If you’re planning to start a business online—whether it’s starting a blog on your WordPress website, or a blog on Medium, or a YouTube channel, or an Instagram influencer account, or a Canva template business—regardless of its nature, there’s one simple rule that pretty much trumps all other rules.

Allow me to expand on that with context and a few examples.

Let’s say you’re starting a blog and you wish to make money from it. Be prepared to work on your blog for at least two years before you make any significant income. And by significant income, I mean a sum that will motivate you to continue working on your blog.

For me, that sum was $1,000 in one month. I made that after a full year of blogging since I launched The Side Blogger. No, $1K isn’t enough to make a living off of, but it was enough to give me the motivation I needed to keep working on it. But from there, the growth and income were more or less exponential—to a degree—based on the time I put into it.

The same was true with my Canva template business. It took me six months to make enough sales where I felt motivated to continue on with this business. Similar to the blog, the income was somewhat exponential from there.

YouTuber Ali  Abdaal often mentions how being consistent for a long period of time gets the wheels turning. Not quite in those words, but that’s the gist of what he often shares on his videos about online income.

One hand-lettering artist and entrepreneur—Sean McCabe—used to say the same thing: That, if you show up consistently for two years, people will find you.

Maybe it’s the algorithm. Be that Google or YouTube or Instagram, if you continue to churn out content consistently, the algorithm might start thinking that you have something of value (or interest) to share. Maybe that’s why you get a boost in traffic and conversion.

Maybe when people see that you have a lot of content and you show up without skipping, they trust your professionalism and commitment.

Maybe it’s karma… I don’t know. But that’s just how it is with online businesses or online anything, really.

My point is, if you’re starting a brand new [online] business in 2022, don’t set your eyes four months down the road, or even six months down the road. Set our eyes somewhere around the two-year mark. If you start making a considerable income before that, then great! Congrats! You’ve made it. But don’t give up before the two-year mark.

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That said, of course, you should also have a go-getter attitude. You need to not just show up with mediocre content, but do your best to put out your best possible work every time. You can also learn tips and tricks to make income faster. Whether you’re learning from free resources or paid courses, that depends on your financial situation. Learning the right way of doing things can significantly cut down on the time it takes to make a splash.

Those are all true.

But, what I’m trying to say is that if you have nothing else—no knowledge of any business strategy or money to invest in courses or ads or the likes—then focus on just this one thing:

If you can do that, I guarantee your life will change completely. Not just your business or how much money you’re earning, but you, yourself, will come out the other side a different person.