Making Money Whilst You Sleep

It's time to confront and explode the biggest web fallacy of them all: the notion that making money online is easy - all you need is a website. Tell me you want to make money whilst you sleep and all I'll hear is you demonstrating a supreme lack of understanding of how not only the web but also business functions.

The biggest red flag of them all

Stating that a website is required because I want to make money whilst I sleep. It's the one phrase guaranteed to make me bring a website discussion to a grinding halt the moment it's uttered. The use of this phrase is, for me, an immediate red flag that demonstrates a supreme lack of understanding of how not only the web but also how business functions.

Clicks and mortar

When it comes to business, the web is really not that much different to a retail store and a recent shopping trip to Hatfield's Galleria served to vividly illustrate the point. Behind the cash desk of the Nike Store (as illustrated above) was the commitment Everything you need, anytime you want urging visitors not to shop in Hatfield but to shop online at nike.com - why? Simply because a traditional store cannot carry 'everything' and isn't open 24/7.

Everything

When considering what the true meaning of 'everything' is in this context we're compelled to interpret this as everything from: price and availability information to colour and size choices; styling advice to returns addresses; material selection to country of origin; performance to warranty; discounts, promotional offers and incentives to complimentary products and services. In fact, everything that you'd expect a retail outlet to offer and more.
Everything that you'd expect to receive from a top-class, human, sales professional working in retail.

The commitment behind the cash desk is the kind of bold statement that only a superbrand such as Nike could confidently make. Be honest. How many of us have the confidence to direct people to our websites with the certainty of knowledge that anything a customer could possibly want from us can be found upon our website?

Digital business

The ability to do business online and offline at anytime of the day epitomises a truly digital business. A digital business is able to replace humans with digital content and automated business processes. A digital business like this is amongst the few that is able to switch to autopilot and operate 24/7 after the humans have gone home at 5pm. A digital business is able to make money whilst staff and owners sleep.

Yet building a scalable, automated, digital business isn't what our archetypal enquirer who wants to make money whilst I sleep wants to do because snoozy has met loads of blokes down the pub, in his waking hours, who make a fortune online by doing very little. Our would-be millionaire isn't an startup entrepreneur, our wanna-be is, essentially, lazy and wants to do the least possible for the greatest return. Our wanna-be has dreams of sitting on a beach, sipping cocktails whilst everyone else does the work instead.

Get rich quick

If this sounds like you; if I've directed you to this web page after talking to you about your business ambitions - I'm sorry but I'm going to burst your bubble, making money whilst you sleep is not how business is done and it's not how websites work either. Sub@omic isn't, I'm afraid, the right kind of supplier for you.

You will be able to find people who will want to build you a website (why, you could even build it yourself) but, because you don't want to have to do too much then you shouldn't set your expectations too high - this cheap and simple website that, it is claimed, is able to do 'everything' might not be able to live up to your dreams.

Just do one

Nike executives don't lie about on a beach, planning when their next pink gin is going arrive just because they have been able to develop that rarest of websites; the one that genuinely does 'everything'. Nike need stores and other offline tactics as well as trained, competent people working inside their business and its processes to continually refine and drive their brand.

Nike executives don't make money whilst they sleep, instead, Nike executives dream-up new ways of earning money whilst they sleep - then they wake up and just do it.