Making an Income Online is Simple! So What Phase Are You Stuck At?

Over the last 15 years the Internet has changed the world. From the way we shop, the way we communicate, the way we interact and even the way we earn an income and this is just the beginning.

As more and more people open their eyes to the potential of the internet and its opportunities, I fear many will misunderstand how to embrace it and hence spend their time and hard earned cash in a state of permanent education, chasing pennies and never really earning the income they real seek.

I wanted to share a simple framework to help you stay focused when venturing into the online world and creating a new income stream. This has helped me go from a scattered brained opportunity seeker to a focused online marketer that can actually help others and get paid for it.

Step 1. Treat An Online Business As A Business NOT a Hobby or PipeDream
When i started in the online world, I chose to start my journey offering web design services. It was something I could control and it was a great hybrid business model that helped me transition from the offline world (J.O.B), to the full time 100% online income world. I did, however make a big mistake when I began. I treated my online business as a hobby and assumed it was a nice filler income until the REAL opportunity came along. WHAT a BIG MISTAKE! The fact that I could make money by offering online services like web design, was a REAL BUSINESS not just an occasional freelancing gig or a hobby. Once I started treating it like a business and giving it priority, it started to succeed.

TAKEAWAY 1.
When you start an online business, start it as if you were starting an offline business in which you had invested a large amount of money. This will make you take it seriously and respect your decision.


Step 2. CHOOSE YOUR BUSINESS MODEL
Most people come across internet marketing or online business or phrases like make money online, and are sold by the idea of earning cash whilst sitting at home in their pyjamas. Whilst how you dress while you operate your online business from home, may not have a direct impact on your income, choosing the wrong business model for you, will definitely leave you feeling unhappy and frustrated.

There are so many ways to earn an income online, in fact too many, that most newcomers can sometimes quickly get overwhelmed and left paralysed and incapable of choosing the best way to move forward.

Let me shed some light on this for you.

If you are new to earning an income online, you need to evaluate the different ways of earning an income online and choose which one best suits your experience, the amount of time your have to commit to your new online business and whether you want to offer a service (e.g. web design) or product (information based product or physical products) or whether you just want to earn an income by recommending other peoples products or services (a.k.a. affiliate marketing). Do you enjoy writing, perhaps you want to start a blog. Maybe you love video and want to start vlogging (video blogging)

For me, I chose offering web design as a service. Although its not by definition a purely online income, it gave me the opportunity to get paid for building websites for local businesses. As i built websites, my experience and knowledge of online marketing and online income streams grew and I made money. It was the right opportunity for me, at that time, as I had little experience, and time to learn how to build websites and get local clients.

Now my favourite online business model is offering group coaching programs.
You’re may be affiliate marketing, list building, setting up an amazon store or shopify store, providing online services to local businesses, writing kindle books, web design, web development, CPA marketing, creating PLR products etc…

TAKEAWAY 2.
There are so many choices. You need to choose which Online Income Business Model is right for you RIGHT NOW, with your current skill set (you can always change this later, but pick one to start).


Step 3. LEARN, IMPLEMENT, EVALUATE
Starting any new business will involve learning new skills and this is so true of online marketing. The many skills needs to build an online business are rarely taught in offline educational institutions. The most important thing to realise is that LEARNING itself is NOT enough. Spending days, weeks, months reading blogs, buying and going through courses, getting a coach or mentor and talking with them, is NOT going to get people to pay you.

The Skill you need to develop is the skill of IMPLEMENTATION. Often referred to as taking action. I think the phrase taking action is over used and in fact when I started I used to want to punch the next person who’s vague advise would be just take action.

I prefer Implementation. Its about taking what you have researched, learned and implementing those ideas, strategies, techniques into your business.

e.g. lets say you read up on how to write a great blog post, well until you implement that and start writing, that knowledge does NOT actually help anyone and definitely doesn’t help grow your online business.

Now once you implement, be READY for things to NOT work out as the expectations you may have set after reading other peoples blogs or courses. Just because someone else wrote a blog post and got 1000 visitors in one day, doesn’t mean you will. There will be more behind the scenes.

Be ready to Evaluate the outcome of your Implementation and make changes to move forward.
e.g. let’s say the blog post you wrote didn’t get the number of views you expected, that doesn’t mean STOP writing, that means, try to figure out WHY?

Is the content NOT relevant or important to your audience?
Perhaps you don’t have an audience, then maybe you need to take steps towards getting one, by offering you advice on other peoples blogs (guest posting etc…)

Your online business will be a constantly shifting from phased of LEARNING, IMPLEMENTING and EVALUATING, especially when you start. This will always be the case to a certain level, as new technologies emerge and better ways of reaching and helping your audience are uncovered.

TAKEAWAY 3.
Always be Learning, Implementing and Evaluating.


Step 4. YOUR AUDIENCE WANT RESULTS NOT A KNOW IT ALL!
This is something i struggled with for years and I know many others do.

Ever have that feeling of not being good enough, not knowing anything unique or that you need to know more before you can start teaching and helping others etc…

Well, its all B.S. and let me tell you why.

If you want to get a Phd and know everything there is to know about a subject, then thats a choice you make.

If on the other hand you want to help people with their problems and get them real outcomes and get paid for doing that, that’s also a choice and for this you don’t need to know everything about a subject.

You only need to know enough to help people create that outcome.

You’ll never get a future client or student that says “Hey, can you teach me everything there is to know about this subject, I have the next 3 years free”.

More likely you’ll they’ll say “I need to achieve this result, in the fastest time possible with the least amount of time require to learn the process”

The goal is to get your students or clients the outcome in the LEAST steps possible.
And that does NOT mean you need to become a Phd expert in a subject.

YOU JUST NEED TO KNOW ENOUGH TO HELP YOUR AUDIENCE ACHIEVE THE RESULT YOUR ARE PROMISING.

Hopefully, this tip here will save you years of your life learning, studying and feeling NOT ready to help people.

e.g. You don’t need to know everything about online marketing to help someone build a website. You only need to know the basics like domain names, hosting, wordpress etc.. you don’t need to know about video marketing, email marketing, podcasting etc..

TAKEAWAY 4.
Focus on learning processes to get results, NOT just learning everything for the sake of it.


Step 5. NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS
We all have dreams. We see others living their dreams everyday, in the news, in our newsfeed, in our inboxes etc…

Now it’s your turn.

You live your dreams, you need to figure out what they are. You need to sit down and write down what income you’ll need financially to fulfil your dream lifestyle, and then find an online business model to help you.

The path to making your dreams come true, is not simple nor straight. There will be obstacles, BUT none that’s others have not already overcome.

Learn from others who have overcome the obstacles you face.
Learn the new skills needed to earn an income online.
Learn to provide value first and be transparent.

The only thing standing between you and your dreams is your willingness to do whatever it takes to make them real.

TAKEAWAY 5.
Only you can make your dreams real and Only you can give up on them. Whichever you choose, remember it was a choice and you made it! I hope you go after your dreams!


I hope this small framework helps you get started with your online business, and also helps those that have been struggling for a while, jumping from one opportunity to the next.

Please share what stage you’re stuck at and let’s get you moving forward.