How Long Will It Be Before I Make Money?

“How long will it be before I make money?” Pretty much everyone who is new to internet marketing asks this question. There are plenty of ads out there that proclaim people are making money while they sleep, or achieving success in a matter of hours or days. We all want to believe that as soon as we put up a website and add a few affiliate links, the dough will start rolling in.

Then reality sets in. Internet marketing is more a get rich slowly path than a get rich quick one.

So what determines how quickly you will begin making money? The first question is how much time do you have to devote to your business? Someone who is able to devote full-time to making money at home is probably – but not necessarily - going to succeed sooner than someone who is juggling a full-time job and single parenthood.

It’s not just the quantity of time you have to work at making money (meaning how many hours a day or week) that’s important. The quality of time you’re putting in is just as important if not more so. The time you devote to your business needs to be productive time. Surfing the net and repeatedly checking your email is not productive. Write down a weekly schedule of exactly what you’re going to do each day and you’ll find yourself getting closer to making money.

Another factor that affects how long it will take before you make money is whether or not you’ve chosen the right niche. Make sure you are working on a product that people actually want. Take the time to find out what people want and give it to them. This will bring you much closer to profiting than if you are pursuing a topic of interest only to you. A good way to determine what people are looking for is by spending time on keyword research. Visit forums related to your niche and pay attention to what people are talking about. Pay particular attention to forum threads with a lot of views and comments.

If you are brand new to internet marketing, you may find yourself reading e-book after e-book, blog after blog, searching for the one guru who has The Answer. The more you read, the more it seems there is to read. You may find yourself becoming confused by conflicting information and experiencing information overload. There is no one answer to how to make money quickly. Pretty much every successful marketer began by making mistakes, some more than others. Very few sail off to instant success and riches. The ones who make money are often the ones who are the most persistent, not the smartest or the most talented. And for most of them, it took longer to make money than they hoped.

It’s time to take action. Spend less time reading and learning and start doing. You will make mistakes, and that’s ok. Every mistake brings you closer to succeeding. Success won’t happen until you take action.. Once you start to taste success, it will be like a snowball rolling down the hill. Success builds upon success. Don’t expect to make $100 a day right off the bat. Instead set a goal of making $1 a day. Celebrate when you achieve this goal. Give yourself a pat on the back for what you’re doing right and build on it. Decide that you are going to succeed and you will. Failure is not an option.