Is It Hard To Make Money Online?

I have compiled my years of experience into this article to help you understand what it truly takes to earn a consistent income online.

Let me share my personal journey of starting, struggling, failing, and restarting…

In 2017, I reached a point where I finally knew what path to take. Prior to that, I was searching for a business opportunity like many others, hoping to find the easiest and most profitable way.

Does this mean making money online is hard? Well, it’s a bit of a yes and no. It depends on whether you’re seeking quick money or if you’re committed to taking action and persevering.

You’ve probably come across many “opportunities” claiming that you can make thousands of dollars per week with their product, or promises of making money on autopilot with just five minutes of work a day, while enjoying passive income on a beach. But let me tell you, most of these claims are misleading and scammy.

Rest assured, there are legitimate platforms that teach the proper way, but many people still desire quick money. After all, this is the internet, and there must be some loophole, right?

Unfortunately, there isn’t.

So, here’s my honest opinion about making money online: It may be more challenging than you expect.

But at the same time, it is entirely achievable for most people, especially those who are capable of searching for information on Google and finding helpful blog posts like this one.

In the following article, I will guide you through my personal experience of how I started and how long it took me to make progress/create results.

• My first website
• To understand what the niche is and to find the proper one
• My first post
• First buck
• First 4 digits

And how about now? Let’s see.

An Idea About Making Money Online?

I was watching a lot of videos about internet marketing and one of them was John Reese talking with Tony Robbins and how he started with internet marketing.

Out of all the gurus in the internet marketing business, (Frank Kern, John Reese, John Crestani, Jeff Walker…) John Reese is probably the most respected one, at least in my opinion.
(Sure there are also many fake gurus, but that’s another topic).

In case you don’t know, John was the first person who made a little over $1 Million online in less than 24 hours.

But to me, his name started to resonate when I was watching the video (screenshot below) where he asked a specific question.

John asked (at time 9:07) what a person that is doing OK should do in order to take action.
A person that has not his back against the wall, yet – what does it take for such a person to follow through and make progress?

The answer Tony gives – is a bit complex, but basically, he sums it up in the following manner:

• About 70% of people don’t take any action even though they are aware of their problem
• It takes a proper mindset to get there. It is different for many people but the idea is to see the results first and then take action.

You can watch the entire video:

Despite this video, I wanted to take it the easy way.

So back in 2015, and 2016 I still thought that it had to be some kind of easy way how to make money online.

Maybe techniques like posting ads on Google with affiliate links used to work back in the early 2000s but it doesn’t work now.

Through the process of elimination, I came to the conclusion that the best business model for a person like me, is Affiliate marketing.

I believe I went to ClickBank and was searching for different products in the E-business section.

To my surprise, I was really disappointed.
Almost all these products were pretty much the same, with the same pattern:

• Showing a problem (financial)
• Struggle
• Quick solution
• And easy money
• Just buy this for $9
• And then a bunch of upsells…

All these hyped-up sales videos were almost the same.

And these are ClickBank products and that is a legitimate platform, that has been around since, 1998, right?

One example – is the product that is called Perpetual Income 365.
Very misleading, even someone would call it scammy

It follows the same pattern as I described above.
They even claim there is a kind of secret loophole that you should hurry and take action on since the number of spots is limited.

Well, I did an update of this review and found out that the same “loophole” is available for 2 years and there are still available spots (not that people don’t purchase it) but it is just a marketing trick, called fake scarcity.

People tend to buy something quickly when they believe something won’t be available soon.

OK, that was my period of desperation.
In about 2016 I started to do deeper research and stumbled upon John Crestani Product called Super Affiliate System.

Searching Period – Is It even possible to make money online?

I was watching a video where John Crestani was doing a list of keywords, he was gonna use for paid ads.
That wasn’t hyped up and actually educative.

So I decided to take a better look at his product and eventually, I bought it.

It was called Super Affiliate System and it cost me $47. I thought that that was the final price.
That I had access to the entire super affiliate system course.
(Call me naive).

I was overwhelmed and confused at the same time.

There was some information about paid ads, some videos of somebody else… and some advice on how to purchase an existing domain. Apparently, it was a better idea than starting with a new domain.

So I check the document inside the program explaining how to do it and why and.. but it was so difficult to comprehend.
Inside the platform, I found another section that looked promising.

But that was inaccessible.

So I asked support, about how to unlock it – it turned out that it was a upsell and I had to pay an additional $100.

That was a no-no for me.
Originally I thought that for $47 I have access to everything.

I was wrong and that was the first time I was introduced to the world of “upsells”.

Note Regarding the Super Affiliate System

Since that time John kept working on the course and it has evolved into what is currently known as Super Affiliate System Pro.

It is the 4th version with comprehensive training on affiliate marketing, that has no upsells.
But the price for the course is almost $1,000.

The good thing is that John always teaches affiliate marketing.

There are many fake gurus coming up with new courses every month.
It is quite common on platforms like WarriorPlus.

The common thing about these misleading courses is the low initial price and then at least 4 upsells.

It works like this:

You are told that for $14 you get a push-button system that will generate hundreds of dollars per day.
After the purchase, you don’t have any access to the software but first, you see a pop-up window with an upsell for $37.

It is possible to skip the upsell, but it takes some concentration to find the small button saying skip.
It really looks like the voting paper in the 1930s in Germany:

And even if you manage to skip the first upsell, then you have another pop-up with 2nd upsell and 3rd and 4th…

Sometimes there are even 6 upsells.
If a person doesn’t pay attention he or she would pay for all of it.

The final price could be more than $500!

But if you manage to get through them and skip them all, then you get to the members’ area.

At his point, your heart is beating and your blood pressure is pretty high since you had to swear to get rid of those upsells…
…only to find out that that stuff inside the members’ area is useless… It doesn’t work.

So is this really the way how to make money?
Unfortunately for people creating such products, it is the way how to make money. But this course won’t teach anything.

I was sick and tired of such scammy products and did many reviews warning people to stay away from them (a few examples, ClickyPay, GooglyPay, or Read4Money).

OK let’s focus on something that really works.
And that is, how to make money with affiliate marketing – the proper way.

Hard Truth About Making Money Online

The period when you suddenly face reality is in most cases very difficult.

It was certainly my case when I found out that I wasn’t gonna make 4 figures a month, 6 months after I sign up for a course.
It was still the naive part of me, hoping for that.

Instead, I was facing new challenges, some of them were easy others more complex.

And here are a few points I have gone through:

Crete website

This was actually easy.
And not because I am technically savvy. Not at all.

But inside the platform, there is a website builder and anyone can create the website in about 30 seconds.
That’s right, and you have also the necessary plugins right in the back office of your new WordPress website.

Let me remind you though that even though this is your own website, your own domain, it is still an empty website.
Like an empty canvas with nothing on it:

Here is the link to the website (https://sab-backup.siterubix.com/), if you want to have a look.

This site (https://setaffiliatebusiness.com/) used to be exactly the same – without any content.

But it is beginning.
What’s next?

Content creation

Ohh… boy..!

This was something new to me, and I remember from school that I used to have a hard time coming up with some essays.

The good news about blogging is, that you don’t have to be a master in writing, You don’t need to be professional in writing.
It is about communication – in other words, it is the same as you would writing an email to your friend.
You just need to be clear about what you want to explain and that’s it.

And there are techniques that help to craft 1,000 words articles even 2,000.

In the beginning, I had a hard time coming up with an 800-word article.
Now easily I do 2,000 words articles.

All it takes is good training, support, and of course practice.

Choosing Niche

This should have been in the first place.
But in 2018 I started 3 niche websites… until November 2018 when I decided OK I go for the Make Money Online niche, only!

So at the end of 2018, I started to create content on a regular basis

NOTE:
If you go to my blog, to the very 1st page…

…you notice that the 1st post is written away later than 2018?
How come?

Well, I will be talking about that in my last paragraph but for the time being, let’s say it was a mistake.

How about the niche?

This is the very first thing one must choose before creating a website.
In fact, I mention 5 essential steps everyone should realize before starting a new website.

And I have already touched on some of the above, including the niche.

To Sum It Up

In my life, it happens a lot that I plan things backward. Not an ideal approach (at least not always).

So I have my niche, my website and I must come up with some content.

What’s happening?
In Google Analytics, I don’t see any bars (maybe one here and there), and the most common number is zero.

This is normal and you shouldn’t be checking your analytics every hour.

For the first 3 months, if you check it once per week, that’s enough.

After 3 or 4 months, you might see some traction. (Of course, it depends on the niche).

You might get 50 or even 100 visitors per day.
And at this point, you have a good chance to earn your first $ online.

First Revenue Online?

Obviously, Google found my website and I used to get some traffic to my website.

At that time I was doing mostly ClickBank products, but unfortunately, many of them were extremely misleading.
Only a few of them were valuable and I felt like promoting them.

And one day I check my ClickBank report page, and there it is :

Commission – $23 I guess it was.

I was ecstatic.

And if you have not had that experience before you will be feeling the same.

Traffic Exploded

At that time the traffic to my website was constantly rising by 20% each week.

I even reached 1,000 visitors per day.

At that point, I could have added a new source of income – ads on my website.
Don’t want to bother you with details, but with the particular ads service, I was making an additional $500 to $800 per month, just from the ads.

Great isn’t it?

Welcome to the Jungle – ups, and downs of making money online

Well not so fast.

It seems that nothing lasts forever.

Have you heard about something like the Google algorithm update?

It is basically a process when Google decides to sweep up the results and it may have an effect on many blogs and websites.
Google applies a certain algorithm (Core update).
Based on that, the results in SERP should be more adequate to what people want, and search for.

Meaning more quality content one should get.

This also happens once or twice per year and depending on your niche, experience, and quality content, the traffic to your website might either go down or explode.
Or nothing of the above happens.

Usually, new websites (up to 2 years old) experience high fluctuation in terms of traffic, after the Google Core update.

Traffic can either explode, or it can drop by even 80%.

For well-established websites (3+ years), usually, nothing major happens.
(But of course, if the site has outdated content and there is no fresh content it can suffer as well).

Well, my site was still fairly new, and I also remember it was loading slowly.
So I was hit.

Big time, right?

Frustration Period

This is part of the business, but believe such an experience is not pleasant. Not at all.
Especially when you depended on the revenue and you don’t have any other job or income.

Now, what would you do?

All the work, and suddenly you are right where you were an ear ago?

Is it a waste of time?
Well, it certainly felt like.

A lot of people would quit. A few are determined to go on.

The hardest part?
Where to get money to pay the bills?

My Mistakes

I have done some things with my website that Google did not appreciate therefore I was not able to recover from the hit.

Here is a list of mistakes I am aware of:

• Changing post-creation dates
• Changing keywords and URLs (and not redirecting them)
• Less published due to frustration
• A lot of digital products are not viable (they are “alive” for 2, months or so)

There are probably other mistakes I have done, but these are the major ones.

Now, none of that I was told to do so – it was just the stupid part of my brain trying to show Google that my content is still fresh and accurate.

The thing is if I would follow the training to the T, I most likely would be making (again) 4 digits and on the way to about $5G a month.

Anyways, what’s done is done and I have to keep on moving.

With Wealthy Affiliate’s support and recommendation and I can work on the issues and fix them. That includes for example site speed.

Key point:

If you decide to take the training, stick to ti it. Don’t deviate from what you are taught.

It is essential and especially after 2020 when mediocre content has no use in Search Engines. Especially Google.

Is It Really Difficult To Make Money Online?

For a person that just got an idea that he or she is going to make money online, it might be really difficult. 

But it is normal. It is the newbie mindset and most of us have been guilty, at some point. 

The important thing is to get started and be willing to learn new skills. 

For example SEO. 

Even though it might be hard at the beginning, with a proper niche selection you can see some traction within 6 months. 

To be more realistic, don’t expect a lot of traffic in the 1st 10 months.

Your website is new, and Google still might have a difficult time recognizing your website. 

But don’t give up. 

Make sure to come up with cool content, and it is a matter of time until you see hundreds of people coming to your site, per day. 

Honestly, there is a lot of work behind the curtain and I can’t reveal all that information in a single blog post like this. 

But if you are really interested, I won’t leave any links here. 

If you are interested, you will take a few minutes and write a short comment below. I would love to hear from you – I would love to know what kind of business would like to start.

What is your favorite field of interest (also called niche)?

Thank you for reading,
Mike.