From zero to millionaire ?

Started with a big fat zero. In fact negative since I was past due on a few bills. Took exactly 1 week to become "successful" in terms of enough money to live, pay bills, and party and several months to be successful by my standards. Learn all you can and try all you can to get some traction. Once you find your niche you'll be ok if you have the desire.

I started out doing freesites on a freehost. No investment at all.

Then I reinvested the money I made. I am not a millionaire (at least not in US dollars), but I make a nice living.

This sounds very optimistic for me

Don't get overly enthusiastic though. Keep in mind that a lot of the people who started with nothing (or negative, like chad here), also did so back when the fight for a bone was not as fierce as it is today. That being said, you can still start with zero investment, now easier than ever, just keep in mind that there are lots of others just like you, many more than 3-4-5-10 years ago. So read a lot, ask a lot of questions and do a lot of trial-and-error. And if you fail at first, don't give up, if you want to be successful doing this. Keep trying, very few get it right from the first try and usually those who do end up fucking up much worse later.

Yep. I should have mentioned that I did my first freesites 8-9 years ago..

Zaczynalam od zera

Oh... I'm very pessimistic but not thinking about giving up... never. I'm still beginner... but I have already earned my first money in adult... however it is very hard... I'm doing fss and galleries and have got some traffic but sometimes I think it is matter of luck for example in february I have got about 5000 (quite a lot traffic from SEs) unique clicks to my sponsor and only one su...

Don't forget the ones who started with zero and still here are the 1% left. 99% are back flipping burgers or what ever.

This business is the same as any other, you need something to start up. Money, time, equipment, skills, talent and sweat are all required.

Then go and study it for 6 months.

I started 28 years ago, already had a camera, skills to shoot, skills to get girls naked, marketing skills, a model, bit of money and time. Put them together and three months later was making a nice living selling photographs via the post.

1 week???

You guys are really slow, all I did was to buy a computer, hit "Enter" and the money started rolling...

I started with zero and I'm still here. Good to be in that 1%

Bottom line is no matter what never give up if you want to be successful.
it doesnt happen over nite starting with zero. alot of the successful people you see also have a investor/ partners or someone with money backing them..

same here

just dont give up. if you want something bad enough, you can achieve it. sometimes it takes a lot of mistakes and failures to find your groove. most people get discouraged and give up and thats what seperates them from successful people...

I started with about $7k in financing. Of all people, it was my University who funded it, lol. They're happy though, they got a nice cut of the action ;)
WG

I started with a hope and a dream, i wasnt even broke, i was ni gg er broke

started from a $300 credit card loan on a $1000 student credit card limit :D


A big part of becoming a 1M++ is not making the millions

but saving it /NET .

Lots of webmasters make $25k a month

Make $20k a month
Spend $18k a month
the lexus comes in
bigger house mortgage
$100 dinners every 2 days


Make $35k a month
Spend $30k a month
escalades with 24s
bmw 5 to match
clubbing $2k vip table nights

Taking hard earned money and investing it in things he does not know.


Higher the income you make, the higher percentage you should save.
The more penny pinching you should be until you are "up there"

This thread sounds like some sort of sales pitch is comming.

Well, except my story is true. I said a week but I made enough the first day to know I was working on the computer from then on.

nice stories

Our philosophy has always been to keep an eye on what will make us the most successful in the long run. If you get greedy about next week or next month, the big stuff never happens. Put in the time and energy now, lay the groundwork for long-term sucess, and you're good for life.

-b

Zero to hero here too All we started out with was a really shitty 1 megapixel digital camera in late 1998. Within a few, we were making 20K/month. But of couse, that was 1999 and money practically grew on trees back then, lol.

started with zero cash. i'm not the only one.

feel free to send me a dollar if you feel bad.. im starting damn close to zero..

I started with nothing and I am a little over 1/4 the way to millionair... Things grow a lot though so by the end of the year I think I will be well over 1/3 the way...

You just need to stop dreaming and start doing.

Same here, it's all about seeing the big picture and having the determination to after it. Sure there's bumps along the way, and there's always mistakes to be made, but you'll never know unless you try.

One thing I've always done is to treat every check you recieve as if it were your last. That way you're alway motivated.

Also, there's no such thing as a bad idea. You never know what will become of the idea you may have unless you do something with it.

No one expects a white boy to jack a crack dealer in compton; but I figgured they'd never think to look for me in suburbia... come up quick; invest in a 50 pound bag of baking soda and hire a couple grunts to hit the corna. now Ive got an import export business that's quite profitable

I started with $0.

Start small. Make small successful sites, and then just repeat.

Started with 0 , made it work, now maintain the machine and am enjoying spending the money.

Less than zero.

Thats the funniest shit Ive read for at least 4 days...

Amen to that. I gotta add: You only lose if you quit.

Try to copy other successful people --not an exact copy, but take a close note of their business plan and how it makes them money.

Great Question

Great question, bbwebmaster

I used to asked this same question when I was in more offline business. Whenever I met someone successful I would get into the conversation, as politely as possible, about how they made a success of themselves. Invariably they felt flattered and, therefore, spilled the beans. I picked up some great tips!

When I started I had just sold a little company and was running other little businesses. However, I chose to invest virtually nothing, other than time (opportunity cost) in fear of getting ripped off or making enough mistakes to make me re-think what I was doing.

Nowadays, I'd advise a little of the same. Your biggest investment should be time spent learning and making friends. Then start by investing the minimal to get you started (unless you have 100sK).

i really started this bizz from 0$.... if u dont count computer wich was bought from my parents money

I'm not yet a millionaire although I'm working in that direction.

How does a one become a millionaire in this business? Time, effort, and don't fuck the talent - ever.

alot of the big fish started early when traffic was plentiful and free. It was the days of milk and honey. So that gave people a very strong start.

I started almost a year ago with $67 in the bank and invested $7.99 (domain). Still here and doing well enough to live... mid x,xxx monthly income. I slack alot though taking months off inbetween working. I'm lazy and I like to sit and watch tv. But it's all coming together. Just need to work harder and steady myself. I work everyday for a month get burntout and take 2 months off, lol.

It really blows my mind people that start out buying a domain, paying for a design, buying shit loads of traffic and making 2 sales a month.... They leave quicker then they enter.

But oh well paysites and such are too much hassle for the time being so for now I'll stick to being a webmaster and make a few k a month. :/

yah he's right... people who spend it all right away might be broke within 5-10 years... it's ok to spend money, but you gatta save some for rainy days

I started with less than zero but I had a big knowledge in the big tits niche, star names and who is who...

But if your here to succeed in this business get ready for long nights and practically putting 110% of what you have into this. no one will tell you this but at 1 point of your growth you will not have enuogh free time to scratch your balls.

There's always time to scratch your balls, as long as you can do it left-handed.
But just barely.

Absolutely true, my girlfriend is always pissed at me because I am home working on my sites instead of spending time and money on her, goddamn bitch.

genious !!

Started with 2,000 with in 5 months had 8,000 this was in 1998 all we had to do is post picture sets up and have a good graphic site. Those were the "Wild West" Days. We could spam all we wanted too. I admit we did for about 2 months and got great results all back in 1998 (Young And Dumb).

Then I started selling content. Individual picture sets. Then My partner now and I had a great idea. Lets start a Internet TV station. SOunded funny since cable/dsl service was just coming out and it was spendy. We new it couldn't last long and the prices would drop like everything else so we put 3 hard, LOOOOONNNNNGGGG Years in non stop into research and programming.

Now AdultInternet.TV is a reality and No I am not a millionaire Yet. But Will be soon enough. Especiall with the P2P Software we have developed.

No body is doing it like we are and this is why we are successful with only being 1.5 years since launch.

I went from A Drywall Contractor to a Pornographer in 1.6 seconds.

These are really inspiring stories. Interesting to see how people began.

Nice to read this thread again

I know everyone starting out wants to believe the fairy tales, but Paul's post is the one to which you should pay most attention. Even in this business, which still enjoys a very favorable supply/demand ratio (and as someone has said, 5+ years ago, "money grew on trees"), failures still dramatically outnumber successes.

You may work hard for long hours if you are successful, but that is not enough to make you successful. And now that easy money is the exception and not the rule, taking the advice about copying someone else's business model will guarantee that any success you enjoy will be modest at best.

Anything is possible, but being possible doesn't mean it is likely. And what you do, not statistics, is what will determine your future.

Wanting to be successful is part of it, but not enough. Choosing porn (or anything else) solely because other people have been successful with it, is lousy reasoning. Hey, "I can do that", is not enough: you need to see something unique which you can bring to whatever market you tackle. It doesn't have to be unique in a big way, a small twist can be enough. It can be something visible to which your customers will respond, or it can be behind the scenes, something which allows you to work quicker or cheaper.

Sometimes the market and your skills or talents are such that you don't need to be different, you can be better than the majority. The point is that without something to separate you from the crowd, you face lots of established, experienced competition, head on, with nothing more to offer than your labor. Labor is the cheapest, most available commodity around, so if that is all you have, you have almost nothing.

By all means grab an existing business model to use as a vehicle for your ideas, but once you know it well enough to use as a foundation, stop focusing on what other people do and apply your own ideas. Almost all the advice you get from others will be misguided, out-of-date, self-serving, even deliberately misleading. You have to learn to trust your own judgement and work to your own standards. Those standards need to be ones to which your customers will react favorably and unless you are selling products or services to other webmasters, webmasters are not your customers.

Hero-worship is a major factor in this business: avoid it like the plague. Either someone has something you can sell or they don't. You will not make one cent from their board reputations nor the parties they throw and if anything, you should be extra critical of the people who work hardest at keeping a high profile, programs which offer outrageous prizes and the like. If you are going to be an affiliate, check out every tour with a very critical eye, first as a surfer (would it make you buy?) and if that looks okay, go back and look again as an affiliate (are there traffic leaks? do all the links carry your referral code?). Recurring income can be excellent, but very few sites are good enough to keep their members for long and these days it is common for poor programs on limited budgets to go this route. So if a program offers recurring income, buy a membership and check out the member area. If you cannot afford to do that, at least refer to a couple of the more reputable review sites. Otherwise stick with pay-per-sale (and learn the difference between pay-per-sale and pay-per-full-membership).

The same rule applies to designers, scripts and content providers. Use your own judgement before parting with your money. And yes, traffic is gold, but most people trying to sell you traffic are offering you the grit left after the gold has been washed out.

Whoever you work with, don't tolerate poor service. If you have to chase a sponsor to reply to a question, or run after a designer to get a site finished, that is eating into your time. If you are a solo operator, time is a precious and limited commodity and there are plenty of alternatives to those who do not work professionally. Don't flog dead horses and learn to recognize whether bandwagons are headed towards or away from you. This is still a young business and it is constantly changing. If you do not make change a part of what you do, you will be left behind. Put your eggs in a few baskets to spread your risk, but not too many: once you have found a few sites you can sell, learn how to sell them better.

Etc. Etc. And good luck