The first time I made money on the internet, I was 16 or 17 years old. I should have been writing essays for scholarships, but I was so intrigued by making money online, I started writing SEO articles for blogs, earning $5 per 500 words.
I quickly realized how awful it was to be paid so little, so I took a break from freelancing and instead tried my hand at actually operating the sites. I learned a lot doing that and paid for a lot of beer and Chinese food in college.