Millions and millions of people work every day trying to make money online. It would seem that the common denominator is that they all are hoping to generate enough income to shed the day job and have more free time.

Money is Freedom

The old saying that money doesn’t buy happiness has got to be one of the most overrated cliche’s ever used. Money very well might not buy you happiness but it buys you all of the things that DO make you happy.

Happy or not, what money does allow you is freedom. Freedom from the fear of being homeless, freedom from the fear of not being a good provider for your family, the fear of not having enough money to retire, the fear of being laid off at any time.

I am sure there are hundreds more but you get the idea. All of these are very valid and real concerns with most people trying to make money online.

These are all very admirable fears to try and overcome however I think most people aren’t trying to make money online to put food on the table, they are trying to make money online to enjoy a different kind of lifestyle. They want to be able to make more and work less.

Blogging Allows Little Freedom

It’s a new month so inevitably you have the good fortune to read all of the income reports that bloggers love to post. I have been reading a number of these in anticipation of this post and one thing is pretty clear, blogging for money is not that lucrative for 99.99% of bloggers.

My own blogging efforts produced about $1000 dollars last month which is ok but it takes an incredible amount of time and effort to make that money. I made double that from my growing niche site empire (ok empire might be strong) and they require very little work once they are setup and optimized.

I’ve had a revelation this past month and that is blogging for money is an AWFUL way to Make Money Online IF you are looking for freedom and to have to work less, then blogging isn’t the best path to do it in my opinion.

To make a sustainable income from blogging would require as much as or MORE time invested than a regular job.

Passive Income

I am not trying to tell anyone what to do, if spending hours writing and promoting content is your thing then by all means have at it. I was bitten by the blogging bug myself, the fact is, it’s FUN to blog. I enjoy the heck out of it.

I enjoyed it so much that I became engrossed in it and stopped working on my niche site collection. I have since come to my senses and will resume work on “building a dotcom empire.”

What I like about the niche sites is that they are passive income. What I mean by that is that once they are built, optimized and setup, they require very little work after that. You can write an article or two every few weeks, build some back links etc but for the most part, they run on autopilot.

This is a much more attractive income model for me. I am after the freedom that making money online can offer, not just a different job. I actually like my day job, it just doesn’t allow me to do it from a beach house.

Conclusion

Your reasons and mileage may vary but for most, money equals freedom. If your definition of freedom involves working less and enjoying life more then for me that isn’t blogging. I am still going to blog, because I like it, I am just not going to try and generate a sustainable income from it.

What are your thoughts? Do you make a full time income from your blog? If so how many hours a week do you spend? Any Problogger will tell you that they probably work as much on a blog as they would at a regular job, so why the attraction?

Passive Income, for me, is the horse I plan to ride.

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