Hey all, I've been reading a searching through these forums for the last few weeks now. Very interesting stuff and the forums have been a big help so far, so thanks to all. I do have a couple of questions. I've read many threads that have been started by asking more experienced internet marketers how much they make. And of course some of the responses have been quite humorous. I have enjoyed them. I'm not going to ask how much anyone makes but I will ask this, if after several years of hard work you're making beans.....why pursue it? I mean wouldn't it be time to think about gainful employment? Now don't get mad at me. Not trying to be a smart @$$. What I mean to say is that in these forums I see sites for sale, design work for hire, people selling their time to write copy, traffic for sale, etc. and it can't all be for nothing. I mean someone has got to be earning a living doing this. Am I right? I think the reason the "how much money do you make" question is asked so much is because of the learning curve involved in internet marketing. For instance, if I signed up to train for a position that was going to be very intensive I would at least like to hear from others that have succeeded in my field. Then I would know that I to could work toward some level of success. Anyway, I do really appreciate the kindness shown toward me in my PM's. As it says under my avatar....I'm a "peon". LOL! So please pardon me if I've stated anything in this thread that isn't appropriate. By the way, it's pretty late where I live (can't sleep tonight) and I won't be home tomorrow/today. So if anyone addresses this post and I haven't responded it's because I'm away. I apologize. I'll ck back in tomorrow night. Thanks everyone.
it depends on why you created the site in the first place. If you created it to make money and after a year or two you are not pulling in anything then yes, might be time to think or something else to do. I myself have a few sites that I have created for fun and because I like the topics. If I make some money then cool, if not, the site does not cost alot and it is fun for me. But hey, that is just me.
. You are right: multiple, nearly identical questions get asked repeatedly. My best guess as a Reason Why is few people bother to go back pages and LOOK or put the time in to finding what has already been said, versus asking AGAIN on the first page. But whatever.. There's GOLD in past posts. But how many people have stopped going past the top 10 SERPs on Google? I have my Google preferences set to display 100 pages, because as a Marketer, I know top 10 placement has little to with relative search results as knowing how be in the top ten. Dig into deeper pages and find the good stuff people just don't bother with. Hey. I CAN write a short post. Rob P.S. I'm not sure if when you mention the people selling their time for money or selling off their sites, means that you think those folks have hit hard times, and are having to sell, but it kind of reads like that. Of course, I have no idea what posts you have read, to plant the seed in your head, but why the notion that people aren't making money, their living, online successfully? Of course, there are many who work for scraps and crumbs, thus simply having a record of sales, does not equate to making money, especially when many, many hours are spent producing the outcome. I might just be too tired to read a simple question - I'll stop while I'm ahead.. .
As to why people don't like to talk about how much they make... it's because they're self-employed and not employees in a specific "industry" being polled or shared by an employer. It's highly competitive, and even announcing that you make a great living in one niche can cause a flood of "wannabe webmasters" oversaturating the niche with lousy sites that dilute what you earn. As with any kind of entrepreneurial endeavor, it's a matter of innovation.... and people don't want to share their unique ideas and strategies anymore than large companies do. As for how long it takes people to earn a living.... it depends on what they're doing, and how much effort they're putting in. Some only do it for part-time income or spending money while they're in school and such. Others of us earn our full-time livings from the Web. That can happen very quickly (for service providers with little overhead for example), and will gradually build up. But like with any other kind of business, it's quite possible that it could take 3-5 years for someone to turn a significant profit.... that doesn't make it not worth pursuing though... the rewards when it does happen can be great, and smart businessmen (and women) know when to stick with it and when to call it quits. Selling services can be a very lucrative business on the Web if you know what you're doing (several types of consultants can charge well over $100/hr for their time). Selling sites isn't a matter of them not making money so much as the time factor in many cases. Sometimes we just can't manage them all, and let some go to focus on top earners... and of course some people create and flip them for a living, b/c frankly there's a demand for that kind of thing, and someone has to supply it. It's all basic business.