3 min read
During the first six months of 2017, I made a total of $89 in online income.
During the first six months of 2018, I made $3,687.
In the first six months of 2019 I made $8,238.
And in the first six months of this year I made $28,729.
In fact, June was the first month that I ever made $7,000+ in a single month:
For those who are curious, I share my online income each month on this page.
This income came from a combination of the following sources:
- Four Pillar Freedom
- Collecting Wisdom
- Statology
- Wander Cincinnati
- A food blog
- Dividends from stocks & REITs
It’s fun to look at this graph from my current viewpoint because I can see the growth over time:
But it wasn’t fun to actually experience this growth while it was happening. In fact, there were several points where I almost quit entirely:
Fortunately, I kept showing up every single day and eventually I landed on a formula that I could use to reliably increase my income over time:
- Write SEO-optimized articles about certain topics.
- Monetize those articles with ads, affiliate links, and digital products.
These two things account for 95% of my income growth over the past few years.
It’s actually a simple process that anyone can replicate, but few do. And I think the reason why is because most people don’t understand three important concepts:
(1) Build once, earn repeatedly.
To grow an online income, you need to produce things (articles, videos, e-books, courses, digital products, etc.) that have the potential to earn money for you over and over again once you’re done making them.
Build once. Earn repeatedly.
The way that I personally do this is by writing articles that appear on the front page of Google for specific search terms. Once I write an article, I can earn traffic and income from it over and over again when people around the world find it each day on Google.
The more articles I write, the more people find my articles, and the more income I earn. Best of all, a single article can earn income for me each month for years. Once I publish it, it becomes a living and breathing asset that works 24 hours per day for me.
Most people simply don’t understand this concept of building once and earning repeatedly. It’s why most people fail to make money online or simply hit a plateau with their monthly income.
(2) Do deep work.
Another reason people fail to earn income online is because they’re unable to do deep work – work performed without distractions for several hours at a time.
For most people, their work flow looks like:
- Work for 5 minutes
- Check Twitter
- Work for 10 minutes
- Check Facebook
- Work for 10 minutes
- Check email
- Work for 10 minutes
- Check email
- Check Twitter
- Work for 10 minutes
- Check text messages
They may spend 3 hours at their desk, but only squeeze out 45 minutes of actual work.
To grow your income online, you need to develop the ability to concentrate for hours at a time several days per week. This habit is the cornerstone of wealth creation.
I personally work for about 4 hours each day Monday through Friday in the mornings. This time is typically broken into two 2-hour chunks, with a 15 minute break in between.
This habit has been the key to growing my income to $7,000+ per month.
(3) Show up for years.
Lastly, most people fail to earn income online because they quit after about three months. They start building some app, or some website, or some course, and simply get bored and quit after a few months.
If you look at anyone online who earns at least $5k+ per month, almost every single one of them have been at it for three years or longer. Most people who earn $10k+ per month have been in the game for a decade or more.
There are many ways to make money online, but nearly all of the sustainable ways require years of effort, not months.
Conclusion
Understanding the three concepts above is the key to growing an online income. I like to think of them as the concepts that tell you what to do, how to do it, and how long to do it in order to experience success:
Understanding these three ideas has helped me build my online income to $7k+ per month and it will help me continue to build it to $10k, then $15k , then $20k per month and beyond.
Interested in growing your own online income?
Join the Income Community – a private community I run that teaches you the exact strategy you can use to start and grow your own profitable website from scratch.
- The Ad Revenue Grid - August 6, 2021
- Attract Money by Creating Value for a Specific Audience - July 13, 2021
- The 5-Hour Workday - March 26, 2021
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