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I read a lot of the online forums and I see the same old thing. Someone is good at one thing, like coding in PHP, Designing Graphics, Geek Extraordinaire, etc. Because of this, they think they can and should be making money hand over fist online. Usually, these type of folks get lucky and something takes off in a big way. However, the majority of these super geeks will never be a multimilionaire ala YouTube or Google, etc. And the sad part is they just don’t get it.

It’s great to be really good at something. In fact, I encourage everyone to get really good at one thing. Just realize that whatever that one thing is, it will either expand your possibilities or limit them. If I could point to one thing that has contributed to my own personal success, I would say it’s the drive to learning new things and the willingness to admit I am not doing things the way I should.

I started designing websites in 1996. My first website was horrible by todays standards, but ok by 1996 standards. However, I knew it wasn’t all it could be, so I continued to search for ways to improve and I did get better. First I learned HTML, then I learned a little PHP programming and finally I learned a little about graphics. In fact, I learned enough to realize that I suck at making graphics. But that is ok. In fact, that is the point I am trying to make.

I can make an HTML site if necessary. I can even build some PHP driven pages. And in a pinch, I can find a graphic and make it look more or less like I want. Overall, I am a Jack of All Trades when it comes to building a website.

Over the course of the last 6 years, I talked about how some day my websites will make me a ton of money and I can be my own boss. I mean, I had great looking websites that did what I wanted and people seemed to like them, so why shouldn’t they make me rich? By the end of 2005, I realized that my websites were costing me more time and money than they were making. The sum total of my Google Adwords payment was $2.43 and I got excited about the $25 check I got from Amazon after only 5 years of being an affiliate. Sad, huh?

So, I made a New Years resolution for 2006. I was either going to start making money online or I was going to give everything up and walk away at the end of the year. So, I started searching for knowledge, but I didn’t know where to begin. I started with the usual forums, Sitepoint, Webhostingtalk, Digitalpoint, etc. However, they didn’t fill my needs. I could see what people were saying, but it didn’t make a lick of sense to me. From there, I discovered Earners Forum, then Wicked Fire. At first, it was all so overwhelming. Everyone had an idea on how you should make money online and they were more than happy to tell you what you should be doing, but it just never clicked.

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I was strolling through the Clickbank Marketplace trying to find a new product to promote and noticed multiple survey sites were doing rather well, so I decided to find three of them and do a simple review of each. I did my research and started looking for a domain. I wanted something catchy, something that would stand out on a Google Adwords ad.

Then it hit me, Survey kind of reminds me of Scurvy. And I associate Scurvy with sailing the High Seas. I could even do the whole page in Pirate Speak! Argh! I be on t’ sumt’n, Matey. Ok, it may sound a little silly, but if I was going to do it, I might as well have fun with it. So, SurveyScurvy.com was born and the Notorious Captain Scurvy was going to review Online Survey Sites. I was pretty proud of myself. It sure beats the millions of straight copy sales pages you find elsewhere.

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The other day, I was working on refining a PPC campaign and I stumbled onto something so simple, I can’t believe I missed it. I put together a Keyword list of about 1,500 keywords, broke them into groups based on similarity, then started running my ads. From there, I started narrowing them down until I finally came up with a handful of keywords that were converting.

Once I had this handful of keywords, I decided to run them through Keyword Elite to see if there were any other keywords I hadn’t tested, but might be worth adding to the mix. Then, right there in front of me was something I couldn’t believe. It was a keyword so simple, I should have thought of it initially.

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