How do you see your internet career in the near future?

[Sam]

I'm wondering how the rest of you guys are seeing your internet career in the future. I'd like to know what your real goals are, this can be how much money you'd like to earn (as much as possible I'm guessing though) and which projects you absolutely want to complete in your career.

First let me share you some of my thoughts.


1. Coding service
I've been studying various coding languages since the age of 11 (when i took my first course of html.) and I really would love to establish a service where I build anything from a small website to big e-commerce projects. As of yet, I don't know every language, but I'm rapidly progressing. Right now I'm learning ASP.NET.


2. My own Forum Code
Having had some problems with the three major forum codes in the past (Vbulletin, phpBB and Invision Power Board), I'd like to create my own forum code. When it's finished and stable, I might consider distributing it, but I'm not really sure of that yet.


3. Manga network
I'm a big Manga (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga) lover, and I'd love to have my own Manga network. I don't want it to be as any other Anime/Manga-website there is though (focusing only on downloads, never having content updated,...). I want it to be professional and a community where it is fun to hang around, talking about your favourite manga. But this project is more a fun-project then a money-making project, i would place ads but just to pay for it's hosting and such.


4. Script sales
Along with the coding service, I want to have a site which will sell some of my scripts I'll make (for example : tutorialsite scripts, arcadescripts), but I don't want to limit myself into just copying every script there is, I will implent the newest features like AJAX and just making it better than the code of the competition.


5. Hosting Service
Last of all, I'd like to have my own hosting company, because of all the trouble i've had in the past with hosting. I didn't like those problems and I want to prevent that for everyone else to occur.


So these are my ideas (for now), if you want, please share me yours. And yes, I know I'm ambitious

[jacob]

i think my goals are along the same as yours. i dont care to write my own forum code, although that could change. I do want a network of sites, just not for manga. I've already been writing my own code for sctuff that I've used other services for but got fed up in not being able to tweak the way I want to wrote my own from scratch. Which I hope to eventually start selling.

I've always wanted my own server somewhere and with the cost of it, want to offset it by offering web hosting. This is something I won't venture into myself until I start making enough money to pay my hosting costs.

On top of that, finishing off my degree in IT management and obtaining my MOT MBA.

[Sam]

I do want a network consisting of sites that don't concern manga as well, but the goals I described in my first post, were the ones that are most important to me. Anyways your goals seem nice as well, I wish you luck with your future career.

(As a sidenote, i really hope you'll get your degree. I myself, want to get a degree in something not-internet related, I'm going to get a degree in psychology, because you never know if internet may start to bore someday.)

[khalid]

Quite simply, I'd like to live off my website earnings.

[Michael]

2. My own Forum Code
Having had some problems with the three major forum codes in the past (Vbulletin, phpBB and Invision Power Board), I'd like to create my own forum code. When it's finished and stable, I might consider distributing it, but I'm not really sure of that yet.

I don't see a lot of point in coding your own forum code. It would be a lot of work for something that already exists, why reinvent the wheel? Unless you would be doing something that no other forum software does. For example the new vanilla forum thingy that is standards compliant.

[jeremy]

i just want to make a little extra cash and have a good time doing it.

[jacob]

(As a sidenote, i really hope you'll get your degree. I myself, want to get a degree in something not-internet related, I'm going to get a degree in psychology, because you never know if internet may start to bore someday.)

ha, the internet started boring me a few years ago, thank god for tech blogs and forums! ;)

on that sidenote, i've always pondered a second degree which is looking possibly more along the lines of psychology/sociology. have pondered getting into counselling and gender/queer studies. make me want to puke thinking about how much more schooling that is.

[jeremy]

from what i hear, you need a graduate degree to do anything worthwhile in psychology because every college campus in the country is teeming with psych majors.

[jacob]

I'm looking at going right thru to the phd.

will make my current student loans look like a kids piggy bank by the time i'm done :'(

[Anthony]

I can see myself working online for many years to come as a part of a solid career as a businessman. Owning websites isn't really for me, as I find it too easy to sell them on and move on with another one at a very early stage, so I really want to carry on with the designing and development and progress to owning my own new media company, renting offices, hiring employees and going after those big contracts.

That's many years away though, and at the moment a lot of hard work away.

[Tyler]

Quite simply, I'd like to live off my website earnings.

This is such a simple goal but it's probably the most meaningful goal when met. If you love web publishing, then making a living from your sites is... awesome. What's best is that it's most definitely a realistic and attainable goal.

For me, I'll list my goals in two formats:

Short Time Goals

To average $10,000 a month by August 2006
To have 3 large money-making sites with two being in different genres

Long Time Goals

To make enough money where I can do pretty much whatever I want, such as travel when and wherever I want (I know you can do that backpacking, but I'd prefer to travel with a bit more comfort :P).

I've also been thinking and dreaming of this for a while now, and it sounds silly but I really want to do it: I want to make enough where I can hire private tutors, professors from prestigious universitys and colleges to teach me. I want to learn a few languages and academia, but would love to have private tutors so I can make up for lost time and really learn from the best.

[khalid]

Having been to Greece several times, I'd love to wake up every morning, look out my window, see the beautiful sun, smell the sea air...

Flip open my laptop, read a few blogs, check my earnings then relax.

You only get ONE life, you can't turn back time or do this over again...who wants to sit at a desk all their life. Shit, I'm nearly 20, a quarter of my life is gone...do I really want to let the others fly by and not embrace every moment? Hell NO! Tyler, I really do envy your position and I'm working my ass off trying to get things off the ground.

One of my main problems is earning in dollars and living in UK pounds sterling (1GBP = $2 which works in my favour for buying but not living as everything costs twice as much here in the UK!)

[Anthony]

I'd much rather have a private tutor than one who has to show attention to 20(ish) other people at the same time.

If you had any advice to give beginner web publishers, what would it be? (on the verge of creating a thread for this)

[Tyler]

Yeah I don't want to answer that because it will get us too far off topic here (sorry!)

[Anthony]

New topic on the way ;)

[khalid]

Education seems really important to people in the States and Canada. Tyler, you say you want private tuition, so does Bob Schmuck.

There are just two successful people who want to study! I'm the opposite, I hate it. I prefer to work and persue my internet ventures.

Do you have to pay in the states? Here in the UK, well if you are in Scotland, you get your university fee's paid for you (my course is $2500 USD a year). I also get a bursary (at one point I was getting $1400 every 14 weeks for 3 terms, and I was only at uni for 10 out of the 14).

A degree doesn't mean much here anymore, over 50% of the population are going to uni. Competition for graduate jobs are high, hence I'm putting efforts into my online ventures. A normal degree is just a piece of paper these days to say you are disciplined and not an idiot, but there are far more many ways to show this.

If I were in your position Tyler, I'd buy a villa with a pool in a hot country overlooking and go live there. You only live one, why not enjoy it. Perhaps my idea is a bit far fetched, but hey who cares.

[Zane]

I dont think I will live off the internet. I see it more as a profitable hobby (Which i will still put time into). I'd liek to go into business, maybe be a business analyst or something.

[Tyler]

If I were in your position Tyler, I'd buy a villa with a pool in a hot country overlooking and go live there. You only live one, why not enjoy it. Perhaps my idea is a bit far fetched, but hey who cares.

Actually I moved to Korea for a short while when I was 19. Bet you didn't know that, did you? :)

[khalid]

I did actually, I know more than you think! (ok, I'm not a stalker :eek: )

May I ask why you moved there, how you found it, and why did you come back?

Also, why don't you just bugger off somewhere with a pool and relax with Lisa?

[kaizan]

Continue to helping others start their online dreams.

2-3 profitable sites i am also fully interested in will continue to grow.

Then spend my time blogging and adding content to the sites.

[L146705]

One of my main problems is earning in dollars and living in UK pounds sterling (1GBP = $2 which works in my favour for buying but not living as everything costs twice as much here in the UK!)
I know what you mean, a dollar is nothing over here, about the price of a mars bar/snicker.
I would like to earn the equivilent as to what I would earn in a full time job with my qualifications and experiance, about 40k usd or 20,000gbp.

[MDStidham]

I want my internet career to be something that I only have to put in about 1 or 2 hours a day on. I also want it to be a low stress hobby that I enjoy doing. However I want to make a lot of money from good sites.

[Joshimitsu]

I'd like to have some big mainstream websites, that i enjoy to run and make a lot of cash in the process :D (making me a very good living)

[aloksingh]

I have really not much internet goals in the future. I just want to create some websites about topics which I like and if I can possibly get some income of them, then it is good for me.

[Submerge]

I'm scared of the future, because I want to actually get my income from the Internet. Which in all reality can be unstable. I'd like to make at least 30K-40k a year within the next couple of years, which will be a lot of work. And if I can't do it through publishing, hopefully I can get into being a contractor for web development.

[andyw]

the future will always be uncertain... i wont put that much hope

[Chris369]

Like someone else said, I just want to live off my website earnings. I don't see it happening for a loooooong time though unless I think of something that hasn't been done before.

[Submerge]

I don't believe you always need to have a fresh unique idea to make money, you just need an eye for new things that others are doing and get in before everyone else does.

[Tyler]

Hehe, I believe something different. I believe you have to have a different angle that makes the site different, or else do it better than others.