I just got fired from my job

[pwired]

Hi to all. I just got fired from my job. The owner of the shop where I worked wants to raise the rent. My boss can't afford to pay more rent every month so he has to close the shop. I can start looking for another job but my dream is to work on the internet with websites and processwire. For the time being I am at home so I can work with Processwire 24/7. My impression is a lot of you people on this forum are already making money somehow on the internet. I would love to have some input from you people, tips, advice, examples, anything how to start making money on the internet with Processwire. Thanks in advance.

[kongondo]

pwired,

Sorry to hear you got fired. I don't have immediate answers for you at the moment. It's never good to be out of employment

[pwired]

Sorry to hear you got fired

We'll I see it that, if one door closes, another door opens. Almost every month I read that business and services on the internet are growing and more people are buying over the internet so there must be a lot of possibilities there.

[Soma]

There was a thread by onjegolders (?) or some other guy about this subject... just can't find it.

Maybe this thread also belongs to development/pub thread?

[pwired]

Maybe this thread also belongs to development/pub thread?

Hi Soma, I wasn't sure about that so I thought it would be ok to post in "Getting started" as this is very much my case now. I forgot to mention that about a year ago I made 200 euros with translating a simple 9 page website to english. That was my first money I made with the internet. But like I said I am at home now and can be on the net with PW 24/7 so would love to hear how you people are doing it. And I am sure that would benefit more people.

[onjegolders]

@Soma, I thought so too but can't seem to find it! (There were many, many questions I asked )

@pwired, sorry to hear about your job but you're right to be positive, if you enjoy doing this then chances are with enough time spent on it you'll be good enough to make some money out of it.

Firstly you probably want to ask yourself "What part of the web do I like the most?" Does the design part inspire you, the coding part? Both? Are you interested in all various parts of the web or do you have one particular area.

Also what character do you have? Are you driven? Or do you prefer to be told what to do (Freelancer vs Employee).

Also what skills do you currently have?

[OllieMackJames]

Hi pwired,

I like what you said:

We'll I see it that, if one door closes, another door opens. Almost every month I read that business and services on the internet are growing and more people are buying over the internet so there must be a lot of possibilities there.

Here's what I learned over the last 9 years of making money online, allow me to use the analogy of a sport I love: sailing.

If there is no wind, no use putting your sailing boat out on the water...

If there is wind, anybody who puts a boat out on the water will be able to move, and the better sailers just go faster up and downwind.

No matter how good a sailor you are, if there is no wind, you are just as lost as anybody else.

So what do I mean with this?

There are lots of markets out there, but you need to find a market where people are spending money everyday, this is the wind.

Once you found a spot like that, all you need to do is get your boat out on the water and catch some of that wind.

OK, so you want to make money with pw and internet, here's a business example from the wordpress world:

www.clickbump.com Scott Blanchard, the clever brain behind it, focuses on a number of things that make wordpress sites driven by his stuff, very fast and do well in the serps.

Even though I sort of hate wordpress, and refuse to use it for my important sites, I have bought his stuff and a number of his templates on top, just to figure out what works well and to be able to port that stuff to my sites.

So if I would want a business model like this I would focus on making nice ready made sites or modules that would work great and help people get results in the serps.

The only trouble of course with this business model is that the current wind is mainly on the wordpress lake, but if you can make things easy enough for people, you would catch some of that wind, there's strategies to do that.

OK, let me think along in another direction.

How about you check the google adwords tool for certain keywords, you want keywords that have a lot of traffic and relatively high cost per click in google adwords. Once you find that, you know this is a market where money is spent, simply because these advertisers would not keep spending if they would not make money with it.

Next you do a search on google for the very same keyword and you check the top 3 adwords advertisers - check out their sites and see what is lacking there. On page seo wise, or on site engagement wise,etc. etc.

Next you could do two things (at least of course):

1 - build a site around the niche and get it to the top of google search results, then contact the advertisers and offer them the site for rent (once you are in the top 3 of organic results you will get nice traffic and be able to show your numbers and rent the site out for a percentage of the traffic x cpc.

2 - contact the site owners and tell them you can help them with redesign of their site so it gets more visitors and/or get more action out of current visitors.

Now a third option:

- build kick ass modules for pw and charge for them.

I would already have some ideas for at least one kick ass module that I just bought today from the wordpress world that would really benefit anybody with a site out there that is currently driven by pw.

As you see I am not so much focused on what you are good at, but how to apply what you want to do at where people are currently spending money. Of course you need to be good or get good at coding and stuff, but a guy with a focus on existing needs that can be met, in my book always beats the guy who focuses on what he wants to do.

Hope this helps, may the winds favor your business sails!

[pwired]

Hi onjegolders. What character I do have ? We'll if you mean related to computer work I can work behind a computer all day long and don't get bored, don't get a head ache or red eyes. What part of the web do I like the most? We'll in the stage I am right now I don't want to categorize my self but I want to make a start and evolve into the web. That could be making more websites. Here are two websites I made:

http://www.zundappks125.com

http://www.kanarenspanndecken.com/

But it could also be other things like affiliating, google adwords/adsense, selling my own products on my own website, blogging, writing ebooks on amazon, etc. etc. About my skills ? Are you offering me a job ?

We'll I repair/service 15 years computers / ran my own internet cafe for 3 years / speak and write 4 languages and know css - html - js. At the moment I am learning to it PW's api. Uhm - didn't expect to write so much about my self here. Yes, I would like freelancing as well. You read so much about people these days bringing there own device (byod) who are working in shared public offices with internet all over the place.

[pwired]

Hi OllieMackJames. Thanks for your extended post. You gave me some real good examples there and also good guiding points. Yes I also think that contacting existing websites to hire or improve things would work. It would also bring me in contact with more people on the internet and out of that sooner or later a project.

[onjegolders]

I can only really speak of websites (and I've been doing it a lot less long than many others on here) and there's certainly a market for making websites for normal people and businesses.

I have found in the last year or two that you have to be quite good at almost everything as it is very unlikely with little experience that you'll be able to specialise in one particular area.

A lot of freelancers will offer clients everything from setting up domain registration and hosting to coding their site and adding CMS capability. A lot will depend on getting "good clients". If all you find are people who want to pay you a few hundred pounds (or dollars/euros) for their site then you may have to look at reusing your own templates so that you can have a quick turnaround.

Ollie speaks very well about other areas of the web and a lot of people do make money in interesting ways though personally, I'm interested in websites, design and code. These other dark arts don't interest me as much

[NooseLadder]

Hi pwired, sorry to hear about your job, but you are right when you say another door opens. This exactly happened to me and I have been working for myself for the last ten years, but only about six years on the web.

If it helps in any way I will give you a bit of my background (please don't take it the wrong way I am not trying to big-up myself).

I started web-based activities in 2007, but I have been working with PC's since the late 1980's (yes, I am an old b*g*er),  and created an ecommerce site using an off-the-shelf platform, but I created the layout/design myself. I've not had any formal training in html, css, php, js but I have learnt a lot along the way and certainly using Processwire over the last hear has boosted my knowledge, especially php.

I have created  my fair share of websites mainly using Dreamweaver and some custom Wordpress themes and now I do all my sites in Processwire for the many reasons stated on this forum. The last six months I have turned to responsive design and I now use the Skeleton framework.

In 2009 I started some affiliate marketing in the Life Insurance market, built my own site, which is still running today. I use Adwords to drive traffic and make a fair profit each month on auto pilot. I've got other things on the go as well but I think I have said enough for the moment.

OllieMackJames made some good points about starting online marketing. I use the Google keyword tool a lot but I also use other software to evaluate the competition, potential to make money, potential to get on Google's search results first page etc in any given market.

You can find some useful video about keyword research, competition etc here: http://www.noblesamurai.com/dojo/marketsamurai/

Well, I hope that helps a bit. If you have any questions you can ask me here or by PM and I will be happy to help where I can.

[arjen]

Sorry to hear! Google for the query: onjegolders making money

[pwired]

Thanks NooseLadder, for that inspiring post and video link. Are you doing your affiliate marketing in the Life Insurance market with only one website ? I will pm you more about it. Since I am 15 years in computer repair and service I have a lot to affiliate that could be bought by home and office computer users. I think I will try that first.

[NooseLadder]

Thanks NooseLadder, for that inspiring post and video link. Are you doing your affiliate marketing in the Life Insurance market with only one website ? I will pm you more about it. Since I am 15 years in computer repair and service I have a lot to affiliate that could be bought by home and office computer users. I think I will try that first.

Yes I'm only using one website  Feel free to pm me, that's fine.

[WillyC]

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/se78n/i_make_over_100k_per_month_running_dropship/

[alan]

Hi pwired, very sorry to hear you just got fired. A positive outlook will be the bedrock of your success and the advice above is excellent and I'm only sorry I can't add much to it. The only practical things I would mention are looking (and of course being) highly professional on a budget, so simple stuff like if you are going to be billing anyone then be you@yourdomain rather than you@hotmail.com and using a professional (entry level cost) invoicing system such as FreshBooks; which incidentally makes charging for time very clean (with, if on a Mac, apps like ChronoMate). This is all a bit specific so likely no use immediately but if it's of any help then I'm happy.

In the short-term this is a great training opportunity for you to see what you can learn from the Blog profile, Skyscraper profile and Module building; but of course rightly you will need to also be tackling where to use your skills to make money. So perhaps slice your days: hours a to b = PW learning and hours b to c = the sort of market and work surveying and research mention in the great posts above.

You have a lot of good will from lots of PWers and I wish you the best of luck and am only sorry I am not a wealthy PW dev looking to outsource some work right now.

[Marty Walker]

Hey pwired,

Sorry to hear about you losing your job. That sucks.

I'll have a longer answer for you tomorrow but in the meantime I'd suggest looking at some videos by James Victore. He's a graphic designer but a lot of what he has to say pertains to gaining the confidence to do what you want to do, asking for help (easy to do on this forum) and do good work.

https://www.youtube.com/user/JamesVictore/videos

Good luck, cheers

Marty

[jmart]

If you want to be a web designer / developer:

Create a personal website.

Place your résumé and career goals on the site. Add a portfolio of different projects with screenshots, code samples, and links to real sites you've worked on. Make sure the links work! List your skills and what web CMS's you work in. Add a contact page.

If you aren't a designer, don't post work on your own crappy design. Use a professional theme and focus on your development and integration skills. Otherwise you look like a hobbyist. Run everything you write through a spell and grammar checker.

Go to places like elance and Odesk. Work for cheap until you have some good experience. Do a website for your brother-in-law's business or a local school or charity. Put some meat on your résumé/site.

Why all this? I own a web design company and I get job requests every day. If their emails don't have a link to an online portfolio, I hit delete.

[pwired]

@ alanfluff

if you are going to be billing anyone then be you@yourdomain rather than you@hotmail.com and using a professional (entry level cost) invoicing system such as FreshBooks;

@ jmart

If you aren't a designer, don't post work on your own crappy design. Use a professional theme and focus on your development and integration skills. checking on elance and Odesk.
@ marty

https://www.youtube.com/user/JamesVictore/videos

@ willyc (from dropship)

I find suppliers who warehouse and ship high margin products "blind" which means it has my company label on it.. Then I market the products on my own niche websites. Every time someone places on order on my sites, the supplier ships it to the customer for me. For example.. I'll sell a TV for $999 and the supplier will charge me $450. So I make $549 profit without any work besides running the website.

This is going to keep me behind my laptop for the rest of the week. I sure have some time to spend on it now. Somebody once said: You have to approach what is (my job loss) through a different advantage point. Well this forum with you guys gave me some advantage points to start working on the internet.

Thanks for all the tips and advice.

[ryan]

Sorry to hear about the job loss, but you'll appreciate it later on as you move on to bigger and better things. I think it's good that you've invested time in learning ProcessWire. You know how to use a tool that most people don't, and a tool that lets you easily turn any idea into reality. It will be a money printing machine if you want it to be. Unless you have a lot of bills to pay, don't jump back into something where you are dependent upon another employer for your livelihood. You can make a lot more money working for yourself than someone else, though it does take time to get there. Be useful. But find a way to be useful to millions of people rather than just your boss. One idea is to find a fairly specific subject you are passionate about and think about how you might build an online empire around it over time. But that's just scratching the surface. If necessity dictates going back into another job, then at least save your best energy (early in the morning or late at night) building something for your own future, rather than just your employer. The internet really is the land of opportunity where anything is possible. We have more opportunities than anyone has in history. The more you can make investments in and for yourself and the future, the better.  

[pwired]

This question falls through my mind right now.

If you are going to make a website for a client, how do you cash the money ?

How do you prepare your self when a client is not or is not going to pay all the money you agreed upon ?

I spoke with a german who made and exploits the following website: http://www.comprendes.de

One way he wins money from his website is by advertisements like from transport companies, t-shirts, local german zipf bakery, etc.

It is in german, but it's an interesting website by the way.

That german said he always cashes the money for making a website upfront.

If the client does not agree on paying everything upfront, then he cashes the money in 2 or 3 parts. The first part at the beginning of making the website and the last part when the website is finished. He keeps all the admin login data, such as ftp, frontpanel, emailaddresses, domainregistration, etc. until he has been paid the last part of the money, and then gives the client all the admin data.

What do you guys think about this ?

[arjen]

I really have three tips:

1) Find a good professional accountant who you can trust (preferably through a contact)
2) Find a good professional lawyer who you can trust (preferably through a contact)
3) Find someone in your network who already has set up a profiting business. If you ask you'll be surprised how open people are in general.

These guys will save you money in the long run.

[pwired]

@ arjen

1) Find a good professional accountant
2) Find a good professional lawyer
3) These guys will save you money in the long run.

I guess you are right but wow that sounds serious to me and holds me away. Isn't that for big dollar websites because those guys have an expensive hour rate don't they ?

[alan]

@pwired, +1 for @arjen's post if you are doing business as a small corporation. In my (limited) experience you will have an initial upfront cost to both 1) and 2) when you initially setup, then you will likely need to use the lawyer very rarely indeed and the accountant often only once a year. Of course such advice depends a lot on the detail of your position, plans, skill set, desires etc. One thing I am sure of is that I am glad I did the 1) and 2) from @arjen's list for my particular circumstances. Continued good luck

[arjen]

I don't want to hold you back! I will explain myself further. Since you want to be a professional in the internetbusiness, let other people be professionals in their business. I've made some stupid mistakes not hiring professionals. A good accountant will pay itself back - trust me on that. My accountant does my administration and keeps my books in order. He knows that to do with the law and taxes. My expenses hiring a accountant went up, but on the other hand he also showed me what I was doing wrong with my taxes. Let's say the accountant costs me $400 (really simple administration) a year, but my wrong tax administration costs me $800 a year. The bottomline is that I've just earned $400 a year. And the best part of it is that I do not have to worry anymore. I've cleaned up more time to do what I love - and that's not finances

I've never needed a laywer (lucky me), but I did recieve some advice using contracts. You can read some legal stuff on docracy.