My 20 Years Journey of Making Money Online

Today I am starting a new chapter of my life and I would like to share my honest story with you.

First of all, thank you for opening this article. I am just starting out on Medium, so if you find this story interesting, don’t forget to subscribe.

Thank you! 🙏

Disclaimer: There will be NO affiliate links in this story, no tricky ways in convincing you to buy something and so on.

In other words — no bullshit, no lies, just pure honesty. And I will maintain this level of honesty in all my posts here on Medium. Because there are so little honesty in this “make money online” niche and I want to be an exception.

This story is like a confession to me, because a big part of my life will be written here.

So grab some popcorn, get comfortable and keep reading! I really hope you will enjoy my story :)

So it all began about ~20 years ago in a small country of Lithuania.

My dad somehow brought home some old PC from his work. I think it was IBM 486 DX2 and it looked something like this:

And at that time, it was like a miracle to me.

I was about 10 years old and this new technology hooked me right away.

At first, like every child I played many video games from old floppy drives: from Chess and Solitaire to Wolfenstein 3D, Quake and Formula 1 racing.

But it didn’t take long for those floppy drive games to get boring and when we have got connected to the dial-up internet the new horizons have opened up.

I remember the modem device making some strange sounds like this:

And after those sounds ended, you were connected to the internet.

Now that is how my journey of making money online started.

At that time internet was still in it’s early stages and everything was developing there.

So I have found two platforms to earn money online — “Spedia” and “Cash Fiesta”.

The idea there was pretty simple — you had to install a program on your PC that displays ads while you are surfing the internet.

And the more time you spend browsing the net and watching those ads, the more you are getting paid.

It was, so called “Get Paid to Surf” scheme.

The program looked something like this:

So in first month, I have earned something like $50 and I was very very happy.

But then… Then a monthly bill of internet arrived. And it was around $200.

So my parents were not happy at all! 😄

My internet time was cut from an hour to one minute per day. One minute. Literally. ⏳

Just imagine if nowadays kids would get only one minute of internet per day, how the world would look like.

Bye, bye YouTube, TikTok, Twitch and other things. A lot of rage moments I guess! 🤬 😂

But I was not mad, I understood the situation.

In that one minute per day, all I managed to do was quickly check my e-mail for new messages.

But one thing was for sure — I have learned and understood the potential of earning money online.

Although this first try was not profitable at all, but that feeling, that belief lives in me up until now.

So later, when internet got cheaper and my daily time limit was expanded, I discovered that there are a lot of websites that can send you free, promotional stuff straight into your mailbox. You just had to fill in some form online with your mailing address and then get real, physical things arriving at your doorstep.

Oh boy, how much crap did I get! 😄

Various promotional catalogs, perfume, shampoo samples, t-shirts, free planting seeds, etc. You name it.

I have even received a free physical book of Bible. 😄

But one thing stood out of all this scene — CDs with casino games.

So I began to sell those CDs to local people in Lithuania and earned some money with this side-hustle.

But it was not very profitable as you can guess, I think I have made something like 200 Lithuanian Litas (~50$ at that time).

And then I came up with a SOLID business plan.

I clearly remember — it was a cold winter day. Me and my dad walked to some local bank, to open a bank account under MY name. I was 14 years old and this was HUGE for my. I was very proud to get my first debit card and bank account with my name on it.

So my SOLID business plan was to start a web hosting company.

At that time, the competition in this area was pretty low, and the business went well for some time.

But then I have encountered some problems — servers were slow and crashing all the time, clients were complaining and so on.

So I have sold this business to another person.

But overall it was nice experience and I have met some interesting people along the road and so on.

After selling my hosting business, I have started to learn more about programming and web development.

I’ve got really interested in that and ~2.5 years later, at the age of 17, I began working in the local web development company.

At the same time I was learning at school, so it was a part-time job.

I gained some experience there but to be honest I really did not like it.

I don’t know maybe the company that I worked in, was not the best at motivating their employees, but I felt miserable there.

Constant pressure, deadlines, boring jobs and tasks, limited opportunities to learn something new and so on.

That was my experience there as an employee.

In my opinion, it was too much struggle, stress and too little money, to be honest.

I think many people feels the same way and I am glad that I have been exposed to this experience at a very young age.

While working there, I always had a feeling that I can do better and there are better ways to earn money, improve myself and live a life in general.

So after finishing the school, I have decided to quit this job and I have established my own web development company.

In general, the idea was to earn money by creating or improving websites or CRMs for local businesses.

And the start was really hard.

It was very hard to get the clients, to negotiate with them and so on.

But somehow I have managed to survive, because I did not have any other option available.

But again deadlines, clients, negotiations. Very very tough environment.

But still it was better to work on my own than work for somebody else.

And I was able to earn a stable income to support myself financially.

So it was one step forward.

While working on my own, in my spare free time, I began to develop simple web projects, like various calculators, forum scripts, blogs and so on. The main purpose was to discover and learn new things.

And then… something big happened in my life.

I have discovered Google AdSense.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was “Hallelujah” moment for me, it was a life changing event.

For those, who are not familiar with Google AdSense, the idea of earning money there is pretty simple — you just have to put ads on your website and if a visitor click on these ads — you earn the money.

As simple as that.

But don’t even think to cheat the system (like telling your family/friends to click on the ads intentionally), because in the long run Google will discover this activity and ban you. And if you are banned from Google AdSense, you are banned for life and you won’t be able to join this miracle again.

The most inspiring thing about Google AdSense is that your earning potential there is more or less unlimited.

More website visitors = more clicks = more earnings.

So I began working with Google AdSense seriously.

If you have read this story up until this point — thank you very much!

But this article is going to be way too long if I include my whole AdSense story here. So I have divided my story into two parts, and the second part can be found here:

In Part 2, I will describe in detail the method/tools that I’ve used to achieve success with Google AdSense.

Also I will share my other experiences, honest opinions and why I have decided to join Medium. So if you are interested, read the second part, because there are a lot useful information there. Thank you!

So overall, I have started to earn some real money in more or less passive way.

It is hard to describe, but it is a really wonderful feeling, when you are ~23 years old and you are earning 10k+ per month of (almost) passive income.

During this period of life I have found my wife, we have traveled a lot and experienced one of the best stages of our lives.

These were the times to remember!

So that was my story. I hope you have enjoyed it.

If you have anything to stay, please write a comment below — I will be happy to respond. 🙋‍♂️

Good bye for now and see you in the next honest articles!