Can the Internet really be profitable?
I know that's a funny question. All kinds of people have made their millions at least with the assistance with the internet. But I mean more in a realistic sense, a situation where (money.earned == (effort.spent/time.spent)). That, and not everyone has the heart to scam money out of those with better constitutions. By this I mean MLM scams etc.
I've been using the internet for years. At least since mid 90's. In the last week, I've earned more money online than I ever thought possible. It's true. On this blog alone, though advertising, I have raised almost 10 dollars. And by completing some of those web perspectives surveys, I've raised yet another almost 10 dollars. This is crazy... just crazy..
Now to be fair, I think I'm receiving payment for surveys completed months ago... It really begs the initial question, is it worth the time and effort?
If a survey takes I dunno, 30 - 40 minutes to complete, and you have to wait for at least a month for payment, there isn't much point in taking the survey at all. Not unless it was your spare time.
Now that being said, How much is your spare time worth? I'm a professional software developer, and while I won't get into exactly how much I make, I will tell you that the difference in value is outstanding. If I work outside my normal work hour's I'd consider that eating into my spare time. Yet at the least, I bill my regular hourly rate, or take time off to make up for it.
This blog post is going to take something like 20 minutes of my time; because I don't really care if I look a little rough on the edges. I'm not sure how attractive the advertising will look from it, and subsequently how likely people are to be attracted to any of it, but if I were to look at the statistics, this post could potentially generate 4 dollars worth of income over a few days.
So this is a lot more effective than completing surveys. But still, is it worth my time? Does the fact that I'm doing this out of interest make a difference? Maybe that should fit into the initial equation somewhere....
(money.earned == (effort.spent/time.spent)) + satisfaction ???
or
I enjoy it, so.. (satisfaction + money.earned) == super bonus
obviously I'm no mathematician.
Has anyone out there actually found practical things, that you don't hate doing, to be profitable on the internet? But let's just rule out selling all your belongings on E bay right now.
I'm all for hearing stories on various ventures. However, I'm more interested in hearing if the internet is actually profitable in this way, not to be sold in some business opportunity.
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I think that if you want to earn serious money it won't happen in a week or a month or a year. Well I guess it varies for different people but you get the point. It's kinda like investing, the first couple of years you don't see much improvement but in the long run it will multiply.
ReplyDeleteAlso are you really trying to make money with this blog? If so maybe you should post more. Sure these posts are interesting but you have to think why would someone you don't know come and read this.
At first you do a lot of posting and a lot of work to get yourself known and you don't see any results. That's where a lot of people give up but if you keep at it hopefully it will catch on. That's my plan anyway :P
Oh yeah I almost forgot. How much do you make for 1 survey and how much time does it take you?
I don't think that I am trying to make money with this blog. I think that's a cool side effect however. I think if anything else, I'm stoked at how quickly the money accumulates. Even if it is only 10 dollars from this Blog, that's still 10 dollars. Almost enough money to pay for a coffee each day.
ReplyDeleteI dunno, if or why people would come to read my posts. I guess they would have to be pretty bored or something.. =)
Specifically that, posting something meaningful, and generating enough traffic to generate some real income. I'd love to hear a success story around that. I'm not sure if it's for me, but it's one of those things about the internet, it seems like the money just comes from nowhere.
I follow your blog, and I know you started it not much longer before mine, have you found the results to be similar? Assuming you keep up posting and getting people involved and talking, how long do you think it would take to generate some actual revenue?
I'm not as interested in the money side of it as I am the community side of it. But the money is nice, and I think if it did generate enough money for a coffee a day, IE. $50 / month, I'd be a happy puppy.
The web surveys? It depends, from what I have seen, they do one of a few things.
You can do a survey for a chance to win a monthly prize of $1000 or %5000.
Any time you try to write a survey, but you don't qualify (are screened out), you also get entered into a draw for a monthly $1000 prize.
Other times, the survey has a specific value. Usually either $3 or $5. This can be taken in the form a chapters gift certificate, a paypal payment (which takes a month or so to get) or MSN Sympatico music downloads
I talked about this in contrast to say blogging and advertising, because it seems like a hard way to make a living.
It also seems like these surveys, especially the ones that pay out cash, take an especially long time to complete.
My blog is coming along quiet well. I have some traffic from the states and some people from Philippines and Vietnam. Hopefully it will catch on even more.
ReplyDeleteAnyway I have to write my next post. Happy blogging!