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RE: Is anyone making any money on the internet? - 1/4/2011 4:38:49 AM

mummyman321

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quote:

ORIGINAL: hertz

That's another key point. Time. If you are using your time to maintain a site, then it needs to be costed in. I am convinced most small sites, if one took account of the time spent maintaining them, would be making a proper loss. I think there may be a lot of sites only stay up because their owner is taking $10 an hour, and working like crazy to keep it all going.

I run a design business as a side job. I do not even spend 2 hours a month maintaining the website for the business. I turn a tidy profit at least enough to pay for some very nice vacations. Not bad as a side job.

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RE: Is anyone making any money on the internet? - 1/4/2011 5:04:12 AM

hertz

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quote:

ORIGINAL: mummyman321

quote:

ORIGINAL: hertz

That's another key point. Time. If you are using your time to maintain a site, then it needs to be costed in. I am convinced most small sites, if one took account of the time spent maintaining them, would be making a proper loss. I think there may be a lot of sites only stay up because their owner is taking $10 an hour, and working like crazy to keep it all going.

I run a design business as a side job. I do not even spend 2 hours a month maintaining the website for the business. I turn a tidy profit at least enough to pay for some very nice vacations. Not bad as a side job.

Not entirely my point, but fair enough. What I was getting at is that I think it is possible that of the people not making an outright loss doing an on-line business, the rest could well be on next to minimum wage if one takes account of the time spent 'doing' the business, including basic site maintenance. My thesis is that the internet may be a kind of giant sweat shop where most people willingly work for peanuts (or less). But obviously amongst that, some people will be quite successful. It sounds like you are able to pay yourself a reasonable sum per hour. Out of interest - why not go full-time?

I've been looking for any figures to back the general argument or disprove it, but numbers seem very difficult to get hold of.

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RE: Is anyone making any money on the internet? - 1/4/2011 5:29:40 AM

mummyman321

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Why not go full time?
I have enough years in with a large company that there is no way I could make up my retirement benifits. But once I reach retirment age for the company, I will then certianly ramp up my services.

< Message edited by mummyman321 -- 1/4/2011 5:45:12 AM >

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RE: Is anyone making any money on the internet? - 1/4/2011 5:42:15 AM

anniezz338

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quote:

ORIGINAL: hertz

quote:

ORIGINAL: anniezz338

So yes, I believe there is money to be made. Now if I can get to it, as some other small investments are eating up alot of my time.....lol.

That's another key point. Time. If you are using your time to maintain a site, then it needs to be costed in. I am convinced most small sites, if one took account of the time spent maintaining them, would be making a proper loss. I think there may be a lot of sites only stay up because their owner is taking $10 an hour, and working like crazy to keep it all going.

That's true with the small sites, lots of time involved. I saw one website that if you joined, you became a member of 28 other websites. It would be worth it to that level.

That's why I was thinking content. One weekend with some fun, creative people, hours of footage, couple days making pics, short clips, limited editions, streaming video....lots of packages to sell. And of course several membership sites of my own. Diversify. Will take time to build and become legit but it can be done. And I like building websites...I enjoy it.

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RE: Is anyone making any money on the internet? - 1/4/2011 2:15:01 PM

allthatjaz

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12106652 All I can say is, I wish I had thought of it first.

I recently sold an online business that I had set up and run for 18 months. Not only did I make a healthy profit which made my business very attractive when it came to selling it but I had bids on it when I sold it that out shone any sum I had thought it was worth.
Now lets compare that to a high street business I once owned that didn't have a website. The outgoings were huge compared to my online business and my only customers were the footfall that went past my shop. With my online business my footfall was worldwide and the only outlay was the website itself and the goods purchased at cost.

There are plenty of examples of financially successful websites and in the majority of cases they are successful because they treat the website as a business in its own right and not just an extension of their existing business.
You only need to look through websites to see that there are ten bad ones for every good one and of the good ones probably 90% of them are ill conceived.
People spend huge amounts of money building all singing, all dancing websites but don't know how to drive people to go and look at them. Websites are like babies, they need constant attention. You can have the best website in the world but if you don't have the know-how to get it out to the world then its practically worthless.

As a type of website, fundamentally the most successful ones are porn sites and networking sites that can use direct advertising.

< Message edited by allthatjaz -- 1/4/2011 2:16:06 PM >

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RE: Is anyone making any money on the internet? - 1/4/2011 2:24:25 PM

hertz

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quote:

ORIGINAL: allthatjaz
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12106652 All I can say is, I wish I had thought of it first.

I find the Facebook thing fascinating. It's all about implied value - that is, the value one might assume a company to have based on what others are prepared to invest in it, which in turn is based on what others think the business might make in profit in the next few years, which in turn is based on projections of membership growth and world economic growth (which fuels the advertising, which fuels the whole thing).

It looks like the Emperor's New Clothes to me. But then, I'm not a millionaire. Maybe this is why.

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RE: Is anyone making any money on the internet? - 1/4/2011 2:45:40 PM

allthatjaz

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Very true hertz. All big business is measured on implied value. The internet is no different.
Business isn't worth anything if it just has a product. It has to have a route to market, it has to have customers, it has to have some way of delivering those goods to its customers, it has to have customer service, it has to have efficiency, it has to know how to grow and so on and so on.
Regardless of the business being online or on the high street, it still needs all of these things to be successful and it needs to do them all well.

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