Is Making Money On The Internet Still Possible?

As a blogger, I would have to answer that question by looking into my personal earnings from blogging. Between Google Adsense,Pay-Per-Post, and other various affiliate links, I manage to bring in an additional $1000 - $2000 a year from just being a part time blogger. I am nowhere near being in the neighborhood of the greats such as John Chow or Darren Rowse however I still do better than many bloggers out there without really applying myself.

Last night I read an article that stated that by the time a money making opportunity hits the internet, it is obsolete as tens of thousands of people rush to copy and exploit the technique, quite simply it stated that we are all fighting for the same tiny piece of pie and in that aspect I have to agree so I want to focus this post on the real question I just asked. Is Making Money On The Internet Still Possible? Nowhere in that question do I mention blogging so lets step back from that scenario for a moment and examine a few other methods that the internet can bring you money.

Lets start with online surveys, although they do pay, I have found them to be quite boring and time consuming however they still have more potential than Google Adsense for the majority of people wishing to earn money online. A personal favorite of mine would be Treasure Trooper. My son still uses that and brings in some decent cash doing so and yes that is his referral link above, click it, don't click it, I don't care.

Next we can take a moment to check out domain name flipping. The concept is nice however when you get umpteen thousand people going after the same domain name and more than half using some kind of program that buys them up as fast as they become available, well it's just a little too nerve racking for me. Best of luck to those that attempt this method.

Lastly comes the area where I find myself most interested in and that is due to several things, first it has the greatest chance for failure. I know your thinking that I must be crazy right about now so let me explain. The greater the chance of failure quite often is also the greater payoff if you succeed. When I started my business I knew that most new businesses fail in the first year. Now into my second year, I wouldn't change a thing. Knowing I had a really big chance of failure it is just something I had to do which brings me back to the greatest chance of failure but also the highest payout for success on the internet. Web Site Development. I'm talking about designing a website for the masses that if successful, will provide the site owners and developers with more money than any blogger is making.

I know that not everyone is creative enough to think of a good idea much less design it and what I am talking about,in many cases takes a team working together and yet I still see it as the greatest chance for making money on the internet. Lets examine Craigslist for a second, Fortune magazine estimates that Craigslist had an annual revenue of 20 million last year. Now exactly how complex is that design? All it takes is the right idea, some hard work, and a little luck thrown in for good measure.

What if I have no ideas? Anyone that asks that should first look at their blog, where did that idea come from? If it is a "make money online" blog or a "how to increase your PR blog", the answer should be relatively simple. Steal It. Just as your was not the first blog to think of those niches, Facenbook was not the first social networking website yet it was valued as high as 700 m last year and who doesn't know that it is nothing more than a MySpace ripoff. I'm not telling anyone to go reinvent the wheel, I am just saying find a way to make the wheel better, promote it like crazy and start selling wheels. How many pizza delivery places are there in your town? Do they all make money? So, who invented the pizza delivery idea?

For anyone that still believes there is no money left to be made online I want to include a list of some websites and their annual revenue as of last year. It also lists the web site owners name as well as their age.

1. Mark Zuckerberg [ Facebook ] 23 years old | $700M
2. Andrew Gower [ Runescape ] 28 years old | $650M
3. Blake Ross and David Hyatt [ Mozilla ] 22 years old | $120M
4. Chad Hurley [ Youtube ] 30 years old | $85M
5. Angelo Sotira [ Deviant ART ] 26 years old | $75M
6. John Vechey [ PopCap Games ] 28 years old | $60M
7. Alexander Levin [ WordPress ] 23 years old | $57M
8. Jake Nickell [ Threadless ] 28 years old | $50M
9. Sean Belnick [ Biz Chair ] 20 years old | $42M
10. Kevin Rose [ Digg ] 30 years old | $31M
11. Ryan Block [ Engadget ] 25 years old | $20M
12. Aodhan Cullen [ Stat Counter ] 24 years old | $18M
13. Tom Fulp [ Newgrounds ] 29 years old | $15M
14. Rishi Kacker and Matt Pauker [ Voltage ] 24 years old | $12M
15. Markus Frind [ Plenty of Fish ] 29 years old | $10M
16. Catherine and David Cook [ My Year Book ] 17 & 19 years old | $10M
17. Fredrik Neij [ The Pirate Bay ] 28 years old | $10M
18. David Hauser & Siamak Taghaddos [ GotvMail ] 24 years old | $8M
19. Jermaine Griggs [ Hear and Play ] 23 years old | $5M
20. Jay Westerdal [ Domain Tools ] 29 years old | $5M