The following is a guest post by Michael D. If you would like to write for this blog, please check out the guidelines here.

The internet is probably the most powerful tool ever for those wishing to work from home and be their own boss. What I love so much about the internet is that it doesn’t discriminate… you can be fat, ugly, have a speech impediment, or any other number of obstacles that would cause challenges in the “normal” work world. But none of those matter when it comes to making money on the internet… all that matters is how much work you put into your business!

And, if you’ve put a lot of work into your business and you’re now generating a satisfactory level of income, you may think it’s time to kick back and relax. Think again. If you only have one online business, you’re setting yourself up for failure… regardless of how successful that business may be. The key to sustaining your work from home career is to diversify your revenue streams.

Don’t Make the Same Mistake I Did

I am the founder of Credit Card Forum, which is one of the leading sites for credit card reviews on the net. Before the credit crash of 2008, business was going great for me. But, instead of using that as an opportunity to diversify my business, instead I did the opposite, and dedicated all my time to my credit card business.

You can probably guess what happened next… the “Great Recession” hit, and the credit markets basically froze. Many banks stopped marketing credit cards altogether. Some didn’t “officially” cease their advertising, but they were hardly approving any of the credit card applications coming in, so it was more or less the same. It was so bad that I remember one month where not a single commission was earned! Instead of making money off credit card reviews, ironically I was now staying afloat by raking up debt on my business credit cards!

And just like that, my work from home career was over, and I had to go back to working a 9-5. Fortunately, I only had to do that about half a year because during that time, I began to finally diversify my business into completely different niches. It worked out perfectly because I ended up being fired from that job, but at that point, I could see a light at the end of the tunnel with the new ventures I had started.

What I Would Have Done Differently

No matter what niche you work in, the bottom line is that every niche is prone to an earthquake. For my credit card business, it was the credit crunch. But, if you worked in the health supplements industry, for example, that earthquake could be changes in FDA laws governing the marketing of supplements. What I’m trying to say is no sector is risk-free, so diversity is a must in order to make it through the ups and downs.

When I say diversify, I want to be clear that I’m talking about choosing totally different niches. For example, credit cards and personal loans would definitely not qualify – they’re too closely related. I think that everyone that works from home on the internet should be in at least 3 or 4 completely different sectors.

Last but not least, I also think that at least one or two of your niches should be highly specific (think a niche within a niche). That way there will be less competition, and you will be more likely to maintain your slice of the pie, rather than get squeezed out by other sites down the road. In fact, if I were just getting started today, I might even choose micro-niches for all my businesses.

About the Author: Michael is the founder of Credit Card Forum. Today, he writes the reviews for the business credit cards on the site. He is also the founder of a few other online businesses (in completely different niches, of course).

Fall is officially here in Central PA. I like this time of year as the leaves change and temperatures drop to a comfortable level during the day. As I write this I have exactly two days before my planned trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. If all goes well I will be down there from Wednesday to Sunday. I will be taking my laptop and hopefully getting a post or two published here as well as responding to all important emails.

I’ll also be posting pictures from the trip to Facebook, so all the more reason to add me as a friend and network with me on there. And just a note… if you do read this and decide to add me, please leave a personal note when doing so that I know you came from my blog and want to be friends.

I guess that’s all for now as far as updates, so let’s take a look at how September’s earnings turned out…

Income from ReplaceYourSalary.com

• ClickBank: $63.49
• PayDotCom – $28.17
• Angela’s Backlinks: $26.25
• Paul’s Backlinks: $12
• Yarie: $45.03
• Google Adsense: $29.14
• SFI: $17.27
• Project Payday: $6 (commissions earned from promoting the program, not actually using it)
• AdFish – $21
• ResponsiveData – $15
• Ads – $80
• AshMax – $23 (Total monthly commissions from GDI and FTS)
• HostGator – $50

Total = $416.35

Income from Proofreading/Re-writing/Editing Services

It’s an honor for me to be able to provide a high quality and much needed service, and it’s been an honor serving my clients. You can learn more by visiting the link below.

• Professional Proofreading Services

Total = $48

Total online income from all sources…

$464.35

Micro Niche Adsense Earnings

My micro niche site keeps improving each month. Google Adsense earnings for this month from the site totaled $7.79 of the total monthly amount. I’m rather pleased by this even though it’s nothing to shout about. It obviously is a profitable niche, and with some more content and promotion, I have no doubt I can increase it’s monthly revenue.

That’s all for now. As always, feel free to leave your comments below…

Things have been going pretty well. It’s been a busy week for me, and I’m looking forward to the weekend. I made my first ever hotel reservations online a few days ago (applause?) for my cousin’s wedding coming up next weekend. I’m pretty excited for the trip and to get away for a little.

That’s about all that’s going on with me as of late. Got anything exciting going on with you? Let me know by leaving a comment.

Here’s how August’s earnings looked…

Income from ReplaceYourSalary.com

• ClickBank: $76.32
• PayDotCom – $56.34
• Angela’s Backlinks: $26.25
• Paul’s Backlinks: $16
• Yarie: $73.83
• Google Adsense: $18
• SFI: $19.77
• Project Payday: $9 (commissions earned from promoting the program, not actually using it)
• AdFish – $20.20
• ResponsiveData – $6
• Ads – $40
• AshMax – $23 (Total monthly commissions from GDI and FTS)

Total = $384.71

Web/Blogging/Internet Marketing Services

Every now and then I get the opportunity to help out with some web and blogging type stuff (editing/changing WordPress themes, etc.). I’m no longer doing any regular marketing work, but if the opportunity arises, I may consider.

Total = $45

Income from Proofreading/Re-writing/Editing Services

It’s an honor for me to be able to provide a high quality and much needed service, and it’s been an honor serving my clients. You can learn more by visiting the link below.

• Professional Proofreading Services

Total = $110

Income from Re-writing Service via David Hurley’s PLR Article Service Membership

It has been an honor to be able to partner with David, a good online friend of mine, and provide the re-writing portion of his article membership. To learn more about his PLR article service, visit the link above.

Total = $75

Total online income from all sources…

$614.71

Not too shabby.

Micro Niche Site Update

I also wanted to update you on the progress of my micro niche site. You may recall I started a new site just over a month ago, and I was working on getting it to the top of Google. During my previous income report, it was sitting at the #4 position.

Well… days later it reached #1, and it’s been there ever since. It wasn’t real hard actually, as all I really did was get 5 links from articles submitted to EzineArticles, social bookmarked the site and built about 30 high PR backlinks to it.

Ever since the site landed in the top spot, it’s been receiving Adsense clicks almost daily. For the most part, the clicks have earned very minimal amounts. However, today and yesterday have earned over $1 for a single click. I’m pretty excited about this and the outlook I have for the site. I plan to develop it further as time allows to bring in even more revenue from it. So far, it has brought in just under $5, so with the way things are looking, it should pay for itself just after two months.

I still plan on entering another niche once my micro niche site starts brings in more revenue as I find time to develop it. This niche site will focus on a single Clickbank product and create a funnel for visitors to get them to the order page.

That’s all for now. As always, feel free to leave your comments below…

When I first came online, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing or even know where to start. All I knew was that I wanted to make money online. A passion that has stuck with me even till today.

Once I was introduced to affiliate marketing, it started to make sense to me. Of course, everyone made it sound so easy. You know, the pie in the sky, hyped up promises… and so on and so forth.

I can assure you it’s not quite that easy, but that didn’t stop me from pursuing my passion and finally getting my own little slice of pie.

At the time I didn’t know anything about niches and why I should target a small niche rather than diving into a huge niche, such as the “work from home” niche. As it turns out, that’s why it’s been a struggle for me. Had I started over and did my research first, I would’ve gotten into a smaller niche where I could get my slice of the pie more quickly and maybe even get more than one slice.

But, while the “work from home” niche has its struggles, the rewards can be huge once you do gain momentum and become an authority site. Afterall, it’s one of the biggest niches on the entire internet.

I’m not going to tell you what niche you should or should not get into, but rather explain why affiliate marketing should be your choice for making money online. I believe it’s the way to go for most people… at least in the beginning.

Here’s 3 reasons why you should choose affiliate marketing:

1. You don’t need your own product – Unless you already have a solid plan in your mind from the start, a product is the furthest thing from people’s minds when they’re just looking for some extra income. This is why affiliate marketing is lucrative because it allows people to capitalize on other people’s products.
2. No special training required – One of the best things, I think, about affiliate marketing is that you can jump right into it head first without having a clue what you’re doing. That sounds like a bad thing, but when you think about it, there’s no better way to learn something than to just do it. And, affiliate marketing allows for this. You can learn while you go, and if you somehow manage to really mess up, there’s usually plenty of leeway for this and can easily be fixed.
3. Zero cost is required – Seriously, you can start making money with affiliate marketing for absolutely no money out of your pocket. Of course, there will come a time when you’ll want to setup your own website/blog, but the cost is less than $100 a year. But, that’s not necessary in the beginning, although I highly recommend it as it will help you further along from the start.

Now, rather than going for the big bucks at the beginning and picking a very competative niche, I recommend finding a smaller niche to start with. Besides, you can make a lot of money even with smaller niches, believe it or not.

What are you passionate about? Do you have a hobby?

Answering these questions will help you determine what niche you may want to get started in. It helps to like what you’re doing, not to mention being knowledgeable in that area will help tremendously.

Stay tuned as my upcoming post will detail how you can determine if the niche you want to get into will be profitable or not. You don’t want to waste your time if there’s not a big enough market in your niche. Weeding out the profitable niches from the duds will aide you in your decision.

In the meantime, here’s some homework for you. Write down all the hobbies and interests you have on a piece of paper. You could have 1 or 15… It doesn’t matter. Jot them down and save them for my next post as you’ll be using this list to narrow down your interests and hobbies to just one that you’ll target for your affiliate marketing venture.

However, if you want to skip this and go right for the big bucks and target the “work from home” niche (the most money online is spent in this niche) just as I am, I recommend reading this post.

See you soon.

If you happened to stumble onto my blog last evening and early this morning, you probably noticed that it looked very weird. No, it wasn’t your computer or browser. The design was messed up.

What happened was I trying to fix a simple write error by changing the permission settings for a particular directory. Instead of fixing the simple problem, I inadvertently created a much bigger problem. The main functions of the blog still worked and navigation shouldn’t have been a problem, though.

Without trying to sound too “techie,” the read/write permissions that I screwed up caused my WordPress theme to not show up. So, you saw my blog, but without the header and other graphics. The layout was also messed up as a result.

I’m just happy everything is working properly again. I have folks from the Warrior Forum and my web tech guru from Niche Power Group to thank for helping me resolve this issue.

This is a good lesson to remember that if you plan on making changes to your blog, no matter how small, to first make a backup of your blog in case something terrible goes wrong. All I can say is… lesson learned!

One of my readers prompted me to write about the use of forums in marketing your work from home web site or products/services that you offer. Believe it or not, forums can provide terrific targeted traffic as well as long-term natural search engine traffic.

I’ve always been a fan of forums. They provide an enormous wealth of information that is completely free. You can get any question answered by those more experienced. These two benefits alone are well worth the time of getting involved in forums.

An even bigger benefit that some overlook is the marketing aspect that forum participation can bring. The marketing doesn’t come from your posts, but instead from your forum signature. This aspect, that is built into most if not all forums, is not used to its full potential.

Forum signatures should be designed to grab the attention of other forum members who read your posts. This can be tricky as you usually have limited space to create a signature, but it can be done.

A forum signature usually consists of your favorite links to websites that you want to share with others. These can also be your own websites, and that’s what this post is going to focus on.

Here’s an example of one of my signatures… http://www.warriorforum.com/members/alan-mater.html. Click on the About Me tab and scroll down till you see the Signature section.

Notice how every website or web page contains a phrase that is hyperlinked to go to the corresponding URL. For instance, I have Professional Proofreading Services linked to go to http://www.replaceyoursalary.com/proofreading.html.

The mistake I see many make is that they ignore the keyword aspect of forum signatures and just enter the URL for their website, and sometimes they don’t even have it hyperlinked! That’s fine if you’re focusing on direct traffic from the forum, but you’re missing out on the larger aspect of natural search engine traffic.

Note: Most forums have different signature rules and require specific code in order to create hyperlinked text. Be sure you know what is required when setting up your signature, otherwise it won’t turn out right.

You see, using keywords in your signature links will create backlinks to the web pages those links link to for your given keyword phrase and also boost those pages rankings in the search engines. This will create long-term search traffic, which should be your ultimate goal.

Forum participation is a great way to get your name and business or work from home web site noticed by others. But, you want to get noticed by the right kind of people. What I mean is that you want to pick forums that are related to what your business or web site offers. You want your direct traffic to be as targeted as possible.

The last MUST is providing value when posting in forums. This will ensure you get noticed and bring more clickthroughs of your signature links. Below I’ll provide a list of forums I actively post in that are related to the Internet Marketing and Work From Home niche and get a great deal of traffic from…

Warrior Forum

Conquer Your Niche

Entrepreneur Forums

Work At Home Forum

Alright, now get to work and start getting involved in forums!

A while ago I had posted a question on the Warrior Forum about how to find a profitable niche. That question received some great responses, and I thought I’d share with you some ways you can find a profitable niche, even during the recession.

One thing I would just like to add is that it’s important to get into something that you have a personal interest in. There’s no point in creating a website in hopes of selling something if you have absolutely no interest in the products or idea.

For instance, I have an interest in video games. I have quite a few different gaming consoles, and I’ll every now and then take some time to play. Because of that, I decided to start a website related to the Nintendo video games niche.

I used some of the responses to my question to gauge exactly what niche I should go into. Here is some feedback (in my own words) of how to go about finding a profitable niche. And keep in mind… you want to make a profit here, otherwise it’s not worth it.

First, you want to find a “hungry” market. In other words, you want to find buyers for whatever it is you’re thinking of selling.

Once you find a hungry market, or niche, you need to gauge how much competition there is for that market. High competition isn’t always bad. That means there is money to be made. Too low of competition could mean there’s not a hungry market. But, that could also mean you have the chance to make some serious money due to the low competition and the need within that market. It requires some research, but more often than not, go after niches WITH competition.

So this brings the question… how do you go about finding a niche and also determining the amount of competition?

Here’s some strategies to find a hungry niche:

1. Search the term in Google, if there are a lot of advertisers at the right column of the results page, it’s likely a good one. These are ads that people are paying for.
2. Search on CBEngine.com. See what products are hot right now and what niche they’re in.
3. Search on Amazon.com. Check if there are books, CDs, etc. that sells to that niche.
4. If you’re looking to sell software, check Download.com, etc.
5. See if there are at least 3 forums in the niche you’re looking to get into.
6. Use Google Trends, eBay Pulse and Yahoo’s Top Searched to find out what people want.

Here’s some advice that would be very relevant to today’s economy. Find a lower priced niche that targets towards people’s needs more directly rather than expensive isolated niches.

How to determine the amount of competition…

I recommend reading How To: Evaluating Competition For New Site Niches as Dennis Edell posted an article by Donna Fontenot that provides some great insight on this very topic.

Also, use tools such as Google Keyword Tool and SpyFu to find out how many competitors you could be dealing with. If you’re focusing on specific keywords, do a simple search in Google and see how many websites show up for that keyword phrase.

Another tool I highly recommend is Detecting Online Commercial Intention: Audience Intelligence: adCenter Labs. This is to see if your particular keywords are profitability-oriented (example: people searching for “acne” want info. People searching for “acne cure” want a solution/product).

There’s a lot more I could share with you, but that should give you a pretty good start in finding a profitable niche you can use to make money on the internet.

If you want to fast-track your learning curve in finding a profitable niche and have all the hard work done for you, I recommend you check out the Niche Power Group.

Did you learn anything from this article? Is there anything you would like to add? I’d love to hear your feedback.

In affiliate marketing, there are many ways in which you can increase your earnings and maintain the account that you have worked so hard for already. Most of the techniques and tactics can be learned easily. No need to go anywhere and any further. They are available online, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

One of the more important ways of increasing your affiliate marketing business bottom line and sales is through the use of product recommendations. Many marketers know that this is one of the most effective ways in promoting a certain product.

If the customers or visitors trust you enough, then they will definitely trust your recommendations. Be very careful in using this approach, though. If you start promoting everything by recommendation, your credibility will actually wear thin. This is seen especially when recommendations are seemingly exaggerated and without much merit.

Do not be afraid to mention things that you do not like about a given product or service. Rather than lose any points for you, this will make your recommendation more realistic and will tend to increase your credibility.

Furthermore, if your visitors are really interested in what you are offering, they will be more than delighted to learn what is good about the product, what is not so good, and how the product will benefit them.

When you are recommending a certain product, there are some things to remember on how to make it work effectively and for your advantage.

Sound like the true and leading expert in your field.

Remember this simple equation: Price resistance diminishes in direct proportion to trust. If your visitors feel and believe that you are an expert in your niche, they are more inclined to making that purchase. On the other hand, if you are not exuding any confidence and self-assurance in endorsing your products, they will probably feel that same way and will go in search of another product or service which is more believable.

How do you establish this aura of expertise? By offering unique and new solutions they would not get anywhere else. Show proof that what you are promoting works as promised. Display prominent testimonials and endorsements from respected and known personalities, in related fields of course.

Avoid hype at all costs. It is better to sound low key and confident, than to scream and seek attention. Besides, you would not want to sound unprofessional and have that thinking stick to your potential customers and clients, now would you? Best to appear cool and self-assured at the same time.

And remember, prospects are not stupid. They are actually turning to experts and may already know the things that you know. If you back up your claims with hard facts and data, they would gladly put down hundreds, or even thousands worth of money to your promotions. But if you don’t, they are smart enough to try and look at your competitors and what they are offering.

While recommending a product, it is also important that you give out promotional freebies. People are already familiar with the concept of offering freebies to promoting your own products. But very few people do this to promote affiliate products. Try to offer freebies that can promote or even have some information about your products or services.

Before you add recommendations to you product, it is given that you should try and test the product and support. Do not run the risk of promoting junk products and services. Just think how long it took you to build credibility and trust among your visitors. All that will take to destroy it is one big mistake on your part.

If possible, have recommendations of products that you have 100% confidence in. Test the product support before you begin to ensure that the people you are referring it to would not be left high and dry when a problem suddenly arouse.

Have a look at your affiliate market and look at the strategies you are using. You may not be focusing on the recommendations that your products need to have. You plan of action is sometimes not the only thing that is making your program works.

Try product recommendation and be among those few who have proven its worth.

How to start affiliate business

Get important info in the sphere of web traffic – your personal knowledge pack.

In my last post I discussed about finding success in your work from home business. Today, I want to go over the ingredients for work from home start-up success. If you apply these steps, you’ll find long-lasting work from home success.

Over at SmallBizBee.com, Matt shared with his readers 10 must-haves for business success. Take a moment to go over them and also watch the video. I know these tips may mostly apply to a traditional business, but I feel most if not all can also be applied to your work from home business online.

Of course, these aren’t the only ingredients for success. I’ll provide you with what I feel are necessary when first getting started with your work from home business.

My Top 5 List for Work From Home Start-Up Success

• Find a mentor or group of mentors
• Read and learn everything you can
• Apply what you learn
• Become an expert at 1 or 2 things – Never try to master everything!
• Continually build your business – Never give up!

Motivation and determination play a very active role in the success of your work from home business. Be sure to check out my other posts on the topic:

Can You Really Make Money Online?

Expectations When Starting A Work From Home Business

5 Tips to Stay Motivated and Focused with Your Work From Home Business

Hopefully this will help you have a better understanding what it takes to find  success, whether you’re just starting or have been working hard at it for a while now.

Remember, the worst thing you can do is give up. I know it’s hard when you’re first starting out. I’ve been there. Information overload kicks in, and you don’t know where to start or what to do next. Take it slow and at your own pace.

I’m sure this question gets asked all too often. Then, there will be the naysayers that chime in and say that it’s completely impossible to make money online and that you need to go get a JOB!

Well my friends that is just not true at all. Why would it be impossible if there are people doing it? That doesn’t make sense to me. The harsh reality is that for some it is impossible because they’re just too lazy, but it’s not impossible to make money online.

Some just aren’t cut out for it. The time and energy put in could far exceed any real job out there. That’s reality. The people that stick with it and tough it out are the ones that will succeed and make money online.

The others who can’t will say it’s impossible and then profess that it’s impossible for anyone to make money online. They don’t have the determination and mindset to succeed.

This is where you need to separate yourself from the crowd. Go beyond the “impossible” and make it possible for YOU to make money online. Only you are capable of making it possible for yourself to make any kind of money online.

Also, don’t be naive and think it will be easy. As I said earlier, it’s downright hard work. No, it’s not manual labor. You’re not going to get blisters by any means. But, it will require planning, learning and execution on your part if you want to make any money online at all.

If you believe anything I say, believe that it IS possible. With all good things, however, there is a learning curve involved. Sometimes there is even a price, whether it be time or money.

Some say you have to spend money to make money. That depends on many factors, but it’s not always the case. Money might be better spent on educating yourself so that you know what to do and how to do it to make money online.

There are many paths to take with this. It’s hard nowadays to know who to trust when everyone is claiming to be a “guru” and that they will teach you everything you need to know.

I don’t claim to be a guru. I don’t claim to know all the answers. But, I do know that you CAN make money online. I know this because I have made money online and am currently making money online.

I can do this because I have found the education and training that is necessary to create the positive and successful mindset. The training that has allowed me to know what works when making money online.

I’ll provide you some resources if you’re looking to make money online, or if you already are but want to make even more. Because who doesn’t want to make even more money online?

Here’s what has helped me over the years, and I’m sure they’ll help you too:

A Completely Different Approach To Making Money Online
Success University – Personal Development to Achieve Success!
Niche Power Group – Training YOU to Make Money Online!

P.S. You can also sign up for my FREE newsletter where I will teach you how to start and run a successful home business so that you can make money online. I provide many tips and tricks that can be applied to any type of online business, even if you already have one.