Two of the top Professional Bloggers have finally written a book

If there are two names who are synonymous with making money on the Internet and making money blogging, those two names are: Darren Rowse (Problogger.net) and Chris Garrett (chrisg.com).

These two guys are the top of the game and are the premier leaders on the Web. They have collaborated and produced a book that should be on everybody’s reading list who wants to learn:

• How to make money on the Internet
• How you can make money from a blog
• How to earn a substantial income to replace your 9 – 5 job

The product description notes the following topics are covered in this book:

• How Bloggers Make Money
• Direct Income Earning vs. Indirect Income Earning methods
• Why Niches are Important
• Using 20 critical blogging tools
• 20 Ingredients for a successful blog post
• Optimizing advertising
• Which advertising platforms work best
• Expert analysis of Technocrat’s Top Blogs - why they work

Every Friday is special report day.  Each week, I am going to build on a topic to cover more detail and depth on the important details for making money.  This first special report series is about the philosophy of making money.

Before we start to address the philosophy of making money, let’s get the myths of making money out of the way.  Josh Hyatt, a senior writer for Money Magazine, wrote about the five myths of making money for CNN (check it out here).  I’ve added a sixth which is debatable, but I’m going to cover it anyway.

Myth 1: You’ve got to have incredible charisma

Jack Welch, in his book Winning, covered an understood reality that business, like life in general, is more successful for an extroverted person rather than an introverted person.  We all learned this in high school.

The fact of the matter is that no matter what your social nature is, it’s how you handle your responsibilities at work, how you respond to opportunities for advancement, and how you manage your money that contributes to your ability to make money.  If you are relying on leadership opportunities to improve your financial status, see 7 Steps to Lead without Inherent Talent.

Myth 2: You must be able to see into the future

This is only true if you are relying on winning the lottery or day trading.  While creating a foundation for innovation in business does rely on the knowledge of the business and the creativity of the people, some of the greatest innovators of our time, created the future and didn’t interpret it – Henry Ford, Sam Walton, and Steve Jobs for example.

For the rest of us, there are many articles written about sound business and investing principles to guard against NOT knowing the future.  One of the greatest investors and one of the world’s wealthiest, Warren Buffett follows the principles of Benjamin Graham for investing in a market place with extreme highs and lows.  Check out: How to Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest Like Warren Buffett.

Myth 3: You’ve got to stick to your guns, no matter what

Thomas Edison said, “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration” and “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”  Keep perspective.  Albert Einstein defined insanity as, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Sometimes, you have to learn from your mistakes.  Sometimes, you have to listen to other’s advice.  Don’t get discouraged; get encouraged when people give you feedback.

Myth 4: You need to take big risks

Some people enjoy playing high stakes.  For those, I’d recommend reading Playing the Highest Stakes in HedgeHogging.  For everyone else, I’d recommend following the advice of the world’s greatest investor, Warren Buffett, How to Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest Like Warren Buffett.

Risk Management is a valued skill set for three reasons – you know how to mitigate risk, you know how to guard against risk, and when the worst happens, you are still traveling on the money making adventure.

Myth 5: You need a burning desire to get rich

It is certainly true that passion and desire drive the best to get better, but having a passion and desire to get rich is not going to get you very far.  Having a passion that you can make money from, that will take you places.

For most entrepreneurs, the desire is not about money.  The desire is for achievement.  Money is merely a way to keep score - an entrepreneur is achievement oriented.

Debatable Myth 6: You need money to make money

This tends to be true for most people who do make money – they had money to start with.  Even in Entrepreneur’s Hot 500 Fast-Growth Companies, 387 of them started with the savings and personal funds of the entrepreneurs themselves.

In this day and age, you can build a website and make money online with what you know and very little actual cost.  Other entrepreneurs are able to use other people’s money to make money – venture capitalist, angel investors, or loans and credit.

But, by large, if you have money and you manage the money well, you will make money.  If you do not have money, you need to learn more and be more reliant on what and who you know.

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1. Nearly three quarters of the North American population is online

The Internet is an environment where there is very widespread use by most of the modern world and the use is heavily concentrated in the western world.  Currently, usage by people in North American is at 69.5% with a growth of 115% percent between 2000 and 2007 (Miniwatts, 2007).

2. There is enormous growth of the Internet throughout the globe

Even with a significantly high usage by people in North America, the Internet is a platform with instant global business reach without the usual complications that traditional international business operations encounter.  The potential growth on a global scale is wide open where usage is only 17.8% of the world wide population, but with an astounding growth rate of 225.0% between the same time periods of 2000 to 2007 (Miniwatts, 2007).

3. 110 hours online between work and home

As an information portal and the new entertainment medium, the Internet is dominating the work and home life of a lot of Americans.  The average person in the United States spent over thirty-three hours surfing the web at home in the month of June, 2007.  Contributing to an astoundingly high usage is the average amount of time that a person in the United States spent on the Internet at work – over seventy-seven hours (Nielson//NetRatings, 2007).

References

Miniwatts Marketing Group. (June 30, 2007) Internet World Stats. Retrieved from http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

Neilson//NetRatings. (June 2007) Average Web Usage. Retrieved from http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/resources.jsp?section=pr_netv&nav=1

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Of the eight traits of the e-business entrepreneur – singular-focus, self-driven, ambitious, achievement-oriented, imaginative, innovative, independent, versatile, aggressive competitiveness, and proactive in the market – there are six most significant traits for e-business entrepreneurs.  The most significant traits for e-business entrepreneurs are:

1. to have singular-focus
2. to be self-driven
3. to be independent
4. to be versatile
5. to be competitively aggressive
6. to be proactive in the market

These traits are evident in Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Steve Jobs and these traits are complimentary for the success of an e-business entrepreneur.

Whether the purpose for entering the e-business environment is to set up a highly profitable retail website or some great new concept, there are significant traits that contribute to the entrepreneur’s success.  While a successful entrepreneur may not possess all of the characteristics, the most significant traits of singular-focus, self-driven, independent, and versatile are important characteristics to strengthen to ensure success.

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Notable Attributes - There are two notable attributes that are specifically characteristic of e-business entrepreneurs.  They are proactive and competitively aggressive.  Both of these attributes are relative to the specific market environment of the Internet – where the technology changes at a rapid pace.

1. Be Proactive - The Internet is the pinnacle of modern technologies and most e-businesses revolve around technology – software and solutions developers, information providers  with information a that is stored on databases, standard commerce providers whose services are developed around technological systems, and businesses who business is the Internet – search engines, email, web hosting, domain registration, etc.  To compete in a rapidly changing environment, an entrepreneur has to be proactive with meeting the needs of customers and business.
2. Competitively Aggressive -The Internet is a highly competitive environment where some corporations can set up their business with very little capital – the cost to develop a website and the host provider for the website; every other business function can be outsourced.  This environment leads to high competition.  With the rewards of high returns on so little initial costs, companies can re-invent the wheel and turn the key on cash flow at a faster rate than brick and mortar shops.  Those who survive the competition are competitively aggressive.

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