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

Free money or the ATM syndrome

I did some searching with Google and Yahoo the other day for methods promising people that they can earn money for Free – no money out of their pocket…

I can't believe how many 'systems' there are!

These programs exist, and yes you can make money – but the money you have the ability to make is just peanuts. Seriously!

If this is what you are looking for – you won't find it here!

The thing about making money is that there is such thing as a free lunch! This really is true… and unless you are prepared to think about earning money as a business, you are doomed to fail – and it will really hurt! How do I know? I've watched dozens of people do it…

Here's the thing – in order to make money anywhere you will need to several things, and if someone is offering you a free lunch, then chances are that they are the ones who will profit and not you!

Think of it this way…

Most of these programs are captive – meaning that the creator of the product and marketing system owns everything. The only thing that they offer to you is a small commission for every sale that you generate. Usually you need to find people to send to their web site and they forbid you from setting up your own sites to market their products. They own the list(s), the product, and the whole system…

Say you send 100 people to this site who sign up to receive more information. You cannot market other products or services to these people because you do not have control of the list!

Actually you will put a lot of work into these programs and if you are successful and you do generate some income, great – you will have to keep active and keep producing to continue to receive an income from that program. Now what happens when you decide to do something else – you can't take any of those people with you – they are owned by the program producers.

As an example – the NM companies I worked for got the benefit of my labor when I left – They got to keep those thousands of people who I recruted, and the sales they are generating are now paying those who were above me!

Now if that were my own company – my list – I could market to them anything that I wanted and continue to make money from their purchases for as long as they stayed in my downline or on my customer list.

I would encourage you to think about this whole thing and maybe adjust your paradym – so many people are set up to fail because they want everything for nothing. They beleive that if they buy a $97course to show them how to make money, all that they have to do is buy the program – and the money will come spitting out like an ATM!

The only way to create real wealth is to have a business plan – it doesn't matter what you are going to sell or do, you need to have a plan.

I will tell you more as we go forward…

To your continued success,

Michael Hobach

How To Make Money Online

I’ve been trying to figure out just how to convey all of this information to you. If you’ve been following me for any length of time you know that I just write – what I feel and I really don’t hold much back!

So let me start with the obvious stuff you’ve been bombarded with and why you might be skeptical of the whole concept of making money online…

What’s being beat into our heads

I’m sure that you have heard a lot about affiliate marketing, or article marketing or a number of other concepts for making money online. I’m sure you have seen these new malls that are springing up online supposedly to sell things that everyone is buying anyway… and I’m sure you have seen the Internet version of so many MLM / NM companies…. Right?!

I’m here to tell you in simple terms how to make money on the Internet…

Are you ready to know the simple truth about making money?

I bet you are!

Before I come right out and say it I’m going to attempt to get you to think… I do believe that too many people are stuck – they can’t seem to think outside of what they already know to be true. In other words, if you talk to friends and family you will probably hear them talk about getting a raise… or getting a new job… or maybe a second or third job! That is because that is how they were raised to think – maybe you think the same way.

Ok – first let me tell you that anything and everything that YOU buy or pay for is available at a wholesale price – or it is available from someone / someplace (on the Internet) where they pay you a commission through their affiliate program when someone buys their product or service through your efforts.

You are thinking right now – yeah Mike I know that and next you are going to suggest that I buy something at wholesale or through an affiliate link and then try to sell it on my own web site… Nope! Not what I’m suggesting at all.

Actually I just want you to understand that pretty much anything you can think of has some way of making money from it’s sale.

Someone has to buy something before anyone makes money!

Here is a concept –

You can only make money when someone buys something…

Simple concept right?

So now I’m going to throw something at you again…

If you can only make money when someone buys something then wouldn’t you want to be involved in promoting something that a whole lot of people are spending their money on?

Ok – now you are thinking that I’m about to push to you some specific product that is in high demand…

The truth is that there is no one product or service that by itself can fulfill this need!

I’m confused Mike – what are we going to sell or promote? How are we going to make money online?

Well not so fast – we have a lot of things to talk about first…

For now I want you to think about something that you bought recently that you just had to have! Something that others are buying as well – maybe family or friends suggested this item or service – but the point is that you got online and did some research and then bought one.

Think about the process of finding it…

• How did you look for it?
• Where did you go?
• Did you use a search engine? Which one?
• Is it only available from one company or do many have it?

Start a journal of what you are doing – log search phrases, vendors, where they show up in the search results, etc.

Remember that there is no one product or service that is better than another to make money online.

Remember that there are trends – could you have made money selling rocks when Pet Rocks were the craze? You bet – without even trying!

Remember that what you have to sell may not be what people are buying – to make money on the Internet you must find a product that has people already looking for it – and in mass!

Remember that everything that people are buying has the possibility to make YOU money.

Ok – give me your thoughts on this – don’t ask me to explain this any more than I already have here! Please!

This site is setup to give you, or anyone, the opportunity to find something or some way to make money online.

IMPORTANT NOTE!

I am receiving Emails from those on my list here who think that they have the ultimate way to make money online. To be honest – I don’t want to hear about them. Most are MLM or Network Marketing um… schemes – been there, tried that – doesn’t… I’ll explain next time! Just don’t send these URL’s to me!

To your continued success,

Michael Hobach