There are many reasons why you may be interested in becoming an Internet marketer or an online entrepreneur. Perhaps you’ve gotten tired of being at the mercy of your boss for forty (or more!) hours a week, every week. Maybe you want to take more ownership of the work that you do and reap the rewards of all the blood, sweat and tears. Maybe you’ve starting making money online as a side gig and you want to transition to having these online efforts replace your full-time income.
That’s all great and when you look at the six-figure monthly income that John is able to pull in, that kind of lifestyle looks awfully appealing. And don’t get me wrong, I like money as much as the next guy, but the fact of the matter is that making money online has a lot less to do with the big affiliate checks that you can rake in and a lot more about how it can affect your outlook on life.
Living the Dot Com Lifestyle
Digging deep into the archives of this blog, you’ll find a post from way back in 2006 where John talks about why trading hours for dollars is the absolute worst way to make money. If you make a very healthy income and drive a fancy car, but you’re away at the office for 80 hours a week, you’re not exactly leading the best of lifestyles. Money, in and of itself, is not the end goal.
If you were to ask John what it really means to live the dot com lifestyle, he’ll tell you it’s not about the money. It’s not about driving fast cars, living in giant mansions, or traveling to expensive resorts in exotic parts of the world. These are all nice things, but they’re not the main objective or the most important part of the dot com lifestyle. It’s freedom. If John wants to take off and spend the whole day with Sally, he can do that.
Any Time You Want It
As I’ve already said, money can be pretty great. It can buy you that big-screen TV or take you on a fancy vacation. We all want to make that six-figure monthly income on the Internet and we all have the opportunity to achieve that kind of success.
However, the two most valuable aspects to making money online are the freedoms of time and location. When you have a more conventional job that takes you to a more traditional office, you are usually bound to specific working hours. You’re expected to be in that office from 9am to 5pm, five days a week, if not longer. You can’t spend a random day in the middle of the week completely with your daughter, because you have to be at work. You are not the master of your own time. And time is a truly non-renewable resource; as soon as it’s gone, it’s gone forever.
If you’re your own boss and you make your living on the Internet, you can step away from the “office” and have a daddy-daughter day at Sea World.
Anywhere You Want It
And then there is the advantage of location freedom. If you make money online, you can make money anywhere you can get online. John grew up in Vancouver, but he’s also lived in Bellevue before moving down to Orange County. He didn’t have to worry about the job prospects in Washington or California, because he brought his “job” and his money-making potential with him. He just needs to get online.
My life as a freelance writer is much the same. While I have chosen to stay in Vancouver, I could just as easily move somewhere else. And when I went on vacation to Europe, Australia and Asia, I was able to pop open my laptop, get some work done, and continue to earn my living. That’s what the Internet has empowered us to do.
And it gets even better with passive income streams, as I’m sure John will continue to tell us.