excellent read fellas. but there are a lot of hypotheticals running around. my experience may clarify a little.
i am the poster child of what the OP is looking for, newbie that entered in the last 3 years. I am sorry to say my site is not making sales whereby i can make a living. The reason is amply pointed out by barefooties...i have not demonstrated drive/work ethic to make my program self sustaining.
however my experience in failure has been valuable & may clarify some things here.
if one is a newb, its inadequate to say a newb can launch on a low budget & start succeeding. there is a learning curve one has to endure. there is no way around it, except to try & fail, learn, try fail, learn, try, & eventually, with work, determination, & some breaks, succeed.
as a newb, i just wanted to get a site up. i didnt take initial steps necessary to educate myself on marketing or sales. I just wanted to hire chicks, bounce their tits. That is the thing i love to do with my business. the hard tedious stuff, like building the site, building an affiliate, networking, building buzz & traffic, i didnt give a fuck. so for a couple years, all i did with my limited funds was shoot.
eventually i got my site up by locking myself in my bedroom & working 6 weeks straight with editing/working with a designer/CCBill/strongbox. i launched. First week, i got a nice pop in sales from people who knew my intentions & wanted to see the product. But just 1 week in, sales died.
i was in a panic. i suddenly realized i have to learn this entire thing i ignored, called marketing. I killed my budget getting the site up, did not budget a dime for marketing. I was stuck with no money, no sales.
in fact the only thing i have ever done to market joshgirls in 3 years is get myself on the stern show with 3 girls. I expected being on his show would put the wind in my sails & i would succeed. It was the best & worst day in my life. Seeing stern live! being with my beautiful joshgirls, all together as a team. I got home, got 5 sales, & cried & cried. Literally i wanted to die.
The site exists, & it makes 5-800 a month with absolutely no marketing, ever. I still have things to correct with respect to my decisions, planning & work ethic. I struggle to understand why i will work 10 hour days for slave wages, but refuse to simply work for myself. maybe im not cut out for this.
But i will never, ever, ever close or give up. i will change. I did what i did for love, & eventually i will get it right. because i do have work ethic, it just needs to be used for productive endeavors instead of self destruction.
so my point is...I think a newb will struggle, because they will need to endure a learning curve & make mistakes before they get it right. They will need to face their own limitations & work through them. If not, go back to the 9 to 5 & suck the corporate cock.
