www.affiliateconfession.com

I’ve been reading and thoroughly enjoying Aaron Wall’s SEOBook mainly because Aaron takes a very honest look at building businesses on the net, providing value for your visitors and what it takes to make a successful web site. In reading SEOBook I came across a quote that’s by Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the Internet (sorry Al Gore, the net wasn’t your baby). Aaron quotes a longer passage by Tim of which I’m only using a couple of sentences:

Core in my upbringing was a value system that put monetary gain well in it’s place, behind things like doing what I really wanted to do. To use net worth as a criterion by which to judge people is to set our children’s sights on cash rather then what will actually make them happy.

While it is apparent to those of us who either work at home or are striving to do so, that working at a job and climbing the corporate ladder probably is not the thing that will make us happy, we can be equally as culpable in the things we strive for in the Dot Com world. I’ll be the first to raise my hand, not very high, and somewhat sheepishly exclaim, “guilty”. The prevalence of the get-rich-quick mentality on the Internet can be a detrimental influence that must be tamed.

What about you? What’s your perspective on the things that really provide happiness?

Sunday’s thought today is going to be a little different. Instead of a quote, how about a question? Since we all love to make money on the web, how about thinking a little in the opposite direction and putting some thought into how to make money outside of the web. No I don’t mean at a job, if you have one, I mean a different discipline altogether such as real estate (is anyone making money at this now?), manufacturing, franchising, consulting services, sales, being in a rock and roll band, whatever.

Think of something you are doing right now or have thought about that doesn’t involve making money from the closed system of the web. What I mean by that is, you can still make money using the web to advertise or get leads, but you can’t make money on the web by using only the web. Have you thought about what you would do?

Okay, I’ll start. My wife and I checked into owning a rental cabin some time ago and looked into buying a cabin in the Gatlinburg area, only problem was, with the price of cabins in that area, you would nearly have to have 100% occupancy to stand any chance of making money. Gatlinburg does have a high occupancy rate, but unless you can make enough of a down payment (50 to 60%) to offset your mortgage payment, it’s still very hard to make money.

We then looked in northern Georgia 2 to 3 years ago and the real estate prices were very good, but the occupancy rate was much lower. Same problem here, hard to make a profit. However, 3 years later with what I know about marketing through the web, I think I could make a pretty good go at a cabin or 2 or 3 in northern Georgia and exceed the occupancy rate in that area. That’s one of those things on the back burner I keep thinking about and would like to try when the Internet income goes up a bit.

So what are you thinking about? Outside the web, what’s on your back burner?

Albert Einstein has always intrigued me because he was just as much a philosopher as he was a scientist. Consequently I’ve borrowed one of his quotes for this Sunday’s thought of the day.

“Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.”

A couple of months ago I was talking a morning walk and was a bit frustrated with the way things were going with my affiliate businesses, thinking how hard I’ve worked on many different things and the sometimes less than desirable results. As I walk, I occasionally like to kick rocks, acorns or what ever rolls well just to see how far they go. This particular morning I couldn’t connect with the acorns and my kicking effort ended in frustration as I seemed to be topping every one and watched them roll about 3 feet in front of me.

After 4 or 5 attempts to kick game winning 70 yard field goals, my acorn kicking desire waned and I continued on around our neighborhood cul-de-sac. As I passed nearly the same spot as my latest failed 3 pointer, my left foot (I’m right footed) connected perfectly with an acorn and it rolled out about 30 to 40 feet in front of me as if it were making a statement. After telling my wife about this little encounter, when either of us is struggling with striving too hard towards a target now, one will jokingly say to the other, “Let the acorn kick the foot.”

No effort and no payment had produced the greatest result.

Are you working hard and paying a big price for something you could get for free?

I came across a brilliant quote from Winston Churchill and thought I’d share it for this Sunday’s though.

“It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required.”

Have you ever worked your tail off and not seen the results and then you’re disappointed because you thought you did your best? If you’re involved in any kind of internet marketing the answer I’m sure, is yes.

But maybe what you were doing was more fun, than it was necessary. There are many things I enjoy doing for my online businesses and yet some things that are required, I’m not that fond of. When I sold stuff on eBay, I despised having to package the things I was selling because it took so much time, but obviously, packaging was required if the customer’s merchandise were to arrive undamaged.

Are you giving your best to the fun things, but avoiding the required?

Your thoughts?

Today’s thought is another that was found in Tim Ferriss’ book, The 4 Hour Work Week, but originates from Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have troubles.”

This can be related a lot to the get rich quick mentality that is so prevalent on the net today. You especially see it in the multitude of ebooks for sale promising everything from blogging riches, to Adsense riches, to a quick buck in real estate, to numerous other methods of creating money.

Methods may create some quick cash, but principles are timeless and create true wealth. Are you thinking about how you can cash in on the net with the latest technique for manipulating Google or are you thinking about how you can help other people get what they want or need from life?

Sometimes it can be a struggle between these two competing drives for the Internet businessperson and I am as guilty as the rest.

Your thoughts?