Failing – An Online Business Story Observations & Reflections on 8 years of consistent failure (Part 1)

Introduction:

You’ve probably come across tens of thousands of books, websites and blogs preaching about the easy money that is to be made online. This is not one of them. I discovered the wonders of online business in 2009, and began devouring any and all books and online information on how to make money sitting behind a computer in my underwear. I started by selling all of my useless gadgets and toys on eBay, with some success. Then after I exhausted my personal inventory of unwanted goods, I proceeded to seek out starting my own online businesses.

I have done a ton of online businesses: domaining, dropshipping, web design, graphic design, affiliate marketing, consulting, e-commerce sites, content websites, several blogs, mobile apps, to name a few.
What I’m here to tell you, is that it is not easy, nor really that fun. Initial excitement about an idea or dream about a successful online business quickly fizzles upon the reality of it all.

You’ll come to discover that once your polished and beautifully laid out website is ready for the ripe masses to flood to, that it is not as easy as “build it, and they will come”.
I’ve personally started over 30 online businesses, and each of them stood tall, in all their glory and digital beauty. I made sure to pay extra for the shiny logo, the search engine optimization guru to tweak the site, and even for premium advertising.

But these ready to deploy websites ended up just sitting in the virtual computer world, collecting digital dust with the occasional lost internet traveler accidently stumbling upon the site and then retreating in a dash.
This is my personal story of complete failure in online business. I am writing this book to give insight into these endeavors. Online business is not always favorable, and you must know what you’re getting yourself into. Hopefully I could shine some light on the subjects that are often neglected by the internet marketing snakes that sing about how easy and fruitful online business is.

This book is not intended to steer you away from pursuing your dreams and goals. I believe that with all the fluff of these online “millionaires” spewing their get rich quick schemes, you deserve to know about the truth.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. It’ll create real emotions: anger, resentment, despair and disappointment. It’ll cost real money, a lot of money and a lot of time. To make an honest assessment of your willingness to pursue such endeavor, you must know both the good and bad. I’m sure you’ve heard all of the good, this book will provide the truth, which is both good and bad.

Throughout my 8 years of conducting online business, I’ve learned some tough lessons that I think everyone should know before they dive into the online business world. Don’t get me wrong, I have actually created real money from online business, so it is possible. But I did so at an extreme expense (time, money, effort, stress) and overall, would confidently state that it all combined resulted in a net loss.

A Short Bio:

When I was 18, I stumbled across an article on the internet – “How to start making money while you sleep.”
This headline captured my attention, because I was a student at the local community college and was looking for a job in one of the worst economic recessions the U.S. experienced since the Great Depression. I clicked on the link, and there it boasted several ways to make money online: start an e-commerce business, sell stuff on eBay, write a blog, be a web designer, the list went on and on. I was fixated. “I could really make money online?” I thought to myself in confused excitement. Instantly, I started doing more research, and found myself first opening an eBay account and selling a bunch of junk I had laying around. I also threw some of my sister’s stuff on eBay and sold it, which she wasn’t too happy about after she discovered that I profited off her clothes and shoes.

After exhausting my supply of personal inventory to sell, I moved on. I found a wholesale distributor in China, and had spent $400 of my eBay profit to purchase iPod Mini’s. As they arrived, I discovered they weren’t iPod Mini’s, instead they were similar looking knock offs. I was displeased, but carried on my plan to sell them through my own e-commerce store. I spent another $125 to start my own store, and after about 6 months of being online, I had 1 sale. I almost forgot to mention, the sale wasn’t through my e-commerce site, but to my uncle, who bought the iPod and then accidently pressed the dysfunctional home button so hard that he smashed the device into debris the same day he bought it. I didn’t give him a refund.

I made zero sales on my e-commerce website after 8 months, and was stuck with 40 fake iPod’s. I ended up giving them away to kids at my school. Later, I started a blog about my endeavor to make money online, maybe it was before it’s time because after 1 year of blogging every day, I had a consistent 20 visitors a week.
I then decided to learn to do web designing and offer my services through classified ads, I learned web designing using the Adobe Dreamweaver application and designed a few websites for a couple hundred bucks each, but after 3 years of only odd jobs here and there, I decided it wasn’t an interest of mine to pursue further. After finishing school, I moved and got a decent job and continued to invest my time and money heavily into starting online businesses. I was desperate to make online business work for me.

Fast forward to today, I have spent about $20-30k in a diverse set of online businesses over the years, and I have probably made 10-15% of that money back, not a dime of profit has yet to skim my wallet. But I do know that I have learned quite a bit since my early days of aspiring online entrepreneurship, lessons and realistic expectations you could expect from online business entrepreneurship.
I’m not here to voice my resentment for online business, I still love the idea of “making money while I sleep”, and I’m still determined to experience that someday. But I know now that it takes a lot more than what is told on blogs and websites these days. I’m here to share the truth, so that you’re not caught up in all the noise of the online communities that boast “easy money” and “quick riches”.

These following articles will give you some guidance on your pursuit of internet business, so that you do not make the same mistakes I did (and sacrifice 7 years of your life). I want you to know that I did not succeed in online business, therefore, I have no right to tell you what works. However, I could definitely tell you what doesn’t work, or what steps that you decide not to take that could cost you. I’ve spent some time reflecting, and have decided to stand back and observe instead of participate in online business. These pages are those important points of reflection, and observations made by those who made the cut and the ones that fall into the cyber abyss of failure.