Part 1 – An introduction.
Ever since I first stumbled on the web, I’ve joined the no-doubt countless millions in trying to work out how I can use it earn a crust. Yeah, yeah…I’ve seen the “make money online“, “get rich quick“, “make a million without getting out of bed“ crap a million times over. And I’m, not stupid (so my mum says) so I know it is just pie in the sky, but I also know that you can make money online if you know your niche. So it took me a few years of experimenting, but now get to work from home with no phone-calls, no customers, no hassle in a job I love and no-one to answer to…yay!
As a mention on my About Me page that you probably added to the “too boring to read” category, I am an “affiliate”, self employed and earning a living from running a website…well, several websites in fact. I thought it might help some if I detailed just what I tried “online” to make money, what worked for me, what didn’t and why.
My ultimate goal was to find a job I could do on my own, on my own terms, with as litle contact with the outside world as possible, or at least, contact that I wanted rather than contact I didn’t want! I’ve employed people before now and it’s a pet hate, made twice as difficult and much more expensive than it should be by employer guidelines here in the UK. Would I employ again? In the words of Alan Partrdige…”Nope, it’s a bloody nightmare“.
And as if employees weren’t hassle, customers are just as bad. “The customer is always right” is not a philosophy I care to share thank you…my past experience tells me that they are wrong at least 50% of the time, so sod ‘em. And finally, what’s with this being told what to do and how to do it crap? Sorry, it’s not just me and working under the appallingly sterile ISO 9000 regulations at Barclays back in the 90’s put me off working for other people for good. Especially when you have to paint by numbers like a bloody robot. ISO might have business benefits, but it removes all creativity and enjoyment from the job…whoever thought to implement that is totally out of touch with one basic human concept – “I am an individual“. But hey, I guess that level of organisation suits some people so I’ll call myself out as an exception. But it’s still b*ll*cks.
So anyway, having digressed for a moment, back to the subject of harvesting a living from Tim Berners-Lee’s field of dreams. First and foremost I had a list of targets – actually I should probably call them “ideals” - and wanted something that ticked as many boxes as possible. These consisted of:
- Had to be something I was enthusiastic about (I get bored easy!)
- Needed to follow the “money while you sleep” philosophy
- Something I could do as and when I wanted
- With the minimum customer contact possible
- Where I didn’t have to employ anyone
- And a business that built value and could be sold later
- While ensuring it provided a monthly income
- But preferably with some social interaction
See what I mean about idealistic? Did I also mention that I am lazy? Well, actually I’m not as long as what I am doing is something I enjoy and am enthusiastic about, otherwise I get bored, let it lapse and ultimately fail.
So what are the options? Well, in essence, here are the ones I considered and tried. In part 2 of this article I’ll go into more detail on the one’s I stuck with, but for now here is what I tried and gave up on plus the reasons why.
Selling on Ebay – sounded like a great idea but a couple of problems. Firstly, packing and shipping is a pain in the proverbials and my choice of selling rare CDs and records, while a subject I love, isn’t really a fantastic money earner. Plus it worried me that I was reliant on a third party platform that could in theory disappear from under my feet. Aside from which…customers! Yuk! And finally, no chance of it being a business I could sell later as it required “me” to be part of it. I tried it, I made a little money, but it wasn’t what i wanted, so I moved on.
Creating and selling an online service. Being a web developer this seemed a very logical path to follow, but after a few attempts, with a very small degree of success, it wasn’t what I wanted. You have crap like support to deal with, customers, invoicing and admin and were it to have been successful to any large degree, heaven forbid, employees! A couple of applications I created are still out there somewhere, but it was never going to be something I could focus on. Add to the fact that if it was successful, you’d have more clones appearing than in the last Star Wars movie. A headache that paracetamol alone won’t cure.
Buying and selling domain names. Actually, this is something I still dabble in, but it’s a tough market not least because a) the good domains are all snapped up and expensive, and b) you can’t put a value on a domain name. I’ll explain more in part 2 about how I make some decent money from this though, and it is good fun, ticking a lot of the boxes above. It isn’t my main source of income, but probably could become so if I gave it more time and all else fails. That said, you need to know exactly what does and doesn’t shift, and where to sell to make a proper go of it.
Becoming an Affiliate of Amazon/Various product companies. Now we’re getting closer to where I am right now, but the problem with sending customers to Amazon, online record stores, software vendors etc, etc is the commissions are crap and you need lots of traffic to make a living from it. Typically 5% of a sale, which on a £10 book or CD ain’t a lot. Aside from which, a lot of things like CD sales are declining and the virtual equivalent is too cheap to profit from. Or, in the case of music, often downloaded for free. But the affiliate model can work as I’ll prove, just not for hard products IMO unless you have huge, targetted traffic to your website(s). It certainly ticks a lot of the boxes above that’s for sure and dabbling here lead me to the job I have today.
So there you have it. Some of those will suit some people for sure, but none were quite for me, although I have taken the domain reselling one forward. The dabbling into affiliate matters has lead me to the job I do now, which is perfect for me, ticks every single box, and makes me a very happy man. I’ll move on to Part 2 where I will go into more detail on this and domain name reselling, and explain just what it takes.