I have this new rule. If I can't get a blog into the top 100k of Alexa or at least 2k visitors per day within 6 months, I'm going stop investing time and money in the blog.

Rules like this help you to stay focused and to avoid wishful thinking. Sure, there are going to be exceptions (for example, I'm making $700 per month on a blog that's not even in the Alexa One Million)....

But the fact is...you need ways of objectively analyzing your web properties and the success of your blog. Maybe you're rule isn't as stringent as mine. Maybe it's more stringent. Whatever the case, we all need to step back and be willing to say goodbye to our "babies" when, despite our best efforts and best intentions, our projects have proven themselves to be failures. Sooner or later, any further investment of time and money is clearly a waste.

It's the toughest lesson I've had to learn. But moving forward in an efficient and profitable way makes it necessary. So 2008 is the year of "Alexa 100k or bust" for Ryan Caldwell's portfolio.

So what kind of objective standards do you use for deciding whether to cut and run, or stay the course?

What's the biggest contributing factor to success online? Any guesses?

A huge advertising budget? Nah, you don't need it

How about mastery of SEO? Don't waste your time.

Would it help if I have a brother-in-law at Google? I doubt it.

Do I need to butter up some biggie blogs so that success will rub off of me? You can try but you'll soon be disappointed.

Be your own self.

You only need one thing to have success on the Internet. The key word is FOCUS.

Studies have shown that to make it online, you need to have focus. Have a clear-cut direction in what you're going to do...and do it.

There are zillions of sites but many of them lack a single iota of focusing that will make them successful.

The problem with many beginners is that they want to please everyone. And that's a sure way to take a fall eventually.

Success is the key that unlocks many doors. And which key unlocks the door to success?"

It's a fact that one of the biggest sellers on the Internet is information.

Yes, information is your key to unlock the door to succeed as a well-informed blogger or as an online entrepreneur. If you don't have it, you're as good as dead in the water.

What if your mind can open up and see the many opportunities right infront of you? Information at your fingertips!

Look at it this way: Information = Knowledge = Power...to know what to do and how to do it.

Taking the homebiz route: We all know that homebiz opportunities are now within the grasp of most people.

According to surveys, millions of people around the world have left the corporate world to take the plunge into their own home-based business.

And I'm sure this is the dream of many who are blogging now.

And yet there are still millions who are left behind by the Internet explosion, especially in Third World countries and even in some developed nations.

Surveys have revealed that they are "still in the dark" where the World Wide Web is concerned.

We can safely say there's a great divide concerning the Internet. There are the haves and the have-nots.

Although Netusers have increased by the millions, there are many more who still believe it's "too complicated and costly" to go online. To them, having a digital identity is just a fad.

If we're talking about the New Economy, how are these people going to cope? What can be done for them? And why the have-nots can't get going? Do we care for some answers?