Today I'm going to have a little rant. I promise it will be constructive and I'll leave the cockiness at home. Although, since I work from home anyway, some of it might still filter in. Ha!
How Much Does It Cost To Start A Business Online?
From time to time, I'll come across somebody who wants to start an online business, without spending any money. OK, in all honesty, I'll come across more than a few of them. That's not surprising though to me at all. Aside from the whole psychological reasons for wanting to MAKE money rather than spend it, there are some pretty good reasons for being afraid to invest.
- “Try before you buy” – I bet you'd rather test something and see if it works, before you'd feel confident about spending money on it.
- “Scammers are everywhere” – Many of us are just jaded by the same tricksters using the same shiny objects and “miracle” products to empty our wallets with false promises. Eventually, people become wary.
- “Need to get some money together” – Some people literally don't have money to invest, so they don't really have a choice here. (Although really..I'm sure most of us can find the extra dollars we need, if we REALLY look).
- “Fear” – The fear of failure, wasting money, and feeling like a fool is a pretty strong fear. It's a shame, but it's something we have to deal with.
There are more reasons besides these why people refuse to spend money to make money, but I tend to disregard most of them. The above reasons are the ones I can understand and empathize with the most.
There's one other reason why people are unwilling to spend money though, and it's a biggie.
Lack Of Confidence In The System
Let's face it. Most of us have no idea how to build a business. It doesn't matter what that business is, we can't do it! It's all well and good searching for the correct information and trying to find something that looks good, but in the back of our minds' we'll always be thinking:
“This is probably all BS though.”
Whatever their reasons are, it doesn't really matter.
The truth is, I've never seen a successful website that didn't require investments. Whether it's a paid domain name, a premium theme, some high quality images, logos or banners, outsourced articles, or a combination of all, every successful website has costs.
Those costs are often offset 10, 20, 100, 200, even 500 times by the potential earnings they bring in though.
That's the difference between an online business, and a hobby.
That's where my rant really starts…
An Online Business vs A Hobby
I want to be distinct here. It doesn't matter what your content is about. If doesn't matter if you're building your site to make money. It doesn't really even matter if your site is earning a few pennies. If you're trying to do it all for free for absolutely no investment on your part (whether because of lack of funds, or lack of willingness) then your website is just your hobby.
I'll say that again.
If you're not serious about your business and willing to invest in making it the best it can possibly be, then it's just a hobby.
I'm sorry if this cuts a little deep.
I've seen hundreds of newcomers come and go in a short period. They come, they build a free website on a sub domain like WordPress or Blogger, and they do some experimenting to see if they like the idea of Internet Marketing.
This is absolutely fine. Get your feet wet. In fact, I recommend you try to learn as much as you can for free first. Learn more about learning Internet Marketing for free.
This is where the cross-roads really starts, and where most people go down the wrong path. They get used to receiving free information, and then complain when costs start coming in.
A premium Wealthy Affiliate membership costs $47 a month or $359 a year, and taught me everything I needed to know to earn thousands of dollars in that same year. I invested, I built a business. Others shied away from the investment, tried to do everything for free, and complained again when they made no money.
Hobby. Business.
Think about those two words again.
As soon as you've got your feet wet and decided that you want to make money online using a website, as soon as you've realized this is something you want to do seriously, you need to find it in yourself to invest. I'm not talking thousands of dollars.
I probably spent around $500 in my first year and earned close to ten times that by the end of that year. In my second year, I invested again and started taking my business to the next level. Things like web designers, writers, higher quality images.
You can tell the difference between a serious website offering a serious service, and a beginner on a free website trying to show you how they can change your life (but first you have to change theirs).
It doesn't cost a lot of money, it just costs commitment.
Once again, I'd like to point out that there's absolutely nothing wrong with getting your feet wet for free. You can even earn your first dollar and a little bit more on top of that.
Then what you have to do is take the confidence that gives you, and reinvest that $1 into making your global empire. It's amazing how much you can achieve online with such little start-up costs. You just have to be willing to spend.
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