.. that there is no secret. Those looking to strike it rich with PPC and affiliate marketing or SEO-niche sites are going to be gravely disappointed because ultimately, there aren’t many viable shortcuts.

You see it on every money making forum. People just starting out, who have high hopes that by choosing the right niche, adding the appropriate meta tags and a few fancy Wordpress plugins, they can create a system that brings in $100/day. Some even go to the length of using post submitting software and outsourcing writers. Ironically, attempting to ditch the 9 to 5 results in a repetitive, passionless, stressful endeavor that requires 60 hours a week, with the only thing showing for it is a dollar a month in your Adsense account - if that.

Choose Two

You want to make money and choose to do so by building a site, blog, forum, etc that you have absolutely no passion for. This itself means long, tedious work. If you don’t put in the time or money, you will end up with a half-assed product. For increased quality in a short period of time, one can outsource the work, but unless you put in a lot of money, the product will still suck.

Most people believe that they can do a few hours worth of work for little to no cost, and expect big returns. Time, cost and quality: You can’t have all three at the same time.

Quality at low cost: Developing a product without spending any money on it might result in quality output, but it would take a tremendous amount of time to finish.

Quality in a short amount of time: You want to release your blog before the niche is dead, but unless you pay a lot of money for a good designer, programmer and writers, you’re going to be releasing Just Another Niche Blog that will be inferior to the blogs out by people passionate about the subject.

And So Can You!

People always point to Steve Pavlina’s or another blog that earns a mind-boggling amount of revenue. Steve Pavlina supposedly makes over $40,000/mo on his blog, and I wouldn’t hesitate to believe that. Why? Because he has a quality product. He writes new, rich content that people WANT to read. If you’re paying an Indian or Romanian $2 for a post filled with quality keywords, then it’s most likely going to come out as crap. It makes a good example of how one can write an article around certain keywords, but doesn’t serve as content that humans actually want. Therein lies the problem. In the midst of all the SEO/PPC/six-figure-blog hype, a crucial piece of information seems to have been lost: You’re creating a product for human beings.

Be serious. Do you read any blog decorated with text-link ads and banners after every paragraph? Do you browse sites where the content is just copied and pasted from a forum or put together by bots? Exactly, so what makes you think other people would enjoy such sites? They won’t, and that’s what most people’s #1 mistake is. They’ve lost the human factor. They create things that they themselves would never use.

Trying to earn a living making niche blogs and using PPC and affiliate marketing is hard. It is a lot more work than a 9 to 5, and unless you have a few thousand dollars to put into it early on, will lead nowhere. You will work your ass off every weekend maintaining your sites and making new campaigns, and while this might seem temporary (and thrilling) at first, it doesn’t really end. In fact, it gets harder and requires even more money and time. So unless you are willing to dedicate at least as much effort and time - with a pinch of risk and a heaping load of stress - to this stuff as you would to a 9 to 5, I suggest finding a new niche.

Keep the big picture in your mind. Many success stories defy the rules put forth in every business/SEO book. Why? Because the creator’s focus wasn’t “to make that which brings money,” but to do what she is passionate about and doesn’t mind doing. While you’re $10 blog has a fancy layout and keyword-rich titles, successful blogs like Steve Pavlina continue to break the rules, having titles that SEO-consultants would gasp at - like “Proof.”

Time Is Manna

Instead of wasting your time moving your ads 2 pixels to the left to see if your 100 daily hits (90% of which are search engine crawlers, and the other 10% are you) are more likely to click, spend time doing something you’re passionate about. Read, play a sport, research topics you enjoy (instead of ring tones and recipes), light a spliff, listen to music, etc. Get a job, and save some money for when you do have a product you can market. Create a site or a blog that is primarily centered around your hobbies and interests, whether or not they happen to be a big niche. Worry about SEO after you actually have a website you can optimize.

Many many people do make loads of money a day online, but they are a tiny minority, and if you’re reading this post (look at the title again), then you’re likely not one of those people. This might seem pessimistic and cynical, but the entire point of the post is: Spend your time working on quality projects. Unique ideas, good content aimed at humans instead of search engines, and persistence will eventually make you rich. Your time is valuable, and spending it on temporary campaigns and niche sites that are generating more stress than income defeats the entire purpose of ditching the 9 to 5.

/rant

OK! Now let’s bring some optimism in. Pop some of the Valium you’re promoting and relax for a second. Become aware of what you’re doing. Are you learning from your mistakes? Are you progressing towards your initial goal? Do you see yourself doing the same thing a few months from now? Does what you’re doing plain suck? Weigh the pros and cons and determine if you wish to continue this route. For people who are making a lot of money, this is an easy answer. The people who are browsing every blog and forum looking for a secret to how all these 20 year olds have $100K checks coming in monthly are likely not getting the point. The “secret” is to stop reading and begin doing actual work. Creating good content, polishing your product endlessly and remaining innovative are hard to compete with.

The honest truth is that there IS success to be made with PPC and affiliate marketing. Successful Internet businesses pop up every day. And many people strike it rich on a regular basis, but all of these put together still represent a very small minority. The people who succeed are innovators. The reason none of the tips and specific techniques you read online work is because people only post them after they’re no longer making them any money. I’ve been there and done that. When I found a successful campaign, I didn’t waste my time posting about it. I spent my time bringing in as much money as I could. There is definitely money to be made, but one must make a small shift in their perception on making money online. It’s not easy! - Be wary of this the next time you click a post titled “Easy way to make $1000/day.” It might have worked for the poster, and one should applaud him for his innovative idea, but it’s unlikely to work for you. Spend your time innovating!