how long do you hold out

I think that is the problem. The more you put into something the better you get out of it.

You don't have to do just one project at once, you can work on multiple products in multiple niches. Some people have 100 sites that each average a dollar or two a day.

The answer is different for everyone. People with full time jobs don't solely rely on the online income and might do it for longer. It depends on your financial needs and commitments and other income sources.
However, all online businesses require a great deal of patience.

Have they got goals or are they just bumbling along? They need to have clearly defined goals and a plan.

Some people treat it like a hobby but if they are serious about making money or building a business they need to be testing and tweaking their sites to see if they can get results.

They could get advice on forums like this.

If it were me I would be inclined to give up on them and look for something else.

Sandy

I would say it would depend on my goals. If i do all the activities i had planned and got zero results and even after tweaking i still get nothing its time to jump ship...

Well, sometimes the strategy that's being implemented just doesn't work. If you work two years and don't have anything substantial to show for it, you either have to rethink the things you are doing or start fresh.

I would guess that your friends rely mostly on SEO traffic for their websites? If that's the case, then they're probably working against themselves, perhaps even doing the backlinking manually and thus not having enough time to work on the content itself.

My short advice would be - start focusing on the quality of the content and on continuity on the site. That means that from the moment someone reads something you wrote, then comes to your site, reads some more, opts-in to your list, receives the free report, reads your autoresponder and, finally, buys from you, each step has to seamlessly lead to the other.

Read a lot of what Alexa writes, I learned a great deal about list building from her.

I would try and concentrate my efforts on article syndication (read about it), or (not as good most of the time, because you can't have control over who you're getting onto your list), methods like solo ads and ad swaps.

I worked for one of my sites 1 year straight, 5days a week, every day at least 2-3 hours. This was sick year, I was about to throw away really...

Anyhow, it paid back. I'm now enjoying 5k+ months basically on autopilot. So definitely don't give up (especially if you feel it's profitable).

As you say, your friends have websites but only deal with stuff once a week. I was there, I had ( and I still have but I don't work anymore ) on about 10 websites at the same time. The fact is that:

* I was not able to pay enough attention to the website
* I was not able to write content on a regular basis
* I was not able to actively promote the website
* I was not able to find new ways to make money with that website.

Most success stories here are from people who invested all of their time and power into one website that made money. After that website was big enough to sustain itself, to pay writers, pay other people to care about advertising, then they can start something else, usually with a bigger potential and they can invest a small amount of time in the first website which is almost on autopilot.

I don't think I can give up too easily, that's just my character. I keep coming back to something that didn't work for me and try different ways to make it work.

For example, I might $0 online the first 2 years. In fact, I lost more than $1000 in scams and in the form of unpaid services. $1000 is a very big deal in my country, especially for a girl who just finished her schooling.

But I always kept coming back to it, finding new ways, new clients, hoping that this time would be the time when I'll finally make my money, and at a point, I did!

I didn't keep trying every day, not even every week. I even left my business for months and then came back and tried again, but the point is, I finally made it work. I find the recipe that works.

So yeah, unless it's absolutely impossible to continue on a project, I'd suggest not giving it up yet. Keep your site on (if you can afford to) and come back after some time. You'll have a new perspective and new ideas and who knows. this time might just be your lucky time and you'll probably succeed in that niche.

It all depends on what methods you're using, whether or not they make sense, the amount of time/effort you're devoting and also the niche you're in. I have a number of different niches with sites and subscriber lists that I regularly market to with different methods.

I have a friend who has a policy of chucking a site if it doesn't start making him at least Adsense money within six months. He works at it regularly with consistent strategies though, so that works for him.

Answering your question is hard for me though because I don't know what you're actually doing. A less than part time marketer will require a lot more time to see results.

I have a problem giving up on things, however, so I may not be the best person to answer this question. :-) Good luck to you!

I think the obvious answer is to find the people who are getting the exactly the type of results you want, and figure out what they're doing. Not what they say they're doing, but what they're actually doing.

Clearly you shouldn't be worried about what your friends are doing if that's not the type of result you want to get. It doesn't make their way bad, it's just not right for you. Different strokes for different folks.

Marc

I usually try to stick with something until I see results...I am very stubborn and do not like to throw the towel in early unless it is absolutely necessary....

It really does depend on your goals but that is just where you start. You also have to do some research in your chosen niche. Go to forums in your niche and see what questions people are asking over and over again and then create a product that will answer those questions and solve peoples problems. That is the product that you can sell. People are always looking for solutions to any problems they have.

it depends in every situation. lets say if you focus your time and mind in a certain project yet it doesn't earn you money at all after all the hard work, then maybe the time that you have to move on to another project.

As long as you are following a proven strategy then it's just a case of keeping going, building your site over time, and eventually it will start rewarding you. The other thing is that you need that initial traffic so that you can then start testing what works best in terms of monetisation.