How To Make A Full-Time Income Online

by Damon G. Zahariades

Last week, I returned home from a week-long trip to Washington D.C. In this Report, I'm going to share with you a startling revelation I learned there. Then, I'm going to tell you how to apply it to your own business.

Whether you're just getting started online and want to make some extra cash each month or you want to seriously crush it and make a full-time income online for you and your family, this Report will describe what you need to do in order to make it happen.

Let's get started.

As you probably know, I was in Washington D.C. for a seminar. In truth, I wasn't really there to attend the seminar. I was there to see old friends and meet new ones. In fact, I only attended 2 of the nearly 17 presentations given at the seminar.

Why in the world would I I travel across the country to attend a big-ticket seminar only to miss nearly all of the presentations?!

One reason.

Because, I was saving my energy for what I was about to face in the bar…

"Yes - Give Me Immediate Access To Damon's Special Report, "The 5 Critical Elements To Creating A 6-Figure Income Online" And Reserve My Spot On Damon's Web Business Today List for FREE!"

Enter Your Name And Primary Email Address Below:

QUICK NOTE: I hate spam as much as you do. I respect your privacy and will never share your e-mail address with anyone. You can unsubscribe at any time.

How A Casual Drink With Friends Ultimately Led To An Eye-Popping, Business-Changing Revelation

Prior to attending the seminar, I already knew people were doing big things online. I knew some folks were bringing in major income each month.

But, I had no idea things had blown up this big.

While strolling through the bar, drinking my admittedly "girly drinks" (as one of my friends gently put it), I met…

a guy bringing in low-to-mid 8 figures… per month!
a lady who built and sold her company for a healthy mid-8-figure sum. And she did it while being mom to her three kids!
a man who was planning to sell his portfolio of online assets for a 9-figure sum!

And the cast of characters went on and on. I met…

two 7-figure Adsense earners
a fun-loving snowboarder who traveled wherever the best slopes were, while allowing his affiliate business to automatically generate more income each month than most families make in a year
a man who had decided to take his page-generation business to the next level by hiring a huge staff (not independent contractors… real staff) of folks who did most of the work for him while he lived like a king in a foreign land

These folks weren't the usual suspects. They weren't the ones you hear being interviewed on teleseminars. They weren't the ones making gigantic waves in the internet marketing space.

And they weren't the ones speaking at the seminars.

They were the folks who were sitting in the audience, taking notes. They were regular people doing huge things with their online businesses.

And I noticed one common trait in all of them…

The One Common Trait

They are doers. Each and every one of them. They get off their respective butts and actually take action on a regular basis. Plain and simple.

If they know how to do something that works, they do it.

If they don't know how to do something that works, they learn how to do it. And then they do it.

If they want to know if something works, they test it.

And here's the most important piece of the puzzle…

These folks are not rocket scientists. They're not armed with PhD's. They're normal folks who take action on a regular basis.

And if they can do it, you can do it, too.

Let's Talk About You

Right now, as you're reading this, are you making a full-time income online?

If not, why not? The fact that you're reading this Report means you're at least interested in making that kind of money. What's holding you back?

I'm going to say something that you're not gonna like. But, if you're struggling to grow your business online, you need to hear it.

(If you're already doing $100,000+ per year online, this isn't specifically for you. You should read the rest of this Report because it can help propel your business even further, but I'm really speaking to the folks who want to make a full-time income, but are not doing so right now.)

Aside from health issues, there are only 2 reasons why you're not currently making a full-time income online. Here they are…

You lack the marketing eduction you need in order to take action.
You lack the willpower and discipline necessary to take action on a consistent basis.

Every other reason I've heard (and I've heard a ton of 'em) is simply noise. They're excuses. And excuses hold you back from achieving the success you want. From earning the income you want!

It's time for you to identify and kill those excuses. It's time to start taking action to build your business, grow it, improve it and finally make the kind of money you've been struggling to make.

So, let's look at 3 proven ways to get you from where you are today to finally making your full-time income online…

1. Educate Yourself

We all started from the same place. At one time, I didn't know how to do the things I currently do.

When I first started building my business, I didn't know how to do anything. I didn't know how to work autoresponders. I didn't know html. I didn't even know how to turn a Microsoft Word document into a PDF. And I sure as heck didn't know anything about search engine optimization or how to make money from pay-per-click traffic.

The list of stuff I was clueless about goes on and on. Again, I didn't know how to do anything when I first started.

But, I learned.

And then I applied what I learned.

And then I made money from applying what I learned.

And I make money today from applying what I learned on a regular basis.

So, what will it take for you to learn a new skill that you can apply profitably in your online business? Learning something new will either cost you time, money, or both.

I'll give you an example.

Let's say you want to learn how to get a ton of free targetted traffic coming to your site on a regular basis from Google, Yahoo and MSN. In a nutshell, you want to learn search engine optimization.

You have some options…

Option 1… you can find most of the SEO information you need for free. How? You can dig through forums, discussion boards, free articles and free ebooks. The information is there for the taking.

The problem is, it takes a lot of time to find the good, reliable information. Plus, it takes a lot of time to filter out the crap (that is, bad, unreliable information).

It won't cost you any money, but it'll still cost you lots of time.

Or, option 2… you can buy a couple of ebooks. Finding good ones that'll teach you SEO isn't hard. You'll have to pony up a few bucks (usually under $100) and you'll need to spend time reading the books.

So, it'll cost you a little money and a little time.

Or, option 3… you can hire an expert to teach you SEO. Experts are expensive. You'll pay a lot of money to have that expert personally coach you, but you'll save yourself heaps of time.

Here's the bottom line…

If you don't know how to do something, learn how to do it! Plain and simple.

How you go about getting the information you need is just a matter of deciding what is currently worth more to you… your money or your time.

2. Start Small And Build Consistently

I realize you're being pulled in a million different directions. You're starting to recognize that there are tons of ways to make a full-time income (and then some) online. So, naturally, you want to attack them all.

You want to build content sites for Adsense and affiliate revenue.

You want to build datafeed sites.

You want to build spam sites.

You want to build lists.

You want to learn how to communicate to your lists.

You want to build Underachiever sites.

You want to learn SEO.

You want to learn PPC.

You want to create your own products.

You want to learn click arbitrage.

You want to create membership sites.

You want to learn how to blog profitably.

You want to create blog farms.

And on and on and on…

STOP! Take a breath.

You need to focus on one thing. Only one. Learn that one task. Master it. Figure out how to use it to bring in revenue. If possible, automate it.

Once you have mastered the first task, move to the second task. While you're learning the second task, continue to work on the first task. Once you have mastered the second task, work on the third task.

Here's an example…

Let's say you have never built a list before. You don't know how. So, first, learn how to do it. That's your first task. There are lots of places to learn how to build a big, responsive list. (I suggest learning at http://www.WebBusinessToday.com/list-building/. I consider it the best and most affordable, but it's not the only resource out there.) Master the list-building process. Then, start building your list. Learn by doing.

Next, learn how to communicate with your list (this can be your second task). Start trying different things. Try short messages. Try long messages. Change your tone of writing. Watch what makes your particular audience respond. While you're testing, continue to build your list.

Next, learn how to build a content site. It's not hard. Especially with some of the tools available today. But, if you don't know how to do it, you need to educate yourself. Master the site-building process while building and communicating with your list.

Notice how your momentum is building.

Next, learn how to do SEO. There are plenty of forums, ebooks and membership sites to teach this stuff to you. Educate yourself. Implement what you have learned. Do this while you continue to build your content site. Do this while you continue to build and talk to your list.

Now, take a look at what's happening. Your site is growing, your list is growing, you're getting your audience to respond to your e-mails and soon, you'll start getting some free traffic from the search engines. More momentum.

Next, learn how to drive traffic to your content site with Adwords. Learn to improve your Adwords skills. Master these skills. Do this while continuing the other tasks.

Now, look at what you have accomplished! You have a naturally-growing content site, a growing and responsive list, free traffic from the search engines and paid traffic from Adwords (which is adding to your growing list).

Talk about momentum!!

After you have learned, mastered and applied your new list-building, site-building, SEO and Adwords skills to your first content site, begin working on your second content site. Then, work on a third site. Then, a fourth. And so on.

Eventually, you can outsource most of the work…

Hire someone to create your site's content.
Hire someone to FTP the new content to your site on a regular schedule.
Hire someone to get quality links (with great anchor text) coming to your site.
Hire someone to blog about your site's new content on a regular basis (this will get the search engine spiders crawling your site's content).

Put your e-mails into a 6-month autoresponder sequence instead of manually broadcasting them.

See how this works? Start small and build consistently. That's how empires are built!

Yes, it takes time. In the beginning it takes a lot of time. But, you're building a portfolio of assets. And your assets include not only your sites and your lists, but your new site-building and list-building skills, too!

Remember… consistent, incremental building of your portfolio is key here.

So, what task should you start with? What should be your first task?

Ultimately, that's up to you. If it were me and I was starting over, I'd definitely learn how to build lists first. And then, I'd learn how to communicate with my audience. I want them looking forward to getting an e-mail from me. As I mentioned earlier, the best resource I've ever found that teaches how to do this stuff is at http://www.WebBusinessToday.com/list-building/.

But, you don't have to start with list-building if you don't want to. You can learn Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing first.

The important thing is… make a decision to start. And then, start!

3. Track The ROI Of Everything You Do

Most folks usually think of ROI as either positive or negative. If it's positive, they're happy. If it's negative, they're not.

I think that's an oversimplication.

ROI should be a factor of how much of your time, money and effort you spend to achieve a goal. Your time is worth something. Your money is obviously worth something. And the effort you put into something has a value, too. The goal you achieve has to be worth the time, money and effort you spend to achieve it.

It's not enough that a task simply yields a positive ROI. The ROI has to be worthwhile to you.

Here's an example…

A 200% ROI on a $100 spend isn't worthwhile if you had to spend a week to create it.

But, a 100% ROI on a $100 spend is worthwhile if you can create it in 10 minutes. (Especially if you can automate it to occur repeatedly!)

You first have to define what an "acceptable" ROI is to you personally. What is your goal? And what are you willing to accept for the time, money and effort you spend?

Don't just think of your goal in terms of immediate profits. Your goal could be…

acquiring subscribers
landing major joint venture partners to promote your latest product
selling your entire portfolio of spam sites
getting your free ebook into the hands of a targetted audience
creating an information product for a niche market

Once you know what your true goal is (and how much time, effort and money you're willing to spend to achieve it), you can track your efforts to figure out if your ROI is "acceptable" to you.

For example…

Let's say you're running an Adwords campaign. You're driving people to your site to buy your ebook. In this case, your goal is sales. You're willing to spend $0.50 to acquire each customer. That's your "acceptable ROI."

Let's further assume you have 2,000 keywords spread across multiple Ad groups. You need to know which keywords in your Adwords campaign are converting to sales at the rate of $0.50 per customer.

You'll need to use a tracking application to do this. Google provides one with Google Analytics). There are other good options. Just choose one and get started. If you don't know how to use these options, learn how. Then, apply it. That's the only way you'll know if the money you're spending on the keywords in your Adwords campaign are yielding an "acceptable ROI."

Another example…

Let's say you have a landing page that captures visitors' e-mail addresses. Once your visitor opts-in on your landing page, you send them to your sales page to buy your ebook. In this case, you establish your goal as "converting opt-ins to sales." You want to convert at least 13% of the people who opt-in to immediate sales. That's your "acceptable ROI." Anything less is "unacceptable" to you.

Again, you need to use a tracking application to track your ROI from this project. If you don't track it, you'll never know if what you're doing is meeting your personal expectations.

Another example…

Let's say you have a new product and want to recruit some joint venture partners to help you promote it. Your goal is to recruit as many partners as possible.

Figuring out your "acceptable ROI" is more difficult here. You need to add the true costs of the project. How much time will it take to e-mail, call or have lunch with each potential partner? How much money will it cost to produce and ship them a copy of your product for them to review? How much effort is necessary to motivate them?

Ultimately, you'll need to ask yourself, "how much time, effort and money am I willing to spend to acquire each joint venture partner?"

Everything I have mentioned here is a part of tracking the ROI of every task and project you do. This is how empires are built. This is how many of the biggest players online are building their businesses.

Slowly, consistently and methodically.

Last Thoughts

If you want to make a full-time income online, it's time for you to make the decision to take action.

Maybe a "full-time income" to you means $3,000 per month. Maybe it means $20,000 per month. Whatever the case, you can achieve it. Every piece of information you need to build your business into a full-time venture is available to you. Every tool you need is available to you. Whether you're building sites, building lists, sending pay-per-click traffic to review pages for affiliate income…

Everything you need to make a full-time income is available to you!

If you don't know how to do something, you can learn how.

If you don't know how to use a tool effectively, you can learn how.

If you already know how to do something, but you want to do it more effectively, you can learn how!

Buy a ebook tutorial. Hire a coach. Join a membership site that teaches the skill you want to learn.

Once you learn that skill, apply it. Nothing happens without taking action.

And your business can explode when you begin to take action on a regular basis.

Start small and build consistently. Improve consistently. Incremental growth and improvement in your business can help you build an empire. Have you ever wondered how some people can bring in $50,000 per month (after expenses)? I'll tell you how… they started taking action on a regular basis, making mistakes and improving along the way.

Finally, figure out what an "acceptable ROI" means to you personally for each task and project you pursue. For each site you build. For each e-mail capture page you create. For each list you build. For each e-mail sequence you create.

Improve what works. Trash what doesn't.

Marketing has never been rocket science. And the most successful marketers on the planet have never needed to be brilliant.

They simply do one thing that others aren't motivated to do: they take action over and over.

Sometimes, that means learning a new skill. Sometimes, it means applying that skill. And sometimes, it means tracking the results of applying that skill.

In the end, successful marketers simply take action.

Are you willing to take action? Are you willing to do it on a regular basis?

Remember, small steps over time can create an empire for you.

Thanks for reading this. I hope you've enjoyed it. Most importantly, I hope this Report will spur you and motivate you to take action to build your business into a full-time income online.

Get started today!

Damon G. Zahariades

Feel free to use this article on your blog, website, or in your newsletter. All I ask is that you include a link back to WebBusinessToday.com!

Return to the archive of Marketing Articles.

See the resources I use to make my full-time income online.