Element 3: Planting

Continuing our series about what gardening has to do with online business, today we will look at planting!

Obviously, in order to see results in a garden, you have to plant some seeds. I also planted bulbs, which are bigger! A nice garden has a variety of plants. Some are flowers, others are shrubs, and if you like to eat the fruits of your labor, some fruits and vegetables are nice, too!

In my family, I like to plant from seeds, and I prefer to plant flowers. My husband, however, is more of a vegetable gardener (specializing in tomatoes and basil), and likes to start with seedlings that are already started.

This reminds me of the importance of being involved in more than one program. This is also called multiple streams of income. Multiple streams helps keep us from having all of our eggs in one basket. If you pour all of your time and energy into one plant, and it dies anyway, you have no garden. In the same way, you do not want to pour all of your time and energy into one program, only to find yourself flat BROKE next week because the company closed its doors!

As for the seeds and bulbs analogy, I look at it like free and programs with some cost. Free programs are great because, hey, isn't free money awesome?! They do, much like seeds, however, take longer to see results. Participating in some low cost businesses will get you seeing results from your referrals a little bit faster. Just be sure not to take on more than you are willing to risk while you wait for it to grow.

I mentioned that I prefer to plant seeds or bulbs and my husband likes to plant seedlings that are already established. In the internet business world, I think of this as being involved with companies that have been around a long time (for me, that's GDI and Avon), versus brand new companies (EZE2x2, Little Guy Wealth System, and others).

In the overall picture, whether we're talking about bulbs versus seeds or seeds versus established seedlings, the point is to diversify. Stick with well established companies for your "seedlings," but don't be afraid to throw down some seeds (newer, free), and bulbs (newer, low cost programs).

The Free Stuff That's Already Working

I think it was on a forum on Myspace where I first learned about Hits4Pay. I signed up and would click almost every day. I never stopped to think about how long it would take to reach payout. I just figured, hey, it's free money and it just takes a few minutes out of my day.

I found a few more PTC/PTR (Paid to Click/Paid to Read) sites and joined 'em, thinking, hey, more free money.

Then one day I blogged about it all on Myspace and got a couple of referrals. Later that SAME month, it HIT me...I was about to reach payout in just ONE Month with just a couple of active referrals! Light bulb moment! Ahhhh-HA! Referrals was the key that unlocked the DOOR!

Now I make payout just about every month. My team is still growing so I know that soon it will snowball even bigger.

Somewhere along the way, I discovered Marketing Pond! I hit the mother load with these "get paid to" or GPT sites. I had the best of the best, all in one place!

The Marketing Pond concept is simple.

Marketing Pond offers a totally free system to anyone that
wants to become a member and earn free money online.

Problems :

A) It's almost impossible to earn very good money by using
one free money program.

B) It can take a very long time to earn enough for a payout
in one program if you do not promote it and have active
referrals.

Solutions :

A) Use multiple free money programs

B) Place the top free money programs in one place. Use one
referral url to advertise them all. Place some of the best free
advertising programs in one place. Bring these together to
create a full circle. Use credits, points and cash conversions to
advertise the place by way of the free programs. Build a team
in one place and that team becomes a part of all the free money
programs and the free advertising programs that you are a
member of. The result is multiple earnings, multiple payouts,
earnings that grow, and less work over time.

That place is Marketing Pond.

You will NOT become a millionaire overnight. I will NOT do all the work for you! BUT, if you do sign up for Marketing Pond and follow the wonderful, experienced, knowledgeable lead of the admin, Valerie Underhill, you can and will make more and more money every month. It just depends on what you put into it. Personally, I use the revenue from many of these sites to roll back into advertising other ventures and/or to fund them.