is anyone actually making money?

[Nomax5]

I just wondered there is a wealth of advice and help here but is anyone actually making any money?

Has anyone given up their day job?

[Robban]

it takes time. Getting closer. Doing less and less of the day job.

There just a great feeling getting bigger and bigger check from online efforts.

Keep going - it's working.

[Tubby]

Yes. There are a good few of us that have relinquished the easy life of paid employment. We have a number of members that have gone further and have joined the ranks of employers. we have full time professionals oosing out of our pores. We have gifted part timers that drive big cars with net earnings. we have members that sell in quantities that boggle my small mind. we have members that sell two T shirts a month. We have members that just talking to cost more than your average weekly pay.
We have dreamers, Do-ers, specialist in many many fields. Many many profesionals in here Nomax5. Many doing exceptionally well . . and then there is Me. I am here to pick up tips, ( I gave away my day job)

Yes . . There is someone on site that have given away their day Job. Sometimes you only see them at play, sometimes they lurk more than talk. But hit the right note. . and they make themselves pretty evident.

Be nice to them (my advice)

[ldylion214]

For us, the internet world has supplemented our already going jewelry business but we are not solely reliant on the website orders.

[A. Smith]

My vacation rental business is strictly online. I have no other form of advertisement/marketing. It has consistently been booked solid during our season, and I am happy with the returns.

Although I have the Google ads, those are not making much. But that's not the goal of the site, that was an attempt at having a little extra.

PS: I had quit my "day job" several years before starting that business, and was already self-employed in a non-internet business.

[Duncan Pollock]

No doubt of it as far as I'm concerned.
Admittedly, I've been fortunate enough to achieve an encouraging web presence -- and many thanks are due to what I've learned by participation in WPW (free plug, no need to send me money for it). I've also managed to succeed with AdWords (free plug for guru Perry Marshall, also not required to pay me).
And I have to confess that a qualified lead will earn me three, four, five ... thousand dollars, so my ROI isn't likely to ever become a problem.
The main lessons I've learned in all this are two:
1. It takes time and you need to avoid most assumptions. For example, competitors ahead of you are NOT there because they're any better. Instead, they've just made it their business to get there more quickly, more certainly, and more effectivly than you've (so far) managed to do.
2. With patience, persistence, and perseverance, there's no reason whatsoever why you can't match the competition and indeed overtake it. And this will NOT be any accident.

Duncan

[ctabuk]

I'm in a similar position to Duncan - 3 years ago I was unaware of forums, indeed I joined this one and just read for a while, then made a few posts, got told off by a couple of mods!!! Learned my SEO - got rankings - got more rankings - dropped PPC completely -now I get searched everyday, get new business everyday, just pulled off a big Lending deal, exclusive funding package, all with no advertising - purely from website enquiries. It can be done, stick at it.

[greeneagle]

I gave up Engineering and Marketing for Fortune 100 and 500 companies on 12/14/01, shortly after 9-11. I will be celebrating 5 years of independence soon.

It's no easy road. I'd give this advice to anyone coming along:

Be prepared to work 60-100 hrs/weeks, and don't fall prey to the get rich quick BS that tries to pry all your doors open.

"Money for Nothing and Your Checks for Free", isn't the normal reality in a highly competitive environment, in any industry.

If you are young and looking for a fast easy way to make money hand over fist.... Unless you are extremely lucky, this isn't it. So consider the facts even when the most innoculous of offers that knock, including webmaster technical schools that promise the world.

Without a strong foothold into a particular industry or key high level accompanying knowledge, it's difficult to break-in.

I had one client years ago that after I built the original Site and launched at a PR3, one of the owners decided to hand the Site over to a recent graduate from Auburn University (neighborhood kid as a favor), behind my back.

She redesigned the Site.
I dropped a key OBL and fired them. They dropped to a PR1 where they have floundered for over 2 years now.

She had no experience in the industry and no experience in the real webmaster world. She didn't know what to do then and evidently hasn't figured it out in the meantime.

Ken

[ctabuk]

But the real trick is to hang in there - yes there are times of frustration, but remember the old 'Once there was a little old ant, thought he'd move a rubber tree plant' The song was 'High Hopes' believe in yourself - and sod the rest!!!!

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by Nomax5

Has anyone given up their day job?

Whats a "day" job?

[Robban]

I love the humbleness and honesty coming through in peoples replies. This could have easily turned into a pissing contest.

The truth is, whether your online efforts is to promote your site which could be for/about your "day job" or if you online efforts are all about web marketing and just building websites and communities - it all takes time. The beauty of it and what keep us going is that the efforts are residual and build on previous efforts. A new site or 10 new pages will just add to traffic - a few more links will lift all pages - all the small efforts pay off - but it is slow. In my case I have been many folding my income each year and that is hard to do offline. Granted it is easy to many-fold small numbers but if you keep doing that eventually the numbers get big. Like example of doubling one rice seed for each square on a chess board. Come to 48 and there is not enough rice on the planet to cover the number.

There are ways to make fast money but they are riskier and they require money. I am on the free to inexpensive path staying profitable from prety much day one.

[maxsun]

I too gave up a big time job in industry to do this. I would agree with Gleneagle--expect to work till you drop, so be sure you're doing what you love--and it won't seem like work.

My website started as a hobby in 2000 and I didn't even make my first sale for 3 months! By 6 months, I had 3 sales. I think the first year I calculated I made 5 cents an hour...

But it was my dream! Finally I couldn't work both my day job and this. I quit my day job in June 2003. I couldn't quite make it on the website sales--but I was close. So it was scarrrryyy tight the first year on my own. I ended up taking a home-equity loan on my house to make it through.

Be sure you believe in yourself and are willing to put tons of time and money into your venture.

Now 6 years later, I'm fully supporting, though I don't make nearly what I did in industry, but there's hope for growth and the real pleasure of being my own boss. Yes, I work harder than I ever have, but in some ways, my life is much less stressful than it used to be out in industry.

Sometimes I'm struck at how precarious the foundation a web business is built on. We're hostage to Viruses (which kill my online business while they're floating around the internet), sometimes the patches to fix the virus will actually take out the shopping cart. Ugh. Then getting caught in the browser wars, PPC fraud. Lots of change, fast. Which I guess makes it exciting and a challenge, too.

Anyway, my suggestion is to do what you love, be willing to work really hard for a long time at what seems like little to no reward. Work. And more work. Give it tons and tons of time. Don't quit your day job until you can make it (or nearly so) on your side job. Oh yeah--the road to success is a pretty bumpy one! So be prepared for the occassional really bad day and don't let it deter you.

[Atlantean]

I spent every spare minute and a lot of late nights for 5 years learning and working, and yet still have gained only a general knowledge of how to build and market a website.

I was determined to learn how to do it before I made any real attempt at trying to make money. It was very tempting to jump in with both feet and try earning while learning. But I just decided to wait for the day to come when I would finally decide that it was time and I was ready - and in the mean time continue working as a union sheet metal journeyman (when they actually had some work).

Feeling the pressure of a months-long layoff from construction work, I decided that day would be January 1, 2006. And, MAN! I wish I had not waited so long! My first sale came before the end of the month and I've earned enough since then that my online income has taken over where unemployment benefits had left off and now the idea of going back to construction work is a fading nightmare.

And what's even cooler than that is the fact that I'm only just getting started!

[questwtg]

Yes, you can make money or a living. A little at first, but the longer you work at it the more you will make.

"If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?"

Edited by Mod Webnauts: Irrelevant and off topic links are not permitted in posts.

[MerciaHosting]

It's been good to read this thread, and very positive too. I've just started out in the webhosting business and I guess I've started off ok for my first week as I have a couple of customers coming through already :)

So for my first post here I'd like to say that I take note of what people have been saying here as you have all appear to have made it work for you :) Thanks for the advice, the warnings, the message to persevere and the general positive advice.

I'm enjoying the journey so far (short as it is) and reduced my 'day job' to part time in order to spend time doing this. Wish me luck [Gulp!] ...I may be calling for help very soon hehe. :)

PS. If any of you intend to throw any customers away, pleeeease throw them my way ;)

[begabloomers]

Atlantean i had a look at your Texas Explorer site - do you mean you are making a living from the Google ads or is there another income stream?

[janeth]

I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s stories and it makes me feel good that so many people are able to make a living online.

It can be tough from time to time and scary all the time. The Internet has been good to me and I love what I do.

I’m in a 3rd world country and I’m not only able to make a good living for myself but I have 20 employees at my office and 3 that help take care of my house.

I stared with nothing and worked many 24 hour days to get were we are today.

But I’d rather work many more then to ever have to go back into the real world.

[Gert Leroy]

That's right Janeth !
The idea of making an online living in a 3rd world country is to spend in weak local currency and to gain in strong euros or dollars !

For me personally, online moneymaking has made my dream come true: finding a job that is independent of the place where i live ! This way i can travel around without having to loose or temporarely stop my job. The result is i left Belgium for Brazil.. ;o)

If i should ever decide to go back living in europe, i'm gonna buy a mobilehome, get internet through sattelite, maybe also a Colombian girl from Janeth's website ;o) and make a trip around east-europe.

Online moneymaking has changed my life, and has given me many interesting future perspectives.

It's not about money, it's about quality of life!

[janeth]

Originally Posted by Gert Leroy

That's right Janeth !
The idea of making an online living in a 3rd world country is to spend in weak local currency and to gain in strong euros or dollars !

Yes and done right it can work really well. Although there are a lot of problems we’ve had in doing this.

1. I don’t know of anyone else in this country making there living this way and the banks and government have given us a really hard time.

2. Trying to get good internet outside of any of the major cites is next to impossible. We’ve had to move the business 7 times so far and every time it had to do with phone lines or the internet.

3. When you start trying to live a little better then normal the cost of things go way up. There are fewer people doing the things your doing which cases prices to be a lot higher in places like the US or UK.

Originally Posted by Gert Leroy

For me personally, online moneymaking has made my dream come true: finding a job that is independent of the place where i live ! This way i can travel around without having to loose or temporarely stop my job. The result is i left Belgium for Brazil.. ;o)

It is great knowing that you can move any where you want and it will not effect your business.

Originally Posted by Gert Leroy

If i should ever decide to go back living in europe, i'm gonna buy a mobilehome, get internet through sattelite, maybe also a Colombian girl from Janeth's website ;o) and make a trip around east-europe.

We've just started with that site and I have high hopes for it. We are going to start running ads here in the next 2 to 3 weeks to start signing girls up.

[Nerz]

Persistance is clearly the clear. Heres a few tips from a newbie still learning the ropes

1) You need to keep yourself aware of new trends and new products from big brands. For example as soon Sony announces a new console and a name to go with it, along come a thousand fansites and information sites dedicated to it. If your into tech, you need to try and get in first and build your site at the outset of consumer interest. The same really goes for any new product or invention likely to get a lot of interest

2) Depending on what your focus is. I wouldnt get too caught up in making sites for adsense or YPN. At least consider broading your focus into useful products and services...particularly those targeted at webmasters. That entire game is just soooo competitive, and you can make more money by building an online business.

3) Take advantage of forums, but limit the time you spend. Im learning this the slow way..Its very easy to spend 2, 3, 4 hours browsing forums, and you gain a lot of knowledge, but its all too easy to over indulge and neglict working on your sites.

4) A page a day keeps the filing of bankruptcy away :)

5) Be VERY selective about the products and services you buy to supposedly "make life easier". It can so often be a scam, look for good feedback before taking the plunge.

Really there are so many points to making money online. Its just such a massive field.

BTW I earned $150 in 5 minutes last night selling text links...see how easy it is :)

[Robban]

Originally Posted by Robban

I love the humbleness and honesty coming through in peoples replies. This could have easily turned into a pissing contest.