Virtually everyone on the planet uses the Internet, and the majority of that Internet use takes place on some website or other. It's not exactly hard to explain the importance that websites have in society today, so let's assume I've sold you on that already, but why do people create a website at all?
Most people will never start a website, and the majority of them will never realize why they should, and how easy it could be.
Why Do People Create A Website? Well…What Does A Website Offer?
Let's take a look at what owning a website can offer you. It's not called virtual real estate for nothing. Most people would own a house if they could, and yet owning a website offers the same gains, for a fraction of the price:
Opportunities.
- The opportunity to have more income (a lot more).
- The opportunity to control your time and freedom
- The opportunity to have your own voice, your own creativity, your own life.
Let's take a look at the first of those: Income.
I'm sure you're aware that people can earn an income from a website. It's not as easy as just building a site, then sticking some adverts and affiliate links (referral links) on it and raking in the cash. However, it is a lot more straightforward (and less exciting) than most people believe.
A website really is online real estate, because you can build a portfolio of income generating websites, however big or small, and they will become your biggest assets. A house might have a mortgage, a website just has small running fees.
If you can ignore the flashing lights that scam artists shine in your direction, and you have the patience and knowledge to work at it, it's not impossible to fully replace your income online within 6 months to a year.
Control Your Time And Freedom
Following on from this, income earned online isn't fully passive, it still requires some work, but not necessarily a huge amount (except in the beginning).
One of my sites has earned me a tidy $500 per month on average since May 2013, and I've probably invested fewer than 15 hours on it since April 2013.
That's freedom.
My favorite part was checking my earnings before jumping on a plane (Ok….I was bored in the departure lounge…) and checking again when I landed (Ok…I like checking on my earnings) and realizing I'd earned the price of the flight ticket while in the air (Ok….it was a cheap flight).
Have Your Own Voice And Creativity
Feel like you are wasted in your current job? You probably are. Everyone has a voice, Twitter and Facebook have taught us that they aren't always worth hearing though.
By writing about your passions online, you can learn to earn from them, and really feel like you are living a worthwhile existence. To me, that beats everything else (Ok…maybe not the earnings or the freedom) about owning successful websites.
This All Sounds Well And Good…But What About The Fact That Most People Can't Do What You Do?
No way.
Everyone CAN start a website (and should).
Let's take a look at some preconceptions about starting, and operating a successful website:
Most people think that..
- The average person can't do it
- Nobody will read it
- It won't make money
- Everything online is a scam
- It's too expensive and/or time-consuming
All of these are preconceptions. Hopefully I've broken down a few of them already, but let's look at them more closely.
The average person can't do it.
Hey, I'm nothing special, I'm really not. You can do what I do (and probably a lot better). Thanks to things like WordPress, owning a website and writing content for it is as simple as operating your email or using Microsoft Word.
It's certainly a lot easier than trying to keep up with the changes Facebook makes every week.
Think about buying one of our starter sites if you want to get yourself a head start, then it really IS just like using Word.
What About Everyone's Fear: “Nobody will read it.” ?
Not necessarily. I once had a website (created on a free domain) that was getting 10,000 visitors per month in its fourth month. It was quite scary, because I had no idea what I was doing, yet there I was with traffic and page views and all other sorts of scary statistics.
I ended up selling it for $1,000 USD a few months later.
The sites we sell here at HPD come with the same training that I followed to do this, so it's even easier for you than it was for me.
It won't make money.
Have you been paying attention? There are countless ways a website can make money online (here are 6), it's a simple thing. Over complicating the idea behind it is what gives scams and other “shiny objects” their power.
There's no secret to making money online. Just hard work.
It's all a scam.
Fair enough, most of it is. Learning how to make money online while avoiding the scams is an important skill and if you can do it without falling for the odd scam or two, you are amazing.
It's expensive and time consuming.
It's not expensive. It is one of the most cost effective ways of creating a business and you can get started for free.
Time consuming? Yes, in the beginning. It's all down to you. I was prepared to spend a lot of time working on my sites in the beginning, in exchange for freedom later on. Other people prefer to just work 9-5 for 60 years.
I guess it all offsets.
OK..maybe you've convinced me, but I'm probably going to just close down this page now..I might share it with my friends first though.
Taking action is definitely the hardest thing about all of this. Especially when we all have such short attention spans online.
Here's a quick taking-action-today list.
- Go learn about making money online in a scam free environment. Free.
- Check out our starter sites and see why they could be what you need to start your own website.
- Hit the share button, you never know which of your friends wants to take action (and share a nice thank you dinner with you later).