Okay, so lately I’ve been thinking about active income vs. passive income. I think some where along the way I’ve got suckered into thinking too much about words like EASY, QUICK, FAST, AUTOPILOT. Even though if you’d ask me I’d say there’s no easy quick money.
While I want to work SMARTER and not HARDER this doesn’t mean quick fast riches, overnight successes, or no active work. In fact it rarely does. There are hundreds of different ways to make money online from home. And that is the problem for people like me who see the potential in everything but do not stick with anything to actually see the end result.
That being said, I’m really frustrated with myself. Which led me to think about what do I really want?
What is my motivation? What am I doing this for? I thought I knew the answers. I thought I was doing this for my family, for freedom. But sometimes my actions do not line up with my goals.
What is it that I really want to accomplish?
I want to feel passionate about what I’m doing! I want to make a difference in someone’s life! I want to wake up every day and feel excited about my work!
The problem is I don’t have a crystal clear idea of what type of work I want to be spending my time on. I get confused between building an authority and influential site, building niche blogs, and growing my service based biz.
Long ago I wanted to build a community of fit moms (website for exercise and healthy living for moms who are expecting or who just had a baby). I started and stopped the project many time because I continue to be distracted between different ways of making money.
Back in early 2007, I wanted to start a blog to help moms and dads who wanted to work from home find fulfilling work or start a home based business. I’ve also been wanting to put up a freelance site to build a community of like minded people. UGH!
Some where along the way my passion for these two things just fizzled out as I worked so hard just to ‘make money online’. It seems my motivation is directly tied to seeing results (results being money). If I don’t see results quick enough I lose interest. This is because I need money to pay off debt and get my life where I want it.
I feel like I need to focus on one thing at a time because my time is so limited. I feel like I need to put my heart and soul into something that means something!
Oh and I’m pregnant! Maybe it’s my hormones (I doubt it since I’ve thought about this MANY times before). BTW, isn’t that the best picture?? The little one is ONLY 12 weeks (11 wks in this pic). THAT is AMAZING!
One thing is for sure and that is I KNOW I want to make my living online. I love everything about the Internet. Plus this is baby number 3 (due in August) and I really want the flexibility of working online from home.
I know I’m not going to get any where switching up my plans every other day. And I do admit I have a problem with not seeing results right away. I’m sure that comes from running WSO’s and getting Paypal cash from services!! Now that can be addicting!
I do enjoy providing services even if they are time consuming or active income. At least someone is benefiting from it.
All that being said, I might need to get back to active work for a while. Maybe create my own company (wait I already have one)! Well, take my content/writing/PLR business business farther. And continue to outsource backlinks to my Amazon reviews while I’m doing the active work.
What do you do to stay motivated with the business model you have picked?
Congrats! What an exciting time; and talk about motivation. What a cute kid 🙂
I honestly think it is OK to work on multiple streams of income at the same time. As long as you focus on one thing at a time, whether that is for a night or a week, you will do great. While it may sometimes seem like a lot of ‘active’ work, building up your plr site will only help in the future.
…okay Lisa I feel so out of the loop because I didn’t know you had a blog! Normally when you leave a comment, you don’t leave an address to your blog, but I’m glad I found it.
Anyways, congrats on the pregnancy, and I wanted to let you know that if waking up and being passionate about your websites is something you want to do, why not look into starting your pregnancy fitness website. I mean I know tons of mommies would love to see you document your progress and it would definitely be worthwhile to create videos w/ tips, etc that could certainly go viral.
The best of the luck to you,
Yolanda
LOL Yolanda, I just started it so you’re not so out of the loop! I’m back and forth about having one anyway because I feel it could be a distraction. 🙂
See you described exactly something I have been seriously thinking about doing! I have been debating whether or not to start up a pregnancy fitness site. I wanted to document everything and also create workout videos for pregnant women too! I’ve actually wanted to do that for a while.
I’m divided in my thinking as I feel like I can’t work on more than 1 or 2 projects at a time. UGH!
Thanks for finding me and stopping by! You might have just started something! 🙂
Hey Dustin! Thanks for the advice. That is true. I can focus on building one project a week at a time. It will all build up over time!
Congrats on the little one! My baby #3 is due in about 3 weeks and truthfully it’s making me quite nervous as it gets closer and closer. I remember finding out I was pregnant last summer and thought I had so much time to get my passive income higher but here we are and it’s definitely not where I would like it to be.
I too struggle with the whole concentrating on one thing. There are so many different sites that I want to start or work on but then I look at my niche sites, which are currently making me the most money, and I know I should work on these first. A few months ago I started thinking about making a weight loss after baby blog where I would document my journey to losing the baby weight (still some left over from the previous babies) but I just don’t think I would have time and I don’t think it would make that much money considering how much competition is in the weight loss/fitness niches as well as the mommy blogs. Anyways, I just wanted to let you know that you are not the only one that feels like this!
Hey Lisa, congratulations!
I like your fit moms idea. Why not start it up and have it as your hobby/fun site. By taking the pressure off it to ‘perform’ means you can enjoy it more and your passion will shine through more easily. A few YouTube videos and a good Facebook page set up and I think you’d get a following quite easily. Plenty of forums to chat in etc too. 🙂 Oh and the after baby there’s weight loss, sleep, feeding etc…there is a lot of longevity in the niche. Then maybe make your active income more like your job with a view to expanding by employing others and doing some article arbitrage type thing. Anyways…I’m always full of ideas but the doing is the challenge right. 🙂
Good luck, I think you could achieve what you set your mind to…just make some quick decisions and get to it. Once you commit you’ll discover more about what does and doesn’t work for you. I’ve mentioned Jason Fried’s book, Rework (http://37signals.com/rework/), on Ruth’s blog before, you might like it if you haven’t already read it. It’s fantastic for a bit of ‘just do it’ motivation.
Stay well. 🙂
Wow Tiffany you are almost there! Congrats! Very exciting and scary I’m sure. I’m like you…I want to make sure I have my passive income waaay up before August. I don’t feel like I have a long time though because I know how fast time flies. So I’m already freaking out lol. It really stresses me out but at the same time I can only do what I can do. I’m super busy as I’m sure you know all too well how crazy family and work can be! I also can’t believe we are having another one. I feel like yikes what are we doing!!?? But I know it will all work out.
I started a fitness blog for moms back in 2008 and got a great response so I know that there is a thriving market there. Competition is good!! It is all about building up your authority, community, and also monetizing it the right way. I just didn’t know as much as I know now. So hopefully I can pull it off. Thanks for stopping by and I’m glad I’m not the only who feels like this. Especially coming from one pregnant lady to another lol…both on #3!!
Hi Michelle!!
Yes, I really have been craving to do something creative, fun, and inspiring! You are so right on…there is so much to this niche!! Right now I’m pulled between reviving my old blog which has age and page rank (more focused on post pregnancy fitness with a little pregnancy fitness sprinkled in) or starting up a sister type site to focus solely on pregnancy health and fitness. I’m not sure if I should build on the one site and combine everything or have two separate and targeted sites. If you have any ideas on that I’d love to hear them!
Thanks for the recommended reading. I’m off to check it out!
Lisa,
Firstly, congratulations on the pregnancy 🙂
I don’t think I’ve ever told you this on the WF, but when I joined there and wanted to find a path to follow amongst all the information and options available I came across a thread by you where you were giving away a guide to niche marketing. I signed up to your list, downloaded it and whilst reading it, the penny dropped big time and I finally understood how to go about things. I’d dabbled unsuccessfully in MLM and other ‘make money fast’ schemes but that just wasn’t me. Your guide really got me started properly 🙂
IM has changed mine and my family’s life for the better and when I look back to when I got started(summer ’09), I remember reading your ebook and being full of ideas. I will always consider that to be a big part of getting started. So thank you 🙂
I think you’re a very talented writer and clearly know IM very well indeed. I hope you can find the path that will make you happy and that you’ll want to put your heart and soul into. Just wanted to let you know that you absolutely made a difference for me, and I’m sure whatever you put your mind to, you will see great results from. The best of luck for the future 🙂
WOW Liam! You just made my day! 🙂
It’s relatively simple to generate money online. There are just a few things you need to learn. However, being involved in work that you LOVE and are passionate about now that’s something else. But I do think that maybe all I need is a fun side project (fit pregnancy, post pregnancy fitness) and I’ll be okay lol. Thank you for coming out and saying what you said – it really means a lot!
Lisa I would definitely stick with your existing site. Age and pagerank are so hard to get so why not make the most of what you’ve already gained in that regard? More so though is the fact that you won’t divide your time and energy between two sites. Instead you can pour it all into the one and build it up at double the rate you would than if you created the sister site and tried to care for both. I’m just speaking from experience where I decided to keep two sites that focus on making money online…I realised that every time I published content on the baby of the two I could have added that valuable content to the main site. So I’ve let one lay idle until I figure out what to do with it (ie sell it maybe.) Like you, I have children and all kinds of things going on so time is precious. Focus is a good thing so give your all to a couple of projects and build on your success to date.
Good luck with your 5K goal, I’ll be following along for sure, it’s always inspiring to hear progress stories.
Thanks Michelle, I’ve been leaning towards doing just what you have described. Plus it will make for a great authority site challenge! Thanks again!
Congratulations, Lisa! It’s wonderful to hear you are expecting your third baby.
I also get torn between what I want to do online to make money. When I see a WSO or something regarding an area that is not in my plan, I have to continually remind myself “I’m not doing X (offline marketing, CPA, whatever it is)”.
To keep myself focused on my goal and going in one direction, I write down my goal and post it where I will easily see it every day. I’m also very process-driven, so I created a visio diagram for the steps that I need to follow consistently to make the goal a reality (the specific systems that I’m following). A list of steps would probably work as well. That has helped tremendously. I then track each site or project based on where I am in the step-by-step system.
That probably sounds complicated, and may not be for everyone, but it works for me 🙂 I have to stay organized and focused, or I will buy every WSO offered as the next big thing!
Lisa – you have also helped me a lot as I try to weed through all the information in IM and try to figure out the best route to take. I look forward to working with you more in the future!
Best wishes and again – congratulations!
Hey Anna! I wish I was more process driven. I like to keep things as simple as possible and for some reason processes seem so complicated. I don’t know why because they really are helpful and important!! I started writing things down in my planner, but that doesn’t always help. I think I’m going to write up a process for my PLR shop and follow it in order to take that income up.
I too, have learned to stick to only buying things that take me towards my goal. That has been really helpful. I always ask myself is this going to help me increase my income goal with Amazon or my PLR or whatever. And if the answer is no then I don’t get it. Those WSO’s can be really tempting though!
I’m so glad to hear that I’ve helped you too! Thanks so much for stopping by and the congrats about the baby (yikes)! 🙂
First Lisa,
CONGRATULATIONS! I have 4 of those little pictures tucked away somewhere…awesome stuff.
Hey, I’ll tell you….your statement in highlighted in blue in your post…THAT is what keeps me going every day. I want to love what I’m doing…and use it to change people’s lives.
Great job!
Take care,
Brandon
Hey Brandon, isn’t that what it should be about!? I am passionate about creating an income online and helping other people (especially other parents – need and dear to my heart) make it online.
At the end of the day I want to have options as do sooo many other parents as well. Especially the option to not have to miss out on the kids growing up!
Keep your energy…it is motivating! To great things!
We have the same motivation right now. 🙂 I’m due early this summer and am writing and working on my sites as much as possible so that I can take a month off when the baby is born. I hit my $5k/month goal for the last two months in 2010 and am working now to make that every month, with the holiday shopping months at $7k or so by the end of 2011.
Best of luck to you on your goals, and may you have a happy, healthy pregnancy and easy delivery of your little one!
Hi Maria! That is so awesome to hear (and motivating) that you hit your goal! And congrats on your pregnancy as well!
Thanks, Lisa! I’m still a little behind my goal because it was supposed to be every month, but I’m working to get there — and enjoying the journey. 🙂
Enjoying the journey….that is so KEY!! I have to remember to celebrate the small successes more often! The small steps all lead you to the much bigger goal. 🙂