John Merrick

I’m not sure how I managed to miss this milestone, but in January 2010 I should have celebrated my 10 years working online anniversary. However instead I was actually cruising the Caribbean on the marketers cruise so I had other things to distract me.

Anyhow yup 10 years ago just after the millennium celebrations and the whole Y2k Hysteria was turning out to be something about nothing I was pretty much broke and looking for ways to make a quick buck. So like many others I turned to the internet. I’ve pretty much been a developer for most of my working life and been developing for the internet since around 1995 – wow even before the great dotcom bubble blew up and then burst LOL – so I naturally thought with my skills making money on the internet would be a breeze.

So there I sat in front of my computer and typed into a search engine “Make Money Online” and after sifting through the usual scams and sites with bold claims I ended up at MPAM (Massive Passive Advertising Machine) don’t really know why but I got a sense that this site would be a great start. It had lessons, tutorials and basic hand holding to get you up and running. So there I spent my next few months doing just what MPAM told me to do. Did I make money? well I guess I can say yes I did. However a few hundred bucks wasn’t going to solve my money worries.

However what I did learn from MPAM was that my strengths lie in the technical side of things. Don’t get me wrong I fully understand marketing and could have done it. However my passion was all things technical and me being me knew that I wouldn’t really make it unless I was doing something I really wanted to do. So I set about looking for people without my skills who wanted to hire them and I haven’t looked back.

I don’t want this post to turn into a full blown history of my life online I will save that for another time. You can find more about me here and see the sites I’ve been involved with and own or co-own here

I will share some things I have learnt from these 10 years though:

Know your strengths
We all have them, so make the most of them.

Work your strengths
Concentrate on what you know and love and spend your time using and improving them

Outsource your weaknesses
You cant do it alone and you cant do everything. So let someone else’s strength cover your weaknesses

Don’t sell yourself short
Don’t let others undermine your strengths, they need them. Find the ones who understand that and work with them.

Find Partners not just jobs
Don’t get me wrong jobs pay the bills, but long term partnerships are the key to longer and greater success.

You cant do it for Free
Sorry folks your going to have spend out some money, doesn’t have to be much in the early days but you wont get anywhere without spending some money.

Attend Offline Seminars
I’m afraid that at some point you will have to get out from in front of your computer and go to an offline seminar. This is where you will meet future business and JV partners. You bank account will love you for it.

Don’t Give Up
There is no such thing as a quick buck on the internet, it takes time and a lot of hard work. I would say that its only the past 6 years that I have been making money. The first 4 years were just cutting my teeth.