Is making money online easy?
Starting an online business can be tough. Especially when there is so much noise. You have gurus left and right telling you the next best way to make money online or how you’re going to be able to achieve financial freedom after you attend A free training. To be fair, most of the advertisements you see on social media or all over the internet do their job very well and make it come across as if it is…
A mistake that I see A lot of entrepreneurs or people trying to get into the world of making A living online / becoming A digital nomad and one that I fell into the bad habit of , was thinking that I was going to be able to achieve an unrealistic level of success overnight.
The short answer would be No, anything really worth having take’s time and effort and creating A real online business isn’t any different. Maybe these notions are common because someone who has A successful online business doesn’t usually have A “physical” location or storefront.
That combined with the fact that having an online business or online service can have higher profit margins and scale to greater levels than your traditional brick and mortar business because you can automate a lot of the processes has become A breeding ground for unrealistic expectations or some putting little effort in and throwing in the towel thinking it was A scam because it didn’t happen fast enough or to what they were expecting.
At least this was what happened to me when I first started dabbling in the digital space and started trying to make A living online.
So in this blog post, I’m going to go over the top 5 things that I wish I would have known when I first started and some of the mistakes that I made.
Related Post: Why Start An Affiliate Marketing Business?
1. Use Your Failures As Stepping Stones Towards Success
In every aspect of our lives, you’re bound to trip up and make some mistakes. Becoming an online entrepreneur or start A successful online business is going to have A HUGE Learning curve.
It’s not something that you could really go to school for… Yet..
So you’re kind of left to your own devices and to figure it out on your own which is why the gurus are making A killing because they’re charging thousands of dollars for information.
Or to teach you methods, that some of them aren’t even really using to make money online. The majority of the are making their income from you purchasing their program and not from implementing the strategies that they teach.
I’m not saying that digital courses aren’t A great resource or something that you can learn an incredible amount from but I know for me, I just got into the bad habit purchasing the next course thinking that it had the answers to the problems I was having.
When the reality of the situation was, I ended up spending thousands of dollars and spending 6 months of hard work before I ever even made my first penny online. Even though I implemented the exact strategies learned throughout various programs.
Find A mentor who’s done/has what you want and follow their blueprint loosely to achieve your own level of success.
No two circumstances are exactly the same, so don’t expect the same results or think that someone can promise you something with A plug & play system or done for you online business model.
All the tools can help but ultimately it’ll be up to you. Your successes & your failures are A direct result of the amount of effort that you’re willing to put in.
If you want things that you’ve never had, you’re going to have to be willing to do things that you’ve never done.
A good example of this is: Say someone new pops up on the radio and their song is playing all of the time. To some people, it’s as if that artist popped up out of “no-where” or with “ease” but the reality of the situation. Most of the time they were working towards building their dreams in the background with very little recognition for years before ever being that radio hit.
If You Don’t Build Your Own Dreams, Someone Will Happily Hire You To Build Theirs…
2. Choose Something That You’re Passionate About
A huge mistake I see people making and one that I made myself when I first made the plunge into the digital space is jumping on the first thing they come across because it could make A lot of money. Even if the business model doesn’t align with their passions or core values the dollar signs override everything.
There is A lot of reasons why you want to choose something that you’re passionate about.
If you’re working A day job or somewhere you currently don’t like while trying to build an online business but it isn’t something that you’re passionate about it’s going to be put on the back burner real quick because you’re going to want to come home and decompress, maybe watch some Netflix or do something that you enjoy. Choosing something that you’re passionate about or that you believe in, it no longer becomes work or A chore because you can come home and actually look forward to doing it vs dreading it.
You’ll naturally be able to sell whatever service you’re offering or types of products that you’re promoting because it’s something that you actually believe in. When someone reaches out to you and asks you about A piece of content or A post you made you’ll be able to engage in A meaningful conversation with them because it’s something you’re actually interested in.
If someone believes in you they will believe in what you’re selling or offering..
We live in the most amazing time ever and you can monetize on anything that you can imagine. There is an 8-year-old kid who makes millions of dollars A year doing toy reviews online, the possibilities are endless. The only thing that usually separates people from success is the belief that they can actually achieve it.
You like Cats… start A blog about cats. Use Affiliate Marketing to sell cute cat clothing… For the owners and cats..
You like to play video games… Play games upload consistent videos on Youtube, Stream on twitch. Build A following and promote Affiliate products related to gaming.
Maybe you like to work out.. or diet… Create A personal training program and sell it online.. Meal prep plans..
3. Understand That No One Needs To See Your Vision Or Believe In Your Dreams
Something that is very prevalent not only when you’re starting an online business but appears in various other aspects of most people’s lives is the fact that we have A tendency to let the opinions of others affect our decisions. At times if someone else doesn’t understand why you’re pursuing something or putting effort into achieving something they don’t see the same as way as you do, it can put A halt on your own passions/pursuit of happiness.
These scenarios appear throughout A lot of times in our life. It can affect everything from the way you dress to what type of career you end up deciding to be in. When the reality of the situation is that you’re the only person that has to live your life and if you’re not making every choice to make yourself happy then you’re doing it wrong!
An example that I like to make is the story of Jeff Bezos, who if you don’t know is the owner of Amazon. He set out to be the leader in E-commerce ( selling products online) in the 1990s.
Which at the time was A fairly new thing and not every single home had internet access and if they did, getting online took forever and very few people were willing to put their information or actually purchase anything online. As it’s 2020, nearly 30 years later and people are still skeptical about purchasing things online.
But imagine the adversity Jeff Bezos caused or the way that people looked at him when he explained what he was going to try to achieve. If he would have let the opinion of others dictate the choices that he was going to make with his life he wouldn’t have ended up being where he is today. Which is being the richest person in the world and having one of the most known businesses across the world.
4. Don’t Try To Reinvent The Wheel / Forge A New Path
A mistake I see A lot of people making when they first start their online journey is they go out and start doing things that they “Think” might work or be beneficial to growing their online business. Usually resulting in many hours wasted, dollars spent, and little to no success.
There are so many businesses out there that are already successful. In the exact industry that you’re in or want to be that you can model your business, sales funnels, or process off of.
I’m by no means saying go out there and copy someone else’s content word for word or plagiarize something but by all means mock your business off of ones in the same industry that are already successful.
It’s not unethical in any way and it is A very common practice throughout the business in general.
It will save you A ton of time and energy, especially when you’re first starting and there is A reason why certain businesses are successful / they’ve invested money into why their logo is here or there. What types of colors they’re using and things like that. Take advantage of the little things because sometimes they aren’t so little!
5. Focus More On Long Term Success
Having an online business can be very lucrative. The internet has revolutionized the way people can make livings, learn, and have possibilities that weren’t available 10 years ago.
But it takes a lot of work. I see it so often that people focus on methods that are more about “instant gratification” or expecting to go viral overnight and when they don’t they either quit or start to think that “it doesn’t work.”
Up until the last 5 or 6 years, there were only A few ways that you could actually achieve truly passive income. Real estate and stocks. The first requiring A huge upfront investment and the other being known as being A place for you to lose your life savings.
But now there is so many options to actually creating A long-lasting, sustainable wealth that you can make for years and years to come after your initial work.
Platforms like Youtube or Blogging can make you money for years to come after your initial time investment of creating A video or writing A blog post.
I see this so often when people try to jump into affiliate marketing (myself including.) They find A product they want to promote and they go out and start spamming their link on social media platforms expecting to make A ton of sales. It doesn’t work, social media platforms frown upon it and will actually hide your link and you’re tainting your image before you even start.
Whether you’re wanting to be A blogger, E-commerce, Service Based Business Online, or you want to sell custom knitted cat sweaters You’re Building A Real Business. Just because it’s online doesn’t mean it’s fictitious. So treat it as such and build your brand!
Is Making Money Online Easy?
Now I hate to be the bearer of bad news but no making money online isn’t easy. The chances of you going viral overnight with very little effort are slim to none.
But all things worth having are more than worth the work. Having an online business is giving people the freedom to live their lives how they want, where they want, and doing what they want.
- Fail Forward – Use Your Failures And Mistakes As Stepping Stones Towards Success / Embrace Your Failures
- Chose Something You’re Passionate About – It’s 2020 You Can Monetize On Just About Anything These Days So Do So Working On Something You Love..
- Nobody Needs To Understand Your Dream – The Only Person That Needs To See Your Vision Is You – Don’t Let The Judgment Of Others Have Weight On The Things You Want To Do
- Don’t Try To Reinvent The Wheel – Reverse Engineer Pre-Existing Businesses That Are Successful In The Industry You Want To Be In And Mock Your Own Business Model Off Of Theirs
- Focus More On The Long Game – Focus More On Long Term Success And Sustainable Wealth Vs Flash In The Pants Or An Overnight Success Story
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