Is it a sin to make money on the Internet?

Is it a sin to make money on the Internet?  Is anything wrong with it?  Is it evil?

Personally, I think not.  In fact, I find it natural to use the Internet to make money.  I am not talking about some rip-off scheme, no get rich quick scheme, nothing like that.  I am talking about doing honest work in exchange for money and using the Internet to conduct that business.  However, the truth is… there are a lot of people who think that everything on the Internet should be free.  They think it is evil to charge money for anything that happens on the Internet.  I don’t think so.

Think about other modes of communication.

Should it be illegal or considered evil to use a telephone to make money?

How about a TV?  Should actors, actresses, companies who advertise, TV stations, TV networks et al be allowed to profit from the business they engage in?

Using the logic of the “free internet” crowd, TV, phones and other methods of communication should all be free.  What about books?  Should authors be able to charge the public for buying the book?  Oh my…  we can stretch this into almost every aspect of life if we want to.

Recently I wrote an article on another site entitled “Backward Thinking” which was about earning money and being able to live anywhere you want to live.  One person commented (I have left the poor grammar just as he wrote it):

i read your letter,and you r right,i want to move to the philippines,and yes my biggest concern is how to make a living,and you letter told me nothing other than a motavational speech. I understand that you make your living helping others who want to live in the philippines so is that why you dont give any info away,for the fear you will not make money?

My response to him:

John – I do give information and I help people who ask. Thousands of people read this site every day, and for each person the path is different. I said in the article that you should find your niche, find something that you are passionate about and go for it! I am sorry, John, I will help, but I cannot hold your hand. You are an adult, and have to do the work yourself. No, I am not afraid to help anybody. but frankly, I know nothing about you. I don’t know what you are knowledgeable about. I don’t know what you are interested in. I don’t know what you enjoy doing. How can I possibly tell you exactly what you should do when I know nothing about you? My god… you can lead the horse to water, but you can’t make him drink!

Pretty amazing, huh?  There were some others who left rather ignorant comments too, but I’ll just stay with this one to illustrate my point.

Now, when it comes to making money online, I find that there are tons of people who want to do it.  I also find that there are very few people who make an effort to actually try, but they do complain about the mountaintops that “it can’t be done” or “nobody will show me how.”  My friends, it is up to you to make an effort to learn how.  I often write and tell my readers how I did this or that, and they can do it too… but few do it.

Just today, I was looking at a site that asked the question, “Is blogging broken?”  I found this paragraph particularly enlightening, and matched my experience:

Most people who read this very blog are tire-kickers. What I mean by that is you guys act like you want to make money with your blog, when all you do is dabble with it. You read blogs like mine, but you’re not willing to invest much of anything to actually pull it off. In fact, when somebody like myself or another person in this business makes an offer that will legitimately help you pull it off, that offer often gets met with suspicion.

Now, I don’t BLAME you for that. Let’s look at the environment that we’re in here. Complete and TOTAL information saturation online. Which, of course, leads people to engage in louder and more audacious marketing tactics to cut through the noise. Which leads people to question the honesty of it. Which then comes full circle yet again. Rinse and repeat.

I think the saturation with free information out there is devaluing the information. It is coming at us all with such volume and quantity that we can’t make heads or tails of it.

And that makes tire-kickers… people who will lurk, read and occasionally comment… but in the end, will never pay you a dime. Because they think the answer is out there for free somewhere else and they’re too overwhelmed to notice good information when it hits them upside the head.

I fully agree!  Most people are tire kickers and they really have no intention of buying the car.  In fact, when they leave the dealer they will complain about the car, no matter how much they want it.  That’s how it is with the guys who bitch and moan that they can’t make money online, yet they are not willing to spend a few hours trying.  Like I said in my reply to John, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.

So, do you want to make money on the Internet?  Get off your butt and do something, then.  Just bitching and moaning won’t put any dollars in the bank, I can assure you of that!