Earning Real Money Online With SFI

Well, I did it again. I got sidetracked and lost focus of this blog. I see that it gets some traffic now and then, so I feel obligated to continue writing in the hopes that someone is reading. To that end, let's talk about earning real money online with SFI.

We've talked before about making money from home, what the daily grind at home is like, and various opportunities, such as ClickBank and Wealthy Affiliate. So, we're not going over those things again today, but I will say that I still stand behind my write-ups on all of those pages. I should note that I am no longer a member of Wealthy Affiliate, not because I don't think their system works, but because I needed to host my sites elsewhere for technical reasons. For any beginner who wants to learn WordPress and how to make money blogging, it is a great place to start.

But maybe writing isn't your deal. Or maybe you're looking for something a little more hands-off, or at least the goal of that at some point in the future. That's pretty much where I'm at right now. I'm doing great with my web business but there's one key element that it requires a lot of, and that is my time. Now I'm hearkening back to the days of yore when I was involved in some direct sales companies, such as Amway, before the internet revolutionized the way we do practically everything.

Keeping that in mind, let's take a look at a company called Strong Future International, or SFI. This company was started in 1998 online and took advantage of not only a network marketing model but the power of the internet and affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing, as you likely already know, is promoting and selling someone else's product online and getting a commission for it. Now, imagine if you added in the dupication and multi-level aspects of network marketing. Not only would you get paid a commission for your sales, but you would also get paid a % of your downline associates' sales as well. Ultimately, this can add up to big bucks, as well as that free time we were talking about.

Now, before you go off all half-cocked and spewing venom about the evils multi-level marketing, you should probably know that your insurance agent likely operates on the same type of business structure, as does your financial broker, real estate agent, and many other sales type jobs. They don't advertise the fact, to be sure, but there are levels of management, levels of sponsorship, and commission overrides for the same purpose as in multi-level marketing. According to the FTC, the bottom line is that as long as you have a real product to sell that can be sold to people outside of the business, then the company is probably legit.

The next objection is usually something about not wanting to hound family and friends to sign up to yet another business, lol. Believe me, I understand. Building the list was hard, but for me the hardest part was setting up appointments and "showing the plan." Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, and burned it, ha! The best part of doing something like this online, in my opinion, is that you no longer have to prospect family and friends. You can if you want to, of course, but you don't need to in order to build a real, profitable business.

So, I signed up for SFI back in December, but never got around to doing anything with it until last week. I found that I had missed some bonuses and it sort of bummed me out until I put my head on straight and decided to really put some effort into this business and see what happens. I've already sponsored 13 personal affiliates through Bing Ads, moved up to Executive Affiliate rank, and received 2 new affiliates for me to co-sponsor. Most of them haven't shown any signs of life yet, but I do have one that is doing some reading and logging in, so I'm hopeful!

I'll come back in a few months and give you all an update on SFI, but in all sincerity, if you've been thinking about starting a business online and blogging isn't your thing, you should check out SFI. There is a limited time offer running right now where you can earn up to a $100 signing bonus. Yes, you read that right! Up to $100 signing bonus, and joining is FREE. How can you beat that?

PS - If you've ever thought about starting your own online business but didn't know where to start, what to do, where to advertise or what to sell ... SFI can help you out. Perhaps you think you don't have enough money? Well, I've already mentioned it's free. Beyond that, perhaps you're wanting to evaluate it against other business models, like franchising or direct sales ... so I'm including this handy dandy comparison chart below. SFI is truly a unique opportunity for anyone who is willing to put in the work.

Are you ready to start your own internet business and change your life?

Don't Put All Your Eggs In One Basket

Diversification is the key to long term success in working for yourself from home. I believe that. Have I done it? Some, but not to the extent that I would like to.

At the moment, my primary source of income is writing search engine results pages (aka SeRPs) for a human powered search engine. It pays well for online work, but it still just a freelance contract. So what does that mean? It can go away at any time, for any reason. That is something I don't want to be worrying about every month.

Diversification means spreading out my talents among many services. Ultimately, diversification for me means developing multiple streams of passive income, so that I'm not spending every waking moment trading my time for dollars. I know that I have to work, but it would be nice if work wasn't an all-consuming force in my life.

Bottom line is just like the old saying goes: dont' put all your eggs in one basket. If that basket breaks, you lose everything you've worked for. Want a case study? Here's a case-in-point for you ...

Over the past two years, I've really read up on blogging and earning money from blogs via various advertising models such as Google Adsense, Text Link Ads, banner ads, block ads and even Pay Per Post. So what did I discover? All of those things pay, but only a few are what I call "hands off" passive income. Adsense was one of those, of course. On another blog that I have since abandoned, I documented for several months the sources of my online income, the amounts, etc.

One thing I realized was that Adsense was a consistent performer, with no extra work on my part. I would post on some of the blogs, but nothing really overwhelming or a schedule killer. Month after month, Adsense continued to perform and even increase slightly each month, as my blogs and websites experienced more traffic. All was as it should be.

Now don't get me wrong. I wasn't making a ton of money on Adsense. The first year, I got one check from Google for $100. The next six months I qualified for another one. I was on schedule to get another one in a month or two. That's when the basket dropped. I got a nice little email from Google one day saying that my Adsense account was suspended, and that I was welcome to file an appeal, but no further action was required by me, or them. The reason they gave? Well, that wasn't really clear, but it was "possible click fraud". Okay. Wait just a minute.

I'm a white hat kinda guy. I'm trying to put together real content for real people. What happens? I get the Google slap! I know all kinds of guys out there selling black hat SEO stuff, and making a killing off of Adsense. I get the best month ever of traffic to my various blogs and websites, and boom! Google shuts down my most consistent source of passive income. Of course, I filed an appeal, but never heard back from them. I re-read their TOS for the program, and realized they reserve the right to cancel anyone for any reason whatsoever, without explanation. Wow. Nice.

Moral of the story: Get many baskets to put your eggs in!

I Have A Dream

Have you ever had a dream in your life? Something that you wanted to accomplish so bad that you could almost taste it? Well, I have ...

Over the years I've had three things that I have dreamed about that I have wanted with all of my heart. The first one has come true for me - I'm working from home for myself! However, as you have read on this blog, that has been a mixed bag of results. While I am technically self employed, and I am working at home, I still have to maintain regular hours and pretty much feel like I am still working for 'the man', only from home instead of at his office.

So how about those other two things? Well, here's what my other two dreams are ...

1. To be able to generate residual income, or some kind of semi-passive income, online. This would enable me to continue to work from any location that can access the Internet, as well as allow me even greater flexibility in my time. I would love to be "semi-retired" by the time I am 40 (I am 37 now).

2. I want to be self-sufficient. What I mean by this is that I want to have solar power, my own water source, grow the majority (if not all) of my own food, etc. I don't just want to go "green" because I want to save the planet ... I want to be prepared in the event of a complete economic meltdown (which I feel is coming).

So what do you dream about, and what steps are you taking to achieve your dreams? In my next post, I will share some of my thoughts on making it happen.