This is a little bit of theory based on nothing more than my own experience and anecdotal evidence. As I mentioned in my webmaster community traffic trends post, I’ve seen a lot of increased interest in earning a living online over the last year or so. This has led to a number of extremely successful people as well as some really disappointing failures.
In the early days of the net almost every website was started for one purpose: fun. Sure you had the odd research site and techno mumbo-jumbo but as far as the early days of *mainstream* internet are conserned it was a new world of time-wasting. People started setting up websites for whatever reasons they could find whether it was their favorite video game, television show(s), or a hobby. These websites grew often not as a result of deft marketing tactics or a keen eye for business, but because the owners really enjoyed the topic and did their best to connect with their userbase and share their interest.
Fast forward to today. There are millions of new sites popping up overnight all of which serve different purposes, niches, and demographics. People are flocking to online business because of the low overhead and the low learning curve. But why are so many people continuing to fail?
Of course work ethic, competency, etc all play into whether someone succeeds or fails. But there is another factor that I think many people tend to overlook: the online earning mindset. More and more people are entering online business with the “online earning mindset”.
What is the Online Earning Mindset?
Basically it’s the idea of creating a website with the sole purpose of profit in mind. So what’s wrong with that? Doesn’t everyone love to profit? Of course they do! The problem, however, lies in the fact that people focus so diligently on the end goal that they tend to skip over or completely ignore the required steps to get there. They start websites in “profitable niches” (fyi: any niche with a userbase is profitable) that they have no interest in, end up getting bored, and quitting taking a loss. Else these people focus in on get rich quick schemes that always lead nowhere.
Can you make a site with profit in mind and succeed? Of course you can. But you have to remember the basics.
- Enjoy what you do
- Don’t take shortcuts
- Engage the community
- Be active in your industry
If you only focus in on “how can I monetize this better??” then you’ll never get the traffic or the interest you need to actually generate an income. You have to take online business one step at a time. If you get caught up too much on your 1 year goal then you’ll never make any strides in your 1 day or 1 week goals. Baby steps are the key to success, not only in this industry, but in any.
Sorry for the semi-rant.
29 Comments
Add your commentInteresting… yeah, a lot of people are only doing it for the money. It certainly helps a lot if you enjoy what you do — but you definitely can do both: Make money doing what you love :)
What you could do if you’re thinking about starting to make money online is make a list of the things you enjoy doing and then do some research to find out which one of those topics/markets could be most profitable.
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Don’t give away all the secrets! :)
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Oh, yeah, sorry about that…
I should probably put this into an eBook and sell it for $97 ;)
I’ll remember that next time, thanks Matt :)
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Anytime bud.
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Hey Matt,
I am in complete agreement about point #1. Enjoy what you do! If not, it surely won’t last. Thanks for the reality check!
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[...] Coddington of the Net Business Blog posted today about the problem with the online earning mindset, in which he offers his opinions on why so many people who try to eke out a living online have such [...]
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Matt, I totally agree. You will burn out and/or not have anything good to write about if it is not something that your really into. Plus you will probably bore your potential readers to death.
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You can be both. I have sites I’m passionate about and throw myself at but get no return, I have sites I don’t like but that generate my income, and I have sites that are 100% dedicated to raising funds for charitable causes.
Like all jobs, there will be aspects of your online activities that you enjoy and are proud of, and aspects that you don’t.
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Well done Matt, it’s a nice article and I must say I agree with it as well; writing against your will wont last, it’s like reading books for school, it wont stick that long usually ;)
However, Paul has a good point as well, it’s possible to combine websites and make revenue of less enjoyable ones as well, your method is still preferable of course.
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Sure it’s possible, as I said in the article. But is it preferred? And is it what you should be aiming for? My dad has spent his entire adult life driving a forklift in a few of the local warehouses. We never had to worry; he paid all of the bills. But he came home everyday annoyed as all hell.
I’m not comparing anything online to manual labor of course. I’m just saying that if you get into the rhythm of doing something that you don’t enjoy, it’s going to take a toll on you. Whether professionally or personally.
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I do get your point yeah, but at the same time there are a lot of people who aim to become a doctor, lawyer or what so ever mainly for the income it will generate; is it preferred? Perhaps not, maybe they’ll give up after a while – most likely they will. But at the same time, if you manage to combine the ‘horror’ with something you really like but just isn’t profitable, I think it should be possible – it will require quite some patience and self-discipline though.
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Too bad I can’t edit my post, but the example I just thought of might as well be education, it’s not always enjoyable, in fact, often it’s not. But you do it with a purpose, being getting knowledge, or making more money later, it’s a sacrifice you might be willing to make.
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Great points. My only question is does this carry over into online business? Is there a need to do something you hate when there’s so much money to be made in every niche?
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Definitely too true that people expect huge returns to happen right away. This is a great article, help them realize that it does take some time and effort.
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Well said! I’m in some ultra competitive industries but I entered them as I’ve been in them working for a long time and started the sites to help consumers with user reviews, sure I plan on eventually having it pay for me to write for it but I started it to help people as I got pissed after getting ripped off by hosting company after hosting company!
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Matt, I would say that there is rarely an excuse to not be doing something you want to do longterm. Yes, there may be short times where you have to buckle down and get out of a rut your in because of something bad that happened or because you have just realized or not yet realized the whole concept of doing what you like to do. But if you know what you like to do and set your mind to do that you should eventually be able to hit that goal and do that in a given amount of time depending on how hard you work at it.
This is one of many things that I will never forget from taking Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. He has a section dedicated to careers and extra jobs and he says that everyone needs to know what they have a passion for and that is what they need to plan on doing.
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So so true. You might also want to include that those websites set up for fun back in the day are worth thousands of dollars.
You could wander online and pick up http://www.cars.com (a bit exaggerated) with no problem.
If only I was involved then.
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If only any of us were :)
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This is a good wake up call post for anyone.
Of the 4 points, I feel that point 2 is the one that can really prevent someone from succeeding online (offline as well). It’s human nature everyone is looking to create their own level of success, but sometimes we get too caught up in the chase, we seem to forget the fundamentals.
Everyone wants to make their first $1000, then $10000 and so on. Yet to do so, it’s important that we first learn to make the first dollar.
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Great post Matt…first time at your site. I realize you’re like the new “hot shit” in the blogsphere but if you have time to visit Bryan-Baker Dot Com I’d really appreciate it.
Anyway I’m enjoying your posts. Even if you don’t have time to visit and comment, thanks for the great blog.
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Sure Bryan, I’ll give it a look. Oh and I like being called hot shit, maybe I’ll start signing hot shit to my checks. It has a nice ring.
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I think what you are saying is exactly in line with what I have been thinking over the past few weeks. I have been studying alot of the “famous” internet startups and most of them tend to start with the idea of fun or enjoyability in mind and not with the idea that “we can make billions if…”
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[...] Coddington hat mich mit seinem Beitrag: „The Problem With the Online Earning Mindset“ wieder auf einen Gedanken gebracht, den ich schon vor längerer Zeit hatte. Damals als [...]
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[...] Today’s rant is a must read. the problem with the online earning mindset [...]
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blogs that are devoted solely to monetizing are hideously boring.
Like the old Amway meetings where you hear one speaker after another get to the podium and describe how they built their pyramid empire. Selling toilet paper to friends and family.
uh – no thanks.
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People see the potential money you can make and figure all they have to do is slap on some ads and they’re set.
The problem is, like you said, if you don’t have a passion for the topic you’re going to quit before you make any real money.
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[...] The problem with the online earning mindset [...]
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[...] Matt Coddington from Netbusinessblog? talks about the problem with the online earning mindset of [...]
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Those 4 points are great. You especially must have those 4 things going for you in order to keep a blog alive for more than a month or two.
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