So, is the above title true or not? I say yes, but with reservations…if you work hard at it, it's easy. If you work hard at setting up your foundatinos, it's easy. If you think that you can do little work, then you'll find it hard.

Since 2003, I've been setting up what I call "AIS" - you can read more about that by looking back through this blog. Fast forward 5 years, and some of those original AIS sites are still bringing home the bacon…

I haven't done a results thing for years, so…

Here is how 2008 panned out…

1. I dumped adsense as a source of revenue..decided it's too much to be beholden to Google for any form of income.
2. I stopped promoting other peoples stuff, UNLESS I get a free, full functional "whatever it is they are pimping". And only if I like it, find it useful do I promote it.
3. I closed down around 300 websites - just let the domains lapse. I can't be bothered keeping track of all those domains, hosting etc
4. I bought some sites back to the person I had sold them too.
5. I decided to get back into osCommerce (it's enjoyable and there are very few "experts" out there)
6. I stopped reading most blogs - complete waste of my time.
7. I stopped posting on forums (unless I have a very good reason to do so)

The figures

I have 7 overall AIS's - so I'll break the figures down for each…

Adsense - 3739.26
eBook Sales - 18,161.36
Template Sales - 2,091.72
Affiliate Commissions - 744.60
Script Sales - 4,569.40
Subscriptions - 5,510.00
Other (mostly link sales) - 11,090.88

For a grand total of $45,907.22 (all figures are US Dollars) - not bad considering that 90% of this is completely hands off. Obviously this figure is only for AIS income streams, and does not include other areas of work such as website designing, script installs, consultancy fees etc.

Now, consider that this year I set up just 1 site - no adsense sites, no affiliate sites, just 1 site selling a product (JV with a couple of friends). Perhaps, had I worked a bit harder that bottom line 45 grand would have been double? triple? Who knows. When I was working hard in 2006, my top month came in at just about 20 grand, so it's possible.

What of 2009?

1. Well, I can tell you that Adsense is OUT, most Affiliate stuff is OUT.
2. IN is selling my own products on my established sites.
3. I am going to dream up some more "products" to sell and perhaps start some new sites.
4. I also want to do a couple of JV (Joint Venture) things with some selected people, but the problem is finding those people that are ready to understand that any JV does take a bit of work to get up and running.
5. I intend to update a few of my sites as time goes on
6. I have no intention of building lots of little sites - too much work to keep on top of.

What of you for 2009?

Remember that I've been building foundations for "making money online" for over 5 years - so now I can work NO hours and still earn a decent income. Easy, Peasy, Lemon Squeezy. Or is it?