Hey guys!

actionsoft.com is a great board! "Talk" is probably category for my question:

I hope someone can help me. I'm despered to earn more money - and I
really need more money.. Working hat Mc Donalds really sucks you know.. Especially for smart guys like me

So someone can gimme some tips how to start a succesful online business?
I'm not a 'nerd' but workin' at home and with the internet would be pretty comfortable and I always wanted to that.

I'm sure some of you guys earn big cash? Any suggestions, where to start?

Thx'n bye
Atio

You mean, you want an easy way to make big cash fast. So does everyone. And that's why you see plenty of get-rich-quick scheme infomercials on late-night television.

But the reality is there IS no get-rich-quick system. It requires hard work, skill, and lots of perseverance and determination. Making Midnight Mansion wasn't easy. And I'm by no means rich. In fact, it barely even covers the rent for an area like Los Angeles, and won't even do that soon.

But I'm going to persevere, because after releasing several games, I should be able to make a living comparable to a regular programmer working at a typical company.

But my road has been far from quick and easy. I started programming on the Mac at age 15 as a hobby (and programming older, non-Mac computers arouund age 8), and around age 19 decided to pursue this as a career, and started my first game, Diamond Digger, which was never finished, because my artist quit. At age 22 I started to go to college, and also began development of Midnight Mansion around the same time, but I could only work on it during the summer and winter breaks. Four years later (or about 1 and 1/2 years of full-time development time), Midnight Mansion was released.

Before I even *started* work on Midnight Mansion, I had already spent many years learning Mac programming, creating the level editor, working on SpriteWorld, etc. So all in all, a HUGE amount of learning/work has led to the release of my first game. Of course, in the future, I should be able to pop games out a bit faster, especially if I use the Torque engine, but if you think that just "being online" and "using the internet" can earn you lots of money easily, you are very mistaken.

Some people DO make a lot of money by starting businesses that are internet-related, but ALL of them require lots of hard work for many years before their founders make it big. No one just starts making easy cash online with little skill.

My suggestion: find something you *love* doing, then get really *good* at doing it -- better than most other people. The "getting better" part may take several years. Then start a project you think you can earn money on, doing what you love doing. It's important that you love it, because there will be long hours, and you'll work on the project so much that you'll get sick of it at times. So you also need lots of determination to finish. But in the end, you'll be doing what you love, which is far more important than earning lots of money. (As long as you can survive doing it.)

Scout wrote on 16.01.2007 at 03:49:38:


In Iceland there is a certain gas station and a restaurant by the main ring road around the island.  The founder had a motto:  "I'm just running a public toilet by the road.  Everything else is a bonus for me".

One other thing... I mentioned this briefly in my earlier post, but I want to reiterate it... It was advice I heard in Community College in my first math course. I had this really cool teacher who helped make the class interesting, and every now and then he gave us wise advise. And the advice was this: don't look for a job that makes a huge amount of money. Look for a job that you'll enjoy.

He said he would ask students what they wanted to do when they graduated, and they'd say, "I don't care, as long as I make a lot of money." But that's a bad idea! He pointed out that we spend the vast majority of our lives working. So, what good is having a good salary if you're miserable during most of the week? Will having extra cash to spend on the weekend really make it worth it?

That's the main reason I'm pursuing game programming. I *enjoy* it a lot more than other forms of work that I've tried. Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of days you don't want to look at a line of code, or you're banging your head against the wall for weeks because you can't figure out why Jack is falling through the moving platform when it reaches the ceiling, or you don't know why it crashes on rare occasions when you look at the map screen, or Apple has come up with a brand new OS that's based on Unix that requires you to spend weeks rewriting lots of code, or whatever... It stiill has its challenges and unpleasant parts. But I still enjoy it more than most other jobs, and therefore, if I can enjoy what I'm spending the majority of my life doing, that's a lot more important than being miserable most of the week, and having some extra cash to spend on the weekends.

We live in a pretty amazing country where you can pursue your dreams. Not everyone will be successful in what they try to do (a LOT more shareware authors fail than those who succeed in making a living doing shareware), but if you have a passion, and are willing to spend the huge amounts of time getting skilled in your passion, and then stay dedicated while you build your first products, then you might have a chance of success.

So find what you enjoy, and if you think you can make a living doing it, go for it! But definitely don't think there's any way to do it quick and easy.