Make Money Online - Ditch Your Job and School?
I’ve been seriously thinking about this when I was trying to venture into making money online. I mean, seriously. Do you really want to do it? Most of the bloggers I know started blogging as a hobby, then continued monetizing it as a side income before deciding that it’s about time to dedicate their life blogging 24/7. Some of the big names in this online money making business (I’m referring to Paula Mooney’s list of blogger salaries) are not actually bloggers, they built websites, but they more or less went through the same sequence- started as a hobby, monetized it, built up revenues, go pro. Is anybody from the list, or someone you knew going full time blogging from scratch? I really want to know their stories. Or perhaps, they should publish a book about it. What inspirational stories that would make to our fellow bloggers. The question is, is it worth it to quit your job/school?
Judging from the current trends, perhaps people are more convinced to jump ship anytime soon. This online business is huge, and it’s getting better and better everyday. Heck, if I compare my job salary to those in Paula’s list, I would probably squeeze in to number 42 (try and guess how much I earn per year). That’s gained through the normal 9-to-5 daily job that I do. But apparently, the internet can give us more. And you can find the proof almost anywhere you surf nowadays, just look at the list. The list is by no means complete, and the revenues people get keep growing each day as we surf and blog, but that is enough to give us an insight of what the internet can offer for your greed needs.
Why jump ship?
Because the opportunity is there, and the money is there too. This is not a fairy tale. That’s why more and more bloggers are sharing their incomes to the world, so that everybody knows that if they can do it, anybody else can do it as well. To me, it’s like starting up your own business. There’s always risks floating around, but as the risks get higher, the pay gets better. No pain no gain. I’m not saying that it’s an easy business. You’ve got to work hard as much as you work hard in the offline world if you want to succeed. But if you’re good enough, you can pull it through.
So are you gonna ditch your current job? Perhaps most people would give an excuse, “I don’t think I can make it”. If they say, the internet business is risky, I’d say the business that people do outside the internet world is no less risky than making money online. Blogging or setting up websites, it’s just like selling a product. You’ve got to work hard to make sure that everybody ‘buys’ your product. So in reality, it’s the same business, only less hassle, and perhaps more competition. “Can I survive with just making money online?” Look at those probloggers who earn their living just through online revenues. They’re still breathing, and probably living more comfortably than most of us (including me). So, any more excuses?
What about school? Should you quit study and concentrate on blogging? This is quite a controversial issue, so I don’t think I should preach people to quit studying here. It would be very interesting to know what other still-in-school bloggers think of this issue. Carl Ocab, care to share your views? I know there are a lot of bloggers out there who are still studying in colleges or universities. It’s gonna be a great discussion if anybody reading this could have their say as well.
Stop!
If you want fast and easy money, then just forget what I said earlier. Making money online to me is not a pay per hour job. It could take months or maybe years before you can get to the point of saying “This is the only job I’m gonna do”. If you don’t like the idea of starting up your own business or entrepreneurship, then you probably don’t like the idea of making money online as well. If you want to get rich quickly, then this is not the job for you, although some bloggers did get rich quickly (depending on how you define rich) but generally, ‘making money online’ and ‘quickly’ won’t pair up very well.
Prerequisites
Made a decision yet? Just to play it safe, this is what I think I should possess or do before deciding on quitting my job or study:
- $10,000 in my bank account - while waiting for the money to start flowing in, I need to have backups.
- Thorough research of what I’m gonna do - including market needs, demands, opportunities, competitions, challenges etc.
- Expertise on the subject - there’s no point trying to venture on something that you don’t know a lot about. It’s going to be a suicide mission
- Make sure that there are demands and opportunities (after researching cf. point 2)
- Support from family and friends - you really need this a lot to up the tempo.
Most people will just do it as a part-time basis first. After getting a constant amount of money, then and only then, will they go full speed ahead. What about you? Are you up for the challenge? Dare enough to ditch your current job, or quit studying?
If you like this article and find it useful, please vote for it at Technorati WTF
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Hi Ahmad -
Thanks for the link love.
Hmm…number 42, heh?
Why don’t you just post your actual blogging income numbers then send me the link?
That way, you can be on the next list of blogger salaries, coming in June.
Happy Day,
Paula Neal Mooney
i wonder how people who don’t have to struggle through hours of boring lectures, stressing workloads, datelines and office-politics makes good money out of interest and fun simply thru the net. i wish i’m one of them! but with a degree to make use of I suppose .. 
Hi Paula
No problem and thanks for stopping by
I don’t think I’m qualified to be in the list. My no. 42 was based on my salary as a tutor and not from blogging. Probably I didn’t make myself clear in the post. Sorry about that
But hopefully I’ll be in the list soon enough :D. I’m learning from you as well.
There is no quick and easy way to build up your wealth. Even monetizing a blog and blogging itself requires a lot of effort and eats up your time. So avoid all those scams and stick to the legal ways. Money is just the means but how you gain it really matters
I know all too well how difficult it can be to get a new blog recognized and found. It seems that you need to find the right niche(s) if you want to monetize and it also helps to have a website in conjunction with the blog. The people who are making real incomes from blogging have long established blogs and had traffic before they started to monetize. I’m glad that blog’s are not the ONLY way to make money online, just one in a stable of income generators.
[...] Make Money Online - Ditch Your Job and School? - My first entry dated 26th of May 2007 discussed the issue of people quitting their daily routine just to concentrate on making money online. If you’re one of those who’ve been thinking to become a problogger, it’s worthwhile to read this article [...]
You still need to go to school so that you can write something in your blog and to be future pro bloggers. Also, for the start you need to go to school to get a good job before you established yourself to make money online.
[...] Make Money Online - Ditch Your Job and School? - My first entry dated 26th of May 2007 discussed the issue of people quitting their daily routine just to concentrate on making money online. If you’re one of those who’ve been thinking to become a problogger, it’s worthwhile to read this article [...]
woho…number 42 huh? it’s alright as long as you know what you are doing and you keep on being creative.
there are a lots of online money making scheme. back in my country (which malaysia), people will get very excited if they know that you have a formula to make quick money. as a result, more and more money making scam was introduced. there are also schemes which really works. and people really love it. making money online is not new in global scale but it’s new here, in malaysia. i really would love to join the scheme that you are in because it seems very promising.