Why is it so difficult to make money online? You have done all the right things? Followed all of the advice from all of the gurus, and you still cannot make a dent.

You had lofty goals, and you put some time into your online business every day, and you are still putting time and money into your online ventures to no avail. The bottom line, is you are making no money, getting no prospects or buyers, and in plain English, nothing is happening the way you thought it was.

So why is making money online so difficult? Why do you put in all of this hard work and effort, and nothing is happening like you expected?

Here are 5 reasons why I believe that it is so hard to make money online nowadays without strong time investment and a true understanding of how to get traffic to your website.

1. You have chosen a highly competitive niche where it becomes truly hard to make money in due to all of the other websites in your niche with stronger page rank and more back links. When this happens you find yourself on the 30th page of Google, never to be found by anyone except the most diehard internet surfer.

2. You are using highly competitive keywords that are very hard to rank for. You are not using less competitive and long tail keywords in which people can more easily find your blog or your website. You are getting lost in the crowd again, and nobody is finding your site.

3. Your website design may be unappealing or unattractive to the eye. It may have an unprofessional look or be very crowded. If your site is filled with flashing ads, and your site looks sloppy, your visitors will leave with a quick click of the mouse.

4. You may be selling products that have been around for a long time, and are in a saturated market. You may not have the trust of people to purchase these products from you as well, because people like to buy from a trusted website.

5. You are not using SEO on your blog or website or have no idea what SEO (search engine optimization), or SEM (search engine marketing) for your blog or website and you will not be found by people looking for what you have to offer.

These are only a few reasons why it may be difficult to make money online as easy as you thought. Remember there are a lot of people out there worldwide who are trying to do what you are doing, so there is a lot of competition.

On the other hand, however, there are billions of people on the internet worldwide who may be looking for what you have to offer. If you present you website or blog, along with its’ products and services in a professional way, and you learn how to get traffic, things can begin to improve for you.

Also, do not forget social networking like Facebook and Twitter, as well as social bookmarking sites like Delicious, Technorati, and Mr. Wong. These can help you in your search engine ranking tremendously and start to drive a lot of traffic to your site.

That being said, studies have shown that most of your buyers will find you through the search engines by searching for certain keywords. Therefore, learn all you can about keyword research, SEO, and SEM, and whatever you do, please do not give up!

Author Bio: Ms. Tukachinsky is a home business coach and mentor who focuses on making money online.