The main problem is there are a lot of people that say it’s easy to make money online. What they forget to tell you is that it is easy if you are willing to put in lots and lots of hours of work

Gustafsen you’ve got it spot on, I think. There are lots of people making lots of money by throwing up crappy sites made for the sole purpose of putting Adsense on them and I really hate that method. I agree that quality is the way to go for long term success but I guess it’s not the only way.

Ammar I think that’s people’s main issue. I know what most of Webby’s sites are and most could be copied quite easily so I totally understand why he keeps things under wraps. I have a few sites that are similar and I don’t usually reveal them to people. Mine aren’t nearly as successful though! But my three main sites that I talk about there (Travoholic, London, Working Holidays) are all big, content rich sites that can’t really be duplicated easily. Someone could copy my niche and general ideas but building up the content, search engine rankings etc. is difficult and time consuming.

Haha WJM. Ya there does seem like there’s a bit of a sense of urgency to get my ‘empire’ set up and established before the masses jump on board. I think they already have but it feels like there are plenty of opportunities still. I wonder how long that will last.

I agree 47, the business model makes it really hard to resist. Cecilia my first Adsense cheque was a big motivator so stick with it.

47

People also tend to forget that it takes work to succeed. It is no easy task to capture the attention of the thousands upon thousands of viewers that are needed to be successful or the fact that to really succeed long term those viewers need a reason to return.

A simple litmus test I use is to ask “Who does this benefit and how?”

Obviously, if the only benefit is to the owner/webmaster, they are doing something wrong. To succeed, benefit needs to be provided to both/all parties. Whether that is in the form of information, goods, or services, to have a successful model there must be something of value.

Food for thought:
The Google AdSense model adds value by providing visitor who don’t find exactly what they need on your site the opportunity to find it elsewhere…

The flaw there is that the more successful they are in AdSense, the more they aren’t really meeting the needs of their visitors.

What would happen if the goal was not to maximize AdSense clickthroughs, but instead to maximize subscriber sign ups and repeat visitors….

–
Gustafson
http://www.TheViewFromHome.com

To be successfull in this business is hard period.

Anyone that can slave away for months if not years making cents for hours work has to be pretty thick skinned to make the grade. I’m sooooooooo gratefull I stuck it out as now I know it works & have no doubts.

As a kid I tried & fell for all the get rich schemes MM, Insurance, Timeshare to name a few I tried them all & had limmited success mainly cause I dit not stick it out & became a doubter, I know now in retrospect their are many people making a fantastic living from MM, Insurance, & Timeshare but those that are, probably had to work very hard to get where they are.

This online business is no different & comparable to MM, Insurance, Timeshare in many ways for all those that start only a few will ever succeed cause it’s very difficult to get over that initial barrier where you are earning enough to make it feel like its worth it.

And for that I’m glad cause if it was easy it probably would not be worth doing.

When my husband started dabbling in his website www.xzyllardrums.com, he just wanted to have a virtual shelf for his newfound hobby of drum collecting. Reconnecting to his passion for music was his ultimate outlet for the mounting pressure in his job. Building that website was a daily struggle…leaving us to only wonder how the others got their banners, etc.– and some wishful thinking on how profitable it could be.

Shoshhh…our website was still a small fish in the ocean, so we were content with just the adsense. Aha! Two years later we received $100. An unexpected $100 for something we’ve already forgotten. Maybe, it’s time to try again….Have I learned something from you? Have you inspired me enough? Let’s put it to the test…soon…I just can’t nail a certain [starting] date like you. Thank you! I’m really grateful in finding this website.