This might be in a bit of a bigger sphere, but I'll share
Getting hired as creative/marketing director for a tier-1 company shortly after building them a 20K solution/rebrand/relaunch... Almost failed school from it but who cares when you just banked 20 and hired for a 6 figure salary
Amazing 2 year run and learned more there than any school/affiliate program would ever teach me about monetizing this world/marketing/making money thinking big... As for online marketing - I'd say 7K on a weekend of remotely done work was my proudest/fastest/easiest big money to date.
Hope this inspires you, sorry if it sounds a bit self-centered, want to show you guys it's more than possible, keep absorbing amazing marketing info, and stop looking at the small picture... sit back, stop your chase for a second and think of how to make your efforts 10 fold in return for the same amount of work you do now, or even 2 fold.
Best of luck with biz today, think BIG.