Nowadays, making money online is more of an art than it was a few years ago. In the past, you only needed to write an article, add a few affiliate links and get people to buy through those links. But gone are those days! As a result, most online business owners are struggling to make their first dollar online. And the irony is, in the midst of this, there are others who are succeeding online greatly.
So what makes the difference between those in both groups? Why are some making money online, while it has so far been impossible for others? The reasons actually exist at several levels. Here are the most likely ones!
Reasons why you’re not making money online
1. You may not be doing the work
A major difference between a new job and a new business – whether online or offline – is how they pay you. In a new job, you have a salary this is fixed in advance. Your pay is generally not proportional to the work you do, and it comes at the set time. And many ‘get away’ with that.
In a business, you generally get out what you put in consistently for a long time. Your effort with a new business is like filling a large container with water. The water will only begin to overflow and wet the ground around it after it has been emptied into the container for a long period.
In the case of a new online business, most people ignore that there is consistent hard work to do before beginning to reap the reward. They are either not doing the required work or not prepared to do it. But they expect to see themselves making money.
In most cases, those who are not getting financial results online are those who have not put in enough work to produce the results they desire. Their ‘work container’ is still far from getting full. And until it gets full, they will not experience any ‘overflowing’.
As a remedy to that, begin to put in the required work for a considerable period. Note, I said “required (i.e. hard) work over a considerable period”. That’s when you’ll begin to see some income online – in case you’ve not been doing that so far.
2. It could still be too early
You may have been putting in the hard work as required but still don’t see the result. In this case, the fault isn’t yours. Time is the issue. In order word, your online business is still young. It has not been around for a long time. When it business hasn’t been around for a long time, it is generally unknown.
It’s going to take some time for it to get known. From the online business point of view, for example, search engines may not have recognized you or given you the ranking it deserves. As such, you may not be getting sufficient traffic, whereas in the absence of traffic, you cannot talk about earning money. So from our analogy above, we can say the size of the online business container is what is causing the delay in you earning money online in this case. More has to be done to reach it to the point of overflowing.
Unfortunately, most people do not have the patience or resources to hold out. They have put in their best for a reasonable period, and wish to get returns immediately. And when they don’t see it, they turn to throw in the towel. But doing so never leads to your goals i.e. earning money!
The remedy in such a case is not to give up. You’re on the right path and taking the right step – in the right direction. Just keep on it. At some point – perhaps at a time when you’re not expecting – it’s going to land you at your desired destination.
3. Your strategy could be ineffective or inexistent
If your business has been around for a good while, and you have been doing what is required for a reasonable period, but still no sign of money coming in, then it may be time to reconsider your strategy. However:
Note: Only resort to this 3rd point after being very sure that the problem is not from one of the previous reasons or both. And this requires patience – patience to fully exhaust the previous possibilities.
Many wrongly changed their strategy and later saw that their action was not necessary in the first place. Not only is such a reality quite frustrating, it quite often marks the end of the online business concerned.
The owner may simply think that online business is a myth or may not muster te courage to continue when he/she realizes the time the change of strategies has caused.
As long as the problem is not from the work you put in, and it’s also not from the fact that the business is still not mature, then you may either have been punching the air all along or not have been punching at all.
To remedy such a situation, you must identify and or redefine your strategy. One very important lesson in online business is to learn how to test many and come out with one’s own strategy. It is not just about doing the hard work. You must be able to direct your hard work to a defined audience to end up with the desired result. The question is how to do that.
4. You could be lacking relevant skills
If all the three above are in good shape, and there’s still nothing happening from the money side of things, then your skills may be the problem. It is good to work hard online, but like in the case of a strategy, if vital online business skills are lacking, you could struggle a long time without making any income online.
A vital skill when it comes to making money online for example is the art of selling. You need to learn how to sell online. Depending on your audience and your strategy, skills required to sell may differ. For example, you should be able to use CTAs when and where necessary.
Many online business owners have seen their business mature, continue to put in the consistent hard work, have identified a strategy as to how to go about engaging thier audience. But till now, they have not presented anything to that audience for sale.
Whereas without selling or knowing how to sell, you won’t make money online. Selling could be of your own products. But it could also be of someone else’s. Whether it’s one or the other, you much know how to sell to your audience – propose something to them – to begin to make money online.
Conclusion
Online business is interesting and enticing. Engaging in it however comes with much responsibility. Responsibility to work hard, to be very patient, to have a reasonable plan of action as well as the will and ability to sell. All of which are key to making money online.
Considering the points discussed above, see where you are lagging behind, and fix the problem in order to experience a turnaround in your bad money experience online!
Suggested: My account of how I made my first money online. Also, learn how money is made online.