How to make money online

**It seems so easy to make a lot of money online, however, only a few become successful and – rich. Is there a magic secret?**

It _is_ easy to make money online, when you know how, but it takes a lot of patience and perseverance to tweak and perfect your marketing every step of the way. That’s why most people fail, because when they don’t get instant results, they give up and go chase the next shiny object! There is no magic secret to making money online, it simply requires five simple qualities:

• Faith – you have to have an enormous amount of self-belief and you truly need to believe that making money is not only easy, but is also a fantastic thing to do

• Foresight – you need to have a big reason _why_ you want to make money online, whether it’s having the time and money for travelling the world, or looking after your aging parents, or doing charity work to help out the less fortunate. Whatever your reason, it needs to be big, compelling, and inspiring so that you’re motivated and driven to set goals and to achieve those goals

• Focus – being able to stick to doing one thing at a time and to seeing it through until you get results is a tricky thing in this day and age of on-demand everything – we all want fast results. But, success is old-fashioned. It takes time. Success requires patience and persistence and you have to … wait. And you have to remain focused all the time

• Fearless action – you do actually need to take risks and make mistakes in order to learn the science of making money online. Many people are worried about failing and about what their friends and families will say if they mess up – but it can’t be that way if you’re going to be successful making money online

• Freedom – you need to be able to enjoy the spoils of all your hard work. That doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

**What are the main reasons why people fail to make money online? How can they overcome those problems?**

Because it takes time to learn the science of making money online, you don’t want to give up when you’re only 3 feet from gold. That’s the biggest reason why people fail to make money online – lack of perseverance! To overcome this, your best approach is to find a person who is already successful online and pay them to show you what to do and to show you what’s working now. Most people won’t want to invest in such training, but they end up paying the price in the long run as they’ll waste money on push button, get rich quick schemes, that simply don’t work.

The surest way to riches is to get a mentor who is already successful. The problem here is that most people who are making money online, want the time to enjoy it, so if you can offer to do something for them that saves them time, then it will be a win-win for both.

**Do we have to be IT experts to succeed in online business?**

That’s a very good question, and is a huge misconception about making money online. If you can copy and paste, can use word processing software, and can send an email, then you have the starting skills you need. That’s all!

Learning how to use website software like WordPress is no different from learning how to use Microsoft Word. It’s the belief thing again – you need to believe it’s easy to learn. The two biggest skills you need for making money online are marketing and understanding people, because you need to understand the problems your customers are facing, and you need to work out how you can help them.

**For anyone who is keen to succeed in online business, what should be done first?**

Well you do need to have a website, a product to sell (selling someone else’s product for a commission is called affiliate marketing), and you need to get people to see your offers before you can make a sale and make money. But before setting up a website, it’s best to scout around for a mentor first – someone who’s already making money online – and get them to guide you and to hold you accountable to getting stuff done. Having a mentor is something that will supercharge your business and improve your results. Hardly anyone has built a successful online business with no investment and no mentor!

**In terms of earning money, what are reasonable expectations for online business beginners? How much money can they earn?**

This is a difficult question to answer as it all depends on how hard the beginner is prepared to work, and whether or not they’re willing to invest in their online education and their online business. If they’re prepared to work long and hard and to invest money, then they can easily replace their salary in approximately six months, working part time, but will still have to reinvest some of their profits into further marketing to grow their business bigger and bigger.

If a beginner is not willing to invest in promoting their offers, there are many free ways of getting people to visit their website, but they take a lot longer to gain momentum – this may add a further six months before results show up, which means they’ll have to remain focused on one thing for a lot longer, thereby increasing the chance of giving up.

**Are there any legal limitations potential that e-entrepreneurs should bear in mind?**

As your website will be visible to the entire world, you’ll need to comply with the US Federal Trade Commission, which promotes consumer protection. They set out information requirements you must have in your advertising. For example, if you publish money making results, then you must say that the results are not in any way typical of the average consumer. If you sell someone else’s products for a commission, you must also state this fact on your website.

You will also be liable to pay income tax and sales tax, depending on the law in your local jurisdiction, so will need to keep such money on one side.

**How is it possible to overcome cultural differences if we want to target international markets as well?**

At the end of the day all people are the same all around the world. We all have the same basic human needs to be loved, to be certain, to have variety, to contribute, to eat, to sleep, and to exercise. When people buy stuff online, it’s generally to satisfy a human need. All these human needs are not impacted by cultural differences, so it really isn’t a huge issue.

**How has online business changed your life? **

Operating an online business is life changing. This is because you’re working from home, you can wear what you like, get up when you like, be at ‘work’ in 5 seconds, have time to exercise, and have time to prepare proper meals. You can also travel for as long as you want, when you want, without having to seek permission first.

‘Living a Laptop Lifestyle’ is out now.