» April 9, 2008 in
You hear the advice for making money online "find your passion and write about it" and you also hear people say "promote offers or products" even though you have no knowledge of them. Which is it?
Passion
The premise: If you follow your passion the money will follow you.
This assumes your passion is marketable.
If you enjoy bottle collecting or making eclectic music or reading books (and not marketing books) then odds are you won't be able to feed yourself and your family with your income.
If your goal is to make money online then doing "something you love" can help keep your interest but might not feed you.
It could also potentially be bad advice without knowing someones passion first.
In my limited experience making money online all my financial gains have been from going for profit and not passion.
Yes I do make some money from doing something I enjoy like writing this site, however it's peanuts compared to products or services I promote via other means.
Profit
It doesn't matter if it's air purifiers, treadmills, coffee, etc. If a merchant offers a commission to help sell their product, this is what you spend your time doing. The company profits and so do you.
Of course you shouldn't spam or doing anything shady. Just good old fashioned marketing for real companies.
Internal civil War
I've been working on a site many times and thought to myself "is this really what I want to be doing" as I program some site on some tool or sport I've never played.
I'll go back and forth between tackling something I enjoy or something I know will make money.
My wife sometimes laughs when she asks what I'm doing and I'll say making a website for this goofy niche or starting a ppc campaign for wedding invitations or something random, did you ever think? lol ;)
Profit For The Win
I think any newbie or veteran should be going after profit first and passion second (unless their passion is marketable and has bunches of advertisers already).
Once you get your financial freedom then you can begin to enjoy writing about your passions.
Until I change my mind again - It's profit for the win.
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Scott says on April 9, 2008
Mark,
I agree with what you say about going for the money and profit first. I have tried to make money with my passions and the crowd was very small.
But, I do believe that if a passion is marketable enough, that the passion will come through more than just with the regular marketer trying to make money.
A person can tell between the difference a website put up to make money and one that is put up out of a passion of the subject. Combine the two and the results could be amazing.
Marty says on April 9, 2008
Isn't that why we do this? I agree with profit over passion. It's the profit that makes your passion possible.
Homebizseo says on April 9, 2008
You to to find passion in what can turn a profit.
FreePSDLogo says on April 10, 2008
I would say do both, thanks to the net its pretty easy to start almost any kind of site within months or even months, so do both, test the results and go after the most profitable projects.
FreePSDLogo says on April 10, 2008
I would say do both, thanks to the net its pretty easy to start almost any kind of site within months or even months, so do both, test the results and go after the most profitable projects.
Patrick says on April 10, 2008
Yeah thats a tough one, I for one have blogs on things I have a passion for , I find it very hard to blog on things I have very little interest in!! However you have a good point, that it depends on what ur passion is and is it profitable!
James Mann says on April 10, 2008
I like your videos Mark, they actually cause me to think.
I like the passion aspect but I agree if it's underwater basket weaving there may not be the numbers to make a real go of it.
I have a few websites that I make money with and at this point my hobby blogs are making me the most.
I will admit that my marketing skills really suck, so perhaps if I did learn more about marketing I would make more on things other than my passions.
I finally came around to the view that it's better to market my passions or hobbies because I could babble all day about them whereas my other sites I tend to struggle for content.
Maybe it's just me but I I spend a lot of money on my hobbies as do my friends. So in my case my passions are able to make me money and I have always wanted to make money from my hobbies.
Nothing is more fun that going to the local fly fishing shop and spending money I made from my fly fishing sites.
Richard Callaby says on April 10, 2008
What if your passion is to make a profit? I do not mean to be snarky here but there are the Gordon Geckos out there that just love to see their net worth increase everyday. You know the whole "Greed is Good" speech sometimes rings true in my ears. There is something to be said that when you make a profit you can be become very passionate about any subject. For me I kindof look at like a video game and I want to get the highest score. It is game for me and I have fun playing it. Mostly because it has been one of the toughest challenges I have ever taken upon.
Debby Banning says on April 10, 2008
I think if you are building a site for profit in the long term you should go with passion.
Five years from now if you have a site about a topic that you are passionate about you will continue to be able to add content to it and monetize it.
The longer your site is up the better your rank will be.
I also think that running PPC campaigns in the short term is important for profit right away.
There isn't a reason why you can't work on a site now and run campaigns at the same time.
My conclusion is to go with both passion and profit. More than likely your passion will turn in to profit.
Zac Johnson says on April 10, 2008
For those of us lucky enough, you get the best of both worlds. Gary Vaynerchuk has been able to turn his passion into a business and vise-versa. However, it does come down to the bottom line, which leaves you with the opportunity to focus on your passion, whether it be online or offline.
Washington says on April 10, 2008
It started as ..I am curious..then as a hobby-- and suddenly it took off as a business.
What can I say!! I rub my Buddha Belly and say Thank You everyday!!!
Collin - Feed Flare says on April 10, 2008
I still think, if you have a blog and your trying to turn a profit from it, your passion still needs to come out and been seen by your readers in order for them to believe you and go with what your selling.
California says on April 10, 2008
It is fun to read someone created something from nothing or by accident which what happened to me.
It would not had happened if.....I did not attend this "stupid" class which I unwillingly wanted to attend but at a last minute, and I thanked God for the appointment my date canceled!
Seeeeeee...faith always has it course!!
Mike - Bicyclespokesman.com says on April 10, 2008
It is best to go with your strengths. For me (on my first site) I decided it would be easier to create content and to market a site for a topic where I was an expert. My hobby is biking so I started with a bicycle related site. Advertising the site through bike clubs and my contacts at tour companies allowed me to build traffic faster than for a niche area that I don't know. If I were a programmer or knew more about the internet, I might have focused more on profit. I am hoping the two will come together and profits will follow.
International calling cards says on April 10, 2008
another good post
We would be out of business if we only had affiliates that followed passion to promote phone cards. Yes there is a few people that collect calling cards. But that hobby is a dying breed vs. those that want to make money.
I still try to convince the wife to build a site to follow her passion but target a niche that still could make some money from it.
45n5 says on April 10, 2008
cool thoughts all
I think I'm closest to Richard Callaby's thoughts, however I've always looked at programming like a video game, i need to move that outlook a bit.
digitalnomad says on April 10, 2008
Once again you are so right. This just points out that most of the marketing crap on the web is just that.
What if your passion is catching bugs? You probably won't make money at it.
Carsten Cumbrowski says on April 10, 2008
At the beginning both, passion and profit. A bit more towards profit, but you need the passion to get over failures and mistakes IMO.
Once you get a grip on things shift more and more to passion, because by then do you know a bit more about making profit.
I "work" only a few hours per month. The rest of the time I do what I like. It might be work for some, but for me is it passion and fun.
I don't make millions and astonishing riches, but I don't need that to be happy and that is what everything is about, right? Money does not make me happy and I don't know anybody who is happy because of money.
The passion part pays not all bills today that's why the little work once in while is necessary, but I am working on it hehe.
Tom Beaton says on April 11, 2008
At this point im time im going with passion. I have a day job in an industry I am passionate about too, so everything comes together nicely. If I did not have the day job I loved I would focus on profit first, till I was comfortable enough to go for passion. Making your passion work, can take the fun out of it.
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