When you enter the make money online world, you see all those people who are making tons of money with their online business.
At least, this is what they’re claiming.
You probably have also heard that you can create a passive income online, meaning that you practically don’t have to work hard to get money.
Best of all, you can get results fast!
I mean, that’s what you’ve been told, just like most people are being told the same.
But what is the reality? Does everything depend on the fact of you taking action?
Isn’t there more to it than just making the commitment to succeed?
Maybe you have seen some case study…why are they always successful and right on the timeline?
Let’s dive into the journey of building an online business. (including affiliate marketing)
*May contain affiliate links. Clicking on the affiliate links will most likely result in the same price you would pay elsewhere or you may get a special offer using those links.*
Do Your Research
The first thing you want to do when you are getting bombarded with make money online opportunities ads is to go online and do some research.
What kind of research?
Well, you want to make sure that there aren’t too many complaints about the program or the company selling the program.
I like to check on BBB.org to verify what is going on.
Sometimes there is nothing because the company is new. Your best option then is to see if anyone has been making complaints on forums.
You make a Google search and you type the program you are interested in + complaints.
Now the interesting part here is if you only get good reviews, that’s not a good sign.
Why?
Well, because no program or course is flawless. No program is one size fits all. There is always something that can be improved.
So reading a few reviews will help you determine if you are in front of an orchestrated launch.
Yes, people with money do that. They pay a bunch of affiliates (the big ones) to make good reviews and flood the internet with them.
They also have the money to have articles appear on big news sites like Entrepreneur and Business insider.
Yes, you can pay those websites to have a flattering article about you posted there.
So anytime you see: As featured in… well, they paid to be there.
Also, try to find out if you will need to invest more money to pay for an autoresponder, for ads, for extra courses, upsells, live events, etc.
More often than not, you will have to get more money out of your pockets once you are in the program/course. Guess what, they don’t talk about it in the webinars or the free events.
Now that you have made up your mind about the course and the company, it’s time to do some research about the type of business you would be building.
Since there are many ways to earn money online, as an affiliate or as a product creator, you want to learn more about the type of business you will get into.
There are so many different ways to make money online that you want to make sure you are getting into something that suits your style.
I wrote an article about some of the ways you can earn money online. You can read it here.
I also wrote an article about creating multiple sources of income with your online business. You can read it here.
Who knows, maybe you would prefer to run an online store than create blog posts.
Take some time to learn about the different ways to make money online. I like affiliate marketing as you get to learn tons of things to be able to build your own product and sell it.
I like to recommend good products to people, so that’s why affiliate marketing is also a good choice for my personality.
Have you made your choice?
What is The Learning Curve?
About 3% to 5% of people finish the online course they purchased. Yes, you read that right.
I feel that if so many people drop out, it’s not because the program isn’t good, it’s probably because of the extra hidden costs that they didn’t know about.
They get frustrated and they quit.
The second reason could be the learning curve.
That’s the amount of time it takes to a person to be able to learn the skills that are required to succeed.
So depending on the program, it could be anything from a week up to 6 months to be able to develop the skills.
Maybe longer, it depends on the time you have to invest in your business every week.
Since most people are in the make money online for instant gratification, meaning they don’t have to do much and see results, a lot will quit when they see the REAL amount of work it takes to get started.
Knowing that it will take you at least 3 months before you see any results because you are learning skills can also be good enough for people to quit.
The third reason that people quit would be that life happens. So many things can happen that will easily drag you away from your initial goal…
The good news is that most programs are pay-once and get access forever. So you get the chance to come back to it and take action.
I see a lot of people doing that. I’m happy they can finally make some time in their schedule and learn new skills.
But learning isn’t everything…
What About The Time Spent Building?
Rome wasn’t built in one day. An online store can be built in one day, but the traffic that goes to it doesn’t magically appear overnight.
No matter what you do to earn money online, you will have to spend time building it.
Building it so traffic comes to it.
So make sure you add hours to your schedule to build your business, to build your brand, to build your relatability, to build your authority.
It can take YEARS to build solid foundations.
Yes there are shortcuts.
You get access to these shortcuts if you have money. You know what they say: you either spend Time or Money to build your business.
The more money you already have, the less time you can spend building your business. You can hire people to do it for you.
You can also use money to invest in ads so people are aware that you exist and that you have something to promote that could solve a problem they have.
If you are like most people who get in the make money online industry because you need money, you will have to be patient since it will take longer to get results.
You may get lucky and tap into something that is an instant success. You never know.
Most successful entrepreneurs weren’t successful overnight. They worked, they learned, they put into practice what they learned and they eventually started to get results.
And some of them worked for years before they got any results.
The good thing with the internet now is that everything can be found online. So you can learn from others and it makes it much easier to build a business in today’s world.
Will There Be Frustrations?
Yes.Tons! Ok maybe not tons, but there will be days when nothing seems to be working. Days when you can’t figure it out. Days filled with doubts. Days of distress. Days of anger. Day of frustrations.
Because everything can go wrong:
- You can get your social media accounts hacked, closed, blocked or banned.
- You get your ad accounts blocked. Your ads aren’t getting approved.
- Things don’t work according to your plan.
- You have been hustling for months and you haven’t sold anything.
- You don’t have people to support you at home.
- Your funnel is broken.
- Your emails don’t get delivered.
- Nobody’s reading your articles.
- Nobody’s watching your videos.
- You are running out of ideas to create content.
- The platform you used for your blog, funnel, email marketing has closed.
- Etc.
These are just a few examples. Technology isn’t always working top notch.
There will be a few failures along the way. It’s part of the journey.
It’s OK.
It has happened to a lot of entrepreneurs. It has happened to a lot of beginners.
You have to be careful. Know that things can go wrong.
But in the hard days comes:
Doubts
Oh no! What if this is not for me? What if I wasn’t meant to build an online business? What if I’m not good enough? What if I’m just wasting my time?
Let me reassure you: You are not wasting your time. The skills you learned will be useful one day or another, for yourself or for someone else.
Doubts are part of creating something new.
It’s normal to have doubts, it’s not normal to let them control your life.
If you feel overwhelmed with doubts, you need to talk it out to other people who are going through the same thing as you. That’s the power of a community.
Most courses now come with a community, often a Facebook group, where you reach out for help.
Doubts are also a way to procrastinate. You doubt, you overthink, you don’t do anything to build your business.
You need to find a way to get past those doubts and keep building your business.
And here comes
The Waiting Game
I did mention earlier that you will have to be patient.
Results may happen overnight when you are running ads and you put a good budget to run them. It doesn’t happen all the time for everyone.
You will have to wait. You will have to make tweaks. You will have to analyze your data. You will have to wait again.
You are building a YouTube channel, it may take a year before you have over 1,000 subscribers.
You are building an email list? You will have to go through a series of trial and errors to figure out what works well with your subscribers.
Plus, you will have to be patient to build your audience. Start creating content and keep creating until you have an audience that follows you.
This will be time consuming.
And while you are creating your content, you will be playing the waiting game.
- Waiting to get results.
- Waiting to get followers.
- Waiting to get subscribers.
- Waiting to get a sale.
- Waiting to earn a commission.
You won’t be passively waiting. If you are, you will be destroying the efforts you put in your business.
The waiting game here is an active one. There is always something to do. Something to improve. Content to create. Funnels to tweak. Emails to write even if you don’t have anyone on your email list.
Wait for it, actively.
In Conclusion
Building an online business can affect your life positively. It also comes with a lot of new things to learn and to implement which can lead to frustration and doubts.
The whole process will be time consuming, especially as a beginner.
Don’t let it stop you, but make sure you did your research to know exactly what you are getting into.
Give the process time, patience and practice.
It will help you reach the success you are aiming for.
Cynthia