Hi Everyone, In your own experience, which is easier to earn money? Online or offline? In my experience, offline is easier to make money. Having put some much effort, yet I earn peanuts online.
Easier... it's actually quite tricky question. Since when I've worked "traditionally" (offline) whether it's picking berries or doing IT projects you get paid for your time. In the end it boils down to what you can do and how you like to work... lots of things can be done both offline and online, and I suppose there's no right or wrong answer. In my experience, there's so much more opportunities online than in the offline world - although sometimes you might want to mix both.
Setting up an online business is much easier and cheaper than an offline one, but to get visitors to both businesses, it will be easier to get them to the offline one as if you set up a shop you will set it up in a location that has a good population already whereas online you will have to search for your traffic and get it slowly by doing SEO and other marketing activities. The thing with running a business online is that you don't have the costs of purchasing the premises. If you know web designing them you can do it all yourself for free and only have to pay for the domain and web hosting. If you wanted to expand, you just have to write some new pages. Expanding offline would cost you alot of money and would be alot slower.
There is nothing like an easier way to earn money, it totally depends on what meaning you derive from the term "easier". Secondly both online and off line worlds are filled with competitors (whichever field you may target), so its better that you stick with what you are better at than your competitors.. i.e Online or Off line business. Enjoying the better of both the worlds is a good idea though
There are great business men offline who have trouble doing basic computer tasks. There area also great businessmen online who would have trouble creating an offline business. Some businessmen are great both online and offline. I would say online businesses are easier. They are much less expensive to start up and maintain, and don't require as much administrative time as offline businesses. One downside I've found while running an online business is they don't get the respect from the general population they deserve. Sometimes I also wish I could get more person-to-person interaction while running my business and see my results in real life right in front of me. Be honest, viewing a page saying you've had a huge number of visitors on your website isn't as enthralling as seeing your store packed with customers. Sitting in front of a computer all day can also put you into social isolation if you're not careful. Also, in an online business you rarely if ever hear from your users when they're happy, which can get somewhat depressing after a while. Even with the downsides in mind, I think an online business is a good place to start. They're very cheap to start and maintain which is what makes them so attractive. Why not start an online business, build up some capital with it, and then start an offline business?
Define easier? For that matter truely define online and offline - which does web developing fit into? Generally (though not always) online has lower start up costs and therefore it is easier to get started but at the same time it does mean any tim, dick or harry can crib what your doing straight away and so differentiation and USPs can be harder. Over all both require as much hard work and so there is not one that is easier than the other over all.
Funny, I just wrote post on my blog on this very issue couple of days ago (but was scheduled for today) and I get to see this question in the thread.
In offline simply doing any form of manual labor you can get paid for. However, manual labor gets you no-where online. I think you have to have the ability to offer some type of service or solution. There is a phrase that we learned in sociology that workers now days are just an "appendage of the machine". Unfortunately in online business you have to do everything yourself in most cases. Being able to screw in a few bolts or slap patties on a hamburger bun all day takes little or no thinking. You can't expect to be able to do only that and be successful online. Thats the difference.
If you're good at whatever you plan to do: online. Yes, there's much more competition, but like I said, if you're good you'll win. Offline is too much trouble: capital, bureaucracy and in some ways more difficult to generate passive income.
I have a different take on this. Online is not a business model. Itis a delivery model -- similar to mail order or catalogue shopping. The difference being you promote, sell and in some cases deliver using the Internet. As to difficult -- I've had months where I brought in twice as much as I did when I had a job. I've also had months when I worked my butt off for next to nothing. In the long run, making money online requires a certain set of skills, aptitudes and attitudes. If you have these aptitudes, which includes the ability to work independently and alone at a computer, you will enjoy the lifestyle and think it easy. Otherwise, not so much.