Making a living online (oh, and about the dude with his weenie in a sling).....

I take exception to what Gold Bug said. His post is way down near the bottom, so I decided to start a fresh thread. (I didn't read it til now, and that was only because Jas said someone had "gone off on a tangent" instead of answering the question.)

About making money online:

>> Difficult at best, impossible or tiresome.

It's only tiresome if you don't love it.

>> I am making money still but you can't make a living and that is the god's
>> honest truth.

That's not the god's honest truth. It's bullcaca.

I'm where gold bug is -- "making money" but certainly not making a living -- but because I'm not doing it (yet) doesn't mean other people (smarter? faster? savvier? all of the above?) aren't doing it every single day.

>> In order to make a living you need huge numbers of visitors and a very
>> unique selling proposition.

And many people are able to achieve both of those. It takes knowledge, the ability to turn that knowledge into action, creativity, consistency, and a *whole* lot of effort (plus, I'm sure, some other things I forgot to mention and if I had 'em I expect I'd be making a living now, but I digress).

>> You will find that virtually every product, service or venue you can think of
>> someone has already beat you to it and doing it.

Sure you will -- no different than in "real life."

Almost everything's been done in one way or another -- but that doesn't make up-and-coming entrepreneurs crawl under the covers and stay there. It forces them to do it differently, or better... and they do!

When I started my medical transcription service, my area was already saturated -- but I did it better. I never made a killing, but I made a good living. (If I knew how to market and it didn't scare the chocolate chips right out of me, I could have made a killing.)

>> Traffic (via ads), or other means is expensive and arduous.

It's hard work. If you have money, you can get traffic faster and easier. But even if you don't have a *dime* to invest, you can still build your traffic to great heights.

That's one of the most thrilling things about the internet -- you don't have to pay to advertise!

>> Most people will not say this for either they are delusional themselves or
>> they are selling something to this market, (copywriting etc) so they just deny
>> it.

Or... (could it be???)... they won't say it because it just ain't true?

There are millions of people making a living on the internet. There are millions of people like me -- making "some money" and struggling to do better -- and I venture to guess for every one of them there are tens (or hundreds?) of millions not making a penny.

Alas, that's not a whole lot different from "real-world business."

It isn't for everybody, I won't deny that -- but for some of us, it's infinitely more appealing than anything we've done before. And a lot of "regular people" are making a living doing it.

>> Your best bet is to sell this unique swimware - you will find it is one
>> of the kind.

One of the kind? And so is the guy wearing it! Never mind the duds... that body got me so excited I had to take a cold shower and smack myself upside the head with a brownie!

But y'know, people are making a fortune selling coyote pee, doggy-doo-doo, and cow-pie paperweights... could it be there *is* a market for The Sling Thing??

Luv,