Did you manage to quit your job and work IM fulltime?

Yes I now work for myself, I make my money with adsense. I wont say exactly how much I make but I will say one month of revenue is equal to 5 months of regular income if I was to work at a regular job, which would be a full time programmer. Right now though my goal is to try to make 1k to 2k of additional income using a different avenue of revenue stream because it scares me that all my money is being made by just one revenue source.

I think the reason I was successful in IM was because I never got a job in the first place.

9 months before graduation from college, I told myself I was going to succeed at this. And if I didn't I wouldn't have a plan B. I'd end up homeless since my folks don't live here in the US.

I think this "gun to the head" mentality was what was responsible for my success.

My main goal in life was to never work a 9-5 job. With these kinds of results I never will...

Was able to do it last summer!

How exactly do people make money with adsense?? I run it on my site and made around £400 a month from it, but how are people earning huge money from it?

Yes indeedy. I gave myself the succeed or starve mentality.

Well, my belly is full now

Haha, yeah, balls to the wall is recipe for success... or death.

But those who didn't make it are not here to talk about it :p

I've worked a few jobs here and there, mostly for the different experience - but I've run my own business full-time since I was 16 (I'm 33 now). And I started out back when the internet was looked at as just a curiosity - so you can imagine how different it was to sell online back then!

I do have this advice for people who are looking to quit their jobs as cubicle dwellers or wage slaves --

- Stop chasing method after method. Find something you're truly skilled at and stick with it. It's fine to change and evolve that method over time, but focus on one to start with.

-Don't just be a "marketer". Be a specialist. Become known as the go-to person for a certain niche. You could be the guru of maximizing Yahoo Answers for traffic, or the Amazon niche store master. As these services grow and change, you'll have to adapt (or starve!), but there's no reason you couldn't evolve, from say, Yahoo Answers to Quora, or Amazon niche stores to Etsy niche stores...You'll have already built the groundwork for your expertise and authority.

- Start small. It's great to earn $100 a day starting out, but devoting all your time to a lofty goal like that will make you feel disillusioned and frustrated. What about $50 or $25 a day starting out? Work your way up to $100 in 3 months. Set larger and larger goals for yourself, then figure out what you need to do to reach them.

- Stretch your comfort zone. Having a 9 to 5 job does give you great security and probably pays good insurance and some people are stuck to that way of life forever. Give yourself a few months of "cushion" money for uncertain times, but don't be afraid to strike out on your own and be bold!

Absolutely...well sort of...I've never actually HAD a real job...I've only ever done IM.

Yes I am full time online. Part time from 2002-2006. Full time 2006 to present. The key for me has been developing multiple streams of income so if one goes down I do not miss it as much as if I had all of my Internet eggs in one income basket.

I did it few years ago. Life is great

I got laid off and have been trying to earn money online and offline, full-time. I may have to go back and look for a full-time work again, though. I've not had enough success through my own business, yet.

Yes, January 2nd 2012. I had a couple of horrible jobs and went full time for myself.

Yeah i have, but i dont want to stop working. Computer networking is fun to me, and of course, the pay is great. I dont mind 2 incomes from me only in my household.

These type of topics pop up every other day - just saying : )

Yep, going on 1 year right now. :-)

I just want to echo what a few posters said. Plan B's will always undermine your plan A. Forget plan B. Security is a kind of death. Challenge yourself, shock yourself, scare the crap out of yourself. This will bring your capacities to the climax.

5 years ago.

I quit my job before I could live off my business, so I HAD to make it

The IM biz is an up and down affair. With that said, I've been self-employed since 2002.

yes, 8th month since resigned and have seen more than 300% rise in my net income.

Would any of you ever like to go back into working for an organisation. Remember those stress free days of leaving at 5pm and forgetting all about your work, whilst also enjoying flirting with hot chicks in the office !

As a follow-up question, how long did it take you to earn enough to live off?

I think its not that hard to start making some nice income online that is enough to quit the 9-5 job.

There are many paths to success, find yours and it applies to internet marketing as well. Once you find something that is working for you online, stick to it and don't deviate. just keep scaling and before you know it, you can afford to quit your job!

I have been working full time in IM for the last 4 years. It's great and I enjoy the freedom that comes with it.

Yes i did, because i had trouble with the timetable. I made a choice, and I think I am good with it. With lot of hard work though, look at me now, I am my own boss. Quit my job for some reasons also. first is my boss is very hard to deal with, second, co workers try to pull each other down. that sucks.

Not sure about 'quitting' exactly. I still have a job of work.

The only difference is now I actually enjoy what I do and will
gladly spend 20hrs a day at it.

I stopped working for other people and being a 'slave' as it were
over 15 years ago and have earned a living via IM and coding
work for all that time.

Best thing I ever did.

Take care

Steve

I have been working full time on the internet since I was laid off at my last web design company job in 1998. The first jobs I did were freelance web development, then branched off into informational products in 1999. Had to do both for a couple of years.

I write full time nowadays so not sitting back and waiting for the money to come rolling in for me. Although I enjoy what I do and I love the freedom. However now I am sitting up at 5am to meet deadlines In the future however I wish to write more for myself than for other people and thus set up a new revenue stream. In fact, I am well on the way there with everything I need sorted, just need to implement it!