I admit to being addicted to what I do. looking back, this has been going on for over 10 years. My blogs and websites are my babies. I tweak, blog, write and learn how to squeeze some money out of them. AdSense, affiliate marketing – whatever. The big thrill is seeing the money coming in. Some sites I own surprise me with good earnings, others that I thought would do well sit there gathering cyberdust.

I have tried dozens of schemes. Most have failed me, others worked for a while and then became either overused or just plain didn’t work any more. I have bought into the gurus, purchased manuals, books and systems. Looking back I have probably spent a couple of thousand in guru stuff. But that’s a minor investment compared to what I have learned to do, and more importantly – what NOT to do. I spent many hours writing my own domain/sites management software. Just the way I want it. Works like a charm, saves me tons of time now. All in all my little business is profitable. In all businesses you have to spend some money and take some losses to get to what works for you.

The sites are my drug. The income is my euphoria. Once in a blue moon I take some time off, but I get withdrawal pains. Even if the sites run themselves I can’t help it. Technically I could stay away for months without hurting any income. But I can’t.

What does that mean? Simply – I have found my niche. My work. I have been doing this for over 10 years and the need to “work” the internet hasn’t worn off a bit. I would have thought it would be boring by now, but it is stronger than ever. What motivates me? The income for sure, but to be honest – I was hoping for a lot more after years of working it.

No, what motivates me is the fight. The challenge. The need to win. To figure out what works. I’ll take the losers, as long as I get some winners. And I have that. It’s like gambling I guess just that I have full control over the outcome. I just have to outsmart the system….

My internet marketing income pays rent and more. Hour for hour I probably work more than most people. So it is disappointing to see the income not being what it should be. What am I missing? One thing I do notice that things work today, not tomorrow. For example, a few years ago simple content sites worked like a charm with AdSense. Not so any more. Sites need to be fairly unique for Google to even index them. I still have some content only, static sites and because of their age they still produce.

Setting up new sites with just old content – no good any more. Now a days you need sites with fresh, up-to-date and unique content. Like blogs you write to yourself. Sure, you read about auto-blogging. I set up 6 sites a year ago, I feed them with plr articles and rss feeds – and the results are dismal. The top one makes about $ 10 a month. Ok, so if I had 100 of them I’d make $ 1,000 a month. I get that.

I think there’s a middle road to take. Sure, buy into the auto-blogging thing. But I realize now that pretty well the only thing that really works is good old writing your own stuff. And I find it refreshing to create content that is 100% mine. I realize of course that now my content gets distributed to plenty of people, but that’s ok. I was the first to use it.

Bottom line, to make money you still need to spend time and some money. Nothing is free. But – if you are addicted to it – it’s not work.

Ingvar is getting close to “the golden age”. He writes about entrepreneurship
after retirement.

http://www.retiremententrepreneurs.com/