This post was guest blogged by Alan Johnson, the author of The Online Business Handbook.
Most online entrepreneurs start their journey without analyzing the map, only to realize, at a certain point, that they were guided by the wrong one to begin with. In other words, they decide to get started in this industry as a result of having heard about others who have managed to make it big, not because they are actually passionate as far as the market they plan on approaching is concerned.
Is that a healthy attitude? Of course not, and it should come as no surprise that most of them never even get close to becoming successful. The great thing about the Web is the fact that it enables you to finally make money by doing something that you love. Choosing a certain niche only because it happens to pay well is not the way to go and, even if it may seem that things are working out for you at the beginning, don’t expect it to last.
If you are passionate about something, are knowledgeable as far as that field is concerned and are able to provide value then rest assured: you can make a lot of money online by doing just that. On the other hand, if you choose to approach a certain market just because you think you can earn more money that way, then you can be certain that, just as you can have one of those jobs thanks to which you hate waking up in the morning, the same thing can apply with your online projects.
You will never be able to tap your true potential if you are not enjoying what you do for a living. No matter how hard you try, no matter how much time and energy you invest, you will never be able to compete with a person who does something out of passion and not just with money as the main focus.
More than a few talented people with great potential end up never reaching their true potential due to the fact that they limit themselves to a boring career which, even though it may secure a certain lifestyle, isn’t at all challenging. There are long-term consequences as a result of such an approach and it’s only a matter of time until you will end up facing them.
Don’t be one of those people who say that they are sticking with a certain job or project they absolutely hate just because their paycheck is not that bad. That’s nothing more than a pathetic excuse and you will be the only one losing out as a result of the fact that you live in denial. The sooner you wake up and realize that you need to seriously change your way of thinking the better.
People who say that waking up in the morning and looking forward to working is only a myth are simply trying to justify their decision of hanging on to a job they are not satisfied with.
You have the choice: you can either continue living in that gray world of yours and feeling sorry for yourself or you can understand that treating your work as a chore will never get you anywhere and take it from there. What will it be?
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some of the blogger seem to be desperate in make money online..are you believed in how to make money online just in 7days?
Im not sure everyone wakes up hating their job, there is a percentage of people that actually do enjoy their job. Thats isn’t a myth – a pornstar for one
.
Good article with some passion thrown in though.
(just maybe a few to many commas per sentence but im nit picking)
I’m not sure that all Porn Stars enjoy their work! Some, I am sure, do it for the cash.
It is a good post about how easy it is to feel trapped in a job. Most of the time the trap is created by the workier not the employer. Either way, you should work at something you like.
You twisted my comment.
I didnt say 100% of people DO enjoy their job, i said that 100% DONT hate their job.
I agree i high percentage of people employed pretend to like thier job when they in fact hate it – but saying that applies to 100% of people isn’t fair. Putting aside the pornstar analagy for a second – my mum works as a nurse, she loves her job despite the bad pay. She could do a whole variety of better paying jobs, but she loves being a nurse and she’ll never change.
Sometimes money isnt the only motivator in peoples life.
i agree on that alot of people just do what they do because they love doing it not because of money.
Love and Passion will only last for so long. How long before you say, “Screw it! Its just not worth it!”? If you have been blogging for a couple of years and are still stuck at 4 RSS subscribers (including your mom and wife), and Adsense is holding your funds because even after 8 months, you have not reached your $100 minimum threshold – would you still keep going? If so, maybe not loving it!
I did enjoy my job as a graphic artist, but after 7 years of that and a previous number of years working on electronics, I decided that I’d had enough of the 9 to 5.
The sites that are trying to make a load of cash from day one feel like it! I feel they push readers away. Better to slowly up the ad content as readership increases. No one minds a blogger getting paid for their hard work…they just want to see that they are doing the work!
In order to get the most out of what you do you definately have to enjoy what you’re doing. If you are just doing it for the money, you probably won’t feel fulfilled at the end of the day. Finding something you truly enjoy doing, and being successful at it, will give you a feeling of accomplishment. The financial rewards will be the icing on the cake. Never settle for anything less!
You have a lot of good points. I think that blogging is a great way to express yourself, but not just blogging. Running your own business lets you be creative, run things how you want. Don’t be afraid to fail a few times along the way.
Winner of $1000 IZEA Contest” Could John Chow be the winner for the last week in February? Only if he installs RealRank…
I think your post sucked and seems that you lack talent yourself. Read copyblogger to improve your writing skills because your article was pretty bland.
Wow…A lot of hate for someone pushing meds to help people!
He is just “hung over”
Great article john. Cannot understand why people do things they dont like. I love the job i do and the day i stop loving it is the day i get a new job.
Too True – I feel the same
Shame it was a guest post off Alan Johnson
Good point to everyone that article toward on me. But this is true. Thanks for sharing
Hi John Chow,
Great article!
huh,i actually just start reading your blog
but my brother want to use the laptop
i guess,i can read your blog later,hehe
oh yeah,thank for your ebook,it REALLY inspired me,hehe
that’s why i stop writing about “make money onliine” – i never enjoy it
I have never had some of the troubles described in the post. I’ve always worked on blogs which cover the topic I like. Even today I run a serbian tennis blog on http://www.15-00.com and I hope to earn money from it, the day I deserve. Even if it never happens I will still be happy doing what i like.
Congrats on 16k subscribers John, upwards and onwards!
If you do something without having interest on it most probably you will not succeed. Be passionate and you will be successful.
I totally agree with your article, I am in a job that I hate and am desperately trying to get out of.
How I hate Mondays and cannot wait until Fridays.
Cannot wait to make a full time living blogging.
Regards.
Don’t *plan* to do it — do it, or stop complaining. Every day you spend hating your job is a day wasted.
I must be one of the lucky ones as I really have a passion for this sort of thing. This has generally devleoped from loving PC’s at the age the internet started to take off.
There seems to be more and more people getting into the game for the make a quick buck when that is very rarely possible.
I think the author could have done with reading my guest post on copy-writing that I did
I’d have to agree with that one.
True that, John.!
Succes only comes from hard work. No matter what others say
Even if it is something you love, initial market research is a must. You may find that this certain something you love to do has no demand, and if you slap on your wp, nice theme, your plugins, write tons of really good content – nothing would happen.
As with any other business, market research, business plan, and realistic expectations are a must.
Cheers,
Alex.
I also totally agree with your opinion.No short cut way to gain money before hard work.I will always support blogger sincere to write not because of money.
I am not really interest on my job but it is a way to make money..
And I can’t survive without money.
True you can’t survive with money, but all the money in the world won’t make you happy. Best to make less and live a happy life than to make more than regretting getting up everyday to go to work.
i guess that varies from person to person because some people do consider money is to happiness.
Severe lack of money can make you unhappy, though. You need to have the more basic bills paid or they’ll cause stress. In today’s material society, you simply *need* money, unless you decide to go live in the woods on a diet of nuts and berries. But in that case you’ll have a hard time getting an internet connection, so forget about blogging. =]
If you made just enough money to have a computer and internet connection, blogging about living in the woods on a diet of nuts and berry might be a very niche topic. You could have a very nice treehouse in the end.
It’s about balance. Too much money and no time to spend it sucks but always being happy and living with the squirrels without money isn’t too much better.
I think you underestimate the amount of cash you’d need to get internet in the middle of nowhere. =]
But you’re right, the whole thing’s about balance.
i agree with you because blogging is all about passion and most of the good bloggers are passionate about their work. Without passsion you will run out of quality content and won’t have anything to say. Good article.
I agree that it’s important to be passionate about your work but honestly there are plenty of people who have a passionate side business that is just starting out and it’s still too early to “quit the day job”.
I can’t knock someone for “putting up with” the day job while they try to get something going on the side. Unfortunately that does lead to the side business getting neglected sometimes but you can’t fault someone for that.
Just keep at it and eventually the passion will win out but some people just aren’t capable of taking such leaps of faith. And yes, I know some will say that you have to take the big risks in order to get the big rewards, but does it always have to be so cut and dried?
Passion or not, Obligations are for some a showstopper or at least a show slower…, But when you can mix Passion pleasure and effort good things will happen.
Give it time, lot’s of effort and of course passion and everything will fall in place.
BTW check out my URl as we are helping a Daycare center.. Gota have passion.
when you failed to make money online in a evil way is to commit suicide…
hi everyone..im a girl from a decent suicide girl
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“In other words, they decide to get started in this industry as a result of having heard about others who have managed to make it big, not because they are actually passionate as far as the market they plan on approaching is concerned.”
Some people are passionate about the act of doing business and earning money. It doesn’t matter what industry they are in, they just want to foster the movement of money. I think those people can blog about whatever they want and earn money.
I know someone that has given up the day job and gone 100% self sufficient. He gained VC investments to the tune of £500k and re-mortgaged his house to get his startup off the ground.
That was 4 years ago and last month he was declared bankrupt and is in serious depresssion.
Working for yourself is no picknick and just because you quit your job it doesnt mean you’ll magically make a millions online. You might be just a few steps from bankrupcy and years of unhappiness – suddenly that 9-5 doesnt look so bad!
I agree to you totally John. You need to be really passionate about something to make money out of it. If it is just another day or job for you then life gets pretty boring. Give your 100% to any work and you will receive 100% in return.
This article is 100%. Even the rich people like Robert Kiyosaki(sp) say you have to enjoy your work 100%.
Well said Alan, blogging for money and without passion equals to failure and stress. Blogs are excellent to be used even as CMS and many times the use of blogs as a powerful too is being abused or miss understood. It is easy to install and run a blog and make small cash, but thats not where the “work at home” really lays, not everyone is successful and especially if it is not a real passion for you (aside John Chow
who mixes business with pleasure and brings the balance).
You make some valid points there. One should be able to enjoy the topics they are posting about instead of feeling obligated to do so…I think the readers can see through them if they don’t like doing what they are doing…
http://wannasmile.com
Passion is so important in any business venture. I became a lawyer because I wanted the huge paycheck. The result? I hate my job, and I am willing to give up the paycheck to get out of it. That’s why I started blogging. I realized that there are three things I love: money, politics, and sports. I started a blog about money because I love the topic, the opportunities, and discovering ways to make more of it. That’s what I write about, and I could do it for hours. I’m not making any money off my blog yet, but I know it will come. With passion in a certain niche, the money will come sooner or later.
passion is the most important thing, i agree… don’t always look on a big money income scheme. What matter is you’re happy and you love what you’re doing.
I really agree with this posting. A lot of people are just in it to make a few dollars… but you really have to enjoy what you do. All of this becomes so evident in the way your postings look that people will pick up on bloggers that aren’t in it because they love what they do.
Many bloggers don’t succeed because they oly give little time for their blogs. If there’s any they can earn only a little.
I spend a good deal of time on my blog, but still not much traffic or anything. Sometimes I find myself at a loss for what to write. I did have a job which I enjoyed for a good deal of time before I started to hate it! My husband loves his job.
Quote: “Choosing a certain niche only because it happens to pay well is not the way to go and, even if it may seem that things are working out for you at the beginning, don’t expect it to last.”
I think that more often, the opposite is true.
I’m in plenty of markets that I could care less about- I enjoy making money.
The idea that you have to “do what you love” or that you have to do something you know about is a common stumbling block.
It’s great if you can monetize an area of experience but the reality is that a lot of people would be better suited to finding a profitable market and educating themselves on it.
Looks like I’m sticking to my website http://ww2db.com for the right reasons
I started my blog in order to help other people realize their full potential. I don’t make any money from it (yet), but I make plenty of money with my other sites and ventures.
For me, the blog is just a way to express myself, and meet more people of similar interests. Because let’s face it, working by yourself sometimes gets a bit lonely..
Damn Alan why don’t you just move in and call it “The Miscellaneous ramblings of TWO Dot Com Moguls”.
Hi there and thank you for your comments. Be sure to grab your free copy of my ebook by subscribing to my newsletter if you haven’t by now (subscribing will also give you the opportunity to win some more than tempting prizes over at my contest).
Best wishes,
Alan Johnson
You Crazy??? Of course you have to love what you do!
Blogging for making money won’t make more money, but blog for the interest of readers may make more money.
John, this is a very interesting write-up. You are really helpful, at least to starters like us. I know making money on line is quite difficult than it sounds.
http://www.worldinurpocket.com
I made a special site made only for my hard times of failure – http://www.forhardtimes.com
Very true, it has to be something you truly have a passion for. Cause the thing is that when you don’t have passion, you lose motivation which is in turn the key to success. Nicely put…
TalkPrice.net
If you don’t have a passion for what you are blogging about your blog will slowly fade away. I have seen so many people start blogging so they could sell Google Adsense only to wake up one day and realize that they were wasting their time. If you don’t have passion your readers will know and will stop reading.
The main reason people fail at making money online… They quit before they make any money.
Great post John! Warren Buffet, the second/third richest person in the world is known for saying that he tap dances to work every day. That’s how much he loves it. He is 77 years old, and he hasn’t retired – why should he retire when he loves what he is doing.
I really think it has a lot to do with not knowing what you are good at. If you live your life not knowing too much maybe it can be a annoying factor to not know much of anything about a subject. People should open there minds up a little more and seek there deeper feelings on whats going on in their lives and sooner or later it will come. Then they will write what they know and make money too. Cool post John
This article is real old news and has been seen a 1000 times. Kind a boring reading the same thing.