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If you're trying to make money online, you've probably been asked if you're treating your efforts as an internet business or hobby. The main thinking is that if you're just treating it like a hobby, then you can't expect to earn much. Before you do start treating it as a business, though, you'll need to examine a few things first....

Do you hate your job? Do you feel like a slave of the ancient world who now earns a wage so that you can buy your bread and water? Or do you feel trapped in a high-paying job that you find impossible to leave because you or your family and relatives have gotten used to the "lifestyle" that it affords you?

If you turn your internet hobby into a business, get ready for the day when you turn from webmaster to web-slave. The internet will eat up your time... if you allow it.

Do you really want to run a business? For me, a real business (from the entrepreneur's point of view) involves hiring people to implement your ideas. If you do practically EVERYTHING yourself, well... Hello, Internet Slave! ;-)

Are you an Introvert? Can you stand sitting in front of your computer 8 hours a day? Are you happy when you don't have face-to-face, real-life human contact? Are you satisfied quietly going about your business... alone? Do you like writing? Well, you can start what will eventually become an all-consuming, socially-limiting, and addictive internet business.

But if you enjoy the company of friends, if you crave human interaction, if you heartily swap life stories with people around you and friends made over the years, then just make this internet make money online thing a hobby.

Get a job in the corporate world.

If you don't like your present job, and if you can afford it, transfer to another company.

This internet thing? Just make it an enjoyable hobby that gives you grocery money. (Unless you want to make it your life. But I strongly doubt that.)

Those internet gurus who rake in thousands of dollars launch after product launch? I wonder if they get to enjoy their earnings. Sure, they post photos of their mansions, their flashy cars, or even their expensive possessions.

But do they look like they're actually enjoying all these things?

Or perhaps they're super-busy, working 12-hour days and 8-hour nights so that they could earn money for their family, friends, relatives, neighbors, and relatives of neighbors?

Are you willing to work as hard as the big names in internet marketing do?

Or do you prefer to enjoy life with the company of your loved ones, and hope that the internet earns you some amount of passive income commensurate to the 3 hours a week that you're willing to put in?

Turn your internet project into a hobby that you love, and you will find the time to savor whatever fruits you harvest.

There's a birthday greeting that Ali Sotto of dzBB (Philippine AM radio) often wishes people: Salud, amor, dinero... y tiempo para gozarlos.

Health, love, money... and the time to enjoy these.

Here's to your profitable internet hobby in the coming months!

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Manuel Viloria is your friendly multimedia internet publishing coach who helps you gain more traffic for your web sites. Whether it's through blogging, podcasting, article marketing, videoblogging, email listbuilding, or even through Web 2.0 or social network marketing, you can increase your website visitors today. For more information, please visit Get More Traffic | ManuelViloria.com

"Internet Business or Hobby?"
First Posted: January 11, 2008 | Filed in: General

Tags: make money online