I was asked a question about how much I make in this business. Not a lot. But enough. So here it is: Some days I make $7. Some days I make $107. Average? Maybe $30.
Kinda sad I know. But it pays for snowboarding and other things that I don’t have to take out of the main budget for. Internet money, for me, is for the extra stuff that the marital unit doesn’t have a say over what I buy.
I think if I worked hard at it I could make a good living at it. But I don’t feel like working hard at building VRE right now. I have an easy job that I’m good at doing. Pays a lot. Internet Marketing is so much more difficult. It takes way more time.
Today I could have stayed home and built and maintained blogs. Instead my two daughters played at the softball jamboree. The youngest’s team won. I pitched for the little girls. I live to help coach those little girls. The oldest’s team was runner-up in her league. I was back and forth trying to watch the oldest while the youngest was in the field, since they both played at the same time. It was the best Saturday I’ve had in a long time. I also go for long mountain bike and road rides. I work out religiously. I read recreationally. I play the drums. I watch movies. The oldest and I can’t wait for Halo 3 to come out. We home school our kids. I just don’t allocate a lot of time to this business. It’s too much work. There is too much life out there to live without spending the majority of it tethered to a 15.4″ LCD screen.
Nothing in my life is as hard and unsatisfying as this business. I do it for a little extra money and I keep it damn simple. I will probably never be a millionaire until I retire. I will probably never make 5 figures a month in this business. I’m OK with that because I know the effort and the pain that would take to get there. I don’t think for a minute that those guberus who actually make 5 figures a month did it without working 16 hour days for weeks or months at a time. Hell, most probably still work those hours. Eff that.
Sure, I hope to develop a blog like DailyBlogTips or Lifehacker that matters on a subject that I like. Maybe I’ll figure out how to make Lost Ball more than a big ol’ whine. I like writing it and commenting on the crap I see out there. It’s not that I don’t want to be successful at this. I just have to make sure it doesn’t distract from other stuff that is just as important to me. I’d rather be poor and have all the time in the world than be rich and do nothing but work.
I feel no shame at all in my mediocrity. After all, I’ve always thought the mediocre are always at their best.
21 responses so far ↓
John // Aug 25, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Have you read The 4 Hour Work Week? If not, it is mainly about principles for creating income while having plenty of time for the lifestyle you want to have. And I think it might help you out.
Affiliate Marketing to me is the perfect business opportunity to provide income without taking too much time because it has automation built in to most things. Something like PPC affiliate marketing takes some initial time to set up but if you do it right should provide you with income while requiring little maintenance.
Emma // Aug 26, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Your blog is one of my favorites. Your not that encouraging for a new blogger, but actually your realistic.
I know I have put in more time than I ever imagined just for some very small gains. Making Money online is the most time consuming thing I’ve tried.
I thought it might be a way out. But it actually made me appreciate my easy money day job as well.
As far as the above comment about the 4-hour work week. I’m holding out for the 3- hour version.
Thanks for your honesty. And keep posting. Emma
Splork // Aug 26, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Yea, I’m not the guy to come to if you want a rose colored view of the business. I don’t think for a minute that the business can’t be rose-colored, but it takes way more work than some VRE Adsense templates or some ebooks on PPC.
I’m not sure what the answer is. Like anything else that is worthwhile, it takes a lot of work. The best thing is to find someone, somewhere that is doing well on the Internet and see if they can help. I’ve been asked if I would mentor folks and I’m like, are you kidding me? I barely make enough to cover a Happy Meal every day!? I talk the average guy’s version of Internet Marketing. Probably the realistic version. But I’m struggling like everybody else.
Thanks for reading, Emma.
Reddiance // Aug 26, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Splork, thanks for answering my question on Internet income. Averaging $30 per day isn’t too bad. But if you can make $30, why can’t you make $60? … why not then $120?
Is that $30/day all on autopilot? If it is on autopilot, then that $30 can multiply to $60..$120..etc, hopefully without taking too much time.
People have mentioned here that affiliate PPC is one of the ways to make good money. But I see that field so crowded and so competitive that it can be too stressful just to keep your head above the water. Not to mention all those Google Slaps…
Probably the best thing to do is do something that you really enjoy doing and at the same time earn a living with it. Creating your own product that you are passionate about and then sell to others, I think, can be better than fighting the affiliate game.
Dan Cruz // Aug 29, 2007 at 9:50 am
Spork, I just have to commend you for “keeping it real.”
Your Blog may not be the most inspirational but it speaks the truth and sadly that’s exactly what this industry (Internet Marketing) is sorely lacking.
Scott // Aug 30, 2007 at 7:52 am
Hey Splork,
I know what you mean, I have a hard time wanting to stare at my LCD when I don’t get enough time with my two little girls as it is.
As for what Reddiance said above, PPC is pretty tough. It’s taken me almost two years to come up with ONE moderately profitable campaign. Not sure why I bother.
Scott
ScamHunter // Aug 30, 2007 at 10:56 am
I also appreciate your honesty, because without some honest people like yourself, it is so easy to think — geez, I must be a moron, everyone else has turned their home computer into a “money-making cash machine.”
I’m currently trying out Web 2.0 Wealth, which is a new blogging product (see review on my current blog) and am hopeful about it drawing more traffic than I have in the past. But I also agree that the notion that you simply find a great product that pays, oh $50 or more per sale and you write a dozen articles about it. Well, it just doesn’t work.
First I have never gotten the 10-articles-in-an afternoon routine down. Secondly finding a GOOD product with a big commission is fairly hard.
My ONLY profitable PPC? - for August I spent $2.92 on PPC for it and earned $12 on Amazon from direct sales and perhaps another $3 on indirect sales. Whoo hoo…. Yes, it’s on auto-pilot, but it took me a day if you count writing the landing page and tuning the ads and I don’t want to even comment on how many failures I had beside that one success.
My bottom line is I plan to use what I’ve learned from the world of internet marketing to boost the not-solely-internet business I’m starting. Therefore I don’t think I’ll do any affiliate stuff unless I have a reason to use a product and gain first-hand knowledge about it anyway.
Many of our best family memories also revolve around the ball fields. Boys and baseball for us, not girls, but the feelings are all the same.
Enjoy and treasure it!
Tom // Aug 31, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Almost forgot this free resource:
http://www.affilitools.com/Extremely_Simple_Newbie_Report.pdf
This free report will show you a system that could make you your first $500 a month, no investment needed (it used Blogger). No hype, no B.S., just step-by-step information anyone can follow.
Tom
Marc // Sep 2, 2007 at 3:42 am
Hey Splork,
My feelings on this subject are mixed.
1. Because I have worked previously to my entrepreneur mind kicking in, for someone else my entire life.
2. Because I now work for myself after a lot of hard slog
3. Because I have also worked the 16 to 18 hour days
Full respect for your decision, after all what we do in life is all about giving us choices, or the freedom to make a choice without restriction.
If holiday and extra money is what you are looking for then congrats Splork, you are there already and most would kill for an extra 1k a month.
Internet for me personally is a vehicle that will help me realize some of my full potential in the business world. It is enabling me to build a company faster then offline business, and hone my skills whilst at it.
Now who said that it was hard work and they perfer working for the man?
Wow, let me give you a small comparison here.
How long you been working a job in your profession for?
How long does it take for you to get a raise?
How long before you can actually be second in charge?
And now ask yourself how long have you been trying to make a living online?
Its not instant guys, and it is hard work, it took me 1 year to work out I was doing everything wrong (in which I got scammed for about 8 to 15k) then another 2 years to stumble my way to a point where I knew what I was doing.
I didn’t pay for any mentoring, the only mentoring I had was from Brad Callen who I had be-friended by being a major positive poster in his forum and showing that I was doing something.
Even then he would just point me in the right directions when it was needed. We still talk a lot today but he gave me the confidence to take things further early on.
My point is you spend what 10 15 years in your day job trying to get the next payrise.
Don’t expect you can jump online and do it instantly.
Even with mentoring, I mean REAL mentoring, the kind we provide, none of this make money yesterday bs, it takes minimum of 12 months just to “think” you have the hang of it.
It will then take you 12 months more of doing to really discover you only just started.
Most importantly stop giving people your money if you have not at least actioned something other then reading.
And when you find something that works, even if it just starts earning you a few dollars a day, repeat that system over and over until you are earning enough so you can start looking at other options on what you want to do online.
When you change and buy the latest thing, you have just killed your direction.
I can talk on this all day, and I probably should have posted this on my own blog, but I think you would benefit from it.
Cya
Marc
Joe // Sep 4, 2007 at 9:09 am
There is too much life out there to live without spending the majority of it tethered to a 15.4″ LCD screen?
What about 50 hour work weeks in a cubicle?
Splork // Sep 4, 2007 at 12:00 pm
The 40 hour work week pays ALL my bills and then some. It pays for the life of my children. I don’t know of too many full-time IMers who are not busting ass daily to make their living slinging IM stuff. Unless you were able to build a property(s) that you could sell for millions of dollars, there aren’t many sitting around doing nothing. Sure there may be some who sit around in their underwear for two hours a day and make $500 but I think those are the exception. Making money is hard work no matter what you do.
Barry // Sep 4, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Hi Splork,
Marc’s response is interesting, since it comes from the “other side,” but it’s a bit colored by his decision to move to IM and not stay in the 9-5 world.
My problem with his reply is that most of what I’ve seen as “Internet Marketing” is just guys selling the system to each other. The medium is the product. The method is the product. Where is the real product? Or am I missing something?
Joel Comm sells his AdSense methodology in a number of different guises, but what he is selling is his method. Andrew Hansen sells Niche Marketing on Crack, but, again, it’s something intangible. Many others sell their “product,” but all I can think of is Multi-Level Maketing. “Buy my product and you have the right to sell it to others.” This stuff is redolent of the many MLM “scripts” from days gone by, just ways to get people to sign up to build a downline. Look at all the seminars and conferences and webcalls and webcasts purporting to tell people how to sell a product, when the product is the seminar!
In the final analysis, this is a scam. You might make a bunch of money selling this stuff to sheeple, but don’t confuse it with a real business.
Barry
Tom // Sep 7, 2007 at 4:07 pm
You have to look behind the whole IM, big seminar, next big launch, filsaime, reese, comm, whatshisface show and realize that real IM is not about the incestuous IM market itself, but about marketing in niches. They way it works is this: you successfully market to a niche, be it fertility monitors, inflatable boats, barbecue grills or pimples. Then you tell people how you did it.
Too many newbies start out pushing all the crap that everyone else is also pushing on Adwords, Squidoo etc. and end up frustrated because they don’t “get it”. They follow guru after guru, try tactic after tactic, only to spend more than they’re earning and end up calling it quits and going back to the factory.
Same with any membership site, be it PLRPro, Wealthy Affiliate or others. I bet 90% of people on those memberships don’t make more than $100 a month, because they don’t think for themselves and just follow what others are saying they should do.
IM is a business as any other. Do your own thinking, find out what works by yourself (i.e. ask yourself why YOU buy online) and you might have half a chance. Otherwise, you’re guru fodder.
Tom
Tom // Sep 7, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Try this: look on any IM forum, be it WF or one of the paid ones. Read the threads and look for people asking apparent newbie questions. See their sigs? They’re promoting some presumably money-making scheme while they’re not making a dime themselves. How pathetic is that?
Tom
Marc // Sep 8, 2007 at 8:57 am
Interesting point of view Barry.
Whilst you are right for the majority of “IM’ers” who have to bust their ass’s selling the next best thing to make a dollar.
Those that are smart are preaching what they are teaching.
Most are selling how to make money online, which I don’t agree with but that is a different discussion all on its own.
Those that own their own sites, build communities in other industries and offer services that actually help people (nothing to do with the IM industry) are those that will last.
You can have a real business operating online, it just requires a different mentality shift.
Again its also not for everyone…
For me, I love this, and previous to working my company online, I used to love my day job.
But it took my freedom to make decisions that would enable me to live my own life. Rather then going where my work wanted me.
I didnt want that for my family to be, so made the move.
It was a very difficult move to make, pre-conditioned in a stable secure job for 6.8 years, first major job I had held since leaving High School at 17.
Definately wasn’t easy, but worth every doubt.
Marc
Norman Holden // Sep 15, 2007 at 2:08 am
G’day ,
Hey Marc even when I was a “pusser” I didn’t have to wait 10-15 years for a promotion and accompanying pay rise - did you?
Same applies when I was in the “corporate” world.
Cheers ,
NH
Kim Standerline // Sep 15, 2007 at 2:42 am
Very nice post Splork.
I’m pleased I’m not the only one in the IM world who has never wanted to give up the day job.
I posted yesterday on my blog about the Internet stealing your soul.
http://newbie-network.com/blog/from-kim/is-your-internet-business-taking-over-your-soul
It sounds to me as though you have your priorities exactly right.
Regards
Kim
Gillian // Sep 15, 2007 at 4:40 am
Hi Splork
Just wanted to comment on your comment - “I feel no shame at all in my mediocrity.”
Mediocre you are NOT!
So few people make conscious choices about their lives and live the one they really want to. So many believe that “if only they had more money they”d be happy”.
Hats off to you to sticking with what you truly value.
In my opinion that makes you GREAT not mediocre
Gillian
Steve // Sep 15, 2007 at 10:26 pm
I found your post interesting Splork. You are right that IM is one tough business. If anyone thinks that it is not, well they have not tried. I have some sites like you, but I am disabled and can take the time to spend on the sites. I truly enjoy doing it. Making some spend money, but certainly not the 5 figures that you hear all the bsers talk about. At least that is what I think. Joel comm can do things that others can’t, since he sold his first site to yahoo for a cool million. Exception to rule, I sure do think so. How many will do that, well in my opinion not many. I am building some VRE site on various subjects. Will I make millions, I am like you, realistic probably not. Will I try to, sure I have the time. There are more scams out there than good information. If anyone is looking for some insurance on just about anything visit Life Insurance Rate Quotes for a free, no obligation quote. Thanks for letting me post, and keep that family and kids right in front of you. Before you know it those kids are going to be all grown up and gone.
Emmanuel // Feb 26, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Splork! How can you be mediocre when you write this sort of stuff….
“…I love PLR. I hate PLR. For every single piece of PLR I have bought or received I have felt the need to rewrite it. Every single one. The grammar is atrocious. The lack of research is astoundingly bad. The fluff and filler is enough to gag on. The only thing that I can say positive about PLR is that it gives me a place to start for building my sites. Even if it was no big deal to publish PLR articles straight up without rewrites without fear of duplicate content concerns, I simply wouldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it.
When I look at a batch of PLR I think, “OK, I will simply rewrite the title, the first paragraph, the last and sprinkle in my keywords I want to spam Google with.” It freakin’ never works out like that. The middle portions are typically so void of sense that I end up rewriting the whole damn thing. Even if I try to convince myself not to care about retarded niche topics like “candle wax puppets” or “concrete tires”, I still find myself rewriting the crap. I wish I could simply post what was provided…..”
Rachel // May 10, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Hi Splork
This is my first visit to your blog - I had an email from the PLR pro guys to check out the post and they were right - it was inspiring.
Too many people in this world are out to make tons of money in the mistaken belief it will make them happy - you on the other hand come across as somebody who is very happy with their lifestyle. I am not saying that you dont earn huge amounts of money - I dont know you so havent a clue how much you earn but your post suggests that you could make more online but have decided to put your family first. How many kids these days have Dads (or mums) that spend time playing ball or whatever with them - too many of us are in the proverbial rat race.
I think the gist of Marks post was missed - what Marc is saying (I think!) is that he too made a conscious decision - for him it was to leave the “security” of his day job to follow a career online. This decision gave him freedom to have control over his life and the time spent with his family. And he (and Daniel) run a quality business (no affiliate link - how many online/offline businesses actually value their clients so much the head guys respond personally to their clients? The guys at WA are similar)
At the end of the day, we as parents decided to bring our kids into the world (they didnt decide to be born) so it is nice to see people making choices which put the kids real needs first i.e. the majority of kids just want their parents time - despite the marketing industry spending billions trying to convince us otherwise.
The only other comment I have is dont let location confuse the issue. At the end of the day, there are millions and millions of scam artists offline - it is not solely online. A business based on solid business practice is a business -the location of that business i.e. off line or online is purely the address!
Night folks and take care
Rach
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