Am I stupid?

I've doing doing IM for about three years now. Haven't earned anything decent. Is there a possibility that I'm a dense motherf*cker after all and would be better off in some stupid ass fudge packer job? Although I've never bought THE "books" I still made some really baaaaad "investments". Like, I've spent more than 500$ on SEO "packages", bad. Sure, I know some SEO stuff, web design, little programming, some copywriting, etc. Is it normal for a person with average intelligence to be stuck in this... Thing... for so long and only earn mere 2.5$ a day? I know that IM has it's ups and downs but does anyone know an online test or something like that to see if I have the downs?

Someone asking other people whether it's stupid or not in most cases is not stupid

Nothing wrong with making mistakes. You only become a failure when you give up.

If I could give any advice to my younger self, it would be that word of mouth is still a fantastic marketing tool. Don't fall for "Warrior Forum-esque hype", that makes it seem like there's some special secret sauce to earning internet money. The simplest stuff is often the most effective.

Well then it goes without question that whatever you have been doing is not working at all. I would consider changing gears and trying different things until you can make something stick.

Have you tried outsourcing? I have been at IM for a little over a year and have managed to make some good money (at least to me) without doing anything new or innovative whatsoever. I literally just find a service that someone else is already offering and then sell it for 3x more on my website. If the site looks professional and you can find the right traffic source for what you're selling then making sales is easy. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed so if I can do it, anyone can.

I failed for a good 5 years before I started making any money. No risk, no reward is what I say. Keep continuing your education in IM and don't be afraid to invest in new things you believe will make a profit and try new things constantly until something sticks, then scale it up and move onto the next thing.

At this point, I'm at having a relatively small website (50+- articles). But here's a dillema - good articles + good backlinks = fuck yes? Good articles + no backlinks (or at least The Matt Cutsian way of getting backlinks naturally) = traffic that can earn you whole 5$ a day. Not so good, rarely updated articles + good backlinks = traffic that doesn't really convert, so still at 5-10$ a day. At the moment I have superb articles along with sharp design (trying to make things "quality" from now on) but not so many backlinks. I've read about the "sitewide footer backlinks are a no go after penguin". But I can see many contradictions, my competitors make fantastic WP themes, use these backlinks and rank like bosses. If I go the "natural" way then I'll be making 100$/day in like 5-10 years (assuming that I'll try to get "Matt Cutts approved" backlinks) but if I make few great WordPress themes I can be there after like one year or so. Yet, I'm still hesitant, how can all the authoritative, SEO guru, websites be so sure that footer backlinks do harm and can't help you when there is solid evidence that they not only don't do any harm but can also help? It's a bit of a mindf*ck. Not sure what to do at this point. If I just make 5$ with few hundred visitors daily while my competitors make hundreds a day with articles that are same quality or lower then there is no point to continue. Investing at least few hours a day for few bucks is not worth it if there is no possibility to earn more in the future. I'm just astonished with all the "buy SSL certificate and lick Matt Cutts balls for better rankings" bull*rap.

Question is, do you really like internet marketing?

maybe you start focusing on something, you fail so you change simply to another thing, i'm not the best guy to give advices in IM, but i think i'm on the right track, coz i picked a niche that i naturally know it very well, and i'm escalating with adsense revenue (in my case i'm taking the easy way, provide valuable content => grow => and hope someone click on the ads, i'm not even using page break, going fully white hat)

tronox said:

I've doing doing IM for about three years now. Haven't earned anything decent. Is there a possibility that I'm a dense motherf*cker after all and would be better off in some stupid ass fudge packer job? Although I've never bought THE "books" I still made some really baaaaad "investments". Like, I've spent more than 500$ on SEO "packages", bad. Sure, I know some SEO stuff, web design, little programming, some copywriting, etc. Is it normal for a person with average intelligence to be stuck in this... Thing... for so long and only earn mere 2.5$ a day? I know that IM has it's ups and downs but does anyone know an online test or something like that to see if I have the downs?

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Stupid no as you outlined your skills, why not find local businesses with crappy websites and use the skills you learned so far to re do their sites and offer a service for IM, you'll be suprised how many businesses don't know how to do it. It would earn you some money and build your confidence

This caught me off-guard. I can't say I like writing almost identical articles. This just kills creativity, brain cells, and is f*cking boring as f*ck but I enjoy creating WordPress themes. I know I can create WordPress themes and just sell them but there's no money in that. ThemeForest is overcrowded, most people buy Avada and X just because. I can't sell from my own website because there are EU laws and regulations that f*ck small time developers in the a**. Other alternatives... Hmm... Freelance - kinda risky I'd say + you have to compete with other 100 developers for jobs which takes time. Only one good alternative is to create really niche friendly WP themes like logistic, medical, etc. but I have been rejected by Tforest over 20 times so I have this "irrational fear of rejection"

why not build unique themes and pay for some articles, bit of IM and flip them. You do the theme designing and get writers to write unique articles

Here's the thing, as crazy as it sounds, I like doing things my way, especially writing. I won't spend a penny on illiterate cr*ckheads. Last time I did, I never got these "first page rankings".

tronox said:

Here's the thing, as crazy as it sounds, I like doing things my way, especially writing. I won't spend a penny on illiterate cr*ckheads. Last time I did, I never got these "first page rankings".

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Even better, so you like building themes and writing. If you offer a service to local businesses you could build the site and write for their blogs charging them for it. Many businesses don't have the time or resources to organize it themselves. As with the rankings bit, just don't offer that as part of your service if that's not your thing. You could outsource that and charge them without doing it yourself. You could offer a monthly service and bank each month

Here are a few questions i have before giving u any advice.
1. What is your monetization method?
2. How many UV you have per day to earn yourself 2.5$ per day?
3. What is ur ranking strategy? as i noticed, you mentioned you only do WH SEO, does that apply to all your sites?

Well, the "I like" part is a choice between buying articles for like 10$/100 words or writing myself. I don't like writing these articles but I'm good at doing that. I have tested some cheaper ones and they leave lots of mistakes + do no research. I am now more concerned with whether I should create themes for backlinks or create to sell them (local businesses wouldn't pay much as I live in 3rd world country). Thanks for advice, though.

How competitive is your niche?? If you've spent more than $500 on SEO and haven't seen any results, then something is either terribly wrong or you need to start choosing more wisely. I prefer to do things my way too, but sometimes despite all my best efforts, or how much I think I may know, my lack of knowledge limits me. If something isn't working how I planned, then I find a service with a bigger brain than me and just let them take care of it. Somewhere along the line of what you've been doing so far something is failing you and you need to figure out what exactly that is.

Have you tried any methods of going out and finding the traffic yourself, rather than waiting for them to find you? Like social media, forums, PPC or blog commenting?
Meathead1234's method is sure to make you some sales http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/making-money/359445-easy-100-day-perfect-noobs.html

1. Ads2. Between 100 and 2003. I have built social media profiles and contacted webmasters asking for backlinks in their articles (so far only few high quality backlinks).

I have spent the 500$ in the past, on other website. My niche is somewhat competitive, depends on subniche. I wouldn't spend a penny on services here as the articles are often spun and not written even though advertisement says they will be unique. I have some traffic from social media, blog commenting, and forums, but that is like 30-40 visits a day.

tronox said:

1. Ads2. Between 100 and 2003. I have built social media profiles and contacted webmasters asking for backlinks in their articles (so far only few high quality backlinks).

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To be honest, i think the problem are your SEO method as well as monetization method.

I wouldn't suggest you to switch to other IM method, i highly suggest you to stick with SEO and be more aggressive in term of link building. I think this is the biggest mistake people make, and yes i was also guilty for this. When you are afraid to fail, you tend to be more careful, and the more careful you are, the less likely you will be able to achieve anything groundbreaking.

I really not a fan of monetizing sites with ads placement, i knew a lot of people are having huge success with it but you will need to have a huge a mount of traffic to make anything decent. Try CPA, it can get you 10$ per day quite easily.

Just my 2cent though.