If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Why aren’t I on the front page of Google results?

How much money can I make?

What’s the most profitable keywords?

Why aren’t I making money already?

Where’s…?

I’m seeing a lot of questions like this by new members at various publisher sites, and some even have less than 7 days experience.

Squidoo, HubPages, et al, aren’t a magic lamp that you rub and the genie pops out, granting wishes and bestowing riches.

It requires hard work, smart thinking and lots of learning to get to the stage where you have half a decent grip on what what’s required and how to do it. There are many paths to success, you just need to find yours. And the road is easy (sitting on your butt in front of the computer is by no means hard) but it is long.

It requires patience.

Don’t think you can fast track your way to success.

Feeling disappointed?

Don’t be.

I feel that the harder you have work towards gaining it will mean the harder it is for you to lose it.

If for instance you find sudden success with a hot keyword it might go as quick as it came. If you’ve ever had the displeasure of being on a mailing list of an internet marketing guru you’ll see it happen week after week. And the gurus do make money from these hot products, because they’re getting a commission by selling it to their flock. They all got word in advance and release the information at a predetermined and coordinated time. By the time you’re ready to roll out and start selling it’s already past its used by date.

Stick to the things you know. Better yet, stick to the things you LOVE. Once you’ve established a strong web presence and you start to get sales (if the topic is inclined towards monetization) you’ll be around for a long time to come.

Here’s a quote by Randy Pausch that I think you should think about, especially if you’re feeling like the road to Squidoo success is slow and steep: “The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people!”