The Formula

If you've made it this far I assume you're serious about learning how to make an actual living online and that you're smart enough to know that it's not just going to happen on eHow and that getting rich overnight doesn't happen unless you inherit a fortune or score a winning lottery ticket.

You've probably figured out by now that the answer isn't inside a $29 e-book that's sold on one of those screens that scrolls down for what seems like forever.

The good news is that it can be done.

The better news is that I'm going to show you exactly how I do it.

The bad news is it's takes time and effort (but you already knew that).

A year ago I had a regular day job and now I use the formulas below to make my living.

• Am I rich? No.
• Am I making more money every day? Yes.
• Can I wake up whenever I want every morning and do what I want every day without being stressed about money? A resounding YES.
  

Here's how ...

Even though this post is titled "The Formula" there are really two formulas that are intertwined.

These two formulas collectively summarize what I've found to be the most effective way to make money online. If you've found something that works better for you I'd sincerely like to hear about it.

I'm calling one formula "Subjective" because it deals with attitude and labeling the second formula "Objective" because it focuses on analytics as opposed to thoughts or perceptions.

Subjective Formula for success:

(a) knowing what to do + (b) setting goals + (c) executing short term goals + (d) sustaining motivation = (z) Success.

The subjective formula can be applied to any facet of life (just change the "a" variable).

While the above a+b+c+d = z model isn't an Earth shattering revelation I wanted to begin with this illustration because without this simple formula no amount of knowledge, talent, or good idea will ever amount to anything.

When it comes to making money online there's a tremendous emphasis on wanting to know exactly how to do it (and understandably so) but if you take nothing else from this post entire website please remember that knowing what to do is not enough to be successful - it's just a fraction of the equation.

If you read this post from top to bottom you should understand exactly how to execute a legitimate and time tested way to make money online.

I can't promise this is the best system in the world, just that it's the best I've found so far. For those of you that decide this isn't for you I genuinely hope you find whatever it is that works best for you.

The Objective Formula below outlines what the (a) variable in the Subjective Formula should include to successfully make money online.

Objective Formula:

(a) target a strategic niche online + (b) create a website for the chosen niche + (c) drive traffic to the site + (d) monetize the website = (z) Success

If thinking about this method in terms of steps is more helpful for you then by all means do so:

Step 1: target a strategic niche

Step 2: create a website for the chosen niche

Step 3: drive traffic to the site

Step 4: monetize the website

Reaching your financial goal is as simple as repeating this formula until you get there.

Oddly enough I think it makes the most sense to explain the variables in the reverse order that I presented them.

(d) monetize the website

If you've read through this eHow website from beginning to end you should be familiar with many of the straightforward methods for monetizing a website.

For a refresher course on affiliate links visit the posts on Days 25, 26, 27, 28, and 29.

For Google AdSense information revisit posts on Days 4, 9, 16, and 19.

If you're like me you easily get excited thinking about all the different ways to turn website traffic into money in your checking account. It's easy to get caught up in all of the enticing sales pitches, banners, and commission splits.

Believe it or not monetizing your website should be the last thing on your list. There are so many options and methods for monetization that it shouldn't be a problem once you have traffic.

If you can drive sustainable targeted traffic to your website making money won't be a matter of "if" but rather a matter of "when."

Targeted traffic is the key to everything.

That last sentence is worth repeating - targeted traffic is the key to everything.

This sounds simple but actually getting targeted traffic is (not surprisingly) the hard part. Of course, the more you know the easier it becomes.

There's a very methodical process that myself and many other people use to get the top rankings for specific searches. I'll explain more about that later on.

(c) drive traffic to the site

You can spend as much money as you'd like on a Google AdWords campaign where you literally pay for every click that goes through to your website, or you can tell everyone you know about your website and cross your fingers that it spreads virally by word of mouth, or you can simply follow a somewhat boring strategy for turning up at the top of search engine results.

Driving search engine traffic to your site and specifically Google traffic is unquestionably the most effective strategy.

What do I know about this?

Here's an example using this very site (eHow Experience):

I've been as high as #2 on the Google search results for the often searched for word "ehow" (see below):

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My ranking does fluctuate and I understand that I'll never be able to overtake "eHow.com" for the top spot and that's okay.

Ranking as the #1 search result for the term "eHow" wasn't my objective when I started this project so I consequently didn't approach it the way I would if I were starting all over again now.

As you probably read in the Summary Post I didn't know what I was doing when I first started this project. To say I didn't know what I was doing is an overstatement. It would be more accurate to say that I knew close to nothing.

Because this website is no longer the top priority to me that it once was I wouldn't even be surprised if I fell off of the first page of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) completely.

In fact, knowing what I know now this is not only a keyword that I wouldn't recommend, but this is actually an entire category that I suggest you avoid ... and it has nothing to do with minimizing my competition.

In the "target a specific niche" section below I'll explain why you should avoid this entire category and why this keyword is too competitive to easily sustain a top ranking. Can it be done? Yes. Are there much easier ways to make a buck? Definitely.

Earlier I alluded to the keyword "ehow" as being an often searched for term. If you're wondering how often it's searched for take a look at the Google data below:

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The word "ehow" is searched for on Google an average of 246,000 times a month and in September 2009 it was searched for 301,000 times. That works out to an average of 8,200 searches per day and 10,033 searches per day during the most recent month that data is available.

Keep in mind this data is just for Google searches so these numbers don't include searches on Bing, Yahoo, Ask, etc.

The data above illustrates the impact a #1 Google ranking can have on your traffic while also showing you that I'm not just pulling numbers out of the air and that I know something about SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

It's easy to understood that the more targeted traffic you bring in the more money you'll make, but the big question still remains as to how to efficiently get to the top of SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) for profitable search terms.

The answer as to how to rank #1 in Google search results ties directly to strategically selecting the right niche and will be covered in detail below.

(b) create a website for the chosen niche

I'm not tech savvy at all and you don't have to be either to create websites that rank at the top of Google's SERPs.

A simple Wordpress or Blogger (like this one) website will work fine.

If you spend time researching the topic of creating a website you'll probably run into a lot of people trying to sell expensive website creation services and insisting that you need to pay extra for web hosting.

If you haven't already noticed a lot of people will sneakily try to sell you these products by pretending to be impartial reviewers that mascaraed as folks just looking out for your best interest.

The bottom line is that if your priority is to copy what I've done to make money online by ranking at the top of Google SERPs then you don't need to spend a dime for hosting or website design.

The only expense you'll incur is if/when you choose to buy a domain for $10 (likely from GoDaddy.com). If you've already used Blogger you're aware that anyone can start working on a free blog/website before spending $10 for a cleaner more branded URL (like www.ehowexperience.com instead of the free Blogger option: www.ehowexperience.blogspot.com).

It would be impossible in this limited space for me to go over every little detail about laying out a website so just remember that you don't have to pay for a website or hosting. You'll learn as you go and your websites don't have to look pretty or fancy to rank well in the Google SERPs.

While there is something to be said for website visitors enjoying an aesthetically pleasing layout search engine visitors are concerned with content, not looks. Often times less is more when it comes to website format - just look at Google.

Another example of a spartan design is the website you're reading right now, it's admittedly a mess.

I could pay someone to make this website look world class but I'd rather keep the money in my pocket and I suspect the reason you're still reading this page is because you're interested in the content and not how pretty it looks.

(a) target a strategic niche online

This final topic that we'll be covering is probably the most important because it's the basis for everything else.

If a niche isn't targeted properly all of the energy expended on the Subjective and Objective Formulas will result in woefully disappointing results.

I unfortunately know from experience that this is not a topic to be taken lightly as it's the foundation from which all of your success is dependent upon.

Early on while teaching myself how to do this I disappointingly wasted a lot of time on projects that were unbeknownst to me doomed from the very beginning.

Even now as I write this it's frustrating looking back and thinking about how much time and energy I wasted.

Much like my Day 5 post which describes a time of utter frustration I realize that the best way to look at these types of frustrating experiences is as if the time and energy invested was not a waste at all, but rather the price for an education. In other words: tuition.

As critically important as the topic of selecting the right niches is I won't be able to comprehensively cover it as well as I'd like for two reasons:

1. The shear volume of information necessary to properly cover this topic is beyond the scope of this website.
   
2. This is a somewhat personalized decision. As you'll see below a project that may be profitable for one person might not be successful for another.
   

Fortunately, I can offer some insights to point you in the right direction.

* Don't focus on Make Money Online (MMO) niches

I realize that I may sound hypocritical since the website you're reading right now technically falls into the MMO category.

The MMO universe is over saturated and that's what I was referring to earlier when I stated that this is a category that I recommend avoiding all together.

MMO blogs and websites are so abundant because the same people that are interested in making money online spend a lot of time reading about how to do it and then decide that because it's the subject they're most interested in that's what they'll pursue.

I say find a less crowded sector that better targets people who are ready to make purchases - not just people who are trying to learn as much as possible while trying to spend as little as possible.

Every day the web is flooded with more people starting MMO blogs and to make matters worse everyone in these circles knows what an affiliate link is and everyone knows what a Google AdSense ad is. These people are often skeptical of ads and generally avoid them because they know how arbitrary most of the products they promote are.

I won't say this strategy never works but I will say that there are much easier ways to make a buck once you stop thinking like the masses or in this case your competition.

* Don't get too greedy too early

If you don't yet understand how to research keywords or phrases to analyze historical search data you soon will. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a science that requires actual statistics and not just gut feelings.

Needless to say some keywords or phrases are much more competitive than others.

Don't make the mistake of going up against large companies that have teams of SEO professionals. These are positions you can't win.

Avoid specific products or brand names because people searching for these terms are generally looking for a specific brand's website (this would include "ehow").

Analyze the strength of the first page (top ten) search results to make sure you can at least get onto the first page.

A prominent search engine expert once quipped, "there is no award, little traffic, and virtually no value for ranking on page 2 or page 3, even if it is for an exceptionally competitive and high traffic keyword like credit cards."

Analyze Page Ranks and Alexa ratings before committing to a topic. If you're not familiar with Alexa ratings and Page Ranks the recommended link at the end of this article will be especially useful.

When people are searching they almost always just look at the first page of results. Think about your own search engine habits. The lesson to be learned here is that if you can't get on the first page it's not worth your time.

*Utilize long tailed keywords

Long tailed keywords are phrases that are usually more than three words and the value behind them is that while specific sets of keywords are searched for less often than general terms the specific phrases are easier to rank well in SERPs because there's less competition. Additionally these long tailed keywords usually send traffic that's more targeted and in many cases more ready to make a purchase.

As an an example let's use "Lake Tahoe condo rental" as our long tailed keyword phrase.

While the phrase, "Lake Tahoe condo rental" is searched for significantly less than the general word "travel" we have a much better chance of making money with a term like "Lake Tahoe condo rental."

At the time of this writing the word "travel" is globally searched for about 185 million times a month on Google alone. That's about 4,300 searches a minute for every single minute of every single day of the year. (Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity in that order currently rank one, two, and three for the search term "travel.")

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By comparison "Lake Tahoe condo rental" only has about 1,900 Google searches per month, which is about 60 a day. Significantly less than the 6.17 million daily searches for the term travel.

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If you can quickly build a site that ranks at the top of the SERPs for "Lake Tahoe condo rental" then you can expect up to about 60 visitors a day (not every search will end up looking at your site but there will also be other search engine searches to offset that).

Does this mean "Lake Tahoe condo rental" is a good niche term to focus a project on? Not necessarily. We need more information.

Before determining if "Lake Tahoe condo rental" is in fact a term worth pursuing some additional research needs to be done on the competition, as well as monetization options, and ultimately your conversation rate will be dependent on the quality of the content you're able to provide visitors that find your site(s).

If you currently don't know anything about Lake Tahoe you can certainly learn about it, but this project would be much easier if you already have a wealth of knowledge about Lake Tahoe condo rentals or at the very least are really interested in the topic.

In addition to crunching numbers consider the following tip before committing to a niche.

* Work on something that interests you

Too many people are hard wired to believe that work can't be interesting, educational, and dare I say ... fun.

It might surprise you to hear that perhaps my favorite part about what I do isn't the flexibility in terms of when to work and where but the fact that I can work on what I'm interested in and not what someone else tells me needs to get done.

There are certainly boring and tedious times but for the most part on the other sites that I run I'm either writing, researching, or commenting on message boards about things that I'm interested in. It's essentially getting paid to spend my time the way I would anyway.

You can work on a project about your favorite sport, or your favorite TV show, or your favorite place on Earth.

Pets, movies, music, desserts, and everything else under the sun can be money making topics.

If you try to force a topic that your analysis says is profitable it'll be a miserable experience if it's something you have no interest in.

I'm very analytical so I can understand how easy it is to become so wrapped up in the Objective Formula that the Subjective Formula (which requires sustained motivation) becomes neglected.

The next step

Now that you've stayed with me through this long post on this "ugly" website I hope you learned some new things, remembered somethings you'd forgotten, or at least looked at a familiar topic from a different angle.

If you understand the concepts behind the system that I practice, the logic makes sense to you, and you want to pursue it further the two main items you'll need help with are:

1. Strategically selecting online niches
2. Ranking at the top of Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

I can tell you from experience that if you can master just those two items you'll never again have to show up to an office, deal with a commute, or look for a job again.

Rather than spend the time to create an entire program I'm going to refer you to two credible people that already have. Will I make money if you end up sticking with their program? Yep - but only if you stick with it for the long run and that means you'll make money too.

You can spend close to a year learning from trial and error like I did or you can spend one dollar and tryout Mark and Courtney's Keyword Academy Crash Course for a month and learn everything you need to know.

This isn't another waste time and money - just an honest tool for the small percentage of readers that are willing to put in the effort and who really do want to make to make their living online.

As described in the Subjective Formula the execution is up to you.

You have all the tools right in front of you. All I can do is hand you a pack of seeds; it's up to you to grow your wealth. (Was that last comment too cheesy? Let me know - leave a comment.)