The blogosphere is littered with 1,833,983,093 posts about how to make money online and almost all of them propagate the myth about the “money is in the list” mantra.
The theory is that on the day you launch your blog you start building a list of subscribers and that you will be able to use that list as a revenue stream.
In concept it makes sense but sometimes concept and practice contradict each other.
Here is Why
The idea behind the list is that you will be able to sell products and services to your subscribers. If you are really good at building your list and pulling out the demographic information from it you might even be able to sell ad space in it or in theory even sell the list.
It all sounds good but that assumes that you are going to provide products/services that your subscribers want to buy and there is no guarantee of that happening. Nor are you likely to find many posts in which bloggers tell you about all of their failures and why things didn’t work.
That is not to say those don’t exist, because they do but you have to search for them. People don’t like to tell you about the time they failed or the product that flopped, especially when they are trying to convince you to buy the great squeezit tool with their affiliate link.
One of your jobs is to spend time trying to figure out where to spend your time and energy and what products/tools you should be using. You need to figure out if the pricing structure for a tool like AWeber works for you or if there are better alternatives.
If you are building a list you want to think about whether the free tool makes more sense than the one that has a monthly fee. Free doesn’t always hold the advantage. Sometimes the free tool dies or disappears and you always need to compare the features between the free and paid models.
What You See Isn’t Always What You Get
There is a very low barrier to entry in this world. A small financial investment and some time can be used to build something that looks and sounds amazing. It is not hard to sound credible, but you need to remember to look carefully and to listen.
Undoubtedly there is money in the list but that doesn’t mean it is easy to obtain or that anyone can do it because if were everyone would do it.
I don’t mean for it to sound like the web is populated by cheats, scoundrels and liars because I don’t think there are any more here than anywhere else in life. Most of the people are good and well intentioned but good intentions don’t always translate well.
It would be very interesting to get a chance to see the books of those who say they are making money online. It won’t ever happen, but I would love to find out just a little bit more about who is really making it happen and who is just saying it can happen.
But then again, online success really is in the eye of the beholder.
What do you think?
