Just about every single day I see a post in one forum or another about someone earning $100, $400 or $1000 or more per day from various Internet Marketing business models.
And you know what, I applaud every one of you who have achieved these levels of success. 
When you read some of these threads and reports it gets you thinking doesn’t it?
At least it does for me… and I have the privilege of earning this kind of money online on a daily basis.
I’m sure you know what I mean… as you read the story your heart beats a bit faster, your hands start to sweat and you get into the mode where you MUST KNOW what they did to hit their "home run" $1000 day, so you can copy their success.
Which is great cause we all need to dream, set goals and have something to strive for.
The downside of this is that we, more often than not, lose sight of our objective and jump into this new "trick" (e.g. business model) with reckless abandon, only to get disappointed yet again… And the reason for the disappointment is generally because of one reason… we keep jumping from one alleged money-maker to another. We’ve become "money chasers", constantly looking for the "secret trick" or the latest money maker that will give us the big payday… quickly.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m just as guilty of jumping on the bandwagon and lose focus too… I get tempted constantly and sometimes even stray completely off course. Which is completely idiotic since "the bandwagon" generally deals with business models that are largely incongruent with my core competencies and business models.
I’m sure some of you are thinking, "So Steve, what’s your point?"
The point is, that instead of looking at hitting these “home runs”, we ought to be focusing on the basics of the game, moving the runners over any way we can and score because of "small ball" and good defense (to further the baseball analogy).
So what are the basics, and the "small ball" as it relates to your business?
For me, my main income comes from Contextual Marketing (primarily Adsense and Affiliate products). So, the basics for me is to research a niche or product, create a small "micro niche" website, then market the site so I can start getting traffic from the search engines.
That’s it.
The “small ball” in my instance refers to each of these sites generating $3 – $5 or more. This may not sound terribly impressive, but when you consider that I have over 100 of these sites that pay me anywhere from $1 – $25 per day, it starts adding up.
Some time ago I picked up a book called “5 Bucks a Day” by a gentleman named Dennis Becker. I picked it up during a WSO on the Warrior Forum and we’ve become friends over the past year or so.
His book has set me straight whenever I start getting distracted (which is more than once…) and I make it a point to read it at least every 2 – 3 months.
In any event, the basic premise of the book is that instead of focusing on the "home run", we as netrepreneurs ought to focus on creating $5 residual income streams on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, which will ultimately add up to $1000 days.
And deals with exactly what I’m trying to express in this short post. (Dennis takes this to a whole another level and shows you tips and strategies on this stuff in his book). In any event, it had a pretty big impact on how I think about this business, even though I was practicing what he teaches in 5 Bucks a Day already.
I hear more from people complaining that they earn a measly $5 per day in AdSense from their ONE niche site…
That’s an average of $150 per month, which will pay for my web hosting fees, internet access AND gym membership every single month (with a little money left over).
Just make one of these $5 businesses a week for a year, and you’ll be able to earn $250 or more every single day. That’s nearly twice as much as the median household income in the US in 2006.
If you stopped your love affair with the ONE website and created a process map of the steps you took, you might be able to shed some light on exactly how you accomplished it, and eventually replicate the "success" (of creating a $5 daily income stream) at a faster rate.
And if you’re unsure of how you got there… then find material that deals with this aspect of the business and apply them to your existing frame work instead of writing the business model off completely and trying another business model from scratch.
In other words, if you have been able to make one $5 income stream chances are pretty good that you can duplicate it. It might take you a week or two in the beginning, but after a while it will become second nature and you’ll be able to crank a couple of them out in a day.
You could easily create 5 – 10 of these a month… in your spare time. Which would mean you could earn $750 – $1500 extra by your 2nd or 3rd month (or at least within 6 months)!
Let me put it in simpler terms: Do you think you could find and market one product as an affiliate, whether it’s an ebook or a physical product, that profited $5 a day?
Does that sound difficult to you?
If you’ve managed to sell one product EVER, you should be able to do it again without too much effort. And the more times you do it, the easier it gets.
Stop jumping on every single opportunity that comes you way and look at creating these tiny little daily income streams by expanding on your current skill set.
Try this exercise: Sit down and take each of your monthly, quarterly and yearly expenses and break them down into a daily figure. For example, if you have a car payment for $300 / month, divide it by 30 (which give you $10 per day). Keep these figures handy as they should be a constant reminder of the task at hand. Once you’ve created an x number of $5 projects, you can cross one of the expenses off.
$10 per day for me is only 2 micro-niche sites that need to perform at $5 per day; or setting up a few PPC campaigns using long tail keywords that can net me an average of $5 per day.
So, let me ask you this question: "Can you use some of your current skill sets to create a $5 per day residual income?"
If the answer is yes, all you need to do is create a plan of action, stay focused and EXECUTE.
Once you know how to create $5 income streams using your current method (in your sleep), add another method to your arsenal… and do it again.
Sorry for the rant.
Related posts:
I’ve never thought of it this way, but I guess its a good idea. I’m going out right now and having a go!
Steven
Not a rant, my friend.
AWESOME stuff is what that is.
Between you and Travis Sago recommending this, I guess I need to bite the bullet and get it.
Are you also a member of the Earn1KaDay forum? If so, what’s that like? What have your experiences been like there?
Thanks!
Very interesting stuff.
I have never heard of this technique before. Thanks a lot.
Thanks Chris.
And yes, I’m a member of E1KaD forum. It’s one of the few forums that I actually frequent on a daily basis.
Great people, great material, great opportunity to openly share ideas and create JV partnerships.
Highly recommended.
/Steven
It *is* a great forum. Great article Steven. Both on the Focus AND the Execute parts! :)
I did a review on earn 1k a day here:
http://www.lookwhatgmanfound.com/earn-1k-a-day/
G-Man
Steven,
Just a quick question for you:
If you had to pick ONE method that would allow an absolute beginner to create a 5BAD income stream with the least amount of work (obviously some skills will be required – even if you’re “just” using blogger), WHAT would YOU suggest?
Nathan
Hi Nathan,
That’s a tough question. If you have some “seed money” to work with, then I would probably say “Direct to Merchant” Affiliate Marketing using PPC.
In other words, find products from Commission Junction, Linkshare, Share-a-sale, Amazon etc. and create a PPC campaign that links directly to the product page (that includes your affiliate id).
/Steven
Hey Steven,
Excellent post and very nicely intigrated with affiliate marketing JUST as you mention in your post you sly dog…lol
Frank Bruno
Nice. I am a member at E1KAD and it’s verry nice. Dennis is a great guy and those 5 dollar income streams really do add up. Just my 2 cents or 5 bucks lol.
sincerely,
ebookbum
Steven,
Great post! I have to admit I was one of these people HOWEVER, my problem was that I did not have a proper understanding of keywords and the relationship they play into aiding me to work my way up the SERPs. As of today, I am averaging about $2/day from three websites. And as you say, stay focused and continue on. I have already ended my subscription from the worthless emails that do get me side tracked.
Buddy
I’ve been trying to earn some money with online marketing for a while now, and only thanks to you do I now see what I have been doing wrong.
Thank you very much, Sir.
I realize I am late in reading this since you posted it in January – but its one of your top blogs listed on your homepage so I clicked.
A problem or question about this method.
Spam. How do you do this without filling the web full of parasitic, spammy, crappy sites?
I am very set on not cramming the web full of junk and spam type links.
In the affiliate programs I run I look for real sites, deep sites, that are indeed focused on the particular niche involved. Am I crazy?
cougarmark
Thanks Steven. You have written the most heart felt thoughts I have ever seen from an affiliate marketer. This is an awesome blog. Who needs to be buying the latest e-books and courses anyway when you share such great tips here for free.
Of all the e-books Maggie and I have purchased over the years, 5 Bucks A Day is one of the few we would gladly re-purchase again if our computer crashed.
The mindset and method will never become outdated or loose relevance. Also, Dennis regularly updates 5 Bucks A day anyway. You don’t see many internet marketers updating their e-books for their customers these days.
Regards,
“No Hocus Pocus, Just Focus”
Danny & Maggie
Simple question: how do you keep track of having all these websites?
Are they all blog type sites? If so, are they self hosting?
I have (4) websites. (3) are for my actual businesses, an one (nyconstructiondirectory.com) is a start up website that I enjoy working on, but main goal is for revenue. I cannot keep up with them.
Is there a system for that which you use?
98% of the sites I own are blogs… self-hosted WordPress blogs.
I actually use Excel Spreadsheets to record all of the data for each site.
As for my “system” of blogging, I use my own. :) You may want to check out my free course called: Super Simple Blogging.
Newbie here does this really work?? And if so can it work on a larger scale
The short answer, “yes”. It’s all about taking baby steps.
These days I look at much larger projects but when I started, I looked at building these little $5 income streams every day.
In order to build a $10K a month business, you need to only build Fifty-Five $5 a day projects… (something to think about).