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You are all set. You decided to make money online. Your mind is prepared. You know it might be a long journey. You also know there are obstacles. You want to make this a living. But then again you ask, “Can I start small?” As you go on with your baby steps, it will contribute to your bigger goals.

I mentioned in my previous post that it is your decision on what path you are going to take - the easier way earning a few bucks or going for the big catch. Starting small can mean different things to different people. For example, a person with writing skills and loves writing stuff may want to start a blog and build content over time. The value given is the free content. After promoting his blog and gaining a considerable audience that trusts him, he then started to sell something. It may be easy for him to start this way because of his writing skills, and learn how to fill the gaps he has along the way. Another person may have no writing skills at all or maybe his comfort zone tells him to go get into Pay-to-clicks or paid surfing.

Whatever your inclinations are, I can think of a general guideline on how to start small. You can have your own idea and add it up in the comments section.

What Do You Really Want? Answering this question will affect your future outcome whether it’s happiness or frustration. This determines your direction on how you will get to your final destination. Do you just want to make money online to add up some more to your existing income? Or do you want to fire your boss and be free from the “work life” with an employer? Choosing the first one is simpler but the latter will need a much more elaborated plan.

Would you write a book about cats when in fact, you hate them? If you know much about dogs than with cats, what can you write about cats? Much like in an offline business, better not start a business you know little or nothing about and if you have little or no interest on it. You are bound to fail because it will be a pain in the long run.

So when you heard that blogging can bring home money and you have no interest to write even a single sentence at all, then stop. Blogging is not the only tool of online money-makers. Added to that, knowing the current best niche business may not be what you have interest to or expertise with.

In my case, I can do a little writing and enjoy doing these things so I decided to blog. But blogging can be a frightening experience even for very good writers. I chose to get out of my comfort zone. It may not be what you like but that’s for me.

This one goes hand in hand with the first one (Know What You Really Want) and the next one below. For example, you want to earn online and at the same time give the best quality time for your kids. Your big priorities will now include your kids. Setting it aside will make you and your kids frustrated. Setting a goal to do research, planning and execution requires time and if you set a deadline (which you should) for each that is not doable, you will only fail time and time again.

Setting a reasonable goal may not necessarily mean that you should do really less. There are productivity tools around that can organize stuff and make things faster. The important thing is the goals itself. Without goals, there is nothing measurable to achieve.

And write your goals down. Why? Those who write down their goals are more likely to achieve them.

Time is the scarcest resource. We only have 24 hours to do everything we can in a day. Within that little time we sleep, eat, bath, cook, take care of kids, and so much more. Now, if you would like to start making money online while working for an employer, set aside some time for it - like 2 hours a day or so. It’s up to you. You’re in the best position to know this stuff. Block it so you know that you need to do something very important in a specific time of the day. When you block a time in a day, all you need to do is what is intended for that time.

Now, this goes with your goals, what you want and what you can only do. We are not machines and we need to take care of our life too. Even machines get broken in time. Remember that your world is not just making money.

When you are just starting on this online money-making thing, treat it like a small personal project. A project has a beginning and an end. A project has tasks and each task has a timeline. Reaching a very important part of the project is a milestone.

Now what does this plan look like?

The figure above, displays a very simple plan to start a blog. It begins August 26 and ends on September 15 and that’s our milestone when we complete the initial stage of our blog project. The durations and the tasks are just samples. You may have something more or your timelines may be different. It’s all up to you. Just make it simple and each of your task and durations should be doable. You can also plan for obstacles, in case something happens. But do not overdo the planning. The durations may depend on what time you have blocked in each day for you to execute the tasks.

You don’t really need project management software. You can start from plain paper.

This is the time that you need to do the tasks you put up in your plan. This is the GO. Monitor your activities and see if things are going according to plan.

The ideas I have itemized here are general. I’m thinking of getting into specifics in the future. What do you think?

You can add up to any item that I missed.