Rohail Rizvi- Entrepreneur in the Making

Personal stories have always been a part of this blog and so I’m going to give you guys the low down right now.

It’s not meant to be a surprise but…I’m not rich…I’m not swimming in money…yet. I am, however, trying my hardest to become wealthy by building streams of income through the Internet. It’s not easy, but I believe it is possible and I believe in the resources I’ve alluded to in this blog before, which I’m personally using on a daily basis to help me reach my goals.

In fact, it’s actually quite the opposite right now. I’m freakin dead broke.

Taking a semester off from college to work on building my online business because I believe in it, but at the same time staying at my parent’s home because I can’t afford rent right now.

Of course you have the parents always telling me to get a job and go back to school, but I have a goal and I’m going to accomplish it. At a certain point you have to say screw it all and make your life what you want it to be. In my opinion, either you’re screwing the world or the world is screwing you and the former takes a little bit of independence.

So yeah. With $5 in my bank account right now, I’m beyond broke and certainly not rich. I do intend to however, “make it.”

Oh and another thing- my license is suspended for speeding for four months and thus I have no way of going anywhere.

The level of powerlessness I’m feeling is pretty immense. For now though, I’ll be locked up in my room, defying parents, friends, and the world, in order to make this dream a reality.

There are a ton of ways out there to monetize a blog. First and foremost, though, a blog should have meaningful content that attracts and retains readers. Once you have that (or even before the fact), you can monetize your blog in a number of ways. Here are some of my favorite ways:

1) Text-Link-Ads - Signing up for Text Link Ads is a breeze. All you have to do is submit your website for review and install the code they give you, and your site is automatically listed in a database where advertisers can find your website to place text links on. The amount you can earn per link sold is relative to the popularity and search engine rankings of your blog, but this is definitely one of the easiest ways to make money blogging. I can also sell links on my website without going through TLA so I don’t have to pay TLA their share, but TLA makes it easy to find advertisers.

2) WidgetBucks- Another really cool way to start bringing in some cash is through WidgetBucks. WidgetBucks lets you put up a custom widget anywhere on your site and it autotically puts up ads related to your content(i.e., if you have a digital camera blog up, it will show ads of digital cameras). The widget looks very clean and can be customized to blend in with your website and only takes a minute to set up.

3) Sell advertising space- This one is obvious. Let your readers know that they can advertise on your blog for a set monthly fee. Speaking of which, spots are currently going for $50 per month on this blog.

4) Affiliate marketing- If you haven’t already noticed, I’m pretty big on affiliate marketing. You can make a lot of money on your blog just by reviewing different products and earning a commission on items people buy through your link. To do this well, you have to be able to write well-constructed reviews that are actually helpful to people. To learn more about affiliate marketing and how you can make a killing with it, visit WealthyAffiliate.com. This is definitely the most lucrative method for making money blogging, or elsewhere.

With a little effort and some creativity, you can make blogging a beneficial and lucrative hobby/business. I hope these tips have been helpful and have encouraged you to start making more money today.

What are you willing to give up in order to achieve your goals?

Well that answer would certainly depend on what your goals were, but it would also depend on how badly you wanted to achieve something.

I just read on Adam McFarland’s blog about what he does on the weekend and what struck me was what he said about how much he gave up in the beginning stages of his business to make sure his business succeeded. He gave up much of his social life, had to neglect family parties, and the happy hours.

Being at home now and no longer living on campus for the semester, I’m starting to only get a hint of what sacrifice is like as I’m away from my friends, away from all the fun stuff going on campus, and stuck at home for the moment. I can certainly give up more as I still take the time to go see friends and it’s going to be interesting to see how hard I can challenge myself to focus on my goals. I have four months to make it happen.
How much are you willing to give up to achieve your goals today?

Students who want to make money in college absolutely must be in affiliate marketing if they are looking for a way to build a smart (passive) income. College has enough stress and worries to deal with and having enough money should not be one college students should be facing if they take action with vigor today.

Why do I believe all college students are able to and should be active in building an affiliate marketing business?

Well first of all, building an affiliate marketing business offers invaluable experience in being a self-starter, managing your money, learning about value, and of course starting and running your own business. It also gives you a sense of independence and if you take this independence to its highest levels during college, you will more than likely not NEED to get a job after college.

Another reason why I believe college students should be involved in affiliate marketing is of course because it allows students to make money in college. More than that it allows you to make money in college when you want and it really is up to you as to how much money you want to make. Flexibility I believe is extremely valuable when it comes to a career and more so when you are in college. With the schedules I’ve had as a college student, it definitely wasn’t feasible  to work even a part-time job with set hours. Affiliate marketing allows college students to make money in college on their terms, which is really true blessing.

Most of all, however, while I won’t tell you it is easy to start making money online, it certainly is do-able. And if you’re a college student like me (er- ex-college student) you probably have enough of a handle on computers and don’t need to go through the obstacles of learning the basics of a website before you start seeing those dollar signs. Seriously- I know it’s one thing to be naive but it’s another to be completely cynical and it actually is possible start making serious money online as a college student. There are however scams out there that will prey upon newbies and seek their hard earned money. Don’t fall into that trap. Seriously, DON’T.

I do recommend however that instead of jumping in the game blind you get some guidance first. It will cost you A LOT less in the long run (trust me, I know). One of the best places to learn how to start making money online is WealthyAffiliate.com. I know I mentioned scams a second ago, but this is NOT one of them. In fact, it is one of the few legitimate (and I can count how many legit sites there are on one hand so there aren’t many) that actually does what it promises. If you have WealthyAffiliate under your belt you will be unstoppable. You won’t even have to go to those pesky college career fairs once you’ve harnessed the power of WA. Head over to RichFratBoy.com and learn about how you can make money in college RIGHT NOW and earn some cool bonuses when you sign up from there. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by unless you want to be like your fellow college mates stuck in a sucky job market.