When I quitted my job (with no backup income and only a strong desire to succeed), I told myself that I’m going to build a passive income system that will make money on autopilot. By then, I will travel around the world, and sit in my office and shake legs (meaning: doing nothing).

Is that your dream too?

Well, here’s what is happening……

Yes, I now travel to different countries anytime I like. But I have to carry my laptop wherever I go. When I book hotel, I have to make sure that it comes with high speed internet access.

And yes, I really sit in my office and shake leg (as a habit). But my hands are always on the keyboard and my eyes are glued to the computer screen.

So what happen to my dream?

What happen is I’ve fallen in love with my work. (My wife hates me saying this!)

Sometimes I ask myself, what would I do if I retire. Guess what my answer is? I will still be doing the same thing as what I’m doing now!!!

Will you say you are going to ‘retire’ from your hobby? You won’t, right?

You may be wondering what is it that I’m doing everyday that makes my work so interesting.

Let me tell you the truth……

I’m doing all the boring things that you probably have been dragging yourself to do; things like writing articles, posting ads, replying emails, creating websites and managing freelancers.

I bet this is not the first time you heard people saying that to succeed, you must love what you do. But I bet no one has told you my version:

“To succeed, you must love the boring things that you do.”

Most people can’t succeed online because they’ve been painted with the fantasy of easy money, but when they get down to the actual work, they find it boring and quit. Those who eventually make it are those who love doing the boring stuff.

Don’t ask me how I fell in love with the boring things. It’s like falling in love with your wife (or husband). There is no reason!

So, how do you fall in love with the boring things in internet marketing?

Like I said earlier, I don’t know how. To me, it’s like falling in love with your soul mate. Is it fated? I don’t know.

But what I can tell you is that when I first started, I was motivated by money.

As I went through the process, I slowly get used to it and now it has become part of my life.

Come to think about it, that’s how two person fell in love with each other, isn’t it? You may fall in love with someone for some initial reasons, but when you’re truly in love, what you really love is the feeling of being together.

So the moral behind this is, if you want to fall in love with the boring things that you do, keep working until you get used to it.

Do you know what’s the #1 reason why most people fail to make money online?

The #1 reason is indecision!

They can’t decide if internet marketing is for them. They are getting mixed messages from everywhere, messages like:

“You can make a million trading the stock market.”

“You can achieve financial freedom with MLM.”

“No, I think I should be a REAL brick and mortar businessman. Internet marketing is not a career!”

One of the secrets of success is that when you make a decision, everything else will fall into places. It’s one of the secrets of the universe, as important as the law of attraction.

The tough part is to make a decision.

If you haven’t made up your mind that you’re going to create a full time income from internet marketing, I hope this article can help you to make a decision today.

Ok, let’s compare Internet Marketing with Stock Trading, MLM and a Brick And Mortar Business.

I’ve been through all the 3 other options and I believe I’m qualified to share with you my experience.

Internet Marketing vs. Stock Trading

I see stock trading as a form of wealth management. You should learn how to park your extra money in the stock market to get better ROI (return on investment) than putting money in fixed deposit.

But trading the stock market full time is a bad idea, unless you package it into a business, especially an online business. If so, you’re back to the idea of internet marketing.

The truth is most stock trading experts make money teaching people how to trade stocks! They create courses, software and books to teach people and make huge profit from there.

In stock trading, there is no sure-win. If you get a return of 50% consistently, you are considered an expert.

But do you know that you can get 1000% ROI in internet marketing? For example, I can invest $200 to get freelancers to rewrite articles, create a website and build links. In the years to come, this website will easily earn me more than $2000. That’s a return of more than 1000%!!!

My risk? The worse case is I break even. These days, I hardly have a website that lose money. It’s just a matter of time before I break even.

My advice is, trade stock if you are interested, but spend more time building your online empire because you can get better ROI at lower risk.

Internet Marketing vs. MLM

The dream of MLM (Multi-level marketing or network marketing) is that you can achieve time and financial freedom. This is the idea that most MLMers will try to sell you.

To me, the true value in MLM is mindset training. Success is all about mindset. Good MLM companies have good training that can instill the millionaire’s mindset into you. This is something internet marketing can hardly achieve.

Other than that, I really can’t see any advantage over internet marketing.

If you talk about financial freedom, internet marketing can definitely give you financial freedom. Online income is definitely more passive than MLM income. In fact, you can have multiple streams of online passive income, which makes it more stable than just 1 source of passive income.

If you talk about time freedom, MLM can give you time freedom ONLY after you are successful. During the process of team building, it’s hell!! Your working hours are nighttimes, Sundays and public holidays. These are times when your family members are free but you are not!

Internet marketing, on the other hand, gives you time freedom EVEN before you are successful. You still have to work hard, but you chose when you want to work. You can work when everyone is sleeping. Or you can work an hour and play with your kids for the next hour. It’s all up to you.

Moreover, if you truly believe in the power of MLM, you should explore online MLM instead of the old-school brick and mortar MLM. The old-school MLM is really a time waster.

Internet Marketing vs. Brick And Mortar Business

Ever since I tasted the goodness of online marketing, I’ve never thought of doing brick and mortar business again!

I started out running traditional business and it was a relief when I converted my entire business to online. When I ran my offline business, my mind was all about how to pay my rental, my staff’s salary, how to bring in customers etc. I hardly have time to think of business strategies and expansion.

But online business is almost stress-free. When you are small, you work alone. There is no worry of office rental and staff cost. You spend most of your time thinking of business strategies and how to expand your business, which is definitely more important than working hard to pay bills!

Another important difference is in offline business, you can hardly find people who are willing to show you how to make money. But in online business, many people (too many in fact) wanting to show you how they make money. Some of them may charge you, but you are talking about $47 or $97. That’s cheap!

Final Remark……

I hope I’ve been impartial in my comparison. I’ve been on both sides of the equation and I just hope that my experience can help you make a better decision.

Remember, regardless of which decision you make, once you make the decision, everything else will fall into places for you!

Today I’m going to share with you how to increase your odds in online success. It’s simpler than what you think, really!

First of all, do you know that 9 out of 10 entrepreneurs will give their lifeblood and fail?

When it comes to online, I believe the same odds applies.

So, how do you ensure that you are the 1 out of 10 online entrepreneurs who succeed?

Simple. All you have to do is to be an online entrepreneur 10 times!

Mathematically, if 1 out of 10 will succeed, it means if you do it 10 times, there will be 1 time when you succeed!

Make sense?

Some of you may think this is nonsense, but it’s not.

Many people quit too early. In fact, many people quit even without trying!

I didn’t succeed in my first online business. I have registered at least 5 domain names that I hardly do anything with. I also have at least 2 ‘BIG’ websites that I’ve spent at least 2 months preparing but they are now sitting somewhere in the web, collecting virtual dust.

But so what?

I don’t need all my websites to be successful.

Even if you talk about Adsense websites (I have about 70 of them now), the highest earner can make me $500 a month and there are some that are just earning $5 a month.

Again, so what?

All I know is the more websites I have, the more money I make.

Am I disappointed with those websites that fail to perform?

I am. But that only motivates me to continue looking for other ways to bring traffic and make money online.

How about promoting affiliate products through PPC advertising? There is no guarantee that your first campaign will be a success. What if your 4th campaign is going to be a great success but you quit at the 3rd?

The good thing about being an online entrepreneur compared to being an offline entrepreneur is that you can hardly lose your shirt.

I lost $50,000 in 6 months in my first offline business. Question is how many $50,000 can you afford to lose before you hit the jackpot?

But when it comes to online, if you invest $500 on an online business, which is already considered a lot, 10 businesses will only cost you $5000. 1 successful business can easily recover all your losses.

So, if you are thinking of quitting, why not think about what your next project is going to be?

If you persists and keep improving, success is inevitable.

What if I tell you there is a surefire way to get things right in making money online, even if it is your first time in internet marketing?

I guess I’ve got your attention by now, but let me tell you the truth. Such way doesn’t exists. But something else does……

There is no surefire way to get things right in internet marketing, but there is a surefire way to succeed in internet marketing. The way is to “Stop Trying To Get Things Right And Start To Get Things Going!”

Let me give you an example:

2 years ago when I decided to build Adsense websites using articles from plrpro, I was not sure if I was doing the right things when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. As you know, Search Engine Optimization is very important in such model. Without traffic from the search engine, you aren’t going to make money.

The first 6 months was the toughest months because I wasn’t making much money and I was doubting if I was doing the right things. But one thing I did right was I “Kept Going”.

Today, my Adsense income is nearing 3k a month and there is no sign that this income will stop increasing!

Did I get it right the first time? I didn’t. But I succeeded, in a small way, because I kept learning and kept building more Adsense websites.

What is the best way to make money online?

If you have not started making money, DON’T ASK THIS QUESTION!

Do you know that most internet marketing newbies fail because they haven’t even started?

They are looking for the ‘prefect’ way to make money online and they are forever looking!

Is Adsense the perfect way to make money online? I doubt so, but I don’t care as long as it’s making me money.

I tried to teach other people to make money from Adsense but those who gave up said that it’s too tedious. Some went into affiliate marketing, thinking that they can easily make money by posting some PPC ads but ended up losing more money.

There are always better ways to make money online. I do agree that you should always be on a look out for better ways to make money online.

But if you have not even earned a cent, you should just take an opportunity that is within your capability and make that opportunity work for you before trying other ways.

Remember, you don’t have to get it right the first time. You just have to get it going by keeping on learning and doing.

Success is doing the ‘boring’ things again and again

I may be stretching this topic a little too far but I need you to understand this principle in order for you to have the complete picture.

Do you know that even if you found the right way to make money online, you are still not likely to succeed online?

Any ‘right way’ to make money online will still require you to do one or more of the followings:

Build websites
Write articles
Post advertisements
Write sales letters
Deliver products
Find suppliers

If you look into any of these activities, only one word can describe them - “boring”!

That’s why I said success is doing the ‘boring’ things again and again. If you are not determined to keep doing the boring things again and again, you are not likely to succeed.

Can you now see why it is not so important to get things right? If you are determined to just get things going and going, regardless of how tedious and how boring they are, success will be evitable for you!

If you have read everything about online marketing but you still feel stuck, one possible reason is because of improper time management.Frankly, I think the title of this article is lame because most people don’t see the importance of time management in making money. If you are thinking of skipping this issue of newsletter, it shows that I’m right. But you will regret!

Trust me. Spend some time reading this article. If you put what I’ve written here into practice, it will help you to make more money online.

Decide to trust me? Ok, let’s jump straight into the right way to manage your time as an online marketer.

Stephen Covey’s Time Management Matrix

The best and simplest time management system I’ve learnt is Time Management Matrix from Stephen Covey. His matrix looks like this:

	Urgent	Not Urgent
Important	I. (Manage) crisis, pressing problems, deadline-driven projects, last-minute preparations for scheduled activities	II. (Focus) preparation, planning, prevention, values clarification, exercise, relationship-building
Not Important	III. (Avoid) interruptions, some calls, some emails, some meetings, responding to some enquiries	IV. (Avoid) trivia work, junk emails, time wasters, escape activities, viewing mindless TV shows

Apparently if you spend all your time doing things in Quadrant III and IV, you will realize that you are not progressing anywhere.Most people, good employees especially, focus on things in Quadrant I. In the eyes of their boss, they may be a good worker. If you are like most people, you probably spend most of your time doing things in this Quadrant. The problem is there is a limit to what you can achieve.According to Stephen Covey, highly effective and successful people spend most of their time in Quadrant II.Many of you probably have seen this matrix. Ok, let’s twist this matrix a little and apply it to internet marketing.
.Time Management Matrix For Online Marketers

This is the matrix I’m using to manage my work and time (I save it in MS Word so that I can add, edit and delete the activities anytime):

	Urgent	Not Urgent
Money Making	I. (Do it fast!) - website improvement that has direct impact on your sales. - sales order fulfillment that can make more money. - writing blogs or newsletters. - liaising with freelancers on existing projects. - building new money making websites.	II. (Consistency) - thinking of more ways to monetise your existing websites. - thinking of new money making website ideas. - learning more ways other people make money online. - any activity that can bring in more traffic. - networking with other marketers.
Not Money Making	III. (Do it fast!) - website improvement for better support but not for making money. - sales order fulfillment that will not make more money. - most customer support issues. - banking activities. - accounting issues.	IV. (Avoid) - website improvement only for aesthetic reason. - some support issues. - aimlessly surfing the web. - checking emails every now and then, in between your work. - most messenger activities - clearing junk mails.

The difference in my matrix is I’ve changed Important / Not Important to Money Making / Not Money Making.Let me tell you why I come out with this matrix to manage my time……I have been following Stephen Covey’s Matrix but after some time, I realized that I was efficient but my income wasn’t increasing.I found out that the reason was because I had been working hard doing things that were important but not money-making. For example, customer support is important and urgent. But in many cases, they are not money-making. With this matrix, I can now classify my work according to its urgency and profitability. All I have to do now is to make sure that I spend most of my time doing things in Quadrant I and II.
.How I Handle The Tasks In Different Quadrant

Another difference in my matrix is the way I handle the tasks.

Quadrant I and III are urgent matters. For such tasks, I’ll make sure that I get them done within the shortest possible time. The way to achieve this is by focusing. Let’s say you have to build a simple website. Just dedicate 2 or 3 hours and put in your 100% concentration to complete it asap. Don’t answer phone calls, check emails or do anything else.

Quadrant IV are things that you should avoid. Either you get someone else to do them, or you just dedicate the most unproductive hours to complete them asap. For example, I clear my junk emails 3 times a day, one early morning when I turn on my computer while other programs are still loading, one in the afternoon when I come back from lunch and one in the evening just after I wrap up my work and getting ready to pack for home.

Quadrant II contains the hardest things to do. Why do I say that? Because those things are not urgent and you always have urgent matters in Quadrant I and III that you are very tempted to complete. However, things in Quadrant II are the most important activities that will make you the most money!

For me, I just make sure that I consistently work on the activities in Quadrant II. For example, whenever I have time, I’ll write an extra article for directory submission. Almost everyday when I drive, I’ll be strategizing in my mind. If you consistently work on the activities in Quadrant II, your income will inevitably increase in long run.

Give my revised Time Management Matrix a try. Plot this matrix into your MS Word and insert all your outstanding tasks accordingly. Once you plugin your tasks, it will be clear to you how you should spend your next few hours and next few days!