The best thing about making your living online is that you can do it your way. So the best thing about it is different for everyone – if that makes sense? There is a lot of focus on the money its possible to make online. That’s certainly true as an online business is extremely scaleable. But as in more traditional business, it takes a lot of hard work to become rich online. It’s a different type of hard work than building a bricks and mortar business. There’s none of the bullshit, office politics and plain nastiness often associated with climbing corporate ladders. But the truth is that those overnight success stories you hear about usually take years.
Meanwhile there are thousands of happy, fulfilled online business owners out there you’ll never hear about. They’ll never be millionaires and they live fairly ordinary lives. For them – and I’m one of them – the best thing about making your living online is freedom.
For me being able to be myself, satisfy my creativity and live and work where and when I want to is priceless. The ability to start new projects and develop new income streams around things I’m interested in is also a big part of it. I get bored doing the same thing day in and day out. Basically it just suits me.
I’ve always been a bit of a misfit and a bit of an introverted loner, thinking a lot and quietly pondering the meaning of life. I‘ve always had a few close friends but have always been happy with my own company too. Give me a few drinks and I can be the life and soul of the party. My preference though is the quiet life. The kind of life I’ve been able to build thanks to the Internet.
9-5 A Tedious Means To an End
I always wanted to escape the mundane. I have always seen the 9-5 lifestyle as a tedious means to an end. In my case that end was being in a band with like-minded “weirdos”. That looked like the ideal life for me.
I pursued that goal for many years, supporting myself with a succession of jobs. As I got older apart from a few high points and “nearly” moments, I accepted that musical stardom had eluded me. Music became a hobby. The life of the starving artist never appealed to me. So I bit the bullet, put on the shirt and tie and knuckled down
But I was never suited to the corporate life. I lived it for years and became a mildly successful business development guy. I played the game, looked the part and brought home the bacon. I had a good income, nice home, executive company car and a little sports car just for fun. Luckily I was in the audio visual Industry which is full of eccentric characters with whom I had a lot in common. I did however stick out like a sore thumb at head office sales meetings.
When redundancy brought that chapter of my life to an end I did some real soul searching. In many ways I had everything I needed – except an income. But my redundancy settlement and savings gave me some breathing space on that front. Through my musical other life I’d met my fabulous partner and she had started a driving instruction business. We were still writing, performing and recording music and were very happy. We just had this thorny income problem – oh and we also wanted to move to the coast.
You Couldn’t Do This Without The Web
The solution was for me to start some kind of business that could be run from anywhere. One that would also provide plenty of spare time for music and finance our love of travel. Until quite recently that would have been a pretty tall order. But the Internet has changed all that.
Like everyone who starts looking for an online business I made a few early mistakes. I got sucked in to the “get rich quick” hype. Easy wealth was touted as the best thing about making your living online for a lot of years. Fortunately I didn’t lose my shirt – in fact I made some money. Enough to give us both the confidence to put our city home on the market and start looking for rural, properties on the west coast of Scotland.
But the real turning point came when I stopped looking at the shiny objects – the no work, big profit nonsense – and started learning the craft of internet marketing.
I found that with the right skills and business models I could create a sustainable income and the kind of life my partner and me had always wanted. You can’t do that in the churn and burn world of short-lived online biz ops.
By the time our house sold and we found our ideal place by the sea I was making a better income than I had in my previous career. It was taking a fraction of the time and I was thoroughly enjoying the process. I had more peace of mind than I’d experienced for years.
The Joy Of Using What You’ve Got
I found that I was able to use all of the skills and interests I already had while learning incredibly useful new ones. I’ve always been a bit of a writer (one day, now that I have the time I’ll finish one of those books!) Apart from songs and short stories I had been writing business proposals and pitches for years. Blogging came pretty naturally to me and once I understood how that works online I started making some good money from my posts.
Another of my lifelong passions is photography. Again I was able to use those skills and the equipment I’d built up over the years in my online business. First I used my own images in blog posts and on my websites. Later I discovered the video setting on my camera and got into video marketing. I’ve become a reasonably good video editor and am on the verge of creating an online video business. I’ve even used some of my own music on marketing videos and have produced a number of videos for our songs.
The Non-conformist Lifestyle
So in short all of my geeky, creative and business skills – mixed bag as they are – have been put to work like never before. All of this takes a little time and investment but nothing I’ve ever done has been more worthwhile. I still pinch myself sometimes as I look out at the panoramic view of the sea from my office. The same view greets us from our bedroom as we wake up every day and from our lounge as we have dinner. The back of the house looks out to a ruined castle and the Argyll Forrest.
I wear what I want, drive what I want (a classic BMW roadster) get up when I want and we take time out for travel whenever we want. Don’t get me wrong this is fairly modest lifestyle. Over the years we’ve accumulated all the “stuff” we’ll ever need. We have done up and sold our various homes over the years. Reinvesting the profits means that we have a tiny mortgage on our 3 bed Victorian house by the sea. Our cost of living is pretty low.
The Money Isn’t The Best Thing About Making Your Living Online
With our rock n roll days behind us we don’t go out that much. We eat well and drink good wine. Most of our downtime is spent in the house and garden with our three cats or walking in our incredible surroundings. I even make bread FFS! We do like to run to the sun several times a year and have seen a lot of France, Italy and Spain over the years. We may even relocate in future. That possibility is actually the best thing about making your living online for many people I know.
This is a far cry from the images usually used to promote “the laptop lifestyle”. No mansions, yachts or super cars here. There are beaches of course but they are lining the Firth of Clyde not Indian Ocean! Perhaps If I’d come to this stuff in my 20’s or 30’s instead of my late 40’s I’d have chased the millions. Then again the internet didn’t exist then. But as I have said the best thing about making your living online is that you choose your own idea of best.
An Amazing Online Community
I wasted a lot of time trying to work out how to make money online but you don’t have to. Eventually I learned how to leverage real Internet business models when I became a member of a very unique community. Two incredibly successful Internet entrepreneurs formed it back in 2010. They have helped thousands of people like me create the lives they want with the Internet.
If this post has inspired you enough to want to know more about what’s possible I suggest you meet them. Subscribe for their free introductory videos on the link below. Maybe one day you can repay me by telling me what the best thing about making your living online is for you!
P.S. In between writing this post and publishing it my partner came home and we went for a walk. We saw 3 red squirrels frolicking in the upper branches of some ancient trees as a young deer stood watching them. Love this place!
