Is a Profitable Online Business Possible for Me?
Any online business, for beginners, is most likely going to be a venture into the unknown. Unless you’ve had some experience in either business or computers before, e.g. you have a degree in one of the above categories, you’re going to be very skeptical about whether making money on the internet is possible for YOU.
Yes, it is possible. But you need to prepare yourself for learning, and hard work.
When I started 3 years ago, it was really, really hard for me to invest money and time into this business venture that I had no experience in. I eventually settled on the thinking that I could spend X amount of dollars for a learning experience.
We spend money on crazy things all the time.
Sometimes I would spend $100 on a weekend going out with friends, $5 on a Starbucks coffee, or even other unnecessary items without thinking too much about it. I definitely spent more than a few hundred dollars on coffee and beer each year.
The other thing I realized is that learning anything costs money. Have you ever learned an instrument? What about a foreign language? Maybe you just learned how to play Call of Duty really well. Whatever it was, you started knowing nothing. You spend some time and money on it, and then you become at least half-way decent at it. I spent thousands on guitar lessons, Czech lessons, and Chinese lessons over the years.
Imagine if you were an expert at making money!
So I decided that starting an online business would be like anything else that I do. Instead of spending my money learning how to pick up chicks at a club, or investing time and money into an Xbox and learning Call of Duty (a game), I invested that money into an online business education.
How Much Money?
Even then, I was skeptical, so I set an amount of money that I could comfortably spend without feeling like I got cheated. Once I spent that amount of money, if I was no longer interested, I would quit.
For me, that number was $300.
If I spent more than $300 dollars to venture into the realm of online entrepreneurship, I would call it quits, and write it off as a learning experience.
Lucky for me, I started making money before I hit my $300 dollar mark. I wasn’t profitable, but I made some sales, and that was enough to make me realize that this wasn’t a joke. Building websites for profit was a real thing.
After that, every dollar I made from my websites, I put back into the business. Eventually, I was making more than I could actually put into the sites, and started saving some.
The rest is history.
Honestly, it doesn’t take much money to get set up and trained. Try to keep your budget under your personal price target until you start bringing in money from your efforts. Once you make a bit of money, it’s all about tweaking, growing, and making changes to make MORE money.
I know that lots of folks want to start for free; people that don’t have any budget, and do not want to spend a dime on their business until they start making money. It’s possible to do this, but much more slow and much more difficult than if you have at least a tiny budget to work with. With no training, no mentor, and no direction, you need to be an extremely self sufficient and self motivated independent learner.
Start Your First Affiliate Website for Free
5 Tips for Beginners (and maybe advanced users too!)
In the video above, I set out 5 steps to building a profitable business online that no beginner can ignore. Let’s review.
1. Find a mentor. There are lots of questions you have, and having someone to show you the way will make the difference. This is not essential, but it makes the learning process much easier.
No one is perfect, and you may decide to do things a bit different from your mentor at a later time, but a business mentor can act as your confidant in times of stress, confusion, and frustration.
2. Set goals. You need a target to aim for, and even if you don’t hit it, at least you can measure how far you were off. The more specific your goals, the better of an idea you’ll have of how to achieve them.
‘Being rich’, is not specific enough – who’s to say what ‘rich’ actually is? Outline some things like how much money you want to make, what your career goals are, and how long you’d like to take to accomplish them.
Knowing and setting some realistic goals can really help with your long term plan. Lots of folks expect to be profitable in a week. Hey, it’s the internet, this is where the easy money is, right? Most of the time is not the case, so be sure you check your expectations.
3. Make a plan. Now that you know what you’re aiming for, you need to set out the steps to do it. Again, this will help with analyzing what went right and what went wrong, as well as how to do better next time. No one is going to succeed on the first try, but planning things out can increase your chances of success in the future. Having a set of tutorial to follow is a huge help in the beginning when everything is overwhelming and seems impossible.
4. Take action. If you don’t do anything, then you won’t make any money. Understanding the facts will get you no richer. Knowing how to start a profitable online business won’t actually put money in your pocket. A dysfunctional, poorly maintained, embarrassing attempt at a business that makes only $5 per month is infinitely better than doing nothing (literally, 5 divided by zero is infinity).
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5. Learn from your mistakes. It’s highly unlikely that you’re going to make 10k per month on your first try. The most successful marketers I know are those that test, tweak, and test again. This is one of my biggest faults as a marketer – I hate testing! I love taking action but when it comes to making the necessary changes, I drag my feet. Still, I know it’s good for my wallet, so I try to do it as often as possible.
I hope you found these tips useful. For those that are interested, you can join my free 5 Day Affiliate Marketing Course to learn what your first steps should be to build a successful online business. This business isn’t going to build itself. You have to take some risks, do some work, and get ready to learn.
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My name is Nathaniell and I'm the owner of One More Cup of Coffee. I started my first online business in 2010 and now I help newbies start their own businesses. Sign up for my #1 recommended training course and learn how to start yours for FREE!
Hi, do you have any blog posts or pointers that talk about how to monetise a pre-existing audience, specifically on tumblr? Over the past couple of years I have amassed an audience of over 10,000 tumblr followers, and I feel like I should be doing something with that audience, but I don’t know what. Google searches reveal a lot of marketing experts talking about tumblr opportunities, but most of their advice is about the audience-building aspects, which I’ve already done. What do you do with the audience when you already have their attention? I get that the basic idea is “sell them something,” but from what I understand, tumblr has a zero-tolerance policy for what they define as spamming (i.e. blogging for the purpose of sales). I would be grateful for any ideas you have.
Sorry Summer, Tumbler is not my expertise. However, I know that for most social media the challenge is to learn how to monetize your audience, so you’re not alone. The main two strategies that come to mind are 1) Sponsored posts via affiliate marketing. In your regular posting routine feature related products/services with your affiliate link. The other strategy would be to 2) create a website on the same topic, feature affiliate products on your site, then make the effort to get people from Tumbler to your website.
Both present challenges, but it means you don’t have to develop a product or keep inventory.
you have been so helpful to me and because of one more cup of coffee i am now a premium member of wealthy affiliate. thanks again
No problem LaMarr. What’s your username so we can connect? Or just go ahead and leave a message for me on my profile (nathaniell).
HOW MI CREATE MY OWNE MY WEBSITE?????
You can create your first website for free here. Let me know if you have any questions.
Hi Nathaniell, I don’t know why, for some reason I don’t receive ur email course anymore, I subscribed yesterday, thought I’d received the 2nd course today. And I went search for your 1st email, omg, it disappeared! I even couldn’t find it in the spam box … I don’t know why this happen, … weird … Anyway, do you mind send me your email course again? Thank you so much in advance!!!
I’ve sent you an email with all of the lessons. Let me know if you get it!
Can someone with minimal computer knowledge learn to do this? Interested in the email training you mentioned.
Someone with minimal computer knowledge can learn! You can’t expect to jump in and know what’s going on right away, but you need to get over the idea that you are “computer illiterate”. Anyone can learn anything with time. You don’t have to be a computer genius – heck, I still don’t know that much. But you need to be willing to ask questions and work through situations that you are unfamiliar with. The email course is here.
So, are you a decent guitar player now? Are you still drinking mass quantities of liquid beverages, other than coffee at mid-morning?
Your article is right on: it’s a matter of priority and hard work. Another excellent post!
I think a business can be in the card for most but not all…even with hard work I don’t think all will make a living from the internet….the stats I have seen seem to back this thought up….some thing like 40% don’t make more than 5000 per year and the % that make less is much higher…
I think it takes more than just perseverance to make money….I am a firm believer that the niche is going to make or break you in the long run….some niches sell themselves (just about) and others are a bit harder to make a sale….
Do you get visitors just to read your articles and get information and they purchase nothing from your site…happens all the time….so what does sell for your niche….hard question…..or is it just about the numbers coming to the site….I guess their is a bit of luck to it and skill of course things must be done in the right sequence…
But at the end of the day it is up to you to make a decision on the work put in to the output of your site…..I have seen a lot of work go into some sites with little to no return from myself and others….and I mean a year into it…and they are good looking sites….learning how to do business on the net is huge competition but so many looking for it; it is just staggering…now a quality content site in this niche will stand out as there are so many bad scam site out there….
I wish it was that simple make a site write great content and folks will purchase from you. Competition is a factor for sure….can you put a different spin on a subject that is done to death…even if you can find great kws…..but what are folks purchasing on the net in your niche…????
I guess it depends on your goals are they being met…then it is all good…but if they are not…not good….I have had some small success but nothing to write home about…I follow all the suggestions and turtorials….it has not made my business profitable at all….I still work away hoping it all comes together…
I do see the advantages of this business and I know some folks make a good living doing so…..perhaps not so much on affiliates but more money made with other business models….
Yes money can be made doing affiliates….but the niche will determine how much….my two cents….
Thanks for the comment Tim. You are right – niche can influence your level of profit. A successful business in my opinion is going to be a combination of a popular market, your personal interest, and as you said, what type of angle you can get. “BUY THIS” isn’t going to get you anywhere, but if you get some info that people want and can’t get anywhere else, you can definitely carve out a place for yourself in any competitive market.
Keep at it!
Hey Nathaniell some great tips here.
I would also add consistency, a little work a day will add to the overall effect. It was explained to me like building a snowball on a hill at first it takes effort to get it big enough to roll on its own and then when its big enough it starts to move by itself. Awesome!
If you can keep adding a little everyday you will get there. Even a simple G+ share or FB like can add to the combined effort you don’t need to write a post or build a page everyday to succeed.
Also when setting out your plan put in a few easy days but add simple tasks like those mentioned to keep the momentum going. Then when the day comes to write another post you will be fresh and ready.
A common mistake is to try and do too much. It takes time to understand your body clock and how much work you can do a day, a week, a month. Be realistic as you say and great things can happen. It just takes a bit of patience.
Consistency is a great addition. Thanks for that. Imagine that only 1 post per day is 365 posts at the end of the year. That’s quite a bit to take on, but even a blog with just 150 high quality posts is going to have a hard time failing in any niche. I think a lot of people get to 20-30 posts and lose steam. Which also relates to the “doing too much” you mentioned. Burnout happens a lot. And, hey, the snowball thing is totally true too.
I mean, basically I agree with you on every point Mark. Sooo smart! lol. Thanks for taking the time to comment
Not so sure about the soo smart but thanks for the compliment. Hey its all down to the experience I have gained over the last few years. I am working at this part time like so many who first start out and burn out is very easy.
There are times I just want to do something else than sit at my keyboard and I do. As long as you take heed to your body telling you to slow down or take a rest you will be fine folks are so eager to make that money quickly and if it doesn’t start to come they get bored and leave.