I have been earning money on the Internet for about 15 years now, maybe even a bit more than that. For the past 10 years or so, all of my income has come from the Internet. I have no other source of income these days – no pension, no “day job,” no other money coming in. That’s been a decade of earning my living exclusively from the Internet. It’s a good feeling too.
I have never gotten involved in any kind of “multi-level marketing” on the Internet. No scams. Nothing like that. I have earned my money mostly the “old-fashioned way” but did it on the Net instead of from an office somewhere. I have sold things. I have done jobs for people. I have been a writer of books and articles. All on the Internet. Frankly, none of these things are all that earth-shattering, except for the part about doing it on the Internet.
About a week or so ago, a young friend of mine purchased a copy of one of my books called “49 Ways to earn a living in the Philippines” in which I lay out ideas about how to live abroad in a foreign country and still be able to earn enough money to live comfortably. A few days after buying the book, I saw that my friend posted a message on his Facebook page. He said that he was thinking of starting some kind of online business so that he could earn a little extra money. He got a response from somebody who basically said – “That’s all a scam, you can’t earn money on the Internet. It’s all MLM and that kind of scam type stuff.” Well, my friend responded saying that he had purchased a book from me and that he did so because he had visited my house and seen how my family lives, and he knew that I had earned my living online for some time. So, he knew it was true because he saw it with his own eyes.
Indeed, it is true. Yes, there are lots of scammers online trying to peddle snake oil too. But, there are lots of very legitimate ways of earning money over the Internet too, and you can do that.
My first experience with bringing in money over the Internet started in the mid-’90s. I used to operate an Internet e-mail mailing list with several hundred members (that was a big group in those days). As the group grew and grew, the job of managing it got more cumbersome. I was tempted to just close down the group, but instead, I asked the members if they would be willing to pay an annual subscription fee, to which they agreed. So, that was my first taste of offering a paid service on the Internet.
A few years later, I heard about a new thing on the Internet called eBay. “What is eBay,” I wondered. So, I checked it out and found that it was an “online auction,” something I had never heard of before. Within a few days, I decided to buy something on eBay, and I was hooked. A few months after that, my wife suggested that I should try selling stuff on eBay. I did it, and actually, it developed into a full-time business for me, and earned me a pile of money! Over the past 15 years, I have also operated a number of online stores of my own, I have offered services to people, have written information on the net that was sponsored by advertisers, and lots of other little ventures that made me money.
It’s a wonderful new way of life, earning online. It gives you more freedom than a “regular job.” I couldn’t even imagine going back to a “real job” again after being Independent on the Net for so long.
You can do it too. I’ll write about how you can get started in a future article!
If you are ready to get started with your own website, contact me and I can help you get on the Net! There is no better time to get started than today!
While there are certainly scammers out there, I think increasingly there are many, many legitimate ways to earn money online. A little common sense does help, though. It’s a real job (like anything else) and it is not a get-rich-quick scheme.
I agree, Tom. There are more and more legitimate opportunities. A person should always rely on common sense in evaluating an online opportunity, just as they would an offline opportunity!