Why not choose both?

I talk a lot about making money online.  But I have to be honest here.  I enjoy every minute of the work I do.  If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be doing it.  If, like the bumper stickers say, “I’d rather be …” (fill in the blank with enjoyable task of your choice), I’d be doing just that.  But the truth is I’d rather be sitting at my keyboard building websites.  That’s what I enjoy.

What do you enjoy?  If you don’t like typing, and you don’t like reading, and you don’t want to learn at least a little bit of programming, then don’t do it.  Don’t spend all of your time doing these things if you simply hate them.  Leave it to someone like me who really enjoys it.  Your time would be better spent doing what you truly enjoy.  You can still make money - maybe lots of money.

The great thing about technology is that it has created a channel for creative individuals and technical people to collaborate across the miles to create great things.  There are dozens of sites where you can find freelance workers to do just about anything you would need.  You get to request bids, and you get to choose the winner.  The whole process usually works through a reputable third party, so the risks are minimal for both the requestor and the bidder.

Check out sites like elance.com, guru.com, freelancedesigners.com, and ifreelance.com.  There are many such sites, and doing a quick search will probably return a list of freelancers that can provide just the service you’re looking for.  Also, you might want to read a book titled, “The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.”  Timothy Ferriss has done a great job of detailing how to set up a business doing what you enjoy to build the life of your dreams. 

Think about it.  It’s not really about the money anyway, is it?  I just ran across the video below.  It’s part of an interview with Jim Koch, the founder of the Samuel Adams brewery in Boston.  In the video, he says that he set out to have fun - not make money.  And he’s right.  More people need to understand that life is meant to live.  Money comes in exchange for the best you have to give.  Use your talent and skills to the best of your ability and find others to help with the rest.

When you first decide that you’d like to make money online, you’ll probably have dreams of spending the next three months in Hawaii while your bank account expands on autopilot.  While that’s a great dream, it usually doesn’t happen quite that quickly.  You have to build a solid foundation and continue to grow from that foundation until profits begin rolling in.

When I first decided to make money online, I thought I’d build a website and make millions.  I suppose you could do that if you built Google, YouTube, or Facebook, but I’m just not that creative or technically capable.  So, instead of millions, my first website made about $30 per month after expenses.  It was profitable, but far from the dreams I had in mind.

 So, I began to study various ways to increase traffic.  Through my SEO efforts, I increased the profit on that one website to about $50 per month and added a second website that also brought in close to $50 per month.  I decided then that volume was the key.  I would build dozens of sites and make a little from each one.  That worked to some degree.  I built a few more sites and began seeing several dollars per month from each.  But the work required to maintain all of the sites just wasn’t worth what I was making.  There had to be another way.

Then I signed up for a coaching program and added a few more weapons to my arsenal.  This time, I used private label rights to create ebooks and content for sites.  I added affiliate links within the ebooks and added product reviews to the sites to attract visitors.  I advertised with PPC ads, and I set up an autoresponder to build a customer list.  Things began to look up.

Next, I found a great script for building affiliate storefronts very quickly.  This script has allowed me to build one very profitable website and several others that continue to improve each month.  Added to the systems I’d put in place in the beginning, I was able to leverage my knowledge to quickly build a decent income with these new tools.  If I had found this system prior to learning the details of SEO, list building, and basic marketing, I wouldn’t have seen the same results.

So many people start trying to make money on the web and give up after only a short time.  They want immediate results, and when they don’t come, they assume it won’t work.  I read post after post about how those that make money online are all scam artists out for a quick buck.  While there may be a few, most are legitimate.  It is possible to make money online - and very good money at that.  It simply takes a little time and energy to achieve. 

If you want a free ride, you’d better look elsewhere.  But if you’re up for a little adventure, get on board.  There’s plenty of room for anyone willing to put forth the effort to achieve their dreams.

I’m sure you’ve heard it many times before, but it’s truly possible for anyone to make money online.  If you’ve ever thought of owning your own business, you owe it to yourself to at least consider going online.  Although an online business must be managed and operated just like a traditional business to be really successful, the benefits of starting a business online are many.

1. Anyone can run an online business.  It doesn’t matter if you’re 5 or 105.  There is no age discrimination.  Your site visitors won’t know - or even care - how old you are.  They simply want to find a website that provides the product, service, or information they’re seeking.   There’s also no discrimination based on gender, race, or any other factor that you might see in the “real world.”  Again, it’s all about what you have to offer.  It’s as simple as that.  It doesn’t matter if you feel that you’re physically unattractive.  It doesn’t matter if you have disabilities that prevent you from performing more physically demanding work.  What you might consider requirements for making money can be tossed out the window when you take your business online.

2.  You can operate globally.  Geography is a typical limitation to the success of a business in the real world.  You not only have to pay rent, but you also have to be sure the location you’ve selected is convenient for your customers.  You also have to know if the market for your products or services is large enough to support your business in that location.  Getting this right can be very tricky.  When you take your business online, you have the potential to serve customers all around the world.  It takes some work to help those potential customers locate you, and there are legal issues to be considered when selling internationally, but it’s possible.  My income comes from individuals all across the United States, and I don’t have to advertise in their local areas to let them know how to buy from me.  It would be impossible to accomplish this without the internet.

3.  Initial investment is extremely low.  Although you will want to invest some time and money in learning how to create and manage websites (or pay someone to do this for you), the actual investment necessary to start a business online is very low compared to that of starting a business offline.  Costs include registering a domain name, web hosting, keyword research tools for selecting and finding a good target market, and any costs necessary to create or obtain a product or service to sell.  It’s true that you’ll have some of these costs no matter where you choose to do business, but startup and operating costs for an online business are generally much lower than those for offline businesses. 

4. You can work from anywhere.  This is the one I like the most because I enjoy getting out and seeing the world.  It’s great to be able to carry your entire business with you in a laptop bag.  There are so many places to connect to the internet throughout the world that you can honestly work from just about anywhere you choose.  And when you consider that a lot of the work you’ll be doing can be done without an internet connection and uploaded at a later time, that makes it possible to actually work from anywhere in the world.  If you could choose to work anywhere in the world, where would it be?  See what I mean?  Isn’t this a great reason to make your money online?

There are many benefits to starting an online business, but the main point I’m trying to make here is that the internet has opened a door of opportunity that you really shouldn’t ignore.  Anyone, and I do mean anyone, can make money online.  All it takes is some creativity and the desire to make it happen.  If you’ll just begin, you’ll learn what you need to get you through each step of the process.  And if you want to get started quickly, read one of my earlier posts - “A Fun Way to Make Money Online.”  The system I describe in that post is the same one I’ve used to quickly and easily create online stores in numerous markets.  Get started now.  You’ll never know how far you can go unless you take action.