I remember like yesterday the time when I told one of my co-workers that I was going to learn how to make money online. He remembers it well too as he is still working at the same job and I have long moved on. He’s not jealous but he does wish he had followed in my path.
It wasn’t easy and I had only a little success early on. The Internet and everything surrounding it can be a bit intimidating to someone who is uncomfortable with technology. It is a foreign world that most people never bother to understand other than searching for information on Google, buying a product here and there, and reading email. But I knew there was a big opportunity and refused to give up.
After about 9 months of futility, I decided I was doing something wrong. I had websites but I couldn’t get much traffic to them. No matter what I wrote about or how well I wrote, not much happened. When I look back now, why should anyone be able to find my site in the search engines as my site was just one of billions!
What I was missing it turned out, was SEO which is search engine optimization. Now I am not an expert and I doubt I ever will be but once I started reading more about SEO and changing the way I did things, my fortunes reversed. I like to say it was like a big boat in the water slowly turning around and changing course.
SEO is big business now and you have to watch out who you listen to and who you pay. There are new SEO companies jumping online every day that will want your business and will make big promises. The fact is though, that you can probably find all the information you need online for free. You will have to do the work yourself but all the information is there somewhere and you don’t have to pay a dime for it.
One thing I learned is that any real success online will probably take you a while to achieve. It is the rare person that can start off online and begin making money in the first month. For most people, even if they know what they are doing, it may take at least 6 months before they get any traction and that is if they understand some basic SEO. So, one of the keys to succeeding online at anything is having patience and not giving up. Too many people want the quick riches and give up long before they ever have the chance. Also probably give up before they learn about SEO as well.