Working Hard vs. Hardly Working

13 replies
I've seen plenty of posts where people say that if you don't work hard, you won't make money. I somewhat disagree with this statement because I have learned from personal experience that it's actually better to work smarter than harder. Let me explain.

When I first started out in this business, I was working my butt off. I would work long hours and I didn't really have that much to show for it. But I was determined to make things easier for myself, and make more money in the process. This is where the saying "Work Smarter, not Harder" hit me like a ton of bricks. I started talking to other affiliate friends who were doing the same type of work I was, but hardly working at all - they pretty much had their sites automated.

At first I thought I couldn't do that because of so many things I didn't know - programming (PHP, MySQL, etc), how to use datafeeds, etc. Slowly I started to do little things that set everything in motion.

I tried to learn more about datafeeds, and was discouraged to find out that my merchant's datafeeds didn't have all the information I needed for my site. So then I ran across a nice little program where I could create my own spider to gather the information I needed from my merchants site, and it would put the information into a table. But then I realized I didn't know how to program the darn thing...so I took the time to learn. Surprisingly it wasn't that hard. After a few weeks, and several emails back and forth to support, I was well on my way.

So now I have these little spiders set up that would gather my information for me. This saved me a TON of time of not having to actually go to the merchant site to get my data. This worked great for about a week - then as I added more products, I realized that I wouldn't be able to do this forever, because even though that part was automated, I still had to go in and manually update my site, which still took a lot of time.

So then I hired a programmer to help me out, and explained what I wanted to do. We took the table that my spiders created and compared it to another table that the programmer made for me that listed all my products. Basically it's a simple script that compares the tables, automatically makes the changes to my site, and emails me if anything was changed. I also have it setup so it doesn't automatically change everything in case one of my spiders messes up. I put this puppy in a cron job and it runs every hour, along with my spiders.

So now I sit back and enjoy life while my website takes care of itself. Now that it's automated, it's more up-to-date than I could physically do it myself and I'm also making a lot more money because I was able to add a lot more products.

This is why I say working smarter (a.k.a. hardly working) is better than working harder. I've done both, and working smarter makes me more money, and gives me more time to do whatever else I want. I do realize that there are times that you work hard, but it doesn't always have to be that way.
#hard #working
  • Profile picture of the author markfoo76
    I agree one has to work smart. But one also has to work hard to a stage where he/she can afford to hardly work. For the start, there's no such thing as just working smart. You have to also work hard in the beginning.

    "There's no substitute for hard work." - Thomas Edison

    Cheers~

    Mark
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    • Profile picture of the author Clint
      Originally Posted by markfoo76 View Post

      I agree one has to work smart. But one also has to work hard to a stage where he/she can afford to hardly work. For the start, there's no such thing as just working smart. You have to also work hard in the beginning.

      "There's no substitute for hard work." - Thomas Edison

      Cheers~

      Mark
      I totally agree with you "work smart" this is how you are going to win in life in the long run, Trust me.

      Work outside of the box and you will succeed.

      This is how I feel

      Clint S.
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  • Profile picture of the author TrustedOne
    Business is like a flywheel, lots of pushing at the start, then it takes on a momentum of it's own.
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  • Profile picture of the author undergroundguru
    well said TrustedOne .. Working hard eventually turns into Hardly working if you work smart.
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  • Profile picture of the author Louise Green
    Completely agree!

    Nobody sets out into this business with the intention of being a slave to their computer, for me it would beat the objective of working in this industry.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jack Chua
    I agree on working smarter than harder. At present things are being automated and being able to discover or have the privilege to learn those techniques will give you an edge.
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    • Profile picture of the author keddy1
      I agree partially.Its always important and essential to work smartly and wisely in business.but without putting in some hard work everything else cannot workout.hard work essentially does not mean giving in more time ,rather it means giving your best effort in every possible way.and no one can deny that showing smarter and wise tactful approach in business is mental hard hard work
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      • Profile picture of the author Marklouis
        Originally Posted by keddy1 View Post

        I agree partially.Its always important and essential to work smartly and wisely in business.but without putting in some hard work everything else cannot workout.hard work essentially does not mean giving in more time ,rather it means giving your best effort in every possible way.and no one can deny that showing smarter and wise tactful approach in business is mental hard hard work
        Well saying...
        Hard-work does'nt mean to sweat..It is the Effort you take to do a task most effectively..
        Nothing can replace Hard-work!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Charleskidd
    I agree, working smarter is better but I would advise you to look up market samurai. It will automate all this stuff you need to do for seo.
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  • Profile picture of the author pauljeaston
    Hard work is an essential. Start to push the ball uphill and when it starts to roll downhill on the other side of the mountain, you'll see an avalanche coming. That's when success is achieved. Success anyway is much sweeter with true effort.
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    • Profile picture of the author Lanadili
      Thanks for all the replies everyone. I guess my main point is that you don't have to work hard all day like some people suggest. There is always a smarter and easier way, you just have to find it. Of course this also varies on what people consider hard work, whether it's mentally or physically.

      The reason I don't call what I do "hard work" now is because I enjoy it, and it doesn't take much time at all vs. what it use to.

      Just last night I looked at a site of mine that I haven't touched in over 2 years...and the ideas started to flow on how I could make things easier for myself. Basically doing the same thing to this site as I did my first, yet I'll start off doing this site the easy way. So essentially I'll be putting in some "hard work" trying to figure out how I want it to look and automating it, but once that part is over, it's all about sitting back and enjoying the fruits of my labor.

      When I initially think of hard work, I think of a good friend of mine who works on a production line all day on her feet and unfortunately she doesn't make that much money considering all she has to do. I've been trying to get her into this business, showing her that it's not that hard, and the rewards that it can offer. I finally convinced her to help me with my next site by comparing how much she makes in one week vs. what I make in one day. Not to mention how many hours she has to work in that week vs. how many hours I work.

      So initially when I made my post, I had people like her in mind. Not to mention the ones that I've seen post saying you have to work 10+ hrs. a day to get anywhere in this business. I know personally you don't have to put in long hours to get the same results if you can just figure out a way to automate the tasks.
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  • Profile picture of the author lakishacopeland
    I agree with the post. People often confuse working hard with hardly working. If your activities does not bring you closer to reaching your goals, you are hardly working.

    It is funny because people spend more building someone else dreams, than they do working on their own dreams.
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  • Profile picture of the author mukti
    Work Hard but think smart. No point in working hard in the wrong things....
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