did you feel successful after your first 2 years in this biz?
 

i am a very self-critical person and i'm about to hit my 2 year anniversary in this biz. although i've never been a full-timer in adult i've done ok for myself, but i feel like i should be along further than where i am at right now.

how about you?

After two years....fuck no. I was still learning a lot and still am.

"when you find yourself feeling comfortable... you stop growing"

:2 cents:

naw not really, if i had dedicated all my time to this biz instead of school, partying, ex-girlfriend, etc, i woulda been a lot more successful by now...

thats brilliant :thumbsup i'm gonna remember that one

This month makes year 3 for me, but I really have never done well as a reseller...I shoot mainly. And I'm doing well. I think I really am starting to look at this as a career! :pimp

I've been online making money for almost 7 years. I have had really good years and really bad years. You kind of take it as they come. A lot has happened and a lot has changed.

Am I where I want to be? Hell no. Thats why you keep plugging away. Sometimes shit is out of your control, sometimes it is not.

yup, the key thing you said there is to keep plugging away. i am by no means looking to leave, i've actually revamped my entire network and am now trying something i hope will be much more effective. however, its only in my second year that i realized that money is harder to earn in this biz unless you have money to start with.

It took me 3 or 4 years to REALLY feel like a success. To this day I still feel like I can do much better than I am. Keep plugging away man!

That right there is one major key in todays biz.....

Well, Ill generalize "this biz" to be internet business in general. But after 2 years I was still "breaking even" on one of the largest projects I work on. When I say breaking even, I mean I make 0.00 or close to it.

Even now I think to myself, well I need x+1 rather than x to be happy. And of course x may be one amount one day, and a total different the next.

Online biz is a rollercoaster, no doubt about it.

shermmmmmmmmmmm, piss off any balconeys lately? lolol

What aspect of your biz do you think having money will help you most in?

The industry is still so young why question a few extra bucks as long as you are still
having fun. I always think I should be ahead in life allot further but that is just
human nature!! If I could just keep out of the cookie jar I would get more work
done.. LOL "Everyday above ground is a good day"

BT what is your ICQ

I've been full time for 2.5 years and consider myself a success. By that I mean I pay the bills, buy some new toys every so often, and don't have a shitty boss breathing down my neck.

Same here we talked about some ideas @ internext :)
I am working right now trying to do better :thumbsup

if you had a large sum of money not only could you build a high-quality paysite or product to sell, but you would be able to hire or contract the best people to do the work for you. and with a little knowledge you'd be able to capitalize on it by building your own traffic sources :2 cents:

Even better... Pissed on a guy's leg at the last show I went to. He was an arrogant fuck so while he was on the outside of the pit throwing elbows, I pissed on his VANS. :pimp

well I am still half a year old in this biz but so far it has been great.

How large you talking ?

hell no.

:disgust

using the best designers, hosting on the best boxes, buying pure exclusive niche content(enough to retain your members past the first few months), throw in cascading billing and a content managment script you'd be looking at a start up cost well over $50k just for that 1 site.

now if you add in advertising costs and paying out affiliates.... and most of the bigboys dont wanna even hear what you have unless you offer them PPS.

after all is said and done.....its gonna cost alot of :2 cents:


but thats only if you wish to build a high-quality site right off the bat.

After 2 years I know that I've done a lot of mistakes so I am more experienced now. But I haven't reached what I want yet (for examlple improvement of my poor English:-))

Sometimes one site can be enough :)
PPS on a new site could get you backwards pretty dam fast IMHO.

i totally agree, but with a brand new high quality site it would also take time to just beta test it before it would be opened to affiliates. and in order to get some of those bigboys interested you need to offer them PPS unfortunately

I was already in the adult biz before the net, but gotta say that it was probably less than eight weeks from starting net stuff that the "success factor" clicked - it was like printing money. But these were different times and it was hard not to be "successful".

These days, I'd think you are doing well to get someplace in two years. The "adult net" is no longer a sprint, but a marathon where change/innovation will reap rewards if managed well.

After 2 yrs in the biz, in 2001, I felt like I had done great for being a full time college student at a big party school. AVS helped a lot :winkwink: It was way easier for a newbie to make $ then Izzz.

I felt successful the first day I started.

almost 5 years in the adult arena.
My Very Best day was my first sale.
To answer your question, no.
Everyday things change, sponsors dont sell
ccbill scrubs or just bad luck. Its ALL Planning and then Luck.
Nothing in adult is concrete.

:2 cents: :thumbsup

I guess it depends on how much you need to make a month to define your payiste as a success. Plenty of decent size paysites are rev share or have started out as revshare. Throw in that if you are generating alot of your own traffic you could be well on the way alot easiier without having to offer PPS.
:2 cents:

You probably would been further if you spent less time posting on GFY :winkwink:

You don't always need exclusive content to be sucessful a lot of guys seem to be doing well just using dvd rips.

takes money to make money

i was thinking about this last night actually. I've been doing this since november of 98 and i feel i have fucked up what i should of done along the way. i should have an empire by now but i don't. i made the most money in this biz the first year i was in it. the first 2 years were great. when i moved out of my parents at 21 and started partying more tho, things went downhill but i didn't care i still making good money and having fun, almost never working. i thought i had it made but the downwards spiral continued until things got critical in 2003. although i pulled myself out and was making good money again for a while things are slipping again. although this time my thinking is different. but after 7 years i should be a lot further along than i am and sometimes it really makes me upset at myself that i wasted years fucking around instead of keeping the big money flowing.

To tell you the truth, I feel like a failure most of the time. I've been working on my own stuff hardcore for about 18 months now and its definitely paying off, but I always feel like I could be doing much better, which is true and the attitude I should have. When comparing myself to non-industry friends and family, yes I am successful. When comparing myself to industry friends and associates, I am just another peon. The latter is what I tend to compare myself to the most, it gives me reason to keep pushing harder.

its been up and down for me but I learned lots to my advantage
not giving up so let those sites come in

:smokin