Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure • Hacker News Board

Re: Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure

#11

Post by josefresco » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 3:29 PM UTC

Like many, I was tempted into these same areas - driven by success stories and my own technical knowledge which fooled me into thinking it would be "easy".

What I found is there's lot of money to be made in... telling people how to make money! Those guys like Shoemaker who have an almost cult following end up making an empire on those in the "pyramid" below them.

Not to say this is shady, just that the real "riches" are in charging people to tell then how ... not in actually practicing what you preach.

Re: Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure

#12

Post by josefresco » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 3:32 PM UTC

ianlevesque wrote: post #10

Really great read. What seems to be missing from the author's 10 years is actually building value. Affiliate marketing, arbitrage, finding a cheap ad platform to flip for some clicks - none of this is really building something of value for users to buy. I feel like 10 years spent product building or building up a set of useful services would have had a much greater ROI for this guy.

I felt like if he stuck with this original tech review site, his income would have grown more steadily, and while he may have missed out on some "rich" years, the overall results would be a website/company with value.

Re: Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure

#13

Post by ianlevesque » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 3:32 PM UTC

josefresco wrote: post #12

ianlevesque wrote: post #10

Really great read. What seems to be missing from the author's 10 years is actually building value. Affiliate marketing, arbitrage, finding a cheap ad platform to flip for some clicks - none of this is really building something of value for users to buy. I feel like 10 years spent product building or building up a set of useful services would have had a much greater ROI for this guy.

I felt like if he stuck with this original tech review site, his income would have grown more steadily, and while he may have missed out on some "rich" years, the overall results would be a website/company with value.

Absolutely, might be running a whole network of blogs by now.

Re: Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure

#14

Post by butwhy » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 3:35 PM UTC

josefresco wrote: post #11

Like many, I was tempted into these same areas - driven by success stories and my own technical knowledge which fooled me into thinking it would be "easy". What I found is there's lot of money to be made in... telling people how to make money! Those guys like Shoemaker who have an almost cult following end up making an empire on those in the "pyramid" below them. Not to say this is shady, just that the real "riches"…

I disagree. He probably makes a bit of cash on that but he has a lot of case studies that show legitimate success. He's the kind of guy who explains exactly how he did it as well.

Re: Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure

#15

Post by beachstartup » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 3:36 PM UTC

josefresco wrote: post #11

Like many, I was tempted into these same areas - driven by success stories and my own technical knowledge which fooled me into thinking it would be "easy". What I found is there's lot of money to be made in... telling people how to make money! Those guys like Shoemaker who have an almost cult following end up making an empire on those in the "pyramid" below them. Not to say this is shady, just that the real "riches"…

in norcal tech lingo it's called "selling shovels to the miners".

Re: Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure

#16

Post by Retra » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 3:38 PM UTC

codingdave wrote: post #2

The general online audience has matured over the past 10 years, and most people have an excellent filter to avoid clicking ads, which includes affiliate links. You can still monetize a site these days, and make some money while not being sketchy, but it requires approaching it as a service to your users, not as an exploit of your users. What I mean by this is that whatever your site is, if your audience has a legit i…

>I'm somewhat surprised that anyone would have spent 10 years flailing in this arena and not learned that.

"I’ve always had some type of entrepreneur trapped inside me. [...] I decided I’ll start a blog and make money via AdSense ads."

This is not the thought process of someone with the competence to know how to learn effectively. It sounds like someone who just wants to be a cog in a money wheel, both learning as little as possible and creating as little value as possible.

It is especially telling that they think their age is somehow relevant in the picture of how much money they are making or what their credit limit is.

Re: Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure

#17

Post by paulhauggis » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 3:41 PM UTC

I visit forums like Wickedfire from time-to-time. Most of the people there want short-term riches with little to no effort.

In fact, the business I started 4 years ago, which is still profitable today, came from an idea I saw in Wickedfire. Only, all of the people in the forum that tried it got banned because they wanted to do it the scammy way..and I built it like a real business and gave people real value (and still do).

Even the guy in the article seems like he thinks like a gambler and not a business owner. He makes $100K and what does he do? Blow it on expensive cars, trips, and other luxury items. He should have taken the money and created a service or software based on what he has learned from affiliate marketing. Another route could have been a legitimate marketer. He might be in a happier place now.

Re: Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure

#18

Post by simonebrunozzi » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 3:47 PM UTC

josefresco wrote: post #11

Like many, I was tempted into these same areas - driven by success stories and my own technical knowledge which fooled me into thinking it would be "easy". What I found is there's lot of money to be made in... telling people how to make money! Those guys like Shoemaker who have an almost cult following end up making an empire on those in the "pyramid" below them. Not to say this is shady, just that the real "riches"…

I like to say that gold rushes make the showel sellers rich, not the gold seekers.

Re: Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure

#19

Post by putzdown » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 3:48 PM UTC

It's nice to know that people who fixate on making money not by building useful or beautiful things but by gaming the system are having a hard time too. I've seen enough obnoxious Acai Berry spam to know there must be money there. I'm thankful that the money was short-lived.

Re: Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure

#20

Post by JoshTriplett » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 3:50 PM UTC

paulhauggis wrote: post #17

I visit forums like Wickedfire from time-to-time. Most of the people there want short-term riches with little to no effort. In fact, the business I started 4 years ago, which is still profitable today, came from an idea I saw in Wickedfire. Only, all of the people in the forum that tried it got banned because they wanted to do it the scammy way..and I built it like a real business and gave people real value (and stil…

> In fact, the business I started 4 years ago, which is still profitable today, came from an idea I saw in Wickedfire. Only, all of the people in the forum that tried it got banned because they wanted to do it the scammy way..and I built it like a real business and gave people real value (and still do).

What was that original idea?