Wannabes are out there on the web, trying to mimic what the big guys are doing. Unless you have the right mindset and resources, doing so waste your time and resources. In another case, you probably have found a new concept of social media that could boom your site, exceeding Twitter.
In respond to the two above – my words of wisdom early in this article: Aiming for the stars are great, but keeping yourself grounded and be realistic is what succeeds you, eventually.
“Becoming the next Facebook” is a somewhat common vision when newbies enter online business and make money online arena.
But through the years of my full-time endeavour in making money online, I learn the cold, hard truth – Aiming to be the next Facebook or Twitter or whatever proves to waste you huge resources. Let alone making money, you waste your years in webpreneurship to pursue something that is (close to) a fad.
Do you want to be the next Facebook? The truth is, it is NOT that profitable, and without investors’ money, it goes nowhere, in my humble opinion. Twitter has a better chance to make something out, but the owners are keeping it non-monetised, so far.
Those are great strategies, but unfortunately, doing so require your sites to be backed up by strong financing and run by plenty of smart people – something that, say, 90% of us don’t have the privilege and opportunity to do so.
Should we forget making money online?
NO! That would be stupid!
Making money online can leads you to tremendous wealth, if you do it right. One of the important keys is: be realistic.
Of course, being realistic is different from being pessimistic. I agree to what Robert Kiyosaki (of Rich Dad Poor Dad) has said – Instead of saying, “I can’t buy that,” we should say “How can I buy that?” – Go-getter attitude and positive mindset is important, indeed.
However, pursuing your dream with reckless abandon is not recommended. It is ideal for you to have a systematic, milestone-driven, wealth building and business growing strategy that can lead you to better chance to succeed. This is also taught by Robert Kiyosaki, but people seem to put emphasise on going all-out into entrepreneurship and business ownership, instead of systematic approaches Robert has taught to get you out of the rat race (a.k.a. your job.)
Please translate the above into actionable plan – it’s confusing!
Okay – let us cut the chase of all obscurity, and focus on the all-important how-to.
What I’m trying to say above is this: Instead of building something big with unknown ways to make money unless some other bigger guys – such as Google – acquire your online business, you should aim to build profitable sites, not potential sites.
I don’t like the word “potential” – It’s unknown, and everything unknown is risky. I like the word “proven” better. Instead of pursuing a site that has a potential to succeed, I prefer pursuing a site with proven success.
I like to build or acquire online businesses, blogs or websites that are proven – They are proven money makers or in a niche that can make you money in less effort, especially via CPC (cost-per-click) ad income (such as Google AdSense) and CPA (cost-per-action) ad income (such as Amazon.)
Owning a couple of sites that can bring me thousands of dollar every month – passive – is a great milestone to pursue, instead of building the next Facebook or Twitter. I’m not achieving this, yet, but I do know this is achievable – One of my clients has done it (he makes more than $10,000 of monthly passive income.)
How to find such niches or business opportunities? You should watch for trends that have long business cycle. How to do this?
Simple – In my case, I visit online marketplaces, such as Flippa.com for website flipping and eBay.com for general purpose, sit down, take your time and observe.
Sooner or later, you will see a pattern and trends. If you are into website flipping as I do, you can even learn how to set up profitable business by looking at the listing – the website owners are generously offering a hint of how to make their websites successful.
Next action plan – observe, imitate, and modify.
Congratulations! You are on your way of discovering a great wealth online – without being the next Facebook or Twitter.
Any thoughts to share? If so, please share yours by commenting on this article.
Ivan Widjaya
Die-hard Webpreneur
Image by nigelpepper.