What Internet Marketing and University can do to you

I'm taking one of the hardest pre-U courses known to man in a big university where everyone expects you to score prodigal grades and doing hardcore IM at the same time. My mind is constantly running 24/7, either to write out some 1 page long solution or to devise a new SEO gameplan. I don't have enough sleep, my time is fully occupied, major exams are coming and I barely have time to chill with my buddies anymore. I wake up, study, SEO, study, SEO, sleep. Rinse and repeat.

What do you guys do to cope with the stress and how do you find the time for both? I believe there needs to be a fine balance between both your social life and internet life, but where should this line be drawn? Off to rest now, mind's going to overheat soon if I don't stop to cool down.

From my experience, there's no substitute for hard work when you start out. A year ago, I did all my IM work myself (with a biz partner) so my hours were stupid. Now, I have 8 full time staff so do less work (in terms of hours) but make more money. I have a very active social life and basically have time to do whatever I want.

When I was doing my finals at University (I went to a top uni in the UK so it was no pushover) I sacrificed social life for a few months. I was running my IM business full time and still finding times for my exams.

You sound like you're in the same boat. Bear in mind, exams are only short term. Once they are done they are done. I'd honestly recommend putting max effort into them and nailing the grades (especially now you've come this far).

Once you're done with full time education you've got your whole life ahead of you to focus on IM and your business.

Same here bro.. My school leaving exams are starting day-after tomorrow. These are the exams that are considered to be the most important ones for any student in my country. It's 11pm here, and while I should be studying, here I am replying to this thread.

I very well understand that money can be made even when I'm 40, but education must be done when the time comes. But it just is addicting. IM is addicting. Money is addicting..

I am also in the same boat...

i hired an Indian VA last month, but currently finding, its more difficult to manage him, than to do my tasks by my self.

sent 21 mails to get 5x600 word articles

When I studied for Engineering degree, I had many problems to balance everything. So i reduced time for social life and kept IM and Education properly. I couldn't get results like others. But I passed my degree and do IM to get an income.

The key is to be doing what you love. If you're just doing SEO and IM because you need the money or it seems like a "get rich quick" scheme, get out now! IM is a lot of hard work (as you have seen) and yes it can be stressful at times. As long as you know the hard work is paying off (you're getting the paychecks) and you are doing what you love, you are winning. Also hold onto the hope that soon you will not need to do as much work as you can outsource most of the work once you know how to do it yourself and can profit even greater than before.

The way I'm doing it is I took a break from school to focus on IM full-time (currently on the break...), then next year I may or may not go back to school to finish it, depending how confident I'll be about my business. Either way, I'm in no hurry to finish school, because I already make a decent living so there's no real incentive to finish as soon as possible.

meathead1234 said:

From my experience, there's no substitute for hard work when you start out. A year ago, I did all my IM work myself (with a biz partner) so my hours were stupid. Now, I have 8 full time staff so do less work (in terms of hours) but make more money. I have a very active social life and basically have time to do whatever I want.

When I was doing my finals at University (I went to a top uni in the UK so it was no pushover) I sacrificed social life for a few months. I was running my IM business full time and still finding times for my exams.

You sound like you're in the same boat. Bear in mind, exams are only short term. Once they are done they are done. I'd honestly recommend putting max effort into them and nailing the grades (especially now you've come this far).

Once you're done with full time education you've got your whole life ahead of you to focus on IM and your business.

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Thank you for the only intellectual reply. Definitely inspirational to me. I'm going to man up and go through this and see what I reap in the end. Thanks and rep given.

Kyle, I was in a similiar boat to meathead.

I started internet businesses the year before I went to University. Consumed my life. I did two years, gained a 2 year certificate then quit.

I'm now at the age where my friends have graduated and/or graduating, and some are starting to do exciting things with their life. Their degree gives them opportunities than I no longer have. Work abroad, be active. Be young. Stuff that I think is important in your twenties.

Sure, I have a lot of time to do what I want when I want, but it doesn't equal happiness. (Who do I do things with for example? LOL) Some people are happy plugged into the internet 24/7, the older I get I find I'm actually longing to be out there again in the hustle.

Whilst it doesn't answer your question directly, I hope it gives you some perspective and motivation to keep at education. Even if your degree ends up being your safety net should this bubble burst, it's better to have it than not.

I'm in the same boat as you and I can understand the feeling.
I'm doing a pre Uni course as well as starting out on new ventures, managing my current ones... etc etc. I only sleep for 5-6 hours a day and have to pull all nighters once or twice a week...
What I do to keep myself fresh is go to gym in the evening with a couple of friends. This gives my body and mind a break and at the same time, I meet and chat with my buddies about anything from flirting a girl to politics.
Try this; you'll definitely see an increase in your productivity and it will keep yourself fresh throughout the day.

As meathead1234 said above, exams are sort of one time thing after every few months. So concentrate on your studies for now and score the best possible grades. You can put your IM on hold for a few days and come back later with all the energy in the world.

So many people in the same position!

Exams are only here once if your life. You might as well do good with them now and then fuck around with your life later on. That would be your best choice. Do some good shit in your exam bro and then come back and spend your day doing your usual IM.

In my opinion, if you're doing well with IM, school is really not worth the time/effort. This is coming from someone who spent 5 years in undergrad for a business degree and another 3 in law school. If I had spent that time doing IM instead I would be a multi-millionaire right now and set for life. Instead, I have a couple of degrees I'll never use and a load of debt to pay off.

It's mainly just society's and family's expectations that higher education is the "right" path to take that keeps people in the system and spending money to have a professor read a book to them, all for a piece of paper that isn't worth 1% of what you can learn for free on forums like this one. Still, I totally understand the desire to finish school in order to appease family and feel like you're getting something for the time already invested. I just wouldn't personally spend more time than it takes to pull B's if I knew I'd be running my own IM business for sure.

As for work ethic, when I first started a little over a year ago, I was just grinding really hard almost all the time and only really kept in contact with my best friend and my family. If I were you, I would make an effort to go out with friends on the weekend though, or you'll find yourself with a lot of money and no friends to enjoy it with. It's important to stay in contact with them and not sacrifice everything for success and money.

I think its important to understand that internet marketing changes all the time, and their are no guarantees. Yeah you MIGHT make some great cash for a while but what will you do when GOOGLE gives you the finger and you're back to square one. It's not stable as it's totally out of your control on the larger scale - remember what panda did to peoples income?

REMEMBER: A boss, or google etc can tell you to F off. All your boss has to say is your "fired" and you're screwed. As an employee you're working for someone else and thus have no power unless you're profession is in demand like in healthcare. BUT NO ONE CAN TAKE AWAY YOUR EDUCATION. If you went to college and did a solid, VALUABLE degree (flooded with job offers you philosophy majors out there? lol...).

Education is a key to success. Education and demand is what took my dad out of a small village in India and brought him all the way to USA making 6 figures. His family is all still back in India, including all his siblings. That's the power of working in a field with massive demand (hint healthcare). He could quit his job right now and get another in literally 5 minutes (6 figures). Could you bounce back that quickly with Internet Marketing? Not a chance in hell. However, if you have a million+ in the bank then that's a different story - you could live off the interest if you take care.

HOWEVER - Internet marketing is a great way to make substantial income on the side. My plan is to have it pay for my grad school. Yes, I want to be the only student in my class that pays CASH every semester. How awesome would that be? I graduated from college without a PENNY of debt unlike most of my friends because I'm smart, got scholarships etc. I know a bunch of people who went to expensive city schools and are paying 40-50,000 a year because they wanted to have "fun". I stayed local and saved a crap ton of cash that I don't have to pay back. Loan money is not free money. Now I'm gonna do the same for grad school and be awesome.

^yeah a lot of it depends on how well you're doing with IM. For some of us, there is little/no risk that Google is going to take away our business because we've diversified to the point where there is no one weak point.

Also, I would argue that no one can take away the education you learn while running a business and reading these forums. I know how to make money forever now with what I've learned with IM, so I'm practically bulletproof compared to a grunt employee that can be fired at any time.

I know exactly what you're going through buddy. I'm in community college at the moment, and while that is quite easy, I'm transferring to a 4 year in the Fall (2012). My choices are basically between a number of top 20 schools in the US, and the more and more I think about it, if I choose to go to one of those schools, I will have to prioritize and only spend time on my online business when I really can. College is only a few years. IM is not going any where, at least not in the mean time. Your best bet is to buckle down and spend time on your schooling. Only work on your IM business when you can do so without sacrificing your grades/schooling.

thedon23 said:

IM is not going any where, at least not in the mean time. Your best bet is to buckle down and spend time on your schooling. Only work on your IM business when you can do so without sacrificing your grades/schooling.

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Holy crap I could not disagree more. Right now is the gold rush of IM. Once you get into a niche and stake your claim, anyone that comes after you will be in for a fight. This is a unique period in the history of this profession and I can guarantee that 5 years from now you will look back and say, "Remember how easy it was to rank #1 back in 2012?" I fully expect that in a few years the barrier to entry for SEO will be huge, with tons of highly entrenched sites for every valuable keyword. There will be zero chance that someone could make money the way I made it in 2011 and how easy it was for me.

College will be there forever, a highly profitable business opportunity only comes around every so often. There is only 1 google, facebook, etc...

ryanjm said:

Holy crap I could not disagree more. Right now is the gold rush of IM. Once you get into a niche and stake your claim, anyone that comes after you will be in for a fight. This is a unique period in the history of this profession and I can guarantee that 5 years from now you will look back and say, "Remember how easy it was to rank #1 back in 2012?" I fully expect that in a few years the barrier to entry for SEO will be huge, with tons of highly entrenched sites for every valuable keyword. There will be zero chance that someone could make money the way I made it in 2011 and how easy it was for me.

College will be there forever, a highly profitable business opportunity only comes around every so often. There is only 1 google, facebook, etc...

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Couldn't disagree with you more either. That's the same thing people said 5 years ago (before I started IM). I'm still surpassing sites owned by those who started at least 5+ years ago.

Don't know about you, but I don't want to be a 40 year old man going to college.

^Not possible. I will be set for life in a few years and running multiple businesses. I know for a fact that I completely own a particular evergreen niche, and no one will ever be able to take it away from me without an absolutely epic never-ending fight.

You go to college to get a degree which will help you earn money. If you can already do that without a degree, now is an absolutely golden time to be in IM. Of course, so much of this depends on how good you are at IM. It could be that college is the best route if you don't have a solid understanding of how to make $100k+/yr with very little risk.

Not sure why your even going to Uni in the first place mate. Doesn't make sense if your succeeding already with IM, do you really need a piece of paper to get a job?

I'm 30 now, when I was around 18-19, I made about $60k and that was in half a year, the following year somewhere around $200k. I was in University, full course load, and I absolutely hated it. There was nothing I wanted to take. I was interested in com programming, but my high school was so outdated, they were teaching C++, that I was so lost when I got to uni, I ended up dropping it a couple weeks in. I never studied for a single exam, or did any homework/studying. I had absolutely no motivation to be at school knowing that in 4-5 years of school, whatever job I could get wouldn't even be as much as I was currently making. I ended up dropping most courses and took the bare minimum. The last couple months I barely even went to class, I don't know how I passed anything.

Anyways, if there's something you're interested in taking, then why not suffer through and take it. There's a lot of business and finance stuff that could definitely help you in the future. But for me, I absolutely hated it, and there was nothing I was interested in.