My 6 Month Make Me Money Challenge

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I'm an avid reader of the website Internet Marketing for Mommies where I've been studying Jackie Lee's Beginner's Internet Marketing Strategy. This week, Jackie has written a post titled "Are You Going to Make Next Year Different Than This Year?" and has challenged her readers to FOCUS. To focus on one thing, one method of making money, and to throw everything we have into making that one thing work. I, for one, am up to the challenge - and figured, hey, I should blog about it and let the world see. I believe I can be successful in my attempts to "make me money", and if I can do it, anyone who has doubts in themselves may read this and decide that they can do it too!

So first, a bit of background.

I'm a stay at home mom, living in Lima, Peru. My main income is a house I own and rent out back in the United States. But the income from that has been problematic; what with tenants moving out, unreliable property managers and emergency repairs there's actually been next to nothing to live off for the last 2 years. I've done a bit of blogging as a mostly diary keeping sort of thing, to keep track of what I'm doing in my life. Back in August, (about 3 months ago) I was offered an opportunity to write some articles for a friend's website. Since I love writing, and needed the money desperately, I immediately agreed.

It worked out really well - so well, in fact, that it became a full time gig, which is great! I enjoyed it so much, I started looking for other places online where I could write, and soon found Associated Content, where I have posted around 50 articles since I first made my account. It's a small income, but it has generated around $30 or so per month since I started - and the nice thing is that it is residual income. I don't have to do anything else, as long as people read my articles, I'll keep getting a few bucks a month.

In my quest to create more 'buzz' for the articles I was writing, I made my way to Squidoo.com. My original plan was to simply create a page where I could make some links to my articles on AC - more links means more love from Google, right? I was hoping to get my articles higher in the Google page rankings, and hopefully draw more page views.

But when I found Squidoo, I quickly realized the potential for making money from the site. It wasn't long until I found Jackie Lee's websites, and those of PotPieGirl - both women who started with nothing - work at home mom's who had no money to invest, just like me! - and have been able to achieve their dreams through working smart and working hard, online. What I really have appreciated the most about both women is that they don't try to sell, sell, sell me products that I HAVE to have in order to make me money. They both are quite positive that it's possible to earn money online without having anything to invest. Well, I can already vouch for that! In 3 months, I've so far made about $600 online - without investing a penny, except for the computer I already had. What I have invested, is time. Lots of it.

Now I could sit here and thing - Jeeze, Louise, I'm working as hard as a real job, and only making a couple hundred dollars a month! However - what you need to realize is that once that work is done, it's DONE. And the work I've done - articles, blogs, Squidoo lenses - will always be there, earning me passive income. Residual income that I won't have to do any more work for! The goal is to have as many little points of income as I can make - and each little spot will keep earning for me, for as long as the internet is around, anyway :)

So - that brings us to the challenge. I am taking Jackie Lee up on her challenge - to focus on one goal and on one method. See, there are a million ways to make money online, and when you're new at this, it can easy to be distracted by all those bright and shiny toys they throw at you: Do This, and Start Raking in the Money! So, you do that... and the money doesn't come in fast, so you pop off to another idea... and another... and another after that. Sorry folks - After only 3 months of working on the internet, i can tell you it just doesn't work that way. The way to making a real, livable income is to focus on one thing and WORK IT.

So:
1) I am going to invest in PotPieGirl's One Week Marketing Plan. (PotPieGirl will let you download the first 18 pages of her OWM plan for free at that link - if you want to make money on line, check it out! it's worth a read)
2) I have already bought MicroNiche Finder - a keyword tool to help me find product and niches to focus on.
3) Total investment - less than $200 (But remember, I started with NOTHING and already earned $600, so I'm actually just re-investing some of my earnings back into my business)

I'm going to use OWM to create one niche per week, every week, between now and my birthday in June. My goal is to be earning a minimum of $1000/month from online sources by the time I turn 47.

So, won't you follow along in my journey? Perhaps we can learn something together! And let's find some ways to make me money!

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