How Dependent Do You Become When Making Money on the Internet?
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| Image by LEEROY Agency from Pixabay |
Finally, no more boss who annoys you and complete independence, at least that is the hope.
But the reality looks a little more complicated. In this article, I will go into the dependencies involved in making money on the Internet and how to deal with them.
Dependency When Making Money on the Internet?
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| How Dependent Do You Become When Making Money on the Internet? |
This question or statement may surprise one or the other. Doesn't one become self-employed precisely to no longer be dependent?
That is correct and entrepreneurial freedom is also something great. Nevertheless, you are not an island, as the saying goes, but you enter into other dependencies that may not have a direct influence on your work, but can certainly influence your success.
In the following, I will deal with 3 areas in which such dependencies often occur.
Range
Anyone who wants to make money online needs reach. This means that you need more or less many visitors to your website, blog, etc. to be able to generate significant income.
And where do these visitors usually come from? From Google, of course.
Many websites get most of their visitors from Google. For me, there are now 2/3 of all visitors here in the blog. The slump would be correspondingly strong if Google blocked its website or at least penalized it.
Other business models on the web are based on e.g. YouTube (see my article on the Lets Player ). The dependency is even greater here, as you are solely dependent on YouTube visitors, and blocking would mean the end of the business model.
Social networks are becoming increasingly important for many self-employed people online. Regardless of whether as a traffic provider (I'm only referring to the food blogs, which often get more traffic from Pinterest than from Google) or as a central platform (Facebook fan page as the only presence).
Throwing out would have fatal consequences for many.
How to prevent/reduce dependency:
You cannot prevent 100% dependence on Google, YouTube, and social networks, but you can reduce it.
A good measure to reduce the dependency on Google would be, for example, to set up an email newsletter, as this would give you direct contact with your fans/readers and would also reach them if you were kicked out of Google. In addition, it makes sense to offer an RSS feed and to be active on social networks. The more other channels you use, the better.
If you use YouTube, you should think about building your website at the same time and, if necessary, publishing your videos on another video platform.
The dependency on individual social networks can also be reduced somewhat if you operate your website and are also active in various social networks.
In general, however, one has to say that it is not possible to be completely independent. Google is the main traffic generator on the web and without Google, it will be very difficult for most. The same applies to YouTube if you rely on videos. Only the social networks are not so fundamentally important for most of them.
You should therefore make sure that you stick to the “rules of the game” from Google and YouTube. No manipulation, no illicit tricks. Then you are relatively safe.
The same applies to the various social networks.
Revenue
The second major area of potential dependency is revenue. Here it is less of a forced dependency as with Google but of a voluntary and creeping one.
Anyone who wants to earn money with their website or blog will sooner or later start testing and using sources of income. There can be very different dependencies.
- Advertisers are a very nice thing. If you have a blog that addresses a specific target group that is interesting for companies, you usually don't have to wait long for companies that want to advertise.
That in and of itself is also a problem. However, you have to be careful not to get too greedy. You quickly threw your principles overboard because the compensation offered is so good.
In addition, there are unfortunately always advertisers who then ask for a positive article or something similar. Anyone who has concluded a particularly lucrative advertising deal can often find it difficult to say no. - Paid items are often quite problematic. Regardless of whether you do this yourself or get it mediated via a platform, companies of course usually want a positive article.
- Here you may get into the awkward position of getting money for an article, but not finding the product/service good at all and having to criticize it. But the client would probably not like that.
- Affiliate Marketing. In affiliate marketing, you only earn money when your readers buy the linked product or use the linked service.
Therefore, there is a risk that everything will be praised in the sky so that the readers generate commissions.
It is difficult for many to be neutral and honest once they have seen what one can earn. - Generally, if you only use a single source of income, you become very dependent.
For example, if you only use Google AdSense, you may earn very well with it, but if you get banned from AdSense, you are initially without income.
But other sources of income should not be used alone, as you become too dependent (e.g. if you only have one advertising customer and don't want to annoy them).
How to prevent/reduce dependency:
The dependency on income is a little better to prevent than on reach.
For one, it's a very good idea to bet on many different sources of income. On the one hand, this reduces the negative effects of being thrown out somewhere. On the other hand, if you have many advertisers and other sources of income, you cannot be put under so much pressure by individual advertisers, for example.
Otherwise, it is also important to think long-term here and not to throw one's principles overboard for a quick profit. Whoever thinks of the readers first and adheres to the regulations of the individual sources of income creates the conditions for long-term good income.
Technology
A third and often underestimated point is technology. Here, too, you can get into dependencies that can damage your own online business.
So of course you are dependent if you use your blog or website as a hosted solution. If you start your blog directly at WordPress.com and do not install it yourself, you save time and nerves, but of course, you are heavily dependent on this provider.
In general, you should think carefully about which software solutions you are using. With open source or freeware, the risk is generally much lower than they will suddenly disappear from the market. On the other hand, whoever uses a manufacturer's software depends on the latter developing the software further.
Anyone who is not so technically skilled must commission third parties to make changes and adjustments. This can also lead to dependencies and of course costs money. Fast changes and flexible reactions are also hardly possible.
How to prevent/reduce dependency:
I would recommend every self-employed person to start a self-hosted website/blog and use it as a central point in their strategy. This cannot be blocked so easily, which makes for a great deal of independence.
It is also helpful if you familiarize yourself with basic technical things and, for example, can make visual adjustments yourself. This is a great advantage, especially in the beginning, and you save a lot of money.
My Experiences
I've been self-employed for more than 8 years now and this blog has been around for more than 7 years.
During this time I got to know the advantages of being self-employed, but I also noticed that you are not completely independent.
For me, for example, there were special advertising and cooperation inquiries that were very attractive financially. But after careful consideration, I usually decided against it, because I have to be able to stand behind everything that I publish and recommend on my website.
There were also affiliate program operators who wanted to talk me into my content planning (e.g. not to introduce any competitors). And of course, an advertising customer has already offered a higher fee or a longer booking if I also write a positive article.
But even if it is not that easy sometimes, I have stayed true to my strategy of “thinking long-term”. Getting into dependencies is problematic enough, but you can also destroy the reader's painstakingly built trust very quickly. So I have always opted for long-term success and put short-term profit ahead of me.
But as I said, it wasn't always easy.
Your Experiences
How are your experiences with the addiction as a self-employed person on the net?
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