I started in 2004 by making a website for my wife's DJ company. Its difficult to say how much she makes due to her website and how much is just because she's a great DJ, but the very small amount of adsense on her site produces about $20 a month. I can say that in 2004 she only did about 10 events but this year she is already scheduled (with deposits paid) to do over 80, and since demand is outpacing supply, she has been able to raise her rates by 60%. The hosting plan I signed her up for came with 3 free domain names which we weren't using because we registered her domain in Djibouti (to get the .DJ extension), so I created a few other sites that were wedding related over the next year or so (having 4 kids and a full time telecom job really cuts into your free time!). I knew very little about HTML...www.w3schools.com helped a lot! I eventually learned the wonders of CMS's like Joomla, so I started making started making some other websites just for myself or simply because I thought they could turn a buck. Some did, some haven't yet. I now average about $10 a day in revenue from things like Adsense, affiliate programs, and link directory submissions. I also have a couple of clients that pay me a small retainer every month to help them with their websites, but I have to be very selective about clients because my free time is extremely limited. I don't make a huge amount, but I make enough that I have to file taxes on it. I made a net profit of $88 dollars last year, but cosidering I get to write off a laptop, part of my house, and part of my cable I think it's worth it. My one big "success" was programming a tool called Article Distributor. It was just about the time that article marketing was eploding on the scene and Article Dashboard had just released their free article directory script. So many article sites were popping up that I decided to write a tool to help automate submissions to all of them. I released it for free, but got "payemnt" by including my own link at the bottom of their About the Author box. It was hot. So many people were using it that Google started estimating my links. At one point a link: command at Google reported over 100,000 inbound links. Soon a company in California took notice and offered me $3,000 for the source code. Being dumb and broke (did I mention 4 kids and a mortgage?), I took it. I just recently started a collaberation with a co-worker who does graphic design (my weak point), and we're going to try our hand at selling t-shirts since his dad owns a screen printing company. Assuming we get that off the ground and work together well, we have plans to actually start consulting for more companies.
I started the conventional way freelancing for websites via word of mouth. Only last year when I left school I found a nice product which was not sold yet in my country thus I brought it in from Malaysia. Then I could not afford to advertise the product thus I had to do it via email marketing. That's where I learn how to send images via email. The response was quite slow initially but I realise other people were forwarding my emails and from there it got viral. I didn't even need to send emails anymore and people starting to call me for my products. It lasted for quite a few months. Now the product is distributed through shops and I have my own advertising business which allowed me to advertise for free while others paid for my flyers and online adspaces. Cool right? So now I'm picking up more internet marketing strategies and played more with adsense and teaching my community online businesses through my own blog..www.fadzuli.com.
I started by doing Web design for people I knew, then branched out to other clients, then started offering paid Web hosting - and the rest is history!
Approached local firms who didn't have websites and offered consultancy and design. After 3 of these projects I got myself a website and started to build a portfolio. Soon the local schools and other businesses contracted me to work on their websites for them. Whatever you do, start small and work your way up. Don't jump in the deep end and try and do too much to begin with otherwise your clients will get dissatisfied and your services won't be recommended to other people.
I started promoting affiliate stuff, once I started making a few grand a month I started making my own products. I now spend my time on product stuff as well as my new SEO company.
Hi! I´m not a top earner, but I´d like to share how I started. I started making some bucks writing resumes in Portuguese. Then I tryed GPT sites. Now I´m earning more with my blog sponsored reviews. I´m learning new things every day but from what I´ve read content is king. There are good chances of making money writing content as freelancer. Thanks for sharing your story, and good luck.
I started last summer, needed some money and built my first website, footballexpert.net. Was pretty succesful but didn't want to run it anymore so sold it. Now I own one site, Live Football Scores one in my signature link and write articles and flip websites. Brings in around $500 per month, which is pretty decent for me as i'm still a student.
"or do you do any freelancing work" I started with freelancing work, and now I have few websites + still do freelancing work.
December 2004 did my first money as a freelancer Now still my main income is freelancing + websites I never had a job in my life Untill i was a freelancer i earned money by reparing computers for my friends or people they refer me
Started with just the first idea I was really passionate about, an entertainment forum. Initially made 0, eventually when the traffic started coming, I began selling little ads here and there, eventually sold it for $XXXX. Now I'm just developing sites. I don't think you need a great deal of starting capital to be successful, though it helps.
I don't think you really want to get me going on that. After the fall off the roof and becoming disabled, I no Longer was capable of working, I was forced to seek Alternative income and here I am. Karl
I went to one of the seminar, after seeing all the speakers talking about making money in IM, Forex trading, property investment, etc. I decided to take up IM, and ever since i took up IM, I tell myself i am going to made it!