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Can you really build a business on AUTOPILOT?

by JennSpencerIM
12 replies
Can you really build a business on AUTOPILOT or is that just an overused phrase in the IM industry? Your thoughts?

My hubby and I disagree on this! I think you can put a lot of work into building a site and then sit back and let it cruise for some time without doing more work on it (besides fulfilling orders, sending emails). But he disagrees with saying that is actually AUTOPILOT.

I still get sales from affiliate products I promoted YEARS ago and don't even know how people are still finding my links. Isn't that autopilot?
#autopilot #build #business
  • Profile picture of the author lisaann
    I call that autopilot. But you do have to put the work in at the beginning. So I wouldn't say you can "build a business on autopilot".

    But you can build a business and then let it run on autopilot, earning you money even after you stop working on it. You just have to build the right type of business and have systems in place.

    Lisa
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Take a look at what an autopilot really is...

      It's a mechanism that steers a vehicle along a predetermined course. That's it. Airliners use them. So do cruise ships. Both airliners and cruise ships also maintain highly trained crews to both program the autopilot and to monitor it should something go wrong.

      If you are the pilot or the captain, the ship runs on autopilot but it's hardly hands-free. If you're sitting in a corner office somewhere, you still have to monitor the people monitoring the autopilot. Still not hands-free.

      Which brings us to the question of whether or not you can really build a business on autopilot.

      I say no.

      I think you can use automation/outsourcing to run some phases of your business, but you have to provide some driving force to build up the business. Without that drive and direction, your autopilot business does a Payne Stewart and follows the program until it runs out of gas. At which time, your plane does a face plant in a cornfield somewhere.

      Jenn, you still get sales from promotions you did long ago. Are they consistent and/or predictable? Can you count on them? Can you muster them when you need them?

      No offense or disrespect intended, but I wouldn't call that a "business"...
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      • Profile picture of the author JennSpencerIM
        Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post


        Jenn, you still get sales from promotions you did long ago. Are they consistent and/or predictable? Can you count on them? Can you muster them when you need them?

        No offense or disrespect intended, but I wouldn't call that a "business"...
        Not from that one example, but I do have a website that makes me sales daily and consistently and I haven't done a single thing on it or for it for nearly 2 years. The only thing I do is send an email a week.

        So that's kind of what I'm wondering if there really is any true online business that you could say would be an autopilot income...I think you can build sites and let them earn you money but now you're having me question whether that is a business or not?

        I guess I just want to create stuff now that can make me money ongoing with little work...like I've been doing.
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        • Profile picture of the author jan roos
          I make auto pilot money with my Amazon sites. It took some hard work at first to get them up and running and ranking well on the serps but now I do nothing and they produce money on complete auto pilot. I don't have to deal with customer support emails or anything like that so yes, Auto pilot money is definitely possible.

          Jan
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          • Profile picture of the author Kev_K
            Personally I think our psyche won't let us run a business on autopilot. I think you absolutely need passive income streams as part of a successful business, but for the most part, complete, hands off, "on auto-pilot" is a myth in my opinion.

            A lot of it has to do with what autopilot means to you of course.
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        • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
          Originally Posted by JennSpencerIM View Post

          Not from that one example, but I do have a website that makes me sales daily and consistently and I haven't done a single thing on it or for it for nearly 2 years. The only thing I do is send an email a week.
          That single email per week is what takes you out of the "create it and walk away" realm. If you stopped sending that email every week, would you still make sales?

          Originally Posted by JennSpencerIM View Post

          So that's kind of what I'm wondering if there really is any true online business that you could say would be an autopilot income...I think you can build sites and let them earn you money but now you're having me question whether that is a business or not?
          No need to question whether you have a business or not. I just think there's a difference between structuring a business so that it requires very little direct sweat, and the "walk away and sip mojitos on the beach" idea that many try to sell.

          Maybe I'm getting hung up on the semantics of what an "autopilot" really is.

          Originally Posted by JennSpencerIM View Post

          I guess I just want to create stuff now that can make me money ongoing with little work...like I've been doing.
          More power to you. I'm all in favor of getting the results you desire with as little sweat as possible. Many of the advances that make life today what it is were made by lazy people seeking to get the best results with the least work. Without those people, we'd still be cooking our meals on a stick over a fire and beating our laundry on rocks.

          Keep on keeping on...
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  • Profile picture of the author JennSpencerIM
    Thanks for the responses...I just hate saying "passive income" since that's all i heard in the MLM world for so many years and I'm not a big fan of that industry. So I guess to me, autopilot is a fun way of saying passive income, which is what I'm trying to build, as I'm sure many of us are!
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    • Profile picture of the author myob
      Many of my blogs and review sites that I made are still pulling in Adsense and affiliate commissions after over eight years of neglect. That was before I did any tracking, and now I don't even know where the money is coming from. Does that count as a business on autopilot?
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    • Profile picture of the author Dave Rodman
      Banned
      I agree that "Autopilot" is kinda overused. I think the word "leverage" is a little more appropriate because most it's more an initial investment of time/money will result in a larger payoff down the road.

      But yeah, if you got links like crazy 2 years ago and now all you do is fufill orders/answer emails, I wouldn't really call that autopilot. I'd call that momentum.

      But the closest thing I have to an "autopilot" site is a bunch of adsense sites I created a few years ago. I haven't touched them in over 2 years and they still bring in money. But I don't expect that to be the case in 2 years. ha.
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      • Profile picture of the author ypg
        No such thing. Got to keep working the sites because IM changes every week Example yahoo answers was the great solution for automated traffic to your money site...now no longer, Keep promoting and working the sites and you get amazing results
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        https://marketingtoolscoaching.com/
        https://conversionplus.co/
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  • Profile picture of the author matt5409
    there seems to be confusion here between a BUSINESS and a WEBSITE

    I believe that you can run a website on autopilot after the initial work is put in, but you cannot neglect the business as a whole for any length of time. you will always need to create NEW websites for when old ones drop off the radar, or what they promote becomes obselete.

    There will always be the need to keep your finger on the pulse, but i believe that with enough initial work you can produce something that gives results for some time without much ongoing effort.
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  • Profile picture of the author Wiggy0618
    I agree with others (especially John) are saying. If you're applying any work whatsoever to the site (building backlinks, sending out email, whatever), then it's not really 'autopilot'. And, IMO, even if you can do something like the mini-site model where you can research particular KW terms and get a site ranking well in google relatively easily, at some point, that site will lose its relative usefulness. Either the KWs the site / page is based around will eventually get more competition, or they will lose their importance (e.g. - doing a review site for a product model that goes obsolete.)

    Too many people (and Jenn, I'm not saying you're doing this - I'm just kinda saying in general) like to chase that 'passive income' dream, and in reality, that's all it is - just a dream. There's no such thing as 'passive income', IMO. The work and resources have to be put it - be it on the front-end, all along the way, on a per order basis, or whatever.

    Just b/c I woke up with order notifications in my in-box this AM and 'got paid while I slept' doesn't mean I didn't do a bunch of work yesterday that I received no direct compensation for. That income was *not* 'passive'.

    'Autopilot income' is another one of those kinda buzzwords, IMO.
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