How did you earn your first dollar online?

by 125 replies
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I made my first dollar online through adsense on my blog. It was about 5 years ago.

I am thinking most people got started that way. What is the story of your first dollar?
#main internet marketing discussion forum #dollar #earn #online
  • Havent made anything yet, but im starting very soon
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    • Mine was with AdSense too, but I got bored building adsense sites right quick - and it was a while before I earned any more money *laugh*.

      The next thing I did that actually earned money was VA work with some marketers and copywriters who taught me VAST SUMS of knowledge just from working with and near them-

      AMAZING OPPORTUNITY and I would HIGHLY recommend anyone with any sort of skill that is trying to make money online - network, build relationships, and see if anyone can use your help. Whether as a VA or just as a friend, volunteer yourself - and you will be amazed at the personal responses and the types of things you can learn.

      Now I am earning money with affiliate promotions and working on my third product (though it will be my first original wso release) and have a few affiliate sites up that should start earning pretty soon.

      Things are looking up GOOD LUCK!
      • [1] reply
    • @gsduds2 : Everyone starts somewhere
  • I earned my first dollar online (in fact it is first USD1000 online) by selling my first website at Flippa.
  • Amazon Associates program - actually couldn't believe it at the time!
  • Free Paypal Dropshippers

    Clickbank through the above site in 2006. Ever since I was hooked

    PS. I still believe that site is earning a bit of money, I just have no access to the clickbank account anymore... I get cheques every so often tho for $70-$100, I have a few abandoned affiliate blogs knocking around though
    • [1] reply
    • You may be able to sell those abandoned blogs / sites if they are still making you money. Have you looked at that option?
  • I made my very first dollar years ago (1998?). There was a search engine that would pay you $0.03 for every search you made. I wasn't stupid, so I quickly figured out that I could do tons of searches and make a LOT of money.

    It was going to be so easy!

    Search. Search. Search. I clicked for weeks on end, waiting for the big payday at the end of the month. Well, it never crossed my mind that what I was doing was dishonest. I naively thought that I could just keep making searches because I didn't have a clue as to where the search engine's money was coming from.

    Needless to say, while I earned the money (in my mind), I never got paid. That experience taught me to know and follow the rules about earning money online, but more importantly, it taught me that it was possible to earn money online.

    My first "real" money came from doing paid-to-click emails and websites. It took forever, but I got paid.

    Let's just say I have come a long way since then.



    All the best,
    Michael
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I earned my first online dollar by adsense and it was 150$. I was excited with my first online income.
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  • I made mine as a spammer for a certain seo company.
    • [1] reply
    • Oops -- I hope you have moved on to better things
  • I earnt mine but not finishing my website. I bought the domain and that was it for around $6. I then got contacted by someone who was intrested in the name and I sold it to them for $125. Nice ROI!!
    • [1] reply
    • WOW that doesn't happen often - you musta picked a Great domain name
  • Adsense back in the early 2000s.
  • I made mine with eBay, then Amazon. Now I use eBay/Amazon/CPA/Clickbank/Adsense.
  • First Dollar as an Amazon Affiliate in 2004.
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    • My first tiny dollar would have been Adsense, but my first real dollar was Clickbank. It was closely followed by big-ticket physical products (which really turned me around) and a writing service that I started offering.

      Then, it just kept growing in multiple directions ...
      • [1] reply
  • My first ever online earning was not even a dollar, it was about 29 cents I think, on squidoo.

    And my first proper earning was on Shareasale, then Amazon and so on.
  • How long ago did you start? Can you share some more details?
  • I earned my first through Paid to Click program. The website is still popular and running.!!
  • Mine was selling debt leads back in 2001, if we are talking website products, then it was a template that I made and was selling when templatemonster was the up and coming, that was back in 2001 also.
  • A blog with Google adwords. Never really took off but it was my first $1.00
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  • This is gonna sound weird. I was online and my wife wanted to get online to check her email. I was busy and she said, "I'll give you $10 to get yer ass up out of that chair and let me log into my email account." That's how I made my first money online.

    Just kidding. My first online money came from selling books as an Amazon affiliate. 1997.
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
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  • As my username says, TheProgrammer, I earned my first dollar through making programs by working as a freelancer about 3 years ago =D
    • [1] reply
    • I am loving the diversity in the thread. I just assumed that it would be Adsense for most! Good I asked the question.
  • Made my first dollar online through adsense, amazon associates was right on the heels of that though.
  • I made my first dollar with adsense about a year and a half ago with a site that I ranked in Google with some good old SEO. The site still makes me about $200-300 per month passively
  • I have a few bucks in my adsense account that I will probably never receive. This is from 3 years ago to current..
  • The first dolar I earned online (well really, my 100th dolar) was through Google Adsense from my old blog. You couldn't believe how exited I was when I got that first $100 check in the mail.
  • Made my first dollar through selling I ebook I wrote on how to make money from property investing. I sold a number of the ebooks on a popular private members property investing forum I was a member of.
    • [1] reply
    • Did you sell ebooks you wrote or you made affiliate commissions on ebooks that were sold by someone else?

      @travlinguy: Funny story, you were paid to get offline
      • [1] reply
  • Banned
    Made my first dollar online selling PLR products. Have not seen an easier way to get started!
  • Amazon affiliate, shortly followed by Fiverr, now working with Theme Forest

    Still far from rich, but at least I love what I'm doing
    • [1] reply
    • That is the best part of internet marketing
  • Made 1k total profits on eBay back in 2007.
    Wow time flies! Gone baby gone.
  • Created info product, adsense sites and writing content was the first attempt , but the amount made did not pass the threshold :-), so google daddy is having the $8 or so... i think by focusing on prod creation using videos your ROI is much better , esp if u r lousy in writing :-)
  • First dollar off adsense from youtube videos! but I'm not making any more money after that :/ i have yet to make $100 online :O
  • Through an affiliate review site
  • I made my first dollar by promoting a clickbank product in an article (article marketing).
  • I bought a website for around $7,500. Made 10-12 sales per month testing between $97, $147, and $197 price points for about 3 months. I sold it after that for around $7,500.
  • I was an affiliate for product that s no longer for sale. I made a bunch of posts and started getting sales right away. Of course, other things I dd were not so successful. It took quite awhile to get my first offline local client. But it paid a whole lot more.
  • I Made My First Dollar Online Selling My Own Product,Well a Product I Bought the Rights For,then After That Promoting Somebody Else's Products!
  • I made my first dollars on fiverr selling my services...it is an extremely easy way to start and virtually no investment is required. I sold about 5 gigs and made about 300 dollars in my first month
  • Very first dollar was back in '99. I promoted a book by Matt Gagnon on how to get started in marketing online. If I remember right I got a check in the mail for around $50. Was pretty awesome, wish I had of taken a picture of it or something.
    • [2] replies
    • I still have a photocopy of my first Google check on the wall in a frame.
    • Adsense about 7 years ago. Took me about 7 months to break $100 to get a check and I had about 40 sites lol
  • Hello everyone,

    I made my first dollar by the onlinebusinessalliance.com program. Actually it was $5 my first sale. But it was long time ago.

    I must say now the money is in the list.

    All the best and see you on top. Erwin.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Its surprising to me that email had so much potential in marketing and it still remains untapped.

      Do you know who coined the phrase "the money is in the list"
  • made my first $ on uvocorp back in 2008....culdnt beliv there was anythin legit in the net with all the fraud talk...got kikd out thou
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    • We made our first $18 selling a Gambling System on a web site we built at the library computer. Someone from the UK sent us a Money Order to our PO Box...
      It's been our only customer for the Gambling System but our Company Name is still xyz systems Inc (We used the corporation a few years later to sell nutritional products online which was our break through in 2003)

      I think we must have done hundreds of different projects online and offline since then. You name it, we probably have done it....lol

      Thanks for bringing back the memories ;-) lol
      • [1] reply
  • Started with Valueclick 15 years back, $2000 a month then was good + amazon, but there I choose store credit in lue of payment, so endless books arriving each month..kinda cool.

    Started early with Friendfinder. Did well with Commission Junction, particularly in the Job area.

    Microsoft also had a 20 cents per click program back then.
  • After spending $10,000 with Internet Marketing Company learning Internet marketing a few years ago I earned maybe $150 selling my own ebook. Now learning how to do things right with WF and waiting to earn my next $1.

    My traffic just 7X this week!
  • adsense here, but its not much i need to figure out new way to make money
  • First dollar was back in 1999. I used to run a java chat website when they were popular. Valueclick was the big PPC company and I earned 95 dollars that month. Best feeling in the world for a 12 year old.
  • I was marketing a mlm opportunity thats no longer around . I had never made a dime online and was getting $25 on a daily basis for a short while to my paypal... I thought that was the best thing since sliced bread... I have went on to sell my own products such as ebooks, I get checks from clickbank and amazon every once in a while... I've made good money doing adsense in the past when they had the refferal program and gave you $1 for every firefox download... I now focus on building my email list in my niche.... All those e-books I read when I was a newbie was right, money is in the list!
  • first dollar?hmm...i think it is from a gig at fiverr.
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    • From Ebay! selling Edward Cullen mousepad!
  • From WSO I earned my first dollar
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  • I made my first dollar by freelancing and reselling fiverr gigs.
  • I created a rap instrumental and a rapper, that I found on the internet paid me 80 bucks for it.
    Later, I invested 1300 bucks in releasing a house music album and then I made 130 bucks from selling it online
    A year and a half ago I started selling automotive spareparts and motor oils online and this is what I keep doing today.
  • I am yet to make a dollar. Nice to see from the above that it is possible, though.
    • [1] reply
    • Exactly the idea. I think this page will serve a motivation for everyone who is just getting started or is on the fence.

      What excites me the most is the different approaches people have taken to earn their first dollar online. From adsense, to fiver to selling albums

      First dollar is important. It shows that it can be done. Thanks to everyone who shared their stories.
  • I actually made my first money online through fiverr. after that I learned that making money online was more than a dream, it was a reality
  • my 1st $ is when i still young.i got it when i join ptc site.
  • I made my first dollar with ShareCash a few years back...
    I found a thread on a forum about how to make money with ShareCash and I implemented the method and that's how I got started
  • It was back in 2000... I was selling "virtual" items on eBay from the game Ultima Online.
    Sold an in-game castle for more than $1,000
  • In 2009 I sold direct ads for a site developed for local attractions. Can't believe its been three years since then honestly.
  • I placed a couple of asense units onto my first site and got a few clicks worth $1 on the first day.
    • [1] reply
    • i love it how easy adsense makes it for people to get started
  • Made mine on selling SEO service to a local Company, the money is good but then client want more than just getting his site on the 1st page, he wanted to actually stay there forever without paying monthly fee...LOL. My mistake for not giving a detailed rules of game.
    • [1] reply
    • Lol... Hope the client now knows better!
  • Learned SEO skills and instead of joining the sea of self-proclaimed SEO experts out there, hired a team to develop a software that will help customers with their SEO

    Major dollars when you differentiate yourself and take control of your business
  • I earned my online first dollar by helping a friend with their website many years ago. She sent me a few dollars via PayPal. I earned my first dollar from a brick and mortar store front 14 years ago from having a sign business. I still have that dollar framed in my office
  • Amazon commission on a bicycle sale.
  • First dollar I made was from PayPal confirming my bank account!
    • [1] reply
    • Don't they take that money back? They did me! :rolleyes:
  • First dollar from Google Adsense. Although starting to think that it just makes a website look uglier than if I chose other forms of advertising.
  • My first dollar was made long, long ago on some survey site. Pretty sure it was Cash Crate. The flood of emails, letters, and calls from advertisers who used the information I submitted wasn't worth it though.

    My first real money made online was on Fiverr offering article writing services. I actually wrote the articles myself and made about $2/hour.

    I still have gigs on Fiverr but they take only about 10 - 15 minutes now.
  • I entered a contest to win an iPad by trying to be the one to make the most sales for a certain CPA tool. All I did was create a video, posted it on you tube, and created a little WP website with the same video embedded on it. On both sites it had a link to my affiliate link. Not only did I make my first dollar but I made my first 5 sales and I didn't really try hard.

    Unfortunately I didn't win the iPad but these 5 sales may as well have been hitting the lottery! I've been hooked ever since!
  • First dollar from Amazon Associates Program, built a site with XsitePro 2 software, and learned everything from a complete course by Mark Ling, now called Affiloblueprint.
  • $1.79 Trial of a product from clickbank, was epic, never gone so mad over such a small amount of money in my life!!!
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  • It was just under 2 years ago, from Clickbank, through my blog :-)
    • [1] reply
    • I got my first dollar (actually $200+) by selling in-game gold & items in a MMORPG called Ragnarok Online back in 2004 when I was a kid

      My first dollar from something more related to IM was from Clixsense.
  • Selling an Xbox on eBay in 2008
    • [1] reply
  • My first dollars online where from online auction sites eBay, Amazon and even Yahoo all had viable auction sites back then. I was a graduate student back then (1997) so it was really neat to be able to generate 15k a year while I was a full time student.
  • Writing, writing, and more writing.

    That's how I made dollar two and three, as well.

    Rose
  • I made $25 from cj.com in 2006. I Generated leads for an advertiser and got paid. That was my first online $ and also my first earning in my life ever.
  • My very first dollar was from adsense arbitrage. I used to buy cheap ppc traffic from a lesser known company and then send it to a super ugly adsense page with a high click value. I actually made quite a bit of money doing this. This is definitely not something to try nowadays though. Plus, it's against Google's TOS.
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  • My first online dollar or pound for where i am, was made on qxl.com. That site is no longer around, but was basically an auction site like ebay.
  • I did a few videos based around a niche i knew about, stuck a hook video on Youtube with a link below, people paid and still do to this day $9.97 i think it is to download the information videos, it worked straight away, over time i made the initial Youtube video better and that one single income stream brings in around $600 per month, we now have many more ways that are far more profitable but that was the first as far as i can remember and we just let it run.

    All the best
    Steven
  • Well not a dollar, but a pound - on eBay.
  • eBay. Got tired of the customer service...
  • Adultfriendfinder was where I got my first few dollars from. Will never forget the exhilaration I felt as well.
  • I made my first $ with Adsense. The first real money I made was by selling my own product.
  • I made my first dollar selling an opportunity through my blog.
  • When I started making money online I tried PTC sites (a complete waste of time) and I earned a few dollars with them. Then I tried GPT sites and now I am lookingmforwrd to something else..
    • [1] reply
    • What are PTC sites and GPT? Pay to click?
      • [1] reply
  • I got my first pay online is $100 in the year 2009 through completing daily 4 hrs work. (virtual assistance task).
  • I have made a sale with an affiliate program.
  • If I remember correctly, the first dollar I ever earned online was from PPC (Adwords). It wasn't until later that I started writing. Guess which one I liked better!
  • As far as I can remember, I earned my first dollar with Adsense. But at around the same time I sold a domain name for a profit. But, when I think about it, I believe I did have Adsense on that site. So, it would have to be Adsense.
  • I made my first $1 (or $24.95 actually) online setting up a site selling an old public domain physical culture course that I took and repackaged (after buying a Public Domain course from Matt Furey et. al.)

    The site is still up, six years later, and still trickling in with sales here and there without any paid traffic: The Amazing Maxick

    The design leaves a lot to desire though, but I have to say that for the first time writing copy and not having any training apart from reading Matt Fureys copy, it's not half bad...! <== *shameless self-promotion*
  • By spending $2 on PPC
  • To be honest... I really can't remember when or how I made my first dollar online. It was a number of years ago. I kind of feel 'sad' that I can't remember... as so many marketers know exactly when they did earn their first dollar.
  • I got my first $200 writing on Textbroker at level 4. From there, a couple of clients I wrote for asked if I could write directly for them (payments direct to paypal instead of through Textbroker system). I was making $60 a day working 8 hours, 7 days a week. From there, grew through referrals until I finally landed an order for 2,000+ articles. Now I'm tired of writing for others and looking to start a PLR subscription service.
  • This was awesome to see all the different things people did to earn their first $1.
    I made mine through clickbank, now have income coming from adsense, amazon, clickbank, and flippa. Amazing how far you can go with just a little effort and the strive for knowledge
  • First payment Thru Fiverr Of 100$
    Awesome Feeling
    10 Months Back
    • [1] reply
  • made my first dollar on fiverr by selling a gig..
    it took almost a year as i was struggling with internet marketing
  • Adsense then through Fiverr which keeps on going up and up
  • I made my first dollar online years ago with a now-defunct online mlm called 'smartmall'. It was very easy to promote my site online and I was surprised at how well I was doing.
  • Started making some money on eBay years ago but ran out of things to sell... lol

    Moved into IM a few years ago and still trying to make any sort of decent return.

    I did though buy a domain that had just dropped. It was a good premium . com and i had plans on putting wordpress on it and ranking it on Google but that never came to anything.
    Lucky for me, I received an email from some guy who traded domains and he was looking mine for a clients site. He offered me $500 for it (which i accepted lol ) so all in all, that was really good ROI. It only happened that one time but still :-)
  • I earned my first dollar online in December 2006, I was a script developer (programmer) on Second Life, a 3D virtual universe. I was 16 and made a couple thousand in four months. I didn't made more because I was not really serious about the business.
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  • I was a house painter. So I built a website for my business, and really enjoyed doing it. Next thing I knew I was ranking number one locally and organic in my large city because I took the effort to learn the basics of SEO.

    I started getting so many requests for estimates that I didn't have time to give them all so I started selling them.

    I no longer paint. I earn money from my websites and maintaining other company's websites now

    Life is good!
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  • When I was still in middle school I was selling hacks for MMORPGs on eBay. I would get the hacks for free online and then sell them for 100% profit on eBay, while providing my support with running the programs as well.

    I was making about $80/week from this which was damn good for some kid! My dad and uncle thought it was genius but unfortunately my mom thought otherwise and forced me to quit it. Oh well - it's been on to bigger and better things ever since
  • Mine was my own Clickbank Product, 33 dollars for my first sales.
  • PTC sites( I know,not proud of it.) But since then I moved on to the PPD industry.

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