Jon wrote an interesting post last Thursday titled Why I’m Giving Up on Making Money which has given me food for thought over the weekend (found via Rich Minx).
In the post Jon quotes a course that he’s doing:
“If you try to “make money,” you’re in for a long and fruitless ride. Instead, please people within a subject matter you are passionate about, You’ll never grow tired of growing your business and your business income will grow as a natural result.”
This resonates with me. While I do know people who are successfully making a lot of money from blogging by doing little of value (eg – some big time sploggers) – the majority of those who I’m interacting with that are making a living from blogging are doing it as a result of creating websites of true value to their readers.
Jon puts it nicely when he writes:
“To put it another way, are you focusing on “what can I get?” or “how much can I make?” when working on a project or are you focusing on “what problems can I help people solve?”“
Focus upon a question like “what problems can I help people solve?” and you’ll not only build something that has real value and enhances the world we live in on some level – but you’ll also put yourself in a position to be able to build a sustainable business.
Of course – to some extent I’m speaking idealistically. While I strongly believe in what I’m saying the harsh reality for many attempting to make a living from their online activities is that despite attempting to solve problems for readers that it doesn’t always work out that doing so is profitable – but I guess that’s the same in all avenues of business – sometimes even those things that should work don’t.
