How did you make your first Penny+ Online...

[Todd Walker]

Hey,

I was just wondering: Think way back, how and where did you make your first penny online...

I made my first $.75 through a Paid to Click website, it took me an hour to make, and they were three weeks late on payment, I was so pissed off

What about you

[schabotte]

I made my first money online selling a few things around the house on eBay. That was way back in 1996 if I remember correctly. I then went on to building websites, custom programming and lots more direct sales via ebay and personal websites.

It has been and continues to be a fun ride!

[Mickey Janzen]

Ummm, dare I say it ............

Safelist referrals, $10.

[Johnny Slater]

The first money I made online was in 1997. I ran a website that sold a poetry anthology I put together from submissions to a poetry ezine I was running at the time.

[bethparker]

Well, a long, long time ago there was a website for writers called Themestream. Themestream started out paying 10 cents per click for every visit you got to your articles.

It didn't take long for someone to figure out that you could buy PPC ads for a few cents and make money on the traffic. So that's what I did. I had about 100 articles going and managed to make about $6000 before Themestream went out of business.

[Anup Mahajan]

I started a blog about investing in stock IPOs that I used to update daily. Took few months to earn my first $100 from Adsense.

It was hard work but I absolutely loved it.

Cheers,
Anup

[Darrell Hagan]

Well, if BBSs (circa 1990 or so) count as online, then I made my first pennies by selling a DOS based BBS door program that I wrote. Jeez, thought I had my niche and then the Internet came along and screwed everything up .


- Darrell

[Bishop81]

My first $ was from PTC, and I got paid into e-gold, where I participated in HYIPs, until I realized what they were and that I never really had a chance with them.

Anyway, I eventually built up enough $ through PTC to purchase Steve Wagenheim's Honest Income Program, thorugh which I learned about Associated Content. I really didn't use any other part of his program, but it helped me learn that there really was a way to earn money online. After submitting a few articles to AC and proving that you could earn money online, I stumbled across this lovely forum and learned so much more.

Since then, my main $ has been from small website flips, and the majority of my earnings have been from freelance programming. Some $ from Adsense, affiliates, etc... but nothing major.

I started out with my freelance programming here, and at DP, providing free and very low cost help to people who were needing help.

With the way that I started, though, I have NEVER spent any of my hard-earned offline money on anything to earn money online.

[Todd Walker]

Haha... some nice starts here, i see mainly those PTC, but thank god I did them because I would never be where I am today

[Dana_W]

Adsense site. It took a few months to get things running smoothly there, but getting that first adsense check in the mail was awesome.

I don't recommend adsense as the best way to make a living, by the way. A lot of effort for not a huge amount of return.

[Jose Delgado]

2 years ago (or is it 3?)...

Sold a belt for $3 on eBay.


Off Topic: How did the challenge go?

[Dan C. Rinnert]

My first $ online was either from shareware or an online service that I ran, which gave people eMail on the Internet, which was new to most people back then. LOL!

[kennytan]

I still remembered I made my first buck online is by promoting a web hosting services and very happy when i received my first check.

Offering services would be a good choice for making your first buck online.

[sephora]

I made my first money by selling stuff on Ebay. Then I started to import electronics from china which was really profitable and easy.

[stsnelson]

I made $17 in March of 2003, selling an ebook that I put together. It happened so fast that I was shocked. After that, I was addicted to marketing online.

[Michael Mason]

Um....I actually made my first money through PPC. I had just started out with IM and didn't know what I was doing. I got a sale for $20.....too bad I wasted $90 in adspend.

After that, I have been sticking to web design and SEO, and article marketing. Free techniques have been working for me and I don't have to worry about losing more money.

[cullenpowell]

I got my first start selling shell accounts and hosting almost a decade ago. 2nd time in 2 days that's come up ahh the memories

[SpeedDemon]

Yeah, I started out with PTC programs too. Then I found a site that paid $15 per article (now defunct), which made me wonder how these people were making money off the articles. Did a little research and discovered Adsense and IM from there.

[TimS]

I bought a freeware related website in 1997 and put up some banner advertising. From there I graduated to pay per lead and the cookie cutter marketing system.

Things sure do change over time

[SethDaley]

Affiliate Marketing... In 2005 I sold Mike Dillard's magnetic sponsoring book (awesome book) and earned a $20 commission...

It was the best feeling ever!

Dillard - if you're reading this... THANKS!

[bauger]

Ya I made my first money on a PPC site. It was easy at the time but I figured out it was better to do something worth my time.

Bruno

[Ryan L]

I began internet marketing in a humorous way...

One of my close friends plays World of Warcraft, habitually. He kept talking about it and talking about it...One thing he said stuck with me though...He mentioned that people would pay hundreds of dollars to buy a pre-played character!

"My god" I thought...Then, a young Ryan went to eBay...and hired his Warcraft addicted friend to be his translator...I used him to find a really 'good' character for sale.

We found a severely undervalued account--which I ended up buying for about $100...I reformatted the advertisement and made the character sound really cool...I ended up selling the character for $250 a few days later...I couldn't believe it! lol...

Too bad I wasn't a warrior...What a WSO that would have been, haha!

Needless to say...I have moved on to sell more...hmmm...commendable things?

[Albert Steven]

online survey, get $10 via paypal...

[Barry Plaskow]

I am a late bloomer-I have just made my 1st penny making the "Marketing-Masters" series

[SpicyRobby]

I made my first pennies from an affiliate website about belly button jewelry - and it's still up and running at http://www.belly-button-rings-guide.com/ It was some two years ago or more - and was happy as a child when I saw the first commission!

The funny thing is that the first commission I got was actually from the sale I made for my wife - I only realised it a few days later....:-)

[Kelvin Brown]

Like Darrell, it was back in the days of the old BBS boards. circa '85, selling $5 reports.

kelvin

[jbrown3]

My first eBay auction way back in the day...

[Diana Lane]

Writing for a consumer opinion site in around 1997, I think. Even though I'd made a couple of hundred quid by the time I was done (over the course of months - we're not talking overnight wealth and beer for man and dog here!), the money wasn't the main attraction at the time. I just enjoyed writing. Having convinced myself that my ambition was for my words to appear in an ordinary off-line magazine, the minute I achieved it I lost interest.

Thankfully, I love what I do now enough to spend my days doing it over and over, and could probably do it in my sleep. Which is just as well, because if I don't get my butt out of this forum and do some actual work now, it's what I'll be doing later.

What kind of person would spring a jazzy new forum with loads of new features to play with on people with work to do and bread to put on the table? Some people have no consideration...

[jensrsa]

It was either some wildlife hides for about $150 to someone in the US (I didn't know anything about US import regulations and I had to refund him because the shipment was confiscated by Fish & Wildlife for lack of permits LOL) or a verdite lion carving in 1998.

Jens

[nRehman]

Like most of the people, I also earn my first penny through paid to click website..

[Cherilyn Woodhouse]

My very first pennies were Adsense pennies that I never did get... But it was such a motivator that I kept with it. I created a membership site (back before they were cool LOL) that was essentially a paid newsletter offering up resale rights packages, so I could utilize the stuff laying around on my hard drive. I charged $5/month. Made a cool $280 the first month, and it dwindled from there. Some of you might remember it, most of my members were warriors.

I still love the membership model, for that reason alone... With a little upfront work and 2-3 hours per month I was keeping a lot of those members. Unfortunately 6 months later is when the term "attrition rate" really found its meaning, because all my members had left.

I still remember making my first sale from that, though. Was a beautiful day.

- Cheryl

[kfount]

Originally Posted by Todd Walker

Hey,

I was just wondering: Think way back, how and where did you make your first penny online...

I made my first $.75 through a Paid to Click website, it took me an hour to make, and they were three weeks late on payment, I was so pissed off

What about you

My first payment was .80 from a paid survey/paid email affiliate program. I was so happy!

[princejerome2002]

I made my first dollars online with a warriorforum wso for a resell rights book I had written about making money from your hobbies. made about 4 sales and $8 profit. As you can tell, my sales page sucked.

[Hammerjam]

I may be dating myself with this....but......

I made my first online cash back in 1983, when I sold subscriptions via Compuserve to a newsletter on the use of Personal Computers in the Composition and performance of music.

And the way I did it also made me among the first spammers!

[Ray Erdmann]

Made my first sale (I think it was like $50+ dollars!) via forum posting last year, where a link in my sig pointed to my aff. link for Dan Lok's "Instant Cash Copy" software...When I logged into my CB account to update some info, I saw a sale...and then I was like 'damn...forum posting w/a sig sure does work!'....Now if I can just keep the momentum flowing on a consistent basis, things will be 'all good'..

[Texas_Guns]

I made my first $$ online selling items on eBay.

Once I saw that money come in... I realized the power
of making money on the Internet and haven't looked
back since.

[Steven Fullman]

Flipping TV-on-PC websites at another IM-based website.

I made ~$1000 in a week. It made me think...

Nice thread, very inspirational for those who are yet to make a penny.

Steve

[Tom Duong]

I made my first sale on eBay selling satellite equipments back in 2005. I was doing this every other day on a part-time basis while holding a 9 to 5 job and attending night school. Those days were tough! But you know what they say...

"when the going gets tough - the tough gets going"

Tom

[macchiavelli]

The first $30 bucks I ever made online was via myspace marketing which was unheard of at the time(2005).
I just tried something out and it worked....I posted a bulletin to all my friends saying that they could all lose weight with this ebook, and out of 150 friends, 1 purchased

That was my first commission ever and it got me so excited!

[tamtu]

Hey,

The first money I made was $10 doing a survey.

[lelaiskandar]

My first one was via adsense. A 3cent click.

Small, but that small change open up a new world to me.

[Shannon Herod]

The first money I made was a commision check from the great Allen Says. It was a Host 4 Profit check. I believe it was $40.


Shannon

[SimonHarrison]

Many years, ago I ran a Boxing website which I started with essentially no understanding of the Internet. It became the second biggest Boxing News site on the net with contributors from all over the world providing live and post fight pictures and news, I made money via advertising on the site, I think my first ever check was a monthly advertising fee of about $250, a few years later I then sold it for over six figures to a media corporation who took the writers, content and audience to PPV model. This was many years ago now.

[Michael T.]

The first money I made online was a commission for a clickbank product I was promoting.$24.50 btw.

[Faisal Anwar]

The first time I earned online was through adsense, getting a $0.05 click and I was so damn happy! hahaha

[markaustin]

I started back in 97 selling stuff on eBay ... had a little bit of success. Then my friends asked me to sell some of their stuff on eBay. That grew into other things such as website building, info product creation, ppc, article marketing, CPA, etc.

I have to say it has been a fun journey!

Mark

[Danyelle]

I sold my used textbooks on 1/2.com does that count?
If it doesn't, adsense says i have 2 bucks and change

[zenmagic]

I don't know if anyone mention this before but I actually make my first money through online surveys. I think I've got around $15 at that time. I'm still doing it though because it's kinda fun. But surely it won't make you rich online if you just filling out surveys every day :-)

[derekwong28]

Unsolicited e-mail selling CompactFlash and SmartMedia Cards.

[LivingCovers]

I remember way back in 2004 promoting a music company i found at clickbank using google adwords. I didn't know anything about keyword research then that i now know today but i managed to sell to two customers. I made $28 in commission within 2 months. Initially, i was so excited but when the results did come forth after a period of time and was running low on cash, i gave up altogether.

Now, i've noted my mistakes and i'm making a big comeback.