Below is a post by Jeremy Schoemaker of Shoemoney.com.

I am hearing a lot of great stories from people who have gone through my free shoemoneyx.com course and doing some neat things generating revenue.   Please keep sending me your stories.  I love hearing them! That is why I made the program!

Now I don’t mean to pee in your cheerios but I want to talk to you and share something with you. Something I feel is really important.  Making money online is easy.  Profiting from it over the long haul IS NOT.

Eventually everyone’s ship comes in.  When your ship comes in what will you do?  Maybe your ship just came in?

This is my personal story and dealing with my first big success and how I was able to position myself for the best outcome.

I hit rock bottom about 8 years ago.  I was 420 lbs, smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day, about 60k in credit card debt, and just had lost my job.  I also sleeping on my friends couch.

 Its important to know what rock bottom feels like.  Its important to know what its like to really be hungry.  Its important to know what it feels like to drive a 1990 rusty van with no muffler.  Its important to know what having massive amounts of credit card debt and what appears to be no way out feels like.  Its important to have that feeling that you are a failure at life and maybe that’s all you will ever be.

Now I say that its important but to me it was ABSOLUTELY crucial in developing my mindset for success.

I am guessing you have seen the image of me and the Google AdSense check for 132,994.97 for one month.  

Its actually hard to search for anything related to making money on the internet and NOT see it…

The one thing I have never really talked about was the back story on WHY I took a picture of me and that AdSense Check for 133k before taking it to the bank to cashing it.

As I am sure you know Google AdSense is run on your website and you get money when visitors click on your AdSense ad.  Almost all of my traffic was coming from Google so I felt it was really a house of cards.  If Google felt my website was no longer relevant for the keywords they were sending me traffic then over night I was done!

At the time I was totally new to making money on the internet and I never thought it was going to last.

I took the picture because I always thought that if my websites disappeared tomorrow I could leverage that picture into a book or something… I didn’t really know…

I always had in the back of my mind what rock bottom felt like and I never wanted to experience that again.

In hind site it was even more brilliant then I ever thought it was going to be.  Especially that that month was the last month that Google ever sent out paper checks for over $10,000.00  so really nobody will ever have a check.

But I never took my success for granted and I diversified my website income into many other forms instead of just Google AdSense.

I learned how to make money from donations,  affiliate programs direct banner sales,  selling my own products, and subscription.  Within a few months my subscription revenue, Direct banner sales, and affiliate revenue each by themselves dwarfed my Google AdSense revenue.

So I have all this money coming in from the website im all diversified but I still did not really feel safe.

So I started the ShoeMoney blog (originally on googleninja.com before I obtained shoemoney.com) basically just talking about the ins and outs of making money.

Because I had the Google AdSense Check for 133k and some pretty other large screenshots of revenue that I could use to make points on what I was talking about the blog VERY quickly became an authority in the space of making money online.   So much so that in its first year that we implemented advertising on shoemoney.com we did over 2007 $100,000.00 in revenue.

In 2008 we boosted that to $490,000.00

in 2009 shoemoney.com will make over $750,000.00 probably closer to 1m in revenue.

But lets take a step back.  Because we had built this authority we were able to leverage our audience into starting our own conference called the elite retreat.  We started the event in 2006 and have sold out events every year since.  Even at a price tag of $5,000.00 per person.

In 2007 we leveraged the blog audience and our contacts and started our own advertising network called Auctionads.  Auctionads is truly an amazing success story and one of my proudest accomplishments.  We took a company from 0 to 25k active publishers doing over 3 million per month in revenue in less then 4 months and sold the company.  That is simply unheard of.  It would not have been possible without leveraging our previously accomplishments and taking them to the next level.

So what drives me to keep doing more things?

I can remember that feeling of hitting rock bottom like it was yesterday.

ONLY now the steaks are MUCH bigger.  I am now married and have 2 kids.  I also have 20 employees that I am responsible for.

So why am I telling you all this.

I want you to recognize what you have and not take it for granted.

I had to hit rock bottom to find myself and really develop a work ethic and drive for more.  Maybe you don’t?

Always be leveraging your current position and looking for your next thing.

I have no doubt that everyone reading this will come into money/success eventually.  If you love what you do and you keep trying then its just the law of averages.  Eventually its going to work.  But when it does what will you do?

In today’s economy it’s a very good idea to generate passive income to supplement or better yet replace your existing salary.  Passive income is usually defined as income received on a regular basis, with little effort required to maintain it.  However, let’s be clear, creating “systems” to generate passive income takes work and is not a get rich system. Sometimes it involves trial and error and some financial investment.

The Internet is a great place to generate passive income because it can easily be automated.  There are two types of people who use the Internet.  There are the “Users” and “Providers”.  The Users make money for the Providers.  Users browse the Web by making purchases, viewing ads, clicking on ads and even creating content for the Providers.  Sites like MySpace, YouTube, Facebook and forums are created with content by Users which create value for the Providers.  

In order for you to make money online you have to be a Provider.  You must offer some type of product or service that Users find valuable.  With computers and the Internet this process can be completely automated.    Most websites are automated, so once a provider creates a website, it can run on auto pilot with the provider doing little work to maintain it.  This is where the passive income comes in place.

One strategy for passive income is affiliate marketing. Affiliate Marketing is promoting products/services that you don’t own or provide for a commission.  You register with an Affiliate Company to get an account, which gives you access to hyper-links (via text or banners) to products/services.  You take the link and place it out in the Internet world (via e-mail, website / landing page, paid advertising) to send traffic to your affiliate.  When an action is taken (sale or lead generation), you get a commission. People have become millionaires doing this!

There are many free resources on the Internet to learn about Affiliate Market.  However, if you are seeking an inexpensive training seminar, consider Secret Affiliate Weapon 2.0 – Passive Income Secrets! by Ewen Chia.  The course costs only $27.00 and provides a wealth of information in one place.

Related Articles:

• How I Made $125K in Commission via Affiliate Marketing
• Make Money Online With Free Open Source Software

To be successful at many things in life requires a good start.  Whether its school, health, money, career, relationships, raising children, starting a business, etc.  Just like a sprinter running a race, he or she must have a good start to win, even if he or she is the fastest sprinter.
 
I often tell teenagers heading off to college to not “screw-up” their first two years of college.  Many teens party their first two years of college and end up with low GPAs.  By the time they realize their mistake it’s very difficult to raise their GPAs.  The first 2 years of college is easier than the last 2 years.  They screwed up the easy courses and now they have to work harder to get good grades in tougher courses.  If they did well the first 2 years and didn’t do as well the last 2 years, their GPAs would not suffer as much.  I explain to them that it’s imperative to have a good start!

The same goes with health.  Maintaining your weight, exercising, eating right and not smoking early in life will benefit you in the long term.  If you eat poorly, don’t exercise, smoke, gain excess weight early in life it will be more difficult later in life to reverse it than maintaining it earlier in life.

Money is also an area where it’s imperative to get a good start early in life.  Once you are on your own, manage your money correctly from the start.  Save to buy things and do not finance purchases using a credit card. Live below your means.  Pay 0ff your bills on time to maintain a good credit score.  Develop and follow a budget.  Have an emergency fund.  Put money in your company’s 401K plan.  If you have a good financial start, you will reap the rewards later in life.  Managing your money poorly early in your adult life will cost your dearly in the long-term.  If your credit is low, you will end up paying much higher interest rates when purchasing a home or a car.  Or you may be simply denied loans.  Financing things with a credit card will cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars in unnecessary interest fees.  If you have no money saved, when hard times hit (loss of job, illness, divorce, etc,) you may end up filing bankruptcy or losing your home.

There are many more situations in life that it’s imperative to have a good start.  Starting off poorly quickly leads down the road of failure where it becomes hard to reverse.

Related Article: Do You Have the 3 D’s for Success?

Back in the days of no-money-down lending most people bypassed using a government-insured Federal Housing Authority (FHA) loan, which allows borrowers to purchase a home for as little as 3.5% down payment.  

With today’s real estate market, FHAs are the only alternative for buyers who cannot afford the minimum down payment of 10% that many banks now require for a conventional loan.

According to a Zillow.com survey, about one-third of buyers have 10% or less saved for a down payment.  As a result, FHA loans have increased dramically from 3% to 25% of the loan market.

Below are some facts about FHA loans:

• FHA loans are not only for low-income borrowers.  There is no cap on what a borrower earns.
• The max loan is $271,050 in areas where real estate is cheap, $729,750 in expensive markets such as California and New York.
• Thorough appraisals are required for FHA loans by the government.  Sellers must fix all issues before a buyer can close on a FHA loan.
• Nominal interest rates for FHA mortgages are comparable to conventional loans; however, there is a 1.75% upfront charge and a 0.5% annual insurance premium for 5 years and until the principal balance hits 78% of the sales price or the home’s appraised value.
• FHA mortgages now only takes a few days longer that conventional loans to close.
• FHA loans require written documentation of income which includes pay stubs and tax returns.

Very interesting video below of how quickly the world is changing especially because of technology.  Enjoy!

Bank of America new promotion states, “Now that you’ve moved to a new neighborhood, maybe it’s time to move to a new bank.”  Hence the picture above with the woman moving boxes. 

Bank of America is offering $100 to open a new checking account.  That’s not bad! This offer is only available to new customers who open a qualifying personal checking account with a minimum balance of $500.  That’s an immediate 20% return in you deposit the minimum $500.  

Additionally, the new checking account must be open for at least 30 days and you must make a minimum of one transaction with the newly assigned check card.  That’s easy enough!  

To open a new checking account, apply online or go to a banking center and reference offer code AOU261009.

A Bank of America checking account offers you:

• Free MyAccess Checking with no monthly maintenance fee when opened online. Special online only offer
• Banking near home, work or school with over 6,100 banking centers
• Access to your money at over 18,000 ATMs
• Check balances, pay bills, and transfer funds with Online and Mobile Banking
• Effortless savings with Keep the Change

For more information visit BankofAmerica.com.

Keith Olbermann of MSNBC has been tirelessly supporting the public health insurance option and tonight’s show is bound to be powerful. Keith Olbermann has a goal of getting 50,000 people to take his pledge to watch his hour-long Special Comment on health care reform this Wednesday and to tell 5 of my friends to take this pledge.” Click here to take the Olbermann Pledge.

See the interesting video below of Keith Olbermann stance on the healthcare debate.

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• What is the Public Option Per Healthcare Reform?
• Why Aren’t Americans Mad About their Healthcare System?
• It’s Time to Fix the American Healthcare Crisis