What do you do when the economy and country are broken, the banks aren’t lending, and you’re bang smack in the middle of the worst recession in living memory?
You start a new business, of course.
That’s exactly what I did. In the last two years I built a successful web publishing business. My flagship website gets up to a million “customers” a month from all over the world – and rising.
I created a business literally out of thin air. With no bank loan, no enterprise grant, no State aid, no premises.
Despite the gloom and corruption that dominate the daily headlines, my business is booming.
Why? Well for one thing, the guys running – and ruining – the country and the banks aren’t running my business. I am. And, unlike many of them, I know what I’m doing.
Mining Mother Lode of New Media
Another reason is that after working 40 years in traditional media – newspapers – I decided to tap into the awesome power of the World Wide Web and the Internet. I set about mining the mother lode of the new media.
Recent years has seen a massive growth in online publishing and advertising. I managed to carve a significant niche for myself in the last two years in this fast expanding area. It is paying dividends!
A lover of reading and collector of famous quotes and sayings, I built one of the world’s most trusted source of inspirational, educational and fun quotes. The site provides a valuable free resource for students, speakers, researchers, and people searching for a great quote for any occasion.
The income I earn comes from online advertising. My top payer is Google, but I also work with two other North American ad networks.
As my web enterprise is online 24/7, it literally makes money for me while I’m asleep – the ultimate dream job. My wife’s brother who owns an environmental consultancy business in Dublin delights in telling friends and colleagues, “My brother-in-law makes money while he sleeps.”
There are Opportunities Out There for People
I was speaking to a business friend recently about how well both our enterprises are doing, despite Ireland’s economic woes. He is involved in tree production and is set for a windfall from a European shortage of Christmas trees.
“There are still opportunities out there for people,” he observed. I totally agree – you just need the right business idea, the right person driving it, and the will to make it succeed.
In my case I turned my hobby into a business – and a lucrative one at that. It is on target to earn me a six figure income from online advertising in the next year.
For me overnight success came after seven years. That’s when I first dabbled in websites, using my love of books to build a small quotes site featuring the best of Shakespeare, The Bible, Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain.
Two years ago when I quit my newspaper job, my hobby site had 200,000 visitors monthly. I have grown this to multiple times that. And I aim to continue to expanding my reach across the globe.
Success Takes Hard Work and Smart Work
Success in business takes hard work and smart work. As well as adding fresh content weekly, which search engines love, I use top social media like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, as marketing tools. I also target top positions on Google for important keywords.
My quotes site is now an authority site. It is an important resource for students and authors, who can browse thousands of sayings from works of literature and great authors. Visitors will also find everything from birthday sayings, to greetings for Christmas, to Lady Gaga quotes.
Recently I got a nice thank you message from a student in Virginia, USA, for helping him out of a jam. He needed quotes for his English essay from The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye. My site saved his bacon.
Courageous cancer survivors, bereaved parents and spouses, depression sufferers, life coaches number among my thousands of Twitter and Facebook fans. They get uplift daily from my inspirational posts.
My YouTube “Get a Life” video drew praise from a psychiatrist and author from Virginia, USA, who specializes in ADHD. He wants to use quotes from my site for his next book.
My site recently attracted the attention of a father whose art student son was murdered on his way to college in San Francisco. He asked if I would include his son’s art quote my website, which I was very happy to do – “My inspiration is ART … because without ART we would just be stuck with reality.” – Daniel R. Lynch.
To honor and remember Daniel, an art education scholarship program has been set up. His family are in touch with me about making a YouTube video to celebrate his short but inspirational life.
Working at What You Love Doesn’t Feel Like Work
One of the great things about working at something you love is that it doesn’t feel like work at all. It’s a labor of love. Or as Thomas A. Edison put it: “I never did a day’s work in my life. It was all fun.”
If you have a good idea for a business, go for it. Don’t let anything or anyone stop you. Not the banks. Not the economy. Not the scandalous public waste and criminal corruption we are constantly hearing about. Not even illness or disability – I didn’t. I overcame profound hypothyroidism, asthma and sinus problems to build my business, which I operate from a computer at my home in a bedroom converted into an office.
Well, it’s getting late and bedtime calls. Time to go to sleep and earn some money!
* Tom is a web publisher, journalist and media consultant. His websites include:
www.allgreatquotes.com
www.themediapro.com
The above article was published in The Nationalist, Tom’s local newspaper in County Tipperary, Ireland, during November 2010.
Mon, Nov 15, 2010
Earn While Sleeping