The most important lesson for achieving your online dreams is building long-term value.

It is possible to make money with short-term strategies, but if something changes and the short term strategy no longer works, you are back at square one - except for the knowledge you have gained.  

For example, some people are making money by buying traffic from search engines and sending it directly to targeted sales pages with affiliate marketing links.  This is a tough game to play.  People have been able to make money, but the game continues to change. This is similar to playing poker.  You can win the game once in awhile and generate money, but you aren't building a sustainable business.

Google recently changed their advertising program.  It is now much tougher to buy traffic into targeted sales pages.  People who worked for years building these advertising campaigns are now left with very few options since they no longer can buy the targeted traffic they have relied on.  They made commissions on the sales they generated, but they gave the user no reason to return to their page or site.   They never collected email addresses.  They never built a customer list.   

This type of short-term strategy can be used to generate immediate revenue, but it shouldn't be your entire busines model.   

Build long-term value by finding a good domain name and building a good site.  The strategies and the technology may change, but having a good domain name and a good site as the base of your online efforts will pay dividends in long-term value. 

Build a list of customers and members as soon as possible.  There are too many options on the internet to think people will return to your website on their own.  Use member lists, email lists, rss feeds, etc... to collect and share information with a growing list of people who are open to a relationship with you and your site.

If you have any questions, ask them in the forum

NEXT: Find A Niche