My Internet History – A year by year summary.
Ah yes, the internet. The first time I can ever remember being “online” was probably early 1995 (that would make me 12) at my friend Paul’s house. The second time was within days of that, at my friend Mike’s house. The third time came right after that, at my friend Danny’s house. It was around this time that I realized I wanted this internet thing in my house.
So, I did what any self respecting 12 year old would do… I begged my parents. I got pretty creative with my begging, too. In fact, after a certain number of weeks of begging, I literally taped off an entire section of my bedroom with duct tape (couldn’t find any yellow police “do not cross” tape) and hung a sign from it that said “This Area Is For Computers Only.” It was genius, and it worked. Soon after that I had a computer… and I had the internet.
What followed changed my life. I’m not even sure if “changed” is the right word. It really kinda made my life what it currently is. Not sure what I mean by that? Let me show you.
Below is a year by year summary of my internet history. It’s obviously not a retelling of every single thing I’ve ever done online as that would A) bore the shit out of you, and B) go on forever. Instead, it’s more of a retelling of some of the key events that would be of interest to you, a fine reader of this blog. So, let’s take it from top…
1995:
- At the age of 12, I get my first computer (Packard Bell) and taste of internet access (28.8k). The internet access, by the way, comes in the form of AOL 2.5 which costs an insane $3.00 per hour. I still have nightmares about trying to play around online while frantically checking the clock to see if an hour had passed yet.
1996:
- AOL drops their hourly fee, finally allowing me the freedom I needed to properly do all of the really important things a 13 year old does on the internet in 1996. Examples: Go into AOL chat rooms of music I don’t like and tell everyone there that their taste in music sucks, go into lesbian chat rooms pretending to be a hot chick so I could unknowingly talk to other guys pretending to be hot chicks, “punt” and “mail bomb” my friends with AoHeLL like a BaDaSS AoL HaCKeR, look for porn, and do other equally awesome things that really make you thank God for the internet.
1997:
- I notice I’m significantly more interested in geeky internet stuff than most of my friends. I buy some HTML book called something like “Learn HTML In X Number of Hours/Days/Weeks” and end up skimming through the whole thing in one 4 hour stretch. I then start “playing around with web sites” on a regular basis from that point on. In school, instead of taking notes and/or listening, I spend a great deal of time drawing possible site designs to work on when I get home.
- I also come to the realization that while it’s really cool to tell my friends and family to check out the sites I’ve made, it would be even cooler if complete strangers were able to find them too. And not just a few complete strangers, but a shit load of complete strangers… the more the better. I start working on various ways to get that to happen (hello internet marketing!), and the thought of “if people searched for something on Altavista (the big search engine at the time) and found my site, that’d be awesome” enters my mind (hello SEO!).
1998:
- My dad’s company needs a web site, so they hire some big fancy web design company to do it. They give my dad some paperwork explaining what they are going to do and how much it will cost. My dad shows this to me because neither him nor anyone at his company has any idea what the hell these people are talking about. So, I look it over and see they are charging $500.00 per hour. My 15 year old head nearly explodes at the thought of the possibilities.
- I somehow talk my dad into letting me take a shot at his company’s web site, and they actually pay me in real money for my services (much less than $500 per hour, of course).
- I make a copy of the check and save it as a reminder of the very first time I ever made money online, or really just made any significant amount of money in general.
1999:
- I graduate from high school a year early at the age of 16 with absolutely no plans of ever going to college (best decision I ever made).
- After summer ends, I start a web design/internet marketing company. It’s real and legit and everything, complete with business cards. I feel super cool.
- My first client is my cousin’s boss, some crazy rich real estate owner guy who has me meet with him in his big fancy Manhattan office. I am literally dropped off in front of the place by my mommy and daddy, and everyone laughs at the sight of a 16 year old kid meeting with big important people. I end up walking out of that office with a check for $1000 with another $1000 coming when the site is done. Suck it, you bunch of losers!
- Also this year I come up with an idea for a site about a subject I have a huge interest in. Being fairly crazy about saving money, I decide to host it on some shitty free host. I work on this site a lot, and have a lot of fun doing so.
2000:
- I have a bunch of other web design/internet marketing clients here and there and am making a fine amount of money (especially for my age, 17), but I find that despite being completely and utterly self employed, having clients almost makes me feel like I have a boss to some degree.
- I also realize that I kinda sorta know what works, and my clients kinda sorta don’t. Yet, they have the final say on what I actually do. This makes little sense to me, and having to convince them to allow me to do what should be done becomes increasingly annoying.
- I also come to realize that what is basically happening here is that people are paying me to make them money. They pay me X amount, and I do stuff that allows them to go on to make a lot more than X amount. I slowly but surely fail to see the logic in this.
- That site of mine that I started last year and hosted on some shitty free host that by this point is forcing 100 pop-up ads on every page load… it’s now averaging about 1000 unique visitors per day and ranking fantastically for most of its keywords on practically every search engine. Interesting.
2001:
- Bye bye web design/marketing company. All of the stuff I realized last year combined in my head to get me to realize now that, despite doing just fine at it, this whole “working for clients” thing wasn’t for me. I also realize that the actual work I was doing though, the entire process of it all, that was definitely for me. So, I take the next logical step…
- After 2 years of shitty free hosting, I buy a domain for that site of mine and start paying for hosting using the $50 my grandma gave me for my birthday that year. I convince myself that if I could somehow get this site to make enough money to cover its $20.00 per month web hosting cost, it would be a success. After all, I wouldn’t be losing money, and at this point that’s really my only requirement for success. My supposed method of making this money will be by advertising affiliate products. I end up finding a really perfect affiliate program to join.
- I make my first affiliate sale the very next day for a total commission of $4.72, and proceed to dance around my house like I just hit the game winning shot. I realize that if I made just this amount daily or even almost daily, not only will I easily cover the hosting cost (and yearly domain renewal), but I’ll actually profit. Holy crap! My definition of success changes forever.
- The move from a free host to a domain and paid host ended up working quite well, as did all of the additional work I’ve done on the site. Traffic now doubles to around 2000 unique visitors per day with links from a ton of sites and more awesome search engine rankings than I can count.
2002:
- The site has really become an authority in its niche, traffic continues to increase by the thousands, and the amount of money I’m making goes up accordingly. I continue creating really great content and marketing it all and have a blast doing it. No boss, no hours, no work days, no off day, no clients, no meetings, no phone calls, no explaining, no convincing, no deadlines, no nothing. Just me working on what I want, when I want, the way I want, and making pretty good money doing it. Not to mention, I’m doing it all in the comfort of my bedroom, usually in my underwear, with The Price Is Right on in the background. This… is the life.
2003:
- Really similar to 2002. The site keeps growing in popularity, traffic, earnings and the amount of fun I’m having. The site is probably getting about 8000 unique visitors per day at this point. Search engine rankings have officially reached “best case sceneario” status. The number of links to the site grows rapidly as well, one of which comes from TIME.com. I don’t even remember what the context of the link was… I think it was just some article about something related to the content of my site, and they mentioned me as sort of a “go here to learn more” type of link.
- People keep obsessing over the big changes in the SEO industry. Me… I keep doing what I’ve done for the last few years with no changes whatsoever, and everything goes just fine. Tons of dumbasses claim the sky is falling on various SEO/marketing forums. I officially stop visiting all SEO/marketing forums from that point on.
2004:
- Hello Google Adsense! My total yearly earnings, which were pretty nice up until this point, now officially reach 6 figures. Every single member of my family, including myself, is completely blown the fuck away. Seriously. I’m just some 21 year old kid in his house playing with the internet and somehow earning 6 figures a year doing so. How could you not be blown away by it?
2005:
- Primarily for tax purposes, I officially become a corporation. Considering it’s still just me in my house in my underwear with the TV on in the background, it’s officially the coolest corporation in the history of corporations.
- I come up with an idea for a site in a very competitive niche. I think it’s a really cool idea though that probably hasn’t been done before. It’s also a really quick and simple idea. The whole thing shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks at which point I probably wouldn’t have to touch it much ever again.
- I finish the site and put it live. Let the marketing begin!
- People seem to like it. Popularity and traffic gradually grows. I infrequently add a few pieces of content here and there, and eventually never really touch the site again. It’s a fully finished product, no need for updates.
- 6-8 months later the site is averaging 1000-2000 unique visitors per day and ranking amazingly for a couple of extremely competitive terms. Traffic numbers gradually grow to about 3000+ unique visitors per day, and earnings from advertising are pretty good. It’s all completely passive income at this point. Not bad for a couple of weeks of work.
2006:
- More of the same. I keep working on new stuff, and the old stuff just keeps working by itself.
2007:
- I work hard on, finish and launch my very first web app. It’s also the first time I ever needed to hire someone to do some work for me (in this case it was all programming related). It took some time to find the exact kind of person I was looking for, but I found him.
- I had some pretty high expectations for this new site, yet the amount of success it had and how quickly it all came still completely blows me away. Just amazing. A success in every possible way. Amazing feedback, amazing search engine rankings, amazing links and mentions from some pretty huge sites, and nearly 8000 registered users in its first few months of accepting registered users. My freelance guy lets me know that it’s the most successful thing he’s ever worked on, and tells me he’s worked on stuff that has had hundreds of thousands of dollars thrown into it. Hell f’n yeah!
- I come up with what I think may very well be my best idea… ever. It requires a ton of thought, a ton of work, a ton of time and a ton of effort to get done perfectly. I somehow manage to do just that, put it live and market it to the world. The world loves it. Seriously loves it. It goes as viral as viral can be. It’s everywhere on every site that’s worth a damn, including some of the biggest sites and blogs in the world. I am completely amazed that I was literally the only person who had anything to do with it.
2008:
- Traffic and earnings keep increasing across the board on all sites. I continue coming up with ideas for/working on new stuff and doing the very little bit of work required to maintain the success of the old stuff. Passive income is da shit. I highly recommend it.
2009:
- My very first site, the one I originally started a full decade earlier (1999) and has been bringing in 6 figures a year on its own for years now without me really touching or updating it much since 2005… well, I come up with an idea for a product I can start selling on it. It’s the first and only product I’ve ever sold. I work on this product, launch it and market it. The site is now instantly making an additional $3500.00 per month. The fact that it took me 10 years to come up with this idea makes me feel like a complete dumbass.
- I decide to start this blog, and I decide to make this my first post.
(This post will be continuely updated as more time passes and more stuff worth mentioning takes place. Just thought I’d let you know.)
You have come a very long way buddy. I think you were very lucky with links.
Very honest and interesting story.
I would like give comment for all your post but this first one was enough for now.
Like your “storytelling” and “flowchart” style posts. A long one but great content!
The ripple..and ripple.. haha. Funny but educating.
fas: Indeed I have. Good links tend to be a combination of luck and putting yourself in a position to become lucky.
The Designer: Thanks dude.
Ok, so your blog is awesome. One thing– You make all the commenters put their names up– but I don’t even think you’ve mentioned YOUR name…
So, is there anything you can be referred to as besides “CMP”? Thanks.
Ha, good question. How about: ‘dude who’s too weird to use his first name on his own blog’
Has a nice ring to it, no?
That’s a nice summary. It’s pretty inspirational to see someone make it!
Keep up the good work!
BB