How do people REALLY make money on the internet?

This is a question that has been tumbling around in my head for quite some time, and I’m sure the same question has tumbled around in many peoples’ heads many, many times. How do people, and in particular everyday people like you and me, make money on the internet?

How do free sites like WordPress and YouTube and others make money? I mean, let’s face it, they have to be making money somewhere otherwise they couldn’t survive. Sure, it could be pure ‘charity’ or ‘goodwill’ but at the end of the day, everybody needs to earn enough money to put food on the table and keep a roof over their head.

I started a website about a year ago, diving straight in without knowing anything about html programming or anything. It’s a website for learning Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language) and also English and other languages. We’re selling a product, but are there other ways to make money with a website (or blog, or whatever)?

I added Google AdSense earlier this year and it was cool to see my first 10 cents! Yeah, big deal, but still, kinda cool. Meanwhile I get lots of crap email about Affiliate Marketing and many other schemes (scams?) for making money on the internet. So where’s the truth in all of it? How do you make money on the internet?

Well, here’s what I’ve learned so far. It seems that some sites do make good revenue from Google AdSense, but I think you need a lot of traffic for that. Google AdWords, where you pay for advertising, looks like shark infested waters, and you’d better be a clever little piranha if you want to make money, and not lose a whole bunch of money.

It was interesting reading yesterday about YouTube at WikiPedia:

YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. YouTube was created in mid-February 2005 by three former PayPal employees.^[1] The San Bruno-based service uses Adobe Flash technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips and music videos, as well as amateur content such as videoblogging and short original videos. In October 2006, Google Inc. announced that it had reached a deal to acquire the company for US$1.65 billion in Google stock. The deal closed on November 13, 2006.^[2]

As of Q1 2008, YouTube is not profitable, with its revenues being noted as “immaterial” by Google in a regulatory filing.^[4] Its bandwidth costs are estimated at approximately $1 million a day.^[4] It is estimated that in 2007, YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000, and that around ten hours of video are uploaded every minute.

Hey, we all know that many of the big guys are LOSING big money on the internet and in many other industries (except for the oil and gas industry which is making silly, silly money these days!)

So, how ’bout us everyday, jeans and t-shirts kinda people. How do we make money on the internet? And have a good time doing it!! There’s no point in doing anything if it’s “just for the money”. You have to enjoy doing it, and if you can earn money doing it, great, all the better.

I mean, look at the guys at WordPress…. now that’s a group of t-shirt guys if I’ve ever seen one! They’re giving all of us some great stuff, and it’s all for free. So what’s their secret. Actually, they’re extremely open about it all, and it’s not much of a secret. I’m new here to WordPress so I don’t know exactly how they manage to pay all the bills.

Back to the original question, How do you and I and anybody else make money on the internet? It doesn’t have to be a fortune (but that would be nice). Does anybody out there have some simple advice for people? I’m by no means an expert, but I am learning, and I come from a fresh, unbiased perspective, so I’m also often able to see things in a different way than others who “can’t see the forest for the trees”.

Recently I’ve come across two interesting prospects: GDI (Global Domains International) and Pay it Forward 4 Profits. I haven’t signed up for either yet, still testing the water. (Don’t want to be a guppy in shark and piranha infested waters!) Do any of you have experience(s) with these groups?

Glad to be a part of a cool group here at WordPress and looking forward to getting to know ‘everyone’.

cheers,

Brian99

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