So, you may be asking… if I don’t pay people, why do they write for the site?  How can I enforce rules on them like how often they must write?  Well, you see, this site is a high traffic site, with literally thousands of readers each and every day.  The people who write on the site get something that can easily be converted to money – they build a profile.  They become well known, recognizable.

By writing on my popular site, these people can do a number of things to make money.  They can steer people to their own website (the more popular they become on my site, the more my readers will become readers of their websites too).  They can offer goods and services for sale and I help promote them via my site.  They can generally use their notoriety from my site to generate income in many, many ways.

One person who writes on this site that I am talking about started writing there about 2 years ago.  At the time, he was having a hard time producing enough income to make ends meet.  At that time, I talked to him about his various businesses, and made suggestions on how he could improve his income even with just his existing businesses.  I could tell that he was a little hesitant to try the advice that I was offering him.  But, I did my best to help him, and then left it to him to decide what the best course of action was.

As I say this was a couple of years ago, and I have not really discussed this with him since then, until last week.  Last week, this fellow and I had a meeting over coffee, just to touch base, and sort of re-connect with each other.  Although he is still writing for me, we have both been busy, and we didn’t see much of each other in 2008.

During our meeting, this fellow started telling me about how much better he is doing financially.  He told me that he had followed all of the advice I had given him, and it had all paid off for him.  Whereas a couple of years ago he was really struggling to make ends meet, now he is doing quite comfortably.  Honestly, nothing could have made me happier.  In addition to having increased his customer base through building a good profile, he also followed the advice I gave him by raising the prices he was charging for his services.  He really thanked me profusely for assisting him, and it made me feel very good.  There is nothing that makes me feel better than knowing that I have helped a friend in need.

How about you?  How is your profile on the Internet?  Do people in your niche know who you are?  For example, my main niche that I address is about foreigners living in the Philippines, and in those circles, I would have to say that I am fairly well known.  You don’t become well known overnight, it is something that you have to work hard at.  Even while you can’t see any results from your work, you must stick it out, because in the long run you will succeed if you keep trying.

I believe that profile building is the most important part of becoming successful on the Internet, and in other avenues in life too.

Have you started building up an online profile yet?  If not, why?

Probably the best thing you can do to build up your image is to start a blog, or some sort of website where you regularly interact with your readers.  The key word in the last thought is interact.  Write articles regularly on your site, and let your readers leave comments.  That is interaction, but only at a minor level.  To gain a reputation, you need more than that.  How?  Respond to the comments, join in the discussion!  When you shoot back a comment response to a reader, it opens up a dialogue on the site.  If you don’t respond, the reader is not even sure if you read what he had to say.

Yesterday, a friend of mine e-mailed me.  He was excited and told me that he had finally started blogging.  I went and checked out his site, and I liked it a lot.  Very professional, and nicely done.  He had one article on the site, which was pretty good.  I was hoping to be the first to comment on his new site, but sadly, somebody else beat me to the #1 position.  I left a nice comment, though, and was looking forward to seeing my friend’s response.  I checked his site 3 or 4 more times yesterday, but he never responded to what I had to say (or the other comment there either).

Why is it important to respond to comments when you have such a site?  Because it brings a touch of personality to the site.  The reader feels like he has become a friend.  The more you do this, for a longer time, and you build up a huge group of people who have a personal connection to you.

When the day comes that you have something to sell, this group of “friends” will be much more accepting of it than average.  I mean, if a friend says that he has an eBook that will show you how to make money from blogging, you are a lot more likely to buy it than if some guy that you never heard of tells you about it.  Being a friend means that some trust has been built up, that you care about the reader.  You don’t try to “rip off” somebody who is a friend, and thus, you have credibility in your reader’s eyes.

Building an image!

So, to make money online, the first step is not to start selling something.  The first thing you need to do is to introduce yourself to people, let them get to know you, converse with them for a while, and then after doing all of this, you can introduce a product to them.  And remember, you need to bring them a quality product – they are friends after all.  If you sell something to a friend that is nothing but an avenue toward putting money in your pocket – your friends might find out that you really weren’t a friend after all!