The Internet has dramatically reinvented self-employment. Instead of having to rent out an office and hire people to fill that office, you can work from the comfort of your home and get work done with people halfway around the world.
When it comes to making money on your own terms and on your own schedule, few business opportunities beat Internet-based businesses.
There are a lot of people who have made lots of money off the Internet’s digital gold rush that continues up to this day. These are often unsung individuals who work from home pulling down more modest five or six-figure incomes just by marketing online.
In fact, as the Internet matures, more and more people are successfully making a living from online activities simply by working from home.
With all that said, the sad reality is that most of the people who try to make money online fail to achieve their dreams. Many make very little while many others don’t make any money at all.
What went wrong? Their dreams of online income got dashed by at least one of the factors discussed below. If you want to make money online, make sure you avoid all of the following.
Get Rich Quick Mindset
How many times have you seen an ad that promises to make you a ridiculous amount of money in a very short period of time? Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, as ridiculous as those ads may be, people fall for them all the time.
Those online ‘opportunities’ exploit a very real weakness many of us have, and that is the desire to make money with the least amount of effort in the shortest period of time.
The cold hard reality is that making money online is real work. This means you have to put in the time and effort needed to turn your dreams into reality. In other words, you have to pay your dues.
If you got turned on to the idea of earning an income online, you would do well to ditch the get rich quick mentality. Roll up your sleeves and start putting in the work you need to succeed.
Lack of Willingness To Learn
Too many people who get into the Internet marketing industry think that just because they have business experience elsewhere that they no longer need to learn Internet marketing and making money online specific information.
They are very skeptical of people trying to teach them new techniques or new trends. They get stuck in their ways. This is a deadly mentality because the Internet changes all the time. What made money last year may not make money this year.
You have to always keep an open mind to new information and be ready to implement new strategies if you want to maintain or grow your income.
Lack of Focus
Where your focus grows, your energy flows. Sadly, since much of the Internet marketing industry is hyped primarily for its flexibility and ‘ease,’ too many people who get into this industry fail to focus enough on their business. They look at IM as primarily a sideline income activity. If you want to make money in Internet marketing, you have to focus.
When you focus, you make the necessary adjustments that can increase your chances of making money. Otherwise, you can run your IM business on auto-pilot, and it will only produce a mediocre amount of cash. That is, if you make money at all.
Above all else, focus means putting in the time to study the different aspects of your online business. You have to constantly review all the different activities, features, segments, and offerings that make up your business. You have to be meticulous.
What’s more, you have to be systematic. You can’t just randomly check up on your business and make random adjustments here and there and expect to make money. It doesn’t work that way. You have to have a clear process and system for optimizing the many different parts of your online business. This is the focused approach. An unfocused approach involves taking lots of shots in the dark and hoping to get lucky.
Not Taking Online Business Serious Enough
One of the biggest draws of making money online is that it is very flexible. You can do Internet marketing work on your own schedule. You can do it on your own terms.
However, too many people get too comfortable and they end up not giving their business activities the time and attention it needs to succeed. Make no mistake about it, Internet businesses are still businesses. This means you have to give it the right focus, effort, and attention.
Making money online isn’t a hobby. A hobby is something you do when you have some spare time. A hobby is something you do when you feel like it. A business, on the other hand, is a commitment. You do it even when it is not convenient. A business requires your attention even if you don’t feel like it. Know the difference between a business and a hobby or else you might fail.
When it comes to making money online, it should be treated as a business. Learning and improving your knowledge can be fun and be treated as a hobby – but always remember that at the end of the day, when it comes to business and marketing: serious action brings serious results.
Not Investing Enough Money Where (When) It Counts
While there have been many online empires built with nothing more than a few bucks, a big dream, and lots of elbow grease, the hard reality now is that if you want your dreams of online success to become a reality, you have to put in some capital.
Don’t get me wrong, the amount of cash you have to invest doesn’t have to be as huge as putting up a brick and mortar business.
Still, you have to invest the right amount of capital in your business. At the very least, you have to buy some starter traffic to get the ball rolling regarding your business’ traffic flow. You have to invest in the right content so you can become credible in the eyes of your target audience. You have to invest in social media marketing so your brand is accessible through all the major social media platforms. All these initiatives don’t have to involve huge piles of cash.
However, if you are unwilling to spend the right amount of money on your business, not only might your online business remain small and unnoticed, you might not make any money at all.
Make no mistake about it on the Internet, as elsewhere, it takes money to make money. Don’t let scam or hyped-up make money online ‘programs’ or ‘blueprints’ convince you otherwise. You have to spend some money to make money online.
Quitting When The Going Gets Tough
Even if you focus on your Internet marketing activities and you put in the right amount of time and effort, you can still fail if you quit too soon.
You have to remember that making money online is oftentimes a marathon. It isn’t a sprint. Nine times out of ten, you aren’t going to see results immediately. In fact, it might be several months until you see a return on your investment of time, effort, and money. Too many people freak out when they don’t see great results when they start their online business.
Frankly, this is an overreaction and completely unrealistic. Just as you shouldn’t expect to hit a home run the first time you step up to bat, you shouldn’t expect your online business to make lots of money when you start.
It is just like any other business. It takes time for people to hear of your business and, more importantly, it takes time for people to build enough trust in your online brand to buy whatever it is you are offering. You have to keep pushing forward. Don’t quit because you became impatient. Real and sustainable success takes time.
Conclusion
There are, of course, a lot of more specific reasons why any online venture or even any business in general could fail or falter.
The bottom line is that you always need to stay on your toes. Never be afraid to learn or try new things, even if it means replacing the methods you already know and are comfortable with using.
Everything takes time, especially when it comes to the vast pool of information (and mis-information) floating around on the web. Practice your due diligence with every offer and strategy you put into effect and you’ll find that your efforts are never wasted.
Don’t consider a failure as a failure, but rather a method that wasn’t the correct way. Take what you’ve experienced and learned and use it to improve upon the next business endeavor.
Best of luck to you and to your success with online marketing. 🙂
Resources List
Common Reasons For Failing At Making Money Online:
- Get Rich Quick Mentality
- Lack of Willingness To Learn
- Lack of Focus or Direction
- Not Taking Online Business Serious Enough
- Failure To Invest Money Or Time Where It Counts
- Giving Up After The First Failure or Blunder (Lack of Resilience)
Internet Marketing Basics You Should Research About:
- Creating an email list
- Adding value to your subscribers
- Affiliate marketing
- Methods of promotion
- Traffic generation basics
- General rules (whitehat and blackhat stuff)
- Market research
Places or Resources For Selling Art or Craft Based Products:
- Etsy
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
- StoreFront
- SquareSpace
Websites You Can Sell Your Work Or Post Jobs / Gigs:
- Fiverr
- PeoplePerHour
- Craiglist
- eBay
- Upwork
