How much you making online?

[Generalissimo]

I'm currently on (annually) about $90,000.

[chromate]

lol. I was wondering how long it would take for one of these threads to appear on WP. :) I thought that was the reserve Sitepoint forums. I really don't care - so I'll take part for the hell of it.

Ok, I was on about $70k (not monthly). But over the last few months, my adsense income has just taken a dive. Before Christmas, I was earning over $1 a click. Right now, I'm earning barely more than $0.05 a click. Seems absolutely crazy considering the industry is weight loss and it's "beach season".

Luckily the affiliate programs are still performing very well.

BTW, before this thread gets rolling, are we talking profit or what? I'm talking PROFIT.

[r2d2]

Based on last couple of months, probably about $4k or $5k annually.

Not much for the moment, but definitely going in the right direction.

[MarkB]

Around $1,200 annually. Sometime this year I need to ramp things up. (A year ago I was making about $120 annually;))

[Mike]

About $8k - $12k probably. I know it's a big gap, but earnings at the moment are varying a lot.

[MarkB]

I think it's great so many people are making decent money. My birthday's in August, btw.

[Cutter]

I'm do over $1,000 a month now -- and exactly a year ago I was making nothing. For the first 4 months of this year my Adsense revenue was growing 25% each month, unfortunately its flattened out the last two months.

I've really diversified in the last couple of months, and learned a ton in the process. I've got a design/consulting business going, a few affiliate sites, I've been selling my own ebooks (not related to websites), and I've started several e-mail newsletters -- my main one is about to break 100 subscribers and its less than a month old.

Here are a few of my tips for success:

-Don't be afraid to work your *** off for a few days or weeks; you can always take a few days (or weeks) off when your websites are your full-time job.

-You can never spend too much time on boards but you can spend too little time working on your sites.

-Read other boards

-Make contacts with "big players" in the online world.

-Diversify

-Test everything. If Adsense is dissapointing you change size, colors, and placement.

-Read books, boards, and blogs

-Do plenty of keyword research

[James]

Hundred something annually. Maybe couple hundred.

[chromate]

I sent you a PM Cutter.

[AndyH]

Wage is roughly $52,000.

[Billyray]

About $100 pm, (first commercial website started 3 mths ago)

[Blue Cat Buxton]

About $5k-$6k annual

[thebillionaire]

im like at $250 annually

[dvduval]

I make enough for myself and my wife, but to some degree I also do a lot of "giving back" by helping people, and money is not the only thing that drives me. ;)

[Chris]

Since I know some of you are curious...

last year I did 260/700k

[Cutter]

What do you mean by 260/700k?

[Chris]

260k net, 700k gross

[r2d2]

260k net, 700k gross

Quarter of a million, good work!

Almost half a million expenses though! Whats that mostly made up of? Servers maybe cost $2k or $3k a month? Advertising?

[moonshield]

probably the swords he is selling.

[chromate]

Yeah, definitely swords I would think. Nice one Chris! You've put us all to shame. Again! ;)

[Chris]

yes, all those swords.

[Cutter]

The secret many webmasters don't like to admit -- you have to spend money to make money. :D

Seriously, I've never been successful selling services to anyone on mainstream boards, but I do very well on the adult boards.

[AndyH]

I would have thought your net would have been alot more when you gross 700k.

Is net after tax?

[Chris]

No, before tax.

Advertising is high profit, but the sword business has margins of only 20% or so.

[Jaffro]

I haven't really got anything constructive to say. But I'll say what i think....

Swords and armour are cool :D

I'm only scraping about $1k monthly average this year. But considering i haven't done anything on my site most of the year not bad :)

[Chris]

I should also say that 260k was my taxable income, thats after all the deductions my accountant found.

[moonshield]

wow, yes that would make a big difference.

[Generalissimo]

And so it should.

[chromate]

What's the tax like in the US for that kind of sum? Just wonder how it compares to the UK's income tax.

[Chris]

I paid about 90k in income taxes last year.

[chromate]

Not bad. In the UK I think you would be taxed 40%... so about 100k.

[r2d2]

Depends on what you did with the profit I think really. If you kept most as profit in the business, I believe it would be taxed at 19% (see here (http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ctsa/ct_rate_band.htm)).

You may not want to do that of course - but in the UK at least, I think it would be better to take the money out as a dividend rather than a salary, thus avoiding NI payments? But still leaving you liable to income tax, which would indeed be 40% for the bulk of the amount.

Any ideas for getting money out tax free?

[chromate]

Oh yeah, sorry. I was talking about taking the whole thing as a salary (which of course you wouldn't). I didn't think you paid income tax on dividends? Don't you pay capital gains or something instead? Can't remember.

[Chris]

With the business form I have (LLC) all profits pass through to the owner for taxation. This is actually a good thing as with some corps you can get taxed twice (the corp is taxed then you are taxed too).

[chromate]

Yeah, this is the same with a UK private Ltd company. The company has to pay corporation tax on profits. (I think - I'm no real expert on this)

[r2d2]

Salaries to employees would come out before profit was calculated though? If you paid yourself $260k salary, the company's profit would be $0 meaning no corporation tax, but lots of income tax for you.

But yes, I guess if you take the money as a dividend, this would come after corporation tax on the $260k, then you would pay income tax on the dividend i.e. double taxation - so maybe a salary would be best.

Chromate - I think you should pay income tax on dividends from shares, and capital gains on any growth in value of the shares.

Note: Im talking about UK company law here, and am just thinking aloud really - not sure its all correct :) Not sure about US company law at all :)

[chromate]

Yeah, probably. Also, if the company were to pay it all out to an employee, the company would also have to pay employer's NI contributions on top of the employee's (class4?) NI contributions.

This is why we need accountants :) lol

[Cutter]

I let accountants worry about all of those details ;)

[AndyH]

With what my accountant / lawyer have setup I only pay 30% tax these days. Big difference between that and nearly 50%.

[ozgression]

Yeah, in Australia, when you get a fully-franked dividend you get imputation credits which means that you don't get taxed twice (in other words you get the tax that the company paid on your dividends back). Pretty sweet deal. :)

Cheers...

[AndyH]

Dividend 7A

Or so my accountant says. Learning all this stuff. :)

[thebillionaire]

the thing now that sucks for me is that canadian dollar has fregin increased, which means alot less profits.

[Generalissimo]

Currently it's all kept in the business for me, but soon I'm going to start paying myself £1000 a month. I'm gonna get the accountant to sort it out so it's the lowest tax possible (some through dividends, some through salary). I wouldn't mind paying higher tax but I'm not gonna pay it if I don't have to.

[Doug]

Currently, if you figure my monthly income at this moment, I am making roughly $100 per year, but that will hopefully increase soon.

[piniyini]

incka, where is the bulk of your doh coming from if you dont mind me asking ofcourse

[thebillionaire]

im guessing urgames.com

[Generalissimo]

Quite a bit from URGames.

[Snowballer]

wow nice going Chris!

I bet that 4discount is going to make that even higher once its all indexed and shopping season!

[The New Guy]

And just who are all these dividends going to? :p

[Todd W]

I`m going for 85-90k of taxable income this year.

[Snowballer]

ToddW, i've never heard of someone setting a goal for paying taxes! Uncle Sam must be your favorite uncle! j/k