Making Money Online - The Reality
72It sounds so tempting. You're sick of your job - or perhaps you're stuck at home through illness, or keen to stay at home with your new baby - and all over the internet, people are telling you how easy it would be to set yourself online and make millions. Or at least, make a good living. Surely they can't all be lying?
No, they're not all lying. I've been writing on the internet for nearly three years and I know it's possible to make a living online. But the picture of an internet entrepreneur sitting back with a glass of wine while his websites earn income effortlessly is a myth - making money online is hard work! In fact in the early days, it requires even longer hours than you currently work in your regular job.
That's why I decided to go back to my "day job" (if you'd like to know more, read my Hub on My Internet Journey). You may not have that option: if so, I'd like to reassure you that you can make a living online. However, it's likely to take two or three years of dedicated, full-time effort before you can hope to live on the "passive income" that the internet marketers promise you. And you have a big learning curve in front of you!
Making a living on the internet has several attractions:
- You don’t have to answer to a boss
- You can work from home
- You can travel the world, so long as you can get access to the internet.
It’s naïve to think you can find a job that has all these advantages, and is easy and effortless at the same time. For one thing, you are only one of millions of people who like the idea, so there’s a lot of competition out there!
"But", you say, "I can show you a hundred websites which tell me making money online is easy!"
Well, most of them aren’t lying when they say you can “make money”. People do make money at MyLot, because 3 or 4 cents is still money. You can earn 20 cents per article per month at Helium or Bukisa if you’re a good writer – it’s not a lot of money, but it’s still “making money”. The same goes for survey sites.
All these sites would argue that if you choose to read "make money" as "make lots of money" - well, that's your own fault!
If you're thinking of joining a site like HubPages or Helium, do your research first on what pay-to-write sites are really earning. Bear in mind that most of these sites pay commission, so people who write a glowing review may not be totally honest. A lot of people join revenue-sharing sites, then decide they can make more money persuading other suckers to sign up, than they can make actually contributing to the site!
Personally I find HubPages is miles ahead of any other revenue-sharing site I've tried. It takes more work to get set up, and there's a learning curve to writing the Hubs - but for that reason, it's an excellent way to learn the basic skills needed to start your own website or blog. I should disclose that I also get paid a commission for recommending HubPages, so don't take my word for it - you'll find plenty of people openly discussing earnings on the HubPages forums.
However, be aware no revenue-sharing site is going to give you a livable income on its own. To have any hope of earning enough to live on, you have to create your own websites or blogs as well.
Think about it for a minute. If all these people are so rich, why do they need to make extra cash by selling their ideas to you?
Could it be that it’s more profitable to sell their business ideas to other people, than it is to actually put them into practice?
Don't think, though, that having your own website or blog is an automatic passport to success.
Bear in mind that some "successful" internet entrepreneurs aren't being entirely honest. I've met people who claim to make a living blogging, but their idea of "making a living" is very different from mine! A common boast is that they're making enough to afford a "permanent holiday lifestyle". BUT - look more closely and you realize they live in a low-cost holiday destination where they live a quiet life. Whereas my idea of "making a living" involves a nice restaurant meal occasionally, and some money to put aside for my old age.
And of course, some of them are flat-out lying - if they want you to buy their $49.95 e-book, they're not going to admit they're not making money, are they?
Before you rush out and pay for any courses or e-books, ask the seller to show you their own successful blogs and reveal how much they're earning. In many cases, their only blog is the one you're reading - they're making all their money selling courses or e-books to suckers like you!
Even those who are genuinely making money usually owe their success to coming up with a unique and original idea for their website/blog. Sometimes that success is enduring, but sometimes it's short-lived because their success is noticed, and hundreds of other people jump on the bandwagon. That's the point at which they start looking for other ways to keep the income flowing in.
And as many charlatans have worked out, the easiest way to make money on the internet is to write about how to make money on the internet. It’s a vicious circle which preys on vulnerable people.
I know several people who do make a good living on the internet. What they all have in common is a determination to succeed and a wilingness to burn the midnight oil.
All of them spent around two years working long days on the net, educating themselves, developing their business and promoting it. Most of them worked a day job as well, because their online business made no money to start with.
If you're hoping for something that will earn you a living without putting in a full day's work, you may find it on the internet - but only after have put in the groundwork by working long hours for a year or two.
*
All text copyright Marisa Wright. Photo courtesy of rkimpeljr on Flickr.
vote upvote downshareprintflag
- Useful (14)
- Funny
- Awesome (1)
- Beautiful (1)
- Interesting
CommentsLoading...
Well, I didn't say all the good ideas had been taken, just that you have to be creative enough to find those good ideas. I agree you can take an overseas idea and rework it for local consumption - but does that really work on the internet, which is so international?
"Think about it for a minute. If all these people are so rich, why do they need to make extra cash by selling their ideas to you?"
That's the crunch. That's what we should be asking ourselves when we are invited to any scheme. Our desire to make money drowns our good sense.
Thanks for pointing it out so clearly!
Nice hub. Very good analysis. Thanks so much for this.
Fantastic Hub, I'm totally going to have to bookmark this page.
That's a classic. Buy my e-book telling how to make money. The e-book tells to write an e-book about making money :)
Sounds like good advice to me. It's only common sense; you rarely make big money without making a big effort -- and using your talent and resourcefulness.
Bloggerdollar - yes, that's exactly what I mean. This article is my most read out of all of my HubPages - so if I was in this to make money, my obvious route would be to write more articles about how to make money. Which is exactly what thousands of people are out there doing right now!
I agree say 95%, believe there is a tad cynicism there
....No! You think?
The sad part that comes into this mix is that there are a lot of desperate people out there needing to make extra money and they scrape together the money to get this e-book for 49.99 and then they still have not resolved their financial problem...there has to be something that can be done to protect all from this onslaught of false promises...
Great HUB Marisa
regards Zsuzsy
Zsuzsy, that's exactly my concern. I've seen posts on forums from people like that, who would be far better off looking elsewhere for a solution to their financial problems. Spending hours on the net in the hope of elusive riches only makes the problem worse.
Great overview.
People do sometimes sell information that will help you make money today, particularly if it's in area where competition won't harm them and they can add several thousand a month to their income.
However, most of the time the claims fit your reasons. In fact, sometimes the claims are plain lies, or past earnings from doing something else falsely attributed to strategies in a new product.
An extremely good read! Thanks!
Good overwiev. Though, many people still click on that "Sign up now!!!" links...
Ink, I can't think of a single business where competitors can't harm you - and internet business is still business. No successful businessman wants to give away his competitive edge.
Marisa,
With the amount of material you have posted here, you could easily mke a living online by building a few topic specific websites with 5-6 articles each and then using all of your other material to submit to article directories and sites like Hubpages for linkback power to boost a site's Google ranking.
Remember that here on Hubpages you're only getting half of the adsense exposure, Hubpages splits impressions with you, and on your own sites you can also add affiliate offers that would pay anywhere from $20-$30 a sale.
Not that you should leave Hubpages, but the same amount of effort into your own site would lead to a lot more money. Any Hubber who has 200-300 hubs already had enough material written to probably quit their jobs in a few months if they applied it to their own sites. I wish some would sell me all their hubs.
Makemoneyinternet, how much money are you making? I do have my own sites and use HubPages for backlinks to them. They are starting to give me more income than HP but require a lot more effort. HP is great because yes, I have to split impressions, but I get traffic without having to put in the hard work of backlinking. So as a return on investment, the pay is comparable.
I'm sure someone would sell you all their Hubs if you made a good enough offer.
this really depends what you have been going through. I do admit that most internet marketers are plain selling the ebook / course / formula for revenue instead of actually making the money from the formula. Why should they shared the secret formula as if its still working while underneath the nature of internet that your success factor are copied easily and instantly make your worked things no longer working.
I did made some real cash online that even higher then my day job salary with 10mins effort but my secret formula only sustains for 4 months~
Great advice and great article. Hard work has always equalled success- but not everyone's idea of hard work is the same. You make very valid points. Thanks.
Very interesting hub. I always knew that it was a pipedream to think that a person could pay someone to create a website for them, advertise products for sale,sitback and count all that money without spending countless hours working at the keyboard and fighting off the lawsuits.
I joined HP 4 months ago and it was mindboggling trying to figure out, adsense, affiliate linking and installing sell widgets and gidgets. Truly a maze when you add in url tracking and anaylitics. Yep, lots of work to making money here legitimately. Very good hub you've written.
That's what I like about HubPages, Art. You think learning the ropes at HubPages is hard, but just wait till you try your own website! HP is a great way to learn because a certain amount is done for you, and you have lots of support available in the forums and in Help screens, so it's a good way to take baby steps and still earn at the same time.
What a great article and finally reality is set in. Making money online is hard and people that want to make money online need to know this. Thanks for the great hub!
Hi nice article on the reality of making money. I am a newbie here hoping to promote my adsense website as well as my sports website. I do however try to read between the lines of all the great gurus who claim the easy money thing on the net. I know if I found the magic formula I don't think I would be so forthcoming as to share the how I did it. Then again if I truly was doing real well then I could always sell my "how to" and make more. I haven't got there yet so I write, I comment, I promote, in hopes of one day being able to make a living from home. JR
Keep at it Marisa. It really is hard but will be worth it in the end.
I make a bit from affiliate marketing and ecommerce but nowhere near enough. I know it is possible though because I've had a little taste
You are absolutely correct.
Even if we have a job, we always need an extra incoming source to have some extra fun.
I guess a freelancer writing job is a great option, and also you get a pass-way out for that pressure from your day-2-day living.
Thanks
Good work. You delivered what you promised in the title.
Good article, there are way too many scams on the internet.
Good Hub, Great Information!! Thank you, I'll be sure to read more of your Articles(hubs)
I am still on my learning curve trying to make money on hubpages. I have also started to branch out with my own sites but it does take time and money.
Good luck to everyone. We will get there in the end.
The barrier to entry is low -- it is not hard to get online and just start writing. But to understand all the details of what drives traffic, how to promote, search engine optimization, then you are definitely right about having a "learning curve ahead of you".
I agree completely !!! You can be somewhat successful after you learn the ropes, but it takes more hours than most people are willing to spend. I'm semi-retired and work longer hours now than I ever have in my entire life... But its doing something I really enjoy, and after 2 years I have started to see the light and am making a little headway. It has been a great learning experience for me... Guess it's a good thing I love to learn something new every day.
Thanks for the hub! I'm just getting started around here and posts like this one give me encouragement to keep at it!
Plus, thanks for all you do in the forums - I learned a lot over there and you regularly add useful input for us newbies!
Thanks for the tips and encouragement.
You are so right about it taking time to get established and learn. I've been doing it now 18 months and I'll just now seeing some light in education and money. Still far off, but I'm getting there.
Hi,
Wow, I'm so happy I came across your Hub. Everything you describe is so true and I learned the hard way. I do agree it can be done but it does not happen over night. I can see myself a couple of years from now earning a good living online. I feel I am one of the lucky ones who actually understands having a desire and continuous writing will help my future but as for now, I still have to work and I will.
Excellent Hub which speaks truth. Way to go. I'm sure this Hub opened up many eyes.
mailxpress
Excellent hub. Mailxpress recommended this hub to me and rightly so! I see I have a lot of hard work in front me. Thanks for being so honest and helping me to not fall for every shiny gadget that claims to help make money online quickly. Anyone who does figure out the formula that works for them sure isn't going to share it. Thanks for your expertise and experience.
Marisa, so honest hub... this what i looking for, and i want to learn more from your experience how to get earlier revenue. I think your tips will valueble for me as newhub and netbis (just 5 days). i dont mind for hard work, but that hart work will is valuable earlier. Thank you for share. I will joint your fan
Hi Marisa - Great hub. I agree about the interface of hubpages being somewhat difficult. I guess it helps to keep our brains sharp by doing the more difficult tasks. Good luck in your writing and dancing. Keep up the good work at this site.
@brake12, I would never say the interface of HubPages is somewhat difficult! Yes, it's more difficult than somewhere like Helium where all you need do is write an article - but it's much, much easier than trying to create your own website or blog.
When I say "learning the ropes" I'm talking about all the more sophisticated things you can learn once you've written some basic Hubs.
Great Hub and good, honest advice. Your words are honest and you obviously know what you are talking about! Thanks so much for sharing. I need to follow you!
good hub enjoyed reading it will start following you.
Thanks for the warning. I know the realities, but for some reason it does not deter me. When I have a $2 day, I'm all excited. LOL I plan to keep on trucking, I do need a better chair for this though, I have been having some sore hind end moments....months of sitting in front of my computer. I'm a slow learner, but I am learning a little everyday.
Hi
I`m impressed with your honest approach. I agree to everything you write here, had similar experience. And many "gurus" simply lie. Hubpages are really simple to manage when comparing to host a website with Wordpress on server :). I learned a lesson the hard way, but I like every minute of this "kicking ass" :). Especially satisfying are comments and mails from readers with thanks for good work on the blog or good notes on books. And yes, there is a lot of work to be done, esspecially with a lot of lies on how to do it. One has to have heavy filters on eyes, reading a lot and checking what works, what doesn`t work.
I agree but thousands of dollars is better, guaranteed also....
Thanks so much Marissa- I don't mind the truth as long as I'm not moving in a direction with my eyes wide-shut. Cheers.
I really liked your Hub. I am almost a beginner in making money online and I have read so many different articles from how to make money to SEO tools recently. Most of them don't have a sense of reality. I liked the realistic view of your hub.
Your hub is a good effort. Earning on internet and through writing content is not a job or profession. It is no income at all, whatever people may write good words about it. There is money only in your day job Internet is invisible medium and so the income from internet sources, Hub or Helium ...just hopes
Well said... great article! I voted it up! Thanks!
retireyoung 4 years ago
Some people say the internet is still in its infancy. I don't agree that all of the good ideas have been taken. Sometimes you can also have good success just reworking a good idea. ie. If something was popular in the US why not take it to Australia or the UK.