Hitting the Wall -- Making Any Online Income System Work Takes Commitment

Marathon runners talk about "the wall" that happens at about mile 18 or so of a marathon. This is the point where the body is screaming "STOP." Every muscle is on fire, the pain blocks every thought except to quite. Only those with mental toughness get through.

That's where I am with My Online Income System. I'm hitting the wall.

I feel like quitting. Of course, I'm not going to, but I feel like it.

I've put in time and effort that I could have spent on other, easier activities. Sure, I've seen some limited success, but that's what it is -- limited. I've made about $2 from Adsense -- from this blog. I've had a little over 300 visitors. To my main site, I've had 105 visitors, but no sales. Hhmmm, that to me says there's a problem with the landing page. Unfortunately, I am using a free site because I'm committed to not spending money on any online income system unless I'm making money. This may have been the wrong decision, but if the testing was done that was supposed to be done on the landing page, I should be getting conversions (sales). But being the eternal optimist, I still believe I will start to see sales of my online income system.

I've now published over 100 articles -- and I have 16 pending at Ezinearticles.com (geez, they can be slow!). This is definitely the best directory out there, though. I'm getting the best view numbers and the best click-thrus. I saw a definite uptick in my website traffic when I had an article picked up by a publisher -- I think that's a key to success when promoting an online income system. I'm continuing to write and post. I'm just hoping I start to see results.

And speaking of writing and posting, there is Associated Content. I am consistently getting my articles approved for upfront payment and I'm getting the pay-per-view numbers increasing every day. Plus, I've been able to write some fun stuff, so I'm happy I found that service. I've made over $60, so this is definitely something I will continue.

So here I am, pushing through the Wall. What did the little engine that could say? I think I can. I think I can? Actually, I know I can, I know I can, I know I can.

Here's to your success.

Creating a Business Making Money Online

Creating a business making money online takes patience and perseverance. Even though I am seeing daily progress in traffic to my blogs, articles, Squidoo lenses, and the like, the money is not rolling in and I'm getting anxious. But I keep plugging away because I AM seeing progress. Making money online is a numbers game, and as long as my numbers keep going up, I will keep going.

I've finished the first 30 days of the My Online Income System action plan and am in the Days 30-60 tasks. Whenever I feel like I'm getting bogged down, I go back to the plan and make sure I do AT LEAST everything listed on a particular day. The one thing that I have not yet been able to accomplish, no matter how hard I try, is to post as many comments on forums as is recommended. I don't know why I find that task particularly bothersome, but I do. I have to redouble my efforts in that area, I suppose.

But article writing is actually becoming quite fun. I'm finding it easier and easier to come up with topics using keyword phrases that I think can get high in the search engines results. For instance, the phrase I'm using today is " business making money online. " I found this phrase in my keyword research, it fits all the criteria I learned in My Online Income System and I found it's actually pretty easy to fit into text. So I've written two articles using this phrase, I'm using it here today, and I already have text for a new Squidoo lens that I hope to develop later this evening, all using that phrase. This is not a phrase I would typically type in a search engine, but more than 100 people a day type it into Google on average and not many sites use it as a keyword, so it may be a winner for me.

I spent about 2 hours doing nothing but keyword research the other day. From those two hours, I came up with 12 phrases that I feel meet the criteria for a good marketing keyword, including business making money online. So my goal is to write at least 3 to 4 articles using each phrase in the next week. I have to admit that some of these article directories are frustrating because it seems to take so long to get articles to go live. I still have 4 at Ezinearticles.com to be published, and I think I still have 2 at ArticleAlley.com that haven't gone live yet. Those are all using keywords from last week. I know I'm still new at this, but I'm curious to see if any of these efforts are paying off as far as search results go.

Oh, but I do know this blog is now listed in the directories on both Google and Yahoo, because I did a search yesterday and Ta-Da! I'm in all 10 of the top ten spots for the name of this blog! Some results are direct links to the blog, others are from ezinearticles.com, squidoo, and a couple of the forums I've posted in. Wow, it really does work to put your blog address in your signature block.

So maybe I'll figure out how to create business making money online after all. At least I know more now than I did thirty days ago, and for that I'm grateful to Kimberley Hoffman.

In other news, I know I mentioned the site Associated Content before. This site is terrific if you want to be a freelance writer online. They don't have an affiliate-type program, as far as I can tell, so I'm plugging them for free, but that's OK. So far, I've submitted 12 articles, 8 of which have already been published (re-writes of stuff I had done in my attorney-life, mostly) and have had $29.48 deposited in PayPal, plus I'll be receiving a $10 bonus because I submitted more than 10 articles in August (it was a contest). The other cool thing is that you get paid whenever your articles get viewed -- and I've accumulated another $1.50 or so in page views. Over time, this can only get better, so I'm looking at it like building a little residual income on the side. Sweet. Now, if you kind readers would help me out and click on the links over on the right in the box labeled Associated Content Articles and read my articles, that would be so awesome! You click, I get paid. Isn't this a wonderful world?

So I have to run and work on a new Squidoo lens. If you are seeing success in creating your own business making money online, please leave a comment. I would love to hear from you.

Online Income is Possible. Look at All the Ways.

I'm continuing to make progress. As suggested in My Online Income System, I need to create multiple blogs on multiple platforms in order to spread the word. So I spent most of Friday evening/Saturday morning creating a new blog on WordPress.com. It's not where I want it to be yet, but you can certainly check it out at Success Ideas for Everyday Women. The idea for that blog is to focus on women and try to encourage women to find their own path and create online income for themselves.


It will be different from this effort. Here, I'm really going to discuss all the things I try to generate online income. The other blog will be more inspirational, more lifestyle-oriented. At least that's the plan. WordPress apparently doesn't approve of blatantly commercial blogs, which is weird because it's supposed to be the biggest and best blogging platform out there, and everyone says create a blog to promote your business. But I'll try to play by their rules. We'll see. But I guess the idea is to create links back and forth, and to give yourself multiple blogs, each as a different avenues to market with.


But building the Wordpress blog was quite an undertaking. It took me at least 4 hours of watching video tutorials and searching different forums for solutions when I got stuck before I could actually get the basics of creating a blog in Wordpress the way I wanted. When I tried to do it on my own, it was a mess. Not intuitive in the least. My next blog will be on this Blogger.com platform, for sure. But other people who are successful use both platforms to create multiple blogs, so I will too. This journey is all about learning new things, so ...


So, after I finished working through WordPress, I spent some time writing 2 articles. I submitted one to Ezinearticles.com and one to GoArticles.com. That makes 6 submissions to Ezinearticles in the last 3 weeks, and 4 to GoArticles. I also went into two forums dedicated to helping people generate online income and tried to find threads to add comments to or start a new thread that made sense. I'm really struggling with the Forum marketing aspect of the program. Most of the time, I feel like I can't contribute to the conversation because I don't know enough. But I'm trying. I'm not participating to the level I'm supposed to be, but I'm making progress.


Also this weekend, I discovered a great website called Associated Content. This is actually a site that PAYS for your articles. WoHoo! Talk about a way to generate online income! I've always wanted to be a freelance writer, so ... I spent the afternoon re-writing many of the articles I have already submitted to other sites -- I took out some paragraphs, added more personal observations, etc. and submitted 5 articles for review. There are two ways you can get paid -- if your article qualifies, they will actually pay you upfront (apparently anywhere from $1 to $20 per article) when they approve your article. In addition, they put the article on their database and you get paid whenever other people view your articles. We'll see if any of my articles make the cut for upfront payment. But they give you a link as soon as they approve your article so you can promote the link (like, on a blog or on a squidoo page), increasing your pay. Very cool. I don't know enough of the ins and outs yet, but it's definitely a site worth checking out if you like to write and want to generate income.

Give it a try and let me know.

Here's to your success.

I've Earned Money in 10 Days Following My Online Income System

For all you skeptics out there, I'm here to tell you that is it possible to generate an online income. I saw my first earnings yesterday in the form of income from Google AdSense ads on this blog (yes, THIS blog, go figure) and from my Squidoo lenses.

I couldn't believe it. In only 10 days doing exactly what is being laid out in the My Online Income System progam, I've made $.45. No, it's not much, I can't live on it, but what's amazing is that I've only had 45 visitors to this blog, and have made $.38. I've had 44 visitors to my 3 Squidoo lenses, and have earned $.07. I'm not spending any money on advertising, just time. I'm developing Squidoo lenses, participating in forums, writing articles, submitting links to any Free directory I can find, and writing this blog.

To be perfectly honest, I almost skipped the "monetize" section of setting up the blog because I was a skeptic. I mean, who would click on those Google ads that show up everywhere? And when I created my first Lens on Squidoo, I didn't add any Amazon books, or take advantage of any of the income-producing modules because I didn't understand. My eyes have now been opened. My paradigm has changed. I can see how this process builds on itself.

For instance, I have submitted 4 articles to Ezinearticles.com, but only 1 has FINALLY been approved. When I looked at my stats on Squidoo, I had a click from my article. Who knew -- it works! When the other 3 get approved, I'll get more links to my blog and Squidoo pages.

The first article I submitted to GoArticles.com has been requested 22 times. I don't have evidence of any clicks yet, but I'm optimistic. I mean, people are finding this blog somehow. I've submitted 2 more articles to GoArticles.com today, so once people start looking for those, I'll get more links.

I posted comments in 3 forums today, so there are more links. I submitted this blog to dozens of directories using http://www.rss.specifications.com yesterday. It takes a couple weeks to get it through the process everywhere, but I can see now how those efforts I put in yesterday will pay dividends in days to come.

I am working on another Squidoo lens, which I hope to publish this weekend. I also want to submit more articles to the other two directories, ArticleAlley.com and ArticleShed.com. My goal is to visit at least one forum every day and post at least 3 to 5 comments. I'm trying to only comment where I think I can be helpful or where I have a question. I'm trying very hard NOT to spam others. I believe this process is powerful enough that my success will speak for itself in time.

I am SO glad I found My Online Income System. I believe this is a program that works and I am going to continue working it until I have regular, consistent online income.

The Quest for Online Income Begins

Sometimes you have to take a chance in life. I've decided to take the leap into the wacky, wild world of generating an online income. I'm going to chronicle my quest, and give you a step-by-step, blow-by-blow daily (or at least periodically) progress report.

So, a little background.

This is not my first foray into the internet online income world. About 18 months ago, I was trying to make a go of it with several MLM programs, like SFI, Empowerism, Leisure Audio Books, and Success University. I had sporadic success with SFI, but my downline wouldn't stay around more than 45 days. I was paying $30 a month just to get checks of $12 to $20. It was a total monetary drain. The one program that I did like, however, was Success University. It was also expensive, and I couldn't figure out how to recruit others to it, but the monthly CDs and the online courses within the program are first-rate. I just ran out of money, so I had to stop everything. When I figure out how to really market online and have a steady online income, I will probably re-enroll in Success University.

The problem with these programs was that they all required a monthly outlay. Sure, $30 a month isn't much, except when you multiply it by four, then you're looking at $120 a month. Then, it's the marketing. All of these programs were recommending pay-per-click, or paid solo ads on ezines, or other expenses. In one month, I spent almost $400 for 6 ads on Google that generated $80 in sales. I was also paying for website hosting, and GetResponse autoresponder system. I paid for a quarterly subscription to several article submitter programs, paid to have my website submitted to search engines. The costs went on and on. In total, I spent about $2,800 and made about $300.

I had to stop the bleeding. You know the definition of insanity?

But I didn't give up on the Internet. I knew I needed more knowledge, and that the programs I had chosen were not right for me. I considered creating my own products and programs. That seemed to be where the money was being made. So I started exploring and researching digital products. That led me to Clickbank.

I am attracted to digital products and Clickbank for many reasons. It's cheap, it's product-on-demand so there's no inventory, it can be sold from anywhere, and there's so many niches, that I had to be able to find one that worked.

I read several times that the greatest markets on the Internet right now are programs that focus on Health, Wealth, or Travel. I'm not interested in health-related products, I couldn't really find a travel-related program that appealed to me or had a low-enough initial investment, so I was left with Wealth.

I started purusing forums, learned how to monitor sales on Clickbank, and finally found an online income program that intrigued me, My Online Income System. Developed by Kimberley Hoffman, who went from waitress at a steakhouse to a work-at-home internet entrepreneur, this online income system has everything I think I need.

My Online Income System has a low initial investment, $47 is what I paid, but I've seen it at different price points (as any good marketer would do). It provides a Free Website with embedded Clickbank products through YourFreeWebsite System.com. You can opt to purchase a hosting program where you can host up to five websites for a modest monthly fee, but for now, I'm staying with the Free option. I don't want to get bogged down with writing and developing copy for five websites and then marketing all five products. I believe the secret to success is focus.

So the low cost was attractive. But My Online Income System also sets out a realistic, 60-day action plan. It doesn't promise thousand of dollars in 30 days, it tells you up-front and in a very straightforward manner that it takes time and effort.

So I'm giving it a try. I officially signed up on Saturday, July 18, 2009. So in 6 days, I've managed to get to Day 26 of the Action Plan, I believe, though I have read ahead, so I'm taking it a little bit out of order (I never was one to color exactly inside the lines). The beauty of the program is that you can do it at your own pace.

At last check, I had generated 21 visits to my Free website from 2 Lens at Squidoo (http://www.Squidoo.com/tjmois and http://www.Squidoo.com/Work-at-Home-Moms-and-My-Online-Income-System) and 4 posts on the forums at Squidoo, My Online Income System, and the Work-at-Home-Forum. I have written and submitted 2 articles to ezinearticles.com and 2 articles to Goarticles.com, but I don't think any of those have been distributed anywhere yet. Next on my list is to submit articles to ArticleShed.com, which I should complete tonight, create another lens, and visit at least another forum or two.

That's it for now. I'll let you know how it goes.

If you have any thoughts, please share. I'd love to take you on this journey with me.