Comments on: Is It OK to Make Money Online? A Candid Discussion

By: Curtis

Curtis — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 02:04:30 +0000

I am really glad you addressed the topic of making money online by talking about making money online. I am fairly new to podcasting (downloaded the apple podcast app when it came out a few months ago). I mainly got it to listen to BBC news, stuff you should know, etc.

At one point, I stumbled accross internet business mastery. I have always been interested in making money online, but was never sure if it was for real of just a gimmick. I felt like IBM was legitimate, but I noticed that they seem to make their money online by telling people how to make money online. I continued to listen to them and expand out to other podcasts. On one of the IBM podcasts, they were interviewing Pat Flynn. After listening, I listened to a few of his podcasts, along with a few others in internet marketing.

One thing that kept striking me was it seemed like everyone making money on the internet was making money by telling/selling someone else on making money online. Was it just a never ending circle of people selling you something? Started to feel like a huge ponzi scheme in a way. I have nothing against Pat Flynn, and I applaud the fact that he earned over $50k in a month. I consider that pace of earnings to be someone who is or will be rich. But to look at his last earnings report, $38k comes from telling others how to make money online, $4k from iphone apps, $6k from a client and $5.8k from what I (personal opinion only) consider to be internet business. $5.8k a month is great, but thats making a living, not getting rich. Again, I don’t fault Pat for his earnings/methods, etc. and some may argue that iphone apps and client payments are internet earnings. I personally feel that iphone apps are more of a software development business and client payments are for being a consultant. But to get to an actual point with this paragraph, what i am getting at is Pat gives hope to all who want to try internet business, but it still reinforces in the back of my mind that the way to make money online is to sell people on making money online.

I have continued to research different ways to make money online and realized that this was not the case, but it is very easy for someone new to internet marketing to get this feeling and get turned off pretty quickly. It is while doing this research that I put your website in my rss reader and stumbled upon this particular blog post. The fact that you were willing to address this subject has won you a loyal listener. I have listened to this podcast and your first two. I should be caught up in a couple of weeks.

I have taken the plunge and purchase the new microsite program that IBM just put out. Will I make money with it? Who knows. Will I learn how to do keyword research, set up a blog, write articles, outsource articles, build backlinks, setup google adsense, setup some affiliate links (this part is inspiration from you, not the class) and maybe create a few good info products to sell myself (this part is from my mind), I think so. And most importantly of all, it stops complacency and gets me started. The one thing I have no doubt about is that if I am willing to put in the time, effort and some money, I will eventually make an online business of my own.

Sorry to rant on your blog, I don’t have a lot of people around me that are into this stuff.

Thanks and I look forward to more great info from your podcast/blog.

By: masonworld

masonworld — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 02:41:59 +0000

In reply to DaveInRaleigh.

DaveInRaleigh @DaveInRaleigh Hey Dave — thanks for the honest comments about Pat.I can confirm without reservation that Pat is indeed an “outstanding guy with great intentions.” I know him fairly well in an online sort of way, and I have spent several hours 1:1 with him face to face.So, that’s all good.Your point that could make his income report better by clearly splitting the SPI income from the other stuff is very interesting. I will mention it to Pat.As for deleting it all together — i don’t agree with that. Pat is trying to be completely transparent by disclosing all of his income. I really believe that is his primary motive. If he did not disclose it, people would definitely criticize him for “hiding” his main income question his intentions. Just my opinion (obviously).You raise another good point that disclosing URLs can have some impact on rankings initially. It would be great if Pat (or I) could build something from scratch in secret and disclose the results. I don’t remember when Pat revealed his URL and I have no way to know the impact….but I do see your point here.Thanks again for your feedback (and the kind words). I will be addressing this further in Episode 034 of the podcast. Stay tuned.Best regards,Mark

By: DaveInRaleigh

DaveInRaleigh — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 04:11:48 +0000

Mark — Great, great topic! I’m really conflicted about Pat Flynn. He seems like an outstanding guy with great intentions, and nobody that is interested in becoming an entrepreneur should ever give a criticize anyone for making a buck. That said, I wish he’d leave his Smart Passive Income earnings out of his monthly report. They are massive. They completely eclipse his other sites… the kind of sites he’s coaching us to build. I don’t know why it bothers me, and it shouldn’t, but it does. He made 25-g’s just from BlueHost alone. Here’s the point: I’m not interested in what you made off me, I’m interested in what you made from visitors on your sites that are unrelated to making money online. I think to really prove that his techniques work, we should see decent income from websites that are unknown to us. I stress “unknown” to us. I was excited about the niche site duel up until they revealed the names of their sites. I’d love to have 20,000 people hit my brand new site out of curiosity. Maybe I’m wrong about this, but doesn’t that give you a little Google goose? And once you’re in the top two, the income will surely flow in rather quickly from people actually looking for that topic. That’s where Mark Mason stands away from the pack. I rarely feel like you’re trying to sell me a dream. I feel like you’re coaching me to the gate, but I don’t feel like you’re convincing me it’s going to be a cake walk if I do “a” “b” and “c”. Sorry to make this so long, but you hit a hot button. By the way, I’m reading The Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, as well, so I had to smile when you were talking about it — and I totally agree; there are good lessons, but it’s a little strange at times, too. -Dave

By: DaveInRaleigh

DaveInRaleigh — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 04:11:48 +0000

Mark — Great, great topic! I’m really conflicted about Pat Flynn. He seems like an outstanding guy with great intentions, and nobody that is interested in becoming an entrepreneur should ever criticize anyone for making a buck. That said, I wish he’d leave his Smart Passive Income earnings out of his monthly report. They are massive. They completely eclipse his other sites… the kind of sites he’s coaching us to build. I don’t know why it bothers me, and it shouldn’t, but it does. He made 25-g’s just from BlueHost alone. Here’s the point: I’m not interested in what you made off me, I’m interested in what you made from visitors on your sites that are unrelated to making money online.I think to really prove that his techniques work, we should see decent income from websites that are unknown to us. I stress “unknown” to us. I was excited about the niche site duel up until they revealed the names of their sites. I’d love to have 20,000 people hit my brand new site out of curiosity. Maybe I’m wrong about this, but doesn’t that give you a little Google goose? And once you’re in the top two, the income will surely flow in rather quickly from people actually looking for that topic.That’s where Mark Mason stands away from the pack. I rarely feel like you’re trying to sell me a dream. I feel like you’re coaching me to the gate, but I don’t feel like you’re convincing me it’s going to be a cake walk if I do “a” “b” and “c”.Sorry to make this so long, but you hit a hot button.By the way, I’m reading The Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, as well, so I had to smile when you were talking about it — and I totally agree; there are good lessons, but it’s a little strange at times, too.-Dave