Oh, I love to invest my money... my friends always ask "what the heck do you do with the money you earn?"... well, I invest it on new sites. Started out las year with one site, have a network of 25 right now. I don't put my eggs on one basket, I receive my earnings from several networks. Adsense, budsinc, azoogleads, interclick are the ones I can remember. However, I do depend on search engine traffic. The best thing for me is that my earnings are all mine, I don't have to pay money to Adwords or get paid traffic somewhere, so it is wonderful, but that is what worries me. Engines aren't stable at all, one day you rule and are at the top for all your keywords getting 8k uniques per day, the next day you find a Florida, Bourbon, or whatever and you can see everything going down the drain. I will just continue expanding my network of sites. You know what they say... it is much easier to have 50 sites earning $5 a day, than to have one site earning $250
Yeah, I think re-invest in non-web related business is a good idea too though. If you're making anything significant at all it shouldn't be a problem. Buy a couple of houses, then when you get hit by a Bourbon you'll still have 2x rent incomes to keep you fluid.
Fryman, you could always just give me your sites and I will take care of them and you can go get a job digging ditches in Mexico... I think what you are doing is just fine. I would start investing in a passive investment income like property though. That would be good for long term. Read 'rich dad/poor dad'
I don't see the risk. You say you make more than 5k yet probably your biggest expense costs you $300 a month. So what it goes tits up one day and 5k drops to 1k. You should still be fine. If it really worries you then I think you know what to do. Either acquire a site that doesn't rely on SE's for traffic, that's already established and offers some kind of paid service or run an offline business alongside. But I think your drama queening a bit. You're obviously doing something right so keep copying the model. As someone suggested, raise your goal to 10K or even 25K. That way you have enough margin to take a 6 month blow. Even is you don't quite hit that target. And I see you're still not using PPC to acquire business. Well that's asking for fluctuating traffic IMO. I'm sure you can use cheap 5ct ads for some of your sites. Work out average visitor value etc. to see if it's viable.
Do you reckon he's just saying all this for an alterior motive? To gain some credibility perhaps? Make us all jealous?
Well, since a nice apt in Mexico is only $300, $5K a month is more then any one would need to live very comfortably. Unless Fryman has a mean coke habit...
I don't know what his motives are but it's been suggested before he should look into AdWords so why come back after months and complain about traffic bumps? Not to be nasty or anything, the way Fryman has built his little empire is great I think and is an excellent example for those here who want to achieve similar things. But bragging about earnings and then saying 'it's too risky for me' has signs of a whimpy attitude in my book. Get on with it and draw your conclusions. Sell it off if you can't handle it.
Ifthere is a problem with swinging earnings then everybody would try to resolve this on different ways. But everybody will complain though they are earning more than averange. Thats the human nature.
change the hairstyle shave the beard and wear clothes that are less tight top of the line advice which of course I don't listen to
Fryman, How about hiring some one who could look into all that? Internet is always risky.This is just like Stock Exchange business when sometimes it rises and sometimes it drops.
Yes, there are risks, but I personally believe it's geting better every day thanks to Google and a few others who have demonstrated how internet should be used. I think for the future there is much more in store for everyone and that the interrupter, scammers and spammers have there days numbered. Just try to imagine that every day more and more businesses are going online worldwide, saving thousands or even millions $ of overhead expenses for doing there business online with more efficiency. I would say we're just at the beginning of this globalisation of its best site. Petrol is geeting more expensive, paper will not be wasted as it used to be. For millions of people no more traffic jams, because they are just going to their virtual offices. Home schools is another thing to mention. People will order online that means less shop liftings, and so many other advantages.
Yes, I am agreed that net business is very risky, but one need to calculate the risk factors e.g. must have multiple sites, so if one goes down, reasonable income should be generated from others. Second, after getting money from net business, put you money in other solid business to reduce the risk factor.
I'm kind of late to this thread, but I wanted to add my two cents. Based on the statement you made, it appears that you are relying too heavily on the search engines. This is a mistake that many webmasters have made, and I'am personally trying to get away from it. Actually, I have got away from it. Some people in this thread have said that the internet is risky. I think they're wrong. The internet is the future. My definition of "risk" is trying to start an offline business, where there is so much red tape and government controlled that you can't make any serious money unless you're Walmart or IBM. Most of us started online businesses precisely because we wanted to get out from under the control of large corporations that tend to be corrupt. Unfortunately, by relying on the search engine, you are ironically back under the control of the corporations you tried to get away from. There are other ways to make money online besides the search engines. A lot of people don't realize that the advent of the internet has allowed people to become freelance entrepreneurs. This means that you can work for other people without having to worry about the search engines. "You don't need a college education." I have argued with people here at DP about this issue, and I firmly believe in it. College and education are two different things. If you teach yourself Java, PHP, or Ajax, you fan find work online as a freelance programmer. If you are self educated in web design, writing, or link building, you can find work doing this as well. I do the best of both worlds. I have a few websites, and I make money from the search engines, but I don't put all my eggs in one basket. I'am also a freelancer. If the search engines decided to drop my rankings tomorrow, it would sting a bit, but I would still be in good shape, because I'am not completely dependent on them Another secret is to save your money. I don't mean put away $100 bucks a month. I mean a $1000 bucks a month or more. Where you live, this should be easy. Once you have $30 to $40 thousand bucks sitting in the bank with no debt, you can begin investing in accounts that earn compound interest. At this point, you'll win.. You are making a lot of money, more than a lot of people here, including myself. Your primary objective should be to secure the cash you're bringing in. This is where guys like me win. Even though my income isn't yet extreme, I put 80% of what I do make in the bank......and it stays there......and I still live comfortably.
Great post, tesla (and great username and avatar ). I agree that saving money each month is a great idea, to invest or to fall back on if the income slows down. For a while I was putting my eggs in one basket by relying on ebay for my income, but when things started slowing down I began to want a more diverse income. I've been "farming" some myspace accounts, letting them mature for about a month before I collect a bunch of friends (plus I have a few that are well below the 60 million range) and sell them, I have a few domains that I might sell (or build sites for, not sure yet), and have some fresh ideas for a humor website (or blog) which I already bought the domain for. I would also like to try some freelance content writing since I am no longer writing as an unpaid volunteer for a local paper. I understand how some people see the risk involved, but there's no way I'm going back to a full time crap job, which I felt was riskier, knowing I could be fired at any moment. Right now I am embarking on a learning curve to make a good income on the internet, and it only needs to be about $1500 a month to live very comfortably. I know there's a lot to learn, but I'm glad to learn from the fine folks here at DP and a helpful friend who also got me into DP. If anyone has any good suggestions, then please let me know