The Easiest Way to Make Money Online

Hello, all,

Don't get too excited. I'm not going to tell you anything in this post that you don't already know. You just might not realize you know it yet. I want to start by joining the countless others who have voiced this opinion: I am sick and tired of hearing this question. It reeks of immaturity. The question itself isn't the problem(we all seek to answer it at some point). The problem is that it's not the right question to be asking. You don't want the easiest way to make money online because that implies that making money online is easy in the first place. No, what you're looking for is an easier way to make money online.

Another question that is equally flawed is "what is the best way to make money online?" This is highly immature as well and screams that you're an amateur. The fact is that there is no such thing as the easiest or best way to make money online. These questions don't have answers, so in this post, we're going to explore how to ask the right questions and get answers.

The question you need to be asking is "what is the best way that I can make money online?" and the person you need to be asking is yourself. You can read all the ebooks you want. You can read every blog and forum post on a subject until you're blue in the face, but you're never going to find the answer because no one can give it to you. No one can tell you what the best strategy is for you to make money online. Not even me(I am great, I know, but even I hav my limits).

What I want to do is help you find the answer for yourself. I want to tell you how to find the one tactic that will make you money online. I want to guide you down the path that will get you where you're going with the least hassle and the most enjoyment, and that starts with picking a destination.

Finding Your Why

This is a concept that has been discussed since the dawn of time and will continue to be discussed because it is probably the single most important thing a person can do with their life: set a goal. Figure out why you're doing what you're doing. Figure out what makes you want to make money online. Money for money's sake isn't the answer. You have to dig deeper than that.

This is the first and most important step because it will define the rest of your career and the rest of your life at the same time. As I said before, set a goal. Decide on a dream. Dare to imagine something that you never thought possible. Reach for that one "unattainable" ideal that makes you weep for its beauty. For most people that dream consists of two things: wealth and freedom.

Wealth is a concept. It has nothing to do with the number of gray-green cotton-paper bills you can lay claim to. It has nothing to do with the size of the diamond on your ring. It has nothing to do with the cost of your car, your house, or anything else you own. Wealth in its simplest, most basic form, is a measure of contentment with the station of your life, and thus it is the prime requisite for any suitable goal. The goal is not money. It is the one things money can't buy: happiness.

The next criterion is freedom. I don't mean the kind of freedom that has anything to do with Iraq. I mean the kind of freedom that dreams are made of. The freedom to wake up in the morning of your own volition(no alarms, no phone calls), climb out of bed, stretch, and greet the day without fear or worry of any kind. The freedom to sit on the beach with your toes in the sand, smell the cool air flowing in off the water, and just breathe - absorb the moment for all it's worth. Freedom means the ability to, at any given time, do absolutely nothing if that's what you choose. Freedom is choice.

So, we have our two criteria for the perfect goal. Now it's up to you to put those together into your perfect goal. What will you do once you are wealthy enough to be free enough to choose? This is a decision that needs to be made. It doesn't have to be permanent, but it does need to be set for the moment because everything else hinges on it.

That's Great, but Still No Answer

So what should you do? Well, it's simple, and Alexis Dawes will hate me for saying this*, but you have to do what you love. You have to find your passion and use it to fuel the fire that gets you going. What do you do online that gets you excited? And yes, before you go snickering, porn does count if that's what you want to do. The key is to be passionate and motivated.

You have to either do what you love or love what you do because if you can't do one then you won't be doing anything very long. We tend to tolerate less than pleasant tasks for the bare minimum amount of time necessary, and that means we search for ways to get out of doing them. If you're not careful and you end up doing something online that you don't enjoy, you may just find yourself thinking that that day job you quit a couple months back wasn't really so bad after all.

It's like when you were in high school and your English teacher made you read some horrid tome(mine was The Scarlet Letter). Sure, you might have been one of the few that forced your way through the book chapter by chapter, but most of your classmates just went online and grabbed the spark notes for it. Even having read the book, though, you didn't absorb it as well as you should have and so you probably still didn't get the best grades on the tests or quizzes about it.

On the other hand, when the book was something you liked, when it had a good story that you could connect with, you read ahead of the class because you couldn't wait to find out what happened next. You aced the tests and gave presentations on the book, and you probably still remember that book and the characters in it.

So think about the kinds of books you read. Think about the kind of sites you look at. Think about the movies you watch, the games you play, and the music you listen to. Then think about the things and people you love. If, after all that, you still don't know what excites you and gets you going, you need to take a step back and reevaluate your life.

What was your best subject in school? You didn't have one? Ok, well which one did you enjoy the most? Not sure? Alright, who was your favorite teacher? Good. Why? The last question is the most important: why? If math was your best subject, did you enjoy it? What was enjoyable about it? If you loved history more than anything, what excited you about the subject? If Mr. Smith was your best, favorite teacher, what made him stand out from the others? Answer these questions and you'll find out a lot about yourself that you may not be aware of. Take a walk down memory lane and find the bright spots because those are the ones you want to recreate.

That's All Great, but I Still Don't Know What to Do!

Well now you know what you're passionate about. Now you know what makes you happy, excited, and ready to go. How can you translate that to the internet? For me, my passion is for coding and development. I love writing code and building websites, so that's what I do. I also love writing(hence I'm here), and I do that too. What gets me excited is the thought of having something that I created myself do something exactly the way I intended. Perhaps it's something of a god complex(cock it and pull it). I like to have control.

For you it might be dancing(make a series of videos to sell) or fashion(find a drop shipper and reseller) or maybe you love politics but don't want to run for office yourself(political commentary blogs are HawTT*!). The point is that it doesn't matter what gets you fired up because anything can be sold. I can't stress that enough. If you have a skill, passion, hobby, or obsession, bank on it. Whatever it is that you do, I guarantee there is a way to monetize it. Just try and be creative.

If that's not enough, try looking at what you spend money on and go from there. What are you passionate enough about to give up your hard-earned cash? If you can figure that out, try turning the situation around and get others like you to give you the money. That's always fun. If you're still stumped, then I'm really not sure what I(or anyone for that matter) can do for you. If you have any specific questions, though, as usual, you're welcome to comment or drop me a line.

Live and Learn,
Josh