Since 500+ of you were so fantastic about answering my last survey, I figured the least I could do was share the results, as so many people asked for. 
Edit: I started doing this in a good mood, and as I really went through everything… well, you’ll see.
Question 1: How Long Have You Been Working On Making Money Online?
It appears that around 26% of the people who filled out my survey have been working 1-3 years on making money online.
22% have been working for 3-5 years, and about 16% for 5-10 years.
The next 3, in order of popularity, were longer than 10 years, 6 months to 1 year, and 0-6 months.
The biggest comment people made on this section was that people have learned a little bit about IM, have some tools, but have never taken action and don’t know where to start.
The second biggest comment was that there are too many shiny objects out there.
Question 2: What Subjects Are You Most Interested In?
The top 3 subjects of interest (out of 28) were affiliate marketing, Kindle, and traffic generation.
The least interesting subjects were freelancing how-to’s, done-for-you services, and paid advertising.
Interesting side note: despite comments on other areas, productivity ranked #17 out of 28, mindset was #18, and focus was #19.
There were a bunch of comments here. One main one was that people wanted to get started quickly, easily, and cheaply.
(Interesting… as I’m writing this, I’m starting to get frustrated. I’ll add my comments here at the end.)
Question 3: How do you prefer learning?
The major way people like learning was PDF, then videos, then case studies. Interviews were last (out of 8).
Main comments here are that 1:1 coaching is best.
Question 4: What’s your biggest frustration with Internet marketing?
The biggest complaint was there’s too much information, then that it’s hard to focus, and then that there are too many people giving misinformation.
There were 2 comments that came across bigtime here:
1. People said it’s hard to find quality teachers to provide accurate/helpful information and products.
2. People said it was hard for them to follow through with an idea or focus.
Question 5: What are you currently earning online?
Around 44% are making $0-$500/month.
The next largest subset is 0, then $500 – $1000/month.
The next are $2k and upwards.
Biggest comment here is that people are wasting their money on buying things.
Question 6: Are you male or female?
I just asked this to my list (Dennis didn’t ask his). 63.2% of respondents were male.
Rachel’s Responses:
I feel such a range of emotions going through these survey responses.
One emotion I feel is PISSED. The gross majority of people who responded to this survey are NOT earning over $2k/month, yet they’ve been working on it for over a year.
The majority also said it was way too hard to focus… yet focus was NOT one of the more popular subjects they were interested in. It was #19 out of 28 possible subjects.
#*&^#@&^#&@^%^@%#^$%#@%$!%$#@$%@$#^@&#@#@%
Excuse my language, but… THIS SHIT PISSES ME OFF.
I understand that there are lots of people in the IM world who like to buy shiny objects. I know there’s that sexy feeling of hope every time someone hits the “purchase” button. Like… “Woohoo, this system promises to make me $333,232.94 in a second… maybe it’ll happen for me!”…
BUT WTF!^#%@$^$%#@!!#^@^%@$#^$%@$%#@$%#@
This is the same crap I come across when I make blog posts.
I’ll make blog posts full of content and email my list. I get MORE UNSUBSCRIBES than when I’m mentioning a product people can buy.
Sure, I could just send out a bunch of emails pitching products.
It’d sure make earning money super-easy.
But my soul simply can’t bear it.
It’s just so frustrating.
I don’t want to peddle hopes and dreams, and it’s just so defeating to feel like that’s what the majority WANTS.
Literally… in the same 10 minutes it takes to fill out the survey, I read comments that people are frustrated that they can’t focus, yet they don’t want to learn to focus.
But they’re not making any money.
^^&%@^%#@^%@#$%^#@%$!$^@#^R@#^%^@R GAH THIS IS CRAZY!
The next emotion I feel is sadness.
I know that there are exceptions to this… but selling to people who don’t seem to really want to help themselves is NOT how I want to live my life.
I feel I came here to do big things.
To help a lot of people.
And I feel regret and upset with myself for attracting this into my life situation.
I pour my heart and soul into all of my products… and to see this… just makes me feel like I’m not making anywhere near the impact I want to make.
Seriously… my entire list is pretty much 100% comprised of customers.
I’ve had thousands upon thousands of buyers.
And yet the majority are not even earning $2k?
I am positive that the information in my products helps people earn $2k. I know this because of the success stories that HAVE poured in.
Then I wonder about my whole pricing strategy.
I’ve been selling my soul for pennies on the dollar for a long time. I figured if I made this money-making information more accessible, I could really help a lot of people.
And like I said… a lot of success stories have come in. They’re what fuels me on the days I just feel disgusted with this industry.
But I can’t help but wonder if MORE success stories would come in if I charged higher prices. Prices that people would need to double-think about before purchasing. Prices that would reflect products they would actually USE, because they really had to convince themselves to buy them.
That might not be what the majority of people want to hear, but at this point, I’m not aligned with what the majority are thinking anyway.
Then I remember a tweet I read…
I recently saw a tweet from Chris Guillebeau that said “If you’re not embarrassed by work you did years ago, you probably haven’t evolved or developed much.”
I certainly have other work in my life I’m embarrassed about.
Maybe I’m coming towards the end of IM as I know it.
Maybe it’s time to re-shift.
A lot.
I’ll continue to teach, but only work with the people that are vigilant about their success.
People who will IMPLEMENT.
People who, when I survey, will either be making money, or be working on a plan (I can help with) to do so.
Blah.
