I should know. I have had my share of being duped. Crafty personalities who seemed like the real thing stole my money up to…shall we say, a few thousand dollars? The good thing is that success, or failure, leaves traces. There are patterns for you to either follow or avoid. I hope that you will learn to recognize the tricksters and find the real thing to help you make money online.

What You Need

The first thing you need is to identify your strategy for making money online. Are you into pay per click advertising? Blogging? Cost per action, article marketing, media buys…

If you do not know of any, then read up on what others are doing. Go to online forums or communities that are dedicated to helping people make money online and watch if the people there are really being helped, that is, if they are really making money. Ask questions, observe, read. I recommend The Warrior Forum.

Secondly, you need to identify your teachers or trainers or gurus. Whatever you call them, identify those who have been successful in your chosen strategy for making money and learn from them.

For instance, if it is article marketing, then follow those in that strategy. If it is pay per click, then follow those who use that strategy. You will reduce your learning curve by doing so. Some will charge you money for their courses and some will not and still give you good quality information…yes they exist! Look for those who have a proven track record for doing what they teach. You want to be sure you are not talking to a theorist but a pragmatic guide. One way to do this is to sign up on their mailing list. Do they give value or they just sell you stuff in every other email they send out?

Thirdly, you need to take action. I cannot over-emphasize this enough. Stop chasing the “next best thing” that is said to make you untold riches. You will do well to get one and stick to implementing that one strategy, learning as you go. Learn what it is that gets prospects, how to convert them into buyers, how you keep them coming back and so on. This calls for patience and focus. Most people who want to make money online are not patient enough, or focused or they are lazy to implement anything. That leads them to label the good guys bad.

I hope that you will take these three pointers to heart as you start your journey. No need to make the same mistakes others have made for you. Learn from them and shoot ahead of the pack with the knowledge that there are good guys out there waiting to teach you. Good guys (and gals) with whom your hard earned money is safe.

Click here to Learn to Make Money Safely

Why Yes?

Just about anything you need to do will require money. Get used to it. It’s just the way things are. The internet connection itself will require you to pay something unless a friend is paying it for you or you are stealing your employer’s time to do stuff that will make money online. Something I do not recommend. So I say yes, it is possible to make money without using money if someone is going to pay for your internet connection and let you use their computer and so on.

It’s Not Just The Money

There is a misconception that payment is always in terms of money. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is also about the time you spend, especially if you are using most “free methods”. Free means you do not have to pay for anything else like domain name, hosting, guides and so on.

They say time is money, yes but anyone asking the question we are discussing most likely has a lot of time and little to no money. So what we are looking to do is to use the time we have to make the money we need and hopefully have more money. This will free us to spend our time doing other things we deem important. In short, we want both the time and the money in abundance.

Why No?

You cannot make money without using any money unless someone else pays for some or all of the things you need to do to make money online. And there are lots of things you need to do to make money online.

The Good News

The good news is that there are people and companies who are willing to let you use their assets to make money. Make no mistake about it, you will have to work hard and smartly. If you do not like work then this is not for you. You are better of going elsewhere to try your luck.

And this stuff doesn’t take luck.

But you have a choice.

The first one is for you to search out these people and/or companies who are willing to share their money making businesses with you. You will pay nothing, in terms of money except your internet connection, but you will have a chance to make money online just like anyone else who is.

The second choice is for you to take what I have found and recommend. All you need is to download the report, read what it has to say and implement it if it seems feasible. You lose nothing but potentially gain a lot by implementing what you read.

Click here to download the report. (opens in a new window)

Dr. Myles Munroe has said on several occasions that if you do not know the why of anything, you will always abuse it. Think about it

• That’s why husbands batter their wives and wives emotionally abuse their children and the circle goes on.
• That’s why we get overloaded buses
• That’s why we get governments that syphon public funds for their own selfish motives

The why question always brings up the purpose question.

So perhaps we should be asking ourselves what the purpose of prayer is. For the majority of us, it is basically a shopping list of “God do this for me”or “Get me that” or “Bless the food” and “Help me pass”.

I would like to suggest to you that we should pray because it is the very lifeblood of our relationship with Jesus Christ. It is the one aspect of the communication protocol that he has established to commune with us.

Think of a circle: along that line somewhere at the top is the Lord who is primarily speaking to us through his Word (the Bible) and somewhere along the bottom is you and me speaking to him in prayer.

And remember too that this is a love relationship. We are to love him with all our hearts, all our soul and all our strength. You are always eager to talk with someone you love. Admit it.

Sms, facebook message, long phone calls, a walk in the park together. The being together is enough for you to forgo some of the activities you hold dear. You want to be with your loved one and commune.

So yes, stuff happens in that spectrum of communication: loving, asking, praising, worshiping, commanding, proclaiming, repenting, adoring…get my drift.

The purpose of prayer is to commune with Jesus, the one who loved us enough to die for us on the cross for our salvation. Loved us enough to rise from the dead and go to heaven to prepare a place for you and me.

If you stop praying, you are slowly smothering the fellowship that keeps loved ones talking for hours on end. You simply are dying. So guard your prayer discipline with all jealousy knowing that you have a healthy prayer life, you are truly living.

⁵Also when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward ^[d]in full already.

Matthew 6

Those are the words of the Master Jesus himself. He expects us to have a time to pray that is not unhurried. A time where we commune with God in an unhurried, deliberate and focused manner. And this is not the time to lay out our shopping list, this is a time to talk with him just like Abraham did: like a friend.

We Are Too Busy And God Understands…Right?

The problem is, we are too busy. We are peoples who are in a hurry going nowhere…fast. So we wake up in the morning and we are already on the fast track thinking about the rush hour, which is neither rushed nor is it done in an hour. We have every to do listed but prayer.

We are talking: school runs, beat the traffic, meetings, assignments right through to the game you will watch tonight. And just to spice things up a bit so that we are okay when talking to our friends, we slot in a few minutes of prayer somewhere in between “Thank you God for another day” or just before your lunch where we dutifully close our eyes and thank Him for the food…before our colleagues.

Sure I know we are encouraged to pray at all times, so it’s okay to pray while driving. Just don’t close your eyes. Seriously.

And at other times. It’s more like the “seasoning”.

Things Get Tough  You Know

God has his way of sobering us up. Life gets tough and we get backed up into a corner and we realize that the two minute escapades just won’t cut it for us to go through some situations. Usually we begin to call up friends who take prayer seriously. We call our pastors. We call prayer warriors for help. And I am all for bearing one another’s burdens.

Here is the problem: We let them do much of the praying on our behalf because we are, you guessed it, too busy.

My take is that we are supposed to have a “when”. Deliberate, unhurried and a focused “when” where we commune with Him. Even if it means getting up an hour before your usual wake up time. Even if it means turning in early (in spite of the game everyone will be talking about tomorrow morning). Even if it means forgoing a particular even. It’s a tough world of sacrifices.

No pain, no gain. Really. Lose some to gain all. We still have to pray for ourselves even though we have the freedom to ask others to join us in praying for xyz. We have to prioritize our communion with God if we are go through the day with his wisdom, strength and radiance.

Here is another punch: If you are too busy to pray, You are too busy for God.

And you are dying quicker than you can say help.

Set the times to pray. He is waiting to hear from us. And that is because his love for us will always be constant, will always be waiting…even though we have been prodigal.

But that’s what happens when love calls you home…

The problem seems to be universal. “He just doesn’t get it. all I wanted to do was to have him listen to what I had to say”. If you are one of those wives who has that problem, let me help. No really, I may come across as patronizing but that is far from the intention.

We need to talk…about your husband. You see, men are…well  fixers. He is wired that way and there is nothing you can do about it in the sense that women are “nurturers”. When he sees or hears a problem, by default he goes into “fix it” mode even when you want him to just listen to you. You cannot change that and neither can he. Alright?

You need to respect that. He fixes and expects rewards in return. As men, we just don’t listen and do nothing about it. Listen, that is what your girlfriends are for. Not  him. However, if you want him to just listen to you, then I have a way out for you. Something I learnt from a chapter from Steve Harvey’s book. Ignore this and you won’t enjoy having your man just listen and do nothing about it.

You could go to him and say something like “Look, nothing is really wrong—I just want to tell somebody something…”

First of all, he will be thrilled that you have chosen him. Secondly, you will have suspended his “fix it” mode. Then you can go on the roll okay. Go nuts and offload.

Warning, he may not respond the way your girlfriends do. In fact he may ask you questions as you are out there on the roll. Appreciate the fact that he is fighting the “fix it” mode which will try to kick in without his wanting to okay.

Pretty soon he will get comfortable just listening to you without wanting to fix it.

And that, sister, is from the heart of a husband who is working on it….

The Biggest Fan.

To put it in another way, he wants her to support him. That support says “I appreciate you and what you are to me, what you do to make sure I am”. He hears that on a consistent basis and he will take on anyone who challenges his turf.

Men are fighters. The moment they walk out the door, they enter a world which is full of break neck, dog-eat-dog world that really chips off the man slowly and all the time he takes that as normal. That is the normal way we know in this world.

Steve argues that a wife who welcomes the husband in the home with another fight simply eats away at the very core of his being. The wise wife affirms her soldier for bringing home the spoils…even if he’s got a bullet wound today.

Standing By My Baby

Translated to loyalty. For men, loyalty equals love. That’s just how we see it. A loyal wife knows that the biggest Hollywood stars with all the millions dripping out of their pockets is an attractive proposition, BUT, her man, even though he just got fired, is still her man and she still stands by him. That man will get up and face the next challenge head on because she is loyal to him.

This is stuff gangs are made off…

The Cookie

The Cookie, you might have guessed, stands for sex. Men love it, want it need it. Period. It’s that simple. A woman connects emotionally though talk and all but the man connects through “The cookie” and pleeeeassse: do not serve it in crumbs. It’s got to come whole.

If a man has got support, loyalty and eats his cookie regularly, then this wife has got her man where she would want him and she will be reaping of the benefits of this investment for years to come. Put these three on the show and you have bagged your man. Just three more reasons to act like a lady and think like a man…

This verse has puzzled me over the years until recently when I got to studying it. First of all I recommend that you read 5 verses before this verse and 5 verses after it to get the context…or read the whole chapter. That usually helps to clear things up.

We are assured and know that [[a]God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose.

Romans 8:28, Amplified Bible (AMP)

What It Doesn’t Say

What Romans 8:28 didn’t say was that God is the author of the “all things”. Now to be sure, “all things” happen to just about everyone but I do not think all things come from God

¹⁷Every good gift and every perfect (^[d]free, large, full) gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of all [that gives] light, in [the shining of] Whom there can be no variation [rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [as in an eclipse].

James 1, Amplified Bible.

God does not author everything that happens in our lives.

What It Does Say

There are things that this verse does say and we usually miss then and end up missing what God wants to do in our lives.

1. It does say that  God will use all things, whether they are from him or not, to work together for our good. Now there are some things that do not come from God that we accept in our lives but shouldn’t accept because God has given us all that we need to accept them. For instance, we know that  worry does not come from God (Matthew 6:25-33) and yet we accept it…together with all its consequences in our lives.
2. It does say that God works all these things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Those who love him. Here is the simple equation: you love God=He will work all things for good

So next time you quote this verse, be cautious about the two things it does say and the one thing it does say lest you be be found to accept stuff that God wants you to deal with.

Your Parents

First up the list are your parents or guardians. By default, as you grew up with them, you watched them earn the money and spend it. Without being told, you picked up those habits and you pretty much used the same habits for yourself. Perhaps you changed a few things here and there but I bet you, you are like one of them when it comes to money.

Then there are others who were literary taught by their parents about money. I have in mind here Robert T. Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” in which he outlines the lessons he learnt about money from both of this “dads”.

What the parents taught you had to do with your survival. It is rarely more than that.

For me that just does not cut it.

The Education System

The school system teaches us about money but I noticed something. It was just for you to make money beyond your survival. They taught us how to manage other people’s money in the companies or organizations. I am yet to find a formal school that teaches people how to handle money. Perhaps I just don’t know about it.

One of the things we usually miss out on is the fact that the education system is designed by someone who has a goal to achieve…and that is not to help you earn more money but that is for another day.

Your Church

There is the spiritual dimension to this whole affair. The teachings I have encountered run the whole spectrum from from giving to God through the church to others I would not want to write about.

The question here is, where did you learn what you know about money? Why did they teach you about it? Are you sure you are satisfied with what they taught you? See if a bank is talking with you about money, I have noticed that usually they are trying to lock me in into some long term commitment where they will earn through interests…it’s time to take stock.

Your financial destiny is in your hands.

He tells of how women should think in order to relate well with men. It’s downright funny and full of wit…and that’ the Steve Harvey I know.

I picked up this interesting concept which he mentions early in his book: men love women, but not in the way women think and he goes on to outline the three “P’s” that define a man’s love for a woman.

Profess – his title for the woman will tell. My girl or friend or wife or my lady tells you where he stands. Watch out what he calls you ladies.

Provide – he will move the mountains to make sure his woman is catered for. It’s wired in his DNA. There is a twist to this since women these days are trained to be independent of men.

Protect – he will mark you as off limits and kill anything that wants to hurt the one he truly loves. There is nothing like a protective man.

Now, it’s not that I did not know these things (except the first P) but when Harvey tells it, it kind of cuts through to you the way a hot knife does butter: smooth and to the point.

The trick to experiencing your man’s love is in allowing yourself, lady, to allow the man to be who he is: a man. And wouldn’t you know, man does life differently from you. So it’s not that he doesn’t love you, it’s just that he does it differently. Learn it. Enjoy it.

Ladies, you owe it to yourself to read Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man if you want to understand your man. And guys, you owe it to yourself to read this book at least to get a fresh look at who you are.

But I have grown up with hurts of different kinds. Hurts from falling. Hurts from others saying nasty things about me like how I was a fat kid (believe it or  not). Hurts from comments made about my family. Hurts from the death of those close to me.

Apparently, those who say “don’t cry, be a man” seem to think that at a certain age, you are supposed to suspend your aching need to cry…no matter how bad it hurts. Come on, I have seen the tough guys, they do cry.

So where did this thing of men not crying come from? What does crying have to do with being a man or not?

It is on record that when you bottle in that emotion that is released by crying, you develop serious problems form insomnia, hypertension to stress and everything in between.

When a friend recently passed on, I had to leave a meeting, go outside and vent it off. Yep. Did it right in the car park. Then an amazing thing happened. A fellow man came out of the meeting, didn’t say anything at all, he just put his arm around me and let me go at it.

At least there are two of us who don’t think it is sissy to cry. It’s okay to cry, as a man.

Like a friend said “then what are the tear ducts for in men?”

Something needs to happen to this idea that men don’t cry…