More on the Myth: Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow
Last night, I posted a Silly Sunday cartoon from Blaugh. Although the cartoon was pretty funny, it really rings true to some dangerous advice that runs in Internet marketing and home business circles.
The myth was:
"Do what you love and the money will follow."
I think the true statement is:
"It is possible to do what you love and with proper research, planning and marketing, you might make money doing it."
There is the definite perk of starting your own business - you can make the choice to only do what you love doing.
But the problem is, not everything you love doing will turn directly into profits. That's ludicrous.
Let's create a common scenario:
Imagine that I wanted to start a content site on a topic I was passionate about. I said I wanted to make money through affiliate programs and possibly create some ebooks. It's a common scenario, seen on Internet Marketing forums everywhere. Then someone inevitably responds to the thread and says:
"What is your passion? Build your website around that."
Here's the Problem:
- How many people are potentially interested? If very few people share your passion, it's going to be tough to capture an interested audience.
- Do they spend money on it? Even if a lot of people share your passion, do they ALSO enthusiastically spend money to pursue it?
- Have you considered competition? Of course, there are ways to get around competition with a well-crafted USP (Unique Selling Position - i.e. what sets you apart from the competition), it is still something that needs to be taken into consideration.
- How will you generate traffic? Without the skills and knowledge to build your traffic from a variety of sources, it's going to be tough to make things happen.
- How will you get people to buy your products or take your product recommendations? Getting people to say YES is not as simple as getting people to your website. You need to understand how to talk to your target market, know what types of products they want and how to present your offers to them.
- How will the money keep flowing? If you do see money coming in, how are you going to maintain that? Can you keep the traffic coming on an ongoing basis? Are you going to successfully build a mailing list that is interested in and takes action on your offers.
No...I'm Not Trying to Be All Doom & Gloom
Certainly if you find a topic/target market that has an interested audience with their wallets wide open - you can conquer the other obstacles of getting traffic, making offers and maintaining the income flow.
You've just got to be prepared to learn, test and improve.
4 Comments:
Unfortunately this article leaves out some important considerations.
So you find an interested, deep and ready to buy market. SO what if you're miserable working in that market or don't have a passion for that market.
There is truth that you have to do research, learn marketing, gain some business savvy, all of that is TRUE. You can't just follow your passions without having knowledge: knowledge of the market, business, marketing, your ideal customer and so on.
However, there is more to wealth than paying customers. Money is a component of wealth sure, but there is more to it than that. Loving what you do is part of that.
Look around on the internet, at storefronts, in the yellow pages, in the mall; there is a market for almost everything! It amazes me what people spend money on.
Follow your passion, do what makes your heart sign, but do it better than everyone else, this is the key.
This particular blog is about internet marketing, the LAST topic I would advise anyone to get into. Like the world needs another internet marketing blog....
However I bet the author has a passion, absolutely loves internet marketing. She followed her passion.
All thought and no feeling when making life choices is a killer of enthusiasm passion and joy.
Thank you for your thoughts, anonymous, but I'm afraid you didn't read my post closely enough.
One of the key sentences I wrote:
"There is the definite perk of starting your own business - you can make the choice to only do what you love doing."
But unfortunately, not everything we love can become a viable business. If you're doing it mostly for fun, that's one thing. If you're doing it to feed your family, create a retirement fun or other things that require the "money to follow", then it's simply not possible to just decide "do what you love." You have to find the thing you love doing that ALSO can be a viable business.
As far as doing things different, I agree and I did mention USP when it came to competition. But you can't just be different in any market and expect good results. It just doesn't work that way.
Alice - the myth you discuss is one that disappoints many that start out thinking anyone can make money online especially if they focus on their passion.
Anonymous forgets that your blog and presence on line precedes many of us that work online.
Wealth is one thing - generating a full time income while working online is another.
I think more importantly that anyone that wants to make a steady income even more money than they would in a 9 - 5 job is that they use the gifts and talents that fuel their passion.
Whether in internet marketing or scrapbooking - those that have a passion then love to teach and connect with others that share their passions REALLY do succeed more often than those that simply follow a formula.
Over the last three years, I've seen those that master the art of connecting with PEOPLE draw the traffic - monetizing is less of a challenge.
Great post!
Wise words Alice. One thing I haven't much liked about some aspects of the work at home/run your own business marketplace is all the HYPE.
There is no need for it. Sure you should be happy/motivated in your choice of work, but you need to be rooted in the real world as well so that hopefully you'll have a sustainable business. Isn't that what we want?
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