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Home » The Famous Blog » How Long will it take to Earn A Six figure Income Online

How Long will it take to Earn A Six figure Income Online

December 22, 2010 - Last Modified: December 22, 2010 by Karo Itoje 2,484

Six Figure Income Online

Every now and then we visit a site where we see the webmaster holding a  4 or 5 figure income check to our face that he or she made from one of the monetization models on his or her site.

That’s just one source of income, that means he or she makes 6 or more figure income every month we wonder.

Then a lot of thoughts and questions starts running through our minds. For those who’ve started their online business for a while but yet to make money from it, they start to wonder what they are doing wrong that they are not yet making money. When will they too start making such money. They contact the webmaster and ask how he or she is achieving such success. So they can follow his or her foot steps.

The ones that are completely new to the internet get excited seeing the potential income they can make on the internet. They immediately want to know how long it will take them to start making such amount of money. How many hours they will need to put in, what exactly they will need to do and all that.

While it is a good thing to know what is working for others so that we can use it as a guide for building our business, if we are not careful it could mislead and discourage us from our internet business.

There are cases of people who suddenly change their business model to suit that of a problogger because since he or she is making a six figure income and they are not, they think that means they are doing something wrong, which might not necessarily be the case.

The way some probloggers present their ‘make money online‘ messages it has made beginners think that it is very easy to earn online. And when they set up a blog and realize that is not the case, they get frustrated and immediately give up.

The truth about making a Six figure income Online

The first thing you must know is that making a six figure income online doesn’t happen immediately even if some people promote the idea that it does. And a six figure income is a reflection of many years of hard work, determination, persistence and passion by the webmaster.

If you get the story behind the success of those making a six figure income on the internet you will find out that they succeeded because they never gave up and they’ve failed several times before achieving such success.

Recently I watched the video of Lisa of 2createawebsite.com where she took are readers through her journey to success. She said her first site failed. And there were times she put in 6-8 hours work into her internet business but didn’t make more than $20 a month. According to her it took her 6 years to replace her 9-5 job salary. And so far she has been online now building her business for 12 years (started 1998).

And others like her making a six figure income online have similar stories.

This gives you an idea of what it takes to earn a six figure income on the net. It doesn’t mean it will take you 10 – 12 years to earn same amount, it could take you less or more depending on the factors below.

Some Factors that determine how long it takes you to earn Six figure Online

How well you plan your site: Having the right details about a niche you are going into before actually venturing into it will reduce the time that it will take you to succeed since you will be focused when you start, with a good plan on how to win in your niche.

Someone that knows where he or she is going hardly gets distracted. If such person sees a big check flashed by a problogger instead of wondering how he or she did it and start changing everything to suit what that problogger is doing, he or she is encouraged knowing that it is only a matter of time before he or she starts earning the same amount.

The competitiveness of your niche: If your niche is less competitive then the work and time involved to make a success of it will be lesser. Vice versa.

How well you do marketing: It’s not enough to promote your site, you must do it well whenever you do. Offer value when promoting not spamming.

How passionate you are about your niche: Whether or not your niche is competitive, you should have passion for the niche you write on. Not just so that your articles writing doesn’t seem like much hard work for you, but also for your content to esuade your passion in other to connect with your readers.

Your general knowledge about how successful e-business is built: Understanding how successful online business is built will cut down the years it takes you to succeed. Know how the search engines work and how to please them. Know what your readers want and how to give it to them. Know how to do effective keyword research and pick a profitable niche. Having a knowledge of these three areas will help you a lot.

The amount of time you are able to put in and what you do with it: Naturally someone who does the business full time will likely achieve success quicker than someone who does it part-time especially if the person has a plan and focused on doing things related to building the business regularly.

My advice on building a successful e-business

  • Put time into planning your site before starting because it’s a business not a hobby. So have a very clear idea of the niche you’re going into before starting.
  • Don’t go for a niche because you know someone making a six figure income from the niche, you must be sure you too can do the same.
  • Do your best to be focused, don’t let yourself get lured into every make money opportunities being promoted online.
  • Invest in yourself and learn. There’s no short cut to success online or offline.
  • Believe in yourself. At times we get intimidated by others success and wonder if we are being realistic trying to compete with them.

The internet is wide enough for everyone to compete, but to compete and succeed you must be determined and be willing to do all that is necessary to be successful. Don’t let anything or anyone dissuade you.

You can’t be afraid of failure. If you are afraid to fail even before you start then I think you’ve already failed. Every successful business person whether online or offline will tell you the blessings that has come with their failures.

Most of the articles I write today are from my experiences because I failed with my first blog just like most people do. Some don’t succeed until several failed attempts.

If you are someone that is determined to excel in a particular thing, failing in it forces you to ask why. And when you follow it up you will be amazed at what you will learn and therefore can help others with. So like I would always say, you must learn to love to fail in order to achieve success.

When you fail it doesn’t make you a failure. You only become a failure when you refuse to ask “why did I fail?” and learn.

Be patient. No matter what you do, success doesn’t come overnight. Like I before it requires passion, hard-work, persistence, determination and time to earn good income online.

To your success.

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Filed Under: Money, Online Business

About Karo Itoje

Follow @BloggingNewbies

Karo Itoje is the author of blogging-the-beginners-complete-guide.com. A site where she writes to help the average beginning blogger learn how to blog to make money in a step by step detailed format; with focus on the basics. She just released a 10 days free comprehensive blogging course titled How to Start a Blog to Make Money in 365 Days or Less. Do make sure to take the course to finally learn about some important basic information to make money blogging that hardly anyone is writing about but that is important to your blogging success.

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{ 63 Responses }

  1. Alex says:
    Thank you for writing such an honest post. I am so disillusioned by the smoke & mirrors of this industry. I agree with you on all points. As long as you are passionate and focused on your niche, it will take as long as it takes. If you're just in it for a fast buck, good luck. Thank you for your candor. Alex
  2. Ewebpedi says:
    Thank you a lot for this article. Its indeed an informative and to the point post. I have also seen more than 90% bloggers fail and the major reason behind this "get rich quick" mindset plus putting all eggs in one basket. Most new bloggers plunge into a highly competitive niche without knowing the competition and without not doing a basic keywords research of what people are searching and wanting. In my experience, I've seen there are two types of audiences. One who only are looking for information and another who indeed have a mind if buying online. So, to succeed online, dedication, consistency, plan and most importantly patience are the key points.
  3. Ahmad Badyari says:
    Making a six figure income is fully depended on you ant the niche selected by you . You cannot do it overnight ,you will have to work hard on this the archive the success
  4. Ian Belanger says:
    Hi Karo, An online business is just like any other business. it takes hard work and dedication to succeed. Those "so called Guru's" out there would like you to believe otherwise, but you know how they are making those checks, by selling you products that will help- you a little, but doesn't give you the whole picture. They do this so you will keep buying their products, stringing you along without ever really helping you. Find a mentor who will give you help, without charging you for it. Those are the people who really want to help you. Thanks for sharing Karo and have a great day!
  5. Lisa says:
    This was a really good article. This is my goal to earn a six figure income, there are many factors that are involved with earning an income online. For me confidence that you can succeed is what sets you apart from everyone else. You must have that desire, patience, and willingness to do anything accomplish your dream. There are so many books to read I like Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill to help you understand what it takes to be rich in all aspects of life. My blog has an article about it. The next most important part is assessing your competition and do your homework before you jump in. It will make life much easier to have it all laid out good keywords, competition rankings, and so much more. Lisa
  6. Darren Scott Monroe says:
    Kora you go girl!! Hey Lisa had to do a MAJOR job promoting her mondel because she is selling from a GoDaddy white label domain model. I tried that for 2 years and hated it LOL. So passion is a MAJOR factor. But another major factor is the average selling price. You could have a small site and though competitive have an incredible niche where your ave product is $50 - $150 like sking, or yaughting , or golfing for young MBA pros. Something like that could get you to 6 figures in no time as long as your connecting with them.
  7. Piyush says:
    Making money in six figures won't be that easy on the 1st sight as will take a new blogger years to make his/her income coming out to be such high. But the effort required in it is really high and the most important thing to be remembered in it is CONSISTENCY.
  8. Prasenjit says:
    I think proper planning is the first step towards any business and especially when it comes to internet business, making a full-proof and bulletproof plan is what makes the difference. Now the second thing is execution of your plan and then sticking to it or abiding by your plan. Anyways its a very good post. Prasenjit.
  9. Tantan says:
    I would say that "Six figure Income Online" is for who has been successful, and success is able to be achieved if we had failed for many times. Isn't it?
    • Karo says:
      Of course.
  10. Dana says:
    I really agree about focus to one making money online method. I filled my blog with so many make money online method and the result was very low when I focus only to Adsense alone.
  11. Alex Work says:
    Internet marketing continues to be like pro sports for little kids... Everyone thinks they can do it, but almost none ever will. Just because someone can use a computer doesn't mean they can "suddenly" start earning a six-figure income online. People ought to look at internet marketing as a BUSINESS first, and not some silver bullet for guaranteed riches.
  12. Ryan says:
    Most of the probloggers that I have talked to, or that I see making six figures have been at it at least five years. I'm sure there are some exceptions, but there's simply a learning curve and process that takes time. If you're super ambitious I'm sure you could half that, but it's not going to happen tomorrow.
  13. Kunal says:
    Firstly this post is too inspiring for them who might be planning to quit blogging for not earning much. This post is too inspiring and well written with best example of 2createawebsite.com owner. Whatever work it is- be it online or any other business, it requires time to build up. Making money at the rocket speed is not really possible. On the other hand blogging or running a site is equivalently difficult. A blog requires a good and honest read community to make healthy money.
  14. Aakash says:
    This is not like 1 + 1 and you know the exact answer. This kind of thing depends on person to person and vary according to that as well. Few people are really smart and they have some kind of skill as well ... so making 6 figures to them will be lot more easier to those person who do not have skill just can read and write. So if you are looking for the answer ... than I think you should build that answer yourself.
  15. Kimi says:
    In my opinion, earn money online is a great choice for women, housewives, or a single men as they do not have stuff to pay regularly per month. I mean since we do not know when we can earn money regularly in a fix amount, it is pretty dangerous to rely on online business only. Not everyone is successful to do business online, otherwise everyone starts a blog :-) Thanks to point this out, Karo, nice to meet you!
    • Karo says:
      You are welcome Kimi, I am glad you appreciate the post. Nice to meet you too.
  16. Vivek Parmar says:
    Making six figure income is hard if you have recently started blogging. blogging is all about pateince and hard work. do hard work and money will come automatically. no shortcut to this. This is my second month in problogging and able to generate 5 figure income :). hope to get listed in six figure soon..
  17. Dinesh Verma says:
    That's a mirage! But i will be at that position one day.
  18. Dennis Edell says:
    My question is, why the immediate jump to 6 or 7 figures? The majority of folks offline barely make a decent 5 figure income...that's what I'm shooting for first. ;-)
    • Karo Itoje says:
      Hello Dennis, I believe it is because of the ideas being sold to us. You see sales pages promising a beginner to make a 5-6 figure income in 3 months. This is someone that can't even effectively surf the web yet. We are bringing our offline businesses online and encouraging others to do the same because of the different ways we can improve our income online. So you can't compare doing business with a state to doing with the whole world. A business online is exposed to the whole world so we naturally wish to earn more and at a shorter time too.
      • Dennis Edell says:
        The funny thing about it, and I don't wanna give anyone a bad idea, but if the scammers were actually smart, they WOULD say 5-figures, I'd bet they would drag even more into it.
  19. Dean Saliba says:
    What a fantastic post. So many people take a look at Shoemoney's famous Adsense check image, or John Chow's blog, and get very disillusioned when their own blog dosn't make a dollar. Most of us put in more hours working online than we would with a 9to5 job, people don't understand this.
    • Karo Itoje says:
      You're right Dean. I for one work 12 hours at a stretch at times. People must understand that building a business takes time and effort same as it is offline or even more difficult . In a business there is a time to build and there is a time to relax and reap. The building faze is always very tiring but when endured very rewarding.
  20. Pritam says:
    Really good post for the people who think why they are not able to make even 4 digit income while others make 6 figure income. The most important of this is that it takes very long time and persistence before you reach that income. Apart from this, you need to make your goal what exactly you want to do to achieve that. A systematic planning with the right approach is what it takes to achieve to make big money online.
  21. Isabel Rodrigues says:
    Earning a six figure income is no Joke. It involves lot of hardwork and patience.
    • RinatisDinoro says:
      and you are never sure if you will succeed...
      • Karo Itoje says:
        Yeah, I agree. There is always a doubt in your mind even when you know you are on the right path. Constant motivation is required to reach the finishing line.
  22. Nasrul Hanis says:
    Yeah.. we have to put a lot of efforts and serious thought in this if we really want to success and somehow it won't be happen overnight! You need passion, skills, strategies and other elements to help you out in building your business. And be realistic in what you're doing. Money won't come in a few hours easily but through you hard work and efforts!
  23. Andreas says:
    The question is, how much time and money are you prepared to invest in order achieve a six figure income? The days where people could make a six figure income with some minor guerilla marketing in a short amount of time are long over. There are always a few lucky geniuses with the right idea at the right time, but we are talking about 0.001% of all users trying to make a 6 figure income online.
    • Karo Itoje says:
      Having some money to invest sure makes things easier.
  24. TJ McDowell says:
    6 months down, 11 and a half years to go! It's nice to have at least something to look forward to. Of course, my blogging is part time, so I'm guessing that 12 years just turned into 24. That would make me 52 when I've reached blogging success. Oh well, at least by then they'll probably have technology that will make blogging easier, right? Thanks for sharing. I've copied the url down in my blog notes for later so I can remind myself how long this really should be taking.
    • Karo Itoje says:
      Hello TJ, It doesn't exactly work like that. Like I said in the article, it depends on a whole lot of factors. There are some people working part-time that are doing better than some people working full time. It is more about what you do (how productive) within the hours you are able to spare. In fact at times it is more beneficial to have less time to spare because that way when you get online you will go straight to the business you have to do knowing you have an hour or few to spare. Whereas someone with lots of time could easily get distracted.
      • TJ McDowell says:
        Yea, that makes sense. I wonder if there are signs early on that your blog is going to make it or is not going to make it. Have you seen anything like a test for your blog's future? Or do you think it's more about you choosing to just stick with your blog either way?
        • Karo Itoje says:
          I always advice that when you learn what really works and what doesn't it is better to start over and do things right than stick to something that is not working. I did that myself with my first blog. I knew nothing about blogging when I started it and so everything except good content was done wrongly. When I started learning what works, I thought there was too many things I did wrongly with that blog that I just started over. And in few months the new blog was bringing in some traffic from the search engines. When you're doing things the right way, before long you'll start to see result no matter how little. I don't think there can be a tool to tell the future of your blog except you monitor what's going on with some tools. Google webmaster tool and the likes to monitor backlinks, traffic e.t.c.
  25. Prasenjit says:
    Hi Karo, I believe competitiveness of our niche and the way we do marketing are two crucial factors. Apart from that persistence and confidence are two important factors which we should keep in ourselves to be successful. This point has been very well explained by Onibalusi in a guest post at Can You Really Think and Blog Rich? where he describes his success story after several months. Thanks Karo for writing this post.
    • Karo Itoje says:
      You're welcome Prasenjit, I am glad you appreciate it. I will continue to do my best just like many others in re-educating beginners and intermediates online.
  26. Praveen says:
    i would say it all depends on hard work, you can earn in an year if you work 20 hours a day
  27. wasim ismail says:
    Hi Karo Like everyone whose commented on your post saying that its extremely difficult, I do agree it is difficult, BUT achievable. If it was as easy everyone would be doing it, to achieve something you have to scarifies something, which in this cases is your time and effort . If your looking at other top bloggers, there is a reason behind why they are big and famous & useful, which is they worked extremely hard, the timing was right, the product was correct, and they had the determination, which are all key ingredients. Just like any business, things are not as rosy as it seems in the beginning, that’s why choosing a niche that you enjoy plays a HUGE part, and focusing on producing good content will come naturally. Blogging is a great platform for a business, to generate awareness, expertises, and to position one self in the industry. Making it your MAIN source of income can be quite a task, best thing to do is to look at it as an extra avenue of income. At the end of the day, everything is achievable only thing that is stopping you, is yourself.
  28. Pete Carr says:
    Hi Karo, To earn six figures per month or even a year is most peoples dream. This should not be the reason to start Blogging. You should blog because you want to and are passionate about the subject you write about. My blog doesn't earn me very much at all, about $150 last month. Yet I am full time online. I earn from other sources, and make a good living. To get to the six figure stage (still a long way off for me) takes an enormous amount of hard work, failure, dedication and consistency. If you are determined you will succeed. Oh and have some good solid goals. Pete
    • Karo Itoje says:
      Pete, Thanks for your comment. You made some good points. The way blogs are designed makes it difficult to build a striving business on it. But I am glad and you should be too that you are making $150, I would say that is some achievement as many others haven't even been able to make a dollar online. I am sure your income will improve as you continue to put effort. All the best
  29. Lennart Heleander says:
    Hi Karo, Don’t start a blog in a niche who already has many strong and good blogs – too hard competition about ad money and visitor. Control and found a good ad partner.
  30. The Bad Blogger says:
    First of all, I got to say it is extremely difficult to earn a six figure income from blogging, and it is almost as difficult as what John Chow and Problogger started out. Why I say so, just look at the market for make money blogging in 1998 and 2010... The early days there aren't many blogger that make money online, and it is very easy for you to claim yourself as a pro... but now when u say u are a pro guess what? people will ask... where's the proof? Almost every blogger out there said "I'm an online entrepreneur" but who knows whether they are telling the truth. I once email a blogger asking how much he earn per month, since he said his an entrepreneur on his "about me page" I was curious because his Alexa ranking sucks as much as my blog. Guess what he reply... he said he earn about a few dollars a month... and I reply him why in the world he call himself an entrepreneur when he only earn a few dollars... and here's what he reply... as long as you earn a cent, you can call yourself an entrepreneur.... In the end I never reply back for the reason... he might still be dreaming... I personally think blogging is just a tool for a business. A marketing tool to get more customers and fans, look... problogger doesn't just earn from his blog, he does have other business outside his blog and also John Chow too.
    • Karo Itoje says:
      You are very right and I am glad you pointed this out. People have to know this. Darren being known as problogger from is domain name doesn't mean he actually makes his 6 figure income from blogging. And blogging works best when you use it as a tool like you said to create awareness for a real business or businesses you have online.
  31. Rahul says:
    like others said earning six figure is difficult it needs a lot of time and effort
  32. Devesh says:
    Nice Post. Blogging takes hard work, passion and time. Thank for sharing!
  33. Ryan says:
    Couldn't agree more, and I'm very familiar with Lisa's story. From all the bloggers I know that earn a strictly online source of income, it's taken at least 5-7 years to get there. If you're blogging about offline topics and competing in a local market you'll probably be able to earn that much quicker since your simply advertising services.
    • Karo says:
      I completely agree. If your niche is not worldwide but just local you can easily generate traffic from a classified offline newspaper ad and start making good money in few months. But your monetization models might be limited.
  34. Murlu says:
    The planning and implementation process is the most crucial (in my mind); it's all about finding something that you wouldn't mind investing hours upon hours into each day because those first few years really will take a toll on you but if you stick with it, you're going to earn money in the end. A lot of it is to go outside the box and try something new each day that way you don't get caught in the rut that so many others find themselves in.
  35. Jarret says:
    I've been confused about a few different monetization methods. I read an article that Darren Rowse was getting $15k in Adsense income within 10 months of starting blogging. Based on my CPM rates, I would have to literally 3-5 million monthly page views to achieve that type of monetization. One problem lately, I think is that CPM rates seem to be much lower than they used to be. In the past, people wrote about getting $10-$15 dollar CPM rates for a single ad unit which is completely unheard of today as far as I'm aware. Ultimately, it seems that to make a full time income blogging these days, one needs to have their own products to sell instead of trying to rely on low paying CPM ads.
    • Karo says:
      Create multiple sources of income. And a good way is to create a product. Apart from it making you money, it adds to your achievements and gives you a good level of authority in your niche. Among other things creating a good product for your audience will also help in word of mouth marketing or viral marketing. So creating your own product should be a must do. To be successful with it, consider running a newsletter before hand and giving out a free helpful product (good choice is a downloadable ebook), this is to allow you to build following and trust with your audience first so that when your product for sale comes out even without advertising it, you'll make good sales just from your email list.
  36. John Paul says:
    Great post. Bloggers need to understand blogging takes time and work, and if you want it to become a full time income, it will take even more time and hard work. And TY for adding my blog :) I Appreciate it.
  37. Ryan Biddulph says:
    Hi Karo, Believing in yourself and not being intimidated by other's success have been 2 keys to my success as an online entrepreneur. Never, ever compare yourself to others in any endeavor. You don't no what they went through, and they didn't have to experience what you've went through. Each person has a different story and different learning curve. See yourself being an online success by visualizing it. Eventually your dreams become fact. Have a powerful day! RB
  38. Tom says:
    It is great to see someone talking common sense.I'm tired of internet marketers telling people that making 6 figures online and it can be done working an hour a day with this push button system. That may be the truth AFTER they have been building their blog for 5-10years, but for 99.99% of people you are not going to be making 6 figures from a blog in the first couple of years.
    • Karo Itoje says:
      Internet marketers are simply telling people what they what to hear. Most people are just too lazy and so are looking for a button to press to catapult them from level zero to level 1000 which even when they know nothing like it exist they buy into it only to later cry of scam. But I think people are getting wiser now and those types of sales pages are no longer converting. Internet marketers that want to keep selling products are sitting up now. When I wrote my make money product I delibrately refuse to use make a so and so amount in so and so number of days because first I don't even know where you are at that moment, your level of assimilation, whether or not you can surf the web properly, whether or not you have access to the internet and so on. The point is since you don't know these things about the people buying your product it will be unfair to say "A perfect simple system to make you $4000 in 30days"
  39. Kevin says:
    The only sure way to get there for me is to keep my mind in one direction. That's toward my goal. How do I keep my mind in one direction? I'm determined and think of nothing else but what's in front of me. If you don't have that type of mindset then you won't get anywhere in this life. Great Post Karo!
  40. Michael yoder says:
    Nice down to earth post that should be. relity check for those who think blogging is an easy way to make lots of money. The old adage is true, if it sounds to good to be true...
  41. Kharim says:
    In order to make money blogging you have to work at it very very hard. If you blog to make money you will know that it's not an easy task... As you said in the post, even years can pass without you reaching the six-figure mark. Great post you have here :)
  42. Daniel Sharkov says:
    Reaching a six figure income will remain an impossible task for pretty much every internet entrepreneur out there. That's just the way I see it. In order to make it, you really need to provide something revolutionary and totally different, which is out of most people's power. And still with enough perseverance and hard work, making a few hundred or even a thousand and more dollars per month is achievable. Not overnight, but one or two years is quite a reasonable time frame in my opinion.
  43. Ivan says:
    Hi Karo, I recently wrote an article about how much most bloggers earn per hour. It's not pleasant reading when you factor in the overheads and effort required to succeed. But it does, I hope, show what's required to make this work for real. Regards. Ivan

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