Just Do It!

"Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly." – Stephen R Covey

I've been dealing with people for most of my life – not always a fun thing to be doing I might add.

Some people always want someone else to do it for them – some just want someone to give them an idea and they run with it. Still others want to see proof that others are really able to be successful doing what they are considering.

Which one are you?

in my last post I explained how doing a bunch of little things equals something big. I have received a couple of Emails that expressed confusion as to why I would want to do a lot of things rather than just one thing.

My answer to each of you is no matter what you want to do or which approach you choose, JUST DO IT!

I think that the hardest thing for so many people is to just commit to do something – I'm included in that group! I will admit to spending way too much time analyzing a new project and in some cases it gets lost in that process and I move on to something new.

My goal for 2010 is to just do it! I'm putting that into action now with some of the things you will see me doing online. I've had a lot of ideas over the years – yes I do have a fire burning within and yes I do get things done… eventually!

One of the things that I've had on my list for so long is to make use of a domain name that I've owned for years – gurusexposed.com. Today I've launched this site – http://GurusExposed.com. I plan to review the announced launch of Michael Jones new program "The Affiliate Code".

Actually – launching this site is another one of those things on my list for a long time. I had put up a site here 2 years ago which was nothing like this, nor was it what I was really planning to do here.

Believe in something!

I've noticed too that so many sit around complaining about their job or lack there of… or they complain that all of the 'make money online' 'things' are scams!

Stop complaining and just do something!

If that fire is burning within then do something about it – there are so many programs and you can truly try several of them and see what works for you. It is easy but it does take work and you are going to have to do the work – no matter what you choose to do!

To your continued success…

Michael Hobach

A Lot of Little Things Equals Something Big

Here is a concept… Setup a lot of little things that each generate a small amount each on their own!

What do you get?

I read through the Google Sniper (yes I bought it!) and I've set up a couple of new sites. Each are promoting products on Clickbank. I've already generated $500 through one site and $200 through another – in less than one month.

I had to purchase domain names and setup hosting, but I have everything in place to do that easily and quickly.

I did just a little bit of research as George explains – actually I started by researching the HOTEST products on Clcikbank and then researched the niches that they belong to. I was able to come up with a couple of 'OK' domain names – meaning that they weren't absolutely the best, but they would work. It didn't take much and it didn't cost me anything but my time to do the research.

My Question is - Why do so many want a lot of money from just one thing when they can certainly have a little bit of money from a lot of things?

You see, if I take these sites that make even $200/mo and just keep doing the research, and adding more and more… and more… before very long I could have 20 sites doing this…

20 x $200 = $4,000 per month ( $48,000/yr)

50 x $200 = $10,000 per month ( $120,000/yr)

100 x $200 = $20,000 per month ( $240,000/yr)

Note: Most products earn the promoting affiliate $35 – $60 per sale – meaning 4 to 6 sales per month to earn just $200 per month.

From the questions that I'm receiving via Email and through this site, I would believe that maybe this concept isn't acceptable as a business model. I think that it is the perfect business model!

Here's why this is important…

Remember in an earlier post I told you that I had been working in just one niche? And that niche pretty much went away – well at least from the standpoint of buying customers… Don't put all of your eggs in one basket – you will have a lot of broken eggs should that basket be dropped.

To be honest with you this 'program' or 'system' is so simple, and once you've done a couple it's even easier… why wouldn't one give it a try?!?!

There is no Pay Per Click (PPC) or any other advertising expense. What are the real costs? For the most part it's just your time and brain power – sorry you do need to be able to think to make this work.

Remember that it doesn't happen over night!

To your continued success,

Michael Hobach

P.S. – I just lauched another site – Gurus Exposed  (http://GurusExposed.com ) – by the time you get to this there should be the first review posted there.

What is it that I know that makes me an expert

I'll bet you are wondering what it is that makes me an expert to sit here and talk to you about making money and especially doing it online…

First – I'm by no means an expert!

I have a good friend who keeps telling me that I'm an expert in Internet Technology and that I keep too much to myself. Well – I do know a lot and I have done a lot… but that doesn't make me an expert – at least not in my opinion!

But here's the thing…

I used to work really hard – you know what I mean! Then things really changed for me and a number of years ago I discovered how it was possible to stop trading my time for a paycheck. I still have family members, friends and neighbors who have asked outloud – how is it that you are able to sit at home and still have all of the things that they work so hard for by going to a job. Actually my ex wife beat on me a lot about not going to work and having a job.

In our lifetime we have been conditioned to believe that we have to work for some big corporation and in return we get paid and have all of these great benefits. Well, I think it's become obvious in the last couple of years that relying on some big corporation for our livelihood isn't the best idea. Our income is defined by our position and company policy. Over achievers seldom receive the compensation they deserve. True – some days we can just show up and still get paid – but is that really fair?

I was raised to be different and think outside the box

My father always – and I mean always, reminded me that I don't have to be like everyone else. I don't have to do what they do or think what they think! So many people are just 'clones' of everyone else around them. Are you?

To make insane amounts of money online and off line requires that you think differently

Personally, I have a desire to make enough money to pay my bills, and live comfortably – not unrealistic! I do want enough money so that I can continue to help others who are less fortunate than me, but the goal is to teach them to help themselves. Our society today does not know how to do that! Truth!

Motivation comes in weird ways

To be honest – a major motivating factor in my life to make a total change on how I earn a living came about in 2001 with some issues with my now ex wife. Divorce was inevitable, and it became clear that I needed to do what I needed to do for myself and my children. Her desires no longer mattered.

The ISP business that I had created, and where I worked long hours, was just another JOB – in fact I worked a lot harder than I did when I had a JOB with a company that I didn't own… duh!

The beginning of the rest of my life

In 2001 when we moved out here to the lake I knew that I would have the environment to work on the things that I really needed to work on, including myself.

I tried a lot of things including Network Marketing – won't ever do that again unless it's just to get a good product at a better price!

I also went back to what I love – truly my passion… the Internet from a marketing and and sales standpoint. You see the business that I was trying to separate myself from was a service company – mostly providing high-speed connections to local businesses. It was very much hands on and more work focused and not really creative focused for me. The technology behind everything that you see online is interesting to me – and it was my goal to make it simple to implement and easy to scale.

I do have another passion – Real Estate. I have little fear of failure when it comes to things like Real Estate (RE). Well actually I have little fear of failure when it comes to just about anything – except family!

My passion in Real Estate put me on a quest to become more knowledgeable about Real Estate transactions – at the time I had bought and sold 9 homes (that I have lived in) and bought and sold 2 commercial properties.

I went to school to get my license to originate mortgages – the learning experience was what I really wanted – I had no intention of ever originating a mortgage though. In my life I have done this a lot to learn things that I want to know. Yes I did get my license in the state of Wisconsin – no it's no longer active as I let it expire.

At the same time that I started doing some RE Short Sales I also got involved online with some other people doing the same. I came to realize that there was demand for what I knew about RE and Foreclosures – mind you I learned what I knew on my own. As a result of my new front line passion I started writing e-books and training material. Amazingly I was making more money with almost no work right from the start. I started doing more and more and the more I integrated the 'technology' part, the more money I was making – again with almost no real work on my part!

The rise and fall of a 'niche'

The Real Estate Short Sale / Foreclosure market online was truly one of those huge niches that we all would love to be a part of. I was, and for the most part I did everything right! The one thing that I did wrong was I focused on just one niche and I didn't pay attention to what was really going to happen to it when things changed in the market and our economy. We all saw it coming – but I'm not sure that everyone really knew what it meant. Now we do – that niche is still there, but there are no buyers of the things that we were selling anymore. Rather, I should say that the buyers are still there, but they are trying hard to keep their head above water so they aren't able to spend the money. Fair?

The point is that most people who buy things like my books are those who want to be a Real Estate Investor. Some are already REI's and they wanted to know more on the subjects I wrote about. Some are Realtors who where/are trying to learn another way to use what they already know. But the 'buyers' who really mattered were those who saw an opportunity and wanted to do that – most just bought the books that were never read… Remember all the late night infomercials about Real Estate in the 80's and 90's? Yep I had boxes of that stuff too… most buyers never do a thing with their purchase – and now with the economy they can't even imagine Investing in Real Estate. Oh well…

In the mean time

While I was writing my books and marketing them online I discovered how easy it was to make money! Actually I discovered how easy it was to make money online regardless if it was my product or someone else's product. In a previous post here I indicated how I was making six figures on my books and training alone. I didn't mention that I was also making money promoting other people's products and services.

There was one e-book from ClickBank that I was promoting – not promoting hard – but promoting… I was earning just under $4k per month promoting this e-book alone as an affiliate. It was easy! Then all of a sudden that book was no longer available

I was also promoting a service that I found on Commission Junction, that made me about $300 per month. Now this was a $29.99/mo service where I received $2.99 each month on every customer that I referred. Not a lot of money, but the concept was awesome don't you think?

There were other promotions that I offered to my list that earned me a lot of money – it all adds up!

During this time I also did some major eBay stuff too – you see there are distributors out there who will drop-ship products directly to your customers – your company name appears on all material that the customer sees. On eBay they have this 'Power Seller' program… from month one I realized more than $4,000 a month in sales on eBay. After three months I got their 'Power Seller' banner on my store. What was I selling? High-end electronics! My biggest seller was a muli-function – multi-device remote from Sony. It was about $130 and everyone wanted one!

What I've learned and what I'm willing to share with you…

Times are tight and our economy isn't playing nice with our expected quality of life. We can all make small changes in how we think and what we do to improve this.

There is a simple concept to understand - if you don't know something (like how to make money online) you will either have to learn it the hard way – by researching things and trial & error as I have, or you will have to pay to learn how this all works by purchasing programs that teach you the concepts.

Understand too that there is no such thing as just one way to make money online! And there is no ONE program that will show (teach) you everything that you need to know. Stop asking me for the ONE program that you need to purchase!

There is one thing that is not negotiable – you will have to do some work… and you will be out of your comfort zone… and it won't happen overnight!

It will happen – just not overnight!

Stop looking for the quick fix!

If you are broke and unemployed – get a job and take care of business… if you are employed, but just not making ends meet realize that buying a program online will not automatically fix your financial situation!

You won't learn this overnight and you won't start making money today.

Even the no-cost or Free programs have some expense to get started – usually domain name registration (~ $10/yr) and hosting (~ $5/mo min).

Also realize that I am not you – I do have the means and knowledge to get a brand new web site up within minutes – I own servers and have hosting already online. Most people already online have these things in place. I can register a domain name and have it live in 5 minutes – seriously…. I can create the needed graphics or pick a 'theme' within minutes and have it on the web site.

You will be able to do this too – maybe not right now, but if you really want to make money on the Internet then some day soon you will be able to move that fast on a new idea.

Sorry for the length of this post – I get long winded sometimes.

I hope you find some words of encouragement in this post, and it is my desire to motivate you to do what you need to do to get what you want! Does that make sense?

To your continued success…

Michael Hobach

Making A Living Online –

My entire life I have worked hard and done more than my share. In 1995, as I've mentioned before, I started my own ISP business. I have never worked so hard – and I've promised myself that I wouldn't do that again! It wasn't the hard work so much as the commitment of my time.

In 2001 I moved away from the office – I used to live within 10 minutes of the office and datacenter. My time was always being eaten up by the business. I moved to more than 30 minutes from the office and started to pull back – my son was now in charge… well he had the responsibility at least.

I slowly pulled away from the day to day business and started looking at some things that would give me some freedom. You see working for yourself doesn't always mean that you have freedom to do a lot of fun things!

I did take a lot of vacations during the early 2000's – mostly to Florida where I bought a timeshare. BTW – don't ever do this! If you have cash to pay for one of these things like I did then put the money into a condo or some other property. My opinion at this point of course.

In 2004 I dove head first into something that has always been an interest of mine – Real Estate! Yep – I figured out how to flip properties with a single back-to-back closing. I was encouraged to write an e-book and all I will say is that the rest is history!

I've written a number of e-books for the Real Estate niche – and between 2004 and 2007 I made a really good living on these books and marketing to this niche. I also went through a divorce at the same time and my energy was not focused at all from time to time. I did enjoy the automatic income and the easy life. 

You see, there are a lot of ways to make money online. The main point and something you need to really realize – you must set a course and never look back. My books, training, and other online services made me a good chunk of change – actually, I was enjoying online sales in excess of $100k per year just from the sales of my books. In 2008 that dropped to about $30k per year because of the economy and the Real Estate market. Most 'wannabes' just couldn't see how this could work.

Well I can tell you that I've flipped a number of properties for myself and I've overseen a bunch more. On average I would pocket about $19k per transaction. Not too bad considering I just did all of the leg work and thinking…

That's all gone now – I've pretty much pulled out of the Real Estate market niche. I still work on simple projects and maintain several web sites. Actually you can see the part of my collection of my books that still applies to the market today at http://ShortSaleBooks.com – the sales keep coming in, but I can't pay the bills with sales from this one niche.

Over the last couple of years I've worked to get my life back together and to get a better focus on what I was doing – I still earn a good living online, but I'm working to diversify. You see while Real Estate and the RE niche provided a good income for a number of years, it wasn't my real passion. And because the RE niche was a really hot niche at the time – a lot of 'buyers' – it made me a lot of money… I ignored my first rule – diversification.

So what is my real passion? The technology that runs the Internet of course!

I've been involved in technology my entire life – I love to see web sites come to life and I love to see them rise to the top of the search engines. This is where I live…

Now I'm finding a lot of little niches where I can apply what I know – it's working. And I'm going to share some of this with you here on this site so stay tuned.

Here's something interesting – did you know that the tattoo niche is hot but not many marketers are participating… hmmm… I see an opportunity. Let me do some research!

No I don't have any tattoos and I don't know anything about tattoos… although I have dated several women with tattoos…

To your continued success…

Michael Hobach