How did you get started?

[Baliw]

Hi all, I hope that this is the right place to post this question, as it is beginner related.

Anyway, my question is, how did you get started in this type of business, did you have prior experience in this field? What was the first type of website that you created, was it an informative niche one or one to try and make as much profit as you could?

Also, how many make it a full time career, or do you have full time jobs too?

The reason that I ask is since joining this great informative forum, I have many ideas that are running around in my head, ones that I would lke to make to just sit and run and make some money from and others that I would like to seriously put time and effort into making them a really good money earner.

[Thomas]

I started with about $100 around 3 years ago. I didn't have any other cash (I was a student) so had to make it work. The first site I bought was really small (I can't remember exactly how much I paid but somewhere around $100) and then I just found some ways to send traffic (I did really basic forum marketing). Having a short attention span, I wanted a new project, so sold it for a nice little profit and went from there. I guess that's how I discovered "flipping". At the time, I had zero technical knowledge (it's still limited) but had some business knowledge from my a-levels and business degree. In my first year or so, I really just made pocket change - maybe $5-10k over the whole year.

Since then, I've just carried on in the same industry and built up from there. 3 years on, I've never had a full time job and I now have 12 staff and am making a lot more than I would in a 9-5.

I would say I'm in the minority, though, a lot of my clients still work full-time jobs. Most of the "full-timers" are people who had cash from their working days and are now semi-retired so choose to run an "easy" web business instead. Without trying to sound arrogant, starting with a few hundred bucks and building up is a lot of work, and I don't think it would be suitable for everyone (I definitely have a lot less hair than when I started out... )

[Matteo]

I taught myself HTML in 1995-96 and started playing around. I created a website for our local ski club I was a member of. I hosted it on Geocities. LOL.

In 1997-98 I was in school (second career) for computer networking and found it extremely boring. I wanted to learn "web design and development". No college offered that at that time so I pieced together my own degree with graphic design and programming.

When I graduated it was "dot com bomb" and no jobs were to be had...plus not many companies even hired web people. So I started my own company and built up a local clientele. I still run the business today. Around 2001-2002 I started building my own sites which became my "part time" job.

Now I do design, dev, SEO, consulting, hosting, domain acquisition for clients, social media and anything web marketing related. I won't be able to do it forever so I am currently expanding my own site portfolio and improving/growing my existing sites.

[Baliw]

Meathead1234 & Matteo, thank you for the reply to my post. Just proves how much of a vast knowledge there is from the members of the forum.
As stated in my welcome post, I have no prior knowledge of web design, did try a site about 10 years ago, but that was a free site and I never really did much with it, now I am more focused on making a career and a life from the net and hopefully will be able to contribute as much as yourselves do.

[Saul]

I dabbled in programming since high school and then studied for a CS degree, so in 2005, while still in uni, I started doing freelance jobs online - fixing some stuff for people, creating little scripts, etc. Later I've discovered I can create a script once and sell it over and over again. Then I've realized websites can make money. Did a bit of both for a while but in 2008 finally decided to stick to creating websites for myself because as you build a client based around web development the support becomes a nightmare. I couldn't outsource if my life depended on it so focusing on one thing was the choice to make. That was a good decision to make, as it turned out, because in the coming year I've quadrupled my earnings while cutting down my workload tremendously. Doubled it once again next year and 2010 was the best year in terms of income from my online ventures. Lately I've gone into a bit of a downturn (I'd say damn Google but I knew from the start what I've had coming by depending on it), however I've purchased my first site which is a new venue to me and I have hopes for doing it more from now on in addition to what I was already doing.

I've never had a job either.

[akirk]

I think this is an interesting topic - but not without its dangers...
I suspect that the % of successful people to those trying to make money online is perhaps higher here than elsewhere - so be cautious about assuming that you can replicate what others do...

I have been involved in IT / consultancy / design since school - so now run a web company...

Alasdair

[BentAnat]

Well, I tought myself HTML from a German book about the internet in 1994/95. It had no code examples to speak of, but I was priviledged to have internet access at the time and the book had a very short chapter on what HTML is and how to "view source"... that's how I learned HTML.

From there I learned more languages, all self-tought:
Javascript, DHTML, MySQL, C++, Basic, UnrealScript (this was the first one I was "any good" at... at ome point I built a nightvision system for a major mod in UT), etc.
I then did a 1-year diploma in Software Dev after high school, which was essentially a MCSD with some extras. This was 2003.

I quickly moved from a tech-job to a web development position, where I tought myself PHP, and really discovered my love for Websites and the internet. The job itself was horrible though.
At the same time, i was moonlighting for some family members on a business idea that was web based, as well as some minor websites, all for pocket money.

Then I moved to a bank, where I properly used .NET for the first time (2005, that was), and after hours worked on one of the Country's biggest websites at the time.
From there I moved where I am now: Managing a software development team-of-4 for one of the big global audit firms during the day, building websites for clients and myself and running a marketing company at night, with the hope of making enough of a splash to make enough money off it in time to leave the day job.