Why I’m trying to earn a living online

by Sapphire (May 23, 2008)

In light of recent discussions about the various reasons why we’re all doing this “internet marketing” thing, I’m going to share precisely what my goals are with all this, which I’ve never exactly done before.

I’m a writer with a creative type personality. That means normal, routine jobs are such a poor fit for me, I was 25 before I realized they weren’t actually designed by a supernatural force bent on destroying me. I always wanted to make a living full-time as a writer. But I had to earn a living while pursuing that dream, and a few years ago I realized I wasn’t getting anywhere: jobs were sucking the creative spirit out of me, so the writing suffered in quality and quantity. And I had no social life. I was miserable.

At some point I realized you could make a living on the internet. At that point, I didn’t even know about the snake oil promises to earn millions in your underwear. I was thinking in terms of web design - this was in the 90’s when that looked like an ever-growing field where you could easily earn a good living. I started teaching myself HTML and CSS and all that stuff. I bought Dreamweaver and Fireworks. I designed ugly but fast-loading websites, and slowly realized I needed a lot more training and far more expensive tools to make a real living at this.

I don’t remember how I first heard about affiliate marketing. I do remember it was 1999, and I thought that was the answer. Why sell a service that means work when you can sell for a commission? And back then, it was insane - I remember About.com had an affiliate program through CJ, and I got a real, bona fide email from an About.com employee named “Mary” confirming that yes, I could sit there clicking my own PPC link to About.com as much as I wanted because their real goal was to get tons of hits. (Yeah. I think of that every time there have been debates about PPC, click fraud and Adsense.)

Besides - and this is important - if you earn commissions rather than dealing with clients, you can live anywhere. You don’t have to pay to live in or near a city full of clients. You can move to the boonies and still make ends meet.

Anyway, I straggled along as various things happened in my personal life. All I knew was if my day job prevented me writing well enough to quit the damn thing, the least I could do was work on making a living online, which might someday free me from the job and give me time to write. Even if it didn’t, I’d rather be in business for myself doing something creative instead of doing a lot of meaningless tasks that has more to do with companies’ egos than actually getting anything accomplished. Also, I have never been a fan of the modern urban lifestyle. I don’t want an SUV - I want veggies I grew myself. Nothing tastes like really fresh organic produce grown in rich soil out of doors like nature intended. Trust me - that’s the kind of food I grew up on, thanks to my grandparents. 

For several years, I suffered from not knowing what I was doing and not knowing where to get help, and also from thinking small. In 2004, I met a few people who actually helped me quite a bit, and since then I’ve met more in the form of bloggers in this niche that I trust. As for thinking small, I think I’ve really only recently overcome that. I grew up below the poverty level and learned how to use frugality to enjoy life more (as opposed to being miserly), so ironically that frugality limited my perception of what I could/should be earning. I was almost intimidated by the idea of making thousands of dollars a month at this stuff.

And that’s where I’m at now. My goal with internet marketing is to escape the rat race and the expensive city I live in with a portable income.  I want to move somewhere that’s less congested and allows for living a sustainable life with solar panels and composting. I want to buy an acre or so of land with a modest house on it and start a garden (I may need to hire or barrter for help from an expert at first). Also, I’ll need insurance coverage, which will be an additional expense (whereas most everything else will reduce my cost of living).

And maybe then I’ll have time and headspace for my writing. But even if I don’t, I’ll enjoy what I’m doing so much more than the lifestyle I have now.

So what are you looking to get out of online earning?

Posted in Staying on Track
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