At 23 years old - you shouldnt be planning to do this for a career... if you dont think you need to work, then at least consider furthering your education. You are way too young to depend on these methods to make a living. Things change so rapidly, this month you may make $500 but the next three months you may only make $5... give it some more thought before you take the plunge.
Hmmm... Not sure what that means, or if I agree with it at all really. I believe this is a great choice of career, and the fact that he's 23 (I'm 22 BTW) makes it even better. Online marketing is such a new field, and is still so far in its infancy that there is no better time to enter. It will only be evolving and getting larger, if you can enter it now, by all means go for it, but do it sensibly. There is simply no way that internet marketing will become unprofitable or a shitty industry. Marketing in itself is something that will always be around because people/companies will always need to advertise, and the internet is the single BEST way to do it. What other way can you attract so many people? You literally have access to the entire world as you marketplace. Add to this the fact that such a small percentage of people, and businesses for that matter, truly understand how to use this as a medium of advertising, and you have yourself a fucking sweet ass career choice. Especially if you enjoy doing it (which I do).
But, and there is always a but, I still stand by my opinion of not quitting you day job, or any other personal responsibilities, just yet. I practice what I preach myself.. I am currently finishing my business degree in which I have 2 years left. This gives me two years to work on my IM business on the side, and hopefully at the end of those 2 years I will have a successful business built with a very strong foundation (instead of a bunch of get rich quick methods) that I will be confident that it's going nowhere but up.
BUT, I also have a contingency plan set in place, as always, because one thing I've learned in my life, is things don't always turn out as planned. So at the 2 year point, I will re-evaluate my position and if my business isn't at a standard that I'm satisfied could support me for the rest of my life, I will move onto starting a Chartered Accountant designation (which lasts 3 years), while at the same time still working on my IM Business. The reasoning behind this choice is that the designation is probably the best degree/designation of any kind in terms of preparing you to run/plan/startup/operate a business. If by the point of completing my designation (27-28 years old) I haven't reached a sufficient level of success in my IM Business, which is highly unlikely, then I will be left with the following:
1. extreme amount of experience in IM/design/coding
2. very strong foundation on how to run a successful business (CA degree+experience)
- With which, combined with my IM experience, I can rewrite a new, and effective, plan of attack for tackling my online business. OR evaluate a new offline market/business which I can launch (possibly a CA and/or consulting company).
3. Backup career plan which will earn me great money if I ever choice to act upon it, whether it be at that time, or a later time in my life
- as I said thing don't always turn out as planned, and I may find myself at a point of struggle/lack of finance from my business or whatever it is I am doing at that time. If such a case arises I can easily get a job with a CA designation earning my 6 figures.
Okay, now I know what I wrote above was long, and many of your probably didn't read it. But the reason I wrote it, is not to tell everyone my life story or anything of that sort at all. Also, it is not only geared at the OP, but also at a multitude of other IM's/users here who may not have a proper plan, contingency or initial, to tackle this career/business properly. The result of this business (IM) having such low start up costs is that it doesn't have a large enough barrier to entry, this is both good and bad. It gives everyone an opportunity, but at the same time sets a lot of them up for failure. I know there is lots of quick methods to make fast cash, but that's all it is, fast cash.. It doesn't last long. I recommend everyone who's trying to do this thing seriously, take some time to not only write a proper business plan, with clear and realistic goals/methods to achieve these, but ALSO a LIFE PLAN, complete with contingencies that some of you may not want to believe are even possible. I know this isn't a life planning class, but you will thank me later... The above plan may seem overly detailed, but I have every angle covered, and so should you. Too often we get caught up in the heat of the moment, and excited about new opportunities forgetting that they may not succeed exactly as planned (and probably won't), so as yourself a question (not only the OP), once again dealing with opportunity cost:
Would you rather believe in the best-case-scenario and be screwed if you fall short, or even a faced with the worst-case-scenario? Or would you rather hope for the best-case-scenario but be prepared, and have contingencies set in place, for the worst?
Just a couple thoughts, take them for what they are.
