Because I make my living online, I hear from a lot of people who wish to do the same thing. I have been making my living online for nearly 20 years now, with a couple of interruptions. But, for probably 15 of the last 20 years I have earned my income exclusively through online methods. It’s not really all that unusual, many people go to an office or a warehouse or some other place to earn their income. I go online. There is nothing magic about it, really. A lot of people think it is somehow magic, though.
Really, I would argue that anybody can make their income online. There are lots of different ways to make money online, to be honest with you. There is, though, one big question that you must answer.
Are you willing to do what must be done?
Yeah, that is the question you need to answer. Earlier I said that many people think that earning money online is magic. A lot of folks think that if you put up a website, the next day or the next week, money will start showing up in your bank account. Sorry folks, it ain’t that easy. In fact, there is a secret that I am going to let you in on. This is something that few people know, and many who do know it don’t believe it’s true:
If you want to make money online, you have to work!
Yes, work. Spend hours doing the thing that has to be done. When I tell people that I make my living on the Internet, many people think I sit in front of the computer playing games or chatting. Sorry, it isn’t so. In fact, I don’t play games. I don’t consider my computer to be a toy. My computer is a business tool. For a carpenter, the tools of his business are things like hammers and saws. A dentist uses a drill and other tools to do his job. A salesman uses his phone, his knowledge and such as his business tools. I use my computer.
So, what do I have to do?
Well, the list is long. To get started, you have to spend a lot of time to build up your profile online. Depending on how you intend to make money on the Internet, you might need to write articles, or you may need to search for products to sell online, you might need to promote your websites. There is no limit to the things you need to do.
Your biggest thing, though, is that you have to develop a plan to increase your footprint on the Internet, and you have to do it. One thing is that once you have the plan in place, you have to keep doing it and not give up.
A lot of people that talk to me about how to earn a living on the Internet end up starting blogs. I tell them that they need to post a new blog post every day, or a minimum of 4 or 5 articles per week, and they have to keep doing it. In my case, when I got into blogging to earn an income, it took about 3 years to become successful. A lot of people stop trying after a few weeks. Most people stop after a few months at the most. In my case, I wrote 2 or 3 articles per day for 3 years before I hit it. Once I hit on success in blogging, I was able to cut back a bit on my tough schedule, but still had to continue with regularity, just not as often. This is what you have to do.
You know what happens after you reach a certain level of success? Money starts coming to you, instead of you going out looking for money. In other words, people come to you and offer you deals. They want to advertise on your site. They want to do partnerships with you. That sort of thing. For the first few years that I blogged, I never got any offers like that. Today, I’ve been blogging for many years, and such deals come to me nearly every day. Many such deals, while they could make me money, I turn down, because it doesn’t fit in with the person I am, or just is not the right match for me. Maybe somebody wants to advertise on my site, but his site is really not something I want to advertise for or link to… I’ll turn it down. How could I turn down money like that? Well, because I get enough offers that I don’t have to take every one of them, only the ones that I feel good about.
But, if you quit blogging after a week, a month or even a year, these kinds of offers will not come to you.
So, you want to make money online, right?
Are you willing to do what it takes?
2-3 articles a day? Wow, that’s so a lot! I can hardly dish out one article per week! My problem is time and knowledge. I am an employee working 40+ hours per week. On top of that, all those other activities that I do, like reading (I like reading self help books), photography anyway, learning, including all these websites I follow and read. They pretty much take my free time.
I know I haven’t pushed myself enough, that I don’t fully know by the term (5-6hrs sleep is what I get, after working, and learning, trying to connect with folks online and sometimes writing), Am I willing to do what it takes…but I am at least doing something to get this venture going to the direction I want it to go to (but rather slow though)…
Writing articles. Some articles I write takes 20-30 minutes. But the majority requires some form of research—which can take over 20 hours and I only have about 20-25 hours each week spare! I know how folks say, go into a niche you are passionate about (but what if that niche is soo.. small that it will not be financially beneficial?), I also read from a site, that these if we truly want to earn a living online, we must also venture to fields we may not know about — but where people are willing to spend money on.
I suppose, it doesn’t help when you have multiple sites to look after….which I read too, that build one site at a time…..
Hi Jojie – Nice to hear from you. One thing you said really caught my eye:
Personally, I do not believe such a niche exists. Niches are small by definition. If you find a niche, no matter how small, you can make money. The key is to be an expert in that niche. Even if there is only 1/1000th of one person of the people on earth who are interested in that niche, you are still talking to 70,000 people, which is plenty to fund a nice income!
Yes, the key is to write plenty of articles. I have not had an article take me 20 hours or more to complete. On average, I can write an article in 15 or 20 minutes. My guess is that if you are spending that much time on an article you would be wise to break that down into a series of articles.
Good luck, Jojie.
Thanks Bob. I’ll keep that in mind. Half the battle of anything is in the mind in my view. If I have that perception then, it will materialise in that way. So I guess, I have to start changing my view, that regardless of how small this niche is, that if I keep the right frame of mind, I can benefit from it… in this case, my venture to making money online throught a very small niche.
Hi Jojie – Go for it! Devote a lot of time and effort, and I promise you that your efforts will pay off, if you stick at it!