This is the first of many posts regarding opening, running, and operating an internet business.

For the last 5 years I have been running an internet business. I always believed there is a ton of money to be made on the net, I just need to figure out how. I spent a lot of time, research and made many, many, MANY mistakes trying to find ways to do it. I have tried many different avenues, ideas, and concepts to try and pull it off. Over the years, somehow I have become successful at it. I have run and sold off some great sites. I still do maintain about 70 sites and have multiple streams of revenue coming in from them. It has given me some great luxuries and has really helped support myself and my family. The cool thing about it is, I did it without really any investment. But, it wasn’t all fun and easy. It’s can be a real pain in the ass, but it can also be very rewarding.

Mainly I wanted to run a business that was fairly self sufficient, where I did not really have to deal with customers, and I could concentrate on my site and bringing in the $$$. I am also a very busy man, so spending a lot of extra time running an online business wasn’t going to happen.

In reality, I still do spend a great deal of time on it though. I’ve been up since 6 (7:30 now) and haven’t stopped working since I got my cup of coffee and fed the dogs. After this post I am going to get ready for my day job, and spend another 8 hours on the net there. Come back home, and spend another 1-2 hours later on the net. So, it is work, and at times more then I expected. But I also found out I truly enjoy this work.

I talk to a lot of my friends about it, when they ask. And they are always interested and amazed at sometimes how easy it sounds. I tell them about some of my successes, and they probably think - “I could do that easily”; or you maybe one of those people reading those get rich quick on the internet schemes, and think it’s really easy to do. Well let me be the first to tell you. Its not, especially if you don’t have a budget or know where to begin.

Here’s the down and dirty version of how I started.

My original plan was to partner with a MMA company, film their fights, and sell DVD videos online. The funny thing is, I didn’t know how to make a DVD, didn’t have a website, and had a shitty camera. BUT!!!! That didn’t stop me! I called up an MMA company, told them I could do it. LOOONG story short, the next thing you know, I’m filming a fight in MA and somehow putting together a DVD. Believe it or not, I did this for a couple years. I eventually got all those skills and more. It was an AMAZING learning experience and taught me a lot. Those couple years helped me more then I could imagine. But, there was A TON of work involved and very very little reward. I knew it had to be easier.

I am not going to go into all my mistakes and highlight everything I did wrong. If you really want to know, ask me, and I’ll tell you. The point was that I put in a lot of effort into one concept. It was also ballsy as hell. I didn’t know shit about what I was doing. Yet pulled it off well for a long time.

Fast Forward a 4 years - The first big pay off and ways to make money on the net concept #1 - Sell a website

When I filmed all these fights, DVD sales were crap. So what I did was create an online PPV site called www.whoopass.tv. Yup, it’s still up today, and believe it or not, still profiting (but for someone else). ACTUALLY, funny thing! The company I just partnered with owns it, and I am working on it again! Funny how life works. So this site, it sells online videos basically. You pay, you watch fights online. Cool concept, worked great! I put a lot of effort into it, and some company offered me to buy it. I said yes. The sites still does well, but it would have done better if it wasn’t for youtube. Many videos that people were willing to pay for are now free. So having an online PPV site is tough now.

“Can I(you) sell a website”?
Hmmmm, maybe in a couple of years. If you start now. Nowadays selling a website is not so easy, especially for a big payout. There’s too many sites out there, and many concepts have already been explored. People still do buy them, there’s whole sites dedicated to the buying and selling of sites. But the profits aren’t as huge. You can still sell them though, but in order to do so, your site first has to be successful and profitable.

Of course the next question is….. how do you make a site profitable?! I know, I’ve just teased you with some background information, but in the upcoming posts, I will highlight the details of making a site and being profitable. I’ll also give you some tools and guides that can help you along the way.

If you are really, really interested in creating a site(s), contact me, we’ll talk. Or you can continue to read this tips and ideas.