This is what it all comes down to. If you have read through this tutorial, you know my recommended methods for building an online income, but now you need to manage it so that your business continues to grow.
Time Management
If you spend all your time on a single income stream, you'll never reach your full potential. You need to plan and split your time effectively. Ideally, you can set yourself actual daily hours for each task. This is not necessary for everyone, but it sure helps me.
My Method
I like to keep my time somewhat flexible, although this does cost me a little bit of income. However, I still make sure I have a plan for the next few days, and I do hold myself accountable to it:
- Ongoing freelance work: 3 hours in the morning
- Online Sales: I have stopped selling online, but may take it up again in the future.
- Affiliate Marketing: 3 - 5 hours, after lunch
- Market research, completing irregular freelance work, finding new opportunities: 1 - 3 hours, at the end of the day
- Video games, socialising, wasting time, family: As much time as I want, after I have finished the above
Using the approach above, I have earned my minimum income for the day before lunch. I then split my time between my websites and other freelance work, usually 3 - 5 hours in total per day. I also actually plan to set aside time for leisure!
Keep Going!
The hardest part about building an online income is that point where you have committed yourself, you are putting in loads of effort... and haven't made enough money yet. Don't worry, come back here to WA and talk it out with other members, and get back to it. If you just kep going, and apply yourself to the training here, as well as the methods in this tutorial, you will soon make enough money to replace your day job.
Thank you!
I hope this tutorial has given you some helpful insights into achieving your own success!
Please leave questions and comments - I love to help and I love to learn. They will also encourage me to write more to help you - so if this is useful, or if something is missing, let me know!
Reply
Glad you found this helpful!
Love how you wrote from your own experience. I see that you have a very specific plan of action and it's interesting to learn how you diversify your income streams.
Personally, I found it better to focus on one specific strategy such as targeting low-competitive keywords and building my knowledge upon it.
I still have a long way to go, and can relate when you said that the hardest thing is when you put in loads of efforts yet didn't make enough money. Building an online business is easy in that you don't have a huge overhead cost, that said, you need great self-motivation to succeed.
I'm curious, what is the biggest lesson you've learnt from making money online?
Thanks for sharing!
Cheers,
Anh
This led to me finding and joining WA, and eventually completely replacing my income.
From all of this, my major lesson has been:
Take the plunge carefully. Don't keep all your eggs in one basket! Make sure you have multiple options - some that provide a base income, others that you can build over time.
I hope it helps!
Thanks for sharing your story. It's admirable that you took the plunge to diversify your income.
I found your answer very helpful since I am also in a position where I'm both working a full-time job and keeping my online business a side project. It not only helps me keep a healthy base income but also a good "distraction" of some sort from working on my computer alone all day.
It's probably not what we usually hear about "taking the plunge", as in you've gotta risk it all. I believe that life is more complex than that, and sometimes it's better to play it safe.
Stay awesome,
Anh
I really have to check myself when people ask in discussion, quite frequently, when will I make money. I check their profile and they are on day 2.
That's on me not them. It took me 7 months to get my first referral and 9 months to get my first sale.
I agree, the hardest part is when you have been working hours per day and you are on month 4 or 5 or 6 and nothing. The best advice here in my opinion here is:
Get back to it. Just keep going. Nice write up JessHop. When I feel my irritation starting I will link people to this article.
Barry
I am one of those who took longer to make my first sale. I only earned my first dollar after 4 months. And only a few more in the months afterwards because I made a mistake in not having specific monetization strategy.
"Keep going" is definitively the best thing you can do when building an online business. It's hard to swallow at first, but you truly need to make mistakes to succeed.
This reminds me of something Charles Ngo said:
"Want to succeed faster? Fail twice as fast. How do you fail twice as fast? Teams and systems."
How is your business doing?
Thanks for sharing!
Cheers,
Anh
