Is it harder to make an income on the internet now?

[Technicolor Tim]

It just seems to me that everyone and their brother has a personal development blog (never mind any obvious lack of qualifications) and a bunch of affiliate programs set up, none of which are making any real money. I wouldn't mind making some money online, but I'm starting to think that my efforts may pay off better in other arenas - due to the insane amount of competition out there (too many people chasing the same dollar). Perhaps I should just keep my stuff on the web (my music related blog that has earned me a grand total of $ 1.29 since October ) a hobby. People like Steve Pavlina have obviously inspired lots of people to attempt making money online, but when I discuss this matter with people who've been at it for a while, most seem pretty disheartened, and few expect things to get any easier now that even more people are jumping on the band wagon. I make really good money on my day job, and so I must admit that I don't really need the money I could be making on the web right now. Still, I'm a little disappointed at how little money eager web workers are actually making, seeing as some time down the road I'd love the freedom of owning a website that made enough money for me to live comfortably, and then be able to travel more and work from home, for instance. I mean, who wouldn't want that? (and that's perhaps why so many are trying too...)

What is your opinions on this? Is making money online getting more and more difficult, or are there perhaps even better opportunities to do so now than before? What have your experiences been?

[Steve Pavlina]

It's actually easier than ever to make money online... ridiculously easier than it was when I started in 1995. For one you have a much larger audience. Secondly you have abundant resources to turn to, many of them free. And there are so many people to look to as examples who've already done it. Today you can do it without even learning HTML. Harder? Not a chance. It only looks harder because tons of clueless people are flooding into it. That doesn't mean anything though if you happen to have a clue, since you won't be competing with them anyway.

It's a safe bet that the vast majority of people trying to make money online will fail at it. They'll give up way too soon. Today most people give up in less than 6 months. All that proves is that they're dabblers and were never serious in the first place.

If you're going to give up in 6 months or less, you've failed before you started. Give yourself a good five years at least.

[Technicolor Tim]

Wow, thanks for taking the time to post that, Steve. I couldn't have wished for a more qualified reply!

Also, I get what you're saying about all the clueless people trying to make a buck online these days. You see it everywhere, and I guess the only thing I'm concerned with is the fact that they can sometimes seem to be 'cluttering up' the internet and getting in the way of serious folks who actually have something to contribute in the form of good services, products, or information. But when I think about, cluless people in search of a quick buck don't really tend to last do they?

Thanks again, I very much appreciate your reply. I might just give a couple of my business ideas a go after all...

[1000feet]

That only means personal development affiliate programs aren't the best market to target You mention that you have a music-related blog - there might not be as many people seeking that type of material as there are with personal development, but that can make it a better place to start. Just remember why people are interested in it - unless the writing is very compelling people will come to it because they think they have something to gain related to music. If you want to make money it's best to set aside your preferences and look at how you can make the blog more interesting and valuable to people who keep coming back.

Remember that business growth isn't always fast or linear - sometimes it takes months or years of slow growth before you jump to a new level.

[Steve Pavlina]

The Internet is essentially infinite in its growth capacity, so you don't need to worry about clutter. People don't normally find what they're looking for by trying to sort through the entire Internet anyway.

I found New York City pretty cluttered when I visited there, but I was still able to get around just find, see what I wanted to see, and meet some interesting people.

It isn't hard to rise above the clutter once you figure out what you're doing. You'll eventually pass through the clutter if you just keep learning and growing as you go. The clutter-creating people aren't in it for the long haul.

It doesn't matter if a search returns a thousand results or a million if you're in the top 10. Most people have no chance of reaching the top 10 because they don't offer anything worth finding. If you can offer something more valuable to people that what shows up in top 10 results right now, you're putting yourself on the side of Google and its users -- they'll actually want to shove you into the top 10 because you deserve to be there.

[yogesh sarkar]

Best thing I like about making or should I say, dream of making money online is the fact that I can do what I am and well and truly interested in.

Don’t run after a niche because you see people earning big bucks in it, go after a niche you well and truly love and are knowledgably about, so that you can add value to online content, rather than regurgitating the same thing that every one else and their cat is doing!

[Mused]

I think there's a lot more opportunity to make an income on the internet now than ever before. That said, I'm not sure if making an income from the internet has ever been all that easy.

There are free tools (such as google adwords) that make it much easier these days to hone in on article & topic ideas. I don't bid on keywords (yet) but I do use the free tools to help me identify where the opportunity is. I use what I can find out about the competition to my advantage. If a search term gets high search volume and little to no advertiser competition I do a bit more research to see if there is anything new and/or as Steve suggested "more valuable" to offer on the topic.

Just like you my blog has made a whopping $1.77 in the past few months. It's only been a few months - way too soon to give up now.

[JulyFNC]

it's not hard at all. I started from Online Trading Guide
It's real helpful!

[smartile]

I agree. Making money online is one of the easiest things to do, especially nowadays. I work full time and build my website part time.

I'm one of those guys who doesn't quite understand html but I love writing. I have a few friends who understand web programming so I call them up from time to time to make website improvements. I am very appreciative and grateful for their help.

If you can get your head around the technical aspects (i.e. do it yourself/find a friend/pay someone) then building a website is really simple. I've generated around $300 from my site to date and the articles are sound. A few of my articles have even been published in a local magazine.

Ideally, I would have liked to create a higher income but I’m on the learning curve. The biggest lesson I've learned is that a website needs traffic. I thought,

"If I build it, they will come."

This isn’t always true. I've put more effort into building traffic in the past two months and the results are speaking for themselves.

[Ali from The Office Diet]

Hi Tim,

I can identify (a touch bitterly, perhaps!) with how you feel ... I'm trying to establish a strong, content-rich site about healthy living for busy office workers, but it's taking a lot longer than I'd hoped to bust through the "clutter" of the internet. I'm hoping my blog won't get lost amongst the typical diet-sites serving ads, posts scraped from other blogs, very poorly written posts, etc...

So far, I've made about $6 on AdSense (though I'm far more concerned about readership than money at this stage.) However, the blog has led to a paid staff position at Diet Blog and a good steep learning curve on the technology side! I've also "met" lots of people I'd not otherwise have come into contact with.

I decided when I launched the blog on Jan 1st that I'd give it a year of posting every weekday, every week, until I gave up. So another 10 months to go before I even start to think about whether it's worth continuing with.

Good luck, and I agree with you that the personal development field is getting crowded. Music sounds like a far better option!

Ali

[bigadam]

Can someone lock JulyFNC please?

[prasunsen]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

If you're going to give up in 6 months or less, you've failed before you started. Give yourself a good five years at least.

I like the way you look at this, Steve. Building internet business, essentially, is no different than building offline business. You either provide real value and have USP or you don't. Most people are not unique and not even valuable (Frankly, it's hard to be really unique, but everyone can put in some effort to make a difference).

I still think that doing internet business is not for everyone. But because starting one is easy, everyone goes into it. That's why there is such a high percentage of people who fail online. It's reminds me of the software business in India - it became profitable, so everyone and his mom is a programmer there. Because of that 99% of the programmers are not good. Everyone should do what they are good and truly passionate about. Not what they think is easy and profitable.

[rogerw]

I am not sure if is easier than 5 years ago, but there are so many opportunities. That is for sure. Also the competition is tougher these days than it was 5 years ago. Hard work and if you believe in yourself are the thing you need every day. I believe is the same on the internet.

[bigadam]

To Tim, remember that with web businesses in general, and blogs in particular, the barrier to entry is extremely low. Out of the tons of personal development sites you mention, I'm sure 93% will either give up or immediately disqualify themselves due to poor grammar and general lack of knowledge.

Of that 7% that actually have the ability to succinctly capture and present a thought, most I'm sure will get lost in the noise because they don't offer anything new on the subject and aren't truly passionate.

That leaves you only 2% to compete against...

[teatree]

The thing to bear in mind is that you won't make money straight away.

Most blogs die after three months because their owners are disappointed with how much they've made compared to the amount of work they've put in. Therefore, most of teh "competition" you are seeing are newbies who haven't got much of an audience and will give up shortly.

Concentrate on building traffic to your site in the first year. Once it has built up and you have earned a decent pagerank, things will improve sharply. I don't think there is any site/blog that made a lot of money in the first year. The money comes in the following years provided you have stuck with it, written good content and built up decent traffic.

[Ali from The Office Diet]

Tim,

I just came across this post on Daily Blog Tips, which I found quite encouraging -- basically, it suggests that blogs need 3-6 months to start running easily:

Hold Tight, It Will Only Get Easier

Hope that helps!

Ali

[LawofAttractionHandbook]

Originally Posted by yogesh sarkar

Don’t run after a niche because you see people earning big bucks in it, go after a niche you well and truly love and are knowledgable about, so that you can add value to online content, rather than regurgitating the same thing that every one else and their cat is doing!

I couldn't agree with you more. Lots of people follow the same path of slapping up "adsense templates" or posting every possible affiliate link on their website hoping to make money. This may have worked for some while the internet was still in its infancy, but its completely dead now.

Great content makes money. Not money making systems or techniques.

TechnicolorTim - If you really want to make money online, start reading the following blogs:

Buzz Marketing
Internet Business Mastery
Strategic Profits
Marketing Tips

Those are great information sources to get you started. Have fun!

[Erock]

What I don't get is why everybody wants to make a blog. That seems like one of the least effective ways of making money online. Maybe that's just because I hate writing essays though.

Erock

[beel]

Originally Posted by Erock

What I don't get is why everybody wants to make a blog. That seems like one of the least effective ways of making money online. Maybe that's just because I hate writing essays though.

Erock

i agree. i think there are plenty of other effective ways of making money online.

[Ali from The Office Diet]

Here's a question then, Erock and Beel -- what would be your top three ways to make money online?

Ali

[jonarmis]

Good question!

I think it's not that difficult if you have the skills and you can deliver quality work as soon as possible. There are two things required in this biz, skill and time. You need to have that certain level of skill to be able to do online tasks and lastly, it's primordial that you can deliver that task on time.

Otherwise, you will lose an online job.

[5stardreams]

Making money online is pretty easy.

Due to some personal situations, I had to give up my online business a while ago. But back then, I was making $2000 a month in Google ads, doing absolutely nothing except putting up recipes every so often. It took me a long time to get there because I didn't put an ounce of marketing into it - I just posted recipes and Google found me and then the rest is internet history.

The few things that I learned, now that I'm doing it the second time around is:

(a) Content is King - If your content stinks, then you're never going to make any lasting money.
(b) Longevity is the Queen - The longer you are there, the better chances someone will actually visit your site. I still get people sending me emails that say, what happened to your site - I loved it!!
(c) Be Personable - People will come back to your site because they like you. I don't mean that you have to quip jokes all the time. Just let you shine through.
(d) Design - Take the time to make your site look nice. People don't want to go to an ugly site.
(e) Get Rid of the Pop-Ups - Everyone hates them and I refuse to go to a site that has one. I think lots of people would agree.

Maureen