unintuitive

Digg, how I loathe thee.  Reddit?  I fear I may puke.  And Hacker News makes me feel nauseated.  I hate these sites.

But I can’t stop visiting them.

Sometimes web surfing goes beyond a mere diversion and ventures into full-blown vice territory.  I know, I’m there now.  And I’m willing to wager the ‘net surfing habit probably has affected someone you know, too (nudge, nudge).

Habitual surfing of websites is responsible for businesses losing upwards of $200 billion in revenue every year in the United States alone.  Okay, I just made that statistic up, but I’m sure it’s a lot.  I know for a fact that I can easily sink a few hours every day randomly surfing the web, looking for something interesting.

The Big Payoff

And you know what?  I never find anything interesting.  At all.  It’s just one big waste of time, full of Obamadrama, stupid pictures, random stories about various people being idiots, and yet another half-assed Cracked.com top-10 list.

I still do it anyway.

So how do you break an internet addiction when you earn a fraction or your entire income from online sources?  You can’t just turn the computer off, can you?  I know doing so would kill me, and probably you too, so we won’t even explore that option.

Step 1 - Install RescueTime

RescueTime is an easy-to-use program that will automatically track what you’re doing on your computer - both online and off - and put it all in graph form.  Now you can finally quantify exactly how many hours of your life have been washed down the drain every week watching unfunny CollegeHumor videos.

Step 2 - Install LeechBlock

LeechBlock is a Firefox add-on that you can set to block access to a site.  You can either set up the plugin to block the offending sites completely, or just during a certain time period - like when you have to work.  But what’s to stop you from disabling the plugin?   Well, LeechBlock itself will stop you.  The plugin features password protection on the options panel.  Just pop in a randomly-generated password, and you’ll never gain access to those blocked sites again.  (Well, there are ways, but you have to jump through hoops).

Are you still using Internet Explorer?  Why?  Though I fear for your very soul, you can still block sites using IE7’s built-in Content Advisor feature.  It’s not as flexible as the LeechBlock solution, but it’ll do.  Alternatively, you can head to the K9 Web Protection site and marvel at how gigantic that child’s head is.  Seriously, that must have been the most painful birth ever.  Oh, they also offer website filtering software, or something.

In Conclusion

Stop wasting time.

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Reality #5:  It’s easy to make money online.

Don’t get me wrong here, no one’s going to be throwing cash at you, but earning money online is not as difficult as some make it out to be.  Here’s the big secret to making money, online or offline: provide value.  If you don’t have anything of value to offer people, then don’t expect anyone to pay you anything.  This seems obvious to me, and maybe to you too, but it’s surprising how often I read blogs or forums where people seem to have skipped this step, and are getting frustrated.

Hint: advertising alone is not valuable.  If all you’re doing is buying PPC ads and direct-linking them to affiliate offers, don’t be surprised if you have a hard time scaling, or even turning a profit.  Professionals with a sizable bankroll who are experts at keyword research and ad copywriting might be able to get away with this strategy, but new internet entrepreneurs will experience a lot of frustration with this method.

Reality #4:  There are dozens of ways you can earn money online.

Here’s an easy alternative: sell a product or service directly.  It doesn’t matter what it is you sell, because someone out there will buy it - guaranteed.  Just look at all the crap for sale on eBay or craigslist.  Your best bet is to create your own product, just like Tim Ferris suggests in his book, the 4-Hour Work Week.

Or you can try selling services.  Know how to throw together a WordPress installation and modify a template?  Someone will pay you to do that.  Have you ever written a blog post?  Someone will pay you to do that, too.  Like to write?  Become a freelance writer, like Chris did, and you can earn a big pile of money.

What’s the best online business opportunity for you?  Here’s a quick rundown of seven ways to earn money online by starting your own business.  In reality, there’s a limitless number of ways to earn money online.

Just provide value.

Reality #3:  You can make money online fast.

True!

Now, can you make a lot of money online fast?  Eh, that’s a little tougher.  There’s no such thing as a get rich quick scheme that actually works.  The only money to be made there is selling this faulty dream to desperate souls who don’t know any better, which actually ain’t a bad idea if you’re okay with being a scumbag.

But it’s entirely possible to start earning enough income to live on within just three or four months of work.  I’ve done it by selling services, like SEO articles.  You can too.

Reality #2:  You don’t need a lot of start-up capital to make money online.

They say you gotta spend money to make money.  Not true, at least on the internet.  Actually, promotion is free if you’re a do-it-yourself kind of dude.  If you’re not, don’t worry.  There are plenty of professionals out there who will help you with web promotion on the cheap.

WordPress to run your sites is is also free, and is probably the best content management system available - even better than most of the paid solutions.  So are themes to style it for the most part (some premium wordpress themes are worth their low cost, I’ve found).  Reliable shared hosting is as cheap as $3 to $5 per month.  That’s pocket change, folks.

Once you’ve got a website up, all you need is an idea.  Those are free too.  Just make sure yours is a good one (See #5 above.)

Pro tip: avoid pay-per-click advertising unless you’ve got money to lose figuring out what works.

Reality #1:  Success in online business requires persistence.

You don’t have to be technically adept nor have a keen business mind, though both help.  There are plenty of sources that will teach you what you need to know about the technical and business aspects of internet entrepreneurship.

What you do need is patience, a willingness to learn, and the balls to keep with it when you’re struggling.

To sum it up: practice, baby.  Don’t give up, and don’t get discouraged if you’re not earning thousands in your sleep.  It takes time and effort to achieve, but it’s worth the effort - that is, if you like working in your PJ’s (I do).

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Where the fuck have I been?  There’s no excuse for letting this blog go for so long, unloved and unmaintained.  But, as it happens, I do have some pretty good excuses:

• I got a new job.  In sales.  It was lame, and so
• I lost my new job 5 months later

Well, yeah, but that’s kind of a cop-out.  I mean, there are plenty of people who have full-time jobs, and they can still post a blog every once in a while.

I also

• Started a full-time business

So I’ve been pretty busy acquiring new clients and working on projects.

Hm.  Was there anything else?  Oh, yeah…

• My mom died.

Yeah, that sucked.

I realize that no one actually reads this blog, and thus there is no one to care about this post, but I thought I’d let the unthinking void know that, since I have a little more free time, I’ll be keeping this site updated.

Enjoy, void!

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