Internet Entrepreneurship – One Big Puzzle That Never Ends

Making a living online is like one, big, evolving puzzle.  There are several pieces you have to master–then put them all together.  Let’s outline the game.

Internet Entrepreneurship – The Pieces To The Puzzle

• Content Creation: this is the key piece of the puzzle.  Without the content, there is no there there.

• Website Creation (WordPress, website hosting, etc)

• Website Design

• How to drive content organically

• Search Engine Optimization: SEO is really a subset of driving organic content, but it is so important that it merits its own puzzle piece

• Driving Content Through Purchased Ads (on Facebook, Google, Pinterest, etc)

• How to outsource effectively

• How to manage your time effectively (and maintain some sort of balance)

The Puzzle Pieces Are Interconnected

Each piece is intertwined with the others.  For example, yes, you can outsource several of the above pieces, but–unless you have much more money than time–I generally recommend working each individual piece yourself and getting at least competent.  You will be a much more effective outsourcer once you are familiar with the basics of each other puzzle piece.  Eventually, you will also know which elements actually take a lot of time and merit outsourcing and which don’t.

It Never Ends, And That’s Ok

As I mentioned above, this puzzle constantly evolves.  That means you never fully “solve” or “complete” the online entrepreneur’s quest.  You strive towards mastery, knowing you must perpetually adapt as the world and technology evolve.  For example, just buying google ads would have been a viable business strategy in the early 2000s.  However, for certain niches, google ads have become much more expensive and Facebook has emerged as an more cost effective approach to driving content through online ad purchases.  So it’s always evolving.

Internet Entrepreneurship – This Game is Addictive

The funny thing is that I’ve never enjoyed puzzle games that much.  They felt a little frivolous.  But this puzzle, where you help people and keep a roof over your head in the process is anything but frivolous.  It’s a lot of fun, and I’m finding it increasingly addictive…..

More broadly, entrepreneurship is this same puzzle: taking resources — your labor, the labor of others, technology, capital, and combining them in a way that customers are willing to pay you a lot more for what you produced than what it cost to put together the product.

Welcome to the online puzzle.  It’s never complete, you will never master it, but you will eventually develop expertise and love the game.  Have fun!