How far into IM did you quit your job?

Hey good for you mate. I envy you. Thats also what I'm aiming to do. Is what you are earning now on IM enough to replace your full time income?

Thats what I would use as a benchmark before I resign.

I am 19, I have never had a job for more than 6 months and IM is earning me 6 figures a year. I would say that it is treating me pretty well .

Wow Harry

you are doing really well to be making that kind of money at a young age.

I wish I was doing that well when I was 19

not exactly my full time job but back in may i got a job at mcdonalds to help pay for gas and hosting and aweber and stuff and I just recently quit to go full time (again) online haha.

my plan is to use IM to generate an income in college..rather than getting a job in college

And sorry to jump of subject but..

@harry..you should join our teen marketers mastermind group. PM me if your interested haha

I can't quit my job - Its illegal to quit secondary school :-)

Hopefully this year, I will manage to hit 6 figures in UK pound.

Looks like I am on track, but is all dependant on sales etc and adsense.

I quit my job before I started working on my IM career. Well, I didn't actually quit, I wanted too, but my boss asked me to consider and take unpaid leave. I just started my third year for that, and after that still have 3 years to go. Won't be going back, but having the possibility for now does well for my peace of mind

Leslie

I actually really like my "day job," so I'm not looking to quit it. But it's just nice to know I could quit if I needed to. Provides a great deal of peace of mind (and added income too).

But I'd say it took me about 3 years of sporadic, part-time IM work before I was making enough to live on.

As soon as I started making as much as I was making with my job + at that time I had savings to last me for 4-5 months; and during the first month that I went full time, I made very little money - it was probably some glitch in the Universe, but scared me to death .. and after that it went pretty smooth with small ups and downs and then the other big dip in my income came with the recession...

It took me a few years. I started in about '04 when I was doing a few projects online for fun that started to turn a small profit, then I realized I could make money online... so I started trying. About two years later I was able to leave my job (read: got laid off) and haven't looked back since.

My jobs have left me, 3 times in the past 3 years, I didn't leave them. That's why I got into IM in the first place, to have an alternative income stream.

Basically I consider a job an important income stream, mainly because when I do have a job (or long term contract position) the pay and benefits are quite good. Having a job makes the difference between being on a very tight budget versus having the money to do things I want to do, to achieve my financial goals, to reinvest in my online business ventures. On top of that, I do actually enjoy working in my profession as long as the people I work with aren't a-holes. Having a good additional income stream does give you a sense of freedom where you can tell them to "take this job and shove it" if they do turn out to be a-holes.

Of course, I'm older, I have a family and a mortgage which factors into this. If I was a young single guy living in an inexpensive apartment I'd be doing pretty well on my IM income as compared to what I actually earned on jobs back when I was in my 20's (when adjusted for inflation).

To replace the job income/benefits income stream permanently, my own goal is to (1) Have a liquid emergency fund of at least 6 months job income including healthcare benefits, (2) have enough free capital to invest in another substantial ($5000/month+) income producing stream outside of IM (3) Be earning 1.5 to 2 times my current average salary in IM earnings for at least 6 months.

I was one of the lucky ones who had made great connections very early in my IM career that really helped me and started making about 2k after a few months. I quit my job as soon as i reached that. However, i would not suggest people quit their jobs that quickly because like i said i was somewhat lucky.

I earn only slightly more online than offline, just under twice the ammount, but work 1-2 hours a day compared to 8-10 that I previously did however I was a self employed carpenter/joiner which is something I could easy get back into in under a week, for that reason Im flexible.

I think when you can afford too leave work do it, after all you can build more on your online biz if you have more time to invest in it, plus if it goes belly up and doesnt work out you can just always go back to work

I haven't worked for anyone but myself for over 20 years. So take this advice to the bank: Develop your own product or service, and you'll be able to quit your job a lot quicker. Having your own product to sell is a game changer.

David Jackson

Glad to see a lot of you have gone in the deep end and left your jobs, I dont like making other people money 9-5!

You have to set yourself a price and stick to it, if your price is too low you will see less sales as you look cheap and crap!

I started IM back in 97-98, while working at a Radio Shack. That was the last job I had. I've never had a 'real job', only minimum wage crap to pay the bills.

For me, it took me 4-5 years to get to that point. It was a long way but it was all worth it for me.

I know others that it took them the same amount of time.

All I can say is:

Never give up. This will work for you too.

Tal

Guys your stories are really inspiring - I quit my job about 2 years back making a lot more online then I used to.

I went full time on May 1, 2010, after being involved in IM for 14 months. I did it part time while working a full-time job during those 14 months until I reached a point where I was actually losing money by working the job. That's when I knew it was time to take the leap of faith. And I am so glad I did!

In just two weeks, I am moving my family to a 280-shared-acres farm in rural Wisconsin. This has been a dream of ours for quite some time and now we are making it happen!

Don't lose faith - you can DO IT!

from the time I actually bought my first website to the time when it went full time it was five years. But if I had to say how long it took me when I was actually working on turning it into a business... it took about a year.

Once I quit looking at the business as a hobby and started to treat it like a business it started to gain momentum fairly quickly.

Talk soon,

Shannon Herod

When you feel you have a stable income (multiple incomes) and you are sure that your steam won't be cut off by something, you are good to go.

Congradulations to everyone who is making an online living, doing what they love.

I earned $3,000 USD in my first month and never looked back, that was October 2007.
I am still with the same business model that I used back then, it has just changed a lot in the past 3 years. Love IM...

never had a job...and never will, still in Uni and then straight into IM full time!

My principle is, when you make constantly $10k per month for atleast 6 months & you have a savings for a year to survive without any work, then you are welcome to full time Internet Marketing.

still in the job

It took me two years to quit the job. I do not make a fortune, but with my writing as well, I make enough to live how I want to live. I have some plans to ramp thing up this year though.

I'm new this in industry and I want to enhance my knowledge inn doing the IM thing. Of course everyone like to succeed, but I'm sure proper strategy and diligence is the best thing to do. Maybe I'll just quit if I don't earned money.

I'm 16 and I've never had a job .

This will be my first six figure year

I think that people considering quitting their job should do it as soon as they have an ASSET thats guaranteed to earn $2-3k/mo.

The poor performance of my stocks the last few years has forced me out of retirement. I should have seen the crash coming and invested in gold and silver.

I'm marketing on the net because it's fun, engages my mind, and allows me to work anywhere.