Who thinks that freelancing is not the best way to succeed online?

It doesn't really matter.

If one type of work - whether article writing, product ceation or SEO- helped one reach his/hers goals then I would consider them as somebody who has succeeded. Wouldn't you?

Some people can offer unique services and charge $497, others can offer unique products and charge $497. At the end of the day, that $497 is still $497, it doesn't matter how it was made.

Well I think in my own opinion that the future always requires sustainability and that to me comes with having your own actual business / company

If you want quick cash it's obviously easier to freelance.

If you need money quickly, it is best to freelance, but if you are looking for longterm passive income, you will probably want to build your business doing other things.

Ideally, you should have two different setups at once....Working on your immediate cash flow (freelancing/offline marketing) and your recurring/long-term cash flow (affiliate marketing).

You will hear many people say, "Focus on ONE thing!". I say always be working on two things every day so that you can have money coming in for both short and long term.....It does take some sacrificing of time but really we all can do it....Whether it means giving up the reality TV shows or checking our favorite celebrity's tweets!

When I decide to respond to one of the hundreds of daily posts asking how to make money TODAY because of some random emergency, I always tell people to freelance. It's a lot easier to freelance than it is to get a "real" job, and freelancing pays a lore more quickly than a real job or building your own army of products or niche sites.

My second piece of advice, though, is to reserve an hour or two per day to work on your army. If niche sites are your thing, take the first two hours of the day or the last two and focus on yourself. Do kw research, write articles for your own site(s), do your own backlinking, etc. Spend the rest of your designated working time freelancing. In conducting your workday like this, you not only can get paid today for work done today, but you are putting yourself one step closer to a passive income that will sustain you and allow for more opportunities down the road.

-- j

testing... I just wrote a response but it hasn't appeared...

This really isn't a matter of either this or that as much as both this and that. Starting out it may be easier to make money fast doing freelance work while you build up a platform to provide long term passive income. However, even the big guns will do some freelance work now and then, they'll just charge a whole lot more for it. Some people want a service because the service itself is what they are after but some people want a service from a big name player because the big name is what they are after.

ok... I've responded twice now with a quote from a previous post and
neither have appeared... guess I'll try to be helpful later...

I agree that it doesn't matter what we think or what any majority thinks.

It only matters what the skills and goals of the particular person are and how they then best feel they can make money online.

I finally found list building to be something that worked for me so I mention that a lot but I know that isn't the "thing" for everyone.

And even I am now venturing into some other methods just to check them out a bit.

This question is as you said going to be answered solely on opinions. I will give you my own opinion. There are far more lucrative ways to make money online rather than freelancing. Having said that, many people are great freelances and make a great living doing it. I did a lot of freelance work to fund my marketing ventures.

Freelancing is more stable BUT it has a ceiling as to what you can make. There are only so many hours in a day and if you charge 100 dollars an hour ( or if you can only do one $100 project in one hour ) , then the most you can ever make is $2400 a day...BOTH have pluses and minuses so do what works for YOU because there are no right or wrong answers!

I feel that anything you do online that you make money is good to do. I also realize that you want to read everything that is new online but use your internal compass and steer at the direction you 'feel' good about.

Anything produces fearful and anxious are not for you. Work should be fun and exciting and gives you hopes. That is why I suppose making money online is so irresistible to all of us. It provides somewhat hopeful feelings that yes one day we can sit back and relax and feel safe and secure.

Having been there myself the work at the ranch is never really finished. But do we really want to retire after the first big sale? I suppose not ... But you know what family is so very important also. Take time out and enjoy your family as well.

GREAT! Thanks to everyone who gave their 2 cents on this thread. I got the exact answer that I wanted: BOTH.

Benefits of:
Freelancing: quicker money. the great feeling of earning your money. gets you started in building your cashflow to conquer other methods. great for networking. always a fall-back plan whenever in need of immediate cashflow. etc etc etc etc

Other: Passive income! Not overnight....a little while down the road. And in the meantime, you're paying your bills and enjoying life with your freelancing income. Then, when the passive income streams really kick in, you have really succeeded!

In conclusion, to all of your Warriors starting out, start freelancing ASAP! Also dedicate a couple of hours each day for your other income streams!

That's what I did and I can honestly say that life has been very good over the last 2 years!!!

Thanks again everyone!

i think its depend of your demand.if you need a short time money you can obviously work in freelancer.but you need a long time income you should go for a business.

There is a difference between an online freelancer and an online entrepreneur.

An online freelancer get's paid by hours or work done.. basically, he get's no residual income. He offer his services for a certain rate.

Where on the other hand, the online entrepreneur makes money through services, products, coaching, and systems which in some cases leads to residual income.

Define "best."

Freelancing is the easiest, cheapest, and fastest way to start making money online. You can, in fact, keep doing it forever. There's nothing wrong with that. Plenty of people make plenty of money that way.

But at its heart, freelancing is still trading time for money, and you only have so much time. If you can work 40 hours a week, and you want to make $5,000 a week, then you do the math and see that you'll need to make $125 an hour.

Or, more accurately, that you have to sell 40 hours of your time at $125 each. As the number goes higher, it becomes a harder sell, and selling 40 hours becomes more difficult.

So you get to a point where you can only sell 20 hours, which means you need to double your rates. And that reduces things even more, which means you need to raise them again. And ultimately, your time is only worth so much to other people.

Which eventually makes it logistically impossible for you to make any more money than you already do.

Don't take that as me saying "freelancing is stupid," though. There's a whole lot of space under that curve. If you only need to make $800 a week, then you only need to make $20 an hour, and if you're productive and reliable enough - you can make that pretty easily.

But let's shift gears to the Slacker Nation that is modern America.

If you want to get rich without doing a lot of work, then there are a whole slew of ways you can build up a passive, residual income that doesn't rely on your time. And there's no top end on these - you can keep building them forever. You can drive yourself to the point that you make $5,000 a day.

There's no reason you can't, and I know a number of people who do. I know even more people who make $5,000 some days, but not all - just five to ten times a month. Which, if you don't make that kind of money (I sure as hell don't), just makes you want to slap them.

Which leads to the reality check.

Those methods don't work overnight. They take time to get running, and until they are, you'll make nearly nothing. As opposed to freelancing, which generally drops about as much money in your lap on day one that it's going to keep dropping there until you change your rates.

And no matter who you are, you're going to have a preference. I don't like freelancing. In fact, I hate it. But it's not because freelancing is bad, it's just because I have an opinion, and opinions are like elbows.

There are tradeoffs. Whichever ones you like, you're going to say make for the "best" choice. But that's for you. The other guy might not be in the same boat you are, or even on the same river. Let that guy make his own decisions, instead of arguing that your decisions were right. No decision is right for everyone. Simply lay out the reasons you made yours, and let other people decide for themselves.

Personally I would advise anyone who wanted to start out making money online to start off with freelancing in some way or another as it enables you start making cash pretty much from the word go.

If you are looking for a way to escape your boss and quit your day job then freelancing is the way to go as you can build it up in your free time and move into full time when you have built up a good rep and contacts online.

Yes you are still working - however if you are offering a worthwhile service you will definitely make money. The reason I think its a great place to start is because it offers an instant light at the end of the tunnel - granted it can be hard going but if you are using a reputable site to get a majority of your clients you are assured of payment.

Where I feel a lot of people go wrong with the online business model is that they are trying to make a full time living out of set and forget systems that are intended to an addition to an existing income stream not a complete replacement.

There are many excellent systems that do provide solid results , however there is a learning curve involved. One of the most important learning curves when attempting to build residual income streams is learning to be patient. Patience is something a lot of people lack and those that lack it fail.

Freelancing is a great way to make money, but as you all may accept that is only for those who has the self discipline of taking accountability and work on their own. I had stories of failures of people trying to freelance without having this one quality.

For me, Freelancing is a great way to generate some start up cash. I can't do Freelancing for a long time.

I have outsourced my work quite a bit last time to freelancers but now I do everything myself. Freelancing is good and it save lots of your time (more suitable for short term biz) but ultimately, you want to build your own team of trustworthy people. So many irresponsible freelancers out there that will delay your project etc.

Best is find a few reliable people and team up with them - long term business!

Don't get confused with the things happening. Everyone's opinion here are based on their experienced. Some may not succeed and some succeeded in freelancing. So, we can't really tell if it's good or not. Let's just based it according to what and how encountered it.

The main thing that comes into play is what type of income you are looking for, and the kind of time you are willing to invest to get that income. Providing services is of course constant work, but you are pretty much guaranteed payment for whatever work you do, whereas internet marketing does not guarantee returns, but if you do manage to set something up, it is possible that you will get returns on your initial investment for a long period of time.

I am of the view that freelancing is the EASIER way to succeed online, but the level of success you can achieve is limited. Internet marketing, in one form or the other, has much broader horizons, but reaching near those horizons is something not everyone has managed to do.