Drawbacks of online working

There are so many articles, blogs and posts about how to “boost” your online earnings, how to earn millions on “fiver”, never working again after working on “Upwork” and so much other similar content.

But How True Is It?

How much People Are There Who Have Made Millions on Fiver, Upwork and YouTube?

And On What Cost?

While Online success is often celebrated, what is ignored is why online earning should NOT be our only priority.

Why we should not depend on JUST our online work.

The Online Market Is Highly Volatile.

Online trends are suddenly changing, and they are highly volatile. You are less likely to feel secure from an online gig than a full-time job.

Here are some of the drawbacks of just being a freelancer.

1) Sudden Change of Policy

Being a freelancer mean being totally dependent on a website and its sudden change of policy.

Today fiver, YouTube or whatever online platform you use, or you “solely” aim to depend on, might randomly decide that they won’t be “supporting users from your area” anymore especially if you are not from a white English-speaking nation.

This is not just racist but also unjustified, in the 20th century that even online, people from English speaking nations or native speakers will be given more preference than someone from a black community or an Asian community. This is sometimes the case for many people who face discrimination online simply because they are not “white” online.

The online platform can decide that you SHOULD have a minimum of this many followers, or subscribers and give a deadline to filter out people.

YouTube has a requirement of having at least 1000 followers and 4000 watch hours, but this is NOT permanent, YouTube can change its requirement anytime, it can increase its minimum follower's criteria from 1000 to 3000, this can prove to be quite problematic for those YouTubers who are working day and night to reach that amount or those who don’t have that number of subscribers.

By depending only on your “online hustle” you are extremely vulnerable to such policy changes.

2) Internet/connectivity issues

Quite often we are doing online shopping and the product we are interested in gets bought because we are slow to check out, maybe our connection got slow or jammed a little bit, maybe we want to grab a drink or go to the bathroom giving the other buys to quickly buy the product, similarly slow internet speed or connectivity issues often makes a huge factor in online earning.

Slow or a slight hindrance of internet connection can prove to be quite problematic for freelancers especially during storm season.

3) Changing Trends

Something popular today might become unpopular tomorrow, the world of internet is quick and replaceable, you have to continuously change and update your skills and talents based on what’s demanded. Unless you are someone who is ready to learn new updated things and are quick to leave what you know, you might be able to adjust yourself based on changing trends.

4) Issues Related to Money Withdrawal

Freelancers are often facing challenges related to money withdrawal, banks don’t have supporting policies related to them and many websites have a “minimum payout amount” which often causes problems for them.

5) Job Security

There is less job security for online work than it is for a full-time position. Going to your office means you have a connection with your boss, colleagues and company, at the same time you are less likely to be replaced from a more “suitable” employee, in case of an online job or “gig”, not only is there less job security but there will always be people to replace you the same you decide to quit or if you are fired.

6) What To Do?

Online earning is a great way for people to earn but it shouldn’t be THE ONLY thing people should depend on, having a small business, a part time job or even a full time job along with an online hustle is the solution, the internet is full of people claiming how they “earned millions in a month” but at the same time, there are also some very unmentioned stories of people who tried a lot but couldn’t even manage to make a single dollar from their online hustle.

While there are plenty of successful freelancers, it is not like they have it easy, they often face a lot of hurdles, but they are willing to take the risk along with the benefits of being just freelancers, whereas those who have both, a full time or a part time job and an online hustle are more likely to face less challenges than those who only work online.