Possible to make a full time wage online?
By GemmaR
@GemmaR (8517)
July 6, 2011 8:13am CST
I have been thinking about this for a long time now, and I am wondering just how possible you think it is to earn a proper full time wage online.
For me, earning online is currently my sole income. However, I have a partner with a good job, and am not going to pretend that he doesn't contribute more to the household bills than I am able to at the moment.
The websites that I currently use are:
MyLot
Triond
Slicethepie
..and these are the only websites that I work for. Oh, and I earn a couple of dollars each month on my Google Adsense as well, but is so low that it isn't really worth talking about.
I also place a lot of my earnings into a cash ISA at the end of each month, and currently earn ~$10 interest on the money that I have in that account, which is helping me to save up for the deposit on my house.
However, I doubt that I would be able to live off my online earnings if it weren't for my partner being able to contribute to the bills as well.
How do you feel about this? Is there ever a time where you could see yourself being your own boss and working from home, or will all of your jobs involve working for other people?
Please share your comments below.
3 people like this
15 responses
@SpikeTheLobster (6403)
•
6 Jul 11
It's entirely possible to make a full-time wage online. You just have to treat it like any other freelance business.
None of the sites you mentioned will do it, of course - because they're not designed to! They're built to be fun more than anything else, not to bring in a realistic wage. The only way you'll do that is by hunting down freelance work - either locally, on the bidding sites or through other online job listings.
Personally, I'd be earning a full-time wage if I didn't have other responsibilities that completely mess up my schedule every day (like last night I was up until 6:30am - try to fit a work day around THAT!). As it is, I earn a decent part-time wage, though it's pretty variable because I don't market myself and just have a few regular, flexible clients.
If you want to make your online job a full-time earner, treat it like any full-time business.
1 person likes this
@SpikeTheLobster (6403)
•
6 Jul 11
There's no "magic formula", just like in normal business. You could do exactly the same things I've done over the last three years and be destitute or a millionaire!
The main problem is that, unlike you, most people seem to think earning online is somehow magically different to the real world. They just have to plug in and money will appear from the Secret Happy Land Of Infinite Wealth. Obviously, it doesn't work like that: the virtual world is based on the real world and the economy works the same way (globally, of course).
There's no reason you can't run your own freelance business or franchise from home. No reason at all. It just takes effort and work, the same as running your own business in a shop would.
@GemmaR (8517)
•
8 Jul 11
I agree with what you're saying, however believe that certainly my articles on Triond could pay enough if I work hard enough on them. I get $10 per day on them at the moment (but I do have hundreds, which have been written over the course of a couple of years) and get about $1 initially in the first couple of days of writing a new one, and then maybe a couple of cents per day after that.
I am interested about the concept of freelance work though. I wish that I was good at web design, because I know that a lot of people earn their money from doing that. However I am not good at it, so I am concentrating on my writing. I do offer websites great deals with my work, and have managed to earn a fair bit from approaching it in this way, so I suppose I'll just have to see what the future holds for me.
@GardenGerty (160626)
• United States
6 Jul 11
I have been out of work a year, and although I still get unemployment, it will not last long, and I need more money, neither of us are working. I need to actually "work" at my online earnings, but it is difficult as people are always interrupting me, or I am interrupting myself. Good luck on saving for your house. I make 50 or 60 a month, not really enough to live on.
1 person likes this
@GemmaR (8517)
•
8 Jul 11
It is such a shame with the current job market that so many people are out of work for such a long time. But it is good that you are keeping yourself busy by trying to find things to do online. If people are interrupting you then you should talk to them about it. Whenever my family interrupt me while I'm working online, I tell them that just because I'm working from home it doesn't mean that it's any less of a job, and I need to work between the hours of 9am and 5pm just as I would if I had a "real" job as they like to call it. I set myself proper working hours, and sometimes let myself do "overtime" as well. My family do not understand, and will usually expect me to run errands during the day which I object to as I am "at work", but gradually I think that they're coming to the conclusion that I am working.
@GemmaR (8517)
•
8 Jul 11
It's good that you are able to find the time to work an offline job as well as earning a good amount online, too. I think that even if you can just pay a couple of the bills then this is certainly worth it because a lot of people are struggling to pay their bills at the moment. I am constantly on the look out for new and different websites that I can join and try to make some money out of, but I always come back to the same few because I trust them and have been a member of them for years and now know what works and what doesn't work for me as a person.
@dodo19 (47317)
• Beaconsfield, Quebec
21 Jul 11
I do think that it's possible. I do think that it requires a lot of work, time, and effort in order to do so, but I still do think that there is a chance that you can do so. It's certainly nice to be able to be your own boss, create your own schedule, and things like that.
@wongchoiyee (7413)
• Malaysia
6 Jul 11
I also feel that if it were not my dad supporting me all the way, I won't be here now. I think that online money is good only if its enough and if its not enough then no use to stay at home. I go out regularly to seek an opportunity for money. Hope that you have enough money online.
@GemmaR (8517)
•
8 Jul 11
It is good that you have such a supportive Dad who is able to help you out whenever you should need him to. I do try to look for jobs offline myself sometimes, but I live in a small village and have worked out that even just to get into the city and then home again would cost $10 per day, plus I'd have to spend money while I was at work on food and things in my breaks, so I worked out that I probably have more money at the end of the day by working online than I would in a real job. Because of the hours I save when I would have been travelling to and from work, I can spend a little more time online earning and that means that I think my wage is better than I would have been able to get offline.
@ravisivan (14079)
• India
6 Jul 11
hello GR: You can apply to www.freelancers.com. Become a member. Bid for contracts. You are able to write good english. You will get. recently a phil girl got a contract for 1500$ -30 days. Try. best wishes
@GemmaR (8517)
•
8 Jul 11
Thank you for that, I will certainly take a look at that website later on today. If there is really the opportunity to make the kind of money that you mentioned in your post, it looks like it would be worth my time having a look and trying to see what it is all about. I can write good English, indeed. Firstly I am English which helps, and secondly I have strong qualifications in both written and spoken English, which are certainly giving me an advantage at the moment whenever I am applying for any writing jobs.
@cableman67 (872)
• United States
7 Jul 11
I have been earning money from the internet for several years now and I am just now on the verge of my earnings becoming what you would consider full time wages.
I started out taking online surveys and participating in online surveys and still do as a matter of fact. At first I joined everyone I could find and eventually weeded out the bad ones. Now I have my favorites and a few others I use regularly to create some of my internet income.
My second step was to start writing articles for websites that paid for them. It is a good way to make money while getting your name out there and get some good experience of writing online articles and getting them published. This is also a good way to get back links to your website if you have one therefore promoting traffic to your website which everyone knows is essential for a productive site.
My third step was to build my own website which I just mentioned and this can be hard to do because you need to put a lot of thought into what you want it to be and do you want to use it to market products or just to help people with a certain need or maybe something else. Either way, you are getting experience which will most certainly come into good use very soon once you reach this point.
Now, for my next step I decided I needed to sell something to start really bringing in substantial money. I started with e-bay and some personal items that I was willing to put out there on auction. Very soon I was running out of items to list so I started going to yard sales to find more things to sell. I found that one step cameras were some really good movers. I could buy them for a few dollars and sell them for normally between $15.00 and $20.00. Now I can't tell you all my secrets because I am going to make a dvd telling how to make money on the internet for the regular person. Not like on of those dvd's that people sell and then when you look at it none of it really applies to you or really helps you.
Well, the dvd is in the future. For now I can offer you my website that is totally free and lists all the websites that pay me to take surveys. It also lists a few good sites that pay for articles if you are into writing. My website is free to use and all the sites are free to join. If a survey site ever asks you for money to join then it is a scam. You can get the link to my website on my profile page here on mylot. I am sorry but I cannot post the link here because we are not supposed to use posts for personal gain of any kind. Good luck to you all.
@huihojustin (604)
• United States
7 Jul 11
I have recently found a website where it is really easy to earn a month of myLot earnings in just one day! It is completely legit and is paying as well. Because of this site, I believe that a full time wage is possible to be earned, online.
@millertime (1394)
• United States
10 Jul 11
I think it's possible but it sort of depends on how much you need to live on. Some people would be satisfied with and could live off of a lot less than someone else so achieving a certain money amount per month might be enough for some but not for others. It is possible to achieve just about anything you want to achieve online if you make the commitment and work hard enough for it.
@bounce58 (17387)
• Canada
15 Jul 11
Possible, but I think very difficult.
I think if you want a full time wage, and something online, it has to be a combination of some offline work as well.
I am currently starting to set up my own retail business in which a big chunk of it is online selling. But, I will also be doing a lot of personal offline work too! And maybe by the combination of both, I could earn a full time wage.
@junrapmian (2169)
• Philippines
7 Jul 11
There are bloggers and network marketers that succeed working online. They are their own boss. As a blogger, you should be very observant about what is around you and make a blog about it. As a network marketer, you should learn how the thing works and of course, you need investments. Some are taking risks and have enough money to invest. But for people like me who lacks the ability on any of those, I don't think I can depend on online opportunities whether it's part time or full time. As of now, I have my husband and my eldest child who work and support the needs of the family and my little earnings from my online opportunities were just enough to pay for the internet connection that I am subscribed into.
@daveyboy54 (518)
• United States
14 Jul 11
There is no way to earn earn a prper wage online right away, it takes time, patience, motivation, persistence, and knowledge.
@asxenon (1440)
• Malaysia
7 Jul 11
I believe that nothing is impossible when you have the will, determination and luck. I tried few programs that promise to generate residual income as well as some HYIP and what i found is that not all promises are true and you would need to take risks if you were to invest in HYIP. I haven't been lucky in HYIP and i am not planning to be getting myself involved in HYIP since those that i joined all turns scam before i can even break even what i invested. The only program that i find working for me is Tagvillage. I only invested $5 and i won $50 in a contest, and better still got a bonus of around $350 just recently. You can have a look on my payment proof in my profile if you are interested. I personally find this program to be reliable and the operations seems to be very much transparent. The domain name itself expires on 2020 and we can even see the details of all the personal behind the company.
@sjvg1976 (41281)
• Delhi, India
7 Jul 11
Hello gemmaR,
I have been searching sites for a long to earn money but which i found are nor really reliable they all ask for money in the starting to register then they will start giving you work.I am not good at writing articles therefore i never opt for it.I always wonder how people earn online and make their livelihood by it. For me MYLOT is the only place where i earn something online but that is not my intention to earn from it.
Adding to that i have pretty good offline job but always wanted to learn skills to earn online to earn some money and make some savings for my kids.
@justinmusic7 (203)
• Malaysia
6 Jul 11
I think it'll work if we have the qualification as the professional. As I explore to other websites, there were lots of freelance in the web; such as website design, writing articles and etc. The payment is sometimes really high. As I'm still a student, I learn these computer softwares so that I can earn more from the net.