There is a lot of confusion in people’s minds about exactly how much money you can earn off the internet. I’m going to discuss a range of websites and the amounts they earn/earned/were sold for to give you a better idea -
Spectacular Success - YouTube is the poster child for this with the company getting sold for 1.65 billion in less than 2 years since it started. Facebook is another good example with a valuation in the billions.
Its important to understand that while you can certainly achieve this level of success, these are exceptional cases. Going in expecting to sell your website or company for a few billion is not a good aim to have.
Solid Success - Here I’d club all the companies and websites that get sold in the tens of millions of dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars range.
Success - This is the sweet spot - There are more than enough opportunities on the internet that you can achieve this with a high probability (provided you choose carefully among the things that excite you and/or really put your heart into it). The market for cyclists (not motorbikes, bicycles) is approximately 8 billion dollars, that for bowling is 11 billion dollars, and that for wine is 23 billion dollars. And guess what - there is no single website that dominates these niches. If you’re passionate about this area (or about golf or football or stamps or fly fishing or comics) you can start your own website or blog and build it into one of the top (if not the top) destnations for this niche. And that’ll guarantee you a couple million dollars (probably more).
Extra income - This is the really scary category to be in. Basically, if you’re trying to just add on a few hundred or a few thousand dollars a month in extra income you’re in danger because the competition might be people who’re (based on passion or need) totally committed to a niche. I would strongly recommend you to consider another option. Its not the time committment that is the key factor here, its the level of passion and committment to your website and your customers. You can create and run a great website in 10-20 hrs a week. However, you have to be committed to creating something solid, else the competiton will eat you up.
The internet is perfect if you’re really passionate about an area and willing to give atleast 10, and ideally 20 or more hrs a week of your time to it. And in a way this site is focused on people who fit tis category. People who’re building a site around something they’re passionate about and have significant emotional investment and will contribute adequate time.