Six weeks into this new venture, and as you'd expect, I've learned quite a few things.  Mainly that this is more work than I originally anticipated -- quality articles are hard to find, and few of my previous partners actively contribute articles, preferring to let me do the work to find articles they've written and publish them myself.

I'm also finding that many of these same partners have not been announcing the publication of their articles to this site, and as such, the only real audience has been subscribers from my own lists.

To be completely honest, I expected some of this.  I know everyone is busy, and some people may not see the logic of a co-op marketing venture.  I still feel the concept will work, although it may work better AFTER I start actively recruiting new partners for it.  So far, I've been focusing on helping my previous partners before taking that step.

On the positive side, I see this site's Alexa ranking improving every day.  As I write this, PragmaticSolutionsNow.com has an Alexa ranking of 519,724, meaning there are only 519,723 websites getting more traffic than we have here.  Considering the many MILLIONS of websites out there, I'd say we're doing good, especially for a site that's been around less than 2 months.

Running this site has also given me the extra nudge I needed to start writing articles on a consistent basis again.  No matter how good my products are, the success of any business depends on gaining the attention of new people on a regular basis, and articles have proven to be one of the BEST forms of marketing online.  One item on my massive ToDo list is to compile a formal list of media websites (like this one) to submit my articles to directly.

Although I have a lifetime subscription to an article submitting service, which submits my articles to THOUSANDS of article directory sites, from which ezine editors pull content, I've found that submitting articles directly to ezine sites is much more productive.  Yes, it's more work, but it's more profitable work.

And this gets into a topic I'd like to address.  It seems the vast majority of folks trying to run online businesses have been so focused on the "set it and forget it" mentality, they've missed the key ingredient of business success.  You see, to be really successful, you have to be different, and better, than the majority of your competitors.  You don't have to be so much better than the comparison is rididulous.  You just have to be a small, yet measurable, amount better.

You also don't have to be better at everything, just at what counts most in your customer's mind.  For example, this site is definitely NOT the best in terms of graphic design, or even in usability.  However, I believe it to be better in terms of good, actionable content, and I think most of my readers value this above how "pretty" the site looks.

Let's see, what was the point I wanted to make here?

Oh yeah.  I've learned a lot since starting this website.

I'm starting to wonder if maybe I should give up on the "co-op" idea, and run this site as a straight "paid for by advertising" model.  This would be easier for most people to relate to, and it wouldn't matter if anyone else promotes it.

This isn't a decision I'll make today.  After all, the site is less than 2 months old, and I need more information before I can make that call. 

On a related note, I chatted with one of my partners and found that his experience matches my own.  He finds that few affiliate partners will do much work to earn commissions, and as a result, make little money with his program.  My own promotions of his website have shown that his site converts at least as well as many others I've promoted over the years, so his affiliate's lack of success has nothing to do with his program.

Being one of his affiliate who hasn't done much promoting for him lately, I understand why good affiliates sometimes drop out of a program.  We get busy with too many projects, and good intentions sometimes fall into the background as we devote our primary attentions to what we feel to be our core mission.  It's one of the reasons I created this website, to serve as a channel to promote many partners without taking too much time and attention away from my core mission, which is developing new products for my members.

In truth, my core mission SHOULD be to bring the products I've already created to a much wider audience.  To be successful, a business really only needs one good product, although having more products, especially new products, helps to keep the business stable.

Sadly though, few affiliates fall into this category, as most of them THINK they want to get into the "affiliate business", but drop out when they find that it takes work to set up a website, create 'pre-sell' content, and get traffic to their new site.  Sometimes, it's not the amount of work that's a problem, it's how long it takes before significant income may be realized.

When I first started online, I was able to start making money within a few weeks, however, it took months before that income was steady enough for me to justify replacing my previous income as a photographer.  Some people get caught up in the hype that says anyone can almost instantly create large incomes online.  The truth is that it takes work just like any other form of business, and what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.

True, making money online can be a lot easier than it is in the "real world", and it's possible for anyone to start making SOME money relatively quickly.  It's also possible for anyone to make large incomes online, and SOMETIMES it can happen quickly.  The articles I publish here offer the best advice I can give people on this subject.  Regardless, it's important to have a balanced view of the situation before you dive in and get disappointed that you haven't made $10,000 your first week.

Okay, I think I got off topic again.  Where was I?

Yes, most people trying to make money online are doing it all wrong.  They're looking for a pre-packaged business where they can push a button and instantly receive a large, consistent income.  Folks, it just doesn't work that way.  Any "pre-packaged" business is going to have 1000s of others doing exactly the same thing, and there won't be any "point of difference" to help you stand out from the crowd.  To stand out, you have to be different, and preferably better.

The closest thing to this ideal would be to buy an established business, one in which the previous owner has done a lot of the work to create visibility in the marketplace, and good systems to keep it running smoothly.  When you find such pre-existing businesses for sale, expect to spend good money for them.

The next closest thing would be what some people used to call "AdSense sites", which are content websites designed to pull search engine traffic and get people to click PPC ads, usually served by Google's AdSense program.  In setting this site up, I found a way to configure things to create such a site, although it's something I doubt I'd ever do.  The 'trick' is to set up pages that run RSS feeds to get content off other websites, and place PPC ad blocks throughout the pages.  Once you set up a site in this way, you never have to touch it again, and can build dozens of such sites every week.  I've seen several emails recently announcing a system which focuses on this, called "Auto Content Cash".

The problem with such sites is that no one really wants to visit them, and most search engines will work to keep such sites out of the listings.  So you end up having to rebuild the sites on a consistent basis to work around the search engine 'rules'.  This, combined with the fact that you need 100s of such sites to generate any kind of decent income, and you have an ongoing job, which defeats the purpose.

In the end, it's better if you just accept the fact that you need to do a reasonable amount of work to create a reasonable income, and you'll be in a better position to "hit the jackpot" and create something that produces a much higher return on your investment than any of the "push button" packages being sold online.

It really is true that building a strong business is like building a strong building.  The bigger you want it to be, the more time you have to spend building the foundation.