.

You may also be interested in Linux and Unix Troubleshooting E-Book or my Psst- Wanna work for yourself E-Book.

(See this special offer if you want to buy more than one of my E-Books)

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8 comments

More Articles by Anthony Lawrence

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Thu Dec 18 12:21:13 2008:   Bob


I look forward to your internet book. Maybe I can find it all out for free but I certainly don't want to stuff around doing that.




Thu Dec 18 13:07:29 2008:   TonyLawrence


Well, I have a whopping 17 pages so far :-)

Seriously, I expect to have a first draft done by the first of the year.

I will be putting up some sample chapters as we go along..



Thu Dec 18 13:33:53 2008:   TonyLawrence


Anyone who would like to see sample chapters of this as we go along can just leave a comment and I will send you links to download the book as it stands now.

Or write to me (click on Help to find my email) and tell me you'd like to see it.



Thu Dec 18 15:19:26 2008:   BigDumbDinosaur
http://bcstechnology.net

At least this will be one "how to make money on the Internet" book that contain a bit more fact and a lot less BS. BTW, I'm still waiting for that first million to roll in from people hitting our website. <Grin>

Now, if you'll just mosey over there and download our new fact sheet on the seven mistakes all Internet money-grabbers make, we'll get you on the road to riches. The fact sheet is normally 99.99 but if you act right now, we'll offer it to you for the special low price of 149.99! Hurry while it lasts!



Sun Dec 21 13:53:22 2008:   TonyLawrence


I'm releasing it now - it's not finished yet, but you will get free updates over the next few weeks as I do finish it and of course after that any time I add to it or update any part.





Mon Dec 22 00:44:17 2008:   TonyLawrence


DONE!

Of course I'll be revising and you will get free updates, but it is DONE!



Thu Oct 29 18:02:42 2009:   anonymous
http://10000usd.blogspot.com

1 $ per day? It's LOL, Real easy internet money! Press on key & give $$$ follow => http://www.kolotibablo.com/?ref=246996



Sun Jul 4 17:32:04 2010:   TechRxgbcom
http://techrxgb.com

I find the article you wrote quite interesting. Nobody mentions "the time factor." I too, make money off the internet, but like you; it's consulting, data recovery, and "actual - wrap your hands around it" type work. Not by simply having ads running.

http://techrxgb.com

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