That’s what I tell people every day. I earn a nice living selling to a community of 150,000 people. Every day, I and my family are working on ideas and ways to sell more product and get people in to our stores. What if I had 2 billions people as potential customers? I do, we all do. So why does making money on the Internet seem so hard to so many people? The Internet is the future and its sitting right in front of us to monetize. I think its like swimming in the pool and swimming in a giant lake. Same stroke, same speed, but doing it in an area where you can’t see the boundaries is overwhelming to most people.
Just a few hours ago I had a great conversation with a young local landscaper that stopped by because he wanted to pick my brain about how he could increase business using the Internet. I opened up the conversation with this, “when you realize the power of the Internet and how to profit from it, you aren’t going to want to sell to just the 125,000 people in our area” “You’re going to realize there billions of people that use the Internet every day that you can reach”
Forget every thing people are telling you about being to late for this or all the easy money is gone. It’s just not true. This thing is in its infancy and every day there is a new form of “easy money” popping up that you can be a part of. Eventually the easy money part will pass because others will find out and the competition will take the easy out of the money. Everyone that reads this blogs knows the power of the masses on the Internet. Some already know how to monetize it, others are on a quest to figure it out. The opportunities are endless and are only tempered by your work ethic. You need no money to set up a site on the Internet. Every single thing I have made from the Internet was made from absolutely 0 dollars investment. It goes like this. Write a blog, make advertising money, use advertising money to expand blog and move from blogger to wordpress and pay for hosting. Sell blog and buy domains. Flip domains for more money. Start more sites. Make monthly revenue to buy more domains and sites. And continue on. I could make high XX,XXX this year and next year should make XXX,XXX just snowballing what I am doing. And all of it can be done by anyone that is willing to put in the time.
I laugh because the Internet is one of the lowest barriers to entry businesses I’ve ever been in and yet there are millions to be made. But it seems that most of the people I talk to still want to take shortcuts or not put in the time. There is no cutting short the time it takes to learn the best approach to monetizing the web. There are thousands of ways to monetize it but all of them take an educated or creative approach. It’s not as simple bringing in a bunch of money and going at it. While there are billions of potential customers that also means there are millions of potential competitors. But again, we’re in its infancy so the rate of competitors to potential customers is very small.
In my opinion there is no more sure thing than the dot com. I laughed as business and people clamored towards Facebook and other 3rd party “locations”. It is human nature to socialize and to want to be near or around where the social is located but it is also human nature to have a home. We don’t live where we socialize. Businesses may want to monetize the social but they will want a stand alone business location. I always figured that businesses would figure out that if they go all in with Facebook that Facebook now controls their path. They need to have their own domain and build there business there. All along monetizing the Facebook user in any way they can. I’m being proven correct more and more each day as businesses are moving their ad revenues to promoting themselves on the net and not just on Facebook. Where people socialize will always change with time. There will always be the “hot” site or place. We want it add to our business not BE our business.
People are also searching for information. Those that put out sites that answer those questions will be able to generate revenue. We all know something. One simply needs to put all that you know into a nicely organized site and you WILL make money. I tell people that they could take anything that they truly have a passion for and make money on the Internet. People want to go to sites made by people with a passion for the subject. Google wants sites from them as well and will reward them for their effort. Over time it is virtually impossible to not make some kind of money on site that is highly informative and written by a person that truly understands the subject.
In summary, if you are not taking advantage of this opportunity you have nobody to blame but yourself. At some point you’re going to have to quit talking about what you are going to do or worshiping those that are doing it and do something yourself. You’ve noticed I hardly write about what others are doing because why should I waste my time writing about what someone else is doing when I could use that time to do something myself? “The future has already arrived. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.” Those who work hard now will get a disproportional amount of what the Internet has to offer.
Bravo! Brilliant and Bold! Agreed!
Spot on, Shane…
…In 2050, our children are going to say to us: ‘…You were THERE in 2000 – 2020, when what we do on the internet was being created, and you did NOTHING…!!??…Were you CRAZY….??!!’
Now is the time. A golden time, when the model for the future is being made.
Very accurate article Shane.
Even when we are in our 80’s, if we are lucky to make it that far, the Internet will just be beginning.
I’ve said that since the 90’s when I began to finally understand just slow everything moves, even if it seems to be happening fast.
Even now, almost 20 years of the public being exposed to the Net and many still don’t understand the basics of surfing or even what a domain is. I tell people all the time out here in the Georgia countryside that I buy domains and they say, “What are domains?”.
Most people just won’t go get their hands dirty and learn stuff ; They stick to what they know, or don’t know, and then they stay poor. The rest that want to learn, will, and usually become successful.
I agree, I have NEVER seen elsewhere so many angles on how to make money that the Net provides. It sure makes the old pre-Net world look tougher.
Perfectly stated, Shane.
“One simply needs to put all that you know into a nicely organized site and you WILL make money”
I tell people this all the time. But so few want to put in the hard work that’s necessary.
There’s no such thing as getting rich quickly online. But you can get rich slowly by sharing your passion.
No deep pockets necessary. Just hard work.
It is human nature to socialize and to want to be near or around where the social is located but it is also human nature to have a home. We don’t live where we socialize.
Thank you. Now people are understanding what I have been telling them.
Hi Shane,
That was an excellent article and well written.
Congratulations,
Dick St. Cyr
Thanks for taking the time to write such a spot on article on the realities of making money on the Internet – mainly that there are currently a lot of money making opportunities that simply take real time and effort/dedication to accomplish!
Congrats and thanks again,
Rob
“Eventually the easy money part will pass because others will find out and the competition will take the easy out of the money.”
Sounds like what Google recently did to domaining and parking income. Good to know though that it was just a blip!
Adrian,
Most of the sites that got shut off deserved to be shut off. Junking up the net. Lets the people that are putting up real content get a bigger share of the pie. There are certainly exception and good sites that were effected but lots of spun and spam out there
like this post a lot shane.
Hello Shane,The dude is absolutely right.Please may i have his contact.
Kind regards