How NOT To Make Money Online
I mentor several folks on how to make money online, either because they are trying to supplement their income, or take their game to the next level, or simply trying to reduce the worry around losing their job.
An interesting pattern is that many of the folks that I know that make a second (3rd, 4th, 5th) income online, show up strong in many ways. Their second source of income is always a “passion business.” They find a way to monetize what they love in a way that’s sustainable and creates a ton of value for their tribe of raving fans.
They end up spending more time in their art, so they recharge and renew, and show up fresh at work because they found a way to spend more time doing what they love (it’s an interesting question when you ask the question, “What do you want to spend more time doing?”, and then actually do it 
One of the most important success patterns I see is that people do what they would do for free, but pay attention to what people would pay them for. This does two things:
- It forces them to figure out what they really do love and can do day in and day out (where can they be strong, all day long)
- It forces them to be smarter at business (otherwise, it’s not sustainable and it slowly dies)
I see people succeed at making money online by doing lots of experimentation and continuous learning. The ones that do the best, learn from success AND failures. The ones that create truly outstanding success, learn the patterns of failure to avoid, and the patterns of success to do more of.
Lucky for me, I got to see several people right around me making $10,000, $20,000, etc. a month online, and they happily shared with me what they were doing, including what was working and what was not. The variety was pretty amazing, until I started to see the patterns. As I started to see the patterns, what surprised me the most is how so many people fail to make money online because “they try to make money online” – it’s like chasing happiness, and having it always evade your grasp.
How ironic.
There are so many ways NOT to make money online. In fact, they are worth enumerating because people still try them and get incredibly frustrated and give up.
Here are 50 Ways How NOT To Make Money Online.
It’s serious stuff.
I took a pattern-based approach, so that it’s easy to see the principle behind each recipe for failure.
You can actually apply many of the insights whether it’s an online or offline business, and whether you are a one-man band, or a business partnership, or working in a corporation.
It puts a distillation of many business basics, great business lessons, and business skills at your fingertips.
I’m hoping that more people can be entrepreneurs and create their financial freedom by doing more of what they love, in a business-smart way.
Also, I’m hoping this helps more people get their head around the idea that we’re in a new digital economy and the ways to make a living are changing under our feet.
The future is here and it belongs to those that create it and shape it.
Own your destiny.