Making Money on the Internet

Since I work online, make my living solely through the Internet and most of my friends would say that I'm successful at running my online businesses, I'm often asked by them and many of their friends how they can make money online too. Good question.

Here's a version of the most common question I am asked:

"How can I make money online without investing any money and without having to work too hard at it. I just want an online business that will run itself and be profitable. Maybe I could even quit my day job eventually."

Hmmm ... {big grin} ... Here's my most common answer:

"Well, if there was such a lucrative business, everyone would be doing it and every business owner online would be a multi-millionaire. If you want to make money online it is most certainly possible, but money won't fall into your lap[top] without any effort (time) or financial investment on your part."

I'm not sure what my friends think I do all day long (some days I work up to 15 hours), but I've been able to accomplish the status of what some might peg as a successful entrepreneur by shear hard work, researching and then implementing my own "original" ideas, staying motivated and focused on my end goals, and YES, investing money in things that will "make me more money".

In other words there are TONS of ways to make money online. People do it every day. There are billions of people who pull in six-figure salaries (or higher) every year by simply conducting their business online. But these people work hard at it at least in the early stages until they could afford to hire employees or put everything on auto-pilot so to speak.

Occasionally the media gets wind of a successful dot-commer and they write a story about them. But there are millions more just like him/her that no one hears about.

Okay ... Here's the second most common question after my most common reply:

"So where do I start? What kind of business can I start?"

Here's my second most common answer:

"Think about what you like to do. Your best work will come naturally and you will be good at it, if you like it. Even if your most favorite thing to do is sit on the couch and watch TV while you munch on the latest fad junk food, you CAN make that into a business. Simply step outside of that mental box that tells you it is a silly thing to try to capitalize on and start thinking about it from a creative point of view."

"If you like trying the latest fad junk food, go ahead if your weight can handle it. Then write a few articles about each item, publish it to your website along with a review of each TV show you watched that day. Then contact the companies you reviewed and get some advertising deals going with them. Before you know it, you are in business and doing something you like to do, making money at doing it and gaining a considerable amount of weight. Oh well, you can't have it all!" ;)

// posted by BasicRic on 11/04/2004 02:07:17 PM / Permanent Link