There are thousands of people who call themselves "internet marketers" sitting at their computers right now with the intentions of making money online. However, most of them will not make any money, or if they do make some money, it's won't be nearly as much as they were hoping to earn.
So, why is it that so many internet marketers are not making money?
It's because most of them are simply wasting their time when they are "working" online! There are countless ways this can happen. Often times when internet marketers think they are working, they really aren't. One example is checking your email 20 times per day. I could go on and on giving you examples of how you are wasting your time each day but instead I challenge you to sit back and think about that for yourself.
I will, however, tell you that one of the biggest things internet marketers do to waste their time is blogging. I bet that got your attention! You have been conditioned to think that blogging is vital for online business so you are probably wondering why the heck I would say that it's a waste of time and will not make you any money.
Here's why...
In order to make money online, you need traffic to your website or blog. There is no way to get around this fact. However, when you spend all day writing blog posts, you forget to do one very important thing... Market your blog! As an "internet marketer" the most important part of your job is to market.
You can have the best blog in the world with more original content than all ten of the top blogs in your niche, but that means nothing if you don't get any visitors. Your site might contain the secret to life, but if nobody knows about your site they will never read it. Do you see what I mean? Unless you get visitors, you won't make money!
But you can't just get any kind of traffic either. You don't want untargeted traffic. You don't want Web 2.0 traffic. You don't want other internet marketers and bloggers as your main source of traffic. Why? Because those are the people that won't click your ads, buy from your affiliate links, or even notice any of the things you have on your site that will make you money.
You need to get traffic from the search engines! The visitors you get to your website/blog from search engines are targeted, they are actively searching for your topic, and they don't have a clue what Adsense is or what affiliate links are. Plus, if you have done your research and are in the right niche, they are ready to spend money. These are the visitors you make money from.
So, what's the lesson here?
Simple... Stop wasting your time posting to your blog just hoping someone will come read it. Or wasting even more of your time on digg, myspace, delicious, or any of the other social bookmarking and social networking sites that will bring you traffic but not the kind that will make you any money.
Instead, spend more time each day getting inbound links and working on other search engine optimization techniques. Use as much time as you can each day getting your website/blog ranked at the top of the search engines so you can bring in more of the type of visitors that will make you money.
Doing this one simple thing will greatly increase your chances of making money online so you can quit your job to become a full-time internet marketer and live the life you've always dreamed of. Now, stop wasting your time and start making money!
Trent Brownrigg is a successful internet marketer, blogger, and online business mentor. His passion is helping people start their own home business and make money online. He will also teach you all you need to know about working at home.