Do you have passion for what you are doing?

You can earn a living without passion. Earning an online living without it though is much harder. Every business has its ups and downs. When your doing something which you're passionate about two things happen. You have something to hold onto during the hard times and a true passion makes your daily activities for the business not feel like work at all.

Each person is different. What works for you won't work for another. This is true of any business. What are you passionate about? In reality an internet business can be created to earn from it. In many cases real life skills can be used to create an income from online sources. It is amazing how many people are working at making a living online.In some cases it may not work out as planned. You may start with one idea and end up still within your passion earning a totally different way.

On the internet there was what they called a "gold rush" when you could put about anything on line and earn from it. This changed, and has changed again. We are back in a new one which is different than the first. Now it takes understanding how to use social networks to create interest. It takes creating content which in turn creates interest in "your business." The use of pictures and videos is more necessary now than ever. Using them properly will create the buzz you need to start and keep earning.

One thing which hasn't changed is list building. With an opt in box there are way more sales than without one. Many make the mistake of believing emails to the list are all sales copy. If your personality or some personal aspects of your life aren't part of them people will have no reason to remain on your list. If we have learned anything in the past year it’s the money is in the list. We recommend video emails because the current open rate is the highest available. This is likely to change in the future when the newness wears off, however for now the open rate is close to 10 percent. The worldwide average for an auto responder series is 1.4 percent. This is one tool that is still available truly free. What we are waiting for is a company who integrates video and auto responsers together. So far no one has.

It has taken thousands of hours and many mentors to get this business moving. In the past year we have learned of many companies who are selling outdated products and services and have also met a few who have been online for years quietly earning an online living and all of those are in the six figures or above. The one we listen to most is making six figures a month.

The ones who quietly make a living never flaunt fancy cars, mansions, and rarely show shots of pay pages. For the most part they are involved in their business and what the rest of the marketers are doing has little meaning to them. You will never hear them call themselves a “Guru”. Believe me they are hard to reach. Privacy is important to them. It helps to know someone who has been mentored by them.

One thing they all have in common is they split test about everything. Some of these tests are unbelievable. They try to find even little things like placement of content, their product, and opt in forms. People react to colors so these are tested also. They know they have a limited time to capture attention and do everything in their power to make sure this happens.

The ones we met who make big money from blogs never have ads on them. They have learned the money is in the list so put opt in forms so they can sell through emails. More and more are going to adding a video to their website or blog also because these help with SEO and are seen as a way to keep people on their site longer. They have learned the longer someone remains on a site the better chance they have of having them opt in to their list.

My first mentors were the people on hubpages who showed me what was possible online. My feelings about my first hubs were they were not good. People showed me how to improve them and improve my writing style. This gift helped me both with writing and in business. They also taught me passion is very important no matter what you do to earn a living.

Most offer something of value free also. My intention is to do that in this hub. It is in a question form.

How many people are taking advantage of the tax advantages of being a business owner? If your not you are not optimizing your earnings. In the United States your business is expected to lose money the first few years of operation. The best advice we can give is talk to a tax consultant or lawyer and use your income tax returns to increase your bottom line.

© Updated Aug,25, 2012 Dennis Thorgesen for Lisech eMarketing, All rights reserved.