Are People REALLY Getting Money With IM?

Disclaimer: I'm not relating these events with the intention of selling or promoting anything, as I have nothing to sell.

Since I've joined this forum, I've seen people ask a question similar to the one posed in the title. Of course most people would answer yes, but they'd reference what someone else is doing as proof. So I'm gonna tell you why I know there's money to be made in IM.

Around late 2009-early 2010, I'd hit rock bottom financially after I'd mismanaged money I made in a different business. I had literally $2 in the bank, my car had just gotten repossessed and a lot more crazy things. Fortunately, the rent in my apartment was paid up for the remainder of my lease. I even began working odd jobs to earn money for my expenses. I'd been down before, but never to this degree. It really began to bother me, almost to the point of depression. With nothing else to do, I started blogging about things that I felt strongly about. To me, blogging was a way to let loose...a way to express myself. By the way, Blogger and Wordpress.com were my hosts. I'd developed a pretty loyal following in a short amount of time. I'd refer certain books and other products and people would go out and buy them. Then one day, I received an email from someone who read my content. This person advised me that I could make money off the products I referred. I didn't know anything about that. He was referring to the Amazon affiliate program. Needless to say, I took his advice and began to continue to refer people to products I liked. I didn't think of it as me being an affiliate, I just thought of it as...why not receive a referral fee since they're buying off of my recommendation?

After learning of the possibilities of making money online, I setup a self-hosted blog through the Wordpress platform and used my other free hosted blogs to link to my self-hosted site. I setup a steady stream of income through the Amazon affiliate program, a few Clickbank products, my own self-created products on matters I had experience in and an affiliate network setup by a friend of mine. After a few short months, I was earning a little over $2,000 a month. Not a great deal of money, but its good for someone who started with $2 in the bank. The money I was making allowed me to buy another car w/ cash, get ahead on my expenses and even buy a few luxuries. Most of all, it allowed me to save enough money to get started in my current business.

Although I was desperate when I started started blogging, I wasn't doing it to make money until I got a taste of the Amazon affiliate program. I didn't know anything about IM coming into this. All I'd heard about IM was that people were making millions overnight, and since I'd been involved in other businesses of my own, I knew better than to buy into that. I was just blogging as a way to vent and monetized my readers over time. I also saw my writings as me trying to help others through my own experience. Of course when the money did come, I had to first experiment with different methods of monetizing traffic until I found a system that worked. It wasn't a straight shot at all.

I said all of that to say this: There's money to be made. But what are you going to do? Are you going to be one of those people who read a get rich quick manual and get in the game based on what they told you? You know what I mean, one of those people who want it all at once. Or, are you going to be one of those people who put in the necessary work (both working on your business and constantly learning) and are fine w/ moderate growth? The way you answer that question makes a big difference as to whether you make money in any endeavor you undertake.