Yes, you read that right. 2022. This 2025-prediction post is a sequel to a popular article called How to Make Money online in 2016. It was very successful so I decided to follow it up with another one for 2017 and now this 2022 edition.
In the previous articles, we have looked at what’s been happening online since the dawn of the Internet and how this affects our lives as marketers and entrepreneurs. In case you missed them:
The reason why I’m writing about the subject again now is that things are really starting to accelerate. We’re moving from Web 2.0 into 3.0 – or what many call ‘Web Squared’. The numbers speak for themselves: there were 1 billion websites a year ago, now there are more than 1 trillion. There is simply no comparison to anything in the past. It really is an exciting time to be alive!
I have spent hours doing research for this article so I’m excited to finally publish it. Not only that but I also got some help from my friend Graham Allcott who wrote this great book called How to be a Productivity Ninja.
He pointed out that his ‘4 D’s of digital transformation’ could easily apply here, which I thought was spot on. Let’s get started!
1) Data Ownership (The Only Person That Matters)
“Data is the new oil.” We’ve all heard that one before and it rings true more than ever today; data is everywhere and it’s incredibly valuable says Paul Haarman.
Even so, the companies that collect data about us are still quite new and they don’t know how to treat this asset yet. They put up stupid barriers without us even realizing it. For example, if you want to see what data Google really has on you, you can do so by request here. Just be careful with the information you find there… not everyone needs to know your real age!
In general there is way too much emphasis placed on who owns data but not enough attention paid to how we use it. In 2002 when I started working online, people would pay me for backend services such as SEO or graphics design before going off and reselling my work without credit or payment in most cases. Nowadays, they just take my information and work directly with it themselves. Not only do I make less money but I also get treated like a product instead of a person.
The solution is simple: Pay for your own data! If you want to make money online in 2022 or beyond you need full control over your personal data (which these days is almost everything). This means spending some cash to buy back what used to be free before. Fortunately, there are quite a few ways you can go about this; some more passive than others.
2) Deadly Data (The Only Person That Matters)
Getting a home landline used to be the staple of successful families. It was a symbol that you had ‘made it’ and moving into a new house was a big deal. What happened back then is that your phone company suddenly didn’t want you to have this anymore because they couldn’t make money off of the service itself.
In short, there were no more profits from selling additional features such as call waiting or voicemail so they switched to selling phones instead (which made them much more profit). In time, people moved on from hardwired phones at home and went mobile instead. This meant even less profit for the phone companies.
I think the same will happen with cloud-based software, which leads us to the next point…
3) Disempowerment (The Only Person That Matters)
Technology has been progressing rapidly over the last few years and it seems like there is a new app or website released every other day. However, not all of these services are actually useful. In fact, most are just trying to take away your control over your personal data one step at a time. As soon as you sign up for something you are handing the keys to your digital life over to another company. This means they can do whatever they want with it, including reselling it back to you in a limited form.
4) Deceptions (The Only Person That Matters)
For years now, internet marketers have been trying to teach the public that all you need to do is build an email list and then sell programs to your subscribers. What they never told us was that there should be a service charge for doing so!
Many offer this service for free or at a very low cost to start with but once you get past 500 leads/subscribers it gets much more expensive. Since most are struggling even with 100 leads, this is actually making them lose money again. Some of the bigger services out there expect affiliates to pay up to $100 per subscriber which means if you want any commissions over time, you need either big traffic or big pockets.
Conclusion by Paul Haarman:
You can’t make money with any of these services out there unless you are making at least $3,500/month online.