Featured Money Maker Of The Month:
Learn the techniques I used to make over $4,000,000 in affiliate commissions! Check out my Free Affiliate Marketing Guide and learn the "how to" for Facebook Ads, PPC Affiliate Marketing, PPV / CPV Affiliate Marketing, And Media Buying!
You know, it's funny. Many people think they would love the lifestyle of a person who owns a business and works from home.
The perks are amazing, I love it so much. Many people say how they wish they could do what I do for work, etc.
The downside most people never see is while I am away on a trip, on vacation, or trying to relax.
If you want a full time, make money online career, be prepared for the following:
- 0 days off. - If you're working from home full time, you're making a significant amount. Because of the business model, any number of problems can happen on a daily basis. You never leave work like a traditional job. I never truly take a vacation or travel without first having a laptop and ensuring I have access to the internet.
- Ups and Downs - Working from home can be very up and down. Mix a down day and vacation time and it's a definite damper on the fun. In the affiliate life style, most often, you don't have a steady income.
- Stress - Working at home actually can be pretty stressful. You have no clear direction. You are your own boss, which is AWESOME but at the same time... means you have to motivate yourself, come up with a goal, find a way to meet that goal. Mix this with the above and now you're starting to realize that the life of working from home is not 100% all glamor.
So after reading this, are you thinking? I still want to pursue working from home / affiliate marketing? Great! Now get to work! 
It probably is tough and stressfull but it still has to be WAY better than being a corporate peon! Working from home and setting my own hours is such a dream of mine.
And that’s the truth! Nicely said!!!
All work and no play! I hear you on this one.
always working and never having time to do stuff.That sucks
Everything you mention is (or should be) true of just running your own business generally.
Anyone who runs their own business has to work long and hard but it’s worth not having to work for some dumb job and some dumb boss.
Great post, I do it because I love the feel of being my own boss and I love the idea of making money while I’m not online. Sure internet marketing requires a little bit of work each and every day but the flexibility and freedom is the rewarding part.
You don’t work from home, you live at the office.
Yeah, that’s a dark side of being a businessman
Jon, read the 4 hour workweek and the e-myth. by michael gerber i think it can help your situation out. The key to freedom is to design the business to run without your daily input.
Now c’mon Jonathan – didn’t you say in a video recently that you don’t get up until 10:00am!
Seriously – I think this is one of the most missed aspects of ‘work for yourself/make money online’ requirements.
Jobs are easiest – you have to go to work, whether you feel like it or not – you’re accountable to someone else. You have a boss. But you trade your time for money.
Contracting from home is next hardest, but not so bad because you’re still accountable to someone else really, just more flexible about when you do your work.. You still have a boss. And you still trade your time for money.
But creating and running your own business from home – man that is the hardest. You are your own boss. I think you have to get your head around choosing to be accountable to your customers, family, and most of all your self. You are your own boss. You invest your time in your future.
I think this is where faith comes in, faith in purpose, motivates us to achieve goals, even when the going gets tough.
Mental toughness comes in there also don’t you think – the ability ti give ourselves an instruction and then carry it out to completion.. easy when you feel like it, hard when you don’t.
But the rewards are unlimited – not just financial..
For me – relationships are what keep me going – being connected.
all the best Jonathan,
Paul.
You are right of course, but it’s still 1000x better than your average 9-5 job. There IS no such thing as “stability” even in a “conventional job”, where companies downsize and layoff all the time. And there is one KEY factor:
Whatever i do here at home – i enjoy every part of it. Working for someone else? Not really.
You hit the nail on the head.
Everything we do have advantages and disadvantages. Nothing is perfect and there are always problems, even for people like Tiger Woods and Micheal Jordan. I totally understand. People always think the grass is greener on the other side until they get there and may realize it’s not so great!
No matter what. Answering to myself will always be better than answering to 6 plus bosses. Everything in life has its positives and negatives. We just have to decide on which one to focus on!
It may be harder to but is much more rewarding and fun. Not to mention you don’t need to ask permission for a day off.
Working 24/7 is a way of life for me so I don’t consider it hard really. I’m plugged in with email and web on the go. I’m constantly thinking about ways to improve processes and always looking for new angles.
The web and IM is wide open and the hardest part is staying focused.
You’re right, it sucks because you never REALLY get a break. And of course, if you take a extended break, your income could potentially go down.
I guess that’s probably why I’m not making a six-figure income monthly like you… but then again, my business model is trying to get everything as automated as I possibly can.
Jay
It’s a trade off. You can either be your own boss, which comes with a lot of perks, but a lot more responsibility, or continue working for someone else and accept not calling all the shots. Both have their pros and cons- but do you ever regret the choice you made?
[...] post from Jonathan Volk today about the affiliate lifestyle. Sound familiar? It sure does to me…or any small [...]
It’s funny that you mention this. I always am thinking one step ahead to make sure I will have an internet connection.
Never having a day off can get old but being an online marketer is so much fun!
have to chime in again…today i experienced some of the stress first hand:
One of my hosters was down for hours today, with it hundreds of my sites as well as my major payment site where all my payments go through, banners were down (incl. one i have here
as well as google adwords, people clicking to get to a “site not found”. <— STRESS for sure and NOT funny.
I think its little bit stressful but it is much better to be yourself as a boss and from a schedule of regular hours like 9 to 5 or such as. And it does give comfort as you are doing a job with your laptop and internet anywhere.
It is certainly a double edged sword. When you first start off you have to work all hours. Then when you get established you are afraid of not working all hours.
The urge to make tweaks to ads, landing pages or just random thoughts and ideas of how to improve the next campaign while sitting at work (and not be able to do anything about it) can be frustrating.
This is the life of a part-time online marketer with a day dob
-G
As they say, the grass is always greener on the other side. However, unless you have experienced it for yourself, you really have no idea what its like. There are downsides and perks to everything. Its not always flowers and sunshine. I think more people need to realize this before they jump into things
till then,
Jean
be your own boss rocks 0 days off its a great life style but needs a unique mind set.
Everything has its own pros and cons, You you don’t want to be happy you can’t be in any given situation. Working from home is always been my dream. At present am in a 12 hours day job,. opps don’t know when the day will come in my life.
True, just finished a 18 hour session from my office (I used to work from home for one year, but it was not mine, I almost stopped to work just to watch simpsons since the money was puring in. I was getting depressed). Homework is hard, in fact I work more than where I was employed…
Yeah it’s fun to work at home-especially when in the middle of writing,submitting,login…your kids start to jump on your head,wife screaming,mother in law nagging(to get up that lazy ass-lol)-it’s fun and it pays off-but requires a lot of learning and cool head.
It is a good succession with have a nice theme for a different topic……..