By Chuck Mccullough
Expert Author

At least that is what the people selling the ultimate get-rich-quick scheme would like you to believe.

Which one is the 'ultimate'? Well, if you hear them tell it, theirs is, of course.

"Turn $5 into $50, 000, 000, 000 in 30 days with no effort! " Did Bill Gates figure out how to condense his lifetime into 30 days? I doubt that he would say he got where he is today with no effort.

Are you listening to these guys, or do you REALLY want to make money on the Internet? Becoming instantly rich on the Net is about the same as sitting around waiting for your lottery numbers to hit.

I like to believe that we're smarter than that. We realize that the only way to truly become successful at anything requires a lot of hard work, motivation, persistence, and luck.

Now let me explain each of these points.

Hard work - This is a no-brainer. You ARE NOT going to be able to turn on your computer, walk away from it, and expect to end up with a successful business.

You have to work at it. The more productive work you put into your website and your marketing efforts, the greater the rewards.

Notice that I said 'productive' work.

It is easy to spend 20 hours a day on the web and not do anything constructive for your business. You have to focus your efforts to make the above statement true.

To put it a different way, if you spend 20 hours a day adding content to your site, refining the design, promoting it, testing and retesting to learn what works and what doesn't, you WILL see the results.

Many websites fail not because the owner didn't work hard enough, but because he didn't work smart enough.

Motivation - How do you stay motivated to enable you to survive the months and months of extremely long days and nights glued to your monitor?

Is it the lure of having a successful web business someday?

The idea of eventually being able to quit that job that you hate?

Believe me you will hit low points, you will get frustrated, and probably even utter the words "at this rate I'm never going to make it".

So how do you stay motivated? The above questions can help, but I think the absolute most important motivator is to pick a topic that you love. When you are working on a subject that you totally enjoy the low points will be far less frequent, and have far less impact on you.

Your mind will be in the places it is supposed to be instead of constantly watching the bottom line. If you are trying to create a successful business with something you have absolutely no interest in. . . you are setting yourself up for failure before you even get started.

Think about this idea for a moment. Let it sink in as to what I'm telling you here. What is your favorite pass-time? What is your hobby?

Do you get burnt out when you are spending time on your hobbies?

Does an auto enthusiast watch the clock at a Saturday afternoon drag race?

Does a knick-knack fanatic get bored at the world's largest flea market?

Do sports fans wish football season was much shorter?

If you develop your business around a topic that you love, that you enjoy spending time on, that you can't wait to get home and fire up the computer to work on. . .

motivation becomes a non-issue.

Besides. . . isn't enjoying what you do one of the key factors to success? I hate to be the one to break it to you, but true happiness isn't all about money.

Persistence - You have to stick with it. You can't quit. Don't lose faith.

There will be bad times, but you have to keep going. You won't make as much money as you wanted to one month. You won't get quite as many subscribers or visitors out of that advertising campaign. The 'killer ad' that you just knew was going to pull like crazy. . . won't.

These setbacks are a fact of life. Accept them and deal with them accordingly. Learn from your mistakes and move on.

If you keep the right attitude during the bad times, the good times will be that much sweeter.

Luck - Yep, its going to take a little luck as well. But if you follow the above guidelines, you can make your own good luck.

Luck is being in the right place at the right time. Luck is making the right decision at that crucial moment. Luck is buying low and selling high. Luck is realizing that you made a mistake and correcting it right before everything crashes.

The more knowledgeable you are about your subject matter, the more time you spend educating yourself about it, the more you work at becoming an expert in your field, the more luck you will have!

When you know the ins-and-outs of your industry, you WILL be in the right place at the right time. You WILL know when to buy and when to sell. You WILL know what decisions to make, and when to make them.

Correcting a mistake? This is nothing more than testing an idea and dumping the ones that didn't work.

Don't sit back and leave it to fate. . .

About the Author:
Chuck McCullough is the owner of http://AffiliateMatch.com offering FREE articles, tips, hints, and real-world advice on how to make money with your website. Visit his site or join his FREE newsletter, The AffiliateMatch Informer by sending a blank email to mailto: newsletter@affiliatematch.com