“It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.” ~Robert Benchley

So, you want to make money online?  Me too!  Here is some of what I have discovered so far about this goal:

  1. You need to be visible – people need to easily find you and whatever it is you want to sell online.
  2. You need to be credible – people need to believe that you know what you are talking about.
  3. You need something to sell – this can be your own products or the products of someone else or a combination.
  4. You need a following – people that care about what you write and say.
  5. You need partners – in Internet terms, you need affiliates, that will sell your products for you.

Over time, I am going to discuss each of these five points in great detail and you can watch and follow each step that I take to successfully launch a product focusing on each of these points.

In the most basic sense, those are the overall pieces that you need to make money online.  ( But wait, I have skipped tons of other ways to make money right away you say?  It’s true, I have.  I know there are lots of different ways to make money online.  For example, I make good money now from my online efforts because I get hired to speak or coach or consult – but my mission is to make money from products online and this will be the main focus of my efforts and the main focus of these articles that follow my efforts.)

I know that this is way to basic for many of my readers.  Thank you for your patience. I will get to material that benefits you very soon, I promise :) .  What I am actually going to be doing for the next few months on this blog is making a written record of exactly what I doing to launch my first product online.  I am going to be talking about what I am doing on a daily basis and why and you can watch the entire show, from product idea to (hopefully!) successful product launch.

Here is the lesson (and question) for you to take home from today and ponder: are you willing to write five days per week for about two hours each time if you knew that this amount of effort could make you an online success?

Here is what I am doing today:

  • I am writing a blog post.
  • I am going to tweet perhaps three or four times online to my followers.
  • I am going to transcribe notes that I have written regarding my first online product.
  • I am going to try to figure out some of the many features on the newest Apple Iphone that I am picking up.
  • I am going to be rereading some of Dan Poynter’s excellent book: Writing Nonfiction.

Till next time…Jack

“Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade, just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself.” ~Truman Capote