By the way, I'm trying to make $100,000 before I graduate to cover my cost for college, I'm not looking to get student loans and pay them out for the next 30 years of my life.
You have a good head on your shoulders it seems
Ignore the naysayers. Games are a great way to make some cash as a kid. I am 25, but I started playing Everquest when I was barely 12. I made close to $10,000 from selling platinum, and then when I quit, I sold my account for $3000. I had just turned 16.
That kind of drive will pay off in the end. Not only can you help yourself with college (I was lucky enough to not have to worry about that. My parents were lower middle class, but my great-grandmother was a good investor. She died when I was 15 and left me $100,000 in a trust fund.), but the experience will help you in the future. I have only had a few jobs working for other people, twice as a waiter, once as a carhop at Sonic, and once as a stack tester for a company that tested emissions from different kinds of plants. There is not enough money in working for other people, and the hours suck.
I have started a few businesses now, and have been able to live comfortably thanks to that. The most recent one is dying now (it had a very limited life span thanks to the FCC. Thanks AT&T lobbyists!), and I think I am going to build a botting army. I have a good computer already, and a spare i5 and i7 sitting in my closet.
If you have the drive to make it work, botting can be very lucrative. I've already experimented around with it a bit and did the math. If you do it correctly, you can make a few thousand a month with just 1 computer.
What I will say, however, is from reading up on this, your best bet is going to be start small. Invest a certain amount of money, let the bots pay the investment back, and then use the money they make to upgrade to more bots \ better comp specs \ other games. Since Blizzard bans in waves generally, you do not want to invest $1000+ in a bunch of accounts, only to get hit by a ban wave a week later. Build on your original ones, put money back, and wait on a ban wave to come and go before going large scale. Also, differentiate. Split your stuff into different groups of bots doing different things, so there is less chance of losing them all at once.
Good luck! If you have pushed yourself enough to already do that well with a lawn business, this should be easy. Just make sure you don't get too big and lose focus on other things in your life, or get in over your head. Start slowly and build to where you are comfortable.
You know we are talking about a 14 yearold kid who is trying to make more than 33 grand a year, right? How you think IRS is going to let that go?
"Hey guys, just chilling around in my Corvette - I don't even have a job".
Please, maybe it is possible to run 40-50 bots, but try to do that in your parents basement while still acting like you have a life. Heck, try to even get the capital needed at that age to do it. I doubt he can earn as much as his parents do as 14.
I am sure if he makes over $30,000 in a year, he will be ok with filing taxes on it. If he lives with his parents, it is not like he has a ton of expenses. He could bank most of it, file his taxes, and still have $25,000 (and that is assuming he spends a little of it...he won't pay 15%+ in income taxes at 30 grand a year).
And, I think that kind of botting would qualify as a job. He would be self employed at that point, as he already is if he owns a lawn care business (even if he doesn't have a business license).
Also, I am not sure if his parents would care that he was doing that if he was saving enough money to pay his way through college. He would likely need around 3 or 4 decent computers to run enough bots, depending on his setup, to pull it off. It is not like he could hide it.