work from home onlineThe Internet is the largest socio-economic phenomenon of our century. It changed the way people communicate, collaborate, and live. It also created a whole new type of worker: the online worker. Those are people who work full time on the Internet. Some make money through their blogs, others leverage affiliate marketing, others yet focus on providing services over the web.
Regardless of the business model, there are many reasons that make working online exciting. Below we’re going to cover some of them.
No more wasted time on commutes
Even if you live relatively close to your work, you’ll still waste a good amount of time commuting back and forth every day. For example, if your workplace is 30 minutes away from your home (either by car or by public transportation), you will waste 60 minutes per day, which translates into 240 hours every year.
What if instead of wasting those 240 hours commuting you could use them for something productive? You probably could read dozens of books, learn new things (i.e., how to play an instrument), exercise more and so on with all that time available.
You can work on your own terms
Imagine being able to wake up without an alarm clock every single day. If you work on the Internet you can work any time you want. Do you feel more productive at night? Then work at night. Do you want to take Wednesdays off to practice a sport? Go for it.
Working on your own terms also means that you can structure your working environment as you please. That is, you can wear some comfortable clothes instead of the annoying suit, listen to music while you work if that makes you more productive and so on.
You can work anywhere
We say “work from home,” but in reality you can work anywhere, and this is a great advantage. The only requirement is a reliable Internet connection, but you can get one virtually anywhere these days. You could work from cafes, parks, and even from the beach if you grab a wireless modem.
For the matter of fact you can even travel to other countries and still work on your websites as you would do if you were sitting on your home office (and many people do just that).
You can network with a lot of people
Online networking is certainly not as effective as face to face networking, but the fact that you get to interact with thousands of people certainly compensates.
By working on the Internet you’ll be able to meet and work with people from all around the world, from all fields and with all sorts of interests. Initially your relationship with those people will not be as strong as with local co-workers, but over time it might.
There are hundreds of cases of people who got hired, found partners and launched successful projects over the web without meeting the other side physically.
It is flexible
A great benefit of working online is the flexibility. You can create all sorts of websites, explore different niches and try different business models every single day.
For example, you could start with a blog on a topic you are passionate about, and after a while you could experiment launching an online store on the same niche offering some products to your visitors.
This flexibility makes working online both fun and profitable.
It might be less risky
Many people work 9 to 5 jobs because they believe it is a safer option. A regular job sends a pay check every month, after all, while an online business has many ups and downs.
To a certain extent this is true, but under many aspects having your own online (or offline for the matter of fact) business is actually less risky. For example, if you work for a company you could get fired any day. Sometimes even top performers are fired because the company needs to cut costs.
If you have your own business, on the other hand, no one will be able to fire you. Sure, the business could still go wrong, but that is a risk under your direct control.
You get to be your own boss
It would be tough to find a person who never had an annoying boss, right? Even if your boss is a nice guy, taking orders from someone else sucks.
By working online you’ll solve this problem for good. You’ll still have customers, readers and advertisers who will demand your attention, but the level of stress in dealing with those is significantly lower when compared to having a boss.
You get to develop business skills
Every website that is built with the purpose of making money can be seen as a small business entity. You will have to manage resources (e.g., web hosting, domain names), people (e.g., web designers, writers), clients (e.g., readers or customers) and so on. You’ll also need to plan the business model, the marketing activities and so on.
In other words, you’ll develop important business skills along the way, and this is something very valuable.
It might grow into a big business
Most websites start as a hobby. If your idea is good and you put enough work on it, however, it might grow into a big business. Just consider blogs like Tech Crunch. It started as a one-man show, and today it employs several writers, editors, and it generates millions in revenues every year.
And you don’t need to go to the very top to see this pattern. There are hundreds of web design, affiliate marketing and consulting firms that were started as a hobby and turned into profitable businesses over time.
Your work will go into something you own
We believe there are no shortcuts to success. Whether you work for a corporation or have your own small business, if you want to succeed you’ll need to work your butt off.
The difference of the two scenarios above is quite a big one, however. On the first one you’ll be putting your heart and soul on someone else’s business. Sure you might get a good salary in exchange for that, but the fact that someone else owns the whole thing and will collect most of the profits remains unchanged.
If you have your own online business, on the other hand, all your sweat will go into something that you actually own. If you hit a home run, you’ll collect all the profits, and you can also decide to sell the whole business down the road.
Conclusion
Now don’t get the wrong idea. Working from home online is not a panacea. It has drawbacks too, and it is not the right lifestyle for everyone (i.e., there are people who hate sitting in front of the computer for hours in a row). If you believe that the pros would out-weight the cons for you, however, give it a shot. You can start working on your websites without quitting your day job, and after six months or so you’ll be in a better position to decide if that is something you would like to do full time.
http://www.onlineprofits.com