Over the past few years, I have had many people asking me why they keep failing to make money online. I have sent out many lengthy e-mails to people. A lot of time and effort went into those e-mails. So why am I not surprised when they come back six months later with more questions? Or when I visit their site down the road to see the progress, or lack-thereof. I’ll get to that in just a moment.

I began reading posts on Digital Point’s forums a few years back. For those unfamiliar, this forum is a large community made of aspiring entrepreneurs and skilled individuals looking to make money on the internet. There are countless threads with ignorant questions like “how u maked teh money in the adsense?” or “why is my site not ranked in google?”

Now, English as a second language aside, these are actually very valid questions. Everyone is curious how people make money online. Everyone wants to know why after all that work, their site is still not ranked in search engines.  That is why I really enjoy reading some of the threads on DP. People share some pretty interesting things. Good discussion is stirred up, and people talk about interesting ways to make money online.

This brings me back to the purpose of this post – why you’re not making money online. I wish there was just one reason I could tell you about, but life isn’t that easy. So without further adieu, I present to you the top six reasons why you’re not making money online:

6) OUT OF YOUR LEAGUE – “Hey man, if you have a blog that talks about cancer, AdSense will pay you a very high cost per click (CPC).” While this statement may be true, why on Earth would people with no knowledge or experience with any type of medical condition think they should write about it? Search engines are not stupid. If your content is garbage, search engines will know. People will know. The web is meant to provide people with the highest quality information. The power of search engines natural selection process will always filter these made for AdSense sites out.

If you cannot provide high quality information on something, then it is clear you are out of your league. There is nothing to be ashamed of if you fall in this category. It is time to focus on what you know. Are you a great skateboarder? Do you have strong opinions about minor league baseball players? Even if you are aware that the CPC in these industries are very low, you will be doing yourself, and the internet, a huge favor by sticking to what you know and love.

5) STOP COPYING ME – Since grade school, we’ve hated it when people copy us. I want you to think about that when it comes to how you run your business online. What do copycats have to offer that isn’t already on the table? If you want to have the next big celebrity gossip site, you are going to have to think of ways to differentiate yourself from every other site.  If you’re going to try and sell Amazon’s products, you are going to need to figure out why people should find your site, before they get to Amazon.

Copying will always exist. If you want to succeed while copying, you are going to have to think outside the bun like Taco Bell did with their diet menu.

4) NO HARD WORK – Remember when your third grade teacher wrote on your report card; “Billy would achieve straight A’s if he just put some effort into his work.” I think close to 100% of you just said no to that question but that’s besides the point. If you are really serious about making money, you need to act like it. Every minute you are not distracted by life, you need to be working on your business. It is your baby. You must cherish it. You must feed and burp it. It won’t take care of itself.

What I mean by all this, is that if you really want to succeed, you are going to have to realize that your online business is not much different from a real job. It will require you to put in many hours each day. Whatever you are doing for your business, you must put your blood, sweat, and tears into, in order to make sure its the best it can possibly be. If you work your hardest, and believe in what you are doing, you will be successful – no matter what.

3) NO TUNNEL VISION – After reading posts about Jim Karter on DigitalPoint, people concluded that he makes tens of thousands every month by going big. That is, having many different websites  covering many different niches. While this may work for some people (usually people who have employees or teams working with them) this most likely won’t work well for you. If you are not focusing on a certain area, you will find yourself much too overwhelmed to succeed. If this sounds all too familiar, then it might be a wise decision to take a page out of General Motor’s book and cut back on your “product” lines. Enabling yourself to focus on a specific area will lead you to becoming an expert in your field, and you will thus be able to provide people with much higher quality information.

2) YOU’RE A LONER – Ever hear the saying that it’s not what you know, it’s who you know? Well, when it comes to the internet world, this statement could be the difference between success and failure. Search engines, especially Google, rely on other sites on the web to let them know where the good sites are. Mainly, a link from a highly regarded page to your page, will tell search engines that your site is a good site and will increase your rankings.

Naturally, your site should get links from other pages based off the content on the site. Making friends online can be a great way to speed up this process. If your friends who have trusted sites or blogs learn about your site directly from you, you might be able to convince them to link to you.

Don’t just rely on people being nice for the sake of it. Make sure you always have something to offer. If you provide a service, offer up your services for free. Many webmasters would be more than happy to link to you when you do an arrangement similar to this. Partnerships can go a long way, and can really help you reach your goals much quicker than anticipated.

1) YOU’RE A QUITTER – As Mike Iaconelli said in this hilarious clip, “NEVER GIVE UP!” A good friend of mine was telling me how he came up with this really good idea to make money via affiliate marketing. I was very impressed with his idea and excited to see how he would handle it. He worked on it for a bit and I thought it was looking good. Not too long later, he came up to me and told me about his latest idea of how he is going to make money online. When asked what happened to his affiliate marketing campaign, he told me that he stopped working on it because he wasn’t making much money and he was getting bored of it.

This is, in my opinion, one of the worst things an internet entrepreneur can do. If you were to work on something every 6 months, only to quit on your idea to start up another one, you will never be successful. Once you have come up with your awesome plan, stick to it. There is not much else to say. If you are a quitter, you will set yourself up for the ultimate fail.

Like I have mentioned before, if you are serious about having your own online business, working from home and eventually, from the golf course, then you must take your business serious. Do your best, work real hard, set your goals, and most importantly, NEVER GIVE UP!