You’ve probably read a few articles on this website about how I have been earning a living on the Internet for a long time. Perhaps you are thinking that it’s all “pie in the sky,” or maybe you think that it is real and some people can do it, but most people will never be able to do it.
You know what? I agree that most people will never be able to earn significant money online, at least in the coming decade or two. But, you might be surprised why I feel that way. The only reason that I feel people won’t be able to do it is that they will not even try. Or perhaps they will put out a minimal effort for a month or two, and then give up.
Well, let me tell you, making money online is work, just like having a regular job is work. You don’t just sit down at the keyboard and the dollar bills start showing up in your bank account. No, you have to define your purpose, figure out how you want to earn that money and do the work! There is no substitute for work. Now, I will say this… working online may be much easier than some of the regular work that people do. You don’t have to go out and dig ditches or work on an assembly line. You can sit in the comfort of your air-conditioned office on a keyboard, but you have to be doing work. If you sit down at your keyboard and spend the day reading all the latest showbiz news, or cruise the net looking at pictures of pretty women… well, you aren’t going to make money doing those things. So, make up your mind to actually do some work when you sit in front of your computer. Playing Solitaire on Windows does not count!
Now, there are lots of ways you can make money online. Maybe you can start selling things online. I recently read an article about a doctor in California who started a second career on the side. She started selling on eBay. After only a year or so of selling on eBay, she was earning more money from her eBay career than she did at being a medical doctor! If you want to start selling online (on eBay or any other venue online including your own website), you need to seek out a source for products to sell. Maybe you can sell something that you make. Yesterday, I had a meeting with a lady who makes cloth diapers and a diaper cover for babies. She sews them herself, and she wants to start selling them online. Maybe you can make something to sell.
Maybe you are a writer, like me. I write articles for my websites, and I have advertisers on the sites who pay me. I also write electronic books (eBooks) on topics that people want to learn about. I sell those books to my website readers, and I do quite well with them. If you are a writer, there are a number of ways that you can make money. I am sure that you are familiar with the famous writer, Stephen King. A few years back, Stephen King tried an experiment where he wrote a book on the Internet. As I recall, he published the first chapter or the first few chapters for free, and if you wanted to read the rest of his novel, you had to pay. He didn’t make as much money as he hoped to, so he didn’t do that again. However, in order to have a decent income, you don’t need to make the kind of money that Stephen King gets for his writing, and perhaps something like this would work nicely for you.
The thing is, there are many, many ways that you can earn a living on the Internet. There is one thing, though… if you don’t try, you won’t succeed. If you don’t get a website, you won’t ever know what might have happened, or how successful you might have been. The other thing is that you have to give it enough of a chance to work. You can’t try it for a few weeks and quit. If you do that, you won’t succeed. You need to give it time. Maybe six months or even a year before you will begin to reap the kind of rewards that you can achieve.
So, give it a try today, or soon! There is no better time than now. If you can make your own site, more power to you. If you need help in putting together a nice site, let me help you with that! Just contact me and let’s talk about it. If you don’t try, you certainly won’t succeed, so start now!
I’m really glad to see you getting this kicked off, Bob, and I hope some of those folks who come to both of us for advice about a “job” read some of what you are writing and take it to heart.
Not too long ago you commented on one of my articles as to how true entrepreneurs are likely born and not ‘made’. In many ways I think you are right, but there is a subset of true entrepreneurship that I feel virtually anyone can get started in.
What is required, though, is work …and I think that defeats more people in their online efforts than anything else. You just can’t ‘put up a website’, no matter how profitable the idea is, and expect money to roll in … but it certainly is easy work compared to what most jobs require.
The part that is ‘easy’ though, are the barriers to entry. You don’t need to lease property, order in stock, hire all sorts of labor or professional help and so many other things a conventional business requires. And the risk factor is consequently very low. Most people seem to live in fear of failure … with an online business, the consequences oif failure are typically very low … if you don’t like how something is working out, just drop it and start something more to your liking … you don’t have a garage full of overpriced laundry soap to sell 😉
Hi Dave – Thanks for being the first to comment here on Web-Earner! As the first commenter, I am going to offer you a special discounted rate on a re-design job for one of your sites! 😉
You know, what you say is really true. The barriers to entry on the web are very, very low. For a few hundred dollars or less you can have a fully functional business. I have businesses that I have put up for less than $100 which have earned huge amounts of money over the years, and all very legitimate stuff – no hanky panky – no hard sell, nothing like that. Just good honest to goodness business, on the Internet, which earns money for my family. I hope that I can help others achieve the same thing through this new business venture!
Bob, i have tons of free time to learn and grow with a new adventure!! Whats my next step?
Hi Anthony – In my opinion, the first thing you should do is to decide what you have a passion for, and then figure out a way to make a web-based business around that. Doing something that you have a passion for will make it something that is not really like “work” for you, more fun and enjoyment. I feel that is a big plus when it comes to business, especially. Good luck to you Anthony! If I can assist you in getting something going, please let me know!
Passion is key, isn’t it? It is so much easier to be successful doing work that you enjoy. My father worked hard all his life, but certainly didn’t enjoy what he did. I prefer the alternative.
Hi Tom – I agree with you wholeheartedly! I love what I do, and I don’t (usually) even feel like I am working! That’s the key to a happy life!
What you can do too, is if it is an article that you write. You would almost have it written first in say a word document right? You can do all the spell checking there too and it is also important that you always proof read it. Proof reading is as just important in my view because you may have the correct spelling of the word, but because we have words that could mean something else, it gives you just that……. for instance.. you might be writing something about some pubic event… I meant PUBLIC EVENT!
Google Chrome too, has spelling suggestions as you type. I’m a chrome user.. and I use firefox too but I think I’ve loaded so much plug-in too it that it takes about 1 minute to load!
Hi JC – There are many tools available which you can use to write your article. Some use Microsoft Word. Some use Live Writer. There are lots of tools to choose from. For me, I prefer to write directly in WordPress, no other tools in between.
I use Chrome mostly, and indeed, the spell checking in Chrome is great!
Great article Bob.
I am finally making a full time living online. It took me 2 years to get to this point. We have a few things in common. We both work online and also the love of my life lives in Davao. I agree that working online is work…and you have to put a lot of time in effort into it. In my case it really took a team for me to make it big. I have a team of designers, programmers and marketers. It is hard to do it on your own and there are many tasks that need to be out sourced if you can not do it. I still can not code html or php, but I have friends now that can. I am now trying to teach my pinay girlfriend online marketing. Thanks for the great article.
Hi Todd – It’s great to hear that you have been able to accomplish earning a living online! It’s a great achievement! Good luck with teaching your girlfriend to do the same, I hope she also accomplishes the goal! Take care.