Comments on: Passion or Making money?

By: spirituality

spirituality — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:46:02 +0000

AJ: funny, I was thinking that you strike me as the kind of person who can write well about just about anything. I don’t know why you’d need to work on squidoo – you ought to be able to get another writing job, for instance in the ‘web editor’ niche (and that job you have now will give you just the experience to make a future employer believe you can do it too).

By: spirituality

spirituality — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:43:51 +0000

Of course Mulberry: there are several roads to succes. I see my own road as a combination of the ‘passion’ AND the ‘business’ approach. I guess sort of as I’ve described here.

RMS: yes, that’s a great post. Its very precise about what DOES work. But the problem is, potentially, that what you end up writing about is something that gets written about A LOT. Short term that doesn’t bring in search engine traffic. Of course if you stick at it, while others move on, there may be success in the long run. But in the current economic climate I don’t know who can afford to take that risk.

By: rms

rms — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:55:59 +0000

In this post Potpiegirl says, to follow your magazine passion. http://www.potpiegirl.com/2009/01/niche-sub-niche-say-what/
I think that’s what I’ve actually been doing!

By: aj2008

aj2008 — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:47:49 +0000

This is a great conversation. I am still very new at the “monetising” (yes, an “s” because I am English!) aspect of lenses and I think that the money I have earned so far has been more due to luck than me knowing what I am doing, particularly with regard to key words etc. All my lenses bar one have made money but I think it is because they have attracted traffic not because I have driven traffic to them. If that makes sense!

I dont know if I am capable of making a lens that does not have any of my personality in it but I do hope I am capable of taking on board all the help that Katinka and others have given me, in order that the subjects I care about, will get the traffic I would like them to.

The Chef’s comment about thoughts about monetizing stifling his creativity is interesting. For me it is possibly my creativity that may be stifling my ability to make money! Maybe you and I should do a couple of lenses together AngelChef!

By: chefkeem

chefkeem — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:03:09 +0000

I actually agree with everything you say, Katinka. If you want to make money online, you need to apply your business sense, learn the ropes, and utilize all the available tools, whether you’re passionate about it or not.

I see so many shoddy shopping lenses (not yours!) without almost any personal content, obviously thrown together quickly to simply see what “sticks”. My suggestion is to add a personal (passionate) perspective for a better online seller/customer relationship. This, in turn, should lead to more sales. And that makes good business sense.

My blog post was meant to be two-fold – my personal experience with too many “monetizing” thoughts stifling my creativity, and, secondly, with the possibility of passionate expression being highly beneficial for increased sales.

In the end, everyone has to find their own way of presenting their products. As you stated, it takes time and hard work to be a successful online entrepreneur. Not everyone can be a “ham” or develop a web-celebrity status. But we should strive to be remarkable, in one way or another. I find that expressing our own unique personality and passions is a good way to start.

By: mulberry

mulberry — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:42:35 +0000

This is such a tough topic. I can see success coming from either direction. If you’re unique enough and popular enough you can make it with your passion perhaps but it takes a devoted following and a lot of trust from your readers who spread your word virally etc.. Of course as Tony stated having the “right” passion helps as well.

I’m speaking about myself ONLY here, but few have the “personality” to carry that off. (I really am a lovely person but…) For us learning SEO, marketing techniques, and striving to be useful and as unique as possible, etc. are more realistic goals…for me, any chance at success lies down this path.

On the otherhand, there’s much to be learned from both schools of thought despite my own “limitations”.

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:24:43 +0000

I think you are right, you have to have your niche, your passion, but then you have to drive traffic to your lenses – sales don’t come wthout traffic. However, depending on the niche, visitors might not be drawn to purchase something.

Some people are lucky I think because they have a niche that lends itself to making money. Other niches might lend themselves to a lot of traffic. We all need to find ours. That has always been my problem.