7 Truths about Making a Living Online (and 3 Myths Busted)
It's the ultimate dream: make tons of money from your living room, staying dressed in your pajamas all day, working according to your own schedule, with no one telling you what to do. Sounds perfect, doesn't it?
Maybe you’ve envisioned a beautiful future where you work four hours a week, you never trade time for money, all your income is passive, and you sail through a life of ease because you’ve learned to “work smart” and figured out “the secret formula” to financial freedom.
If that's what you think making a living online is all about, you're in for a rude awakening.
On the other hand, if you're skeptical and think there's no way any normal person (like you) could possibly make a "real" full-time income online, then you're in for a pleasant surprise!
The truth is, the internet is full of misconceptions and misinformation. And being someone who has built multiple very successful online businesses, I'd like to help debunk some of the worst myths that I’ve seen float around. Because making a full-time living online may be far from what you actually think it is.
Along with that though, I do want to give you some truth as well. Because while making money online may not be what you think it is, that may be a good thing!
You may not realize that 5-figure months and 6-figure years working for yourself online may actually be possible for you!
So let me set this up by busting a few myths about making money online.
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3 myths busted about making a living online
Myth #1. "Don't waste your time, it's all a scam"
There are many skeptics out there who think the only way to make money online is by promoting the latest and greatest network marketing business, peddling self-published books, selling courses through webinars, or attempting affiliate marketing for products you don’t even really believe in.
And to be fair, yes, there are some garbage work-at-home schemes out there and you should be aware of them. The warning signs are usually there.
That being said, I wholeheartedly believe that if you are a goal-driven individual, willing to do the work, and have a gift, talent, ability or idea that can be leveraged.. you absolutely have the potential of making a living online.
But it’s definitely not for everyone and not everyone can succeed in doing it. Which leads me to the second myth.
Myth #2: "Anyone can make money online"
After all I’ve said up until this point, you have to be careful that you don't make an uneducated and illogical leap into the online space. Just because it's legitimately possible for people to make a very substantial income online doesn't necessarily mean it's possible for you.
You’ve probably heard someone say that “anyone can do this as long as they have the dream and the ambition to make it happen”, but here's the truth: a lot of people who try to make money online end up spending a ton of their own money to start up and in the end.. they’re left with scratch because they didn’t have what it takes.
In a sense, everyone has the potential to do it, but not everyone can realize that potential. Making money online is neither easy nor simple. Not only does it require a incredible amount of work and effort, but it will absolutely test you and push you in ways that you have never experienced in your life.
Being a small business owner requires discipline, patience, persistence, insane focus, terrifying leaps of faith, incredible sacrifice, self-motivation and more drive and will power than most people possess.
You need a certain level of self-driven stubbornness to succeed. And simply put, if you want to make a living online you'll need at least one marketable skill.
Myth #3: "It's a laptop lifestyle of freedom, fun,and lattés"
When someone says they work from home or make money online, it's easy to judge them as some lazy slob in their pajamas watching Netflix with a laptop on their lap, never doing any “real” work.
They can work whenever they want, right?
They can take a day off whenever they want, right?
They can literally do whatever, whenever they want. Right?
Not quite. While it's true that making money online gives you a degree of flexibility that you don’t have when working a typical 9-5, that flexibility can also be a huge liability. In fact, most people who make money online spend as many — if not more — hours working than a "normal" employee.
So if your current job is too stressful and unsatisfying and you think the solution is to start making money online instead, think carefully! It may actually be more stressful and you probably won't be earning much for many years.
Your income will be inconsistent.
You will need to manage your money better than you ever have before.
You will have to pay taxes on your income and if you don’t set up a tax savings through the year, you will have a massive bill to pay during tax season.
You will have no benefits or insurance unless you pay for it yourself. And it isn’t cheap.
You are in charge of every role of the business when you start. You are the investor, the manager, the employee, the bookkeeper, the janitor, and the marketer.. and that’s not all. Every aspect of the business is yours to manage.
Of course, there are tools and resources that you can invest in to help ease the burden of the self-employed workload, but no matter which way you spin it, it's a lot more work than simply being someone else's employee.
7 truths about making a living online
These seven truths also double as online business best practices that apply to any and all types of businesses that are operating online.
Truth #1: Don’t take shortcuts, they take too long
Trying to figure out a workaround or shortcut to doing the work is harder and more time-consuming than just doing the actual work!
Figuring out the complicated parts of your business may not always be comfortable, but it’s something you can (and must) learn how to handle.
There is no magic pill to success. Your individual journey to becoming self-employed IS the magic pill. You have to grow through your own process.
Getting sucked into cheap shortcuts always slows you down, because they don’t work. Then you just have to go back and do it correctly anyway.
Richard Branson once said..
“ If you can’t commit the time and energy to working on the small things at the beginning, you can’t expect to have the discipline or integrity to handle the big things to come. Successful businesses are built on fundamentals. It’s not rocket science. It’s a success formula.”
Truth #2: Time does not equal money
Being an employee trains you to equate time with money. It can be really hard to stop thinking that way when you’re working for yourself.
The truth is, there is no amount of time which will guarantee a certain income stream. If you do stupid things, you could spend 6 months working full-time on something and have literally nothing to show for it.
On the flip side, there is also no minimum time that it takes to build a certain level of income, which can be really awesome! Some people can build up really quickly because they’re creative, smart, and they literally work their butts off.
Others will never take off because they don’t take the action, they’re inconsistent, they make the wrong moves, or they try to blame others instead of taking ownership of everything they are doing.
One of the #1 reasons why so many startup businesses fail is because their founders continue to think and act like employees, waiting for someone to tell them what to do.
Truth #3” “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”
This is a quote from Zig Ziglar and it might seem a bit cheesy, but it’s also 100% accurate. Sometimes truth is cheesy.
One of the most valuable lessons I have learned in my own journey to becoming self-employed is that if you serve effectively, sales will happen naturally.
Now I know without a doubt that I need to be investing in my audience long before I can expect them to invest in me. That doesn’t mean I need to invest my money into them. Rather, it mean I need to be investing my time, my energy, my resources, my knowledge, and my expertise into them.
Stop selling and start serving.
Truth #4: You are not entitled to attention
If you want your audience’s attention, you have to learn how to show up for them and engage them in a way that makes them want to pay attention to you.
No one owes you anything. No matter how hard you work or how much you care, you don’t have an automatic right to anyone’s attention. You have to earn it.
If you are working to make a connection with an influencer, you have to be patient, pleasantly persistent, and make moves to capture their interest and attention.
When it comes to building relationships with your own audience, you don’t get to decide when you’ve earned it. They do.
Truth #5: You have to balance giving and asking when making a living online
Yes, yes, you need to serve before can sell.
You need to share valuable, interesting, and helpful content in a variety of ways so that you’re worth paying attention to, which will eventually lead to making a living online.
Your products and services should overdeliver relative to what you’re charging. But you also need to put offers out there.
You need to actually ask for the opt-in or sale at the right times!
If you stand around waiting for someone to hand you money because you’ve been doing so much giving, you’ll be waiting a very, very long time to make a living online.
Which leads to …
Truth #6: Nothing sells itself
Even if you hate selling, you need to understand that selling is not a dirty word. Learning to sell more effectively is not a dirty habit and it is not beneath you.
If you feel you’re too good to learn to sell, you should do something else with your time. Business requires selling.
You also don’t have to become a salesman to sell effectively. In fact, you shouldn’t. But that doesn’t mean you’re above learning about genuine and highly effective sales techniques.
It’s a skill that has to be developed.
Truth #7: You gotta work your butt off
You have to work hard or nothing will happen. Period.
Common sense tells each of us that this is true, yet it never stops people from falling prey to the “easy button” marketing out there – and buying it. There’s a REASON marketers market things that way… because it WORKS.
Because people don’t want to be told they have to work hard. They want results, they want it now, and they don’t want to do anything for it.
If that’s you, don’t even start. You’ll never make it. You’ll just put yourself into debt chasing a dream and buying courses and coaching based upon empty promises.
You have to work – HARD – to create an online business from scratch. The trick (if you even want to call it that) is to not look at it as work.
There is such an incredible level of pride and fulfillment that you will experience when you build something that is entirely yours. Every ounce of sweat, every hour you work, every fear you overcome, every step you take is 100% for you! And there’s nothing like it.
At the end of the day, making a living online is a complex mixture of the good and the bad. It is absolutely a viable career path if you're willing to accept the risks, and even though it isn't easy, it is the most exciting and fulfilling work you will even do (in my humble opinion).
Once last bonus tip for you..
Being intentionally grateful every single day (even on the really freaking bad days) will change your life.
Let me know in the comments which of these tips was your favorite! I’d love to hear from you!
And if any of you are inspired and want to learn more about how you might be able to startup your own online business, I encourage you to visit my website justincapponpro.com/myprocess.
If you are interested in having a free strategy call with me feel free to shoot me a message through my contact form and we’ll plan a time to chat!
The ball is in your court! Be great! ~ JC
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