3 Simple Ways to Find the Right Friends to Help You Make More Money Online

When you work at a job,very often you are surrounded by a team of co-workers who work with you in some kind of capacity.  Very often the social bonds we build at work with our co-workers rival those we have with some of our closest friends.

If you ever get “stuck” there’s almost always another co-worker to ask for help, such as someone who may have more experience, or perhaps even a supervisor or manager.  As long as you have a desire to be more productive, at most places of employment there is a very specific action plan you can follow to achieve that and its already laid out for you by the hierarchy of people you report to.

What do you do when you’re an Online Money Maker such as an Affiliate Marketer or Professional Blogger and you work from home?

Very often when people start working from home they try to re-establish a kind of social network of friends to talk to ever day, socialize, bounce ideas off of, etc.  However, many of your friends may not be online marketers and frankly may not be interested in it at all.  So if you try talking to them about your newest affiliate marketing idea, or a Blog post you wrote the other day that got on the first page of Digg, they may honestly not give a crap.

This can lead to a kind of “work-from-home-loneliness” which many people are afraid of.  In their loneliness, a lot of people end up self-sabotaging their new online venture unconsciously so that they can get back into a job and be part of a group.  Feeling like you’re part of something is a very strong human need, so before this need begins to express itself in ways that are not empowering to your business, you need to take proactive measures to express this need in a healthy way.

Here’s 3 ways to find the right friends to help you make money online:

(1) Connect with people who make money when you make money.

Ask yourself – “Who makes money when I make money?“.  That may be one of the first places you could look to start your social circle.

For example, one group of people who make money when I make money is affiliate networks.  This establishes a win-win situation right off the bat.  In this first year of my affiliate marketing business I’ve taken the time to reach out and build a few key relationships with some affiliate managers and certain owners of affiliate networks.  Whenever I earn money as an affiliate, they make some money too so it’s in their best interest to help me make more money.  Many of these people I talk to on a daily basis (some 7 days a week).

Although these types of relationships may start based strictly on making money, after a while you’ll probably realize that you become pretty good friends with your “business partners”.

Benefits of befriending the people who make money when you make money:

• Win / Win situation from the start.  When they help you succeed, they succeed.
• Often you can trust their advice on specific topics more than others because they have a vested interest in seeing you succeed.
• Makes it more fun to “work” when you’re “working” with friends instead of “strangers”.

Drawbacks of befriending the people who make money when you make money:

• Some short-sighted individuals may not be interested in helping you until you get “big” by yourself.  By then, you probably don’t need their “friendship”.
• Don’t assume that your friendship is exclusive.  There may be dozens of other people just like you they work with.
• It is possible they may really not like you, but they’re just talking to you because you make them money.  You can generally get a feel for this fairly quickly though.

(2) Connect with people who are doing what you’re doing.

Look for other people doing what you’re doing.  As an affiliate marketer I also talk to several other affiliate marketers on an almost daily basis.

In a way you may actually be befriending your competition when you do this, but that doesn’t mean a successful friendship can’t be formed out of this.

Many people are scared of competition, but in reality our competitors keep us sharp and on the ball.

Benefits of befriending people out there who are doing the same thing as you are doing:

• Often times these are some of the best people to bounce ideas off of.  Although you do have to be somewhat aware that any ideas you share with these people may end up being utilized by them.
• Their success can help to inspire you, or even piss you off enough to get off your butt and do something.
• If you get stuck with something, such as not knowing where to find a specific resource ,these people can often be very helpful.
• It’s kind of fun getting to know other people in your line of business to see what they’re up to and what they’re doing.

Drawbacks of befriending people there who are doing the same thing as you are doing:

• You have to be aware of the fact that they may “borrow” your ideas.  It may not be smart to tell them too much specific information about what you’re doing.
• Sometimes you could end up spending too much time socializing with these individuals, online, offline, at events,  etc. that neither of you get much work done.
• If you befriend only people at the same level of success as you are at, you may adopt each other’s limiting beliefs.  When you share a limiting belief, they may verify it and you may make the false assumption that just because the two of you believe whatever it is to be true, it must be true.

(3) Connect with other unrelated entrepreneurs.

Sometimes the best friendships you end up building are with other entrepreneurs in totally different industries.  In fact the only thing you may share in common is that you both work for yourselves as entrepreneurs, instead of working at a job.

A lot of times we assume that we can only learn from people in our line of business.  This isn’t true.  Sometimes the best ideas for your business will come from someone who is in a totally different line of business.

Benefits of befriending other entrepreneurs in other lines of business:

• You can share ideas more openly as these people are most likely in a totally different line of business, so less worry about competition.
• Other business models and ideas from other industries can often spark ideas in your line of business.
• You could gain a competitive advantage over other people in your line of business by implementing an idea from a different industry.

Drawbacks of befriending other entrepreneurs in other lines of business:

• Other lines of business may be totally different from yours and it may be difficult to understand the other persons line of business.
• Seeing people succeed in other lines of business when you’re struggling in yours can be disheartening at times.  You may all of a sudden find yourself wanting to do what they’re doing.
• Because you may  not have a lot in common to start with, it’s not as easy to meet/befriend these people.

So there you go.  These are 3 simple ways you can find the right friends for your to work with an a regular basis so that you don’t end up feeling like you’re doing this all by yourself and no longer have any “friends” since leaving your job behind.

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