Not Making Money Online. Why?

Let us try to have a quick overview of the reasons why so many people failed to make money online. Is it really different than any offline job?

From what I know most people who try to make money online have unrealistic expectations and do not have the right mindset. Contrary to popular belief, making a living on the internet requires consistent work and to have an entrepreneur mindset.

Why I can’t make money online

Home office set up with a laptop, calculator, bar chart, and pencils. All the required equipment to make money online

You fail to establish an online presence

I hate to say that, but the truth is: Unless you are some sort of celebrity nobody cares about you when you first come online. Just keep in mind that people are usually online to:

  • find entertainment
  • find a solution for paying the bills
  • escape solitude, have social interactions
  • find a sexual partner

Your presence online should resonate with their expectations and you must show some sort of consistency in your action. For example, a person seeing for the first time your Instagram account is more likely to come back or to subscribe if they are content posting regularly on the same topic.

Also, here are some reasons why failing to engage with your audience is not good:

  • No engagement means fewer people will go back and check your new posts
  • You get poor results for your marketing campaigns
  • You don’t know what your audience wants

Once you have established an online presence then it gets easier to make money.

Is it easy to make money online?

How often you see on YouTube video of success stories: “How I make $200k in just two months”. What?

It may be or not be true but:

  • how much money did they spend on ads?
  • how many people was working with them?
  • how long have they been doing this?

Once you take a case out of context it’s easy to get tricked into the idea that making money online is easy. To be true, it is not hard either and, in some cases, it can be easier than working at a traditional job. Why?

  • Some high-paying online business do not require a degree
  • You can start working for yourself without hiring process
  • Many jobs require to implement a set of simple steps

And yet, so many people fail to make money online. Skipping one step to speed up the process is unfortunately a common mistake among beginners. A successful method is a whole.

Do I need to invest to make money online?

There is no obvious answer to this question because it depends on what you want to do. The only truth is to reach your goal you are going to spend either time or money. For example, it is possible to earn good money on YouTube without spending any money. It is free to create a YouTube channel and there are great free video editing pieces of software.

On the contrary, if you plan to sell physical products online as an Amazon FBA seller you have some up-front cost from buying the products to make them listed on Amazon.

Regardless of popular believes most of the time you must invest some money to develop your online business. Too many people fail in their online journey because they are not aware of the cost related to inventory, marketing, advertising, subscription fees, useful tools, and so on.

Lack of consistency during work hours

When it comes to being consistent, working online is not that different than any other job. People who can not choose a path and stick to it for a few months or more are going to fail inevitably. If you decide to work four hours a day on your project you must do the work at your best for four hours. Results often depend on the level of engagement.

Why learning too many things at once is bad for success

Unless you already have the skills, the knowledge, and the experience in a particular field you will not be able to have good results if you can not focus on what you are doing. Here are a few reasons you should not try to acquire multiple knowledge and skills in different areas at the same time:

  • Lack of focus
  • Less time to work on any given project
  • Superficial work that prevents you to master any skill
  • Create confusion
  • Extend the learning curve

Most of the time the one who tries to master too many things at once ends up exhausted and is more likely to experience a burn-out than anyone else. Not to mention that at the end no particular skill has been acquired and you will have comment like: “All that for nothing, it is not possible to make money online”.

What? They strongly believe that they have tried everything that can be done online and come up with the wrong conclusion because they didn’t try the right way. They said: “If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one”. Not to mention that feeling overwhelmed makes people giving up.

An overwhelmed woman sitting in front of a laptop. Because of working too much.

Not investing in yourself and expect success

When people think about the word investing, they generally say it is about money. This may be true most of the time but making money online is more about making the right choice. They are three approaches to consider:

  • I have the money; I will pay for courses and spend quality time on the course for my training. I will try to get the best out of each course and shorten the path to success.
  • I have a shortage of money, but I am dedicated and I use the best free resources to learn how to generate an income online. I treat each free course as if I had paid for it and I stick to it until the end. I am aware of it could take months before seeing results but I stay focus and keep moving forward.
  • I have a bit of money to invest, I know when to pay for a course and when to go for free materials.

The best way to invest in yourself is to save time to learn and put in practice what is already working. Later you can modify, improve, and find your own way.

Spend too much time learning and not enough time doing

How many people claim that they want to earn money online from home but wait…

It’s been two months now and what did they do since: “They watch videos and they read all day”. They probably have learned a lot but what did they build?

Nothing!

To make money on the internet, acquire knowledge goes with an action plan. All the knowledge in the world will not make you earn money on YouTube unless you create your own YouTube channel for example. It is also the same for Instagram and any social media platform. A course with simple actionable steps or a step-by-step tutorial is all you need to begin your journey to financial freedom.

Listen to fake guru makes you poor

The internet is full of success stories of people who made it from zero to making a million dollars and more per year. Unfortunately, it has become more and more difficult to differentiate the ones who have really made it to scammy people showing off in luxury cars.

The fact is fake gurus are there to prevent you from achieving success so that they can make more money for you. Not only they still all your money but also the misinformation makes you regress. The fake guru epidemic is a huge problem you shouldn’t take lightly because no one is protected from being scammed.

Don’t use the correct strategy

Too many people have no idea on how successful entrepreneurs make a fortune online. You need to do some research in order to know what is working. For example, how many people are still thinking affiliate marketing is just getting a link and show it to people? They have no idea what cold and warm traffic are. They don’t use properly any of these proven strategies:

  • Create a niche blog
  • Build an email list and create a converting email sequence
  • Build an audience on social media (Give and add value first then refer)
  • Use paid ads (slit testing, look alike audience, scaling, …)
  • Etc.

Instead, they take the easy path of spamming their link on forums or anywhere else possible on the internet. The issue is that not understanding how the system works will lead to failure and frustration. This is why some people need to find a mentor or a good course.

Making the wrong choice may prevent you from making money online. Choosing between the wrong and the right sign.

If you don’t help people you are not going to make legit money
Someone said once “help people and they will throw money at you”.

What does that mean?

Here are some good examples:

· Many social media influencers started a consulting business because they had lots of followers who were willing (and were asking) to pay for advice.

· Even now with all the advanced technologies word of mouth is still powerful. If someone has succeeded because of you, they will talk about you in a good way. This is one way to get warm free traffic to your content.

· Too many people do not understand upselling: how to attract customers with a valuable low ticket offer (free trial, under $50 course) and then offer even the most valuable products in the back-end.

· Red flag: They are people good at selling and marketing who can earn money without providing any real service or good products. But again, this is the life of a scammer not the path for a legitimate entrepreneur.

If you can figure out how to help people in any way, then you may have a chance to develop a successful business. Providing value is the key that opens any door. Try this formula:

value + traffic + conversion = money

Value shortcuts over long-term strategies

One good way to take a shortcut when you are trying to make a living online is by taking a course. However, people who have succeeded on their own know that an online business is like any other business and most people will not make six figures over night.

For many people, starting an online business is like running all the time but don’t seem to be getting anywhere. With no specific long-term plan, you may never take the right steps that lead from zero to making your first dollar online.

For some people, it could be working hard to open an online store and not knowing how to drive traffic. As a result, they quit too soon. People who have a long-term strategy already know the steps and apply delayed gratification. They know that achieving big goals is experiencing one small success after the other. They have learned how to reinvest each earning into their business.

Can anyone make money online?

Anyone who has access to the internet probably could earn a living online. Unfortunately, not everyone is going to succeed in working online remotely. People who enjoy getting an employee may succeed in finding a company offering telecommuting positions.

For a self-employed and online entrepreneur, the path to earn money at home can be hard. Not everyone has the mindset of entrepreneurship. And not everyone can’t afford to work for months without earning any money. Here are some of the qualities that successful online businessman share:

  • common sense
  • integrity
  • the right mindset
  • determination
  • a bit of luck

Can I make money online with my hobby?

We know that making money through your hobby is probably the best thing that can happen. Although the internet is still an excellent place for doing so, things are evolving rapidly. For example, since the last update of Google guidelines instating the YMYL it has become next to impossible for a new website to rank high for anything related to making money and health.

If your hobby falls into these categories, you will have a hard time making money online unless you are very inventive. Accurate keyword research and the ability to find unusual angles to enter a competitive market. If you are not able to find other online money-making hobbies, then you are failing to differentiate hobbies from work.

Trying to do everything by yourself

As it can be totally normal to start a business all by yourself, there are some limitations related to this model. If you want to scale or make a lot of money in a short period of time you will probably need a team.

For example, starting a dropshipping business on your own is fine but you should consider hiring (a virtual assistant, a marketing manager, etc.) as soon as you start to make consistent sales. More importantly, if you lack skills you need to (work with or) learn from someone.

13 reasons why you are not making money online: failing to establish an online presence, thinking it is easy, no money to invest, lack of consistency, doing too many things, not investing in yourself, spending too much time learning and not enough doing, listen to fake guru, not helping people, take too many shortcuts, not believing in yourself, fail to differentiate hobby from work, trying to do it all by yourself

In short, making a living on the internet is possible for people who are willing to learn and implement the concepts of online entrepreneurship or for the ones who can get a telecommuting job. Find some extra job ideas you can make online here.


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