The Surprising Truth About Making Money Online: It’s Boring.

Who would have guessed that doing the same thing over and over again would be monotonous?

Introduction

People make a few $100 there and a few $1000 there…

It seems like everyone is making passive income somehow, somewhere. You wonder if maybe you’re doing something wrong, because you’ve been working at it for a long time and you haven’t had those results yet.

You’re starting to question if passive income is a scam….

Passive income is not a scam, but it might be a scam as you imagine it.

So before you jump all over me, please read this article. It is possible to make money online, but not in the way you might think it works. It probably works quite differently. Or it might not. We will see…

One thing you should know anyway: It’s far easier to explain to someone how to make money online than to just do it yourself. That’s why so many try to explain it to you instead of just doing it. If they were already profitable enough, they wouldn’t have to sell you a course. So why not add another few $100s to your own bank account by selling others how to make money online? A viable thought…

How you think it is

1. Write 100 articles a month. Make money from the Medium Partner Program.
2. Upload videos on Youtube consistently. Make money through advertisement.
3. Create more and more content to drive traffic to your “offer”. Make money by selling a product on gumroad.
4. Dropshipping, Amazon FBA, Kindle Direct Publishing, etc.

These are just a few possibilities that are proposed again and again. Of course they “work”, but what does that actually mean? Has one made it if one earns several $100 per month? Or a thousand? How much is enough?

How it might be instead…

Starting a business and selling how to make money online schemes to others for couples hundreds and thousands per month. Selling even more high ticket coaching programs for a couple of thousands of dollars per month…

You already thought that. You just have to sell people how to make money online in order to make money online. You do that over and over again and eventually you get fed up.

How it actually is!

And now comes the crux. No one knows what your favourite way to “making money online” really is. All these possibilities are just that: possibilities.

They don’t tell you the one right way, because there isn’t one. Pick one. That is the right way. Sometimes things don’t turn out the way you think and you make more money in a different way instead. Life works in mysterious ways…

This is what happened in my life, for example: I wrote a book first. Then another. I actually earned a few hundred dollars with them. You can’t live on that, but it’s a nice pocket money. At some point, however, I earned little to nothing from them.

But that didn’t bother me.

I kept writing books, even more and more. Did I earn more as a result?
Well, not directly. But when I was applying for jobs, people noticed that I had written books. People have seen that as something incredible. Mind you, I published books, not courses. The sheer amount of books I have written and published seemed unbelievable for many.

I got very good job offers too…

Don’t kill your 9-to-5 yet

Instead of constantly trying to escape your job, maybe you want a job that excites you and brings you joy instead? For a long time I kept trying to do something to escape the 9-to-5. Eventually, I focused on learning more and making my job as enjoyable as possible.

So if you would just take the time you put into your personal projects and put it into further education, you might even get a job that’s better than what you’re doing right now. I don’t want to say that you should live only for your job, but that you can definitely use the leverage there more easily:

Increasing the turnover of an existing business by just 1% is probably easier than building a new business from scratch.

And if you can do that, then you can also charge a higher salary. You can get more out of it. Or find a better job that pays more for the same effort. I think it’s easier than trying to create an online business over and over again, get clients, then take care of them too. I’d rather focus on one small aspect — my job — get really good at it and get paid accordingly.

I don’t want to say that passive income is pointless.

In fact, it makes a lot of sense pursuing it.

But not out of desperation for making more money…

Is passive income a scam?

Passive income is not a scam or a lie.

However, it’s not something worth pursuing full time in my honest opinion — which would not make it „passive income“ anymore anyway. Many of those things proposed by „online Gurus“ are just not profitable enough anymore.

But what will always be profitable is to sell you something that will help you make money online!

Therefore, passive income is not a scam. But it seems to be mainly about telling others how to do it. So it’s a kind of pyramid scheme. You can earn a lot with it if you get others on board by explaining to them how they can also earn a lot with it. If you want to do it, and feel good about it, then do it.

But know that there are other ways too. While you may earn a lot of money in self-employment, you will very often work alone. You don’t have a big team to work and share ideas with. That’s something I’ve learned to value over the last decade… Instead, you will probably spend a lot of money to exchange ideas with other entrepreneurs in so called Masterminds and Summits.

Is that what you want?

There won’t be very innovative and technological products that you sell, because you most probably can’t create them on your own. You most probably won’t part of a big project with a great team consisting of many intelligent individuals and having access to the latest technologies.

You will sell courses and make money.

That’s it.

For me, that’s a pretty miserable existence and gives less joy than a 9-to-5 with meaning. Because if self-employment is only about how much money you make from your courses, then the meaning and the joy goes out with it. You can tell yourself as many times as you like that it’s interesting. But if you have a bit more gumption, then “selling courses” just gets boring after a while…

Of course it’s more interesting than flipping burgers at McDonald’s, but that doesn’t have to be your last job . That’s how I started too, but at some point you learn more and move on. And then you get in touch with new technologies and then it gets really exciting! But if the thought of learning more about new and innovative technologies does not excite you then of course, don’t pursue a 9-to-5. You can sell courses instead.

Conclusion

Passive income or making money online is not a scam. If you are a simple person, content with just getting money and living on it, then please by all means, sell courses. Many people have done it and you can do it too. It’s not hard, it just takes time and effort.

If, however, you want to pursue a life of intellectual curiosity, work together with intellectuals and people who have too accomplished great things, then maybe you want to focus a little bit more effort into getting to work with the companies you want. New technologies will continue to arise and will continue to fascinate people for years to come.

Your choice.

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