The Start of My Internet Career

First I would like to Introduce myself, my name is Bob Doran, I am a 19 year old college student attending Penn State University. I have been making a handsome living off the Internet for several years now, but it hasn't been easy... this is my Blog, detailing exactly how I have become the Internet entrepreneur I am now today, so hopefully, you can do the same.

I was about 13 years old when I first began my first small business online. I wanted to try and sell small gas powered scooters, and needless to say, the website was a total flop. Luckily, I didn't invest any money into it, but I did end up learning alot from the experience. The first this I learnt was that I needed to learn some serious HTML as well as how to optimize websites.

After about a year of just messing around online I was able to start my first actual successful business. I began reselling eBooks on eBay. I was making about $600 a month at the age of 14, as well as working a part time job with a friend of my dads doing construction... They really liked me on the job since I am a rather large guy, and even at the age of 14 I was around 230 Lbs, and 6 foot tall. I absolutely hated the job, and then I realized "Holy Crap! I'm making more money online than doing hard labor for a construction company". This was the Start of something beautiful, and also terrible at the same time. I began to ramp up my eBay sales greatly... I started writing my own eBooks about my favorite hobby at the time 'Pyrotechnics'. I was always making black powder, rocket engines, and lighting off everything I could find. I wrote several 13 page booklets on making different pyrotechnic effects, and was selling them quite quickly. I was making about $60 a day from just the pyrotechnic eBooks, and was really enjoying life. I was also buying resale rights to other eBooks, and was selling just about every eBooks I could get my hands (or mouse rather) on.

I was constantly being yelled at by my parents, since by this time I was 15 years old, with no job, but somehow making large sums of money online. They were constantly on my ass saying how all my friends are so driven, and work so hard for their money, and that I must be lazy to not get a real job. I told the repeatedly that I was doing just fine on eBay and had no need to get a job. A week or so later my dad drove me to a local hamburger joint, Max & Erma's, and told me to apply. I told him I would apply, but there was no way that I would work when it wasn't necessary. Finally, I told him I was making about $75 a day on eBay and my eBook websites, but he didn't believe my, so I decided to show them. When I got back from Max & Erma's, I decided to show my mom and dad my paypal account, which at the time had $5897.68. When my mother saw how much I was actually making her jaw dropped. My dad immediately congratulated me on my business and said how proud he was of what I was doing.

About one year later, eBay dropped the bomb on me. Without any notice at all, eBay cancelled all digital items, and no longer allowed sellers to list any digital eBooks. I was devastated immediately; this was my main income, and my websites didn't produce nearly the volume of sales that eBay did for me. I then realized there was a simple loophole to this cruel little act of eBay: CD's. I then began re-listing all my eBooks on eBay, but sold them as CD's, and upon purchase I would give the buyer the option of digital delivery, or a CD which I could mail to them for a dollar or two more. Within a month, I was back up to around $75 a day in sales, and was happy as a clam.

Now; if you are just getting into online marketing and sales, I highly recommend starting with eBooks. They are very simple, easy to manage, and cost literally nothing to get started into. Nowadays, CLICKBANK is absolutely great for promoting your eBooks. You can get an account, and list your eBooks on it for a small charge, and people will actually sell your books for you by promoting them on their websites and blogs. You simply give them a small percentage commission, and the money is in your pocket. That simple. I recommend you first go on eBay and get a few eBooks with full resale rights, then once you receive them you can then sell them on your own website or blog, and even sell them on eBay or ClickBank, although for ClickBank, it is best to write your own eBooks about a subject you are good at.

Well thats about all I have to say for thonight.... Ill put up another blog regarding autoresponders sometime soon.