What do you consider to be "good money" in this biz?

I am just wondering what some of you think is "good money"?

Like for someone starting out, how much do they think they are going to make putting in 40 hours a week on a TGP, Blog, Paysite, or AVS site?

Or others that have been in the biz for a while now, what is good money to you? 4k /month, 7k /month?


I ask because I get a lot of novice webmasters that e-mail me claiming they are going to make 50k within a year. I don't know about you but I have found it’s much easier said than done. I have been working on building traffic and maintaining sites to be a lot of hard work and dedication and I can’t say I am making 50k a year yet. Maybe years ago this would have been much easier, but there is a lot of competition now.


Chuck

I think there's always competition; when we entered the business in 2002 it was competitive then.

If you work hard, think creatively about how to get traffic, come up with strong sites that are appealing to surfers and tweak them for maximum conversion, I don't think it's impossible to make 50 grand within the first year. Easy? Definitely not. But I think that as you get a better handle on what works and what doesn't, you'll find a lot of potential revenue streams you can tap into.

First Year is a tough one....

You need the time to build, but also the time to promote and generate traffic...Your time is needed 50/50 on both.

Once you have built...you can then spend the first part of the second year purely playing with traffic...thus your income rises dramatically.

When I went into this business I aimed for $600pw as a starting goal.

I acheived this and hung around the $1250pw for a while.

Then I diversified (still adult) and went headon into the main game.....

Rewards from doing that can make earlier efforts seem like pocket change....

If you are dealing with affiliates & reselling other peoples sites ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS go for the recurring option if they offer one!

A surfers who rebills is one less surfer you had to find to get paid that week!

If surfers didn't reccur we would all only offer a 'one time billing option'
& as you know....That isn't the case.

Hope this helps a little...& sorry if I'm a little vague in certain areas.

Best Wishes & Good Luck, Hang in there!

What do I consider "good money" ... not much, really - I am not an extravagant person (with the exception of skis) - and I can live very well on $35K CND.

My earnings the first year in the industry was just under $40,000.00CND. That did not compel me to work harder/longer to make more, rather, that helped me realize I get to work less, and play more!

I truly have not worked a weekend in over two years! For shits and giggles, (if I am bored) I'll check mail, and THAT'S IT!

I agree with you Paco. I work a few hours a week and make 4k a month here in the US. I pay all my bills, even save at least 3k a month living nicely here in Denver, growing my business, and just relaxing and doing my thing. I don't want a house payment, or a car payment, or work endlessly because in reality, I've already got what those people are working so hard for. I'm enjoying my life and living comfortably. I could be a millionaire, but if that meant stressing out every day... forget it.

I think 20 grand is more realistic for the first year. That's starting out with little or a modest amount of money. If you bring alot of money to the table, then 50K or 100k is probably doable.

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Originally Posted by Huskyhunks

I think 20 grand is more realistic for the first year. That's starting out with little or a modest amount of money. If you bring alot of money to the table, then 50K or 100k is probably doable.

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That sounds quite reasonable to me. It took me nearly 3 years to get to $50,000 per year. But I wasn't working full-time and I started with zero knowledge. I imagine if I had initially invested more time and/or money, I would have made it to the $50,000 mark sooner.

But growing slowly has also been a good. I know what I'm good at and what works for me. I don't waste time with things that aren't likely to generate income. I tend to think if you come out of the chute too fast, you might waste a lot of money and/or time on something that just doesn't work.

10 million dollars in 10 years :$$$: Thats a Joke/Dream BTW

Wasn't there a income level poll posted awhile back? I thought I remembered seeing one on here before. If not maybe someone could start one.

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Originally Posted by Northstar

Wasn't there a income level poll posted awhile back?

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Yes, but you'll find most won't discuss income. The fact that there are responses here just shows how much the folks here are willing to help each other in a mulitude of ways.

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Originally Posted by Bec

Yes, but you'll find most won't discuss income. The fact that there are responses here just shows how much the folks here are willing to help each other in a mulitude of ways.

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I don't like to discuss my income level ether but a poll would be pretty anonymous.

Sorry, I've been up all nite and didn't finish the thought line on that last post of mine -- I meant to add that yes, there was a poll, but it kinda got shot down as the income level options were 'limited' to a certain range, without a "more than $xxxx" option. The comments were that the poll represented money they'd expect to make as a newbie and not of pro level production.

So, read into that what you will, either fact or blowing smoke ... and go make a new poll!

With us, it's apples and oranges. Since we produce videos, we are in a different arena alltogether. We have been able to stay current with our bills and we "got our toes" over the line into Beverly Hills from West Hollywood (an accomplishment) but, we aint' drivin' the latest Bentleys and Jags like our neighbors. We don't even have a "cement pond" like our neighbors!

Our videos due well "out the door" thanks to our distributor, The French Connection, who pays us like clockwork. And, the re-orders continue to stay healthy. The whole key to brick and mortar sales is "re-orders" which grow with the number of releases over time. It's kinda exponential on that level.

Our intro into the Pay Members" Site arena will be new for us. If we are careful with what we present to the public and build on our company brand, and position in the market, we should do well.

We have never had any expectations beyond covering costs. What comes in from our ventures is always folded back into the mix and so on...

Should be interesting to see how well we do in the www, our first year.

I think good money is paying off all your debts early, affording things you don't need and spending more time thinking about how to use your money than time thinking about how you can get more.

Income in your first year is a tough one.

If I knew everything I know now then maybe that number is possible - but I've been doing this for 5 years and every week I learn something I didn't know.

If you have people who can point you in the right direction I'm sure you can avoid some of the setbacks that I have had and I'm sure will have.

I still reckon it beats having a day job an a nazi boss.

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Originally Posted by maxpower

10 million dollars in 10 years :$$$: Thats a Joke/Dream BTW

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Why do you say that?

If you don't have the ability to dream "big" you will never make it "big". But then, "big" is a relative term. What may be big to some in terms of income may not be big to others.

Bill

it doesn't have to be a dream. i know several webmasters making over a million a year. it's harder to get there now than it used to be, but it can be done.

i think the main reason most of the webmasters i know don't make more money - and this includes me, btw - is that we start doing before we know what we are doing. then we have less time to learn - because we are updating and tweaking our sites. and we have our niche chosen to start with, and in many cases, we don't choose the best niche - we choose one we like, knowing nothing about what sells or what we can sell.

at that point, instead of learning the business in general, we start to focus our learning on what we already have going. two guys who are doing well spent 6 months reading boards and webmaster articles before they started, and they treated learning the webmaster biz like a job or college courses - they really applied themselves.

just a thought...

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Originally Posted by maxpower

10 million dollars in 10 years :$$$: Thats a Joke/Dream BTW

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