Fantasy or Reality? - An Introduction and a Question

Hi all

I've been reading this site with great interest as part of my quest to set up an internet business. I tried setting one up a couple of years back but my niche market was way way too niche (!) and consequently didn't bring any revenue. That said it taught a lot about what needs to be done, marketing techniques and the dedication needed to make a business work.

I absolutely love the potential of the internet and I am willing to work hard as well as keep the day job for the time being but as I am approaching the big 40 next year I feel that time is not on my side to waste!

All I want essentially is to make a living from my website/s and my music - I need to clear £250 regularly a week to leave my job. I spend a lot of time researching the net and it seems to me that the most successful blogs and websites are those that are simply telling other people how to make money on the internet!

My niches are in music and travel (Portugal and learning Portuguese to be specific). I am currently designing an authority site on the latter.

My question really is - if you're not setting up a site on 'how to make money from the internet' - can you be successful???

I've considered doing a blog in tandem that charts my financial experiments with making money on the net with my travel/music sites which is of course jumping on the bandwagon with everyone else. Is this market as saturated as it can get?

Should I join the bandwagon whilst satisfying my creative desires or trust that a blog/website that isn't about making money would in fact make money???

I don't expect to suddenly be making thousands - slow growth is fine. I guess essentially I'm a little scared of putting a lot of work into something that doesn't pay off.

A modest income from the internet - fantasy or reality?

 

Well it depends.

I would probably stay away from sites telling me how to make money. Frankly they usually look scamy.

You are on the right track with making sites with music and travel - if these are your interests you are probably gonna stick with this longer.

If you have any other skills like graphics design, flash, web programming you can often work for others and make money that way.

You could also learn how to become a domainer (buy and sell domain names).

All in all I like to see the web as a #2 source of income. It's a fun, nice to have hobby.

But making it #1 like you suggested would require A LOT of work. From my perspective it's a fantasy, but others have made it their full time job.

Skinny

 

Welcome aboard !
and then... about your question i think it's not a fantasy, all you have to do is find a good idea and put it to work, after all there are so many people making money from the internet that another one could also do that ... vision and work put you on the road to success ... good luck !

 

I am laughing at myself here - thanks to you both for your replies. I think the problem is I agree with both of you and having conflicting sentiments in myself equals a big bunch of procrastination. Gosh now I could write a serious blog on 'how to overcome inertia" - lol.

The silly thing is that I do think I'm onto something with the ideas I have but I'm terrified the darn thing won't work - which of course it won't if I never start it.

I guess the issue with starting a business and of course life in general is that none of us will ever know unless we try.

I think somewhere along the line I got scared of trying - and that has to stop - right now!

Lily goes off to buy her domain name...

 

That's the spirit ! go girl go !