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

[Clinton]

Other standard answer, "There is no harm in making a bit of extra money selling my Big Idea. The Big Idea provides my main income but if I can sell this Big Idea to others and make even more money, what's wrong with that?"

The problem, of course, is that for many of these sellers the Big Idea isn't what's making the bulk of the income, it's the suckers who're paying for the ebook about the Big Idea who're providing the income!

I was looking at one MMO product yesterday following an email from someone. The seller, I think his name is Simon Coulson, claims to have made millions. He has multiple websites selling different MMO products and they are very slick, formulaic MMO sales pages. But does he actually have any other business? Does he actually make money online in any way outside of telling other people how to make money online? I don't know, but very interestingly he seems to route all his businesses through his LLP (company) and companies have public accounts. So I took a look at his balance sheet.
kay01.jpg

Not a lot of millions there. OK, the B/S doesn't show turnover, but I'm a qualified accountant and that B/S doesn't match the "BS" on the website. I notice also that he has what's called Small Company Exemption - if your turnover is below a certain limit you get exempted from providing detailed audited accounts.

The problem is that "customers" go by the "bank statement" and other images these people post on their websites and by the big claims, not by the real figures!

[fabdomains]

Enjoyed reading this post, some excellent advice.
One thing I would add to the mix is the idea of building online properties with different income dependencies and the notion of moving online income gained into offline investments. Clinton quite rightly points out that putting all of your eggs into the google basket is a dangerous move. With that I agree, BUT it's still a source of good traffic and a good website with good content targeting good Google keywords will offer good returns. Google is one method of building passive income (and my main one), what I really want to say here is that looking for ways of mixing your passive income methods with service offerings has worked for me, ie make your business a mix of passive and active income (eg web design, seo services, coding) methods. This will better enable you to ride out tough times across your mix of online income streams.

I also try to move income made online into offline money making pots too. For example, it's always good to have a high interest but easily accessible savings account, put money here in the good days in preparation for the bad days. Move a portion of your income into some form of investment outside of your online world, as an expat brit I've become very aware of exchange rates as most of my income is paid in either pounds or dollars. So, I buy currencies that are down (eg the euro right now), keep it safe and then sell it back when exchange rates improve.

Overall, just because we're online people doesn't mean we need to make all our money within our online world. In fact, it's better if we don't. What we're all trying to do is build a life and that should be our focus. So, I would say do follow the wonderful advice given in this thread and gradually you will start to make money online. Looking back, I wish I had thought more about what I could do with online monies made outside of the online world as this is a big part of what has led to a more stable income overall for me, so plan to do that too once you make your first dollars.

[Kay]

Ha ha, it's a funny-looking balance sheet for sure. But financial statements published in accordance with Section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 as applied to LLPs don't tell you much at all. Heck, the companies and LLPs which qualify for exemption are not even required to submit a P&L. These publicly available financial statements are fairly meaningless if you don't know the underlying facts behind their preparation, and especially so when there's a tangled web of numerous companies and LLPs involved, as seems to be the case here.

In this particular case, that B/S is only a small part of the overall BS. If you dig a little deeper you might find all kinds of unexpected things. Another of his BS B/Ss has some even more surprising figures, including nearly half a million quid of intangible assets - unspecified.

Isn't accountancy fun?

[Denny]

I've become addicted on the concept of making lots of money on the internet. 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. ?

I'm sure you've heard the cliché: "the harder I work, the luckier I seem to get." From your post, I think that applies 100% here. You say you're addicted to the "concept" and you're "praying" a lot. You don't mention how many hours you've spent in the past year on your site(s). If I have a losing site or business venture, the first thing I look at is how much of my time and money I've spent on this venture. If I feel that I've dedicated enough quality time and money to it and it's still losing, then it's time to cut the line and move on. Pick a niche that you have experience in (and hopefully enjoy). Then become addicted to "working" that niche and not just the "concept" of making money with that niche. It will amaze you as I've proven that "harder I work" cliché to myself time and time again.

[Chabrenas]

I can't tell you how to make money, but I can tell you how not to lose it: don't ever pay for MMO 'advice' or 'training'. Just soak up the stuff the sellers give away free. After a while, you learn how to identify the people whose advice is likely to be good, even if each snippet is incomplete. If you trawl through the seller's blog or newsletters, you can piece some of it together. Just like the guys who work through your garbage trying to steal your identity.

- as a first cut, stick to the big names. Good marketers give away random bits of guidance representative of what they are hoping to sell. Often, the freebies from a big player will be at least as valuable as the products the little guys are selling.

- check the most recent date that appears on every MMO sales page you look at. If it's a couple of years or more ago, there could be some seriously bad advice being offered.

- check out the forum that often forms a public part of an MMO offering. In most cases, all you'll find is a bunch of noobs bickering or bragging amongst themselves, but you could learn quite a bit about the 'marks' the MMO scheme purveyors are targeting, and perhaps begin to identify the characteristics that will stop them from ever succeeding. Very occasionally, you may find something you can add to your armoury. But it will be just that - another tool which will achieve nothing unless you use it to perform a productive task.

Oh, and each time you think you've found some good advice, ask the Experienced People. They'll soon tell you whether it's valid or not - except in the marginal cases where they'll argue among themselves in a constructive way.

[mark2000]

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.

This is an interesting idea, focusing on domain investments within a country's own domain name. I'm going to check this out

[Kay]

Or, you could be the person who pioneers the domain investing market for Laos.

Too late for Laos, I'm afraid. The .LA is also handy for Los Angeles businesses.

Have a look at this thread for more info:
http://experienced-people.net/forums/showthread.php/4889-A-question-about-geo-targeted-EMDs

[visegrip]

Thanks everyone for all the awesome feedbacks. I appreciate all the push and encouragement and not to forget all the expert advice. Time to get my handy dirty and take action.