This one really is starting to rot me. Every day I hear from folks and the jist of their thinking is this:

I should be able to make money on the Internet quickly, right? I mean, everything happens quickly on the Internet.

It’s kind of true, but not really…

OK, so you want to start a website and make money - don’t care how - you just want to make money. Great. Step one, build a site. Step two, market it. Step three, count the money.

Well, the first two steps are basically sound, though not nearly as simple as that statement might lead you to believe. Step three is completely realistic, if you plan and execute steps one and two properly.

The trap most folks fall into is common. They WANT to believe the hype from slicksters selling snake oil. Sure, he’s your friend, and he’s willing to just GIVE you his secrets - the secrets that made HIM wealthy. In reality, it’s simply a sales pitch. You have NOT suddenly discovered gold everyone else has overlooked - this is 2006, not 1896.

Even if you are GIVEN useful information (such as I and others provide), the reality still exists that it will cost you money and time to reach the all important step three - counting the money. It’s not that we don’t give you everything you need to succeed. It’s just that you, the person wanting success, must ultimately step up and do the work. You must pay the bills. You must make the effort.

I could blow sunshine up your a*s all day, but it won’t make you a dime. No matter how motivated you FEEL, you still must take action.

And it’s at this critical juncture that most Webmasters fail to seize the day and run with it. Folks get jittery and think maybe they should back off before getting in over their heads. They get scared of “new” and fall back to “known”, allowing their promising project to languish for lack of effort.

So, that about covers the “lazy” part of this article. Don’t be lazy. Keep at it. Don’t take shortcuts.

Now, the fast part…

We’ve been conditioned to accept that life moves at the pace that governs our lives. Speed limits are reasonably high and allow us to compress the traveling of large distances into a manageable time frame. Starbucks uses killer, professional-grade machines to churn out their brews fast and hot - no waiting. Mechanics use airguns because they are much faster than using a hand-wrench.

…and the Internet moves at the speed of a click.

Just that fast - anything we want, anywhere we want to be, anything we want to see - just one click and you’re there. Loath the fact that you might, from time to time, have to type in a domain, yet even that’s relatively quick.

So, in the end, we’re left thinking the Internet is fast.

Well, I’m afraid it’s not that simple when it comes to making money on the Internet. You see, regardless of how fast that click is, you still need humans to build the site, maintain it and market it. Users don’t suddenly appear the moment you go live and hand you money.

Building a business online is NOT like plugging in an electrical cord. Inside the wires of that cord are electrons. When the cord is not plugged in, the electrons are in a static state where they basically sit still. Plug it in, however, and electrons flood into the wires from the source, shoving the static electrons into action and pushing them through the wires and out into whatever device you’ve plugged into the other end of the cord. In one end, out the other.

There is not an infinite amount of traffic waiting for you to “plug in” so they can flood your site with traffic. Just like the new coffee shop around the corner needs to be seen and tested by users, so does your site - and it takes time.

Think of your website as a battery being charged.

The cord is “full” immediately. A battery charger takes the current and pa*ses it into the battery. The battery is not immediately fully charged, it takes time. As the battery charges, it’s capable of doing more and more work. As the traffic to your website grows, it’s capable of generating more and more revenue.

No, the Internet is not a fast way to make money. You still have to follow a basic business plan. Things take time to build, time to market, time to grow.

Sure, you can build a website faster than a building. But it’s still going to take months and months of effort to spread the word and market the site. Over time, users find the site on their own and the search engines begin to rank it higher based on their own factors. Over time, the traffic grows increasing revenue. Over time, you have a steady revenue stream.

Note that at no point did I say it’ll happen fast. Typically, to rank well for organic searches, you’re looking at between 9 month and a year. This applies more to brand new websites than to established ones expanding their content. It’s a general guideline, and some folks will rank faster or slower. It also a*sumes you’ve covered the basics of search optimization and link building during the construction of your site.

When you plan a business, it’s typical to talk about a 5 year plan. You’ll need cash flow to survive day to day, but over 5 years you should see steady increases in traffic/sales/revenue. Building revenue online is no different. And just like cutting corners when building your building, cutting corners with your website or it’s marketing can bring the whole thing crashing down.

Most online businesses will begin seeing revenue pretty quick, but seeing $25 per month from Google Adsense is a long way from $1,200 per month. Heck, $25 might not even cover your hosting costs.

There again is a point worth mentioning - it’ll cost you money to set up your online venture., If it’s free, it likely isn’t going to work, so don’t waste your time with the freebies. Step up, be ready to invest some of your own time and money (as little as $30 per month (maybe even less) could be enough). Be ready for some steep learning curves, as cheap means you do the work yourself. But most of all, don’t be lazy and don’t watch the clock.

I’m sure there are ways to make a quick buck online, but making a quick buck one month is not long-term income. Heck, even the quick bucks take work - why not put that work into things that matter and will work for you down the road?