How long until you made your first IM dollar?

by pauloadaoag Administrator
52 replies
A discussion with a WF member gave me this idea. How long from the time you started until you guys made your very first cent? It can be from an affiliate commission, or an actual product sale, or ad revenue. It doesn't even matter if it's 2 cents or 2 thousand dollars, as long as its actual measurable monetary results. This is for the benefit of newbies who are on the fence or who may just be starting out.
#dollar #first dollar #how long to make money #long #made
  • Profile picture of the author brettb
    When I released my software product it took 2 weeks before I made my first sale - $39.95.

    That was confirmation that rushing out a version 0.1 was worthwhile.
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    • Profile picture of the author pauloadaoag
      Administrator
      That was fast. If you don't mind sharing, what year was this?
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  • Profile picture of the author pauloadaoag
    Administrator
    Back in 2010, my first real internet dollar took too long - 4 months.

    Didn't really know much then about lean practices and my team and I built this complicated boondoggle from scratch BEFORE trying to reach out to people who may want to pay for it.
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  • Profile picture of the author John47
    It was about 2002/3 and I was using Yahoo groups to post links to various affiliate products in the IM niche. After a few months I sold a marketing course by Corey Rudl. The commission was about $70 I think.

    It was a complete fluke as I had no system in place, neither website nor email list but it proved to me that you could make money online if you put a product in front of eager buyers.
    It gave me confidence to keep learning and kept the wife quiet for a while about "spending so much time on the computer"!
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  • Profile picture of the author Mabu Map
    It took me 4 months until i bought my first solo ads 50 clicks. I got 1 sale. Love it
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    • Profile picture of the author Andrew Hurst
      Did that get you into profit?
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  • Profile picture of the author discrat
    Originally Posted by pauloadaoag View Post

    A discussion with a WF member gave me this idea. How long from the time you started until you guys made your very first cent? It can be from an affiliate commission, or an actual product sale, or ad revenue. It doesn't even matter if it's 2 cents or 2 thousand dollars, as long as its actual measurable monetary results. This is for the benefit of newbies who are on the fence or who may just be starting out.
    Back in late 2007. Within a week. That was filling out Paid Surveys.

    Actual IM stuff with a blog ? About 2 to 3 weeks. Adsense and CPA


    - Robert Andrew
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  • Profile picture of the author jords16
    after 2 week i got a half $1 commission, someone buy a trial of the product i promoted.. but i bought a system that create landing page for me and doing email marketing for me. what i did is sending traffic only to my landing pages which was included to the system i bought. at the same time i building my email list. in just 2 weeks i generated 75 email list. then i got my very firsts commission
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  • Profile picture of the author grandstar
    Mine took like a year.

    It was for satellite dishes. I sent my affiliate link to a few souls using blackplanet.com (was popular before myspace) and I made $40.

    This was like 2003
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Meaney
    Adsense... and I wouldn't recommend it.

    ..took a very long time, and a whole heap of traffic, to earn a decent income.
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  • Profile picture of the author J50
    One day. But that was because I was building a website for fun long before I entered the IM space, so I already had an existing but small audience. I placed Adsense on the site after learning about it somehow and made a few dollars the first day, we're talking 2007/8 here back in the good old days of Adsense.
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  • Profile picture of the author kilgore
    Originally Posted by pauloadaoag View Post

    This is for the benefit of newbies who are on the fence or who may just be starting out.
    How? I really don't get the benefit of this sort of question at all. What fence are they sitting on and how will this data help them to know which side of the fence to get down on?

    The problem is that the "first profit" or "first dollar" or "first whatever" doesn't tell you anything about anything. You can easily make a dollar dumpster diving for aluminum cans, but it's hardly a recipe for a sustainable, long-term, scalable business.

    Talk to me about your 100,000th dollar or your 1,000,000th dollar. Heck, talk to me about your 10,000th dollar -- even at that small scale, you get a sense for what's working and what's not. But first dollar? That's like trying to use the temperature when you woke up this morning to predict the weather 100,000 years from now... in Antarctica... Not completely worthless. But pretty close!

    A better, more interesting question might be to ask about the strategies various entrepreneurs employed when launching our sites. There are good reasons some of us make money faster than others. Some of it's luck. A lot of it has to do having a compelling value proposition (i.e., a great website and/or whatever else you're bringing to the table) and even more of it -- at least if you're looking for a fast dollar and not necessarily a sustainable business -- has to do with creating a solid launch strategy.

    For the record, we made our first dollar the day we launched. How does that knowledge help the OP or anyone else? It doesn't, but that's what you asked, so there you go!
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    • Profile picture of the author pauloadaoag
      Administrator
      How? I really don't get the benefit of this sort of question at all. What fence are they sitting on and how will this data help them to know which side of the fence to get down on?

      The problem is that the "first profit" or "first dollar" or "first whatever" doesn't tell you anything about anything. You can easily make a dollar dumpster diving for aluminum cans, but it's hardly a recipe for a sustainable, long-term, scalable business.
      It's like going to the gym to lose weight. It helps newbies who are going to dip their toes in the pool a good idea of how soon to expect results. You and I are different as we are in the industry already but not everybody would have shared our enthusiasm.


      Talk to me about your 100,000th dollar or your 1,000,000th dollar. Heck, talk to me about your 10,000th dollar -- even at that small scale, you get a sense for what's working and what's not. But first dollar? That's like trying to use the temperature when you woke up this morning to predict the weather 100,000 years from now... in Antarctica... Not completely worthless. But pretty close!

      A better, more interesting question might be to ask about the strategies various entrepreneurs employed when launching our sites. There are good reasons some of us make money faster than others. Some of it's luck. A lot of it has to do having a compelling value proposition (i.e., a great website and/or whatever else you're bringing to the table) and even more of it -- at least if you're looking for a fast dollar and not necessarily a sustainable business -- has to do with creating a solid launch strategy.
      That's actually a great idea for a thread.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gary Chapple
    I was going to say 10 years before I made my first sale of $97 (4.5 years ago), but then forgotten I should include Ebay $30k 1st year, trading $900k in 5 years, $12.2k IM in 9 months.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rose Anderson
    I ran an ad on this forum and started making money as a freelance ghostwriter within the first month. While it's certainly not "passive" income I love what I do and I've written about a multitude of fascinating topics. Others not so much.

    Rose
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    • Profile picture of the author discrat
      Originally Posted by Rose Anderson View Post

      I ran an ad on this forum and started making money as a freelance ghostwriter within the first month. While it's certainly not "passive" income I love what I do and I've written about a multitude of fascinating topics. Others not so much.

      Rose
      And one of the great ways to dispel the myth that this whole thing is a sham and NO amount of money can be made on the internet.

      This way is definitely a possibility for anyone who wants to hone their writing chops and put a little time and
      work in it


      - Robert Andrew
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  • Profile picture of the author WarriorWasim
    Back in 2007 I think, I started my first $ and it was around $30. The journey is crazy I love every bit of it. Thanks :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author salegurus
    CENSORED....
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanbiddulph
    Hi P,

    Took me many months. But I had lots of blocks around money.

    For on the fence of newbie IMers; the amount of money you make is what you allow in. Or, if you have many zany limiting beliefs around money - most newbs do - then the time it takes may be a minute before you earn your first dollar, or, your first $100 bucks.

    Focus on IMing mainly for fun. When your energy is devoted mainly to giving, the getting aka money making grows easier because you will be busy helping folks, learning, studying, creating value and making friends with pros in your niche. Then money sneaks in the back door.

    Ryan
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  • Profile picture of the author Samfakroon
    Took me 2 years and Loss of some hundreds of dollars jumping from product to product but then I made $5 from fiverr and that made me $1000 the first year which I paid to a mentor all and learnt affiliate marketing which gave me a never ending stream of income.
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  • Profile picture of the author shmol
    It took me two months.

    I made it off a clickbank product I promoted through a press release.

    Didn't get another one for a while, though.

    But, man was I stupid--although depending on who you talk to--I am always stupid, I did not build a list from all that traffic I was getting.
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  • Profile picture of the author Affportal
    It took me about 2 months to figure out adwords and get an email submit for a $500 grocery card to turn a profit.

    I'm glad I moved to promoting higher quality offers soon after... The email submits like that never sat well with me.
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  • Profile picture of the author Monica Luve
    My first time making money was through Kindle when I formatted a little ebook about quotes I made... Didn't make much money but it was something.
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  • Profile picture of the author BigFrank
    Banned
    I'll be sure to let you know if and when it ever happens.

    Frank
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  • Profile picture of the author MrDay
    Anyone can make a sale online... Go pick an affiliate product from CB or any of the other 1000's of affiliate networks and create a simple campaign using a simple landing page using a FREE Adwords coupon for instant Google targeted traffic. Just like magic, you'll have a sale within minutes.

    That's the story of how I made my first sale, it literally took one day even knowing barely anything at all about traffic or affiliate marketing.

    I got the idea from other fly-by-night affiliate marketers who rarely ever figure out or go all the way with creating an actual thriving online business.

    Are you really just looking to make a few sales per month or are you trying to make Life-Changing-Money?

    It took me years to finally figure out how to make an actual sustainable business online and to have the abilities and confidence to be able to make money online pretty much anytime that I want to even without paid traffic.

    Pro Tip:
    Get inspiration, guidance and knowledge by watching and reverse engineering what other successful online entrepreneurs are doing. You want to make it big time by blogging? then go study the crap outta the top money making bloggers. You want to make millions by affiliate marketing? then go study the crap outta the top affiliate marketers.
    then...
    Figure out what route you want to make money from online. But the best answer is usually always combining your talent with your passion for ultimate sustainable online business that no one can touch cause there's only one of you. Isn't there?
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  • Profile picture of the author Marian
    It was years ago.. and it took about a few weeks until I made it on ClickBank! But it was fun back then

    Marian
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  • Profile picture of the author Tesslady
    Man, mine took 5 months! Since I just tested my fate on IM (which turned out well today), I was not so sure with what I did before. But as time passed, I learned from my experiences and never stopped learning. That's how you get better, right?
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  • Profile picture of the author Pinkysoll
    Banned
    As for me, it took 2 months before I earned my first IM dollar. At first, I targeted a broader scope, which didn't turn out well for me. But when I focused on a narrower scope (i.e. local), I made money and continued to do so.
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  • Profile picture of the author Edwin Torres
    It took me a couple months to get my first $1 online... and it was one of the best feelings in the world. Nothing like that.
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    • Profile picture of the author BigFrank
      Banned
      [DELETED]
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      • Profile picture of the author discrat
        Originally Posted by BigFrank View Post

        Just imagine the incredible sense of elation that you will experience when you make that second dollar. :-)

        Frank
        Man BF, you on a mean streak lol :>)
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  • Profile picture of the author sachin5120
    my journey will preety hard i got my first sale after 1 year and its an affiliate commission
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  • Profile picture of the author GordonJ
    Originally Posted by pauloadaoag View Post

    A discussion with a WF member gave me this idea. How long from the time you started until you guys made your very first cent? It can be from an affiliate commission, or an actual product sale, or ad revenue. It doesn't even matter if it's 2 cents or 2 thousand dollars, as long as its actual measurable monetary results. This is for the benefit of newbies who are on the fence or who may just be starting out.
    We started making online money our first week in business in 1985 selling computer parts and pieces and some software. It depends on what you bring to the the table and the demand.

    In 1998, I sold what was for me, my first affiliate product, and made $1,000.00 in the first week. I didn' touch the product, the money was paid to someone else who sent it out and I just got a commission on the sale, I believe it was 4 units sold.

    Like some have pointed out, this sort of thing probably doesn't help most newbies to "get off the fence" BECAUSE too many come with NO business experience or knowledge.

    In the 1990's guys, like me, with a background in Remote Direct Marketing/Mail Order were bringing our experiences to this new media.

    But to update this, I've had Warriors make 1,000 bux in 30 days via a WSO, and just by tapping into the huge numbers of Warriors. But again, they came from a background of having either sales experience or

    a CLEARLY DEFINED GOAL before they started.

    The Warriors posting it took 5 years of bouncing around, shiny objects, trial and error had to learn the hard knocks way.

    Today, a newb can make some pretty fast money IF
    they bring any skills, knowledge or experience to the table

    IF they spend time learning and IF they can write out their plan of action, based on reality or via a mentor

    Then I ASSERT (and have been flamed many times here for this assertion):
    a newbie can be profitable in 30 DAYS AND replace the average American income in 3 years with a plan, and continuous effort in the direction of their goals.

    GordonJ
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  • Profile picture of the author badboy_Nick
    Originally Posted by pauloadaoag View Post

    A discussion with a WF member gave me this idea. How long from the time you started until you guys made your very first cent? It can be from an affiliate commission, or an actual product sale, or ad revenue. It doesn't even matter if it's 2 cents or 2 thousand dollars, as long as its actual measurable monetary results. This is for the benefit of newbies who are on the fence or who may just be starting out.
    That was some time ago, but I still remember it all. It took me about 3 months to make my first dollar online - so wasn't as quick as I first had in mind. But it was actually from a physical product I sold online, so I still needed to do all the shipping, support, supply-chains, development, etc.

    Was actually quite a lot of fun
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  • Profile picture of the author onmgrind
    Hey guys I'm new to the forums. Heard about you guys from another community.

    Anyways.... My first online dollar... I made it when I was homeless... I was living in my car.

    I spent mad hours in the library. I cant remember if it was me selling a self help ebook... or if it was from amazon>ebay dropshipping... I did both at the same time... but I think it was a purchase of color pencils... i bought for like 8.99 and sold for like 19.99... I made like 9 dollars profit after fees and stuff... pretty sure it was like 2 or 3 days later when I sold the first ebook... It really wasnt even a good ebook... just some makeshift rewritten material that I put together with a few hours of browsing through the library... and compiling it together. Sold for 1.99... on amazon...

    Anyways... just a bit of background. thought this was a good thread to say whats up...

    I'm not a guru or make any money online.... but i have been reading up on different monitization techniques for a couple years.

    If you guys have any groups or wanna recamend some threads send them to me... I dont knjow if I can pm or not... being my first post...
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    • Profile picture of the author pauloadaoag
      Administrator
      Originally Posted by onmgrind View Post

      Hey guys I'm new to the forums. Heard about you guys from another community.

      Anyways.... My first online dollar... I made it when I was homeless... I was living in my car.

      I spent mad hours in the library. I cant remember if it was me selling a self help ebook... or if it was from amazon>ebay dropshipping... I did both at the same time... but I think it was a purchase of color pencils... i bought for like 8.99 and sold for like 19.99... I made like 9 dollars profit after fees and stuff... pretty sure it was like 2 or 3 days later when I sold the first ebook... It really wasnt even a good ebook... just some makeshift rewritten material that I put together with a few hours of browsing through the library... and compiling it together. Sold for 1.99... on amazon...

      Anyways... just a bit of background. thought this was a good thread to say whats up...

      I'm not a guru or make any money online.... but i have been reading up on different monitization techniques for a couple years.

      If you guys have any groups or wanna recamend some threads send them to me... I dont knjow if I can pm or not... being my first post...
      Welcome onmgrind! That is exactly the attitude that defines what a proper member of the Warrior forum should be like.
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  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    It took less than a day.

    No joke.

    There was a CPA program that converted really well.

    I had access to a solid traffic source.

    It didn't take long.

    In fact, I was able to quit my job after a few months.

    This was 17 years ago. I haven't worked a formal job since.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Cage
    I've started doing affiliate marketing for a month, and now I have $0. LOL
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    Before you GIVE UP, think about why you STARTED.

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  • Profile picture of the author Reed Floren
    Day 1.

    I joined a company called AllAdvantage back in 1999 and they paid $0.50 an hour for every hour you were online and then $0.10 an hour for everyone you referred down 5 levels so I recruited a bunch of college students.
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  • Profile picture of the author rprieto60
    My first dollar was made on my second day. It's because I followed the instructions given to me without running off and chasing the next shiny object.
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  • Profile picture of the author mickyl
    The fastest venture I had was actually ebay, where within a few days from starting I made a few dollars. That was fun! But not always the fastest way is the best:-)
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  • Profile picture of the author Heather Leigh 93
    I made my first money online when I was accepted into a writing site and began writing articles for others.
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  • Profile picture of the author profitboss
    within my first week for $40 CPA using PPC.
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  • Profile picture of the author Andrew Hurst
    I'm still looking for that first dollar (That means I haven't really tried yet) I've made money with passive investments, but they are too risky and I can't rely on them anymore. That's why I'm back on the WF and reading and learning. I just need to make sure i'm implementing what I learn.
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  • Profile picture of the author Shawn Stinnett
    Made good PT. money with Ebay in 2010 before rules change. $1,000 month
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  • Profile picture of the author Joshua Young
    Within my first week. I almost made enough to live on so I quit my job and struggled, lol. That's not the way I suggest doing it. I did work 12+ hours a day to make it happen. I had many failures along the way but I wouldn't change a thing now.
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  • Profile picture of the author NewEnglandah
    I've been doing this on and off for a few years. Jumping from idea to idea. I've never made any money.
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  • Profile picture of the author ZachMiller
    24 hours.. but it took me almost 4-6 months to get started on the adventure..

    And only because I was almost "forced to"..
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  • Profile picture of the author Paulk59
    Took me about 2 weeks on a Amazon/Ebay dropship, but that was easy compared to this as i am new to this.
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