This post is dedicated to all those who are just starting out with Internet Marketing, whether you just found out people are making quite a substantial amount of money on the Internet and they are looking to learn how they can too or perhaps you are still struggling to make those first dollars, I want to let you in on my top 5 essential tips that you not only need to know, but need to do in order make it on the Internet.

Let’s first clear some things up first about who can actually make money on the Internet.

Can a 13 year old make money on the Internet?

Can someone whose never been on the Internet before make money online?

Can someone who would only be able to spend 1 hour a day on the Internet make money on it?

Yes, Yes and Yes!

Now, I’m not sure who the youngest person to make money online has been, I’m 100% that teenagers have. I started when I was 18 and I knew a few Internet Marketer who started way before me, one who was 13 years old. If you Internet access, no matter your age, you are capable of making some serious money on the Internet.

Fortunately for me, I grew up with the Internet. We were using it in school when I was in middle school. I had my first email address when I was 10. I’ve had many people contact me through AffiliateRyan.com and tell me that they are just learning the Internet and that they were not sure whether they would be able to make anything. The truth is that, you honestly don’t have to have a background of the Internet to start. You learn it all as you go.

I didn’t know anything about creating websites and stuff like that. Heck, I had know idea where I would start. But, overtime I developed the skills, which allow me to build websites. Of course to start, I used simple website builders which allows anyone to build. If you can click a mouse, you can build a site with these programs, some of which are free!

Spending only an hour a day on the Internet can easily turn into you making $100s a day on the Internet. You can work as much or as little as you want. During the Spring and Fall, I only have about an hour to dedicate to my Internet work because I have classes, which take up most of my time. Even if you can put in only 15 minutes a day, you can still make money. It’s all about what you do with those 15 minutes.

Now, let’s get back to the main point of this post. My 5 most important tips for beginners.

My first tip is to simply sign up for my 5-Day make money mini course on the left (Go ahead and do it now, it takes 10 seconds, then come back, I don’t mind waiting.), simply because over the course of 5 days I go over with you various was to make money on the Internet.

My second tip some of you may really turn your heads at, which is to join a high-quality training program, simply because it costs money. But the truth of the matter is that unless you get the proper training to make money on the Internet, you’re going to be struggling and most likely give up. Making money online is easy, but you need to know what to do, which is why investing in a high-quality training program is vital. I wouldn’t still be here if I didn’t join WA.

My third tip is when picking your first niche, pick to a niche that you know. Picking niches in the “make money online” or health areas are going to be extremely hard to make sales in because they have too much competition. My suggestion for you first niche is picking your favorite hobby and figuring out how to monetize it. (sounds like a future post idea?)

My fourth tip is to start a blog about your Internet Marketing efforts ASAP. Blog about anything and everything related to your efforts. Your main focus shouldn’t be on this blog, but every week or so post on it about things you learn, tools you used, what you did, etc. Trust me, once you start making an income and you want to help beginners, you’re blog will already be built with traffic flowing to it. This is something I’ve always regretted.

My fifth and final tip of this post is to be realistic. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, well neither will your Internet Marketing empire. You won’t be making enough to quite your day job within the first couple days, weeks or even months, but I know that anyone who receives the proper training and applies their training well, can build a solid income on the Internet in a short time.

Well, there you have it, pretty simple and basic tips, but ones you shouldn’t overlook.

As you may have noticed, I do not have any adsense ads on my blog. Everything banner/picture/link on my website, I manually put on here myself. I do this for several reasons.

For one, I understand what it’s like to be trying to learn all this Internet marketing stuff and see all these different products and tools out there to buy. It sure is tempting. All those headlines can really draw you in and make you believe you need these products or tools. Hey, that’s just marketing. But, many of these products seem to be all talk, but don’t deliver.

I understand what all the feels like! But, I don’t fall for it…anymore. Yes, there was a time where I’d purchase every eBook I came across. It ended up being a complete waste of money.

This is one of the reasons why I do not out adsense on my websites, especially my Internet Marketing help blogs because I don’t want to have programs, guides and tools advertised on my blogs and websites that I don’t trust. Every banner,link, picture on my websites, I recommend from my personal experience. I don’t want people to waste their money on worthless products. I recommend products that I honestly feel are very beneficial to you.

The second reason why I do not put adsense on any of my websites is because they take my visitors away! When I spend time driving traffic to my landing pages, I want them there so they purchase the product through my affiliate link, so I make money, right? Well, if you drive traffic to your landing page that has adsense ads on them, then you can lose your visitors to those ads. They visit your page, begin to read your page, but then click on an ad before they get to your affiliate link.

Wow! That little adsense click just costed you a potential sale. That click may have earned you $0.12, but you lost a potential sale that could have made you $20.00.

Don’t get me wrong, I use adsense, but only on websites and blogs that I do not promote an affiliate product on.

So the lesson here is don’t mix affiliate products and adsense on the same page/website/blog.

One of the best ways to get targeted traffic to your web page or website is to write articles and submit them to article directories, this is called article marketing, writing articles and submitting them to websites or directories. The great thing about article marketing is that it’s completely free. It’s 100% free advertising for your web page and it can drive boat loads of traffic to your web page.

When I write my articles, I try to answer questions people in the niche are asking. I’ll write about a 400+ (250 minimum) word article answer a question or to my targeted niche is asking. I also helpful and useful information. The articles are not suppose to sell a product, but provide information and at the end, you” provide a strong “call to action’ and provide a link to either the product or your web page. Writing articles is a topic for another day.

This post is all about submitting your articles to directories for maximum exposure and back links. In short, backlinks are like a thumbs up in the search engines eyes toward your web page. So the more backlinks, the better. When I write an article, I like to get the most out of it since out of all the research and time it took me to write the article, I want to get the most of it.

I first submit my articles to EzineArticles first. This is because Ezine is like the Top Dog of article directories and they only accept unique content. Once Ezine has accepted the article, I’ll submit it to 2 places, Unique Article Wizard and Free Traffic System. When I submit the article to these, one of the links in the article will link back to the original. This will help build backlinks to the original article.

That’s what I do for just 1 single article. However, I do something a little different. Since each article you write should be optimized for a specific keyword or keyphrase, I write at least 5 articles per keyword. This is much easier than it sounds. When I write the first article, all I do to the next 4 is rewrite it, changing up words and making it unique enough for the search engines to like it. I use DupeFreePro to compare to articles. I always look for the smiley to let me know it’s all good!

Now that you have at least 5 articles for 1 keyword, I submit one to Ezine (as mentioned above), one to AssociatedContent, one to ArticleBase, one to Goarticles, and one to ArticleDashboard. Each article will be submitted to Unique Article Wizard and Free Traffic System, linking back to it’s original. This way, all 5 articles may rank high for my specific keyword. The goal is, of couse, to get the first 5 positions in the reach engines.

The 5 Article Directories to Submit Your Article To

1. EzineArticles
2. ArticleBase
3. AssociatedContent
4. GoArticles
5. ArticleDashboard

Each article submit to UAW and FTS, linking back to the original.

There are tons of other article directories you can submit to, such as Buzzle, ArticleCity, SearchWrap, etc. But these 5 are the ones I post to the most.

Note: You can submit the same exact article to directories, but understand that the search engines will not show the same article twice in the results. However, it’s a way to build more backlinks. Rewriting or tweaking each article will allow you to have each of the 5 articles rank in the search engines.

Also, be sure you change up the title when you rewrite your articles, but keep the keyword or key phrase the same.

Time and time again, I see affiliate marketing beginners making the same mistake over and over again. They are way too focused on selling the product, other than helping the potential customer.

Hold the phone! Help the potential customer? Not sell to the potential customer? What’s the point?

First off, when you go to a web page and it provide little to no content about what the potential customer is looking for, but just a link, they are going to trust the link very much. By providing quality content about the subject at hands, the potential customer will see you as someone who knows what they are talking about. I great example of this is to have your own blog, let’s say, about weight loss.

If you have your own blog about weight loss, where you blog about tips, nutrition, exercises,  and anything else about the subject, you’re going to look like an “expert”. By providing quality information, the potential customer will trust you much more, trusting your recommendations (the product).

Here is what I do…

I simply create a wordpress blog about the specific niche. I write posts about tips, techniques, uses of the product, an anything else that relates to the product and who would want/need the product.  Then, I recommend a product.

You can also provide content by writing honest reviews of the product and other competing products. DO NOT! and I repeat DO NOT create a review that talks about the product. Provide a real review, purchase the thing or depending on the product ask the owner for a review copy (many clickbank vendors do this). I’m quite tired of see these so called “reviews” that only talk about what the product is and does, not if it works or who it’s right for, etc.

I’ve noticed that having a legitimate blog and posting real facts and information really increases trust in your website and your links.

Now that you know you need to become an expert in your market, how the heck do you do that?

Well, it’s quite simple actually and I can some it up in one word. Research. One of the great things I enjoy most about affiliate marketing is that I am “forced” to research all sorts of things and increase my knowledge. I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned about all niches I’ve created blogs for. I find it quite fun learning new things.

The Internet is filled with everything you need. Heck, I’ve even gone to the library and read books about my niche to learn more about it. The information I learn, I document in blog posts.

A great way to research your specific market (those specific people who want to visit your site) is to visit forums and find out what people in the niche are asking and want to know. This is great material for blog posts, targeting specific customers, etc.

By becoming an expert in your market and posting about what you know, you will be much more trusted than some simple web page wih a little bit of information about the product and the link to it. Stop selling! That’s what the sales page is for. Provide quality and helpful information, then provide your affiliate link to the product.

On the first day of my Entrepreneurship and Creativity class, the professor had each one of us come up with our own business to start. That business would be what we work with throughout the class, creating a business plan and so on. Some, since the class is Entrepreneurship and Creativity, already had a business in mind, however some did not, so our professor had the ones who didn’t come up the white board and brainstorm using a simple exercise.

I found this simple exercise very helpful to find niches I could get into. For many new to Affiliate Marketing, they simply do not know where to start. Many find themselves approaching the most competitive niches out there like “make money online” or “weight loss”. If you’re new to Affiliate Marketing, you’re going to want to stay far away from these niches because they are high competitive and you’re going to have to work much harder and longer to make a profit from them.

So this very plain and simple exercise is great for those who are looking to find a niche get into. Many find niches based on what’s selling, which this is of course important to look at, you certainly do not want to get into a niche where you won’t make money. However, this exercise is great for starting from scratch. For this exercise, ignore finding niches that are selling and which are not because it the end, it always comes down to you.

The Simplest Exercise to Coming Up with Ideas for Your First or Next Niche

The first thing you need to do is grab a pen and paper. Do not erase anything you think of, even if it sounds stupid because you never know what may come of it. Once you have a pen and paper in front you, draw an line down the middle of the paper. You’re going to be answer two questions, one of each side of the paper.

Ask yourself, What do I like to do?, make a list of things you like to do on the left side of the paper. Keep each one, short and to the point, you do not need to write sentences. For example, fishing, snowboarding, football, baseball, going to the gym, etc. Keep it simple, it’s only brainstorming

Next, ask yourself, What am I good at?, and make a list of things you’re good at on the left side of the paper. Just like the first question, keep it simple.

Keep writing ideas down for about 10 minutes, once you can’t think of anything else, stop and take a look at your list. From there, you have just wrote down several niches you can get into.

I like to perform this exercise first before getting into the market research because I find it’s best to know as much as you can about the people you’re targeting in your niche. Why not be on of them?

Pick a niche you already know about and know what the customers are looking for. Then, you can find a product to promote and you’re on your way!

You’ll get to a point where you get into a niche you know nothing about, do not fear it. It’s very simple, all it takes is research. There are plenty of books, websites, articles, etc loaded with information to help you learn and better understand your niche.

I found this simple exercise very helpful coming up with niches and I hope it does the same for you.

This is a post for anyone who is interested in making money online. If that’s you then you should keep reading because I’m going to tell you the truth about making money online, which many people ignore. When they ignore it, they get scammed. So if you’re interested in making money online, keep reading because this is going to really open your eyes (or you may close them).

Do This and You’ll Make Thousands You’re First Day!

These overnight riches programs are complete scams. I’m sorry to break it to you, but there is absolutely no miracle formula to becoming a millionaire overnight on the Internet. These products and programs, which say that you can are not telling you everything. They are only telling you want you want to hear, in order for you to buy the program/product, so they can make money.

I’m a very skeptical person. Before I purchase anything, I look into it very carefully because I do not want to go down the same road many have. It’s absolutely terrible how people get sucked into these programs, only to feel like they have just been stolen from.

The programs I suggest on AffiliateRyan.com are ones I stand by. None of them promise to make you rich overnight, not even in a week. They teach you how to build a business on the Internet and that’s what I would recommend to anyone who is looking to learn how to make money online.

When a Product/Program Sounds Too Good to Be True

When a program sounds too good to be true, promising you heaven and earth, then it most likely isn’t true. This goes much like the first one, programs getting you rich overnight. When a program promises you results that are unbelievable, it’s probably because they are.

Quick Cash

If you’re here, looking to earn quick cash on the Internet, then I would just send you to a reliable paid survey site. However, you are going to be spend too much time on those surveys, only to be getting little in return. If you wanted quick cash, you could sell some stuff on Ebay.

But, if you’re looking to build a steady Income stream online, then you need to know that it’s not something that will happen overnight. You’re going to have to learn and take action. Everyone who makes an income online has had to learn how to do so.

You can make a ton of money online, this is not a lie. It just won’t happen, if you do not know what you’re doing.

I don’t know about you, but when I was looking to make money online I didn’t want to spend a single penny. I didn’t want to invest my money into something I wasn’t sure would make me money. We all just want to make money online for free, this way everything is profit and we have nothing to lose except for our time.

I read a few free ebooks on the Internet from people who make money online, but none of them really taught me about how to build a business from the ground up. All I had was my computer. I knew how to search for something I wanted on the Internet, create a myspace page, but that was it.

I wanted to know what I had to do in order to make money online without spending any of my own money, just like you I’m sure. However, I did anyway. I spent $39.99 for a month at Wealthy Affiliate University. I was working at a restaurant at the time and I made 45 bucks that night I joined. I thought to myself, “I have heard so many great things about this and I really want to know how to make money online, just join for one month, If it’s truly what it says I’ll stay if it isn’t than I will have only wasted $39.99″. So, I joined. Once I was inside, there was so much to learn. There is a ton of information, a big forum with successful marketers in there to help you and everything. I was extremely happy I took a chance that turned out to be a good one. You can read my Wealthy Affiliate Review, if you want to learn more. But, I’m going to continue with this post.

For me, I did spend money. But I put it to good use. My education. Someone can give you a task list, but unless you know what you’re doing. That task list is just going to confuse you even more.

So I spent money on my education, but did I need to spend money to get started and make my sales? No.

I didn’t spend a single penny, expect for the $39.99 to start making money online. There are tons of free websites out there, you can make a page (very simple) to promote products. Refer to my post How to Make Money Without A Website.

Make a page with a product linked to it. (P.S – If you have no idea what I’m talking about, maybe thinking “What? I need a product?”, sign up for my 5 Day Make Money Mini Course, it’s explained there. And no you don’t, that’s what you’ll learn throughout the mini course. How to make money without you’re own product.) Then, by writing articles related to the products and it’s uses, you can drive traffic (potential customers) to your webpage for absolutely free! This process does not cost you a single penny out of your pocket.

In conclusion, you do not need to spend money to make money online, however just paying for school, it’s wise to invest in your education.

Recommended for Your:

Education: Wealthy Affiliate University

Task List: One Week Marketing Action Plan

A Link Wheel is when you interlink six web 2.0 properties together. Ok, I know, I lost you right there. Let me start over. Before going into what a Link Wheel is exactly, I’m going to start of my explain why you want to create Link wheels.

By creating a Link wheel, you are able build backlinks much faster and you will rank much higher in the search engines for your keywords or keyphrases. If you still have no idea what I’m talking about, then you haven’t signed up for my 5-Day Make Money Online Mini Course, do that know, so you will understand this post.

As I have said before, keywords and keyphrases are words or phrase you want to rank in the top 10 when they are searched in search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing. A contributing factor to your search engine ranks is backlinks. The more backlinks you have the higher you will essentially rank.

Alright, you now know you want lots of backlinks, so you rank high in the search engines, which increases traffic to your page/blog/website, increasing the number of sales you make, increasing the money in your pocket, right?

Backlinks = High Ranking = Traffic = Sales = PROFIT!

Pretty simple concept, right?

So back to the Link wheel. You want to create a link wheel with web 2.0 properties because they rank not only higher, but faster and faster backlinks. Examples of Web 2.0 properties are Squidoo Pages, Blogger Blog, Hubpages, WordPress Blog, etc. There is a bigger list I’ll provide at the end of this post. These are all free to use.

Of course, FREE = You don’t pay anything! = The Way to Go

To make a link wheel, you want to link 6 web 2.0 pages in a wheel or circle. Like in the graph below (click to enlarge)… (yes, first graphic I’m using…finally! By the way, I created this myself at www.bubble.us, it’s complete free and create for creating link wheel or other backlink plans)

In the graph, you will notice I will use 6 different keywords/keyphrase, one for each web 2.0 property. This is just the start though, late I expand on each keyword making a link wheel for each keyword. But to start just make 1 web 2.0 page for each keyword. The web 2.0 ages are in gold, while the red is the product page or my own website. Notice how I labeled each keyword 1, keyword 2, keyword 3 and so on. I will use them to explain the graph.

After I create each page for each keyword, I need to link them together in a Link Wheel. Each page links to the product page/main site directly, then I begin linking each web 2.0 in a circle. I link Keyword 1 to Keyword 2, link keyword 2 to keyword 3, link keyword 3 to keyword 4 and so on. Creating a full circle, where keyword 6 links to keyword 1. All you need to do is place the link on the page, be sure to use the Keyword as the Link text. So when I put the link for keyword 2 on keyword 1′s page, the link will be keyword 2.

Once you do this, then you want to write 5-10 articles to each Web 2.0 page. To build backlinks to each web 2.0 page. My process is that I write 5 articles, all unique and submit them to 5 different article directories. Then to backlink to the article, I submit the article to FreeTrafficSystem after they have been approved and published.

Below is the expanded graph I made with Bubbl.us to show the articles and freetrafficsystem. Definitely, click on it to enlarge it.

I write 5 unique articles for each keyword, I submit one article to EzineArticles, one to AssociatedContent, one to ArticleBase, one to ArticleCity, and one the Goarticles. Each article will have 2 links. One link will link to the Web 2.0 page and the other will link to the Product/Main Page. Once they are approved and published, I wait a few days for them to get indexed and ranked, then I will copy the article and submit it to FreeTrafficSystem. FreeTrafficSystem or FTS submits your article to a bunch of blogs automatically. With the FTS article I use one link for the original article, and the other link goes to the Web 2.0 page.

This entire process to create a link wheel will take me 8 days, plus a few with the FTS because I wait a bit. Only 8 days and you will have a strong and effective link wheel. The first day, I spend selecting a product to promote, writing a review of the product if I have a website or blog to use as my main site or I simply direct link to the product sales page. The second day I will spend creating each Web 2.0 page and linking them in a circle and to the main page. The third day, I write the 5 articles for keyword 1 and submit them, the next day is write the 5 articles for keyword 2 and so on for each day after. After 8 days, I will have a nice link wheel.

Once I submit to FTS, my link wheel looks like this… (MUST ENLARGE! )

Well that’s how I create a link wheel. Once I’ve done this, my pages will become much higher in the search engines. To expand on this, you can great a link wheel for each keyword! Think of all the backlinks you would be building and all the traffic flowing to the main page

If you have any questions, perhaps I may have been a little confusing at times, please leave a comment and I’ll be happy to help!

In order to succeed, we have to set goals for ourselves. Without goals, we have nothing to achieve. You can ask anyone who is successful, they will all tell you the same thing, they set goals!

I set goals for myself everyday. I have a set of short term and a set of long term goals. My short terms goals are usually goals for each day of the up coming week and my long term goals are usually goals I want to achieve months of even years for now.

The set your goals, write them down on paper or type them up in notepad. List what you want to achieve with your business, whether it’s to make $100 a day or build an entire website, it can be anything you want, but write it down.

I like to write my monthly goal down on a post-it and put in on the side of my monitor, this way as I’m working and I start to get distracted by something else, I’ll notice my post-it and get right back to work.

Setting goals helps you get organized by knowing exactly what you need to do in order to meet your goal.

I write my long term goal down, and then create a large list of short term goals which will help me to achieve my long term goals.

For example, let’s say my long term goals create a well established website for a specific niche. This website would be ranked high in the search engines for the keyphrase that I want. I do not care if it has millions of results, but it gets a boat load of traffic each month, so I want to be ranked high up there.

My short term goals, would be to write 3 articles a day, create a page a day, and so on. These short term goals, which I can achieve each day will help me reach my long term goal.

My point is that by creating a sequence of short term and  long term goals and checking them off as you achieve them will increase your passion for success.

Alright, you’ve in some way or another stumbled upon my blog. Now What?

I’m assuming you came here because you want to know how to start making money online or want to know more about making money on the internet, right?

Well since I’m such a nice guy and it’s the purpose of this blog, so I guess I can share all my strategies and tips etc. with you.

The first thing you need to do is sign up to my 5-Day Mini Course (emails are not long or boring). Why? Simply because over the course of 5 days I’m going to introduce you to several ways that you can make money online. I mention surveys, but I they will not make you enough. I go into ones which you can start you’re own home base business around. So sign up on the right and over 5 days I will introduce them to you and get you on the track to success. Plus, this blog well make much more sense to you.

Ask me questions!

Now, I know I have failed at this before due to my email screwing up, where i lost many unanswered emails, but I can assure you, if you have a question, ask it through a comment or you can email me. I prefer comments there may be others  wondering the same thing.

Once you have completed read through all 5 days, you can think about which direction you want go in. Once you have decided, than it’s all about taking action! And hopefully, not too long after that you will be making money.

The title of this post is titled “How to Start Making Money Online” and I’m sure you’re wondering why, am I right? Well in case you are it is because for you to start making money online, you need to know the different opportunities you could do.  That is the first step, deciding on the direction you want to take.

So sign up for my 5-Day Make Money online Mini course and I’ll introduce you to a few business opportunities which you can do.