When should you give up on making money on the internet?

[visegrip]

I've become addicted on the concept of making lots of money on the internet. I've lost money, sleep, relationship, family, and friends. I've contemplated internet income suicide, but the addiction to making fast income from the internet drives me back.
The HOW TO MAKE MONEY FROM THE INTERNET Blogs, Forums, websites, ebooks, classes, and school has made me an addict. It's been over a year and I'm negative $4k and counting with no ROI. Most of it is from trusting my cards are better than my opponents, but in reality he's holding the better hand and
I'm praying for the card to give me the nuts. I'm praying for the best scenario from the sellers who's only intention is to make a dollar. In hind sight I should be doing my due diligence and going through my checklist. For the past year I've only dealt with dishonest sellers. I'm not saying there isn't one out there. If it's the noobs feeding the pros, I want out of the game. I don't want to complete the cycle, than to rinse and repeat the concept on future prospects.
The market is saturated, everybody is fighting for a nut. I guess that's how we humans are hard wired.
When do we call it quits and get out of the game before in infects us?

[dhigler]

Quit when you die.

You'll get no sympathy from me for your failures.

My advice is un-subscribe from every IM list you are currently on. Stop buying IM products. Stop following the herd.

There is something out there that you are an expert on. Start believing this right now. Take that expertise and start building a business out of it. If you don't know what that is you had better get a pen out and start jotting down ideas.

The first step in making money 'online' is stop spending money 'online'.

The next step is stop planning and start doing. Something.

Fast forward to the part in Fight Club when Brad Pitt has a gun to the store clerks head. Watch that scene very closely.

Stop treating earning an income like a game of poker and start becoming something.

[benitez17]

I've become addicted on the concept of making lots of money on the internet. I've lost money, sleep, relationship, family, and friends. I've contemplated internet income suicide, but the addiction to making fast income from the internet drives me back.
The HOW TO MAKE MONEY FROM THE INTERNET Blogs, Forums, websites, ebooks, classes, and school has made me an addict. It's been over a year and I'm negative $4k and counting with no ROI. Most of it is from trusting my cards are better than my opponents, but in reality he's holding the better hand and
I'm praying for the card to give me the nuts. I'm praying for the best scenario from the sellers who's only intention is to make a dollar. In hind sight I should be doing my due diligence and going through my checklist. For the past year I've only dealt with dishonest sellers. I'm not saying there isn't one out there. If it's the noobs feeding the pros, I want out of the game. I don't want to complete the cycle, than to rinse and repeat the concept on future prospects.
The market is saturated, everybody is fighting for a nut. I guess that's how we humans are hard wired.
When do we call it quits and get out of the game before in infects us?

All of the gambling metaphors are a sign of a problem with your mindset in my opinion. Making money online isn't like buying a lottery ticket or looking for the time to push all in in a huge poker game.

Making money over the long term is a grind. It's about finding a successful formula and repeating it, refining it, and keeping it relevant.

That said, doing business online (or owning a business in general) isn't for everyone. If you don't think you can bring yourself to do the work needed to be successful and stop yourself from taking a flyer on the latest IM product over and over, it might be best if you found another path.

[KenW3]

I've become addicted on the concept of making lots of money on the internet. I've lost money, sleep, relationship, family, and friends. I've contemplated internet income suicide, but the addiction to making fast income from the internet drives me back.

This first paragraph defines a problem. The "making lots of money" and "making fast income" phrases indicate you are a target for IMers. This desire probably biases how you attempt to learn, and what you search for on the net to help with your education.

You cannot contemplate a stop to earning money, as you are not making any, but the advice from dhigler above is golden: The first step is to "Stop spending money online". You may also wish to avoid forums that promote this culture of deception.

[petertdavis]

I don't mean to sound like a debby-downer, but after a year and thousands of dollars invested (or thrown to the wind, depending on how you want to look at it), it is absolutely time to take stock and redirect yourself. What's the old saying about the definition of insanity being trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome?

It doesn't make sense to say "the market is saturated" when you're talking about doing business online. On the web there are infinite markets. But, really, do yourself a favor as others have mentioned and stop looking at the "Internet Marketing" crowd, that's why you're failing most likely.

I noticed in another of your posts that you're from Laos. Now, if I were you what I'd be doing is looking at how I can do business on the web locally. As I mention, there are infinite number of ways you can do business online, but it is not hard at all to come up with great ideas. In fact, you can benefit by looking at what people in more developed markets like the US or Europe are doing and apply it to Laos.

For example, you could learn how to use Wordpress to develop nice looking websites and start a business where you build websites for professionals. Even focus on a specific profession like lawyers or real estate sales agents. I don't know what is big in Laos, but if there is a profession where there are a lot of competition looking for leads and people looking for information about that subject online, then building websites for the professionals in the industry could be a great way to start out.

Or, build an ecommerce site serving a neglected market in Laos, something of high-value, easy to mail, something you can find a supplier without much trouble. Be the first in the market and make a name for yourself before the Laotian equivalent of Amazon.com takes over.

Or, you could be the person who pioneers the domain investing market for Laos. I see that there is a specific TLD for Laos, .la and I haven't looked deeply into it but someone with a good knowledge of the language, economy, etc, should find a lot of good opportunities to buy up great domains which will increase in value as the economy in Laos moves more toward the web.

And those are just a handful of ideas, there are infinite ways you can do better.

[visegrip]

Thanks for all the criticism, advice and encouragement.

A special thanks goes to dhigler. "Quit when you die." Food for the mind!

I've refused to make money online because I'm afraid of failures, afraid of being made fun of, afraid of change, afraid I'm not going to be successful.
Now I'm the clerk with the gun pointed on my head. Why live any longer when I am spiritually dead. I'm just delaying mortality for not standing to the challenges of life.

Here's the opportunity to make a change.

Put your gun away because I'm not afraid to stand up.


Welcome to my journey.

[crabfoot]

There's something to be learned from all those "make money online" courses - even if it is only that you shouldn't spend money on them.

There were quick ways to make money in the past - honest money, no Black Hat needed. At the moment, those "gateways to money" have been stomped on by Google, but there are a lot of people with sites saying things like "I made $10,245.73 in a week, and you can try my method for $47".

They don't tell you that the week mentioned was in 2008, and it is going to be a cold day in Hell before that's going to happen again. They paid good money for the "sales spiel", that spiel is still working, and people are still buying a product which no longer works like it did a while back.

Looky, I'll tell you what I'm doing.

I've got some affiliate sites that have nosedived recently, and I'd like to get them back to making money.

Just before the Goog panda took its last bite into my sites I paid $47 for a course that claimed to show me a way forward with those affiliate sites.
It's up to date, "right now" info, and I know the method could make money before the last Panda bite.
I learned new techniques from the course that I'm sure will be useful in the future.

I'm not rebuilding my sites on the principles described in the course because THEY WON'T WORK ANY MORE.

Instead of that, I'm building a site designed to get me into the eBay partner program. I've searched out and paid for an old and neglected site builder that was optimal for building affiliate sites for eBay partners.

Why?

Because the eBay partner program was crowded with people running sites based on a particular WordPress based autoblog fed semi-automated system that the Gargyl panda has bitten to shreds. Their sites have fallen to zero.
So many people have fallen off that tree, I reckon there's a good opportunity for people with the skills needed to fill the gap and take up the space in the system.

Now let me be clear - this is not a new strategy for me. A few of the members (Ken particularly) know I've been working towards the concept for months, and it links into other ideas and concepts that I have.

I'm not currently making lots of web money. I could make a living on eBay - but I'm putting my efforts into websites, because that is my way forward.

I made 5p on Adsense in December, thanks to the panda. That's not relevant, because I am learning from every experience. I know I will make money in the future. I know I will do it using the knowledge I have absorbed over the last three years, learning about how things work.

The important word in that sentence is "absorbed". A lot of the "taught" ways of making money have essentially good ideas in the overall mix of information, but they can be obsolete a week after you try them (or a couple of years before, in some cases). You have to sift out the parts that are good ideas, and get hip to the stuff that became a bad idea last week.

You paid money for that stuff? Go back, read it, and SIFT.
Don't spend more money ...

You have to work out what is worthwhile to you, the recipe solutions only work for the first few purchasers - then you have to compete with all the other people that bought the recipe.

[Kay]

I've also had a look at a few of these make money online (MMO) recipes. At best they usually rehash advice which you can get elsewhere - such as on this forum. And the advice you get here is personalised especially for you too, which an MMO product will never do for you. To continue with the cooking analogy, buying an MMO product is like buying a cookbook while being on here is like being in a kitchen with some of the top chefs from around the world.

"Hey, Ainsley, my sauce is too thin. Help!". And Ainsley Harriott strolls over and not only helps fix my problem, he tells me how to avoid that problem in future. Then he tells me how I can make more sauce and make it quicker in the future. Meanwhile, Tony Bourdain has found some ingredients that most people have never even heard of and he comes over to show how, if I put some of these in the sauce, my sauce will be unique and people will flock to my place because it's different and better than most. Gordon Ramsay is jumping up and down shouting swear words, so we mostly don't pay much attention to him. And Ferran Adria comes over and gives me a few of his personal recipes which have never been published in any book.

The cookbook cost me $47, my entry fee to join in this amazing EP kitchen was FREE! Go figure.

But let's say I haven't found the EP kitchen yet, so I'm still struggling with the cookbook. Having bought the book in the first place, as soon as I make a start on chapter 1, I realise that I'm going to need some more specialised equipment to implement the recipes in the book. Having spent $47 already, I don't want to just abandon this project, so I shell out another $47 for the videos, which are a companion to the book. I'm still not managing to get the recipes working for me so I spend another $497 on a bit of "personal coaching" from the author of the cookbook. And so it goes on. By now I've spent $591 on this but the recipes still aren't working for me. In any case, there are thousands of other people trying to do exactly the same thing, so I have to compete with them too. So, what's next? I could buy the next new cookbook that comes out, maybe that one will work...

I haven't wasted all the money on the cookbook, though. I can earn a commission by selling it to other people. So I write a review of it and praise it to the skies with a "buy it now" link. Does any of this sound familiar?

Let's get back to the EP kitchen. Unlike a book, it's not laid out as a simple step-by-step recipe. It's a waste of time to stroll up to Donna Hay and ask her how I can become a great cook without putting in any time or effort. If I ask her how to improve my sauce-making technique, she'll probably give me some great hints and ideas but they won't be any use to me unless I put them into practice and hone my skills. Armed with the extra information from Donna, I can research the topic a bit further and find out what the other chefs have to say on the subject.

The kitchen can get a bit chaotic at times because there's so much happening all at the same time. But the trick of getting the most out of it is to roll your sleeves up, start doing something, and join in. If you stand there by the door just watching the chefs at work, none of them will come over to help you because they don't know who you are or what you're trying to do, or even if you're interested in doing anything at all.

Going back to the OP about addiction, have a listen to a programme on BBC Radio 4, which Clinton brought to our attention:
http://experienced-people.net/forums...oon-to-Radio-4

Does it ring any bells?

Anyway, is it not the case that the first step in kicking any addiction is to admit you have a problem in the first place? So you've made progress. I'm not going to say, "Don't spend any more money", instead I'll say, "Don't WASTE any more money" on these things. Any time you feel the need to buy another one of them come over to EP and talk to us about it. We'll do our best to put you off the idea. And most of us are making a living online, so let's have a show of hands who's doing it thanks to some IM product? No? I thought not.

[Clinton]

Wow, I love this thread. It starts with a fantastic OP and then surpasses that with the smart, carefully thought out replies!

I agree with a lot of what is said above. I'll add one thing: Sellers of MMO programs are a very persuasive lot. Learn to treat all their claims with contempt and suspicion. Do that as standard. If someone's in IM and selling an MMO, your immediate reaction should be to go outta there! Don't read the pitch. Sometimes even I get tempted to shell out some money to see what they have to say. Again, don't read the pitch, don't watch the video! You have to resist, resist, resist. 99.99% of them are selling a method that won't work for most people - despite what they tell you. The ones who are selling you something that could work for you are either not giving you the full picture (so they can upsell you something later) or they are making it sound easier than it is. Did I mention you should avoid even reading what they have to say?

If you've already spent considerable money trying various MMO recipes and find that you're not making money online - give it up! Do that first.

Then start with an online job. Those definitely work. Then move up to an online job with a profit share. And while you're building your confidence with that you can spend some time educating yourself at locations where people don't have an incentive to push you in a certain direction. Completely avoid anything that is an affiliate link or could be an affiliate link (some of them are very clever at hiding the fact that they're affiliate links).

[TheodoreK]

I feel humbled by the insightful replies in this thread; they speak volumes about the experience some people have in these forums.

There is not much I could possibly add here. However, I must point out something very important that you might be missing.


No matter how awesome the advice given here is, it is not some kind of "free MMO course" or a foolproof way to change your mindset and find the hidden path to untold online riches.

You must exercise critical thinking and be skeptical; even about the advice given here!

Even about what I just said above!

See what I did there?

Otherwise you won't be able to tell the difference between the priceless advice given here and any random self-motivational ebook taken from the garbage bin of WF.