Running a successful website takes time and effort!
When deciding if creating and running a website or blog is right for you, you will run into catch phrases like 4-Hour Work Week and Passive Income.
You should know that these are just promotional terms and not the full story.
You can work four hours a week on your site, I did at first and this really is a viable way to start, to ease into it. But if you want to make real money from the site, real effort is required.
My income took off when I started treating my site like an almost full time job and put those kind of hours in (after work and weekends).
It Takes Work to Run a Successful Website
“Tim Ferriss the creator of the 4-Hour Work Week does not work just 4 hours a week! Nor does Pat Flynn from Smart Passive income sit back and do nothing, he has a full schedule!”
Phrases like 4-Hour Work Week and Passive Income speak to the goal of getting to the point where you can work on your schedule or take some time off whenever you want.
Starting out slow, you will begin to earn some extra cash from the limited time that you spend working on your blog evenings or weekends.
But the ultimate goal would be to get to the point that you do not have to work for others at a “job” at all.
You’d instead spend that time creating your own income streams when and how you want. You’d have the ability to work during the day around other things going on in your life, like taking the kids to school, getting in a workout, or even to take time off for a vacation.
Meanwhile the work that you put in at other times keeps on generating income. That’s the meaning of passive income and alleged short workweeks: Working on Your Schedule.
Quality Content
Why do you have to put in all that work? Isn’t there an easier way?
Sure you’ll see “systems” for sale that say with minimal effort you can make tons of money. Do some research, build a few pages and put Google Adsense ads on them, and the cash will flow in… Right? Wrong?
Google hates this practice and has taken measures against this kind of thing over the years. What Google and the other search engines are looking for to share with their users is quality content and quality content takes time to produce.
Makes you wonder, why are these people taking the time to sell their fantastic systems, when making huge profits with no effort is so easy?
OK I have Created a Lot of Quality Content, Can I Stop Now?
Not if you want to sustain or grow your income!
Change is constant on the internet and those who stagnate die.
Search engines not only want quality content, they also want fresh content.
Stop working, creating, and updating and your profit will fall off. You’ve got to be constantly learning and adapting to new trends and technology.
Constant Learning
There are many things you’ll spend your time working on for your site: research, content creation, learning, social media interaction, writing newsletters, learning, email, statistics, learning, advertising, image creation and editing. By the way did I mention you’ll need to keep learning?
There are lots of great places to learn about this craft on the internet, here are a few that were essential to me as I was beginning and they still are today!
Check them out, but be sure to come back here. My goal is to make Swivel Chair Millionaire a place for you to learn what you’ll need to succeed online!
- Problogger – By Daren Rouse
- Smart Passive Income – By Pat Flynn
- Gotta Get Blogging – The people behind FL BlogCon