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Too lazy to set a custom title
Industry Role:
Join Date: May 2001
Location: My network is hosted at TECHIEMEDIA.net ...Wait, you meant where am *I* located at? Oh... okay, I'm in Winnipeg, Canada. Oops. :)
Posts: 51,460
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Nice flow this conversation has taken. Thanks for all the comments thus far.
I sense some real pride in the path that some have taken, and bitterness in others, even maybe some regret in "the road not taken". I guess my story is a bit different simply due to the fact that there was no internet when I was 20. I've already put in the years of working for others, like I mentioned before, over 18 of them. Long years, after which I literally had nothing to show for it. What I did have had come from my entrepreneurial spirit.... my house for example. During my working years, the ONLY way I could buy it was if there was some extra income coming in. The house where I was renting the lower half just happened to have an upstairs apartment. I took a risk, it was a shithole up there. But I bought the place anyway, and put in months of hard work to renovate the place, after which it looks like a dream inside, and I have been receiving regular rent cheques to the tune of $500/mo for the past 7 years. It pays the mortgage and then some.
But from my job, like I said, I ended up with a permanently sore back and not much else. Living paycheck to paycheck began to suck about 10 years ago. When you're young you tend not to think about it as much, but as you get into your 30's and grow up a bit you realize that there's gotta be a better way. What is that way? Well, one thing I did come away from my job was a lot of life experience, and that is something that I've found to be quite valuable as a source of strength. It can't be learned in school, there are no degrees for it, you can't buy it. If you're the type that doesn't pay attention to life's subtler meanings and learn from them you're probably going to stagnate in all things.
I don't claim to "know everything" about this business or have it all figured out. Yes, at times I have and do make what I would describe as "gobs of money", but mostly I just make more money than I did working for "the man" and that's more than fine by me. Someone pointed out the aspect of having a steady reliable income coming in... but what if your boss decides he/she just doesn't like you any more? Gone. Income=0. What could be more steady and reliable than your own income from your own efforts? It ain't simple to do, it takes time and effort, but my formula was something like this....
Build a free site with some babe & bikini content (I started mine all on freehosts)
arrange link trades, at least 5 a day for 2-3 months
mix up your sponsor's links, per-click, per sale and partnership
Promote, network, promote, network
Build second site
repeat process with second site
Build 3rd site, repeat.
Once anyone has collectively reached over 10k per day of good solid traffic (not all blind trades or exit shit) they should be earning enough to at least have a comfortable existance. Build up that traffic to 20-30k/day and that's a good solid base for anyone to grow from, and rely on. If your network is solid and well-run, traffic will be reliable every day, and traffic is money. THEN add in tgp gallery submissions, or get into producing your own content, or specialize in graphics and/or site design, or all areas at once.
Is it easy? Hardly, it takes a shitload of time and effort. Is the above the only way to go about it? Of course not, it's the way I and many other webmasters that started back in 98 and 99 did it though. Is/was it worth it? I'd have to give a resounding hell yes on that. Fact is, no one has it *all* figured out, it's only a matter of finding what works for you.
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