There’s a lot of bloggers and other people out there that claim that they make money online. Yes, most of the times this is true, but there are who just say things like this to scam people. But the topic of what I’m going to talk about is not about who really makes money and who doesn’t. What this is about, though, is why people fail to make money online because of 3 simple reasons.
Reason #1 - People Do Not Take Action
Let me ask you a question. Why do you come to this blog? It’s because you like the content, right? And because of the content (the pillar content in particular), you plan to apply them right? So when I wrote 30 tip on how to explode your traffic, did you even take the time to apply the ones you have never done before? Or did you just pass up the opportunity to explode your traffic? If this is you, then you know exactly what I mean by not taking action. There are a lot of people out there that want to make money online, read all they can about the topic, and even pay hundreds of dollars to get all the resources and information they need to get started. But what happens? They never apply the information they learned; and if they did, they give it up after a few days knowing that it would take a lot of work to do. Let’s take a look at reality people. Even the top online money-makers out there had to put a lot of work to get themselves in the position they are in now. You can’t succeed without taking action.
Reason #2 - People Don’t Treat Their Online Business As a Real Business
Blogs are a good example. Most people don’t treat their blogs as a business. What do I mean by this? Well, imagine you own a book store in your neighborhood. What will you need to run the business? To name a few, you will need some capital (money), a place to run the book store, a business license, lots of books, shelves for the books, cash registers, and all the other good stuff needed to run a book store. As you can see, it would be impossible to run a successful book store without these things. So how is this related to blogging? Well, to start a (successful and long term) blog, you will need a domain name, web hosting, a brand, a decent looking blog design, some plugins to help run the blog, etc. Again, this all takes a lot of work and money. Â
But let’s take things a bit further, so let’s go back to the book store. Say your store has become successful in just a matter of weeks. More people know about it through word-of-mouth and your sales just keep increasing. You then have two things you can do: keep the store the way it is, or upgrade (bigger space, more books and shelves, etc.). Most people would upgrade, right? It’s the same thing with your own website or blog. If you have gained some success and money through it, why not upgrade? Why not purchase a few plugins like OIOpublisher, for example, to help you with ad management? Or if you feel it’s time to upgrade your site’s design, why not spend a few dollars to get a premium theme? My point is, you need to treat your online business as if it’s a real business in the real world. Don’t be cheap. There are some who say that you don’t need to spend money to make money. This is true, but if you plan to succeed and make MORE money, you need to start scaling up.
Reason #3 - People Don’t Learn From Their Mistakes
I’m sure you’ve tried to do something and failed. Then this question comes up:
What Did I Do Wrong?
The thing you need to know is, it’s not about what that you did wrong. It’s about learning and applying the things you need to do so that you won’t fail again.
Have you ever tried flipping domains? What about flipping websites? Or affiliate marketing? Let me tell you that these three ways of making money online are not impossible, and you can even make a living from doing them (yes, it’s realistically possible and people do make a living doing these). The thing is, most people have tried them, failed a few times, then gave up. WHY?!?! If you know there is a lot of money to be made, why would you give up?
Instead of giving up, the best thing to do is learn from your mistakes. If you tried flipping celebrity-related domains, why not try flipping movie-related domains? If you tried promoting affiliate products through websites and blog posts, why not try using PPC marketing? What I’m trying to point out is simple. If you know something works, keep trying. Find a way to fix your mistake and never ever give up. Ever.
Do You Have A Success Story?
If you are someone who is now successful at doing what you do online, please tell us your success story. How did your failures motivate it? What steps did you take to get back on track? We’d love to read about your success story, so go ahead and post it below!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed and the
free SlyVisions dot Com newsletter!
Sometimes people fail on making money online because they are afraid to take actions. To be a successful entrepreneur you need to take risks, investing money or trying crazy ideas could be some of them. May be if you did good, you could make plenty of money but also you could lose what you invested.
As you said, to learn from our fails is a must, and to learn from other people’s fails too! At the end, it is needed to fail to be successful!
Mr Javo´s last blog post…Improve Your Posts With Internal Links
[Reply]
Stanley Tang - 15 Year Old Entrepreneur Reply:
October 14th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Yup. Like Mike Litman said, “You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going”
Just put your website out there and take action, even if its not perfect, because you know that will be the worse ever state your website will be. You can only improve from there onwards.
Stanley
Stanley Tang - 15 Year Old Entrepreneur´s last blog post…Questions And Answers - Round One
[Reply]
Sly Reply:
October 14th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
You guys got it!
[Reply]
Such a good post. Hope people who are failing in MMO like me could learn something from this. I think my reason is not there. It’s just that I can’t provide a quality content and I don’t have enough capital
[Reply]
Sly Reply:
October 14th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Hussein, what you need to know is that you don’t always have to start making money from your blog. If you think you can’t provide quality content and think that you don’t have enough capital, then why don’t you try something different?
You can always write articles for other people and charge $1 per article. Do blog commenting services, or design banners for those who need them. A great place to start would be at forums like DP where there are always different types of services you can offer.
[Reply]
Joel Drapper Reply:
October 20th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
$1 per article? How much is that per hour?!!!!!
Maybe I am the only one who takes more then 10 minuets to write an article.
Joel Drapper´s last blog post…How to Comment Like a Pro
[Reply]
Sly Reply:
October 20th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Haha. You can always charge more for longer articles. People who write 500-word articles usually charge $3.
Now it is now in my bookmark toolbar and just waiting for Sunday to give it a link love
Hussein´s last blog post…You Follow, I Follow
[Reply]
good post. I always want to know why people fail to make money online.
[Reply]
no success story yet unfortunately. took a look at your 30 tips again. i find that i’ve been concentrating on those i enjoy, so maybe i should branch out a bit.
kouji´s last blog post…haiku poem
[Reply]
I think the main reason many people fail online is because they lose interest. They start a blog or website because they have read about someone making loads online and thought that it would be incredibly easy but after a few months if they are not making money they lose interest and stop updating their site as much.
Take John Chow for example. Many blogs have started a blog after seeing how much money he makes from his however what many don’t realise is that he was already making money on the web. He had been working on the net for years and had the money, experience and good work ethic to make a success of it.
[Reply]
Adam - Creadiv.com Reply:
October 14th, 2008 at 7:45 am
Absolutely,
TheTechZone.com is a site John owns that many people don’t know about. When if fact it has been around much longer than his blog and was making him money online well before he started it.
Everyone can make money online if you work hard and are dedicated.
Adam
[Reply]
Sly Reply:
October 14th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
You guys are absolutely correct. People think that money can be gained over a few weeks or months. Yes it is possible to earn *some* money in that little time, but if you want to be like John Chow, Zac Johnson, or Darren Rowse, you’ll need to put more work in what you do.
These three people all started in making money online years and years ago. But look at them now. They’re still doing what they started, and now they’re making those big bucks.
[Reply]
I agree with Adam.
Sherry´s last blog post…My pizza
[Reply]
You are so right…The main reason why people don’t make money online is because they think that once their site is up and running it is going to sell itself. If you want conversions you need to first understand what motivates people to buy then SHOW them why your website has everything they are looking for and more.
GREAT POST!
[Reply]
Don’t be cheap, but at the beginning be frugal with your money and really test to see where you can get the most bang for your buck, to invest in the best channels for the best ROI.
[Reply]
Sly Reply:
October 14th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Good use of the word “invest”.
[Reply]
Though I’m not into the MMO niche, the part of being inaction applies to anyone in any niche. We can all digest everything that we can find on the net but failure to apply them due to fear of the unknown is as good as not learning it in the first place.
Blogging is all about a game of trials and errors and its success doesn’t come overnight yet even knowing this, many are still dreaming to be the next John Cow.
Great stuff, Sly….
Yan
Blog for Beginners´s last blog post…The Art of Writing Catchy Articles
[Reply]
Sly Reply:
October 15th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Great point about trial and error, Yan. In my opinion, it’s the #1 key to success.
[Reply]
@Yan, I think everyone have a dream.
Sherry´s last blog post…Name Sherry is ready
[Reply]
Blog for Beginners Reply:
October 15th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Of course, we all do…my point is we need to keep it a little more realistic sometimes…
Blog for Beginners´s last blog post…The Art of Writing Catchy Articles
[Reply]
Sherry Reply:
October 29th, 2008 at 6:39 am
good said Yan
Sherry´s last blog post…A Blogger’s Jackpot Contest
[Reply]
I really think #2 is the key. A lot of people don’t they their online business as real businesses. I mean, you won’t make money instantly by putting 15 minutes a day in your website(s). Hard work is the key and that’s the same with a real business. If you get serious about this stuff you’ll monetize one way or another eventually.
Ben - frogstr.com´s last blog post…HostGator: MySQL Performance review
[Reply]
Sly Reply:
October 15th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Bullseye!
Sly´s last blog post…The Ultimate Affiliate Link Manager: MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate
[Reply]
great post, i think there is one more reason starting too many things at once , when i first start MMO i started about 5 sites plus offering some services then i lost focus , after few months i decided to only focus on two sites
[Reply]
Taking action is probably the number one reason people aren’t successful online. Some are just satisfied with the “act” of taking action. Meaning, they like talking about everything they are doing to “work on my business”. All the books, the time they spend, the tools they buy, the blog they have….but fail to get out and get it done.
I know I’ve been MIA on my commenting, but I’ve been in the trenches, trying to git-r-done. Sometimes you have to put your nose down and get to it, if you really want the freedom you speak about.
Great post buddy.
[Reply]
Their are many many reasons why people don’t make money online but i think main reason many people fail online is because of your lack of focus. One day you’re all promoting your new website/blog, updating it everyday. The next day you’re being so lazy to update your website or doing anything.
Awesome post Sly. This is dafanatly going to be on my sunday link love.
Salwa´s last blog post…Avoid These Network Marketing Mistakes
[Reply]
While there are many reasons people don’t make money online, I think you hit some of the main reasons. It takes a lot of work to be successful, and it doesn’t happen overnight. Hopefully marketers take this to heart and take some action.
MLDina´s last blog post…MarketLeverage TV 10/13/08 Your Source For Affiliate News
[Reply]
Too many people “need” instant gratification, and if they don’t get it, they give up. Either that, or they spend the rest of their free time running around on forums and blogs claiming that nothing works. lol
Nice post, Sly
Cheers!
Jay
SuiteJ´s last blog post…How Justin Brooke Tried To Stop Me From Flipping Websites
[Reply]
I do say the main reason of why people don’t make money online is “PATIENT”. In order to make money online, you must clear up your mind first and you must be patient and work hard. Some people when they start touching the make money online journey, when they found that they cant make a single cent in a few days, they quit, what a waste! Make money online we need time and effort.
Agree?
Concrete Curb´s last blog post…Concrete Curbing Machine
[Reply]
Excellent post Sly. I think the first one nailed it on the head. People just feel that they start a blog, put up ads and the traffic will automatically come and help them earn money and they don’t realize that, its not how that works. Its not that simple. Hopefully someone who is new to blogging comes across this posts before jumping into it and making a mistake. Great post!
Enkay Blog´s last blog post…How Many Posts Is Enough?
[Reply]
Everybody have mistake and its not too late to learn them
Sherry´s last blog post…Wanna win Free Domain?
[Reply]
Yeah, everybody can mistake…
[Reply]
They do have proper plan to do …
I am just started working on my online business and i make sure not to repeat the same mistakes …
Andrew
Proxy´s last blog post…chavdude.com
[Reply]
@Proxy learn from your mistake
Sherry´s last blog post…Wanna win Free Domain?
[Reply]
one of my blog page rank has dropped to ZERO.
Sherry´s last blog post…Win $15 via PayPal @Free Ebook Collections
[Reply]
Nice info for me as a newbie. Thanks.
[Reply]
@Dudi good to know you are newbie you can find this blog useful for you.
Sherry´s last blog post…Win $15 via PayPal @Free Ebook Collections
[Reply]
sometimes, afraid of taking action can lead us to nowhere. But before taking action, it is a must to have a solid fundamental knowledge of how things work.
Norhafidz´s last blog post…Make Money Blogging - Is It Possible?
[Reply]
I agree. Taking action is the most important thing.
Travel´s last blog post…Industry of smooth hot season †both ends is outer †predicament is solved urgently
[Reply]
Thank you for the good advice.
[Reply]
I liked your points on: Running your online business as a business, and Taking action. Too many websites flounder because the owner knows what to do but just never does it.
Thanks,
Tim
[Reply]
it is very useful site i got more information i liked your points on: Running your online business as a business, and Taking action
fail’s last blog post..Parking Fail
[Reply]
thanks for sharing this
[Reply]
i agree with you,,,can digg this articles 3 reason why people fail to take money online
Stop Dreaming Start Action’s last blog post..Stop Dreaming Start Action
[Reply]