We are going to talk about our friend today.  His name is Mo.  For those of you who have yet to meet Mo, he is often referred to by his full name… Momentum.

Before we dive in, let me pose a question: Do you think today’s most successful Entrepreneurs came out of the gates and started making 10, 20, 50k a month?  Absolutely not.  They started small.  They started with an idea, passion, and drive.  Those are three things you currently have, or could have by the end of the day if you put your mind to it.

Let’s take a real life example, Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income.  Pat is a great example because he has been 100% transparent throughout his journey, down to the very last penny of his income. His Entrepreneurial journey started with a failure… or more specifically, a firing.  Pat thought he was going to be an architect his whole life, and then, the economy slapped him with a little bit of reality.

Pat decided it was up to him to develop an idea, passion, and drive.  He did so, and he now earns over $50,000 a month, most of it passively.  Pat started small, worked hard, and now is enjoying the fruits of his labor.

Ok, now are you ready to start small?  Are you ready to become best friends with Mo and start this journey?  Below are 5 ways to make $500 in a single month.  This will open your eyes and heart to the reality of what is possible.  From this starting point, you will learn much and travel far in a short period of time.  However, you must consistently apply yourself.

Mo is waiting, and once you decide to start, Mo will help you with the rest.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” ~ Lao-tzu, Chinese philosopher

1: Become an Affiliate

Wikipedia helps us out here: Affiliate marketing is where a business rewards the referrer (you) for each visitor or customer brought about by the referrer’s own marketing efforts.

Not all of us have the time, skill, and/or knowledge necessary to create a killer product that would be of value in the market place.  HOWEVER, there are plenty of these products already in the market, and the creators of these products welcome anyone who refers customers to them with open arms, and cold hard cash.

Real life example: Corbett Barr of Think Traffic created an amazing course titled How to start a blog that matters.  I took the course, loved it, and now I promote it on my site.

Just this morning (October 22nd, 2012), I had an email message from Clickbank alerting me that three people had purchased this course through my affiliate link – while I slept.  My portion of the sale was $67 per transaction, or a cool $201… again, all while I snoozed.

EOFire.com launched September 20th, 2012, so it took one month exactly to see this revenue.  I have also made other sales on my other recommendations through my Resources Page, which I encourage all of my clients to set up immediately upon launch.

So what would I recommend for you?  Answer these questions:

1. What type of community are you looking to grow?
2. What topics do you find interesting?
3. What topics do you have a deep understanding of?

By answering these three questions, you can begin to find products and services that you believe in.  Once you do, take the following steps:

1. Become a subject matter expert of the product or service you intend to promote.
2. Write articles about them.
3. Create video tutorials.
4. Contact the product creator and show them what you are doing.  He or she will love you and potentially give you a bonus item you can offer with the product to make it even more appealing to your readers.
5. Then tweet, share, pin, and G+ the new “special” offer you have.

So, where can you find products and services to promote?  Below are two great places to start.

1. ClickBank
2. E-Junkie

Question… do you think the above links are affiliates?  You betcha!  Now go create some of your own!

2: Sell your skills

We all have skills that people will pay money to leverage. Heck, I have three full-time virtual assistants who take my 50 hour work week and make it 170+ hours for EOFire.com.  I don’t pretend to be a master at all things… in fact, I am downright awful at design.  So what did I do?  I hired a designer for my logo, business card, Facebook cover photo, etc. When I finally got tired of paying for these one-off projects,  I hired a full-time virtual assistant who is skilled in the art of design, and now, she is my go-to for all things artsy.

What are your skills?  Writing, design, organizing, WordPress, transcribing?  All of these skills and so many more are needed everyday in this virtual world, and you can do them all from the comfort of your home office while sipping coffee in your cozy t-shirt.

Get out there, dive into this world of work that is waiting, and at the very least you will make some money and pick up some very valuable skills about how the marketplace works.  I don’t know how you will get to your big AHA moment, but I know it won’t be by doing nothing… so do!

Below are three great places to start.

Odesk – There is no job you cannot find here, either to do or have done.  Start your Mo, get a profile up, and join the world of virtual work!

E-Lance – Very similar to Odesk.  Give both a spin, and see which one feels right. Then, dive in and don’t look back.

99 Designs – If you’re a designer, you just found an endless amount of work waiting to be won.

3: Create a membership site

Creating a membership site may seem daunting, which is exactly why there is a great opportunity here.  Simply put, with the right tools, it is extremely easy to set up a membership site and put the admin part of it on cruise control.  The hard part?  Growing and maintaining a community of passionate, interactive, and paying clients.

Let’s tackle the easy part first: the creation.  These days, most of us are familiar with WordPress.  Those who are not, make sure to check out my free tutorials here to get you up to speed: EOFire.com/wordpress.  Password: eof

Your first step will be to purchase the theme Optimize Press, which you can integrate with a paid wordpress plugin: Wishlist.

These two purchases will run you a couple hundred dollars, but believe me, even in the Internet world you get what you pay for, and if you want to create a steady stream of cash without the headaches of the admin, then you need these two tools.

The added beauty of Optimize Press and Wishlist is that they both provide incredible step-by-step video tutorials that will walk you through the integration process and have you ready to receive your members.

Now, let’s move on to getting members.  You have to start somewhere, and the sooner you start, the sooner you will learn how to create a membership the masses will want to join.

Start with yourself.  Why would you want to join your membership?  Would you join your own membership and pay the required monthly fee?  If so, then integrate those features.  Then, begin to reach out to people who have the same interests as the ones your community is providing.

Give them free access, gifts, and added bonuses to join early.  Then, pump them for as much open and honest feedback as possible.  It is from these early adopters that you will continue to craft your membership.

You may find that your community looks quite similar to what you had envisioned, or, you may find it has taken a different path.  The point is, until you launch into the marketplace you will have no idea what people want.  So when do you start?  The sooner the better.

4: Create your own informational product

So what if you are someone who has a lot of experience in a certain niche and you’re ready to create your own product now?  Well, that is great!  In example #1 we talked about affiliate marketing.  In this scenario, you would be creating a product, and if it was good enough and filled a void with value, OTHER people will want to become your affiliates and sell your product to their clients and customers.

As mentioned before, two huge, great marketplaces for informational products are Clickbank and E-Junkie.  Once your product is ready, you can submit it to these marketplaces.  Everyday people go to these sites to organically search for products that fill a specific niche so they can sell them to their community.  Now don’t think that you can just create any old product and the affiliate fairy will sprinkle gold dust on your bank account… oh no. Make sure to take the steps outlined below, and always remember: great products sell great products.