Some People Like a Frog | Make Money Online with a 5-Year-Old

Some of you know, and some of you don’t, that I am a poet.  I started writing poetry at the age of four.

Some of the poems I “wrote” at that age were better than others (I think I sang the poems, and my mother wrote them, but anyway … )

One of the less talented poems I wrote at the age of five came to mind recently when I was thinking about Internet Marketing. 

Okay, I wasn’t thinking about it, I was actually editing an Internet Marketing E-Book for somebody and something reminded me of this poem:

Sometimes you have a kitten.
Sometimes you have a dog.
Sometimes you have a gerbil.
Sometimes you have a frog.

Now please don’t assume that all of the poetry I wrote at that age was that bad.  As you can see I was merely practicing my rhythm and rhyme.  And that poem was not meant to have much meaning – until now.

Okay, so what does this have to do with Internet Marketing?

We’re getting there.

Some make their millions with Adwords
Some like to build up their blogs.
Some are affiliate warriors,
Some are just spammers and hogs.

Some found their glory in Adsense
Others use forums and lists.
Some people only sell E-Books,
Others just can’t find a niche …

Okay, okay.  I actually wasn’t intending to write a poem here, so I’ll stop.

There are just so many different ways to earn money online, that I see people sometimes getting disbursed and overwhelmed instead of finding “the thing.” 

Of course no one (including myself) would say that you should only use one Internet Marketing method.  If you are a blogger, you are likely to also be an affiliate marketer and you might also run Adsense campaigns.  You might also have an E-Mail list and you could even wind up creating and selling an E-Book.  But your prime focus would be “blogger.”  And everything you do would be somehow oriented around that key activity.

Once your blog was up and running at a level of little maintenance,  I imagine you might start another blog, or you might begin to get interested in other methods of making money online.  But you would focus your main activity on blogging until you became successful at it. Ideally. You would focus on a certain plan from the beginning.  You would not get distracted off into a billion different ideas.

Here is a dilemma I think we all run into.  You get an email about making mini-sites.  Then A free E-Book about how to run an Adwords campaign.  Then a top Internet Marketer tells you that the best way to go, is to have your own product.  But then again, the money is in the list.  … “WHAT?!  You don’t have a list??”  Oh – and here is a free report on how to write Press Releases.  Hey – did you hear about Joe Blow who makes $10,0000 a month blogging?

Your head spins, right?

“Hey, you could even start your own forum you know.  Or you could create a Social Network site of your own!  You can make your own Social Bookmarking site too!”

Hey, look at all these great ideas!  You aren’t making any money yet?  Have you tried posting in forums?  Writing product reviews?

Okay.  I’ll stop.

My point is this.

If you know you are going to go on Road A from Town #1 to Town #2, you go on Road A.  Whether you bike, walk, take a bus, ride a horse, or all of the above.  You will still stay on that road till you get to Town #2.

I suppose we could all agree that “Town #1” for us is “not a lot of money” and “Town #2” is “lots of money.”

What is your Road A?

Can you travel from Town #1 to Town #2 along Road A?  Or are you going to get (literally) side-tracked onto many different roads?

How do you choose your Road A?

Do you prefer the Freeway or the Highway?  Would you drive from Seattle to LA on the coastal scenic route, or would you take I-5? Neither is “the right” way. It depends on you, your circumstances, and your preference.

Do you prefer hang-gliding, or parachuting?

Do you love frogs while you are allergic to cats?  Or did you grow up with hamsters?  Maybe you are a dog lover. 

You see, even when I was five, I understood these things.

Well, is the idea of running an Adwords campaign nauseating to you?  But you love to blog about your niche?

Or you can’t stand writing, but you love the idea of testing and tracking Google Ads, while doing daily keyword analysis?  Some people, I hear, make thousands off of Adword campaigns alone, without running their own websites.

More power to them.  They can have Adwords, as far as I’m concerned.  Though one day I am sure I will change my mind and start to really use Adwords myself.  I know it is really a powerful tool.  But to use it right, I would have to put time and energy into learning it, testing it, and investing in it. 

Well, I already have plenty to do and my Notepad “To Do” lists are not lacking entries.  So, Adwords can wait! That’s just my own personal example.

My town-and-road analysis is not exactly a perfect analogy because, in the case of Internet Marketing, it seems that successful entrepreneurs use many different tactics.  But I think they also would probably all agree that they have their own particular specialty.  And they would also agree that the new person starting out should not try to master everything at once.

But what about the new guy who is just starting out, who has only a couple of hours per day to work online, and who doesn’t know what he is doing?

Should he try to start 10 affiliate mini-sites, run an Adwords campaign, write an E-Book, build Adsense sites, run a blog, and keep up with all of his social marketing and promotion at the same time?  While he learns how to do it?

Or should he just find his Road A?

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Make Money Online, Earn Money Online