We've all seen the usual names: Marcus Frind (Plentyoffish.com) Kevin Rose (Digg) Jeremy Shoemaker (Internet Marketing) John Chow (Internet Marketing) David Miles Jr. & Kato Leonard (FreeWebLayouts) Darren Rowse (Problogger) The issue of "Top Internet Earners" always seems to come back to these names. What I'd like to open for discussion is whether these are, in fact, at the head of the class still to this day. With all of the IM efforts to turn everybody else into the next "internet guru" (while profiting from that education), surely we must have some that have been successful and overtaken the usual suspects. The watered-down effect can't be good in any business for any one group or individual. A glance at this site and others shows a tremendous amount of passion, and countless hours devoted to this achievement. Is Dating (or even porn) the top niche these days, or does Internet Marketing with its subscriber lists and eBooks still reign supreme? Maybe there are affiliate marketers out there using SEM to quietly haul in a ton of cash. Would we know about it? I've seen some programs list their top affiliates, and it is likely those top earners are spreading their efforts over many different programs. It would be hard to fathom that anyone is at the top using PPC (Adsense) any longer, unless they have some secret method of getting targeted traffic that blows away the competition. Arbitrage is a thing of the past, so that knocks the list down considerably. The travel industry once was near the top as internet income goes...where has that gone? Do you personally know people that are ridiculously wealthy due to the internet alone? In your opinion, is it a combination of efforts spread out across the spectrum, or one solid effort in one can't-miss niche? Somewhere in this big bowl of soup somebody can illustrate a recession-proof means of income that doesn't sway with the economy. Of course, many won't waste their time giving it away on these boards, but there are no secrets and no stones left unturned "in the business", so there is little harm in discussing it in today's technology-driven world. What say you? (Please resist the temptation to show us your affiliate referral links, it only serves to get you banned quickly anyway. This is for discussion, not a means for you to market your efforts.)