Question: If you had to choose, would you prefer making money online or offline?

Posted in General by Bes on Aug 11, 2007

Today’s question can affect you in the long run, specially if you want to sell anything online. This question, in my view, can also be considered more of an offline decision than something that is solely an online decision, since the online world depends on the offline world to exist, and not vice versa. If you had a choice and had something to sell or offer that did not depend on whether or not you were online, would you preferring making money in the online or in the offline world?

There are many benefits and drawbacks to both the online and offline ways of making money. In addition to the different mediums [internet and non-internet], your own skills and your views related to both the online and offline worlds play an important role when answering the big question. You should, however, keep in mind that probably every benefit or drawback can be overcome by the individual in question, which is you, depending on how much you value each benefit and drawback of online and offline worlds.

5 random benefits of making money online

Allows more people to work anytime they wish
Usually costs less in setting up a lot of things, including setting up selling channels like websites, compared to physical offline stores
Cheaper to market products to more customers
Easier to allow more customers to buy anything online at anytime the customer wishes
Online communication skills can be exercised more

5 random benefits of making money offline

Allows more customers to feel secure when it comes to big transactions
Allows professionals and experienced people to find solutions to business disagreements, conflicts and issues more realistically
Allows certain people to apply their entire character and personality into a customer and their work, since there is more possibility for you to be more physically visible and approachable to any customer
Allows more human control over sales
Real offline communication skills can be exercised more

Do you prefer the online or the offline world when it comes to making money?

If you were doing something either online or offline to make money, and that something did not depend on the internet or the offline world to exist, would you prefer making money doing the same thing online or offline?

Thank you for reading. Please let me know what you think, or what your answer is.

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Tags: business, communication, list, money, offline, Online, people, questions

4 Comments to “ Question: If you had to choose, would you prefer making money online or offline? .” Please leave a comment below, thank you.

# 1
valerie :
( August 12th, 2007 at 7:47 pm )
In a word? Online.

When it comes to craft fairs vs. online shopping carts, hands down I want to do business online. I don’t have to pack up my gear, get little sleep, work hard and sit in the heat all day, deal with people face-to-face, pack down, return home, etc. Online, I get an order via email and I ship it out fast. Simple.

Makes me sound like a hermit, I know, but when you’re in my position, online sales are better…

# 2
Michelle Gartner :
( August 12th, 2007 at 9:08 pm )
I like the hours of the online world- I can spend more time with my family. Oh- I was reading the comment above by Valerie and talk about hot. I held a rummage this weekend to thin some of my inventory from eBay and it was miserable and not worth the effort.

# 3
Bes :
( August 22nd, 2007 at 1:25 pm )
Valerie, thanks for the comment.

So from your personal experience, the online world offers more incentives and relaxing opportunities, correct?

Yes, the online world does speed up things on many levels, including the amount of time it takes to receive and order and mail it out, like in your example. And so far, it seems such things are helping customers/purchasers on many levels too. I wonder if there is a drawback of using the online purchasing system that warrants the need to have offline ordering method stay around too.

Thanks for sharing.

Michelle Gartner, thanks for the comment.

Saving time and managing time is indeed one of the benefits of the online world, since in the offline world more and more businesses are focused on limited hours of operations than on non-interrupted service on all levels.

Also, the environment itself plays a huge role in sales, that is true. Specially like you and Valerie mention, if the temperate is not favorable and a person has to work in it, they may not work as much as they would like to, compared to having really favorable weather.

If you compare the online world with your offline sales, do you think you can end up selling more offline with less/fewer costs compared to the online world?

Thanks again for sharing. I really appreciate it.

# 4
Jumpions :
( April 16th, 2008 at 2:34 am )
As you said above, each method has its benefits but the online market is more fun and interesting for me. I also believe you can do both at the same time especially if you have an offline business. The online business is just a way to boost your offline business so the two are connected one with each other.