fidibidabah - 1:15 pm on Mar 12, 2005 (gmt 0)

What's content? ;)

I think an especially interesting facet is threads always turn out to be what people would like them to be, regardless of their original purpose. This seems to be the "what does it take to become successful at this AM thing (over and beyond motivation)".

Honestly, I'm not quite sure.

One man jobbers are difficult on the internet, even if you're a 'super genius' by todays standard. Personally, I used to be a graphics designer as well as a web designer, and I've had to take up database design recently. I even have a natural knack for writing. Over the last 2 years, I've learned CSS/2, XHTML standard and XML. Over the last 2 months, I've learned IIS, Apache, MySQL, SQL, and ColdFusion.

But wait, like any good sales letter, THERE'S MORE! You see that's all it takes to make a website, but not neccisarily be in AM. Now there are new skills I've had to work with over the last year or so, SEO, Dealing with AM's, picking programs, learning business structure, basics of PPC, marketing, and much more.

This really is a one man job. It's like doing everything yourself, but getting no experience for it (business experience anyway). The problem with AM is that if you don't make money, you've gotten nowhere (with exception of maybe a life lesson).

To touch on the original point, everyone has motivation I think. You'd never run into a board like this if you didn't. People are driven by different things, but it all leads us to the same places, success or failure.

AM is a lot of luck, but it's in our favor. It's like a lottery with an unheard of percentage of winnings. Sure you can lose, but if you know how to play it, the chances are small. Whereas the lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math, AM is a tax on giant spammers, merchants, and corperations, vying for internet traffic. If these guys could do it themselves, they wouldn't be asking for us. It's a game where the little guy will always have just as much of a chance as the next player. A refreshing aspect of AM you don't see much else.

It's diverse, shapeable, unstable, and personal. AM is anything you want it to be, and people are constantly finding new ways to market old dogs (and then it runs dry and they write an ebook about it ;)).

AM is the best job one could have - if you have what it takes.