The Downsides/Negative Aspects of Online Businesses

To me personally the Advantages far outweigh those perceived disadvantages...

For starters I don't really care what other people think about what I do...

If they don't "get it" its their loss in my opinion.

If you are successful let them stereotype all they like!

You may need to spend time in front of a screen and do exhaustive things like taxes.....but you are doing them for yourself and your business, and to me that is a better proposition than doing it for some bald fat guy sitting in a BMW...

Regards

Chris

If you work from home, as a boss and earn more than others in the family/neighborhood then they will always be jealous, not the other way around.

This is a little bit off the original question and off topic......

I think that the biggest downside to an online business from a newbies point of view is that even though there are systems out there that work, people always like to put their ego in front and think they know everything.

That was the case for me years ago. One day I decided to put my ego on the side and take all the necessary actions that my mentor has taught me. When that happened, I started earning an OK income online.

Another downside is that there are people all around you that will laugh at you for trying to make it online. They keep telling you what society has been telling us for decades and that is to get a real job.

It is pretty hard to build your business when this is going on in your life every single day.

Another downside is that everyone will have setbacks in their biz. Far too many people are not able to take the "punches" and keep going.

If you enjoy your work to begin with, You will never have to work a day in your life Also if you do get overwhelmed, you can always outsource the parts you don't like the most, or feel are your weak points.

Stick to the basics. People in general make internet marketing a lot more complicated then needs to be.

Also when you come up against a new challenge. Always have a positive outlook as a new learning process, to help grow your business

Yes you do overwork, but you would do so if you had a brick and mortar biz as well. At least with your internet business you don't have to commute!

But hey, most of your tasks can be outsourced and most of the work can be automated. So with time you will focus on this and you'll spend time on what matters and on what you like!

All businesses are the same! You need to work harder first, then when you have enough resources you get employees or you outsource and your life gets easier.

Nobody should complain about this. That's how it works and I'm happy with it.
Those who complainare not made for this and don't know what they want. Everything has a price!

This is not personnal, just my vision and experiences with people!

All the best!

With lots of targeted traffic + a good offer... = you will make money.

Doesn't matter the year or the trends.

Advantage: Not having a boss.

Disadvantage: Not having a boss.

All the best,
Michael

I really think that the downside of the online business is the matter of sustainability. You may be able to find quick, easy income source through the internet but if you don't know what you are doing, those income source can crash as fast as they rise.

Yes, I've experienced that, too. I think it's partly because, on some level, I don't really appreciate that it is "work", perhaps just because it's "at home". But I've never had a "proper job".

I haven't found that, but there've certainly been many times that I've regularly worked as many hours as someone with an "office job", albeit without their extra traveling time.

I'm not sure I believe in them, really, in our typical contexts.

Over the last 4 years, those have always been a major help to article marketers, actually. The 2011 Panda updates assisted us enormously, by enabling us to attract the potential customer traffic to our own sites, and only the potential publisher traffic to other people's sites. And the Penguin update assisted us again, by removing from the SERP's so many of the competing sites which were so dependent on SEO traffic that they'd resorted to spammy/mass/automated backlinking.

Well, I look at those as things to be taken advantage of, really.

I tend not to need, or use, those. My perspective may be a biased one but it seems to me, as an affiliate marketer, that many of those are connected with SEO, which has always been my worst-converting traffic, even when I get tons of it, so it's not something I'd want to spend too much of my time thinking about. :p

I can't compare 2003 with 2007 like you (I wasn't even really online much until 2008). My 4-year period to compare would be 2009 to 2012. My feeling - and that of many of the other article marketers here, it seems - is that during that period it's gradually improved, expanded and become a little easier, so from my perspective I tend to see more upsides and positive aspects of online business than the downsides and negative aspects you wanted to discuss. And I guess I'd better stop there, so nobody imagines I'm hijacking. I was "just saying".

The isolation.

Personally I enjoy what I do and I'm not much of an opinionated person so I don't too much get caught up with what others think of my profession.

There disadvantages to anything you do in like that doesn't mean their not worth doing. If you're a sports star the disadvantages are aggravated joints and injures but the advantages are millions and it's very likely you love what you're doing for a living. In closing I think if the disadvantages are outweighing the advantages to you then sometimes its realistic to choose another niche or another profession.

Kind Regards

Its a time thief. Each minute is a minute wasted in front of a computer instead of people.

In 2003 there were also a lot less people to market to online and a lot less opportunities to market to those people.

For every negative there is a positive. Sure, there are more things one needs to think about nowadays but there are a hell of a lot more opportunities also.

the only downside that I consider from online business (at home) is that i'm no longer interested with applying for jobs in line with my profession... - I mean the degree that I finished.. hahaha

As a natural introvert and social recluse (rofl) I don't find the lack of social interaction to be a problem.

One of the biggest problems however is the lack of a guarantee.

In business and for the small entrepreneur, there is no guarantee.

Granted now adays in our world economy; there are no guarantees anywhere.

Translation; now is the best time to have a small business.