Which is better, to follow the money or follow your passion?

byJo101

161 followers

Updated 7 years ago

It seems to me, after years of trying to make money from MLMs and affiliate programs, the secret to great success, and indeed probably all success, is no secret! Ultimately it’s about having absolute determination and persistence, learning all the tricks of the trade, never giving up, and providing a valuable service to a lot of people.

So for those who are not the most dedicated internet marketers, who are not primarily driven by money and who don’t want to learn every nuance about internet marketing, but who just want to make some extra income, is there some kind of simple solution? Is it possible?

It was only recently the penny really dropped for me. I had spent weeks building a website around an amazing affiliate product that seemed to help every known health problem you can think of. It also provided something everyone needs on a daily basis. The only drawback about it was it was expensive. But, based on the fact it was recognised as a medical break-through by certain doctors and could help sustain good health and would help anyone, I decided to get one.

I received the product and was super excited about it. After some weeks I got a website together and shared the information on Facebook, etc. I then decided I’d taken it as far as I could because I wasn’t getting much interest on my website and I needed some professional guidance, so it was time to contact a successful entrepreneur who I had signed up to at the beginning of the year, to see if I could get her advice on how to promote it.

I had bought all of her courses and had originally thought if I just go through all her courses, I will be set. However, as so often happens, I kept meaning to study it all but never found the time.

One of the things that came with buying all of her courses was the promise of an hour of her time on Skype, and at the time when I signed up, I decided it was too soon to have the meeting as I didn’t want to waste the opportunity, so I decided to wait until I thought I was ready to make the most of it.

I had gone to one of her live workshops up in London, early on in the summer, and it really brought home what an incredibly single minded and totally brilliant woman she was. No wonder she was such a successful internet marketer! It was an amazing workshop and she covered a lot and despite a bit of overwhelm, I was galvanized into believing I could somehow at least partially conquer this online marketing challenge one way or another.

At one point in the workshop, I discovered by accident through someone I met at the workshop, that a blog I had started about eighteen months ago, that I had completely forgotten about, had received over six hundred email subscribers. I was shocked because I had only done a few posts and had given it up because I thought it was probably a waste of time.

So I decided to ask the entrepreneur what she felt I should do, should I continue with the blog and try and monetize it or should I start again from scratch. Her advice was to start again. What I understood from her was if I wanted to make money then I needed to spend my time concentrating on what was going to make money, not on stuff that was interesting but ultimately going nowhere.

My heart slightly sank, but I did want to make money and I respected her advice, so I decided to start again. So I figured the best starting point was probably to start promoting links to her funnel, as it was obviously a subject that made money since there were endless people interested in internet marketing, and she obviously knew so much about internet marketing and making money on-line. So I did that for a while but I still didn’t make any money. I also didn’t find any real satisfaction or sense of fulfilment doing it.

Then, a few weeks later, I met another internet marketer and he told me about the above product which got me all excited. So once I created the website and felt I had taken it as far as I could and needed some real guidance on what steps I should take next, I decided it was time to cash in my one on one Skype call with the successful internet marketer and ask her for her expert advice on what I should do next.

I wrote her a brief note prior to the meeting, with a link to my new website, in the hope she would look at it and give me some guidance during the call on where to go from here.

The call came through.

Sadly it didn’t go the way I hoped. It was an audio Skype call and I quickly discovered she hadn’t looked at the link to my website or even read my message, or was interested in doing so even during the call, so the whole premise for my call was null and void.

She asked me what I wanted but I wasn’t really sure where or how to start explaining. I tried describing what the strengths were of the product and exactly how the comp plan worked, but she wasn’t impressed. I felt embarrassed and wasn’t sure what to talk about to get the most out of the call. When she realized I hadn’t studied all her courses, she laughed, so that just compounded my feelings of embarrassment. So once I realized that she really couldn’t give me any advice, because what I really needed to do was go back and study all her courses, I thanked her and brought the call to an end.

The feeling I was left with was, I still hadn’t even left the starting post, I still knew virtually nothing, and I was no further on....... I was basically a complete idiot!

But then as I reflected on the call, I began to realize that actually I had learnt a couple of valuable lessons. She had advised me to start with the list builder course. I remembered from her live workshop, she told us the number one priority is building an email list. It’s also the mantra of all the other internet gurus out there, so if nothing else, that penny finally dropped. The second thing I learnt from the call was I needed to find several affiliate products, not just one. And the third and final thing I learnt was I needed to study her courses!

So, I realized the call hadn’t actually been a complete waste of time even though it may have seemed that way at the time. I had gained some clear direction!

As I meditated on the call further, I began to realize if building a list is the key ingredient one needs to find internet success, what I had been doing in my original blog, right or wrong, had been working! People liked what I was posting and were prepared to sign up for more, where my new website had totally failed in that respect.

There is a saying in the industry that goes, find what works and scale it up!

So for better or worse, I have decided to go back to my original blog and continue following my first passion of sharing information that promotes awareness and breakthroughs in our understanding. Within that subject I hope now also to promote products that complement that theme, including the product I recently bought and built a whole new website around.

So with regard to the question, “which is better - following the money or following your passion?” My belief is, following your passion must come first, however money is also essential! It is the enabler and without it, it is impossible to sustain one’s passion, so ultimately we need both.

So the secret to me is in finding a balance, because both passion and money are essential. But each person is different and what suits one person won’t suit another. I now believe there is no right or wrong way, we are all different, and ultimately we each have to find what suits us, what we can live with and what fulfils us.