As much as I would like to tell you that there is some magic secret to being successful and making money online, I’m afraid that’s not the case. There’s no quick road to riches, if that were the case then everyone would be millionaires and we would all spend our days relaxing on the beach.
I believe that if you approach making money on the internet with a systematic approach, you are virtually guaranteed success. Once you get in the groove, it can actually become quite easy to succeed and generate a lot of income. If this is true, then why do so many people fail at making money online then? In my opinion, it boils down to 3 main reasons:
Failing to start
In order to make money online – you must start somewhere. Whether it’s blogging, creating a website, promoting affiliate offers, whatever method you have decided to use to make money – you must actually get started. Many people scheme up grandiose ideas and the next thing that’s going to catapult them to success… but never lift a finger to start. If you don’t start somewhere (anywhere) – you have nothing to generate income.
Failing to take action
Right after “failing to start”, we have a failure to take action as a large reason why many people have not been successful online. Although you may have launched your site, blog, or campaign, it needs to be continually enhanced to keep growing. Just like a garden needs sunlight and water – you’re online endeavors need to be fed with marketing, new content, and direction so that they can thrive.
Imagine a business opens in your city and they go and build a huge new building and announce their grand opening to the public, place ads in the newspaper, and have a spectacular opening. You then walk into the store only to see the shelves nearly empty with just a few products in the back corner. This is similar to how many blogs and sites end up – as shells with only a few pages or posts that were never fully developed.
Failing to persevere
The final reason why I think many people fail to succeed is their lack of perseverance. You must admit to yourself that you will face tough times and face obstacles that you need to push through. If you’re a blogger, you may not have an audience for months, but if you stick with it – you will start seeing results.
Hi Big Manta,
I am in the process of monetizing my blog. It’s slow going. I try to use a combination, of affiliate programs and Adsense. Both have brought me very little in the way of money. I think I’ll have to develop my own product such as an ebook. Any other suggestions?
Gordie,
I believe if you have the time and resources then developing something like an ebook or some type of product that relates to your blog and topic is a great route. The benefit is that you can use your blog to promote it, give away free copies for contests, and rely on the thousands of affiliate marketers out there who are always looking for products to promote.
Since your blog relates to blogging in addition to lifestyle design, you have many options available. Your blog is running on the Thesis theme so you may want to write a post about that and mention it in your sidebar with a banner that says something like “This Site Uses the Thesis Theme.” It only takes a few of these type of affiliate sales to start racking up some decent money.
Personally, I believe that ditching AdSense and try displaying products that are relevant to your site might be more beneficial and worthwhile. I know that Leo Babauta of ZenHabits even has some ebooks that you could display banners for since they’re highly relevant, they’re on E-Junkie and you get a cut every time one of them is sold.
One last thing I noticed when I quickly glanced over your site was you “Resources” section. You could very easily link to some affiliate programs that directly relate to your blog in this area. Tools, ebooks, the Thesis theme, all can be listed here, and I’m guessing that it’s probably one of the more popular pages in your site so you should be able to convert quite a few.
Sorry about my long-winded response
Short and sharp list post… I like the last point “persevere” – it is the last key to success.
Just my 2 cents worth:
Having an ebook is a good approach, as it becomes a good communication channel for your readers.
Most professional bloggers have very little ads revenue compared to their own products.
Because most blog readers are repeated visitors and they are “blind” to ads and banners.
Moreover, those who downloaded your ebook are “more serious type” of audience who have shown interest in what you have to offer.
It just takes a bit of creativity to develop the content of the ebook to achieve what you want from them.
Yaro Starak established himself as an Expert after the release of an ebook before moving on to profit from his training programs.
Louis, thanks for sharing – those are some excellent tips!
The last point is really important …. success stand (almost) always on past failures
Dan
Dan, thanks for stopping by – and it’s true no one has ever been successful without failing and learning from their mistakes.
I think part of failure is also that people only have the money in mind, and the way that gets there is only the means, but not something they enjoy. It is much more fun to make money while you truly enjoy the way there, or you believe in what you are doing. I can’t always say that money is secondary, but it definitely helps to not always concentrate on it.
Tom, that’s absolutely true. If your goal is to have more money in order to live a better lifestyle, the journey is just as important. Spending months or years pursuing money doing something you dislike flies in the face of why you’re trying to make money in the first place.
I think “Failing to persevere” is the one that gets most people in the end, although I’m guilty of “Failing to Start” lol.
When I finally dig start my blog, I started to go around the “blogosphere” looking for other blogs that are in the same niche that I’m in. I found a lot of great blogs. Unfortunately most of these great blogs hadn’t been update since early 2009, and in some cases 2008. Or their post schedule was high erratic.
Why they stopped blogging is anyone’s guess. Did they lose interest? Did they make another blog? Did they win the lotto? While all of these are possible, my guess is that they realized this wasn’t a get rich quick scheme.
Bunni, I think your statements as to why people stop are interesting. Most probably came to the realization that it actually is hard work and takes some effort/energy.
I personally think one of the reasons to why so many people fail is because they have no plan. I wrote a post on this earlier this year explaining my thoughts on why people constantly fail to get things done.
It’s really difficult to know what to do so by creating a plan you will have specific tasks which will make everything easier in the end.
I couldn’t agree more. I have got to work on the perseverance part as I tend to lose focus quickly. Thanks for a great list post and see you around at pb.com
Thanks for dropping by, just stick with it and you’ll succeed.
And failing to have the guts. (it is referring to a post I had on the ProBlogger forum). But this is a great list and some important suggestions to keep in mind, especially the lack of perseverance. I too believe that is a biggie.
I think one reason many people don’t persevere is because there’s often not much feedback and very few pats on the back as a blogger. Most people don’t post comments and those crazy stats counters can do a number on your head. That’s when you have to have enough belief in what you have to offer to keep slogging along and pumping out post after post.
Great thought-provoking list post, BTW!