The Path of the Online Entrepreneur

Online Entrepreneurship seems to be a hot topic these days. With a recent and ongoing shift towards New Media and User-generated Content comes a variety of ways one can monetize any given online effort.

On another blog of mine, I wrote about my so-called Quest for Financial Independence. In early 2008, I figured I had enough of the 9-to-5 workday- and decided to walk the Path of the Entrepreneur. I've been blogging since March of 2007, so I thought, why not make money out of blogging?

It's not easy. There are literally thousands of posts, forums and blogs talking about the pros and cons of making money online, or more specifically, through your blogs. Most of them are all about personal experiences, but there are still many others trying to "persuade" you into signing up for a program you don't even need.

In fact, a lot of people out there are misguided into thinking that it's easy to make money through blogs. Just like any business venture, you have to seriously put time, effort and even money in developing blogs. But more importantly, if you don't have a passion for writing and a discipline for regularly coming up with quality content, then you're just wasting your time.

Online Entrepreneurship is not easy- there's no sure-fire way to success, no step-by-step formula to make lots of money. The truth is, you might even fail in a few efforts before tasting just the smallest bit of success. You have to treat it like you would any other business venture. There will be risks, there will be losses, but ultimately,there will be rewards.

The Path of the Entrepreneur is different for all of us- some do blogging, others do more search engine optimization, others focus on buzz marketing, and you have a whole new set of skills for a digital marketplace- digital photography, digital audio and video editing, graphic design, etc.

Your success as an online entrepreneur really depends on your ability to quickly capitalize on the new opportunities presented by a rapidly growing digital marketplace- both online and off. Your journey begins with a single step: start learning new skills, learn as much as you can about new trends in digital and online media, translate your real-world competencies into online assets.

Your journey as an Online Entrepreneur starts now.