Ava on Working Online and Why You Should Think About It

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!

Every WordPress blog ships with one post and that's what it says ^^^. I usually just delete the post and start from scratch, but I thought I'd change things up a little. Change is good from time to time.

What Working Online Is

I thought I'd write a little about what working online actually is. Currently, I do some website maintenance, newsletters, and other assistant work for a few clients. When I first started online back in 2006, I wrote articles for money and I focused there until 2014. Writing can be draining. If you've ever done it, you know this to be true....especially when you are writing on topics selected by other people that you're not remotely interested in.

I much prefer being a virtual assistant because what I'm doing is always changing rather than spending 8 hours focused on pounding out article after article for less pay.

You may work online at your job. If your job requires you to have an Internet connection, then you're pretty much working online. 

Perhaps a better term would be working remotely.

50% of the jobs in the United States can be performed at least partially remotely. 20 to 25% of the workforce works remotely. 

80% of workers say they'd like to work remotely.

It's actually a phenomenon that has grown 103% since 2005. 

That's nice, right? So what can remote workers actually do? 

Pretty much anything you do in an office environment can be done remotely. At times it may take specialized equipment, but it's doable. If you have skills in book keeping, appointment setting, clerical, customer service, and more, you could technically perform these functions and services from a remote environment. 

Remote work doesn't necesarily have to be office work. Perhaps you do construction work remotely or some other physical labor. Odds are you're not working at your company office, right? You can work online even if you're a doctor, lawyer, or Indian Chief by simply sharing your expertise.

There is a whole plethora of work to be done online from transcription to web development to content creation to marketing. Positioning yourself as an expert in these fields is lucrative.

Passive Income Online

The Internet has made money-making super easy is you know what to do. 

Back in the day, to earn passively, you had to be lucky enough to get published traditionally, or through investing, rental property, vending machines, or something of that nature, most of which are still viable today.

With the Internet, there are a ton of options:

• Blogging and monetizing with ads and/or affiliate products
• Self-publishing books
• Creating and selling online courses
• Drop shipping
• Monetized YouTube videos

This list could literally go on for quite a while. 

What Working Online is Not

Easy.

It seems like Easy Street when you're on the outside looking in, but it's just a different set of problems:

• Lonely - working remotely is lonely if you enjoy a team environment at all. Even if you don't, you'll miss the interaction
• Taxes - This isn't an automatic thing like it is when you're officially employed. However, if you work remotely as an employee instead of a contractor, this won't be an issue for you
• There's no IT department - Or any other kind of department for that matter. You must handle everything yourself
• Requires self-discipline - You have to be disciplined to work remotely. You need ethics and morals or you won't do well. No, you can't clock hours on your clients for breaks and expect to keep them

What kind of problems do you foresee for yourself in this situation?

Don't get me wrong, there are a TON of perks and they do indeed tend to easily outweigh all of this and then some.

I Can't Work Online, Because....

Why?

Because you have a "real" job?

You can do online work on the side for extra income! 

That is how I started. 

Working online is flexible! You can do it in the evenings while you're watching TV. You can do it on the weekend. You can do it for a few minutes at a time. You can do it any day and skip it when you don't feel like it.

If you play your cards right, you can make money online in your sleep.

If you tell me your interests, passions, or what you do for a living, I can tell you a way to make money online doing the same thing. I can probably tell you several ways.

Can you imagine turning your passion into real income?

You can do that online.

You can make money online on Facebook, Twitter, playing games, and more! That's right! You don't have to give up your gaming hobby to make money online. You can do both at the same time. 

There's no reason NOT to do it.

A Real World Example of Turning Your Passions Into Cash

Let's go on with this gaming example. If you spend any amount of time playing video games, you can turn that into cash. Have you ever heard of PewDiePie? He's a YouTuber who started out running a gaming channel where he just recorded or streamed himself playing video games. He is the highest paid YouTuber to date. His estimated yearly earnings are between half a million and a whopping $8.5 millon a year.

You can start today. Create a YouTube channel and a Twitch account and start making videos.

Gaming not your thing?

Me either really.

Let's say you enjoy makeup and fashion. 

You can do the same thing. You can either do a YouTube channel with makeup tips which are wildly popular or you can do a blog and skip the video. If you don't want to create a website, you can simply make a Facebook page and share your knowledge there. Monetize your efforts with affiliate products. For example, if you use a certain brand of eye shadow to create the perfect smoky eye effect, become and Amazon Associate, find the product on Amazon, and create an affiliate link so each time someone buys that product via your link, you earn a commission.

Or, you could just outright sell your own products if you have some. You can also sell white label products which are products not created under any one brand, but rather made to be branded by individual sellers. You can spin it how it best suits YOU.

That’s a Wrap

If you're not working online, ask yourself why not? I guess you can't use extra disposable income?

Come on. It doesn't cost anything to shoot me an email and get my advice.

It's also free to subscribe to my monthly newsletter.