Our First Ever Guest Post! The secret to Long-Term Online Success

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This post is being Guest Blogged By Randy Brown. Please scroll all the way to the bottom to get some more information about him. P.S. its the guy who’s site was tatooed on this guys arm!

Based on questions I see posted almost daily at the DP Forums and WebmasterWorld, it seems that many new webmasters think it’s easy to get rich on the internet if they can just pick the right high-paying keywords to chase. The myth to getting rich on the internet goes something like this:

1) Choose any high-paying keyword niche (lawyers, mesothelioma, healthcare)

2) invest $6 in a domain like lawyers-mesothelioma.info

3) invest another $3.99 on a shared hosting plan or better yet do it for free on Blogger

4) find some pre-made “for Adsense” script or template, AutoBlogger, or Scraper

6) laugh all the way to the bank - total time invested: 30 minutes The sad truth that they all eventually learn is that it just does not work this way, and here’s why: Many people say that Google is ‘ruining’ the internet by spawing millions of MFA sites and Google is keenly aware of this. Recently Google has started cracking down on these sites by no longer allowing images next to ads, banning users of Adwords driving traffic to MFA sites (Arbitrage) and constantly working to remove these sites from the search index or at least penalize them so that they are buried so deep in search results that nobody would ever find them. Of course, there’s also a million other reasons why this myth won’t get you rich anytime soon.

The big secret to long-term online success:

The secret to long term success is really no secret at all, and most people probably learned it from their parents when they were very young. It probably varies slightly by culture and language, but in general it goes something like this:

• Do something you enjoy

• Work hard

• Have pride in what you do

• Create quality output

• Stay on-track

In the analog world this means: Find a job that is fulfilling and makes you at least partially happy, go to work every day, show up on time, do whatever it is that you, and do it well. You won’t get rich from your first paycheck, and probably not after the first year, or even the first 5 years, but over time as you hone your skills and build your career most people usually find that they’re doing pretty well for themselves. Sure, you may make a few changes along the way, but in general most people in the analog world understand that this is the secret to long-term success. Just as most people understand that it doesn’t really make sense to be a Real Estate agent today, a Home-Loan agent the next month, and a professional poker player the month after that just because you see other people making good money doing those things. Why then, do so many people think it’s any different or any easier in the online world? Sure, some people made a lot of ‘quick’ money chasing those high paying Adsense keywords but where are they now? The smart ones moved on to other things, the less than smart ones are either broke, or are scrambling to the “next big thing” as Google puts the pressure on them and they know their days are limited. Of course we still see the occasional(and very rare) got-rich-fast-adsense-arbitrage-genius, but these guys are the online equivalent to Tiger Woods, or Bill Gates.

Applying analog common sense to online success:

Just like in the analog world the key to long term success is pretty basic:

1) Find what you enjoy or do well - Your niche

2) Show up every day - Building a successful website or online business takes time - be prepared to invest considerable time and effort into it. Success is not going to happen over night, and might not happen for a long time. Don’t give up because you’re not making money right away

3) Do what you do - Don’t jump around “chasing high paying Adsense keywords”. Stay on-track doing what you do best4) Do it well - Build a website or online business that you can be proud of and that your visitors or customers will enjoy

What you do and how you do it varies from person to person, or website to website, but unless you’re an online Tiger Woods or Bill Gates, don’t expect to simply barf-out yet another crappy MFA website onto the internet and get rich overnight. Just like in the real world, long term success aint easy.

Randy Brown runs Grownupgeek.com which was earning over $1,000/month after only four months, after 1.5 years has over 10,000 active members and is currently averaging approx $6,000/month in earnings “Invented” a method for endorsing Firefox referrals which won him a spot as a Google Adsense Success Story: Read Here 

Is also mentioned in the Google Adsense Help and Support pages

 Has sold over 1,000 copies of the very simple $10 “how i did it” ebook (now free in the blog)

Quoted in Kontera’s newest press release