Some people have all the luck. They get an idea, put it online, and within weeks they’re making money. Unfortunately, most people don’t make much money, if any, in their online ventures. Instead their bank accounts dwindle lower and lower and they are left wondering, what happened?
There are many reasons why online work-at-home success may have eluded you, but the most common are:
1) Focusing on money instead of skills or passion.
It’s easy to get sucked into the hype of fast easy money; however, successful online entrepreneurs know that the money is only part of the equation. You can make a money selling widgets, but if you don’t know anything about widgets, don’t like widgets, or aren’t passionate about widgets, you won’t succeed in the long run. In fact, odds are you’ll abandon your widget idea when the next new shiny object appears.
Working at home requires commitment to follow through on your idea. That commitment isn’t just for the long haul, but also in the amount of time and effort you put into it. Despite the hype you see online, you can’t set-it-and-forget-it in online ventures. So your first step to success is to identify your skills, interests and passions and find or create income streams that relate to them. If you study successful people, you’ll find 99.9 percent of the time, they’re pursuing something that excites them.
2) Focusing on you instead of your market.
You may have the best product or service around, but if no one wants or need them you don’t have business. So once you identify your skills and talents and begin to brainstorm business ideas, you need to also determine if there is a market for what you want to sell. Online this can be done using SEO Book Keyword Tool which will tell you how many people searched using keywords related to idea in the last month. If a lot of people are inquiring about your idea, then you might have a viable idea.
Beyond their interest, you also want to know if they’re willing to spend money on it. Someone once told me the wanted to start a errand service business, and that many people had told her they’d love to have someone take care of their errands. However, a marketing that likes that idea isn’t the same as a market willing to pay for it. There’s a ton of stuff I’d like (i.e. a full-time live in assistant/housekeeper/cook), but I’m not going to pay for it.
Before you jump into your idea, check that you have a sizable market that is ready (wants it), willing (ready to take action), and able (has the money) to do business with you.
3) Poor or nonexistent marketing.
People can’t buy from you if they can’t find you. Once they find you, they need to know what’s in it for them (benefits) if they buy your product or service. The most important thing to remember when marketing your products or services (this is true for seeking a job as well), is that people buy solutions. They don’t care how great your product/service is. They only care about whether or not it will solve their problem. So your goal is to sell the solution. For example, people don’t really care that I’ve worked at home for over 20 years and that WAHS is one of the oldest work-at-home sites online (it’s older than Google even). They want to work at home, and while my experience might give me credibility, what they really want to is to work at home. So instead of touting my experience, it’s better for me to say I’ve got hundreds of job resources they can apply to now. Or quick and easy to tips to start making money from home ASAP.
Also, many consumers won’t buy on the first trip to your site, so you need to give them opportunities to get to know you before buying through a blog, email newsletter or free report. The best way to do this is through a funnel system. In a funnel, you lure your ideal customer to your site with great information, offer something valuable for free in exchange for their email, then make your sales offer. Because they’re not likely to buy on the first visit, by having the email you have a chance to sell to them in the future, especially if they like the freebie you gave them.
If you’d like to know more about funnels, I highly recommend you grab this free book (just pay shipping), Dot Com Secrets. It provides excellent information about how to use funnels to make money online.
Earning an income online is possible. But you won’t simply sign up for a program and have money showing up in your bank account. Like any other money-making venture, it takes research and work.
[bctt tweet=”Are you struggling to make money online? Here are 3 reasons why and what to do about it. #workathome #onlineincome” username=”ltruex”]
There are so many “earn six figures in a month!” scams out there that it becomes hard to find the real opportunities. Your first tip is a great one. If you focus on your passions instead of on getting rich, you’re much less likely to fall for the scams.
Do you think it is ok to have an online business simply to have a passive income?
Yes. I think the Internet can help you earn any time of income. I do caution the use of “passive” income because it’s a bit of a misnomer. While you can create income that generates more income, it’s not done without work or effort. The nice thing about passive income though is that it continues to earn with less effort (once it’s built) than trading hours for dollars. Thanks for posting Leiann!