How Long Does It Take to Make Money On the Internet?

Hi guys -

The title of this post is a classic question, and one Court and I get asked on a daily basis. In fact, I was just over reading Grizz’s “show me the money” post (brilliant, by the way), and I saw the “how long?” question asked at least a couple of times. If you’d like to skip the rest of this post, here are my short answers to the “How long till I make money online?” question:

Longer than 99% of people are willing to sustain focus.

…and…

Not nearly as long as discouraged newbies think it will take.

Yes, those are vague answers. Let’s put it in perspective with a couple of specific examples:

In the last few weeks I’ve had some great conversations with former one-on-one students of ours. Both of them started effectively at zero online income. One of them is now plugging away at about $1500 per month (we started working with him about five months ago), and the other made over $10,000 last month (he enrolled in late January).

I just couldn’t be happier for these two hard-working guys, and couldn’t be more proud of the fact that we were part of their success. When I asked them about what it took to get where they are today, their answers were similar, and went something like this:

“Well, the truth is I was up and down for the first couple of months - in my motivation, effort, and results. It’s just not that easy to focus when you have a job, and you’re trying to have a life, and then you’re trying to build a business online at the same time. I just had to keep plugging away at it. I’d put in 20 minutes here and an hour there, and after a while I started to see some results.”
Can You Get Excited About $10 Per Month Online? I Hope So.

What did they mean by “some results?” A dollar here, two dollars there - heck, in the early days they were ecstatic if they made $10 one month and doubled it to $20 the next month. After all, that’s a 100% increase. I loved what one of the students - Steve - said about his longer term goals:

“People have to realize that making an income on the internet is a marathon, not a sprint. If you get into this game thinking you’re going to go from zero to thousands per month in a couple months you’re just going to get frustrated and quit. My plan is to increase my income by about 5% per month for the next three years. That will get me to my goals.”

Let’s work through the math for a second. Let’s say you bust your tail for 12 months and achieve an income of $1,000 in the 12th month (although Steve did that in his fourth month). Now let’s say you’re able to increase that income by 5% every month after that. Three years later your monthly income would be just over $6,000 per month. If you include the first year, it would have taken you four years to reach an income of about $72,000 per year.
Much More Lucrative Then College (or University)

You know how much the average college graduate earns? I did some research and I couldn’t find a single example of a college grad earning a starting salary of more than about $60,000, with most starting out between $30,000 and $40,000.

Of course, it’s not even a fair comparison. College students aren’t making money (typically) while they’re in school, and they’re definitely not seeing a 5% increase in their income every month. Quite the contrary. In many cases they’re going tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

If you become the persistent web entrepreneur in our example you will not only hit $72,000 per year by the end of your fourth year, you will have earned a total of over $101,000 during your four years of “schooling.”

I guess some people will say it’s not possible to increase your income by a measly 5% per month over a three year period. That’s fine. I would encourage those people to settle into a nice corporate job, and hang out there for 30 or 40 years.

Based on my experience, a 5% monthly increase is not hard at all - it’s the first $1,000 that’s tough. If you can knock out that first thousand per month, the sky is really the limit. You’ll have confidence, momentum, and enthusiasm on your side - not to mention the cash. People are attracted to internet marketing because you can get started with very little cash. But I’m here to tell you that internet marketing gets a lot simpler (dare I say easy?) when you’ve got some money to put behind your work ethic and creativity.

So what’s the problem? Why is it that 99% of the people never get to $1,000 per month, let alone $6,000 per month?
Keep the Right Perspective About Time Frames

People have completely absurd ideas about how much they can make in their first few months as an internet marketer. I love the quote from management guru Peter Drucker:

“We greatly overestimate what we can accomplish in one year. But we greatly underestimate what we can accomplish in five years.”

I would change the quote slightly for you:

“We greatly overestimate what we can accomplish in a month. But we greatly underestimate what we can accomplish in a year.”

If you’re serious about making money on the internet, be prepared for a very boring first few months. It will be quite a bit of work with not much obvious payoff. The key - the absolute KEY - to success is persisting in the right activities day in and day out for the first few months.

If you’re wondering whether it’s worth it, just trust me - it’s worth it. Your leanest months as an internet marketer will be much happier than your richest months as a corporate monkey (as least that’s been true for me).

So, I guess it took me about 1,000 words to say this: If you can persist for 9 to 12 months, you’ll have something. Hang in there.