Who has started an online business? (fees, small business, dropshipper, profit)
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I ran several online businesses when I was in college, for a few years. I ran a joke site that made about $3,000/month, minus about $1,000 in expenses per month, and I ran a few celebrity sites. I made good money for the work I put in, which was minimal. My Vin Diesel fan site I bought for $250 and made around $6,000 on it overall, which was easy money with basically no effort. I should have put more effort into the site, haha, but I was lazy with it because it seemed to do well anyway.
The Internet changes so fast, though, I have no doubt that most of my previously extensive knowledge about online advertising revenue, how to monetize a site, what type of traffic numbers are needed, etc., has no relevance to today's marketplace. That was many years ago. I did, however, write and direct a movie using some of this knowledge, so at least it helped me out down the road!
Best of luck whatever you decide to do. I had a ton of fun when I was running these sites. It was really cool being young and knowing that my friends were working for $8/hr but I was making often $75/day just updating a site once and I could go to sleep and still be making money all night long. I loved logging in and checking dollar amounts, seeing checks come in every month, it was just a lot of fun! I got good experience selling my own ad space, too, like in newsletters and whatnot, pitching people deals, contacting companies and asking if they wanted to purchase ad space in a newsletter with 150,000 subscribers, etc.
Nice responses. Yes, I have. It doesn't make much money but it steadily does make money. I intend to keep at it and make it more lucrative. For example, at some point I will take some of the same business dynamics and skills I'm picking up and apply them to a much more "high dollar" item rather than just relatively cheap "widgets".
I already had experience being self-employed and running a small business. That has helped a lot, because it's really a different mindset from punch in, follow orders all day, pass gas, punch out. Also, I have a low cost of living at present and that really helps. I have very little operating capital and money, but I have a lot of time, so I can experiment and learn things and stuff. If you are already working your patootie off just trying to pay the outrageous rent (like most Americans), this will be a hindrance (unless you can get by on 3 hours sleep a night).
Some of the major perks I've got going for me:
1. Work a lot but I decide when. e.g. Get up, work a few hours, go have fun or exercise, then work late, etc. I have total control, it's great.
2. Very unlikely this business or similar business will go away, unless the Internet shuts down or something. Of course, you never know.
3. Minimal gov't regulation or taxes to deal with. Of course, that could change for the worse.
4. I almost don't need an automobile in my life. I love that. Saves a ton of money.
5. Thanks to the internet, my customers are all over the world. For example, due to the weakening US dollar and the appreciating Japanese yen, I'm getting business from Japanese. All of sudden my products are at the equivalent of a "25% off sale" right across the board for customers in Japan. There is great resilience and stability in being part of a global marketplace, I think. This will only get better in the future.
6. 90% of the whole job takes place sitting at a computer. Some people hate that, I love it. No having to talk to morons, that is the best perk in the world, especially in a world full of morons!!
Most important advice I can give: Just get started. Jump in the deep end of the pool. Try something and go from there, make adjustments "on the fly". If you don't get started, nothing will ever happen, that is certain. You have to be a serious thinker, a careful observer, dedicated, hard working and also clever. Combine those qualities with some get-up-off-your-butt-and-get-moving action/risk-taking and you'll be surprised what rewards the universe sends your way.
I ran several online businesses when I was in college, for a few years. I ran a joke site that made about $3,000/month, minus about $1,000 in expenses per month, and I ran a few celebrity sites. I made good money for the work I put in, which was minimal. My Vin Diesel fan site I bought for $250 and made around $6,000 on it overall, which was easy money with basically no effort. I should have put more effort into the site, haha, but I was lazy with it because it seemed to do well anyway.
The Internet changes so fast, though, I have no doubt that most of my previously extensive knowledge about online advertising revenue, how to monetize a site, what type of traffic numbers are needed, etc., has no relevance to today's marketplace. That was many years ago. I did, however, write and direct a movie using some of this knowledge, so at least it helped me out down the road!
Best of luck whatever you decide to do. I had a ton of fun when I was running these sites. It was really cool being young and knowing that my friends were working for $8/hr but I was making often $75/day just updating a site once and I could go to sleep and still be making money all night long. I loved logging in and checking dollar amounts, seeing checks come in every month, it was just a lot of fun! I got good experience selling my own ad space, too, like in newsletters and whatnot, pitching people deals, contacting companies and asking if they wanted to purchase ad space in a newsletter with 150,000 subscribers, etc.
THanks for responding. I have been looking into small websites that I can build a base from. I made one site for fun, but it was way too much work, and it was not very good. I am thinking about something that I can link to a pre existing blog I have, maybe with a forum.
Since I don't want to carry inventory, that means a dropshipper of something, or a site selling a service or book, or like what you had. However, I would like it to relate to the a little of the blog content.
Nice responses. Yes, I have. It doesn't make much money but it steadily does make money. I intend to keep at it and make it more lucrative. For example, at some point I will take some of the same business dynamics and skills I'm picking up and apply them to a much more "high dollar" item rather than just relatively cheap "widgets".
I already had experience being self-employed and running a small business. That has helped a lot, because it's really a different mindset from punch in, follow orders all day, pass gas, punch out. Also, I have a low cost of living at present and that really helps. I have very little operating capital and money, but I have a lot of time, so I can experiment and learn things and stuff. If you are already working your patootie off just trying to pay the outrageous rent (like most Americans), this will be a hindrance (unless you can get by on 3 hours sleep a night).
Some of the major perks I've got going for me:
1. Work a lot but I decide when. e.g. Get up, work a few hours, go have fun or exercise, then work late, etc. I have total control, it's great.
2. Very unlikely this business or similar business will go away, unless the Internet shuts down or something. Of course, you never know.
3. Minimal gov't regulation or taxes to deal with. Of course, that could change for the worse.
4. I almost don't need an automobile in my life. I love that. Saves a ton of money.
5. Thanks to the internet, my customers are all over the world. For example, due to the weakening US dollar and the appreciating Japanese yen, I'm getting business from Japanese. All of sudden my products are at the equivalent of a "25% off sale" right across the board for customers in Japan. There is great resilience and stability in being part of a global marketplace, I think. This will only get better in the future.
6. 90% of the whole job takes place sitting at a computer. Some people hate that, I love it. No having to talk to morons, that is the best perk in the world, especially in a world full of morons!!
Most important advice I can give: Just get started. Jump in the deep end of the pool. Try something and go from there, make adjustments "on the fly". If you don't get started, nothing will ever happen, that is certain. You have to be a serious thinker, a careful observer, dedicated, hard working and also clever. Combine those qualities with some get-up-off-your-butt-and-get-moving action/risk-taking and you'll be surprised what rewards the universe sends your way.
Good advice, thanks. Nobody ever accomplished anything without making the firs step!
Yeah I bought all of the sites of mine that were very successful. I felt it was immensely difficult and expensive and time consuming to build a site from the ground up, then build its traffic, etc. I tried with a movie review site, which was just a hobby of mine, but I only got about 400 visitors a day. Still not bad, actually, but you can't make money off that with a content site.
With my current business, media production (JLBMedia.com), our traffic numbers are low but it's high quality traffic. One client could net us tens of thousands of dollars, so we don't care about traffic only about the people who go there. We're well ranked (top page) for Los Angeles corporate videos, corporate video production los angeles, etc.
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