What made you get started?

I got involved with winning free stuff online several years ago, and it kind of grew from there. Now I mostly write for money, and am getting into product creation and things like that.

Michael

It was almost by accident that I decided to venture into internet marketing. It is only when I found this forum that I started seriously thinking about making money online. Before that I blogged as a hobby blogging about history and natural remedies.

I was studying towards a degree in Nutrition but knew all along I didn't want to practice but loved writing instead. After wracking my brain for months as to how to actually make a living doing it I came across an IM opportunity and since it has all clicked.

I truly believe that once you have IM skills you can pretty much go into any niche you want. I now write and am also starting out with product creation in IM and will be doing the same within the field of nutrition.

I stumbled across Ed Dale's 30 day challenge and was hooked when I found out more about it. The thought of earning money while using my computer was exciting. I took the challenge and did earn my first dollar during that course. The biggest problem I came across was the fact there are so many ways to earn money and it's easy to go from one method to another. The trick is to focus on one aspect and stick with it until you get some traction.

I got fed up of not having enough time in my life to do what I love. I then turned to the Internet and started looking for a good system (with zero experience under my belt). I found one and just got started.

I started marketing on Google Adwords (PPC) - which I don't recommend new people start with even though I did.

I started getting results quickly because I was paying for the ads.

I guess you could have called my 'Ignorance on Fire'.

Oh wow. I love this question. It really makes you nail down your reasons. For me it was a kind of desperation mixed with a general disenfranchisement with society and my role in it.

I always felt there was more to life. My ability to look for more manifested in many different guises and the one I finally came to love and see long term value in was internet marketing. I recently made the leap to full time, got a mentor and started taking it really seriously.

I am now happier than I have ever been and am looking to be free of societies economic constraints by 2014.

I have been blogging regularly over the past two months about this massive change of direction. It has been inspiring. Both working with a top class mentor and learning so much about real life in IM.

Feel free to check out the blog and say hi.

Entreprenuership for me started at an early age, maybe 10 or so. After the Army I got into marketing online because of the ridiculously low cost to start a website and the ease of getting traffic vs a brick & mortar.

Explosion of MLM company (Goldquest or something) in our country.

I first started with some networking travel agent company, then adsense, then now my own products.

I first started making money online with a social
network called Peoplestring. Essentially they paid
you a share of ad revenue just for using the site.

I was drawn to internet marketing as I noticed a
sudden shift of the industry about a dozen years
ago. I've been a part of network marketing since
the turn of the century, but got fed up with all
the pedestrian (mundane) ways of generating
leads back then.

The advent of the internet has really allowed
many of us (IM) to leverage our time. So, that's
one reason why I was drawn to it.

But ultimately my reason was simple:

I DON'T PLAN TO WORK FOR ANYONE FOREVER!

Started online for one thing; to write and learn "How to" get published.

That led to opening "Pandora's Box" whereby, I became fascinated with the low costs of operating a web based business. That led to needing to learn; some web design, marketing strategies, SEO, article marketing, article syndication, product creation, sales funnels, PPC, CPV, Affiliate Marketing, email marketing, etc...

The funny part being, I spent far less time 'actually' writing, and most of the time learning the 'tech stuff and marketing strategies' for the better part of 5 years.

At the end of the day, the internet is hands down the most challenging and rewarding business I have owned to date. I'm not making as much money (yet) as my offline businesses produced, but the ability to keep getting paid residual earnings, and continue to earn revenue from things I completed a year ago... makes it 110% worth the time invested!

Next step... Product Creation!

1 word - Freedom.

I think Mel Gibson said it best in BraveHeart.

Freedom from obligations, freedom from a rigid schedule, freedom from society, freedom from conformity, freedom from your job, freedom to do what you want when you want how you want.

I can tell you personally, there is nothing better in the world than being able to say to yourself, "you know what self, I think this week we're going to do whatever the f##k we want". There have been weeks, even months where I haven't done shit, and I have had money deposited straight into my bank account from Clickbank, I've had checks mailed to me from my local sites, and its a pretty crazy feeling. Especially when its your first time experiencing it.

In a way, it almost makes you go crazy. Passive income is a drug. And too much freedom can sometimes be a double edged sword. Because you reach a point where you're making plenty of money, and have no real reason to grow your assets or scale anything. So before you know it you're slacking off, months pass by, something happens, and your earnings drop dramatically. Thats 1 bad side effect of having too much freedom.

I also found out, there is only so much random shit you can do other than work. Like I can go to the gym, go fishing (if its summer time) I can cook a fancy meal, go out, but there comes a point where you run out of things to do... or just lose the desire to do new things every day.

So the main reason I do it is freedom. But I also have learned that too much freedom can can quickly become a bad thing. More often that not, its smart to keep yourself on a rigid schedule. Even when you don't have to. Like you can mix in novel activities, and doing new things, but wasting time is a lot easier than it sounds. I remember one week I spent the entire week watching viral videos on youtube. Then the next week I spent locked in my music studio. Eventually I realized "this shit just isn't healthy". I'd go on these random obsessive binges where I was care free and didn't give a shit about anything. But then you become self aware and realize "wtf am I doing?" I was almost teaching myself how to become a lazy, isolated recluse.

These days I still value freedom more than anything, but I've also learned how to value stability and consistency. These things keep you sane. And sanity is more important than all the freedom in the world (I think?). lol.

-Red

I started for fun and to make some money.... and today it has gone to a business.
The more I enjoy about doing internet marketing is that freedom one enjoy and also the opportunities you come across every day and the prospects of growing it more and more.

I was on my favorite video game website when I was 17 years old, I suddenly "woke up" and realized that the guys who made that site were making money off of this stuff!

I gave up video games and started doing online marketing. Never really looked back since

I was playing with the internet and sending messages to my Brazilian friends (I live in Greece, but I’m Brazilian) in April of 2006. I had just started using the internet. I delayed using the internet because I was writing a complex scientific book and I didn't want to be distracted.

When I discovered the wonderful internet I understood why all my friends told me that I was silly because I kept writing instead of entering into the online world.

I spent a lot of time looking for funny Brazilian comics online, and then sending comics to my friends in my email messages because I like them.

At a certain point I had a brilliant idea. The internet could be used for many other things!

Instead of wasting my time looking for comics, I could make money online. I could make a smart combination and have fun, while making money.

However, how? Was my idea strange? Or could someone really use the internet to make money somehow?

Perhaps someone else had the same brilliant idea I had when I understood the power of the internet…

I looked for methods to make money online. I found my first internet marketing mentor, who told me that making money online was very easy. I believed his lies, glad because everything was so simple online.

Then, I had the brilliant idea to publish my scientific book online.

However, I had to rewrite it in English.

I had the brilliant idea to publish another ebook first of all, and later publish my best one.

Then, I saw that my scientific book was too long, and I decided to publish various ebooks and share this content.

In March of 2007 I managed to publish my first ebook, which was a free audio book. A few days later, I published by second ebook, which also was an audio book, but I was selling it. The first one was promoting the second one.

I sold it for the first time on eBay, before creating my own website.

I'm an 18 year old university student. I knew at a very young age that I wanted to be an entrepreneur, not a internet marketer entrepreneur, a CEO of a large brand or website, because to me it's not about money, I believe money is highly overrated.

to me it's about building something from the ground up and being able to make an impact, a difference and to feel accomplished that I was able to create a known brand which people use daily and helps others, out of nothing.. That excites me more then anything, but there's a lot of risk when doing a start-up. I knew I was going to have to borrow money, get loans from family members ETC.

So basically I want to earn a constant flow of income online which I can use to fund my start-up ideas without having to stress about where I'm going to get my next line of investment or my next capital fund, and without worrying about paying back loans and leaving family members waiting for they're money back. I'm excited to not only learn marketing strategies which will help me when I do launch a start-up but will also solve one of the main reasons start-ups fail, lack of cash flow.

And coming from a teenager, I know this wasn't part of the question but my best piece of advice for anyone who is struggling is to stop following others, stop buying courses, stop playing follow the leader. Go out and test and be creative and come up with your own unique ways to get traffic and make money. I did buy WSO's to get started and learn ground work, but if you keep looking on that page looking for the next program that will make you rich, then your only going to be wasting valuable time that you could use to be perfecting strategies that really can make you money. And i'm new to IM so you really don't have to listen to me but honestly i can't see why 98% of people fail, all seems straightforward to me.

Very intentionally - I didn't want to be at a "normal job" forever, and I saw the internet as a great way to run multiple businesses at once.

It started with ads that I had encountered before and it demonstrated how easy it was to earn money. It is convenient and at the same time, somehow, cheap and doesn't require much of your money to start.

Just the idea of living a full life dedicated to a company or boss was always so...... unimaginable.
Its funny too when people around you complain about their job or conditions, and you try to explain a different way of doing it. Some people just don't get it

It all came to me when I was surfing youtube a few years back. I ran upon several documentaries about young entrepreneurs from the UK. Kids that were like 16 were making double.. triple.. 10x what both my parents were combined. I was so amazed and decided to find out more. Next thing you know, I began researching and got sucked into the IM black hole.

Now I just cannot get enough! I've yet to make money online but I should be there soon!

Money, Yes Money! Then I started to think about my future wife and children that made me shape it into a business

Obviously money was a factor lol.. But it was a sense of "wanting to be your own boss", working own hours, and having no limit on the amount of money you can make.