Is Online Business Sustainable In The Long Term?

Posted on February 10, 2009
Filed Under Earn money online

Q: Dear Tomaz,

Your website is really inspiring. I am going to buy Site Build It pretty soon (off your link) and get started.

This might be a stupid question, but do you think that making a living online is sustainable? In other words, do you see yourself making a living online 15 years from now doing the same thing?

A: You’re welcome and thanks for a very interesting question. I’ve considered and contemplated on this before – whether online business will work in 15 years or more.

Here are some of my conclusions:

1. Having a job, especially now, is not safe. There were around 600,000 people laid off in USA in December – if I am not mistaken. So I don’t see a normal job sustainable in the long term. Even CEOs get fired. (I hope more bankers get fired soon…)

2. The only thing certain in this universe is change. Everything changes and you have to change with the time to keep up and prosper. The Internet (for most people) is around 10 years old or even less. And see all the changes; Yahoo, Google, Myspace, Youtube, Facebook, … Maybe in 10 years there will be Shmooglehoo and we’ll just have to adapt.

3. The Internet is definitely here to stay and in will just get faster and more interactive. People will still use the Internet in large extent to find information online and they will definitely search with keywords for quite some time. Large content sites with lots of text will do well for a very long time. There would have to be some extraordinary evolution and revolution in digital world to change that. Check my Interview with Ken Evoy on the future of the Internet for more ideas…

4. The first future that I see is that search engines will read audio from videos (and audio files) and index those too. Meaning, if your site has embedded videos, Google will know whether the videos on your pages are relevant or not and will rank your pages accordingly. But if you really want to have a high quality site, then video is surely even now present on some of your pages.

5. The online business is scalable while a job is not. If you have one full time job, you cannot have another full time job. But if you have one mature website, you can easily start working on another. I see stats from 2 sites that were not updated (one added a few C2 pages) in 1 year, I just exchanged a few not very valuable links. The traffic of the first one increased by 20% and the traffic of the second one by 25%. So did the earnings… Meaning; no work on the sites for 1 year still earned money and gave me enough time to start new sites or improve existing ones.

6. The real key is not really in what kind of business you are but whether your knowledge (or product) is valuable. Do you know something that other people need? Can you offer products that other people need? I believe the knowledge is more important and more valuable. Online business allows you to share this knowledge with the whole world and be rewarded for that – of course many times more than if you share this knowledge with just a few people.

7. The Internet will change but not in its key function – allowing people to search for information. You may have to change HOW you provide that information (text, video, audio, video conferencing, …) in order to benefit the most from the current state of internet, advertising and selling options. But if you have valuable knowledge, then you have nothing to fear. And remember, on the Internet, even knowledge of how to tie a tie is very valuable and can be very profitable.

8. And finally, don’t put all the eggs in the same basket. People who invested heavily in stocks feel the pain now. (Luckily for me, I didn’t have enough money to buy stocks before. ) I am not a financial expert, but having some money in the bank, some in stocks, some in real estate and some invested in websites will definitely allow you stay afloat in any kind of recession. (Which by the way I don’t feel at all with my online business. Traffic is growing and so are earnings.)

Your thoughts?

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Comments

23 Responses to “Is Online Business Sustainable In The Long Term?”

Mark on February 10th, 2009 6:57 am

Really interesting topic
I thought many times about this, if i would quit my study and fully focus on my online business. But like Tomaz said: don’t put all the eggs in the same basket and having a job doesn’t give you guarantees

Great post!!!
Jerrick on February 10th, 2009 9:21 am

Hi Tomas,

Wow, you always make great POSTS! Awesome, so how much is your monthly earnings now? Have you reached your target of $20k?
Adi on February 10th, 2009 11:28 pm

Can’t say better than that: one thing for certain to happen in the future is change.

People say having a 9 to 5 day job is the safest bet you can get.

I’d say the safest bet is taking control of your life, not controlled by a corporation, and do what you love.
Tomaz on February 13th, 2009 10:50 pm

Thanks, Jerrick. Yes, the December and January were both above 20k.
torunn on February 14th, 2009 5:36 am

Tomaz,
Do you mind telling us your latest within monetizing your sites ; type programs, placement, general tips that you have discovered. It would be a great post, you have tested everything is seems !
Torunn
Tomaz on February 15th, 2009 9:59 pm

Hey Torunn,

I think there are no big secrets about monetizing. I use Chitika and Adsense both above the fold.

Adsense is in the top left area under the title and text wraps around it. Then I also use one 160×600 column either on left or right side.

No need to buy $97 products to use Adsense; place it in top left, use the same colors for links as you do for titles in your site and that’s it. You need lots of traffic though for making good money…
Nickolay Lamm on February 15th, 2009 10:04 pm

Tomaz, thank you for your reply.
KF on February 17th, 2009 9:22 am

Tomaz,

From how many sites are you able to generate the 20K monthly? And is one site pulling in most of that money? What is the breakdown from Adsense, Chitika, etc.? Thanks.

KF
Tomaz on February 17th, 2009 10:28 pm

KF,

I have 5 SBI sites; one makes around $400 to 500 per day, one around $100 per day and one around $70 per day. The rest make just a few dollars per day. Most comes from Adsense (around 12k), then Chitika (around 4k) and the rest from other smaller affiliate programs (Amazon, CJ, Infolinks, …).
SG on February 23rd, 2009 11:59 am

Hi Tomaz,

Are you comfortable saying which site is making the $400-500 per day ? Is that your vacuum site or your tennis site ?

Thanks
Phil on February 23rd, 2009 3:58 pm

Yet again, another fantastic post. We’ve been finding some success with infolinks. Do you still use these on your site(s)? When Chitika went away from the Mini-Malls, our income dropped dramatically and has yet to recover. Additionally, the “relevant” ads from them never seem to be accurate (always a bunch of Ipod ads).
Tomaz on February 24th, 2009 1:27 am

SG,

Yes, that’s the vacuum site. The tennis site makes around $2500 per month…
Tomaz on February 24th, 2009 1:30 am

Phil,

Yes, I still use Infolinks and will write a review soon. Chitika shows Ipod ads if you’re not from their supported country. Yes, the pay per click has dropped from their maximum levels that it used to have but I think that was a “bubble”.

You know, the same kind of bubble as the financial bubble (stocks, banks, …) that recently burst. Chitika pay per click is still in the area of Google Adsense – on one of my sites they pay double compared to Adsense so I’ve removed Adsense completely from that site.
miki on February 24th, 2009 4:04 pm

There is one thing that really bothers me .People around the world are loosing jobs .Most of us here are talking about an online business .Forwarding information of some sort. In exchange we expect to make money from this .
What I`m saying is ,who will do the real work ? And who will have the buying power in future ? You need a skilled worker to build a house ,and somebody to pay for it .And ONLINE is not able to build it yet . . .
Ron on February 24th, 2009 5:51 pm

Cool website/blog. I just found it.

Are the Niche Blueprints the real deal? And do you use them in conjunction with SBI?

I’ll be buying my SBI package for a few other niche ideas but I would not mind giving Niche Blueprint a try……
Tomaz on February 25th, 2009 12:36 am

Good point, Miki. My view of the future (very far ahead, maybe 100 years) is that there will always be people who DON’T like computers and prefer manual work.

Another point is that eventually the market will determine how valuable it is to build houses and roads and how valuable it is to type on PCs. If there will be lack of people and big demand for working projects, then the salaries of workers will be much higher.
Tomaz on February 25th, 2009 12:37 am

Hi Ron,

Yes, I have built a few sites based on Niche blueprints and they help if you don’t have a good idea on which niche to “attack” and which keywords to use.
Ryan on February 25th, 2009 2:40 am

Tomaz,

I have outsourced a few articles through getafreelancer and am pretty happy…Am interested in the link-building section of the website…Do you have any experience with link builders or do you think it should be done by the website owner? Looking for an opinion. Thanks!
Tomaz on February 25th, 2009 8:09 am

Ryan,

I haven’t had good experience with link builders. They have hundreds of sites with links / resources pages where there are hundreds of links and they will put your link there.

I think this is the real hard work when building your online business and this part determines whether you’ll make it big or not…
Ryan on February 25th, 2009 1:43 pm

Thanks for the insight Tomaz….I figured it was something like mass directories they submit to. I just got a little discouraged starting out linkbuilding and was looking for a different way to do it (easier way). Time to get back to it!
Letitia on March 18th, 2009 6:47 am

I am going to purchase an SBI site through your site because I’ve found the information you share to be so helpful. I am however struggling to decide on a niche. Would you share your thoughts on using one’s experience that could be pretty competitive verses going with a new idea from a source like Niche Blueprints?
My understanding is that Niche Blueprints gives you ideas and keywords for markets that are not over saturated. Please correct me if I’m wrong on that. Thank you.
Tomaz on March 18th, 2009 2:29 pm

Thanks for you offer, Letitia. Yes, the Niche Blueprints are generally made around winnable niches OR they show you which keywords to target in tougher niches so that you’ll get some nice traffic.

I’d still try to find the right angle or right keywords with your experience first, because you can really show to the visitors that you know your stuff and therefore gain their trust.
Letitia on March 18th, 2009 3:49 pm

Tomaz,

Thank you for your quick response.