Here’s why most people never make money online
Why most people never make money online
Because their first step in figuring out how to make money online is going to Google.com and typing in the search term “How do I make money online.”
In other words, they’re not looking for information on how to incorporate a business in the state of Delaware, or how to set up payment processing for that guide they just finished writing on how to cope with post-natal sleep deprivation. They just want to make money. And that’s a recipe for failure.
If you haven’t gotten the hint already, here it is in plain English: Figure out what you want to do first, then figure out how to turn that into a business.
Don’t get me wrong here – wanting to make money is fine, but you’re not going to make money unless you know what you want to do to make that money first.
So how do you know what you want? Heck, I don’t know! But here are a few suggestions that may help you figure that out for yourself:
What did you learn in college?
You (or someone) spent all that money on your education, so you have a deeper knowledge and understanding of… something. Write a book. Start a blog to showcase that knowledge and build awareness that you’re an expert. Offer your expertise to clients.
What are you passionate about?
Are you an avid golfer? Do you have a green thumb? Do you love to travel? You could make your own products, physical or digital and sell them. Start an online community, blog or forum and use your expertise to promote affiliate products. Write and sell how-to guides. Make videos or start an online TV show and sell advertising, etc. For everything you’re passionate about, there are tens of thousands of others out there passionate about the same thing. Tap into that collective passion (otherwise known as – a market).
What specialised knowledge do you have from previous work experience?
Same as above, really. Knowledge about a subject is a comodity. It can be marketed in some way for profit.
Recognize and embrace opportunities
This one is harder to explain so I’ll use a personal story – Recently I re-evaluated what I wanted to do. I love writing, so I wrote a package of articles and advertised them as white-label content. But I offered them alongside a bunch of ads in a community where people were looking for content, just not the type I was offering. These people wanted ‘spun’ content, not quality, original stuff.
Sales were almost non-existent, but a tiny group of people contacted me personally and said that this is the type of content they wanted, because they understood that quality means something still (so does quantity, but that’s a whole other blog post). Now, I have steady clients who will buy anything I write and I don’t need to devalue my product by offering it alongside some sketchy plugin that scrapes feeds and scrambles crap to fill up a web page.
Yes, I wanted to make money, but I knew what I wanted to do – offer good quality, unique content instead of crap – and even though my original attempt to offer that product didn’t work out like I expected, my market approached me with an opportunity.
Figure out what you want to do first. Put it in front of your market (or at least know enough about the market to make an educated guess). If there’s potential, turn it into a business.
P.S. So why is it that the creators of ‘make money online’ products make so much money online? Because they’re feeding off the fact that they know you have no Idea what you want.
By Paul on December 11th, 2009
