The following arrived in my email yesterday via a subscription I have to Darren Hardy of Success Magazine. I thought it made some valuable points to be taken into consideration and thought I’d pass it on.

No more whining, bitching, moaning, griping and complaining.

At a social function recently, 90 percent of the chitchat I heard were whimpers about the economy, how bad Obama is doing and how much the health care plan sucks, ad nauseam.

Finally, I had heard enough and I blurted out, “In the ‘80’s when the economy was booming, did you get rich?”

“Uh, well, no” answered the small crowd’s speaker.

“But Reagan was president and still you didn’t? What about when Clinton was President? He created a big national surplus, certainly you got rich then?”

“If you were standing in the healthcare haven of France right now, as you describe, would you be any healthier than you are now?”

Silence was his answer.

“Look”, I said, “stop worrying about the national economy and focus on your own economy. Don’t worry about who’s running the White House and concern yourself with running your house better. The only health care plan that matters is your health care plan…  for you.”

In my observation, it is just as easy to fail in a good economy as it is in a bad one. And it is just as easy to get rich in a bad economy as it is in a good one. Why? Because the economy has nothing to do with it.

I know many good, capable, smart and hardworking people who have been whacked by unexpected consequences of the economic winter we are in. It happens to the best of people even in the best of times.

Instead, start focusing on what you can control, what you can do, what’s possible and what’s great. Note the abundance and opportunity all around you…  no matter the national economic report. Just focus on your report… and your life.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, depressed, stressed, defeated or even just uninspired, try this exercise:

1. Make a three-column list.

2. Write down things that are affecting our world, our nation, your state or your business. (Ex.: war in Afghanistan, Toyota and GM recalls, car bombings in Iraq, healthcare reform, etc.)

3. Write down all the news that you or your friends have discussed this week. (Ex.: unemployment figures, who won an Oscar, who shouldn’t have gotten booted off American Idol, 911 terrorist trial location, etc.)

4. Write down all the things you are worried about in your life. (Ex.: finding a job, survivability of your business, kids having difficulty in school, arguing with spouse, health condition of family member, your own health condition, etc.)

5. Next, write down if you have any control affecting the outcome of that situation.

a. If you don’t, stop worrying (and paying attention!) because you can’t do anything about it. It has no immediate impact on your life, so wipe it from your mental plate.

b. If you do, write down what you can do to take control, improve the situation, and most important, what is the next step to take.

6. Lastly, write down your top three goals for the year and write down the next single step you can take to move closer.

Remember, stop giving attention to the things you can’t control and have no bearing on your personal life. If you can do something about it, decide what part of it you can control and affect. Then take positive action.

Don’t get stuck standing still. Contemplating and, certainly, complaining about things you don’t have control over is simply lunacy.

Don’t stop here – there’s more…

One of the questions I hear most often is how to make money quickly. Many have tried and failed quickly because they didn’t see immediate results. In fact, here is an email I received the other day …

Could you help me find a way to make some extra money as quickly as possible? I’m not looking to make thousands a month, just some extra cash to help pay the bills.

My response…

It’s a good thing you don’t need thousands of dollars quickly, because if that’s what you’re looking for, I don’t know that anyone can help besides a psychic who might be willing to give up the winning lotto numbers. But then if they could do that, there wouldn’t be many working psychics now, would there?

However, the earning ‘extra’ money I CAN help you with, but the ‘quickly’ might be a little more difficult.

What I can teach you is how to build online businesses or create a website or blog that’s designed to earn as an affiliate marketer. Will that work?

If that’s what you have in mind – the first thought that comes to mind for quick cash is by placing pay per click campaigns. However, PPC requires money and risk. Unless you are willing to participate in specialized training to reduce that risk. With that training though, you’re looking at time and investment which kind of cuts into the “earning money quickly” plan.

I personally don’t know anyone who has ever made a great deal of money “quickly” online – but I do know lots of successful writers and affiliate marketers who have grown their online business and make a nice sum doing so.

While I’ve sold websites for large sums of money and have raked in as much as $8,000 a month, I would like to give you a bit of history about my online existence and the road I’ve traveled to get to where I am today…

• I designed my first website (a health advocacy site) in February 2002.
• I launched my first affiliate site in March 2003.
• That site took over a year to earn $100 but when I got my first real check I was THRILLED.
• It was at that point I realized I COULD make money and began working on my website and honing my design skills as rough as they were. I spent every extra minute I had working on my business.
• There were many times I worked as much as 100 hours per week during the first year.
• In addition to time, I invested in and read as many educational materials written by experts that I could find so I could learn more and more about my new business.

It was easy to FOCUS because it didn’t seem like WORK. The challenge was exciting and the income, albeit small was rewarding. To this day, each month I challenge myself to achieve new goals. Some months the rewards are monetary – other months the rewards are milestones.

For me personally, motivation comes in the form of being a single mother providing for two kids. I have been able to work from home full-time since my twins were five – that is a real blessing and each day I invest in my business is one more day I’m spending with my kids. Something many parents don’t get to enjoy.

With two kids dependent on me, Failure is NOT an Option

By the end of the first year, I was earning $1,000 a month and by the end of 2007 I was earning $8,000 a month, making all my kids sports events, attending all their school functions and spending quality time with my whole family and close friends.

Within my 2^nd year, I had surpassed the income I had made as a Buyer for a store chain and quit my job. With a wing, a prayer and little faith really, I set out to prove I could tap the World Wide Web for my income. I realized I had to think in a global market, because the local market was so darned small – living in Podunk Indiana.

My business has continued to grow and in many ways and continued to change. The web is a funny place – sometimes you need to be able to place your thumb on the pulse and get a feel for the direction it’s going. Things have changed considerably since I first began working online. And as a result, I was forced to change with it if I had any hope of continuing my path of success. That’s why you MUST have DEDICATION and PERSEVERANCE! Without them, you have nothing but a lot of words on a pretty site.

Times have changed – and certainly, with all the training materials available, a person who truly desires to learn and work hard can make thousands a month in much less time than it has taken me so don’t despair.

Of all the time I’ve spent learning, trying, failing and succeeding, I’ve taken what I’ve learned and am in turn providing loads of FREE information on this blog. So if you are willing to take the time to learn, the world truly can be YOUR oyster.

Additionally, I do take time to REPLY to those who ASK specific questions about making money online.

Ask yourself…

• Do you know what your MOTIVATION for success would be? Money is NOT a valid motivator.
• Do you know what your PASSIONS are?
• Can you FOCUS on your GOAL?
• Can you INVEST TIME, EFFORT?
• Can you INVEST some MONEY to LEARN?
• Do you have what it takes to PERSEVERE until your online business is a SUCCESS?

If your answers to the questions above are ‘YES’ then I encourage you to LEARN what it takes to build an online business.

If any of your answers were “NO” – you might want to rethink what’s motivating you. The most successful PROFESSIONALS I know who earn their living online did not start off thinking “How much money can I make quickly.” They began with a mission of helping people. They wanted to do something that would bring value to others – because that is where success is ultimately measured.

So what is it that allows a super affiliate to make hundreds or even thousands of sales when you struggle to make 5 sales of the same product? Why is that that super affiliates rake in the cash while you struggle to just get by?

Think about this carefully: you’re both selling the exact same product. The only possible difference is the tactics you use to market it. Below, I’ve included a couple tactics that you should use to sell more like super affiliates. Try to incorporate them into your strategy.

Tactic #1: Play the Long Game

Without exception, super affiliates almost always have access to a very large, captive audience. Rather than scraping to find customers whenever a new product goes live, they usually have those customers well in advance; and they are pre-selling them the whole time leading up to the product launch.

In contrast, less successful affiliate marketers often use a sort of Google Cash approach to everything.

Whenever some new launch is coming up, they’ll throw together a promotional website; and try to direct traffic to it using pay per click search engine advertisements or solo ads.

But there’s a major flaw with this approach: almost without exception, people will purchase a “big launch” product from an Internet marketer they already know.

This is why you have to play the long game. Rather than focusing on each individual launch, prepare an approach that will work consistently for years. Start by building a list and sending ALL of your traffic there. This is exactly what super affiliates do; and this is what you should do, too, if you want to make more sales.

Tactic #2: Steal from Super Affiliates Whenever Possible

Many super affiliates are also big name Internet marketers. They have public personas that you can follow quite easily. You can find their userIDs on forums. You can scout out their blogs. You can join their mailing lists. You can find out which sites they own.

I encourage you to follow a handful of super affiliates carefully and steal every single lesson they offer unintentionally. Sign up for their mailing list and watch out they start to pre-sell products; or how they avoid pre-sales and then talk about the product several days after the launch.

There are dozens of different approaches that super affiliates take. None of these approaches is necessarily the “right” approach, but you can learn from each of them, since they are probably successful if a super affiliate is using them.

Tactic #3: Ignore Talk; Look for Revealed Preference

Talk is just that: talk. Many Internet marketers will talk about all sorts of different methods you can use to make money. They’ll tell you to advertise using Google Adwords or to build a list or to create viral reports.

While some of this information may be useful and legitimate, I would encourage you to ignore what they say and watch what they do. This is called “revealed preference.” If something works, they are likely to use it again and again, so look out for those things and ignore the babble.

Tactic #4: Make Friends with the Seller

Believe it or not, the seller wants you to be successful, too. So contact him ahead of time, make friends with him; and see if he has any particular advice for you on selling the product. Keep in mind that he talks to a lot of affiliates on a regular basis (especially around big launches) and has the best understanding of the tactics they actually use.

Conclusion

Super affiliates use a range of tactics in order to consistently outperform other affiliates. But one thing they always do is play the long game. They build lists, create forums, and secure a captive audience in advance of product releases.

While there isn’t a lot of expense in starting up as an affiliate marketer, there are a few things that you need to do if you really want to make money marketing other people’s products.

Here are some basic tips to help you line up all your things to do before you ever sign up for that first affiliate program.

One of the basic needs for any successful affiliate program is to have a web site of your own. While it is possible to purchase ad space on sites and to advertise through Google Adwords, this is short term strategy.

Setting up a basic site or blog that has a particular focus will make all the difference in the world to the success of your program. Keep in mind that your site does not have to be complicated with a lot of flash media, animation or other fancy bells and whistles.

In fact, if you plan on focusing your attention on affiliate marketing strategies that target the home consumer, you are better off with a basic site that will load quickly on a dial up connection. After all, dial-up is still extremely popular in a number of remote and rural locations.

While you could choose to go with a free site, you will find it much easier to work with affiliate programs if you go with your own domain name. It is very easy and inexpensive to secure a domain name and space on a remote server these days. Some companies will provide you with both services for a low monthly charge. However, I encourage readers to purchase your domain and hosting separately – it’s just easier to deal with if you ever wish to relocate.

Often, they may also have basic software to help you design and upload your pages to the server, even if you are not particularly savvy with the technology. If you need help, I do offer free Wordpress blog installation and setup that could have you up and going in under 48 hours.

Another important aspect is determining just what your contact information will be, regarding communication with your affiliate program. This would include an email address and physical mailing address. The email address should be one you have set aside specifically for your marketing business.

You may find opt to obtain a free email address, but keep in mind you will look more professional if the email address appears to be lead to a business of some sort. With your hosting package, you will have the option of having one email address when you secure a domain name. If that is the case, go this route and use that as your contact for any email correspondence.

As far as your physical mailing address, determine where you may want your affiliate checks to be mailed. If you are not secure having the checks come to your home, secure a post office box.

Online payments are a great way to receive your affiliate payments and keep track of your earnings. From this angel, you may want to look into opening an account with one of the more popular online services that send and receive funds.

PayPal is one example of such a service. Many people are familiar with PayPal, and just about everyone knows how to use it to send payments. Another popular option is ClickBank, which offers services that are almost identical to PayPal. Both these options are reliable, quick, and provide you with financial detail that will allow you to keep up with your earnings easily.

One last tool to set in place before you embark on your first affiliate marketing program is a promotion plan for the web site where the ads will reside. This will mean that you have a procedure in place to tie keywords and key phrases back to your site, publish the site on all the major search engines, and also have some content ready to add to the site periodically.

You will want to locate at least a few online business sites where you can post your URL in business listings. Making sure people can find your site during searches is imperative; that is where a lot of your traffic will come from.

Lastly, you want the content to change slightly from time to time, so people have a reason to visit your site on a regular basis. All these methods will greatly increase the chances of clicks on the ads posted on the site.