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8 Hard Truths About Making Money Online That Everyone Should Understand

by | Feb 20, 2023 | Making Money Online, Money

Most people are selling themselves a sh*t sandwich when it comes to making money online.

There’s so much bad advice.

As someone who has actually done it for 9 years and made 7 figures doing it, let me break it down in real terms, so you’ve got a shot.

Don’t learn from amateurs

I saw a person the other day offering advice on how to make money online. The comments section was full of puppy dogs lapping up what he said.

The guy had sold a total of $200 in online courses.

Now he’s an expert. What I’ve always found weird is learning from an amateur course is often the same price as learning from a real teacher who has social proof.

If the teacher has only ever made $200 online, you’re unlikely to beat their achievements with their skills. All you’ll get are $200-skills. Most of us need 6 and 7 figure skills to live the good life.

Careful who you let preach and teach you about making money online.

Do it part-time. You’re not Gary Vee.

“Screw cubicles. Ladaz.”

I’ve seen many cocky amateurs say stuff like this. They get high as a kite on online business advice and then tell their employer to go stick it where the sun don’t shine on a sunny day.

The hard truth is most of us made money online part-time, first.

It’s the smartest way because you de-risk your dream. If at first it doesn’t work out you can still buy tacos on Tuesday. But if you go all in and the idea isn’t the right one, you become starvin’ Marvin real fast.

As hard as it is to say, no one can tell you what money-making idea will work best for you online. You have to try a few to see what works.

Make your online goal an after-hours side hustle. Slowly transition from full-time work to part-time work and let your online income take over as it grows bigger than your salary.

Many of you secretly have this naughty fantasy

You say you’re in it for the long term but in reality your mind wants a swimming pool of cash in the next 90 days.

Impatience is such a destroyer of dreams.

If it’s not working out it’s you. That’s good. You can fix yourself. You can’t fix some random external factor. Money is a good measurement.

If you’ve been trying to make money online for a year and banked $0.30 then the solution is simple. You’ve got the wrong strategy. What you’re doing ain’t working.

This is where you need a little humility. Admit you’re wrong. Admit you need help. Try something new.

But don’t blame people or platforms. It’s on you.

The only timeframe that 100% works to make decent money online is 5 years. That’s not bad if you break it down. You can work 50 years at some job you hate or you can work for 5 years and then be free for the rest of your life. Seems like a fair deal to me.

Now, you’re probably smarter than me and can achieve your goal earlier than 5 years. Even if that’s true tell yourself it’ll take 5 years.

That way you’re good no matter what happens.

5-year goals > short-term goals

Drop all your dog and pony show expectations

This life ain’t glamorous.

It’s brute force hard work. But don’t be mistaken: it feels bloody amazing. It’s the best work you’ll ever do and what you do online has the power to help a lot of people which will feel 10x better than a boatload of cashola.

Where people F up is they have these huge expectations. They’ve followed some insta-glam influencer who lied to them for likes and secret product placements and sold them this #dreamlife.

I recommend you have zero expectations.

Make money online for sh*ts and giggles. Do it to meet people and make cool stuff using your creativity.

Have one hell of a party

I’ve seen a lot of people try to make money online and have it destroy their happiness. This process should be fun.

You should be taking something you’d happily do for free and bringing it to the internet for inspiration, entertainment, or education.

If what you’re trying to do is solely for money or fame, you’re playing the wrong game. It never ends well.

But if you’re doing it for fun you’ll be more disconnected from the outcome, and oddly, those who see what you do will pick up on it and love ya for it.

Anyone can do it

Society has programmed us to think we need qualifications.

The invention of the internet lit the idea of qualifications on fire. Now we’re all experts in something. Yay!

Stop thinking you can’t do it. You can. It just takes time and the right strategy to make it happen.

Having letters after your name doesn’t make internet users horny, only old school college professors who’re also impressed with themselves.

The qualifications to make money on the internet require wifi. If you don’t have that then you’re excused from class and may go home.

The first $20 feels the best

Weird, huh?

You’d think it would be making your first $100K or $1M. Nope. The first twenty bucks feels the best because you start giving fewer f*cks.

The first $20 shows you what’s possible. If you can do it once, you can do it twice. There are, after all, billions of internet users.

Of course if you can do it once you can string together 416 people a month at $20 to make your first 6 figures. Doesn’t require Jesus to turn water into red wine.

Just needs a little creativity and a different type of faith.

Poverty versus wealthy mindset

Making money online probably won’t happen out of nowhere. You need a little self-education to get your personal flywheel moving.

That means some online education is likely needed. Here’s what people at this intersection in the game can get wrong…

Poor person: “How much does this cost?”

Wealthy person: “What’s the ROI of this?”

To make money online you have to spend money online. Makes sense. If you see the initial outlay as an expense, you ain’t going to make it.

Investments in online education have an ROI. If you can figure out a few basic strategies then you can make money from them.

I love the story I read recently about a guy who paid Gary Vee $2,700 for a 5-Minute Facetime call. What a freaking legend.

In four interactions with Gary, Jon Torrey spent a total of 15 minutes with him. Here’s how much money he made as a result:

– $3,500 (blog earnings)
– $15,000 (blog sale)
– $30,000 (to my company, but new client sale, annualized)
– $4,200 (NFT research report)
– $4,462.30 (Garage Saling)
– $1,200.74 (writing royalties)
– $5,215 (ONE37pm Freelance earnings)
– $55,700.52 (Sports Card buying/selling earnings)

That’s the sort of kickass mindset that gets people paid online.

Making money online can cause loneliness (which leads some to give up)

Plenty of people won’t get help.

They know everything. They have all the answers and know why it’s not working or will never work for them.

This type of person often wants to go it alone. People like me, they think, are nothing but gurus or get-rich-quick-d*cks. Sure, okay.

So they go it alone.

“I’ll figure it out myself, mate.” As they keep going, nothing works. They become lonely. No one but them knows how hard the struggle is.

The loneliness then leads to frustration. That frustration makes them give up. They swear to return to their online goal in the future when they have more time or a better idea. They never do. Employers love these kinds of people. They’ll settle and justify their decisions till death.

The simple cure is to be in a community of other people who have the same goal. That way when stuff blows up in your face there are other people to talk with.

  • They’ll likely tell you it’s normal.
  • They’ll tell you how they got around it.

The biggest mistake I made was writing online in a dark room for 5 years with zero interaction with the creator world. It nearly ruined me. Don’t be stupid like me.

Expect it to be hard and have good people around you.

Final Thought

Making money online is possible.

Stop thinking “poor me.” Start thinking “why not me?” None of this is impossible but it does require you to be open-minded and give a damn about other people.

The first step is to create a traffic generator. Social media is how you do it.

Once you have eyeballs on what you do, the online world is your playground to make money in.

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