Getting Back to the Making Money Online Fundamentals
I made my first $20 online way back in 1995.
In Internet years that’s like a billion years ago. Back then you had to tell your family members to get off the phone, so that you can dial-up and connect to the Internet for a few hours.
The $20 I made was for a website I built for someone using simple HTML code and some hacked together graphics. It wasn’t the easiest $20 I ever made, and in fact if I count how many hours it took me to build the website, I probably could have made more per hour working at McDonald’s back then, but either way I was hooked.
I love making money online.
Back then I couldn’t understand how people don’t get excited about the possibility of making money online, and today – 15 years later in 2010 – I still don’t get how people don’t get super excited about making money online.
Today on my way out for dinner with my wife I stopped by the mailbox to pickup my mail and there was a check there for $170 from one of the affiliate marketing companies I used to work with. I actually haven’t done any work with them for over a year and I honestly have no clue specifically what the check is for. It must be for some campaign / website I built a long time ago which continues to earn me income from some free search engine traffic I must be getting.
I love that feeling of going to the mailbox and getting an unexpected check in the mail. I know $170 is not much, but all those “little” checks add up.
It’s always so much more fun heading out for dinner when you just made an unexpected $170. It reminds me of my teenage years when I might be broke and then I would find $20 in a jacket pocket I totally forgot about. I used to love finding money like that, and now I love getting checks in the mail.
As I was driving out for dinner and thinking about this check, it really made me think about my business income as of late. I haven’t really talked about making money online lately on this Blog, but I think it’s time to make some changes in my current business model.
You see, after quitting my job at the end of 2008 and focusing all my attention on growing my online income in 2009, I made some changes to my business model in early 2010. In 2009 I focused most of my energy on experimenting with and building income streams that utilize the “one-to-many” method of making money.
One example of a way you can make money online in a “one-to-many” type of model is with a Blog, where you connect with many people and earn income by selling advertising on your Blog. Another way of making money with a “one-to-many” type model is to do affiliate marketing, or by creating a product/service you can sell to many people online.
The “one-to-many” model of making money online was my major focus in 2009, but in early 2010 I wanted to experiment with and test different ways of making money online with a “one-to-one” model.
Some ways I make money online with a “one-to-one” model is by offering consulting services and coaching/mentoring services one-on-one to my clients. The “one-to-one” model of making money can be a lot of fun and it’s much more personal and in a lot of ways more psychologically rewarding than the “one-to-many” model, but the biggest challenge with the “one-to-one” model is that it’s very hard to scale it up.
Even with just a small handful of coaching clients, I’m very quickly running out of time and energy to work with more people. I have several people on a waiting list to get started with my coaching services, and I’m barely keeping up with my existing current clients.
A lot of my time and energy for the first five months of 2010 have been devoted to consulting and coaching clients. Because of this, a lot of the “one-to-many” income streams that I built back in 2009 have suffered and diminished significantly.
This was all done intentionally and on purpose though, as I wanted to expand out the consulting/coaching part of my business model as prior to 2010 I found that I was over-dependent on the “one-to-many” model.
Now, five months later, I have been getting a very strong intuitive pull towards getting back to the “one-to-many” model of making money online. Not exclusively, but at least balancing out the “one-to-one” model I’m currently making the majority of my money with.
It’s time for me to get back to some of the fundamentals of making money online with “one-to-many” models, such as Blogging, Affiliate Marketing etc. That doesn’t mean I’m going to abandon my current consulting / coaching contracts, but I am not going to be taking on many more clients/students for the time being.
It’s time for me to start building up my Blogging and Affiliate Marketing income again and to get my upcoming Blogging course finished which is another example of a “one-to-many” type business model.
I am very glad that I took the last 5 months to really dive into working with people one-on-one as it has really helped me to more fully understand where people are coming from and where they are struggling so that I can be a much better Blogger, Affiliate Marketer and so that I can produce much better quality content for my Blogging course.
I feel like I’ve spent the last 5 months in the trenches, working with people at the grass-roots level and now it’s time to switch gears again and balance that out with a lot more “one-to-many” type work.
How much of your time do you spend on providing value in a “one-to-one” vs “one-to-many” business model?
Do you find yourself always leaning towards one of those models? Is it time to balance that out a bit perhaps?
- 6/28/2010 - My New Blogging Strategy | Paulymath.com...
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As a songwriter, singer, actor, poet and blogger – how would I provide one-to-one value?
But then again, I love big audiences anyway.
.-= alice hive´s last blog ..Projektupdate: Protect And Survive =-.
@Alice Hive: Easy. You could write, compose, perform, sing, and record an intro song for The Paulymath Show on YouTube.
Or you could provide consulting / coaching services for people online, etc. When I say “one-to-one” the “one” could be a person or a company etc. In the case of a company, the company itself may have several employees so it’s not technically “one-to-one” but I think you know what I mean.
When I do consulting for one person or one company it’s basically “one-to-one” or “one-to-20″ vs when I write for my Blog it’s like “one-to-a-million”.
Hey Paul,
Definitely agree with the points you made in this post. It’s always a comprise between one-to-one work and passive/residual income or “building business” activities. More recently I’ve been focused on coaching (one-to-one) and very recently I’ve been making the move to group training and coaching.
I guess my overall strategy is that anytime I provide some one-to-one service or training, I ask myself:
“How can I systemize or package my value so that it’s delivered in an automatic or passive process?”
Asking this question has given me more focus and in the end helped me build more value with my prospects and clients. When it comes down to it I guess it’s really a compromise between, what do I need to do now and what can I do now to help me later?
Thoughts?
.-= Steve Martile´s last blog ..Download My Workbook: 3 Step Guide to Gain Lost Confidence and Take a Fearless Step =-.
@Steve: Yes, I’ve often thought about recording some of my coaching calls and making products out of them as some of the best content gets channeled through for people with specific questions.
Having a conversation, or an interview is often one of the best ways to create content. I’ll be looking into doing more of this in the future.
I have an issue with getting distracted by just too many projects. That’s where my downfall is. If I could just stay focused, I think I would do really well.
Hi Paul,
Getting unexpected cheques in the mail is always fun.
I know what you mean about the one-to-one vs. one-to-many work. I can quickly get exhausted by doing readings if I book many of them in a short period. What I usually find myself doing these days is doing a week of readings intensively and then taking 10 days to work on one-to-many activities like blogging and creating products. That works quite well for me.
I also find that the one-to-one work is the catalyst for the programs and products I make. For example, when I coached people with their psychic development, I soon realized a product was forming. And the blog posts I write are mostly things I’ve noticed from readings. I’m not sure how creative I’d be without the one-to-one work
Anna
Hi Paul,
Great post. As you know, I have been there too. I used to only do one-to-one, but there is only so much time in a day, and only so many people you can help this way.
For a few months, earlier this year, I went from one-on-one, to mostly one-to-many. I had found that so much one to one was tiring me out too much. Well after focusing on the one-to-many, I realized I really missed the one-to-one.
I have now found a balance, much like Anna’s model, and now I am doing both.
I find that working directly with clients also inspires me to write posts on my blog, and I seek out, and find things that can help the “many” too.
Thanks for an inspiring post, and thanks for your help in setting up my blog.
.-= Tamara´s last blog ..Things shouldn’t be this way =-.
Hello paul,
first of all I love your tips, second I enjoy the theme of your blog and third im a portuguese wanna be.
Only at this moment im trying to earn money with my blog and just found your blog by Zac blog.
Cheers
.-= Tugazone´s last blog ..Upgrade no alojamento do Tugazone =-.
Also on your fotter there an error on jQuery !
.-= Tugazone´s last blog ..Upgrade no alojamento do Tugazone =-.
I just started making money online and it is really fun! There’s something awesome when people buy your products out there on the web.
Interesting new direction, I’m suprised you’re going back to this direction, but I am sure you will go great guns.
.-= Girl Startup´s last blog ..Got nomuu moo cards – business card and tag =-.
Hey Paul,
Definitely agree with the points you made in this post. It’s always a comprise between one-to-one work and passive/residual income or “building business” activities. More recently I’ve been focused on coaching (one-to-one) and very recently I’ve been making the move to group training and coaching.
I guess my overall strategy is that anytime I provide some one-to-one service or training, I ask myself:
“How can I systemize or package my value so that it’s delivered in an automatic or passive process?”
Asking this question has given me more focus and in the end helped me build more value with my prospects and clients. When it comes down to it I guess it’s really a compromise between, what do I need to do now and what can I do now to help me later?
@Cizgi: Yes, systemization is super important. The process you’re following is perfect, because each 1-on-1 client acts like a guinea pig for your “system”