Copyright © Heikki Ahola
You’re upset, frustrated, you’re not seeing results, you’re not super rich like you thought you would be, hardly any sales, and you feel like you have tried everything.
OK – I’ll tell you my story.
A few years ago, I happened to read some ads about making money online from home, making fast easy money. I read about people making millions with easy automated systems. Alright, I didn’t really believe them entirely. But I kept on reading and found more and more similar stories. At that time, I was planning to retire from my own furniture business and was looking for some easy additional income.
So I joined a few mailing lists and started to receive offers on huge potential income and – best of all – you needed to work only few hours per week. I didn’t part with any money at the time; I simply joined more programs for free. I wanted to learn more. But before long, I paid my first 29 dollars to join a list and to obtain a program that was supposed to be easy and simple and where I could start making money at once. No way.
After some time I had joined several programs, downloaded a whole heap of e-books (some of which were free) and other material for reading later. I ploughed through the information and tried to learn more. After a while, there was a call from the States, offering me an agreement for guidance to great results, guaranteed. I didn’t find out what it would cost – I was afraid that I would be taken advantage of financially and end up signing an agreement that would cost me my whole fortune. Following on from this, I experienced further similar situations. Well, arguably, you never know – if I’d have actually worked with them, maybe I’d be a rich man by now.
But anyway, I joined more lists, paid more money for joining programs and finally I had several different systems that were not bringing in any money at all, just taking up a lot of time and money every month. A lot of emails were cluttering up my inbox. I made all the classic mistakes in terms of starting an online business. You start as a hobby, some kind of interest, you start dreaming about easy big money, hardly any work at all and no skills required. Then, before long, you are paying all kinds of monthly fees and no income from online business, no lists and no nothing.
I should have been smart enough to realise that this was a business that requires all the basics that normal business requires, plus you have to learn a great deal of new information, such as computer skills.
So here are my few basic pointers:
1. Keep a cool head.
2. Do not believe everything you read, hear or see.
3. Study carefully and collect a wide range of information.
4. Stop downloading everything you think is great and valuable, even if it is free.
5. Stop joining mailing lists and programs indiscriminately, even if they are free. You often have to pay for your results.
6. Make plans. What do you really want from your online business?
7. Stick to your plans. Set realistic goals. Prepare to invest.
8. Have dreams and work towards them.
9. Build a reliable network of people. Learn who you can trust and who can help you best.
10. There is easy money out there for somebody, but it is unlikely to be you. You will most probably have to work for your money.
Online you can make money, slowly, but in the long run you will make profits and start getting additional income by working from home. You can even make a good salary, if you are persistent.
Heikki Ahola – HankOnLine
Kauhajoki, Finland
