I’m going to share a massive secret with you right here and right now. You want to know how to make a six figure income online? Don’t be a jerk. Yep — that’s it. You can continue to read because I’ll share lots of other useful ideas, but that first one is by far the biggest and most important thing you can do if you are determined to make real money online.

Really — Don’t Be a Jerk

Think about this for a moment and you’ll realize why this is so vitally important. Sure, you could come up with some kind of killer idea and sell it to people online, but if you act like a complete jerk and don’t support your customers and or don’t stand by the people who helped you, then you’ll ultimately find that you’ll be a failure.
You may succeed in the short term, but in the long term, you’ll find doors increasingly being shut and you’ll find that you can’t sustain that six figure income for long (if indeed you ever got there to begin with). Okay, so that’s my golden rule. Now, here are nine other really useful ideas which really will help you to make that six figure income online:

Be a Lifetime Learner

Just because you left school behind long ago doesn’t mean that you don’t have anything left to learn. The fact is that the world is constantly changing around us and the online world is changing even faster. If you are determined to earn that six figure income online, then you really need to be the sort of person who finds new ideas fascinating. Otherwise, you risk being permanently left behind when things change.
By the way, being a lifetime learner has other advantages too. I explore this more fully in another upcoming blog post about being a great writer, but the fact is that if you constantly keep your eyes open and learn new things, then you are that much more likely to come up with great ideas for products and ways to sell them.
Plus, lifetime learners also tend to stave off senility more because they exercise their brains so that when others have started to forget things, they’re still sharp because their minds are used to learning new things and constantly needing to stay sharp.

Take the Time to Enjoy Life

No, this isn’t just a question of not overworking and never enjoying the fruits of your labor, though that’s important too. The fact is that the human body can only handle so much stress at any given time and if you are constantly pushing yourself to do more without ever allowing yourself to rest, you will eventually find that the quality of the work you are able to do will deteriorate.
 
So take the time to enjoy life once in a while so that you are able to stay sharp for work (not to mention that if you do earn that six figure income and never give yourself the opportunity to spend the money, then there would be little point in having made the money anyway).

Don’t Fear Failure

As I’ve said in the past here, Thomas Edison famously showed off notebook upon notebook of ideas which failed in his efforts to create a practical electric light bulb (he didn’t actually create the electric light — that was done years before. He just made a way to create one which was practical with a soft light).
When asked whether or not he ever felt discouraged by having failed so often, Edison said “of course not — I was thrilled to have found 2,000 ways not to make an electric light.” I’m paraphrasing a bit, but the point here is this: if you want to succeed in anything in life, then failure is likely to be part of succeeding. The question is whether or not you are able to pick yourself up and get back to work after you find that the idea you are pursuing just isn’t working.

Try to Help Your Customers, Not Yourself

This kind of goes back to my golden rule — don’t be a jerk. In essence, if you really want to make money online, thinking only about how you can make money is not going to do the job. You want to think about how you can help your customers. When your customers are getting the help they need, they’ll gladly pay you for it. However, when they sense that you don’t care about them at all but only care about their money, they’ll walk away and look elsewhere for the help they need.

Never Leave a Man Behind

This is the motto of the US armed forces and it should be the motto of everyone who wants to make a six figure income online. This again goes back to what I said earlier — don’t be a jerk about stuff. By shafting people and leaving them behind to take the fall, you’ll ultimately find that you are just shooting yourself in the foot. Few truly successful people are able to stomp on everyone forever. Eventually, they simply run out of people to stomp on.

Don’t Burn Your Bridges

I know — it can be immensely tempting to tell your old boss exactly what you think of him when you leave your job and finally start working full time on your Internet marketing business. Or to tell that difficult client why you hate his guts and wish he would just drop dead. However, this is never a good idea. Try to remain calm and end things as diplomatically as you can.
You never know when you’ll need to call that person, either to offer them your services as a consultant or to ask them to help you out with something they know something about but which you know nothing about.

Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say

Nobody likes double speak. It just makes it that much harder to get things done. Now I realize that there are those who think that by lying to people they’ll get ahead in life, but I am a firm believer that telling the truth is far more important than that and will have its own rewards.
Plus, when you tell the truth and you make sure that you are clear about what you mean, you are more likely to get the results that you want from your employees since they are able to better understand just what it is that you need done. So take the time to tell people what you’re thinking (although do be diplomatic about it) rather than hiding or assuming people understand your hidden meaning. They often don’t.

Keep Your Personal Situation In Mind

If you really can’t afford to drop an extra $500 to buy into the latest and greatest craze that you happened to have seen online, then don’t do it. Don’t just say “oh to heck with it — I’d be crazy not to get in on this.” You need to keep your own situation in mind. Plus, by doing so, it’s likely that you’ll have second thoughts about rash decisions that you may otherwise make.
It’s also useful to remember that you need to be concerned not just with yourself but also with the people that you love. If you have a family to support, do you really want to be dropping your kid’s college tuition money on a bet? So yes, take risks, but be sensible about it.

Put Time Aside to Meet New People

Yes, your business is important and yes, you need to ensure that you spend time building your business. However, meeting new people (i.e. networking and also meeting people who may have other ideas for making money) is also an important part of actually building that six figure income.
After all, you can’t make money if you don’t have customers and if all you ever do is sell to the same people over and over again, you’ll eventually find that they’ve purchased whatever it is that you happen to have for sale and have no desire to make any additional purchases from you. So do take the time to network, meet new people and get yourself out of your comfort zone once in a while. You never know after all where that next big idea will come from.

Bottom Line

The bottom line though is that it all comes down to my golden rule — don’t be a jerk. If you treat others with dignity and respect and try your best to do the right thing, they’ll reward you by buying whatever you happen to have to sell them and they’ll even thank you for it.