I never understood the theory behind investing until I jumped into the online marketing world.
How could you buy shares today at $10 and tomorrow they be worth $20? That didn't make much sense to me.
How could you buy a house for $250,000 and in 5 years it be worth $500,000 without making any changes to it? Crazy I know, but it happens.
The two investment above are risky and often require large amounts of capital and expert knowledge on a niche subject. Something most of us don't have.
To make money online also requires an investment, but unlike trading or buying property, the threshold for investment is small and can be made by anyone, even you.
What's the investment?
To start your own website, Shopify store, blog, YouTube channel, SaaS tool or whatever it is you really want to do online, you have to invest either:
- Time or;
- Money
If you work a full-time job you might not have all the time in the world, but you will have money. If you don't work you may not have the money, but you'll have plenty of time.
If you're extremely lucky, you'll have both and have a great advantage over everyone else.
Time as an investment
Time is a great investment but only has value if you end up taking action.
There's little point in scouring forums, Internet market blogs and consuming eBooks learning all the tips to build websites, rank on Google and write copies that convent if you don't plan on taking action.
There is so much content online that anybody who invests enough time in learning new skills can run a profitable online business. There's thousands of stay at home moms who make money affiliate marketing, there's freelancers who learned their skills and sell their services on Upwork and Freelancer, there's even hobbyists who have turned their passions into income streams.
If you invest enough time in learning and building your online business, you will be successful.
How much time do you need to invest?
How's long is a piece of strong?
That really depends on how fast you can learn and implement your skills. It also factors on the business model you use and the industry you target. It could take one week, one month or one year, but if you invest enough time it will happen.
It took me 18 months to make my first dollar online with my first website. My second website took me less than 24 hours. This was because the previous 18 months I had invested so much time into learning and trying out methods that I know knew what worked and what didn't.
Investing Money
Nothing makes things happen faster than throwing money at something.
You can spend 2 weeks building your first WordPress site or you can spend $60 on hiring someone to do it for you in less than a day.
You can spend hours writing content for your website… or you can speed up the process by outscoring it to others.
You can spend months optimising your site with SEO and building organic backlinks, or you can use Facebook and Google advertising to drive as much traffic to your website as you can afford.
Money Does not Guarantee Success Instantly
Investing money in your business does not result in overnight success. Just like investing time it could take one week, one month or maybe even a year. Once again, it depends on your business model, industry and the methods you're using.
Generally speaking you'll get to where you want to be faster using money as you'll be able to get things done quicker. You'll have more resources on hand such as employees, a marketing budget, the choice to take paid marketing courses and the ability to focus on the core elements of your business rather than dealing with content creation and other less than important parts.
Really, I just need one or the other to be successful?
Yes.
How much you need of either is another question all together and one that cannot be measured so easily.
As more people access the Internet the more chances there are to make money. You may tell yourself that everything online is saturated and there's no way you can make money online, but that's only because you're aren't willing to invest enough time or money.
How are you currently investing your time and money into your online business? Leave a comment below letting me know your thoughts, I'll do my best to reply to them all.
