As the year 2004 was ending , I set a goal for this year: earn 5k a month on the net. I was hoping to reach this goal before the year ended, but to my surprise I was already earning a bit more than that in May. But, although it is a wonderful income and lets me live a good life (a 2 beddroom apartment in a nice neighborhood costs less than $300 here), I find it too risky. It is a real pain waking up each day and hoping that a search engine didn't bump you down, or that your server is still working fine and hasn't been hacked... A few days ago I got all my keywords at top 5 at Yahoo. Visitors increased and I was earning almost $100 a day from only one site. Today Yahoo did a weird update, my keywords vanished, and so did my visitors and earnings (I only earned 35 bucks today). It is just a pain... the net still seems too risky for me. I guess I'll need to find a well paid "normal" job and keep my net earnings as a nice extra.
The key is to diversify and have several sources of income. Have you been investing any savings outside of the net? Can you continue to diversify what you're doing online? Can you take the knowledge you've learned from your online business and sell it in some form or fashion? Offer consulting? There are a lot of options and getting a "normal" job is just one of many. You could always have a part time day job so you still have time for Internet projects. Everything evolves over time. What makes money right now, might not do diddly in five years. Having a job isn't necessarily any less risky...you might get fired, squeezed out, or end up working in a position that makes you completely miserable. I know some people would prefer to have a job because they get a steady paycheck and they like to get out and be in a group environment. You just gotta do what feels right to you.
As usual DS is spot on! Last November I got into a few problems with Google, which took 3 months to get resolved, during this period I earnt very little, and if it wasn't for other work that I would of been sleeping on the street. Anyone who runs a business though, be it online or offline runs into some degree of risk, but I do agree that running an online business is very risky, and what I have tried to do to take some pressure off is don't just rely on the search engines for traffic and not have all my eggs in one basket.
You have done well to have hit those earnings early, even though you took a bump would you find a job that derived as much pleasure as being fully self-employed? Maybe what you should do is build an online/offline business or look to create a more stable array of websites that don't rely on adsense/search engines, ie one's that also offer a product/info so that you can rely more on repeat visitors and bookmarks rather than free traffic, you are experienced enough to go down that route and build a long term site.
Absolutely! Being diversified is whats MOST important. Have a sites that are different topics, different types of sites (dont have all directories for example) Have sites that respond to one search engine better then another. ("blue collar" topics seem to do better when ranked well on yahoo then google, "Techie" does better with google) Also, dont rely on your income only from adsense. Sell links, sell banner ads, sell some turnkey sites, design sites for people, etc. The key is diversification. Adsense goes down tomorrow, your not broke. Yahoo changes its algo dramatically and your not in the serps, no biggie, you have 6 other sources of income. Adsense will change, perhaps be gone someday. Link sales may be filtered out someday. Yahoo might be bought by google. A topic thats doing well for you now might fall out of interest in a year and draw no visitors or adsense $$) Being diversified ensures one event wont castrate your finances.
It's very important to stay educated. You simply MUST know whats hip at the moment. If you're not using a cutting-edge approach, you always stay behind your competitors....
fryman, why not just move your target to 10k a month - then if you get a drop, you should still be ok...
I was going to say exactly that. Find a way of bringing in the visitors which don't rely on the search engines whether it's through offline marketing such as leaflets, brochures, newspaper articles, press releases, radio ads, tv ads, cold calling or online methods such as adsense ads, forum signatures and buy sell trade sections. There's always creative ways of marketing your sites. One method I've found successful for one of my sites is to sell the products on eBay and display a small advertisement on each product telling people to visit the website to buy more related products. If you manage to build a sticky site where people just keep coming back for more this tends to be a much easier thing to do than find new customers.
You have 3 engines to play with first google was sandboxing my sites but I had yahoo no yahoo is like a steel toe boot stamping down on my neck, but a couple of my sites poped out of the sandbox to make up for it and there is still msn, which sucks but honestly I could sill probably pay my rent + basic living expenses from it. The better I do the more on edge I feel, thinking when is it going tank? But it makes no sense, if being an seo lasts 3 more months or 10 years, I think you should but as much into it as possible while it lasts. Its more enjoyable and pays a lot more then any regular job I could get. Whats the alternative? You can go work for some dickhead 9-5? Get cubicle?
Since you are making that much, you should put a bunch away, so that you will have it to live off of if your sites fail. I would recommend having one month's earning saved, at least.
As the saying goes, "You've come a long way baby." You're doing too well to quit now. You have said the cost of living well in Mexico is not high. Try saving 1/2 your income each month for rainy day and watch your nest egg grow as you continue making advances. I see what you have accomplished really fantastic. Shannon ---------- Oops, I was too slow in my reply.
I think you should think it over. If you have made $5K in one month you can make it in the next. Everywhere is a risk, even if you will be employed - because you can be fired. Don't panic! In this year I have made more than $6K in one month but in the next it was only $3K. But in fact its ok. I wouldn't never made that cash in my country. DON'T PANIC AND MAKE WHAT YOU MAKE.
Fryman I think you're doing very well. Obviously a lot of good suggestions here. One thought, even on your low months now, are you making as much or more than you were back in December when you set your goal?
Fryman I think you're lacking faith in your own abilities... I mean anyone who knows their customers this well shouldn't worry so much about the small fluxuations...
Best thing to do (IMO) is assume the "free" money (affiliate, AdSense, etc.) can go away at any point. Don't plan your life assuming you will always have that type of income (even though you might). Better to live below your means than above it IMO.
Re-invest. Don't just "save it up for a rainy day", plough it into real estate or get a nice diverse stock portfolio.