How long did it take you to go full-time?

I went full time after getting laid off in 2007 and I have not looked back since. I am not going to tell you it has been easy, because it has not. I will tell you that it has been worth it 100%.

I made/make money through Adsense and affiliate marketing. I target the long tail and work hard on building organic traffic. I have just released my first e-book as a new venture and currently am working hard to promote that and recruit affiliates.

Inspiration (at least for me) - I have the best life. I live at the beach and am a stay at home dad. I no longer miss out on the kids growing up due to 12 - 14 hour days at the office. I have no boss, no commute and best of all no stress.

Well... I'm not full-time yet (goin' to school n' stuff ), but I do earn a full-time income (at least from my standards!)

To me, it took like 3-4 months of focused action on one thing -- Website flipping. If you have the right mindset and are willing to outsource, changing gears (i.e. taking your income to a higher level) becomes relatively easy.

Earlier, when I started, I was busting my ass off freelancing (blog commenting, forum posting... ) and earning next to nothing. I didn't know much about all these then... I just wanted to earn enough to brag about!

The most important thing that drove my success was... in my opinion, motivation. It may not be the same for everybody but for me, it was motivation.

Haha, I took the plunge and jumped in all at once! My job was driving me crazy and I said to myself, "You know what, I can do much better and from now on I'm going to hold myself to a higher standard!"

Then one day, after some particularly poor behaviour from my then manager during a staff meeting, I proclaimed "You can consider that my resignation!" and walked out of the office. It was extremely liberating. I vowed that no matter what, I would never go back to a 9 - 5 job, working to make someone else rich.

I actually had no plans at that point, not even any ideas, but I had decided that as long as I believed I had the professional qualities within myself that were required, I would always be able to find a way to move forward. That was over three years ago now, and that is exactly what I did.

Granted, I did apply for and receive an Australian government program called NEIS - the New Enterprise Initiative Scheme, which provided me with basic funding to launch my business. This ran for one year and was a huge help. But it's also worth noting that when I decided to take my own path I had no idea I would get that funding, I was just determined to make my way.

Whether you work your way to full time gradually, or just jump in head first, the most important thing is determination. For me there have been times when the financial pressure has been monumentally heavy, but no matter what, my outlook has never for one minute stopped being that anything worth having demands blood, sweat and tears. Everything in life has a price, and when you are determined enough and willing to pay that price, you will ultimately achieve what you set out to do.

Whatever approach you take, good luck to you!

I've been working for myself since 2003 starting with a training business that evolved along the way. IM has been an additional angle only recently although I've been visiting this forum since 2007.

As for methods, I started with bum marketing, made my first online money after 20 days (if I remember right) and am now into affiliate sites. Next stop for me is to develop my own products in those niches that I'm doing particularly well in.

Heres to your successful journey too, perez!

I like that question you had as it reminds me of way back....

I started my main website, a career/job site, back in Feb of 2000. I was in college and my parents were gonna kick me out come grad in April. So I was basically screwed financially. So I stopped going to school other than to do tests. I spent freakin 12 hours a day, building links and traffic to the site 7days a week. Then in a few months it was making a bit of money. Enough to at least move out and pay my rent. Then after adding an affiliate program to the site and finding some solid affiliates things started to really pick up. By the end of the year the site was making five figures a month, and it just continued to grow for many years. But well, now it's a different playing field. Tons of competitors, so things have died down a bit. Still making five figures a month though, just barely ha ha. But that's like 9 years later. So it can happen quickly if you hit on the right market, with the right offer, using the right forms of leverage such as affiliate programs (viral marketing), and work your butt off! If you want to read more on that story go to sellingwhiz.com . I talk about that in a lot of detail there. You really just got to find a niche and then work your azz off at it. The one area I've been exploring most recently is in B2B. If you can find a niche in B2B and be able to prove to a business that your product either fills their need and or will provide them with solid ROI, then make it free for them to try it, before they have to buy, you'll get clients lining up in droves. That's what I'm finding. Anyway good luck.

3 years and still not full-time. But after joining Warrior Forum, now I think I will go full-time within a couple of months. The things I've learned here really seem to work for making money online.

Hello a_Perez.

It's a relative question because it depends on what YOU need
and want out of your IM business, not what we needed or wanted.

For me... I needed over $6k/mo. to make this work full time. It took me
about six months to start generating that kind of money from my online
business - over 5 years ago!

But, it's not just an easy answer - back then, I was using the internet to
promote my Real Estate Investing business. Finding investment property and
then selling investment property and finding private lenders, etc.

Heck, just one transaction in real estate, found online, was worth $10k, $20k,
even over $30k, if the leads were good.

So.. it's kinda misleading to say it was ONLY IM that I was doing.. I was using
IM in my Brick and Mortar business to get that kind of success.

There's a long story in there somewhere, but I won't bore you with it here.

If you do service work or freelancing, you can make some regular income... but
it's competitive and can be hard to get a foothold in a price point that makes
it sustainable in just the IM niche anyway, without working yourself to death.

Though, I still take on a copywriting job or two every week myself, because I
enjoy doing that.

I think that if you need a couple thousand dollars a month and you focus on any
one thing in IM, and ONLY one thing... until you are making money at it... you will
be fine. It won't take you too long.

Don't get distracted... don't buy everything on the market... in fact, don't buy
anything if you haven't read, applied, and gotten your money out of the LAST
thing you purchased, imo. That'll keep your nest egg safe for a while, if you
have one.

You can jump in and figure out how to swim later. That works for some folks.

You can figure out how to swim, then jump in. I did this.

You can find a boat, you know, others who can help you get to where you
are going faster and without getting wet at all, to help you. THAT is probably
a really good idea to get going.

In fact... trying to do it all alone without asking for help or getting guidance, is
the LONG way around success, in my experience. Look around, seriously, at anyone who
is making it big on line or even off line - how many of them are working as a solo-preneur,
with no help, outsource helpers, employees, partners, JV's, Affiliates, etc.? Not many,
in my experience anyway.. that I can see.

So... if you want to get to success faster and find that "4 Hour Workweek" freedom -
whatever THAT is!! LOL... find a boat.. a coach or group or mentor or program that
has support and that can give you guidance and feedback, you'll get there a LOT
faster.

Oh, one more thing. Do that before you spend all of your money on programs. Because,
once you realize how important this is, if you've already spent your cash on "stuff"
you will not have any left for HELP!

Warmest Regards and Best of Fortunes to you!

Steve

If you want to go full time, don't waste time doing all the "trail & error" stuff. Learn from people who have already done it or who have proven systems. It certainly will take away alot of pain and short-cut your way to success.

Next, ask yourself. How much effort are you willing to invest in this venture? Remember: effort x time = $$$ even through your mentor or the system which you have acquired, has streamline the whole IM process for you.

Try to find your own job,then you are full-time.But full-time job does not mean the best.Still many guys want to de arrange their time independently.

I Dropped out college and started with 100$. Within my first year i made 6 figures. All depens on your effort. That´s my Affiliate Impact

Have you been inspired so far :-)

Lot's of honest guys I see telling you it requires commitment, consistency, and work but the results are worth it.

I concur fully!

For myself, and I'm not the sharpest pencil in the pack, 3 and a half years of consistent part-time effort to reach the joys of working, if you can call it that, 'full time' out of my apartment in beautiful Christchurch, New Zealand.

Once I got over all the dumb things I did in the early days, and there were many (yep, I got seduced by the glitter of overnight riches too) the vehicle for me was affiliate marketing - with a primary focus of promoting value for money services requiring the payment of a monthly fee, so as to get hold of some residual incomes.

Was freedom worth the effort? You bloody bet it was!

Day one, almost 10 years ago.

I worked for a small SEO firm and was planning on going it alone. After a year on the job, they closed down. Many of my clients wanted me to continue servicing their SEO needs. As I started developing and promoting my own sites, I got out of the client based business model.

I did it gradually and it took me 2 years of working in my spare time (10 hours a week) until I was able to change my full time job to a part time job and then a further year until I was generating a high enough monthly income to fully quit my job.

I've now been full time for two and a half years and I'm loving it.

I do a combination of affiliate marketing and also have some of my own products and services.

I hear from so many people who are frustrated and quit after a few months if they don't see the money, so I think one of the key things is being persistent. Also, if what you are doing isn't working, find out why and change it if necessary.

Cheers,
Suzanne

I was doing IM part time when I was in college. I never got a real job. I got an offer but the payscale was chump change when compared to what I was making with IM. I guess I will never get a real job in my life.

Going fulltime is when things really start happening. You approach things differently when you don't have another source of income to rely on.

I am not a full time IMer but in a way I am. I got laid off from my design work and have been working part time at a restaurant and pursuing IM with articles and learning anything I can to rank my sites.

At first I wanted to be filthy rich overnight like all those ebooks promise. These days, my goal is to reach $2000 a month by mid 2010. That is going to be my first big milestone. It is not a lot but when I get there I am going to celebrate and then go for the next step.

I've been wanting to join a Master Mind group where I can model after those who have already walked this path.

Thanks!
Howard

I think I am a unique person on this forum in that I have no intention of leaving my full-time job because I love the work

I use IM to find prospects for my business...and I can also work on my side projects(mainly affiliate marketing right now) while I am at the office or it is slow.

My intention is to take my time in developing my IM as a little side-job so that in the future I can outsource most of it and have an "auto-pilot" second income

Good Luck to everyone pursuing their dream of working from home!

It took me about 3 years total. Large learning curve.

College ... 10 years working for someone else ... 6 years working for myself (as a marketer and business owner)

Wow, really like this question. I left my not-so-comfortable job when my income from internet exceeded my salary. Now i employ 5 people under me who are experiencing the same what I experienced when I was a forced labor (read as employee). It took me 28 months to leave my job and 8 months to make my income from internet exceed my salary during my job period.

"thanks" me if you like this info

I went full time from the get-go since I was unemployed (and pretty desperate) when I first came in touch with Internet Marketing. I had no other option but to either make it work or to hunt for a job - I was really broke in those days, so thanks God I started making money by my second month.

I am full time marketer. It is necessary to go for full time when have projects with big money and high goal to achieve...

I'm not yet a full-time IMer but I want to try it after schooling. For now, I enjoy some freelance jobs that aren't so much time-consuming.

I know some about IM but I want to discover its depths and the many benefits I could get from it after my life in school.

I appreciate so much the expertise of great IMers here.

Well so much for that, just want to get an idea from the Warriors about what's the best and the most common IM used today.

I started during college and never looked back. Some ups and downs but you just need to win 51% of the time

I went into business as the result of becoming a single parent to my children, including having a daughter with autism. I have learned a tremendous amount along the way, both personally and professionally. Life is very challenging, but I truly count my blessings each day.