Do What You Love, Money Will Follow
You may have heard this when you first started online. “Do what you love, and the money will follow”. But how true is it? Do you sometimes find yourself looking at the bottom line, and wondering why all that passion hasn’t made you a dime?
This has been true for me in the past, and it’s not always a guarantee you’ll make money with ANYTHING. Although I think for this statement to be true, we need to add another to it – “Good things come to those who wait”. There also needs to be a few more additions to the rule too. Read on…
You might have noticed I’ve been talking about Idea Queen quite a bit the last few weeks. I’m sure you can tell I have a passion for this site, and I’ve stated the site DOES make money. It didn’t always though. In fact, even though it’s 2 years old it’s still just a baby. But still it’s a perfect example of “do what you love and the money will follow”. Let me explain….
I love to talk. Sometimes my friends have a hard time shutting me up. I honestly could just RAMBLE on for days. So what better site to have than a resource site with topics I can ramble on about? Plus add the fact that content is king …..well then that just makes me the QUEEN of search engine rankings on my topics I would think 
Not to say it doesn’t take outside help even on a resource site. There are lots of pages I’ve asked for contributions. It only makes the site that much stronger. Although I can tell you the very few topics I don’t have a passion for are somewhat lacking in rankings. Thus they don’t make me much money.
One more “ingredient” of a successful site I must point out (in addition to patience and passion) – your topic must not only be something you love, but something you are GOOD at. Either that or something you know a lot about. For example, another section on this site features a sewing group. The group chats here and there, but it’s not as successful as it should be. Why? I do love to sew, but I’m not experienced with it. I don’t know how to make all that much, and I lack in tips. I don’t spend ALL my time with it. Although if this is something you are good out, how easy would it be for you to have a site about sewing? You could go so far as to recommend specific types of fabric (from stores with affiliate programs at that  :wink: ).
Take the most successful section of the site as another example – the recipes. Do I know a lot about cooking? Absolutely! Both my parents had very different styles of cooking, both of which I’ve inherited (or learned I should say….I spent a lot of time in the kitchen at both parents’ houses). Granted I’m no “expert chef”, but I know my way around a kitchen. Now granted it’s not something I absolutely love to do, but it’s a passion. What’s the difference? Well I don’t jump at the chance to make supper, but I find myself talking about it all the time. Discussing recipes or talking about what we did for supper that turned out pretty good. That’s why one of the main sections (and largest) at Idea Queen is the recipe ideas section. Note I said “ideas” since that’s what they are for the most part – suggestion on what to add to make a “type” of meal.
The blog at Idea Queen servers an excellent purpose too. There is only so many pages I can add without the site being TOO big and hard to navigate. There’s also only so much I can add (content AND keyword phrases) before the page becomes too big and hard to read (and poor rankings at that). I’m a rambler remember? This would not be hard to do! So the blog servers as an “add on” for additional keyword phrases and additional content. I can literally post to this blog twice a day and never run out of things to say. Especially when I’m being fed keyword phrases from HitTail….that has sparked a LOT of ideas.
Anyway, the point of this post was to give an example of how doing what you love CAN make you money. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it DOES happen with a little time. For me it was making money rambling (what I do best) about topics I’m the most passionate about (what I love). See how that works? Now what do YOU love? Go figure it out!
Your fellow WAHM in success,
Kara
Topics: Business Stuff | 1 Comment »
October 9th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Oh isn’t that all so, so very true! You mentioned it but I want to mention it again … Patience!
Quote:
One more “ingredient†of a successful site I must point out (in addition to patience and passion)
Like you said … two main ingredients is Patience & Passion.
Too many times I’ve seen people give up way too soon. Patience, patience, patience. I know, easier said that done but really, it takes a lot of patience because it takes a lot of time.
You’ve posted a great example …
Don’t Give Up!