How can I earn a living working online without having to do marketing?

I have finally come to the conclusion that I am not cut out for anything requiring any type of marketing. I think it's because deep down I feel like if you have to advertise for something, it can't be that important or necessary therefore the person just wants money from you. I mean lets face it, if someone truly wants or needs something, they don't have to be convinced to buy it. I have tried to change this mindset but it just goes against every cell in my body. I would actually feel guilty if I made a product and then tried to get people to buy it from me. When I want something, I find it on Amazon and order it, or go to a store that sells that thing, no advertising necessary.

Maybe it's because I'm a minimalist hippie who has few possessions and values only freedom, nature, love and music. My circle of peers aren't the kind of people who spend money on things they don't need. Most people I know create art or music and they never advertise, in fact the best painter I have ever seen in my life only sells her paintings at small local music festivals and they average from $500 to $3000 a piece. She doesn't need an Etsy account or a website. I am wondering if maybe the reason why I haven't been motivated enough to start earning money online is because the marketing side of it goes against my values. I do want to earn money working online though, I want something that is location independent and something I don't need to leave the house to do. I want something that I don't have to trade my time for. Is it possible for someone like me to be successful with this? Maybe there is a way to earn money online without selling something? Or at least not needing to advertise for it?

I know your question is well meaning but honestly the way it comes across is, how do I make money without having to work at it?

Unless you are the 1% of the population that have some sort of talent people chase after then you will have to apply yourself.

Well, you can make YouTube videos and Google gives you a cut of the advertising money. Some people are making a good living at it, at least the ones that have something to say. You can write stories and e-publish them on Amazon. You can write a blog or create a website and sign up with an online advertising company that will feed ads through your pages. Drudge Report does that and makes millions a year. You can make art and sell it through eBay. You can learn how to design Websites for people. Figure out what you like to do and then see if you can make money online with it. Oh, you do have to work a little bit to make money.

I know your question is well meaning but honestly the way it comes across is, how do I make money without having to work at it?

Unless you are the 1% of the population that have some sort of talent people chase after then you will have to apply yourself.

It isn't that I don't want to work for it, I just want to do the thing I want to do (whatever that is), not wear 10 different hats just to earn money from that thing.

Well, you can make YouTube videos and Google gives you a cut of the advertising money. Some people are making a good living at it, at least the ones that have something to say. You can write stories and e-publish them on Amazon. You can write a blog or create a website and sign up with an online advertising company that will feed ads through your pages. Drudge Report does that and makes millions a year. You can make art and sell it through eBay. You can learn how to design Websites for people. Figure out what you like to do and then see if you can make money online with it. Oh, you do have to work a little bit to make money.

I have tried a few of those ideas already, I guess I wasn't cut out for them. Everything loses it's spark once I am forced to do it as a job. I have enjoyed some jobs before so I know it isn't that I'm against working. I just have so many interests and hobbies that I have a hard time (an impossible time, really) focusing on just one long enough for it to stick.

So -- basically you don't want to work. That's what it comes down to. you want to do anything that is handed in your lap.

I hate accounting. So i hired an accountant who set up my books and then i see them a couple times a year. I pay them to do what i don't want to do or am not good at.

Either hire someone to do your marketing - or don't. But very few people make a living on being secretive.

The person who sells at art festivals probably had to apply and have a good enough looking booth and product to qualify to be there. There is a local art fest by me where you can't just show up. They are picky about who they include. They paid money over the years for classes or art school and the sales are now the fruit of their investment and labor. They also make things that people like because they are buying them and they likely have repeat customers, keep in touch with those customers through mailings or email newsletters, etc.

In otherwords, it may look easy, but its not. They had to go home with no money or sell a lot of very cheap paintings to get to the point that someone was willing to put $3k on one.

Then they have to paint enough and have enough time between shows to have enough work to bring. It could be that they only do 2-4 shows a year - it may look impressive when they sell a $3k painting but they can't support themselves selling one $3k painting a year. Believe me, showing up at 6 am to set up or the night before and standing out there all day is not a walk in the park either. you might go to one show with your stuff and decide its too much work...

You come across as wanting money without doing any work for it. It doesnt work that way. I have an online biz that gets better every year. I leave the marketing aspect to my son who has a degree in it. We make good money but we work for it, none of this was handed to us, we didnt wake up one morning with a pile of orders in my email waiting to be filled. Nothing is going to fall into your lap from the sky that will earn you however much money you think you need to pay your bills and do what you want to do with the rest. Effort is required.

I have a friend who is an artist and a musician. He paints and creates a lot of artwork that takes an awful lot of time, he sells some, he puts some in juried shows and wins money sometimes. Competition is stiff and he works hard at it to succeed. He makes money playing in a band which is a hard buck to make in a local band. They are far from famous.

You cant have your cake and eat it too. You can set up a blog and maybe people will want to pay you to advertise on it, but it has to be a good blog to make any money. You can do youtube videos but they have to capture a viewer's interest and you have to get a ton of followers to make a buck there as well. You will have to adjust your attitude if you want to be a success online.

How did you know Amazon existed to order from? How did you know that store existed or carried the item you wanted to buy? Yep, marketing.

So you want to earn money but you don't want to advertise or market (so selling anything is out) and you don't want a job that interferes with your "hippie" lifestyle. So retail, office work, food service, warehouse work, etc. are all out. And YouTube doesn't pay unless you have a certain number of visitors to your channel. So yep, you would have to make the video and then market it.

So, how do YOU think you can make money without working? Does your boyfriend earn enough to support the both of you?

Other than winning the lottery or inheriting it there is no other legal way to acquire a lot of money and do nothing to earn it. All those youtubers and bloggers work at their craft to get the viewers in hopes of one day making money doing it. It'd be great if we could all come up with a way to make money without having to work for it!

Try IT/IS, a tester, or a management/emoloyee position that involves data analysis.

In IT or IS you can remote into computers at the comfort of your own home, while you perform your duties. My boyfriend/parents do this. Testers could be sent items to try out, or you can test out a service such as a video game, application, etc. Data analysis, such as making sense of data given in the form of graphs or charts, can also be feasible at home. My brother would do this as a manager.

I would keep in mind, if you are not skilled enough with computers, then it would be hard to strictly work from home. Most people do not get their dream job or one they even like, but do it so they can support themselves. You say you've done it before, however there is a reason you aren't working in those positions anymore. Sometimes you have to be realistic and practical when earning a living. You could also look for another job while still employed, which I recommend if you want to pursue the jobs you ideally want.

Unfortunately money takes reality. That means your time, effort or talent. Advertising is not evil in itself. There is soft sell and hard sell. Hard sell is the in your face obnoxious type. Soft sell is usually the domain of high-end in that it doesn't come to you screaming, but rather is more educational by more professional style sales and marketing. However zero marketing is unrealistic. If no one knows you exist what's the point? So you must have or do something people want and want to pay for. It doesn't matter if you're a rock star, doctor, house builder, butcher, baker, candlestick maker. No one will simply start sending you money while you sit at home with nothing to offer and no one knows about. There are tons of successful hippie philosophy entrepreneurs. But still they must have something to offer that people want to pay for and people know exits.

Why don't you just go totally off-grid and raise your own vegetables and livestock? You don't need to have a huge farm to be self-sufficient.

Great idea. Also is it possible to make homemade food you sell like jam or baked goods? You would still have to let people know about you whether through a web page, word of mouth, samples, fairs, etc. In fact most customers are referrals from other customers, return customers, google searches, etc. particularly if there's no storefront. It's about finding your niche and going with it. Keep in mind even the biggest rock stars started out in some crappy club doing lousy gigs until they got a break.

Why don't you just go totally off-grid and raise your own vegetables and livestock? You don't need to have a huge farm to be self-sufficient.

How did you know Amazon existed to order from? How did you know that store existed or carried the item you wanted to buy? Yep, marketing.

Not in my case. I mean sure before Amazon got huge, they needed to advertise to get that big. But now that they are a household name, nobody really needs to be told about a product on Amazon, everyone just knows thats the biggest online marketplace there is. When I want something, I just go to the site and find the cheapest one that is the closest to me and I buy that then I get off the site. I never see ads.

So, how do YOU think you can make money without working? Does your boyfriend earn enough to support the both of you?

I didn't say I want to earn money without working, I said I don't want to do marketing or advertising like the way most people say you have to do it. I have tried it. I know i'm not cut out for it. Like anything in life, if you find out you aren't cut out for something, you try to find alternatives. and my boyfriend could support us both if we lived together but I can't get any sleep when I share a house with other people, (I have a sleep disorder and am an extremely light sleeper anyway).

Try IT/IS, a tester, or a management/emoloyee position that involves data analysis.

 

In IT or IS you can remote into computers at the comfort of your own home, while you perform your duties. My boyfriend/parents do this. Testers could be sent items to try out, or you can test out a service such as a video game, application, etc. Data analysis, such as making sense of data given in the form of graphs or charts, can also be feasible at home. My brother would do this as a manager.

 

I would keep in mind, if you are not skilled enough with computers, then it would be hard to strictly work from home. Most people do not get their dream job or one they even like, but do it so they can support themselves. You say you've done it before, however there is a reason you aren't working in those positions anymore. Sometimes you have to be realistic and practical when earning a living. You could also look for another job while still employed, which I recommend if you want to pursue the jobs you ideally want.

Something like that would work for me, potentially. I have researched online jobs like that and have mostly been discouraged for one reason or another. One example is I took a test to see if I could work as a proofreader, because I love to read and one of the few skills I have is having good grammar. But I wasn't good enough for them, apparently. Most proofreading companies want you to have at least been a teacher or have a degree in English or journalism. I am pretty decent on a computer, all self taught, but no degrees or certificates or experience other than personal use. That doesn't get you very far unless you just start up your own blog or website. I have tried those things many times and lost interest very quickly. It isn't that I don't WANT to work, I just can't find any kind of work that I can happily do without feeling like I'm settling.

Unfortunately money takes reality. That means your time, effort or talent. Advertising is not evil in itself. There is soft sell and hard sell. Hard sell is the in your face obnoxious type. Soft sell is usually the domain of high-end in that it doesn't come to you screaming, but rather is more educational by more professional style sales and marketing. However zero marketing is unrealistic. If no one knows you exist what's the point? So you must have or do something people want and want to pay for. It doesn't matter if you're a rock star, doctor, house builder, butcher, baker, candlestick maker. No one will simply start sending you money while you sit at home with nothing to offer and no one knows about. There are tons of successful hippie philosophy entrepreneurs. But still they must have something to offer that people want to pay for and people know exits.

Yeah the hard sell stuff is horrible, it puts you off to the entire idea of starting a business. I could do soft sell marketing, things like putting up a FB page, sharing stuff by word of mouth, etc. I am not saying I would hide or not telling anyone about it at all. I'm just saying I am not cut out for things like writing sales copy, creating a landing page, paying for a ton of FB ads, having an email list, etc. Or maybe I would be if I had something I was passionate about. I mean I am passionate about a lot of things but whenever I try to turn my hobbies into a job, that's when I lose interest.

Why don't you just go totally off-grid and raise your own vegetables and livestock? You don't need to have a huge farm to be self-sufficient.

I've been trying, lol I am actually currently taking a class on how to start your own homestead. But unfortunately it takes more money than I have. Land is not cheap, if it is there is no water or electric or sewer on it. I am not a do it yourself type of person either. You can buy homesteads already finished but then you're talking $200,000 at least. In order to do that I need to have a steady income. That is why I'm trying to find a way to earn a steady income online so I can be home to work on my homestead at the same time or in addition to.

Great idea. Also is it possible to make homemade food you sell like jam or baked goods? You would still have to let people know about you whether through a web page, word of mouth, samples, fairs, etc. In fact most customers are referrals from other customers, return customers, google searches, etc. particularly if there's no storefront. It's about finding your niche and going with it. Keep in mind even the biggest rock stars started out in some crappy club doing lousy gigs until they got a break.

I could totally grow or make my own stuff and sell it at the farmers market or something like that. See my last post though on why I am not living on a homestead now growing my own stuff.

Do you like animals? A friend of mine earns money working at a horse stable and at a boarding kennel. Doesn't pay millions but she loves animals so it's a win for her.

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater and brand all advertising and marketing as valueless and evil. I had to market myself to get my job. So do most people I would think, at some point.

I wouldn’t be a fan of hard sell either but if you want to make a living selling a product or service you will have to do some marketing or advertising or both. Certainly you don’t have to convince people because of you do hard sell that increase the risk of turning people off and not getting repeat business. Also I find that people who do best at selling online from home already have a name for themselves in their line of business. The ability to work from home is after you’ve proven yourself out there. I guess exceptions would be MLm companies but those have their own downsides.

Do you like animals? A friend of mine earns money working at a horse stable and at a boarding kennel. Doesn't pay millions but she loves animals so it's a win for her.

The only animal I like is cats. But cats pretty much take care of themselves, they don't need to be walked every day. If there was a job out there that involved cat sitting and no dogs, I would totally do that. I also know that most pet sitting "jobs" don't pay at all, a lot of them are set up like housesitting where instead of getting paid, you just get to stay there for free.

I am not buying that you don't want to do "marketing" because of your values/lifestyle -because the people I know with a strong work ethic and strong ethical values simply draw the line at doing certain types of marketing and advertising (and almost everyone I know -including myself - draw the line somewhere because of values -meaning, even if you don't have particular religious leanings that are more extreme or -as you describe yourself -a more extreme commitment to a hippie lifestyle). That's where I get the impression that you are justifying your unwillingness to get out there and hustle based on "values" when there's another reason -it's hard, it's challenging, it requires time (and time is money). I have a family member in her 70s who does Reiki and she is very artsy, hippy, liberal, you name it - and you can bet she knows she's not going to make any $ with her business without advertising her talents on Facebook, on her website, holding free seminars, etc - and I know she is talented and also know her to be a lovely person. She is not trying to "convince" people who otherwise would have no interest in Reiki or her healing talents - not in the negative way you say or put it. I am not interested in it but I do know that if a friend were struggling with a physical or mental ailment and I thought reiki would help, I would refer her and that's in part because she advertises on Facebook - because I remember her name, her talents, etc. Which in my busy life I might forget if it wasn't in my face on a regular basis.

So get to the root of your real issues with doing sales in an effective way. I did sales for a some years out of my career. (been working almost 20 years in my current career and prior to that about 3 in two other capacities). I don't anymore and would prefer never to again but that's because of my lifestyle raising a child and because I don't want to spend the nights/weekends doing sales/marketing stuff. But I would if I had to to make a living/provide for my family. In a heartbeat.

I hear you dude, but marketing is just a way of letting others know how good your is, if you have nothing good, then you should not be marketing, let alone sellingit to begin with. I say if your products is really helping people you damn well better, in fact you bloody well owe it to them to scream that fro the rooftops - come and get______________

You've rejected all suggestions so far. Do you really want to find fulfilling work?

What are your talents? What are your interests? Have you talked to a career counselor? Why do you have to work online to earn a living?