23/11_roads on Flickr.
- The first step is to stop Googling things like, “how to make money online.” Not because you shouldn’t want to make money online, but because the stuff you’re going to find by doing that is going to help you losemoney online. Sort of like asking a casino owner how to make money in Vegas…
- Don’t pay anyone for simple and proven instructions on how to achieve this goal. In particular, don’t pay anyone to teach you how to write or sell manuals or ebooks about how to make money online.
- Get rich slow.
- Focus on the scarce resource online: attention. If you try to invent a way to take cheap attention and turn it into cash, you will fail. The attention you want isn’t cheap, it’s difficult to get via SEO and it rarely scales. Instead, figure out how to earn expensiveattention.
- In addition to attention, focus on trust. Trust is even more scarce than attention.
- Don’t worry so much about the ‘online’ part. Instead, figure out how to create value. The online part will take care of itself.
- Don’t quit your day job. Start evenings and weekends and figure it out with small failures.
- Build a public reputation. A good one, and be sure that you deserve it, and that it will hold up to scrutiny.
