Free Classifieds Directory

When you’re just starting out online it’s extremely easy to get confused. One marketing expert will tell you that Adsense is the ticket to big riches. Another one will tell you that AdWords is the way to go. Some will say information products. Others will say physical products. Some will say you need to have your own products. Meanwhile others will tell you of the fortune they earned as affiliates selling other’s products.

So what can you believe? Who do you believe?

All of them. Or none of them.

The key to having a successful business is finding the right path for you. As cheesy as this sounds, you need to go with your heart.

Let me give you an example…

There are some experts who suggest that you build up an empire of mini-sites that you either sell affiliate products off of, or you build so that you can incorporate AdSense to get cash for clicks.

Now while some people think you need to have a site or two and make them a grand success, those who go the “underachiever” route say “not so!” If you build an empire – a suite of sites, if you will – then all of them only need to perform moderately in order for you to do well overall.

For example, some people spend all their time constantly tweaking a site to get $100 a day profit out of it ($3000 a month). However, those who prefer the underachiever route seek to build 100 sites that make $1 a day, or 200 sites that make 50 cents a day.

Can you build a site that can make one measly dollar per day? I’m sure you can. So the idea is to make a $1 a day earner, then move on to the next one, then build another, and so on. Time-permitting you can go back and tweak some of the better-performing sites to make them more profitable, but for the most part you seek to have a bunch of sites that make a small amount of money (though collectively they make a nice chunk of change).

It’s a good idea, right? Sure it is! But if you’re the type of person who has trouble taking your focus off of one thing and refocusing it on another, this model may not be right for you.

For example, today you might build a site about butterflies and another about toe fungus. Tomorrow your topics may include breast feeding and grooming poodles. The next day you could be building sites on artificial insemination and repairing leather upholstery.

If you get bored easily, this model may sound like a dream come true! You need only spend a few hours or a day working on a mini-site or blog before leaving it and working on another one.

On the flip side (as mentioned before), if you can’t quickly refocus than this may sound like a nightmare. For example, you may find it difficult to focus for hours on artificial insemination, and then suddenly have to clear your mind, switch gears and start thinking about leather upholstery.

Here’s what I’m trying to say: if you over ride your emotional feelings about a project you can easily be setting yourself up for failure.

Example: I’ve known people whose skin absolutely crawls when they think of blogging. They hate blogs and they hate blogging. And yet because they heard an expert say they must blog, they blogged …for about three months. Then they dropped it and never looked back.

Just as they suspected, they hated every moment of their blogging. But unfortunately because they ignored their gut feeling upfront, they basically wasted three months doing something they hated. They could have used those three months doing something productive that they enjoyed.

(and outsource the things that are necessary but you don’t like to do – more on that later).

Oh, I can already hear the cries of “blasphemy!” coming from the peanut gallery.

Yes it’s true – some people will tell you to chase the money and forget about what you like. After all, business is business, right?

That depends on you.

If your number one motivation is money – if the sun rises and sets on money in your land …and if the sight of a dollar bills sends you into shivers of ecstasy – then yes, perhaps for you business is business. If money is your passion, if “buying stuff” is what drives everything you do, then in that case it really doesn’t matter what you do …because as long as you’re making money, you’ll be happy.

Do you identify with that personality? Can you be happy doing anything as long as you’re making boatloads of cash?

If not, then read on…

Most people like money, yes. But if they really examine why they do what they do, they may find that money isn’t the main motivator. “Buying stuff” may not be the main motivator either.

If you’re the type of person who thrives on good feelings when you help people, even if money isn’t involved, you may need to do more than chase the money. If you are really passionate about something (cars, quilts, whatever), then you may need to do more than chase the money. If a kind word from a customer or newsletter subscriber would really make your day – you may need to do more than chase the money.

Now before we get completely carried away, let me share with you the kicker…

Yes, I know you’re getting into business at least partly if not mainly to make money – after all, money buys freedom…the freedom to buy what you want, the freedom to make your own schedule, etc.

What on earth do I mean by that?

“Chase the money” usually means that you’re getting into a known lucrative field. For example, imagine for a moment that you were about to enter a University to a get a degree in the field of your choice. If you wanted to “chase the money,” would you become a doctor …or an artist? Would you get a business degree …or an elementary education degree? Would you get a law degree …or a degree in philosophy?

Naturally if you wanted to chase the money, you’d choose the first degree from the above three choices (doctor, business, or law degree).

But here’s something for you to chew on: not everyone who “chases the money” is rich. And not everyone who chose a path related to their passions is poor.

Think about it in terms of online success. If you decided to chase the money, would you jump into the known-lucrative gambling markets? Or would you jump into the sock niche?

The knee-jerk response is to say one should choose the gambling niche if they want to make more than a few bucks online. And yet I know dozens of people who have hundreds of gambling sites online that aren’t making enough to pay their hosting fees. They’re chasing the money, yes …but apparently they’re not running fast enough because they haven’t caught up with it yet!

On the flip side, check out blacksocks.com. There’s a simple site where the owner sells “sockscriptions.” Yes, he sells black socks – and last I heard he sold over a million dollars worth of socks per year.

It’s almost counter-intuitive, isn’t it? Who’d have known you could make that much selling socks …while you could completely bomb out in a market that’s known to be a billion dollar industry?

The best part is that you can see these exceptions everywhere you look. There are people in lucrative niches who don’t have two nickels to rub together, meanwhile there are millionaires in niches that most folks didn’t even realize could be turned into something profitable.