Not necessarily. Neither of the sites that have done the most for my quality of life have ever brought in much in the way of direct income. They have, however, put me out there as a guy who's capable of building products like that, which have led to some really good consulting gigs, thus allowing me to keep traveling the world and doing my thing from a laptop.

So even though it was years before I hit on the first product that generated significant income on its own, there was still a net benefit from having put out my shingle right from the start.