Are People REALLY Getting Money Via Internet Marketing?

If you're a regular reader of my blog, then you will notice that I've been exposing a lot of BS in the self-help, "how to make money" fields as of late. But I wanna take this time to relate a real life experience of my own.

All around the internet and on various online business forums, I've seen people ask a question similar to the one posed in the title. Of course most people would answer yes, but they'd reference what someone else is doing as proof. So I'm gonna tell you why I know there's money to be made in Internet Marketing (IM). By Internet Marketing, I'm referring to the practice of selling products (digital and/or physical) via the internet. Internet Marketing isn't an industry itself, just a platform to conduct business. Now let's  begin....

Around mid to late 2010,  I'd hit rock bottom financially after I'd mismanaged money I made in a different business. I had literally $2 in the bank, my car had just gotten repossessed and a lot more crazy things. Fortunately, the rent in my apartment was paid up for the remainder of my lease. I even began working odd jobs to earn money for my expenses. I'd been down before, but never to this degree. It really began to bother me, almost to the point of depression. At this time, I was blogging and this entire ordeal was so devastating that I shut my blog down. Why? Because I felt that I had no business blogging about business and money if I wasn't able to keep the money I'd made. Therefore, I closed my blog and began to work on making a comeback. On a side note: Some of my readers may remember when I abruptly shut my blog down in late 2010. This is the first time that I've revealed my reason.

During the time which I was plotting my comeback, I again began blogging about issues in which I felt strongly. I stayed away from talking about money. This time, blogging was more so to let loose...a way to express myself. During my stint as a blogger this go round, I'd developed a pretty loyal following in a short amount of time. I'd refer certain books and other products and people would go out and buy them. Then one day, I received an email from someone who'd read my content. This person advised me that I could make money off the products I referred. I didn't know anything about that. He was referring to the Amazon affiliate program. Needless to say, I took his advice and began to continue to refer people to products I liked. I didn't think of it as me being an affiliate, I just thought of it as...why not receive a referral fee since they're buying off of my recommendation?

After learning of the possibilities of making money online, I setup another self-hosted blog through the Wordpress platform and used my other free hosted blogs to link to my self-hosted site. I setup a steady stream of income through the Amazon affiliate program, a few Clickbank products, my own self-created products on matters in which I had experience and an affiliate network setup by a friend of mine. After a few short months, I was earning a little over $2,000 a month. Not a great deal of money, but its good for someone who started with $2 in the bank. The money I was making allowed me to buy another car w/ cash, get ahead on my expenses, amass a decent amount of savings and even buy a few luxuries. Most of all, it allowed me to save enough money to get started in my current business.

Although I was desperate when I started started blogging, I wasn't doing it to make money until I got a taste of the Amazon affiliate program. I didn't know anything about IM coming into this. All I'd heard about IM was that people were making millions overnight, and since I'd been involved in other businesses of my own, I knew better than to buy into that. I was just blogging as a way to vent and monetized my readers over time. I also saw my writings as me trying to help others through my own experience. Of course when the money did come, I had to first experiment with different methods of monetizing traffic until I found a system that worked. It wasn't a straight shot at all.

I said all of that to say this: There's money to be made. But what are you going to do? Are you going to be one of those people who read a get rich quick manual and get in the game based on what they told you? You know what I mean, one of those people who want it all at once. Or, are you going to be one of those people who put in the necessary work (both working on your business and constantly learning) and are fine w/ moderate growth? The way you answer that question makes a big difference as to whether you make money in any endeavor you undertake.

Thanks for reading!

Sean Tudor Carter

“We live in deeds, not years. In thoughts not breaths, in feelings, not in figures on a dial.”

Sean Tudor Carter is an experienced investor, entrepreneur, research and writer for the Young & Opulent Group, a company formed to serve the needs of up and coming entrepreneurs, investors, and scholars who wish to reach opulent goals and stay consciously afloat in these fast changing times.