July 31, 2022

25 years on the net

 It was in 1997, 25 years ago, that I got myself first Internet connection. It was a difficult time in my life because I had a problem with mz emplozment. My company existed and I worked, but the salaries didn't come. This period lasted almost a year and I did everything to overcome the financial crisis. I had created an application for the PC, which had nothing to do with the web, and was trying to sell it. I used the Internet for advertising, but since this was in its infancy and not many people had it, I also did traditional advertising: some cheap advertisements in newspapers and brochures in mailboxes. Everything was going relatively well and it was the only income at that time, but still not enough to cover the expenses. What few savings I had were dwindling all the time. It didn't take me long to understand that the Internet can be an additional source of income and so I started with the first sites where I displayed banner ads. Given the lack of financial means, the sites I opened were at no cost, that is, on the platforms that offered hosting and a free domain.

In September of that year my savings went to zero, I had paid the rent for the apartment for the next three months, but luckily Ifound a new job and so my economic situation returned to normal. The application I had produced was still selling, and in November the first check from the United States for advertising I ran on my sites arrived. Yes, in those days they sent checks by post; electronic wallets did not yet exist. The check showed the figure of sixty dollars. I was delighted. I had read everything I could find on how to increase the visibility of the site and the number of visitors and I was putting it into practice. As visitor numbers grew, so did the number of clicks on banner ads. Six months after the first check, I made two thousand and five hundred dollars in one month, more than my salary at the time. The prospects were great and I was super optimistic about the future, but ... I flew fast, but soon I started the descent too. I worked badly because I was satisfied with the results achieved very quickly and when you work badly, the income drops.

Years went by and things got worse and worse. I decided to change the way I work. I had invested in hosting and registered my first personal domain. I opened the new free sites, mainly blogs and toplistas, to have my own links. I made some Visual Basic applications to help me manage my work and to automate some network operations that I used to do manually. So I freed myself up some time to devote myself to more creative things. I also found new sponsors to diversify the field of work. The result was not seen immediately, but I had patience and worked hard. I was earning between five hundred and nine hundred dollars a month on average. I was relatively happy, but I felt that more could be done. So the year 2006 arrived. Things started off great. I had tripled my average earnings and two years later, 2008, I reached my peak; in one year I have collected an amount with 6 digits. I was good at this job but also lucky. The conditions were good; we were at the beginning of the Internet economic boom in certain sectors and not many understood this. When word got out of the skyrocketing earnings, everyone wanted to take their share and the competition multiplied. As expected, income started to decline, but in the meantime I managed to build my financial security for the future and continued to work with less intensity. I worked late into the night and often went to bed at 2 or 3 in the morning. It was time to relax a bit.

Today I still work as webmaster. I have more than 100 sites, including those with my own domain (currently I have 8 domains) and free ones. I have optimized my work so as not to have to do too much and to be able to do when I feel like it. Financial success is no longer so stimulating for me and I also want to have free time for other activities I enjoy, first of all for travel. I have prepared a table with the tasks to be performed: simplifying, for each site add 2 links per year and make two new pages or two updates. It doesn't sound very demanding, but considering more than a hundred sites, it's not really that I'm bored. The average earnings are below what it was at the beginning and it could be said that I get an additional allowance per month. Even null months occur, where nothing arrives on the dedicated electronic wallet. Not long ago I also made myself a gift for this quarter-century anniversary; I bought myself the new PC. The old one was from 2007 and after 15 years it ended up as a relic of history in my cellar; it is still functional.