I recently decided to take a little break from writing articles and working on my sites in order to help out a friend of mine who is in a bit of a financial jam and needs some way of generating a little income every month. Though he is employed, he is one of the ever increasing working poor – living paycheck to paycheck with little to show for his efforts at the end of the month.

The timing couldn’t have been better for me because I really needed to take a break from my routine. Besides, a lot of my income is on auto-pilot now, thanks to the long hours I’ve been putting in and my expenses are low.

This person knew that I did internet marketing as a full time occupation and approached me to see if I could steer him in the right direction. Now, I don’t have any experience in mentoring people, but I knew that if he was willing to put in the work and remain dedicated, I could teach him how to create a little residual income every month just working part time.

The fact that we are friends helps, but more importantly, I know the type of person he is and that he is willing to do whatever is necessary in order to succeed. There is nothing worse than doing your best to show someone the ropes only to have them quit when things get a little tough. For some reason, there is a stigma attached to working at home (especially online) – people seem to think that it is a cake-walk and that a “part-time” effort is all that is needed. In the past, I’ve attempted to show family members what I do and in every case, they got that glazed over look before I even started scratching the surface.

I was hoping that this time would be different.

One of the first questions he asked was if I thought he had it in him to do this. That was a good sign because it told me that he was taking things seriously. I knew that he did, but it really got me to thinking about what it takes to make it in this business.

So here is my list of the top five attributes I believe you need in order to stand a decent chance of making it online:

1. You must have very broad shoulders and have a very thick skin. If you are the type of person that takes things personally, you are going to have a hard time dealing with some of the rough patches that are sure to crop up at some point.

Long story short, I lost my Adsense account last year even though I followed the webmaster guidelines to a tee. Every article on my site(s) was original and well written. Yet, I woke up one morning and found the dreaded email in my inbox saying that my sites did not follow their guidelines. I could go on about this, but that is for another post.

I have also lost Squidoo lenses for writing about topics that go against their TOS. Actually, these were topics that were okay one day and banned the next. I recently lost one 3 year old lens that made me $400/month – every month (ouch!) Meanwhile, there were hundreds of other lenses on that exact topic that seem to be immune – and are still thriving. No logic here at all. Actually, I want to do a separate post on the danger of building up real estate that you do not own at some point in the future.

Okay, I don’t want to go too far off track here, but suffice it to say, there are things that are going to go wrong in this business and you must be able to handle it emotionally. You need to be able to roll with the punches, not take things too personal and carry on with your plan.

If you feel like quitting because you got a refund request for one of your products, or you got a nasty email from someone on your list calling you a spammer and threatening to report you, then you may be in the wrong business.

Water off a duck’s back…

2. The next thing I believe successful marketers possess is the determination to keep going despite setbacks. This is closely tied to the point I made above about having a thick skin.

There are going to be times in your internet marketing career where you are going to feel as though your quest is completely hopeless. You are going to get tired of working for less than a Walmart greeter. You are going to get tired of the 7 day work-weeks. You are going to wonder why you are sacrificing all your free time to pursue a dream that may, or may not, pan out. You are going to start doubting your ability to succeed. You are going to start feeling as though there is some invisible force that is steering you towards failure.

If there is anything I’ve learned over the past few years it’s that this negativity is something that we all have to deal with. The business is not easy. I’ve also learned that, no matter what the setback, it’s nothing more than a speed bump on the way to something bigger. Yeah, at the time, the situation can seem impossible, but it is really nothing more than a test to see what you are made of. Those who overcome and press on are rewarded.

3. The next attribute that you want to possess is the ability to work smart. You are not going to make any more with this business (probably less) than you would in the offline world if you don’t work smart. You only have so many hours in the day and those who can make the most efficient use of their time will thrive. Those who don’t, will have simply created a job for themselves (and not a particularly good one at that).

If you are able to create systems that save you time, you are creating leverage – and that is how you are going to start making real money. Most of the advice you get out there is telling you that as long as you make a consistent effort, you will succeed. Yes, that’s important, but you also don’t want to burn yourself out working without any direction or leverage.

4. Next, you should have the ability to focus on one thing at a time. One of the biggest problems a beginner faces when starting out is the fact that there are literally hundreds of ways to make money on the internet – BUT YOU MUST PICK ONE!

If you laser focus on one method that is well laid out and has been proven to make money for others, you have a good chance of succeeding. If you can stop chasing the next shiny object, you are going to be light years ahead of most other marketers.

5. Lastly, you have to be able to work without distraction. Considering this business is internet based, it can be very challenging to keep your nose to the grindstone. In fact, I would be willing to bet that this is the biggest problem facing most marketers working from home (newbies as well as experienced).

Take stock of where you are spending your time. Is it putting money in your pocket, directly or indirectly? Are you fooling yourself into thinking that you are putting in a solid day’s work when you spend hours surfing for your own entertainment?

I think if you really make a conscious effort to track your time, you’ll find that you’re wasting more of it than you think.

Since I started treating my business as a business, things have improved drastically. Think about it this way: If you are working for someone else, you are likely on a schedule and you have to report to a boss. You don’t have the luxury of working only when you feel like it or surfing the net for hours a day. Do that, and you’ll find yourself in the unemployment line mighty fast.

So, why should it be different when you are working for yourself? Things still need to get done if you want any sort of success at all.

I now work according to a schedule I write up at night for the next day. I know what has to be done, so I assign myself the individual tasks and a reasonable amount of time to get them done. This seems to work quite well. In fact, the toughest schedule I create for myself is not even close to what I’d be doing slugging it out in the corporate world…

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