How did you get your start on the internet, tell a little story about yourself :-)

Hello I thought I would get a discussion going on how you got started in your life on the internet. I wasn't sure the best category to place this in, so it's here, feel free to move it mods

Here's my story, in a nutshell...


I'm a netreprenuer, my early beginnings started in or around 1998-99... It's always been a part time thing for me in the past, as I'm 20 years old now, so if you do the math, I was pretty young and still in school in my early days. Now I'm a father and all grown up! I took a break from the online scene to raise Isaac, my son. I've been back online for a few months now and rebuilding myself in the business world. Things are getting off to a great start.

When I was about 12 or 13, I got a present that I loved more than anything... It was a book half my size at the time, about 900 full pages (computer book pages, not a paperback!) The book was all on game development, from the brainstorming at the start all the way to post production marketing etc. I started a few projects making computer games back in the old days, I was no expert at the time, so they didn't go all the way, but I got some friends together and we had a lot of fun and learned a lot. I did some visual basic programming and some scripting as a hobby... I worked for the family software company for a couple years, and ended up running the day to day operations 9 months of the year. Engaged in a lot of web development, sold my services as a web developer a few times in the earlier days...I started a few small time ventures here and there, some web hosting companies... I made myself some decent money for my age, but nothing to put me in the history books. Most of my learning and experience shifted more into consulting, marketing and related areas...

 

I got an good internet connection one day.. and I don't remember too much actually

 

i can't remember when and how..

i think my friends just influenced me..

and rest is history..

 

My friends definitely influenced me and played a big role in it all. My family as well. I started a lot of small projects with friends and their ideas and knowledge helped me grow, big time.

 

hmmm, dont remember

 

I was selling washers and dryers at sears 10 years ago when this lady came in and offered me a job to work at this "Internet Company"

I did

 

After it had been a hobby for 2 years I got an offer to make the web site for well known karate expert (my dad knew from somewhere) when I was 16. So he paid me like $600 or so and I made him a simple 3 page site

After that it was trade college for a year and a half for graphic design, then over to AIM Industries for a few months doing auto web sites... then I worked for an internet marketing company (pretty well known i suppose) for the last 2 years... now I'm working for myself

 

...a sudden change of career huh?

 

I used to be a spammer and phisher. Then started to realize I actually loved making websites and spamming would never get me where I need to be.

:::waits for insults:::

 

I started out in 94 on old BBS systems then started wasting time on the internet using my windows 95, 486DX50. I mostly used to just chat and was an ANSI artist for 'Teklordz',,, oldschool bbs/telnet art for those who remember. Anyway as years went by I dabbled into this and that but did not notice that online revenue potential was achievable by an average joe like myself until about 2002,,, since then I've created some local sites, intranet sites, niche sites, collected some domains etc. and learned a lot. It's been a lot of fun and now I look forward to either more free time either by freeing it myself or by way of some twilightzone type odditiy that increases the amount of hours in a day, whichever, whenever. For now I live life still working a real job that I don't enjoy like mostly everyone else but so long as I get that joy of checking my email before and after work, and the gf shaking her head at me while I rant and dream of online riches but smiling at the same time, I'm happy.

 

I was into computer hardware(assembling machines and all), when i heard about this new thing(Internet), at first somebody told me that they charged for sending mails and the price i was told was something like 2$ for a mail. LOL

Took me around 1 month to actually understand what the internet was all about, been hooked on since then. I remember download speed that i used to get at that time on my modem was in bytes. Less than 1kbps.

 

how was d-day?

 

Thanks for sharing your stories everyone, has been a pleasure to read!

Ly2: Maybe the insults aren't flying at you because you have the guts to come on here and admit what you used to do. I can't imagine you'd still be doing that now if you share that part of you past with us, as we all do know that it doesn't get you very far at all, and just pisses other people off. I know a couple really good businesspeople that got their start with less than ethical practices offline. Just because you did something people frown upon in the past, doesn't mean you can never make it big, or that people will hate you for it for the rest of your life.

 

I got fed up looking at p0rn so I started surfing around for something else to do.

 

Ashley,(daughter) Dad brought me over a computer for christmas about 11 yrs ago--now my mother,Lance and Daniel(brothers) and Son all have computers.
Lance came over everyday for about 5 yrs to use my computers. I'm Hook on puters, and puters are my life! A-yuh!

 

I got started when a friend at my former job talked to me about the internet and told me how it was the future. He was a member of this forum also.

He told me to go to the store and pick up a book called "Multiple Streams of Internet Income." I paid the 18 bucks, sat down and read it.

It was mind blowing. I realized that the Internet is where its all at. While still at my sorry 9 to 5 bank job, I begin building my first website.

I saved every penny I made, as my job at the bank was unstable and has a high turnover rate. As things begin to get worse and worse, I worked harder and harder on my sites, and saved more of my money. I soon purchased a laptop(the one I'm typing this post on now), and started working on my sites during break time at work.

One day I just couldn't take my job anymore. I would feel sick just thinking about going there.

Eventually both me and my friend got fired. I got my unemployment, lowered every bill I had, sold my car, split my expenses, and worked my ass off on my websites for six months while I received unemployment.

By the time I got my last unemployment check, I was making enough money off my site to pay most of my bills.

Hard work pays off, and I don't plan on working for anyone again. And to this day, I save my money like hell, and only buy the cheapest stuff, most of the time.

 

A friend of mine had started a web design and hosting service and was doing really well with it, so I figured there must be something I could do online to make money too.

Jo

 

Got an AOL cd after I found out AOL were not "The Internet" my partner asked if our sons domain name was available to register after reading about domain names, it was, I did and it kind of started from there...........

 

I think it was around 1997. Created a cheats site at angelfire and then learned html while messing with their editor.

 

lol... I remember using angelfire back in the day!

The only thing I've ever used those AOL cd's for are coasters and frisbees!