Certainly the greatest myth about making money online is that it’s “easy”. Actually, calling it a myth is a bit misleading. In certain ways, online marketing really is easy, but not the “effortless” kind of easy, more the “simple” kind. Much like losing weight and getting in shape is easy, but still really hard, somehow.
Simply Difficult
How many people do you know who want to get in shape? Maybe lose a few pounds? Or put on some muscle? Better stamina and overall fitness, anyone? How about that six-pack? Almost everyone would like to be a bit fitter and a bit better looking than they are. Millions of people are overweight or obese and would love to be slim. Somehow, most of them never reach their goals.
Getting in shape is easy. Don’t believe me? While there are countless books and studies and courses and programs all concerned with losing weight and getting in shape, everything you need to know about this subject can be said in just a few words. Here’s the ultimate secret of how to lose weight and become really fit:
- Eat mainly vegetables and fruit and no junk-food.
- Exercise every day.
- Repeat.
That’s it. Follow these three steps and I guarantee you that you will become slim and trim. See, it’s really not complex or complicated. Sure, the process can be optimized, but I doesn’t need to be. It hardly matters what exercise you do, so long as you do it often and consistently. As for eating: Forget about counting calories and tallying up proteins, carbohydrates and fat. Eat when you’re hungry and eat healthy foods only. Period.
Getting in shape is easy. Understanding the system behind it is easy. But actually sticking to it is hard.
It’s the same with making money online. The basic principles behind it are fairly simple. You can dig deeper and uncover layers upon layers of details about SEO, link-building, optimal landing page design, the psychology of buying and selling and any number of other related subjects. But you don’t have to. Following just a few basic rules you can monetize a very simple website.
- Make a simple website and add an affiliate-link to it.
- Write many relevant articles with links pointing to that site every day.
- Repeat.
This works. I’m not saying there isn’t more to making money online than those three steps. I’m not saying that this (simple article marketing) is the best or the only way to earn money online. What I’m saying is that you don’t need to know more to get started. As you go along, you’ll pick up more info and you’ll refine your techniques, but you have to get going with what you’ve got. What’s missing isn’t the perfect method, the secret technique, the magic keyword. What’s missing is more likely a concentrated and consistent effort.
Before you fall for the seductive promise of “easy money”, remember: It’s simple, but it requires hard work and dedication.
That’s a great post. I think people fall into the what do I need to do? How do I need to do it? Is this right? Mindset. I was actually just thinking about how working out is similar to internet marketing with you should lift this way to this cardio workout. It’s all about working hard you said and things will fall into place.
Yes, it’s kind of a balancing act: While you do need information on how to do things properly, applying that information is actually more important. And it’s easy to get caught up in just reading about thing, getting new info, new products etc. but never really doing much.