Someone asked me the other day why making money online seems to come so easy for me. I had to tell them that in my opinion it is NOT easy and nor is it for me. Well, the technical aspects and the actual work are easy for me…I love blogging, web design, graphic design, coding, etc. The leg work though is not all that easy. It can be tedious and time consuming, especially if I am in “production mode” as opposed to what Lynn Terry refers to as “maintenance mode”.
Maintenance entails all the stuff that keeps your business humming along as is…customer support, answering emails, paying affiliates, etc. It probably only takes me 5 hours a week to keep things running on maintenance, if that. But in production mode I am BUSY…sometimes like 30-40 hours a week busy. Production mode is what allows me to grow my business. Some of my production mode activities include writing and posting content for blogs (I have over a dozen), static web sites, article directories, info products, special reports, autoresponders (I have over a dozen), and for sale. I also scour my web sites and blogs for new ways to monetize the content. I spend a lot of time testing and tracking to see what works and what doesn’t and I tweak. I also look for ways to automate processes so my maintenance time is low. I brainstorm new ideas and flesh them out to gauge profitability.
I spend time engaging in various PR or publicity activities but admittedly I am very picky about my opportunities. I have turned down prime time TVs shows, on air broadcast news interviews, and photo shoots because I prefer not to do that. I didn’t start an online biz to be some sort of rock star, I started an online business to make enough money so that eventually my whole family could have financial freedom. My ultimate goal is to make enough money passively to support us spending 6 months a year out of the country…like a beachside rental in Costa Rica.
So for right now that means I spend some hefty hours in production mode. But it is worth it. Last week I bought my husband a motorcycle with cash. He gave up his motorcycle when we moved out of state and has missed it ever since. Tomorrow he goes to pick up his new one. It feels good to be able to do that.
Most days I am in production mode because I do want to see my business continue to grow for some time. I think it will be worth it in the long run even if it is hard right now.
Towards the beginning of the year I remember a conversation at 
On a related side note my RSS feed subscribers jumped from 46 to 365 during that same time.
I don’t think I will ever be making the kind of money John Chow’s blog is (think $180,000 annually) but hey I am not complaining.