College VS IM

[MrSevenUp]

I would like to have a discussion on the importance of college in relation to IM or the rest of your life. This being a forum full of like minded people interested in starting their own Internet Marketing business, how does this relate to the degree you are earning or have already earned? And do you think college is an important aspect in relation to however much money you will make in the future?

At the moment I am a college Sophomore; having been browsing BlackHatWorld for the past two years it has made me realize college isn't all that important in relation to the amount of money you can be making. If anything, you can be making more money with Internet Marketing than you ever will with a college degree. The only issue I have at the moment is money, once I get my degree, get a job, I will be able to save up money, and possibly invest in Internet Marketing in the future. At the moment college seems like a complete waste of time and is not helping me achieve anything, so far it has been pointless busy work; I started taking my degree courses that count towards my major and even with those, I don't see how it will relate to the real world. I meet kids that are bragging about working a (12/hr) job and professors telling me I will be making $80,000 as soon as I get out of college. Which doesn't sound all that bad in terms of saving up the money and investing it into a business but is that really the case for most people?

Post your opinions, whether you are an experienced Internet Marketer with a college degree, or a bum that's not making any money, I don't care. I want to hear everyone's opinions on this!

 

[homenet]

College will teach you a lot of life skills and give you qualifications / experience that potential employees look for. Not too mention, for most people, college is the best few years of their life.

Is IM definitely what you want to do for a career? If your heart is 100% set on IM and nothing else, then college may not be for you. With that being said, a career in IM, especially when working by yourself, can be a stresful, painstaking, frustrating and lonely experience, and most people are not cut out for it.

 

[oplaopla]

This is how I view it. I am currently in a fairly competitive University and am highly unmotivated. This is how I force myself to do the bare minimum to get by: a college degree is an investment in yourself. A degree will stay with you through your entire life (mostly if you live in North America as it is unusual for people in high management positions anywhere else in the world to indicate that they received a doctorate in college).

Here are the returns on investment you will get on a college degree:
- Everyone will take you more seriously. When you have a degree, people take your plans seriously: banks are more likely to loan you money to fund your ventures, VCs are more likely to fund your startups, etc ...
- You have something to fall back on should you go broke. If you are in IM and make some big mistakes and end up almost broke, it's nice to know that you'll have a much easier time finding a job using that nifty degree you got.

 

[mqsss]

Well if I had another opportunity, I wouldn't even go to high school. I'm being honest when I say that I got nothing from a high school except partying. But my resources were limited, they wouldn't be if I got my ass into IM back then already.

 

[Vapes]

Well currently I'm not making anything through IM, but I hope to shortly. College gives you a higher education background for future employment. I agree with oplaopla in that a degree will stay with you your life and help you in many ways.

 

[Banned member 185991]

Go to college - do not even consider IM as a career.

 

[BHW-News]

Why not both? Undergraduate studies are about 20 hours a week, aren't they? No sense in shutting your options down when you don't need to.

 

[elfgirl]

I would choose both...In fact, I am doing both right now and it has been going pretty great for me.

It's kinda hard to manage time, but it gets easier

 

[Banned member 185991]

Why not both? Undergraduate studies are about 20 hours a week, aren't they? No sense in shutting your options down when you don't need to.

You might be onto something.

I'm 3 years into a 6 year engineering degree with the Open University, its a UK based thing but I bet there are similar things available in the USA. It's a online/at home study with monthly in person lectures and learning days at local universities.

I recommend it. They rate it as 16 hours a week but its closer to 10. I get it all done in 2 evenings a week and at the end of it its a real degree. I have no interest in engineering as a career, but I find it mostly interesting (except the maths side of it last year).

Many people say you don't need a degree in this day and age, that bollocks. They say it because they don't have one.

You might never get a job in your college degree field, but it prove your willing to stick hard work out, your dedicated, you can manage yourself and learn on your own.

Anyone can turn up to school and get some grades, everything is spoon fed to them. But a degree is something you earn on your own and its proof you can do it. Very few people who don't have degrees can prove they can do this in a meaningful environment people would recognise.

 

[mootonandy]

Are you going into a lot of debt to get this degree? Do you want a career that absolutely requires you to have a degree?

At the end of the day, the only thing most people are guaranteed to get at the end of their degree is a piece of paper and a large debt.

Which in the cold light of day, is actually extremely stupid.

But if you actually do need it for what you want to do, and you can afford it anyway, this does flip the situation around IMO.

I have a university degree, and its hurt me overall, I would have spent that time learning a skill if I had the chance again.

 

[LeanLow]

It depends on a degree, but there are no collage that can teach you SEO or PPC. If you want a safe job and a capped salary then go for it, if you want almost unlimited earning potential and trust your mental capacity to earn money then go for that. If the degree that you are trying to get is in a field that has value, then finish the degree and if you fail at IM then you will have some sort of protection.

 

[wowhaxor]

Be cool, stay in school.

IM isn't for everyone and not everyone can make it work for their whole life either. Finish your degree and keep working on IM as well. I've been successful at IM but I also dropped out of school when I was 14 (not because of IM because of drugs and legal issues) and have put in a lot of years at it. There have been some tough times when I wished I could've gotten a real job and, especially if you have a kid/family to support down the road, you may want something more predictable/stable with benefits long term while you can still spend 10-20 hours a week on IM and make a decent chunk to supplement your income.

Think ahead.

 

[Gosite]

Well. I'm a college student too. In Arabian countries the best paying job you can ever get with a college degree won't go beyond $600/M on average. I'm facing the situation, the only difference is that I'm willing to invest my time which is the only asset that I have to learn as much as I can about IM then take action. Not being a native English speaker was a setting the bar a bit higher for me, but once I heard that most of the best English authors aren't necessarily native speaker, That doubt disappeared.

If these people can make money, I can do too. I will certainly figure out what it takes. I suck at job keeping and the first time I really found myself was doing what I always loved and getting paid for it without a boss telling your what to do. My love for being the boss of myself has certainly created a man that is no longer willing to spend 8 hours a day making another man richer.

For me IM is a life choice. It will take some time to harvest and but I have faith that the best is yet to come.

All the best!

 

[wickid]

Your question really depends on your attitude and devotion to success in IM. The biggest issue with IM is that it can be really unstable...you might make a ton of money for a month doing something...then something changes and you start either losing money or if your doing SEO, the algorithm changes and your sites disappear from the SERPs.

Today, at least in the US, even with a college degree, people are having a hard time entering the work force. I have degrees and work in a field that I really enjoy...gives me enough down time to focus on both my regular day to day job, and invest some time to focus on my IM campaigns.

As I am no where near ready to leave the steady income I get from my regular job for the world of IM, I am glad I got the degrees and certifications that allow me to work in a field I enjoy and get paid well for the amount of effort I put into my job.

 

[BHW-News]

Love the OU - their degrees carry a LOT of weight with UK employers. Also, some of their projects are amazing. Ok, yes - Beagle 2, but one of their departments was working on ontology based semantic searches about 10 years before anyone had even heard of hummingbird.

They offer international courses - maybe that's something to consider?

You might be onto something.

I'm 3 years into a 6 year engineering degree with the Open University, its a UK based thing but I bet there are similar things available in the USA. It's a online/at home study with monthly in person lectures and learning days at local universities.

I recommend it. They rate it as 16 hours a week but its closer to 10. I get it all done in 2 evenings a week and at the end of it its a real degree. I have no interest in engineering as a career, but I find it mostly interesting (except the maths side of it last year).

Many people say you don't need a degree in this day and age, that bollocks. They say it because they don't have one.

You might never get a job in your college degree field, but it prove your willing to stick hard work out, your dedicated, you can manage yourself and learn on your own.

Anyone can turn up to school and get some grades, everything is spoon fed to them. But a degree is something you earn on your own and its proof you can do it. Very few people who don't have degrees can prove they can do this in a meaningful environment people would recognise.

 

[shanna_doll]

College is good for connections. Especially if you need to move to the bigger city or even capital - you'll get some good connections, meet friends that will help you later on in life, meet friends and maybe find a wife - if your parents can finance the study, don't be stupid and do the thing. You can do IM later on.

 

[Leroyxxx]

Recently I watched good video about this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uniPYV5tKq4

 

[mickyfu]

You might be onto something.

I'm 3 years into a 6 year engineering degree with the Open University, its a UK based thing but I bet there are similar things available in the USA. It's a online/at home study with monthly in person lectures and learning days at local universities.

I recommend it. They rate it as 16 hours a week but its closer to 10. I get it all done in 2 evenings a week and at the end of it its a real degree. I have no interest in engineering as a career, but I find it mostly interesting (except the maths side of it last year).

Many people say you don't need a degree in this day and age, that bollocks. They say it because they don't have one.

You might never get a job in your college degree field, but it prove your willing to stick hard work out, your dedicated, you can manage yourself and learn on your own.

Anyone can turn up to school and get some grades, everything is spoon fed to them. But a degree is something you earn on your own and its proof you can do it. Very few people who don't have degrees can prove they can do this in a meaningful environment people would recognise.

Surely this goes against your post of working for someone else.

What good is a degree unless you work for someone else. You certainly don't need one to work for yourself

 

[NoobGuru]

Steve jobs only went to a few classes before he dropped out, its either in you or it isn't.

However higher education is essential for some vital components in this industry such as marketing. I am a high school drop out, however I actually enjoy reading and buy and read college textbooks about marketing and other various books about SEO on amazon.com.

The person who does not give up and learns from their failures can achieve massive success.

I am 27 years old, I have been earning a very nice living for the pass 8 years. My first year I made 56k profit, after that its been 6 figures for the pass 3-4 years just about now. Always climbing from 56 though.

I have read many books from amazon about this industry that I have to give credit to, I don't need an instructor thats going to cost me money that I could have poured into this industry and learn from my mistakes. I lost a lot of money and gained a lot more experience that has allowed me to live the life I always wanted, one where I do not have to wake up in the morning, I choose when I wake up and have been doing so for 8 years now, thank you internet marketing.

 

[tophi]

You can learn IM in the university, now days this is already possible and I must say is good covered. My GF for example has in her study SEO, company manager programs, and other very related to IM.
PLUS after you get your degree a big concern will get you to work for them because nowdays 'paper' is everything.
You can't work your entire life for yourself, believe me or not. What will you work or get money when you are 50+ years old ?