It seems like time is the thing that you need if you want to make money online. I suppose it is no different from making money in an offline business. You need time to become profitable, if you are going to be profitable at all. So online the principles still apply. If you are starting from nothing, whether blogging or building websites or anything else, you are going to need time on your side before your start making money with the interwebs.
But a lot of the time, most of the time really, you don’t have time. You need money NOW. You need to make money online NOW. Which is why it never happens and why 99% of people give up, especially if they started doing what they are doing for exactly that reason. Anyone who jumps into expecting to make insane amounts of money within the first couple months is crazy. Within a year it is totally possible. But within that first month? No. It just doesn’t happen like that sadly. And it’s almost comical to watch people within the blogging or internet marketing world jump in an try to make that happen. They get excited, quit their jobs and expect to be making thousands of dollars within a month. Yeah, good luck.
It takes time to learn what you are doing. It takes time to grow your websites and your business. It takes time to create good, quality content and it takes time to build links and authority. None of it happens overnight. If you are starting from ground zero and not buying a pre-made site/business, you better expect it to take some time before you make any money online.
At least that’s what I’m telling myself.
I started blogging in earnest around 2 years ago while I was still in college. I made the jump to self-hosted mostly because I thought it would be cool to have my own domain name and have my own little slice of the internet. Making money online did not even cross my mind. But fast forward a few years later and I’m considering using the online world as my main income. I just started learning and trying to make money online about 6 months ago. Since then I’ve bumped up my earnings to a couple hundred dollars a month. Still not a full time income but it is definitely a start. I know I can take this start and run with it and do it on my own terms, like I’ve talked about before. I’m hopefully not going to be sleezy or anything when I’m done with things. I know that a lot of internet marketers are the exact definition of scum – and I don’t want to be that way. I’d like to still retain some of my great personality and morals while I’m doing this.
I hate a lot of what I’ve seen when tentatively peeking into the online MMO-IM world. It’s sketchy. People make their money by cheating, lying, tricking people. They game google, they trip up other people, they stab each other in the back, they cheat honest desperate people out of money for mostly useless things. They are full of shit and I hate them. The internet is home to some of the worst people on the planet, and ironically these people get paid very well. Very, very well.
So how does one who still has a soul and want to be a legit writer make money online? One) avoid the dark areas of the internet that were discussed in the previous paragraph. Two) keep writing and building authority on your own blogs, giving it time to work. Three) take freelance writing jobs when and where you can find them so you don’t starve. That might not be the best plan, but it is currently in fact my plan to transition into making money online full time instead of working for the man. No one really wants to work forty hours or more a week doing something they hate just to make money. I sure don’t, so I’m not going to. I will just keep expenses low for a while and make this work because it is what I want. I want to make money online.
And to do that I need time. That’s what they all say. All the experts like to say, give it time! Unless they are trying to scam you of course, and then they say you can make 10k this month even if you are just starting out. But those are the scammers and to be avoided. Anyone who really knows their stuff knows it takes time to make any business model work, no matter what it is. So that is what I will have to do. Give it time. Give it time. Give it time.
Even though I don’t want to do so, I’m going to give it time.
And what if time isn’t the solution? What if I give it time and still don’t make enough money? What if I chase the wrong idea or I don’t work smart enough or everything I’ve done online collapses for some reason. Well, I can’t predict that. And if that happens I will just have to adjust my plan and see what happens. But I can’t honestly be happy with never trying to make it online.
For some reason it still feels a lot like the old west, where there are outlaws and sheriffs and lots of land to be discovered and gold to be found. Anyone can become rich and anyone can become famous. That doesn’t seem true in the real world, but online it still does. It feels like anyone has a shot at winning given enough gumption and time.
So I’m going to give it the time it needs and hope this plan to make money online works out. If it doesn’t? Oh well. At least I tried. It sure seems a lot easier to make a living as a writer online than it does trying to get published. The competition level seems equal but I still feel like I have a better chance online. Perhaps it is because I know it so well? Either way, the plan is in place… now to just give it the time it needs.
