Is This The Worst Crap We Have Ever Been Taught?

[nimcus38318]

Originally Posted by MichaelHiles

I understand the points. But I am not sure that I agree that someone can be wholly, and sustainably successful without the pure passion.

How many entrepreneurs that started major companies and went on to hit grand slam homeruns weren't passionate about what they did?

They just sort of liked things, but not that much.

It's the passion that drives you at 3am.

I think that it is the passion to earn the money and run your business that drives you at 3 a.m., not passion for the subject matter. I think that you have to have SOME interest in the subject or you won't do anything with it, but I don't think you have to take your favorite things and make them unfavorite when they are driving you crazy at 3 a.m.

[Troy_Phillips]

Passion is mostly an emotional attachment .

The reason most newbies fail online is they have an emotional attachment to something others are not passionate about .

If you are passionate about something I am slightly interested in..... you might eventually win me over . This is if you can hold my attention long enough.

On the flip side... find something I am passionate about and I could care less if you are interested in what you have to sell. You just need to know enough about it to present the product to me in a somewhat logical manner .

If I am passionate enough about it you might not even need to be all that logical.

The question is .... do you want to tackle a subject you are passionate about and hope to win me over or through selective search terms ... let me find you ... already passionate and ready to buy?

Quiet simple . Take your passion and do the research . If you are not finding large groups that share your passion, and more importantly are willing to pay for your passion, better find something else to be passionate about .

Course that's just my back asswards view of it .

[Scott Million]

I save my passion for niches where I want to get involved with my visitors. These are where I'll use my real name and have a blog and build a list.

For the 98% of the rest of my niche websites, it's all about making money, and that's enough to keep me motivated.

WHATEVER WORKS FOR YOU! All this cookie cutter IM solution stuff is the problem (and the fact that people don't want to work, the REAL problem) - nothing applies to everyone and everything in this business requires work.

"HELP ME!!!" - Help yourself. There's a reason why 1% of the affiliate marketers on clickbank work full time in IM. It's not from expert ebook reading.

[Rory Wilkinson]

I think it depends on whether you are looking to become an expert in the niche or whether you are just trying to earn a couple hundred extra bucks a month from it.

If you just want to earn some extra money from a couple of basic sites then it really doesn't matter if your interested in the niche or not (as long as they are profitable). But if you want to attract followers and create a proper business around one niche then it is vital that you are passionate and actually know your stuff.

[Mike Newton]

Originally Posted by MichaelHiles

I think this is the second post of this kind this week.


Seth Godin adamantly disagrees with you.

In fact, if you don't have passion, you aren't going to be genuine in your efforts to build a tribe. You cannot successfully market in this day and age without your tribe, who can smell BS a mile away. Your tribe will carry your message where you cannot, and multiply your message beyond your capital to directly promote your mission on a 1:1 basis.

Seth Godin is undoubtedly an expert in his field. However, like all of us, he is not always 100% correct. Period.

I do concede that having passion about an endeavor, IM or otherwise, is a key ingredient. However, it is not necessary to have passion about every niche entered to achieve financial success. Neither does it necessarily equate to not being genuine or require any BS to 'the tribe'.

There are different levels of passion, it is subjective and dependent upon the individual's goal.

Originally Posted by Louise Evans

I don't think you need passion in a niche, I mean it helps, but it's not required to make money from it.

A good business mind is all it takes to provide good value for money.

I agree. For example, if money is the goal, then just because I am passionate about the 'Mating Habits of the Antarctic Worm', it doesn't necessarily follow that this is a lucrative niche.

On the other hand, there are those who happen to be passionate about a profitable niche, enter it and make money. In either case, it is all relative and there are countless marketers online and offline, who are not passionate about, but enter many niches. They are still sincere, provide good value for money, are successful and don't BS anyone to do it.

Mike

[Floyd Fisher]

It's way easier to be flat out fired up about something you're passionate about then something you're not.

It's also what separates a great product from a good one, great sales copy from good sales copy, and great customer service from good customer service.

Basically, it separates great businessman from good ones.

That is why they give you that advice, and why you should take it and run with it.

[seobro]

Truth be told, people can't become pros at anything by reading a few articles and by working at it just a few hours a week. It requires hard work. Most people who think that IM is fun are not willing to do the heavy lifting necessary to gain success.

[Mike Newton]

Originally Posted by Floyd Fisher

It's way easier to be flat out fired up about something you're passionate about then something you're not.

It's also what separates a great product from a good one, great sales copy from good sales copy, and great customer service from good customer service.

Basically, it separates great businessman from good ones.

That is why they give you that advice, and why you should take it and run with it.

So true. However it is possible to still be passionate and fired up about the endeavor as a whole, in this case IM, be successful and provide the ingredients that you mention, without being passionate about every niche entered.

I may be wrong, but I believe that the OP was referring to entering niches that the OP was passionate about, but not profitable. As opposed to entering known, lucrative niches for the purpose of making money.

Mike

[Paxton]

Included in my network of sites is one about my own "passion" which I've been actively involved in for over 35 years.

Luckily for me it's one of the big online segments, so I've been able to monetize my prior knowledge and experience.

Biggest plus: I can sit down and write a couple of thousand words of content without having to do any research and with a noticeable absence of hair pulling and actually enjoy the process.

The content I write on this particular topic will be a much better seller as my potential customers can relate to the overall tone of the content. I've got 35 years of stored experiences to draw on after all. It makes it much easier to weave the story.

[TheNightOwl]

Tons of GREAT comments in this thread!

Troy_Phillips makes some great points - VERY nice contribution to the discussion. Read his comment here.

So too does RussRave. Read it here.

I like Kevin_Hutto's comment, too. Here.

And Black-Hat-Cat weighs in with a corker! Here.

I actually started responding to this thread and it turned into this gargantuan response that I think is probably too long for a forum post. So I put it on my WarriorForumBlog if you're interested.

The thrust of it is as follows:

* passion-schmassion! I'm so totally over that pile of old cobblers and I can't believe I fell for it in the first place. Find out why and a proposed model for anyone with a BIG idea who's still spinning their wheels in their "Passion" niche (like me! Ha!). Read it here...

[BIG Mike]

Originally Posted by MichaelHiles

I think this is the second post of this kind this week.

Seth Godin adamantly disagrees with you.

In fact, if you don't have passion, you aren't going to be genuine in your efforts to build a tribe. You cannot successfully market in this day and age without your tribe, who can smell BS a mile away. Your tribe will carry your message where you cannot, and multiply your message beyond your capital to directly promote your mission on a 1:1 basis.

So what? Seth Godin has never contributed anything at all to my own success in business and yet despite disagreeing with me, I still succeed - go figure.

Incidentally, that's not a jab at Seth - just reality. I'm sure on any given day any number of well known marketers may disagree with me, but the fact remains that their opinions have zero impact on what I do just as my own opinions are meaningless to them.

Just because they say it, doesn't mean it's true or factual.

Moving right along....

In my opinion, passion about something is probably the worst reason to pursue something as a business activity. There is no room in business for emotionally driven actions and passion, being an emotion can actually be detrimental to succeeding.

I have seen numerous people fail over the years because they poured their heart and soul into something they were passionate about and couldn't let go because they lost all perspective along the way as to why they were doing it.

I'm not suggesting that having an interest in a given niche is always a bad thing, but you've got to be careful that it not blind you to reality either. And there are miles of difference between an "Interest" and "Passion".

One of my own passions is building furniture (woodworking) - back in the states my large basement workshop contained tens of thousands of dollars of professional tools and equipment that I used to build things for family and friends.

I was damn good at it too - spending years developing my skills and techniques because it was a truly enjoyable hobby for me. And it's something I could never do for a living or have an interest in promoting. My slow, meticulous work in creating something would bankrupt me in no time

My wife, who is utterly passionate about teaching, and myself (I'm not passionate about teaching at all) own a private EFL school here in Greece. For years it lost money, because my wife, whom I love dearly, cannot approach the business operations of the school objectively.

Because I am passionate about my wife, I got involved and took over the business end of things. I turned it around, put it in profit and established a not-for-profit foundation related to education for her. Despite it's ongoing success, her passion still interferes with the business operation itself.

Another thing many of you have probably seen right here in this forum are the folks who come in at what is more or less the opposite reason for making money online - desperation. They're about to lose their home, car, whatever, and they're ready to do anything to get by.

Invariably, their desperation blinds them to doing what they need to do to launch a sustainable business online (or off for that matter).

That said, I think that if you are passionate about something you want to monetize in some way, you may want to consider waiting until your other business activities are at a point that they will sustain your pursuing it. By taking that approach, you're not putting everything on the line.

Just saying...

[A Bary]

Originally Posted by BIG Mike

So what? Seth Godin has never contributed anything at all to my own success in business and yet despite disagreeing with me, I still succeed - go figure.

Incidentally, that's not a jab at Seth - just reality. I'm sure on any given day any number of well known marketers may disagree with me, but the fact remains that their opinions have zero impact on what I do just as my own opinions are meaningless to them.

Just because they say it, doesn't mean it's true or factual.

Moving right along....

In my opinion, passion about something is probably the worst reason to pursue something as a business activity. There is no room in business for emotionally driven actions and passion, being an emotion can actually be detrimental to succeeding.

I have seen numerous people fail over the years because they poured their heart and soul into something they were passionate about and couldn't let go because they lost all perspective along the way as to why they were doing it.

I'm not suggesting that having an interest in a given niche is always a bad thing, but you've got to be careful that it not blind you to reality either. And there are miles of difference between an "Interest" and "Passion".

One of my own passions is building furniture (woodworking) - back in the states my large basement workshop contained tens of thousands of dollars of professional tools and equipment that I used to build things for family and friends.

I was damn good at it too - spending years developing my skills and techniques because it was a truly enjoyable hobby for me. And it's something I could never do for a living or have an interest in promoting. My slow, meticulous work in creating something would bankrupt me in no time

My wife, who is utterly passionate about teaching, and myself (I'm not passionate about teaching at all) own a private EFL school here in Greece. For years it lost money, because my wife, whom I love dearly, cannot approach the business operations of the school objectively.

Because I am passionate about my wife, I got involved and took over the business end of things. I turned it around, put it in profit and established a not-for-profit foundation related to education for her. Despite it's ongoing success, her passion still interferes with the business operation itself.

Another thing many of you have probably seen right here in this forum are the folks who come in at what is more or less the opposite reason for making money online - desperation. They're about to lose their home, car, whatever, and they're ready to do anything to get by.

Invariably, their desperation blinds them to doing what they need to do to launch a sustainable business online (or off for that matter).

That said, I think that if you are passionate about something you want to monetize in some way, you may want to consider waiting until your other business activities are at a point that they will sustain your pursuing it. By taking that approach, you're putting everything on the line.

Just saying...

WOW!
You expressed my ideas better than I did

You are scary BigMike

And , what in your post I can argue about?

Agree for every single word

[Keith Boisvert]

Passion is an objective word used too loosely.

I think some break it down way to far like they are drilling down for long tail keywords.

Passion is inside of you, regardless of what "niche" you pick. I am passionate about being successful and providing the best life I can for myself and family. I don't care if I am selling anal cream or hammers, or the two together, its the passion of success that drives me to do well.

And I don't let "passion" interfere with my decisions, so I try to leave "emotion" out of my business decisions. There are things I simply am fanatical about that I would love to do as a business, but don't because the smart side of me realizes that it isn't something that will be profitable. And on the other hand, there are things I don't really care for that are great businesses that I go forward with.

I guess I have built my business portfolio on common sense...so that I have the means to enjoy the things in life I am passionate about...if that makes any sense.

Now where's that cream?

keith

[P.Sharma]

my passion is internet marketing. nothing less, I can kill any niche as long as I want to

[Floyd Fisher]

Originally Posted by Mike Newton

So true. However it is possible to still be passionate and fired up about the endeavor as a whole, in this case IM, be successful and provide the ingredients that you mention, without being passionate about every niche entered.

I may be wrong, but I believe that the OP was referring to entering niches that the OP was passionate about, but not profitable. As opposed to entering known, lucrative niches for the purpose of making money.

Mike

Mike:

You would be surprised at what you could make money off of in almost any niche.

Let's take his love for soccer. Well, what do soccer fans love almost as much? Beer.

So make a soccer themed beer mug, and sell that.

Think you could do something similar in any other niches out there?

[Ilya Feynberg]

It depends on the type of person...entirely!

I don't for a second believe or buy any BS that says that YOU HAVE to be passionate, or that you HAVE to just go where the money is and so on.

I personally know (and worked for in the past) entrepreneurs and investors that have zero passion what so ever for the exact piece of software, service or product that their bringing to market...BUT they're knowledge and passion lays in business itself. And these guys are guys with net worth's...well lets just say the smallest one is more than $100 Million. Boy am I glad to be around those guys...anyway...

Then there are those that can be brilliant within the business realm, but only if it's something they feel attached to, connected to, and feel that would be willing to do whatever it takes...not to mention the whole product and customer thing. I know these people too. Very smart and great people. Great understanding of how things work. But no matter what they try and do, unless they have some sort of drive or passion towards something in particular they'll simply lose interest, produce crap, or just drop everything all together long before anything even gets started.

Personally, I can be a bit of both. I'm honestly in it for the money. I go where the money is. And I can do a damn good job at it if I say so myself. I love building and adding to business models, I like the numbers, I like the growth etc. BUT I do have my limits as to what I can enter...not for ethical reasons (although I have those too ) but because if I'm moving into a market where I can't even keep awake when I put together a product or service, or sales copy etc...than forget it.

It's a very stupid thing in my opinion to tell a newbie marketer....go with your passion. Then they think..."Oh I LOVE (fill in the blank with something that has no value and chance of making money)."

I say...always say...go for where the money is...within limits...and learn how to build a business...learn the foundations of business...and well you get the idea...

[James Clark]

I have a passion for smoking cigars, but would I open up a cigar store? No, because I truly believe it would affect my thought process. Most of us come from a wage earner past.

When you are trying to build a business, the thought process is different.

You are looking for a gap in the market that will generate a six figure income for you. Now, it makes sense to accomplish that first and follow your passion after you get money in the bank.


Just my two cents.


Jimmy.

[JonMills]

I think you might be looking at it from a perspective which of what you think you will lose

It comes down to longevity, Dan brown is passionate about writing hence the reason he keeps pumping out books

If your spend all your time in business which your not passionate about, you will run out of steam fast.

It depends what you want to get out of business that you do. Money comes, money goes.. so use your time wisely and focus on a topic you enjoy and mix it up with a few things that you dont, but dont give all your time to those, unless your goal is the end result.. i.e having someone else run those while you focus on what you love to do

[Mike Newton]

Originally Posted by Floyd Fisher

Mike:

You would be surprised at what you could make money off of in almost any niche.

Let's take his love for soccer. Well, what do soccer fans love almost as much? Beer.

So make a soccer themed beer mug, and sell that.

Think you could do something similar in any other niches out there?

Floyd,

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised at all. Despite the low WF post count, I have been earning a full-time income through online/offline marketing and consulting in Japan and other locations, for some time and have entered many non-IM niches.

I'm not debating whether Soccer or any niche/sub-niche wouldn't be/couldn't be profitable.

I am referring to passion. While I am passionate about owning businesses as a whole, I don't agree that it is necessary to be passionate or rigidly glued/attached to any particular niche or business model, in order to be successful.

In fact, from a business perspective and depending upon the individual's mindset, I believe that too much passion and emotion, is detrimental and can lead to bad judgment/decisions and the execution of bad strategies.

So, bottom line? I am passionate about my work but, I approach any niche/project/business with a good business mind, a methodical, logical process including an exit strategy and without emotion.

For myself, this approach works repeatedly and I am looking for, among other factors, profitability, not overly indulging in my personal likes/dislikes.

But hey, to each their own...

Mike

[Floyd Fisher]

Originally Posted by James Clark

I have a passion for smoking cigars, but would I open up a cigar store? No, because I truly believe it would affect my thought process. Most of us come from a wage earner past.

When you are trying to build a business, the thought process is different.

You are looking for a gap in the market that will generate a six figure income for you. Now, it makes sense to accomplish that first and follow your passion after you get money in the bank.


Just my two cents.


Jimmy.

So find something else to sell to cigar lovers instead.

Don't they need lighters and ashtrays? Do they drink too? How about some fine crystal?

Or run a dating service devoted to cigar lovers. Heaven knows they could use some help in that department with all the demonization of smokers going on right now.

Heck, I just read about a guy making bank, and his main website is a blog where he posts silly pictures of cats. If you can monetize that, it's proof almost anything can be monetized if you use your head.

[Kevin Riley]

And I adamantly agree with Seth Godin.

Originally Posted by MichaelHiles

I think this is the second post of this kind this week.


Seth Godin adamantly disagrees with you.

In fact, if you don't have passion, you aren't going to be genuine in your efforts to build a tribe. You cannot successfully market in this day and age without your tribe, who can smell BS a mile away. Your tribe will carry your message where you cannot, and multiply your message beyond your capital to directly promote your mission on a 1:1 basis.

[satrap]

you know i am not an expert nor am i a successful business man as i am just getting started, but while i agree that having passion might help you in some ways, i don't believe its a must in order to succeed. i think if your passionate about your niche, it makes it a lot easier for you to get thorough rough times, because your enjoying it no matter what, but that doesn't mean because of your passion your going to succeed. on the other hand a person who is no passionate about the niche but is in it strictly for business may have harder time to go trough the ups and downs, but not being passionate doesn't prevent him/her to succeed. and i don't believe just because you like your niche you are going to be honest and genuine about what you present to your readers/buyers. honesty doesn't come with you liking or not liking a subject.
i wish our world was valued more on honesty, but unfortunately i have to say people who are doing it the right way( money wise) are the one who are successful(at least in money making), and most of the time they are lying and cheating to get there.

[discrat]

Originally Posted by MichaelHiles

I think this is the second post of this kind this week.


Seth Godin adamantly disagrees with you.

In fact, if you don't have passion, you aren't going to be genuine in your efforts to build a tribe. You cannot successfully market in this day and age without your tribe, who can smell BS a mile away. Your tribe will carry your message where you cannot, and multiply your message beyond your capital to directly promote your mission on a 1:1 basis.

Ehhh...wrong answer !!
First of all, the OP didnt say to not have Passion in what you are doing. He said it shouldn't be Passion directed toward a particular Niche. A BIG difference here. Because you can still have Passion in the actual process of building a successful business and doing the necessary things to be successful and NOT have Passion about that particular Niche you are promotng. Believe my friend you can !! You can also be Passionate about the relationships you foster within that particular Niche although deep down down you are not really interested in the Product itself.

That bieng said , I found out long ago that what the OP makes total sense and that is too NEVER try to make Money or make a business out of something you truly have incredible Passion for (as far as a partuclar product or niche)
I think this can be a recipe for disaster. Once you start bringing money into the equation then it takes away part of the altruism of it being a really True Passion. Money can have a habit of distorting things. Metaphorically speaking have you ever heard of the saying " NEVER mix business with pleasure " ?? Or "NEVER do business with friends of family "?? The same can be said when you mix your true Passions with making Money. It can go sour and when it is all said and done your Passion may well have died off. Money can do that.

And I am talking about the kind of Passion that CANT BE BOUGHT OR SOLD. Case and Point, remember this commecial : "two tickets to a Mets game $100, the smile of your sons face when he catches a fouls Ball, PRICELESS !!

Nuff said

[The 13th Warrior]

Originally Posted by Scott Million

WHATEVER WORKS FOR YOU! All this cookie cutter IM solution stuff is the problem (and the fact that people don't want to work, the REAL problem) - nothing applies to everyone

A rule is only a rule until someone proves they can get profitable returns in the short and long haul by breaking the rule, then the guy is considered a genius, trailblazer,guru or maverick.

Simply because he went where others did not tread or dared to go AND consistently made it profitable.

How many folklores have been broken up to this point?

Maybe passion is the wrong word. Perhaps its cousin , sincerity is a better word.

I am sure a good librarian that brings you just the right books or reference material, or a customer service representative at a retail store or something, who gives you excellent guidance or points you in the right direction is not necessarily "passionate" about your particular needs.

How many people are good at certain things, do it too well without thinking, but hate what they do and would like an alternative way to make a living?

How many people have you seen are very, very good at what they do, but either HATE what they do or pretty hum ho about it, would rather be doing something else, would rather BE somewhere else not having ANYTHING to do what they are currently "good" at?

If one is passionate about a subject whose world wide appeal is less than 12 people, should a person pursue that as an internet marketing niche?

Also, exceptions to the rule don't necessarily make the rule.

If someone happen to make money at selling , say, collections of various lint one finds on the carpet simply because he is passionate about such a curiosity and find a few others like him, is that now the rule or simply the exception........ and what is the criterion to know the difference, AND know if its for you?

Passionate, sincerity or not, the first staple before anything is done is to verify if there IS a market, quantifying and qualifying the market, because if people are passionate about a certain niche, but don't have money to spend and usually don't spend anything worth mentioning or enough over cost to be profitable, who cares about that market and the passion of the people in it and the passion that goes along with it?

Passionately engaged and passionately unprofitable.

Maybe there is someone out there that is passionate about the worst selling product in history, but he loved it, should he start the marketing machine?

The 13 th Warrior

[MichaelHiles]

Originally Posted by Kevin Riley

And I adamantly agree with Seth Godin.

I think it comes down to product creators having a very different perspective than say, affiliate marketers or article marketing bloggers.

[mandylee216]

Originally Posted by The 13th Warrior

Maybe there is someone out there that is passionate about the worst selling product in history, but he loved it, should he start the marketing machine?

The 13 th Warrior

I was about to agree that we should have a niche we are passionate about. I think it is better to have a niche that we know a lot about so that we will be able to promote it in a productive way

[troy23]

I disagree......sure you can make a bit of money from something you know little about, but in the long term it is not a viable business model. Google is now aware of this...hence the reason it and so many of its related sites are now tightening up. The days of making a quick buck on Clickbank are now coming to an end.

I'm all for making money on the net, but really that's not the reason the net is there.

Unless people are prepared to buid content rich websites then they can expect their pages to be pulled or no longer indexed. In order to build content rich websites and write say 5 articles a day you have to be passionate about your niche and know what you are talking about.

[Roger Santos]

I see your point about not going into something you're passionate about, because what you love will then become work, and who wants that?

Work is what gets money in your bank.

What your passionate about is what you do when you don't have to worry about work.

As long as there is a market and you can make lots of money and solve problems and help people out in that market at the same time, I see no reason not to pursue it just because you know nothing about it.

In today's market, you don't have to be a total expert, just have to know more than your audience.

Also, you can always hire ghostwriters to create the bulk of your products.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by troy23

Unless people are prepared to buid content rich websites then they can expect their pages to be pulled or no longer indexed.

And just how are they going to do this?

The last time I checked Google hasn't developed an all-knowing, all-seeing, AI to review every site, every page, in their index. In fact, they're no where close to this.

They do hire humans at a few bucks per hour to do cursory reviews of statistical sampling new sites. These 'reviewers' spend less than 30 seconds on a site, only look at the index page and are mainly looking for non-Adsense ads being predominately displayed along with little other content. But, make your ads slightly discrete, use a pretty template and use a poorly spun PLR article and you pass.

Passion may be the game you have to play to sell to an email list but in the SEO world, it simply doesn't matter a whole lot.

[Kate C]

I agree. Passion is important but sometimes the best niches are ones that you are not passionate about. What you need to do is learn all there is to know about that particular niche and give good value to your customers. Passion alone does not mean your content is good or up-to-date. There may be other people who have have more knowledge and information about your niche even though they would not call it a passion of theirs so learn from them as much as you can. To be successful in this industry, you have to be open minded.

I know a few happily married people who have not been in the dating scene for several decades that have made a fortune in dating niches.

[Jay Rhome]

Originally Posted by goldmind123

I'm passionate about "soccer", actually I'm CRAZY about this sport, I know everything a fan can know about it, I watch every single match I come by, I know every single detail about big teams and top players all around the world, I know by heart the history of the world cup since 1930 to every small detail.

But, will I build a soccer site someday?

NEVER!!

Why?

Because IT'S MY PASSION...

It's a hobby for me, I enjoy soccer, I love when I come across soccer sites as a regular fan, without thinking about checking their ranking or backlinks, or analyzing their onpage SEO factors...blah..blah..


I just enjoying being there as a fan, not a business man!

That's why I found the advice of "Doing business in what you're passionate about" a total crap...

If I do business in what I'm passionate about, what I'll keep for my own, personal, life joy?

My passions are things to enjoy, to feel the taste of life through, not to be hooked with in a business circle...

I strongly agree with this. I tend to favor my "secondary passions" or things I have a slight interest in. I want to keep my main passions "pure".

Yet it's easy to see many successful marketers and salesmen, online or offline, are passionate about... money and sales! There's NOTHING wrong with that. It's just an observation. In fact I realize I need more of that attitude.

I fully understand your point as I feel the same. I just wonder if it's a wise strategy. Sometimes "my way" is the major stumbling block to success...

[Kevin AKA Hubcap]

This is the way I see it.

Why are people saying you have to do "A", "B", or "C" to be successful? There are many paths to follow. Your job is to find the one that's right for you.

If that's going into a niche your passionate about--fine

If that's going into a niche you hold little passion for--that's fine too

At the end of the day, a business is about making profits and IMO that's is where you're greatest passion should lie.

Balance sheets don't care about how much passion you have for a particular subject. They only care about the cold, hard, facts and hopefully when everything is said and done you'll be in the black.

To me having passion about a particular niche is great to have but definitely not required.

Kevin

[Shana_Adam]

When the end goal becomes monetary gain unfortunately it can become a bit of a passion killer.

It can depend upon a persons personality some people live and breathe their websites. In that they have a warmer engaging and more responsive readership.

When doing so solely for monetary gain you will end up thinking more about revenue than engaging your passion. Helps if you are making plenty though.

[Andyhenry]

This is simple.

Your confusion comes from the fact that you're drawing a line between business and pleasure.

When you realise that you can create income from doing what you love - you don't need to keep enjoyable things separate from work - you just don't think of it as work because you love it.

[edhan]

Yes. There will always be 2 sides of a coin.

You can do business without passion but to me, it will definitely be boring. Also, you can do it with passion but choosing the right type of business otherwise you may not earn money.

Choose the right business that you are passionate about and it will not only help you to earn money as you will be looking forward each day to put your effort to do it better.

Of course you can choose a business that can make alot of money that you may not have passion and life still goes on.

It is just a matter of life where you want to be ...

This is my personal opinion and experience.

[JohnPark]

I don't mind learning about something as long as it doesn't cross the line into boredom. Sometimes if you have a passion about something that you enjoy and decide to turn it into a business, you could cause a burn out on your passion and wind up hating it. You would then lose everything. I guess one should think ahead about what the outcome maybe before turning a niche into a business that you are not going to want to touch after you build it.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Kevin AKA Hubcap

Balance sheets don't care about how much passion you have for a particular subject. They only care about the cold, hard, facts and hopefully when everything is said and done you'll be in the black.

It may also involve where a person comes down on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test. Some people, like me (INTJ), are more "balance sheet" oriented while others are passionate (those pesky 'F' folks).

[pink sapphire]

I've spent a lot of time going back and forth on this issue. When I first started a few years ago, I was adamant that I'd only work in niches that I was passionate about. Then later on I became disillusioned with my progress, and decided to chase the money, regardless of whether I liked the niche or not. I made money, but was miserable and felt like I wasn't being true to my real values. These days I've come back to focusing only on a few niches I really care about, and am both happier and doing better than ever.

There's no right answer, & I do think it's a personality thing, since it's obviously possible to make money in niches you're not really interested in. But for me personally - I realised that life's just too short. I don't want to spend years working for money and only fully focus on my passions when I've made enough to stop working. I could be dead by then! To me, enjoying the journey is just as important as reaching the destination, and I don't enjoy marketing and business enough for them to be ends in themselves - I need to like the topic I'm researching, writing about and promoting too.

I haven't found that making my passion into a business is negatively affecting my enthusiasm for it, although I was wary of that happening in the beginning, and can totally understand how it could be a problem for others. I'm also lucky in that my passion is shared by many other people, and they spend money on it - it would be a different story if there wasn't a market for it. But as it is, I'm continuing to expand and develop my own knowledge in this area that I love, while getting paid to do so. Plus going this route means I enjoy what I'm doing each day, and it doesn't feel like work - and that's priceless.

[butters]

For me, if I am to go into a niche I would go with number 2, its means I am completely un bias to the niche and if it works, it works, if it fails I can let it go and move on. Thats my feelings anyway.

[VilPietersen@]

I thought I'd just drop my thoughts in on this already populated post. I think it's not necessarily the passion you have for the niche that will make you sucessful, it's more the passion you have for the work you put into the niche.

Imagine you started promoting two projects at the same time, and you had limited interest in both niches. If you started making more money in one of the niches, you would definately be more "passionate" about spending more time working on that niche.

I don't think it's the niche that you have to be passionate about, I think it's the potential income from the niche that should concern us!!

[scrofford]

I don't think you need to be passionate about your niche necessarily. For instance, I used to be a salesman for various things. A lot of the things I sold I didn't necessarily have a passion about but I did well. The key was that I had a passion for sales itself. I love to sell!

So I think you need to have a passion about IM itself and then it won't matter what niche you are in. In fact I am starting to work in a niche that isn't really a "passion" for me. Yes it interests me, but I am not going "bonkers" over it. I know though I will do well because of my passion for IM.

That's my 2 cents worth.

[whawk57]

How about enjoying life while you work? To have a purpose? Passion? There must be passion somewhere, either if its the money or the topic or both.