The reality of today’s world is that we’re all dependent on each other. This is truer than ever, in spite of the fact that a lot of people are able to survive and get rich all on their own. You don’t want to be dependent on other people if you’re involved in making money online. When you’re making money online, you want to be as free as possible. This isn’t just for status or cool points. You want your online business to be free of disruptions. You see, the whole point of being an entrepreneur is so that you have control over your own time and money. With a job, you’re a slave to a boss. Online, the danger is becoming a slave to a platform, or perhaps an affiliate program.
Platforms can ban you at any time
This is true even of the ones that pay you. They have total discretion. If you don’t own your own site, you don’t own your own content. That’s the reality of the situation. The platforms don’t care one bit about you. They don’t care about their advertisers either, as long as those people keep buying ads. What large social media platforms care about is hosting content in the cheapest and easiest way. This means they’re going to be quick to ban people, and that it’s going to be difficult, if not impossible to get in touch with a real human. This is not what you want or need if you’re creating hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of value.
Host your own content
Even if you have a YouTube Channel, I think you should host your own content. This is because you can earn money from display ads if you upload videos. If you’re worried about YouTube penalizing duplicate videos, just embed them instead of reuploading them. If you have a blog, run your own website. Don’t allow yourself to be censored by a platform like Medium. Host your own content, so that you have power over when and whether it gets taken down.
Get a lot of traffic from multiple sources, or maintain two online businesses
Don’t put all your eggs into one basket. If you want to make it in the world of making money online, you should have multiple companies or professions. This blog is my project for now, but I will definitely be running a side-business once I grow it to a certain size. It’s all about diversification and being realistic. My goal is to be well off and safe, not rich.
Get as much traffic as possible
You want to build as large a traffic funnel as possible. This holds true as long as that traffic funnel is meaningful. The larger you are, the less of an effect the actions of any platform have on you and your business. People will remember you and look for you. This is why social media stars are able to hop from platform to platform. People know them, remember them, and look for them. This makes for a fantastic life in some ways. Provided they aren’t boring, these people are able to make money simply by hopping online and talking. This is a big deal in a world where everyone is dependent on an employer.
Create and sell your own products
Selling your own stuff is the key to making money online. If you aren’t doing that, you’re missing out on using your audience properly. If you aren’t creating and selling your own products as a digital entrepreneur, you had better be driving a crap load of traffic and really making your mark. Digital advertising royalties are dependent on brands liking you. They are dependent on brands staying afloat. Build your own brand and you’ll quickly find yourself getting ahead. You’ll also learn more skills, which leads me to my final point.
Don’t make affiliate marketing your only business strategy
This should be pretty obvious, but the rise of affiliate blogs has made it popular for people to try and affiliate market. This can work if you have a very large company, where funds can be reinvested in order to pivot. But if your business is smaller, you want to sell your own products too. You don’t want to only be a marketer. There’s little equity in only being a marketer.
Be multi talented
If you’re multi-talented, you’re much more likely to succeed. Whether it’s through diversification, pivoting, or simply making yourself indispensable, you’re most likely to succeed at making money online if you’re multi-talented. If you can apply multiple skills well enough to make money, you’re going to win. Being multi-talented makes it such that you don’t need to depend on any given player or set of players in order to make your living.
Being independent is one of the greatest blessings someone can ask for in this world. While we do need others in our lives, it’s important to be able to stand on your own. This can be very hard, depending on how old you are and what kind of position you’re starting in. But you can make some money online, and you can do it without overreliance on others. Just follow the guidelines above, and you should have a business that is very hard, if not impossible to control or shut down.
Thanks for paying attention.
