3 months to start making money online - advice? | Warrior Forum - The #1 Digital Marketing Forum & Marketplace

11 years ago

Just thinking about your plan in terms of metrics-

Assuming do a good job and pick niches with a high RPM of $10 (high, but achievable), you would need to have traffic generating roughly 150,000 page views per month. or, page views 12,500 per site, or 416 page views per day, per site- in order to generate $1500 per month in advertising revenue.

I think that amount is achievable, but probably only by someone who knows what he is doing- and has successfully ranked a few websites / made money from adsense before.

Reading about this stuff and actually doing it are completely different things, in my opinion.

As a disclaimer, I only have about 6 months of experience building websites / ranking them in google (which I have done successfully) - in those six months, my cumulative traffic (for all of my websites) is still less than the amount that you would need to achieve to reach your goal.

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Daveyz 11 years ago

My top advice is to either get a mentor or join a mastermind group.

Its extremely hard to go at it alone.

Especially since you only have 3 months. With a mastermind group or a mentor, you can accelerate your chances of success.

But of course, you have to make sure you find the right mastermind group/ mentor. As long they are credible or have a proven track record, you should be fine.
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Paul Hooper-Kelly 11 years ago

Hi RustyGeko,

Contratulations, you're on the right track when you say you want to build income generating assets.

And you are right to have reservations about spending a lot of time creating a product that could fail.

And I think you need to be wary of building lots of mini sites, because the biggest problem facing internet marketers is TRAFFIC.

So it's much smarter to build fewer sites (or just one or two) and then make sure you get tons of visitors to them.

One thing I can't see much mention of is the market and niche you intend to be active in.

Choosing an evergreen niche where money is already being made is the #1 priority. There's more heartache and misery stemming from failing to do this first step properly than almost anything else.

Then you need to create your chief income producing asset: your mailing list.

For this you can use a simple squeeze page, coupled with a free gift that is perceived to be of greater value than the price you are asking (the visitor's email address).

Then I suggest you put the idea of product creation on the back burner and, instead, sell other proven products, that your list might be interested in buying.

Then, later on, because you'll have dealt with other folks' products you'll be an expert and thus able to create the ultimate product that is the best on the market.

And you can pretty much guarantee it will soar because you already have a solid list of eager buyers.

And then you can build an army of affiliates to sell your product and so build up your chief income producing asset (mailing list) even more!

Warmest regards,

Paul
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- rustygecko 11 years ago
  
  Quick update on my (very modest) progress. I've selected a niche and ClickBank product, and am now starting to produce my initial content.
  
  Quick question about the use of pictures in articles written for syndication: Do you syndicators often include pics in your articles? It seems to me that they could enhance an article quite a bit (perhaps particularly in my chosen niche), but I wonder whether they would limit the possible distribution channels - e.g. you couldn't submit to plain-text only ezines (unless you had an edited version without pics, the viability of which would depend on how integral the pics were to a given article). When approaching potential publishers of your content an email containing pictures may also be a bit more likely to end up in their spam folder.
  
  Thoughts?
  
  Thanks
  
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rustygecko

11 years ago

Thanks all for the replies.

Originally Posted by pvijeh

Assuming do a good job and pick niches with a high RPM of $10 (high, but achievable), you would need to have traffic generating roughly 150,000 page views per month. or, page views 12,500 per site, or 416 page views per day, per site- in order to generate $1500 per month in advertising revenue.

Thanks for the numbers - certainly something for me to think about here.

Originally Posted by Daveyz

My top advice is to either get a mentor or join a mastermind group.

I don't have the money for a mentor, but a free mastermind group might be a good idea.

Paul Hooper-Kelly - thanks for the detailed reply. My main reservation about the idea of building one or two larger sites, building a mailing list, and then selling to that list is that I think it would take longer than 3 months. (Please do tell me otherwise if you think that's wrong.) I also don't like the idea of putting all my eggs in one basket.

Originally Posted by Paul Hooper-Kelly

And I think you need to be wary of building lots of mini sites, because the biggest problem facing internet marketers is TRAFFIC.

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

Under no circumstances would I consider building more than two niche sites during your 3 months, and there's an argument for making that only one.

A bit more detail about my intended approach. I'm planning to select low competition keywords for each site (i.e. keywords for which the 1st page of Google results are weak) and then attempt to get to the top of Google with a series of targeted posts and also some limited link-building. I know others have been able to rank fast using this approach, and I don't see any particular reason why the method shouldn't be replicable by me.

Btw, I'm aware that 'the money is in the list' and that your approach has the potential to generate more money than mine. I was considering focusing on an 'authority blog' after these 3 months, and switching the more successful of my sites to list-building rather than ads is of course a possibility.

Originally Posted by kinyash

IMO product creation and CPA marketing is the fastest way to learn and start earning.
...
Websites take time to rank an three months is too short a time for 12 websites as you plan. You most probably will be overwhelmed.

Regarding product creation, if and when I create a product for sale online I want it to be something really good. At the moment I can think of nothing that I both want to and am qualified to create, and could produce, market and sell in 3 months. See above for why I think I could rank at least the first month's worth of websites within 3 months, and let me know if you still disagree.

Originally Posted by MartinPlatt

My question to you is why haven't you succeeded so far?

Because I haven't seriously tried. My blogging has all been for fun or for reasons other than making money.

Thanks
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Alexa Smith

Banned 11 years ago

Originally Posted by rustygecko

I'm planning to select low competition keywords for each site (i.e. keywords for which the 1st page of Google results are weak) and then attempt to get to the top of Google with a series of targeted posts and also some limited link-building. I know others have been able to rank fast using this approach, and I don't see any particular reason why the method shouldn't be replicable by me.

I hear you.

It isn't my idea of building an asset-based business that can produce residual-ish income at all: in fact, it couldn't really be further away from it.

Originally Posted by rustygecko

My aim is to use these three months to build assets which will generate about £1000 (=$1500) per month relatively passively.

For me, that objective would entirely preclude any "ranking-based approaches", and I think it should for you, too.

I advise anyone "starting off" not to depend on search-engine traffic at all, and particularly not to design/select sites according to their "ranking-potential". I know (and see here, regularly) too many people who've done that, and I know where it typically leads.

I don't like to put time and effort into trying to attract "organic SERP's" traffic, for two main reasons. First, it's very precarious and makes your business Google-dependent, and any business that's Google-dependent is no more than one algorithm-change away from a potential accident (or even a potential disaster), as so many Warriors have been finding out over the last year or two, some of them to their very great cost. Secondly, for me, search engine traffic has been uniformly the worst-converting traffic out of everything I've ever tried in 8 entirely different niches over the whole of the last 4 years - search engine visitors to all my websites typically stay the least time, view the fewest pages, opt in the least often and actually buy anything by far the least often. I admit I do get tons of search engine traffic to all my main sites (because high rankings for multiple keywords happen to be a minor side-benefit of the main targeted traffic-generation method I use to build my business) but I'd certainly hate to have to make a living just from that traffic, or to make specific plans to try to increase the flow of that sort of traffic. I prefer almost any other traffic-source.

Originally Posted by rustygecko

I was considering focusing on an 'authority blog' after these 3 months

With apologies, I just don't understand the logic of setting out, with 3 months' full-time-work equivalent time available and planning to use it all up on something from which you're then promptly going to switch to a completely different business model 3 months later. It makes no sense to me.

I suspect that our fundamental concepts of "deriving income from websites and traffic" and maybe even of "what a business is" may be too far apart for me to be able to offer you any helpful input, though. Sorry. I wish you well with it all, anyway.

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kinyash

11 years ago

IMO product creation and CPA marketing is the fastest way to learn and start earning. In product creation if you do your research properly you cannot fail most products that fail are due to poor strategy and poor research. Do proper keyword research in any niche and create products that solve these peoples problems. Learn PPC and start promoting CPA ads (assuming you have a budget) Websites take time to rank an three months is too short a time for 12 websites as you plan. You most probably will be overwhelmed.

Thanks
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andreas3

11 years ago

Originally Posted by kinyash

Learn PPC and start promoting CPA ads (assuming you have a budget) Websites take time to rank an three months is too short a time for 12 websites as you plan. You most probably will be overwhelmed.

Are you saying he should drive PPC traffic to his pages (with CPA offers) or send the traffic direct to the PPC landing pages?

Thanks

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MartinPlatt

11 years ago

My question to you is why haven't you succeeded so far? If you experience the same amount of success as you have so far with your sites and multiply by 12 allow you to go anywhere near your goals? If not, what are you changing to allow you to achieve your goals?

What you're suggesting is definitely achievable, but you need to learn what you're doing wrong with each site and learn from it quickly. You also need to realise that the small amount of time with each site will mean that you probably won't get rankings and hence results quick enough to do that. If you had an already successful formula, then it's just a case of finding the most effective way to increase the numbers, be that via more content, more sites, or something else such as list building...

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Alexa Smith Banned 11 years ago

When I read your OP, I was planning a "proper reply", but when I got as far as Paul's post above (#4) I realised I didn't actually need to say much more than "I agree with Paul".

Under no circumstances would I consider building more than two niche sites during your 3 months, and there's an argument for making that only one.

I would definitely put "product creation" firmly on the back burner, for now. I think most people are much better off as affiliates, and here are ten of my reasons for thinking that.

Good luck!
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n8rm5n

11 years ago

Hi rustygecko, I also wish to build something which is sustainable, as in the past i only use video marketing and article marketing (all DIY) and only brings me few bucks, not enough at all for the time i spent. I'm a beginner at this and wish to learn more from you about WP.
Wish you all the best !

Thanks

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sivricmarijan

11 years ago

I think it's possible but very hard to achieve. Why don't you try with Fiverr? It's not a passive source of income but you can start making money today.

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John Romaine

11 years ago

Originally Posted by rustygecko

I may soon have a period of three months which I can dedicate to making money online.

Originally Posted by rustygecko

My aim is to use these three months to build assets which will generate about £1000 (=$1500) per month relatively passively.

Originally Posted by rustygecko

For these reasons, my provisional plan is to build medium-size niche websites at a rate of 1/week for 12 weeks, targeting low competition keywords.

You would be much better off building sites and selling them to local business for $1,500 each (or there abouts) rather than dicking around building thin content sites that might make $1 a day in adsense earnings.

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Paul Hooper-Kelly

11 years ago

Hi RustyGeko,

Paul Hooper-Kelly - thanks for the detailed reply. My main reservation about the idea of building one or two larger sites, building a mailing list, and then selling to that list is that I think it would take longer than 3 months. (Please do tell me otherwise if you think that's wrong.) I also don't like the idea of putting all my eggs in one basket.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Hooper-Kelly
And I think you need to be wary of building lots of mini sites, because the biggest problem facing internet marketers is TRAFFIC.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alexa Smith
Under no circumstances would I consider building more than two niche sites during your 3 months, and there's an argument for making that only one.

You say: "My main reservation ... is that I think it would take longer than 3 months. "

That's the second biggest mistake (after failing to select an evergreen, profitable niche) - being impatient for results.

Sure you want to make money as fast as humanly possible. But every business requires investment. And, the beauty of internet marketing is you don't need buildings, inventory or staff - which normally cost thousands. But you do need to invest in training, or stumble along by trial and error until you give up.

And there's a limit to how much helpful information you can get from forums, before it starts to conflict and you end up not knowing what to do for the best.

If you say you can't afford any proper training, then you'll have to be prepared to spend your time slogging it out by trial and error.

But consider this: I have a pal who discovered internet marketing when he was out of a job and been given a one month deadline by his wife to "Make this internet thing work - or get a proper job."

Long story short, in a couple of years he had made enough to buy the house of his dreams - for cash.

And the fact that he paid extra because it backed onto a golf course and he didn't even play golf wasn't the best bit.

The sweetest irony was the fact that he bought it from a doctor, who had spent SEVEN YEARS training to enjoy the sort of house and lifestyle my pal promoted himself to in two.

RustyGeko, you have a golden opportunity here to blow away every financial barrier in your life - so don't mess up because you don't make it in three months. It takes seven years to train as a doctor. It won't take you that long, if you stick at it.

Warmest regards,

Paul

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Kay King 11 years ago

Paul has give you "the answer" and spot on advice above.

The greatest challenge you have is your own attitude and reservations. "Passive income" is a myth for most people - but a good plan put in place reduces the time needed to keep your business profitable going forward.

You need to get rid of the uncertainty in your mind. Asking for 'evidence' or 'guarantee' and the hesitation of "what if" will hold you back.

Be ready to start on day 1 - have a detailed plan in place, niches chosen, etc. Don't spend the first week or the first month "getting ready to get started". Don't spend the second week or the second month wondering if you should start over or change niches or methods.

Know where you want to end up - plan how you will get there - and then stick to your plan every day. If you have only three months, there's no time for guessing.
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cyberma

11 years ago

Hi,

my humble advice might be:

1) focus on one niche at the beginning, so you can provide a good content to your readers

2) don't think about monetizing too much at the beginning. Provide some value first, then search for revenue. Be carefull about adSense, they have more and more strict rules and your account can get suspended easily without a chance to open it again. Especially for new sites.

3) Care abour your SEO - think of good titles and clear urls. Also don't forget about alt tags for images. Do not over optimize the web from the SEO point of view.

Good luck!
You can inform us how it works for you.

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PerformanceMan

11 years ago

I totally hate your strategy in 2013. If it were 2008 I would say go for it.

I feel like you're taking the wrong approach altogether. Attempting to 'reverse engineer' an income from online marketing is useless.

You better go back to the drawing board and decide what it really is you can offer to the public. Where can you add value? Then come back with a new value proposition and give it a try.

Thanks
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Alex Mensah

11 years ago

Originally Posted by PerformanceMan

I totally hate your strategy in 2013. If it were 2008 I would say go for it.

I feel like you're taking the wrong approach altogether. Attempting to 'reverse engineer' an income from online marketing is useless.

You better go back to the drawing board and decide what it really is you can offer to the public. Where can you add value? Then come back with a new value proposition and give it a try.

These days SEO can be a pain in the butt my friend and to trust all your business to the SERPS might not be a wise business direction if you do decide to go this route take up a mentor one who is doing what you would like to do so they can show you exactly what is working in SEO now.

Thanks

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rustygecko

11 years ago

Just a quick note to say thanks to those that have replied and I tried to respond to you some time ago, but for some reason was told my message required moderator approval. Looking through the rules again hasn't enlightened me as to why, but perhaps it could have something to do with there being an embedded video in the message? Anyway, I'll wait a while longer before repeating my points.

Thanks

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gcbmark20

11 years ago

Hi,

If you say you have that many hours spare then I would definitely look
into building a list of subscribers.

For the amount of time, sweat, tears and money spent in what you are
looking to achieve now...

...you could be focusing on building a list and I noticed you mentioned
"Passive Income" and building a list can certainly give you that.

Everything is here at this very forum to help you achieve this goal
but it sounds as though you are ready because you have gone to the
effort of making a plan.

That is ACTION!

THE FIRST STEP!

So well done for taking a first step now I hope you take my
advice and run with it.

Good luck and all the best with whatever you choose to do.

Regards
Gavin

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rustygecko

11 years ago

It looks like my post has disappeared into the ether, so I'll write it again (split into sections in case it was because it was too long). Thanks for the second batch of replies. I'm seriously considering changing my plan, so don't write me off as a too-stubborn-for-his-own-good newbie just yet. Having said that, I'm still going to respond to some points with objections/queries. Since the last time I tried to post this I've done some more thinking about alternative plans, so another post will follow this one with an outline of a possible new plan.

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

It isn't my idea of building an asset-based business that can produce residual-ish income at all: in fact, it couldn't really be further away from it.

I don't understand this. Are you objecting to the initial work in setting up and ranking the sites? Once that is achieved, the income is passive/residual.

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

I don't like to put time and effort into trying to attract "organic SERP's" traffic, for two main reasons. First, it's very precarious and makes your business Google-dependent, and any business that's Google-dependent is no more than one algorithm-change away from a potential accident (or even a potential disaster), as so many Warriors have been finding out over the last year or two, some of them to their very great cost.

My understanding is that by using strictly white-hat linkbuilding methods (i.e. no article spinning, spammy blog comments etc.) and ensuring your sites provide genuine value this risk can be minimised. Of course, as with almost everything I say, this is from reading about other people's experiences, not from personal experience.

Thanks
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rustygecko

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

Secondly, for me, search engine traffic has been uniformly the worst-converting traffic out of everything I've ever tried in 8 entirely different niches over the whole of the last 4 years - search engine visitors to all my websites typically stay the least time, view the fewest pages, opt in the least often and actually buy anything by far the least often.

I don't doubt you, but do you know why that is? It seems to be that search engine traffic should be highly targeted.

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

With apologies, I just don't understand the logic of setting out, with 3 months' full-time-work equivalent time available and planning to use it all up on something from which you're then promptly going to switch to a completely different business model 3 months later. It makes no sense to me.

Going from building small sites with simple monetisation, to a larger site or sites with more sophisticated monetisation seems like a fairly logical progression to me. I do see your point though.

Originally Posted by n8rm5n

Hi rustygecko, I also wish to build something which is sustainable, as in the past i only use video marketing and article marketing (all DIY) and only brings me few bucks, not enough at all for the time i spent. I'm a beginner at this and wish to learn more from you about WP.

Best of luck to you. There's a decent video introduction to setting up a WP blog the easy on Pat Flynn's 'Smart Passive Income' site. I've removed the link in case it's the reason this post keeps not working.

Thanks
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rustygecko

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Paul Hooper-Kelly

You say: "My main reservation ... is that I think it would take longer than 3 months. "

That's the second biggest mistake (after failing to select an evergreen, profitable niche) - being impatient for results.
...
But consider this: I have a pal who discovered internet marketing when he was out of a job and been given a one month deadline by his wife to "Make this internet thing work - or get a proper job."
...
RustyGeko, you have a golden opportunity here to blow away every financial barrier in your life - so don't mess up because you don't make it in three months. It takes seven years to train as a doctor. It won't take you that long, if you stick at it.

Paul - first let me reassure you that I have no intention of quitting if I don't reach my target in 3 months, nor do I just want to make a quick buck and then live on a beach. I'm in a similar position to your pal - I don't want to have to get a 'proper job'. Actually, let me rephrase that - I want to achieve a certain degree of financial freedom which will give me space to decide how I can best use my life (which could conceivably even mean getting a job!). If I don't make significant progress in 3 months I will have to get a job, which will obviously set back that dream considerably - hence the sense of urgency.

cyberma - Thanks for your input.

Kay King - We are in agreement (at least about the second half of your post).

PerformanceMan, Alex Mensah & gcbmark20 - Advice gratefully received.

Thanks
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rustygecko

11 years ago

...and finally, an alternative plan:

A while ago I bought a WSO which included a ready-made squeeze page with freebies to give away in return for your e-mail address, plus a back-end with products for sale in the IM niche (by a respected IMer). Idea is simply to set this up and start trying to drive traffic to it. One traffic generation method would be my own (currently hypothetical) blog in the IM niche. I think I have a reasonable idea for making such a blog interesting without trying to 'fake it before I make it' (i.e. claiming to already be an IM expert, which I wouldn't be comfortable doing).

Obviously needs some fleshing out, but does that plan meet more universal approval?

Thanks
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Alexa Smith

Banned 11 years ago

Originally Posted by rustygecko

One traffic generation method would be my own (currently hypothetical) blog in the IM niche.

A blog is not in itself a "traffic-generation method".

A blog is something to which one generates traffic with a traffic-generation plan.

Originally Posted by rustygecko

I think I have a reasonable idea for making such a blog interesting without trying to 'fake it before I make it' (i.e. claiming to already be an IM expert, which I wouldn't be comfortable doing).

Obviously needs some fleshing out, but does that plan meet more universal approval?

Answered in this thread: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post8197024

And in this thread: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post8215419

And in many more like them.

Starting off with an IM-related blog is probably the single commonest mistake that beginning marketers make, and almost undoubtedly the commonest individual reason for the very high failure-rate in internet marketing. Sorry, but you did ask, and there's a lot of information on the board discussing and explaining in some detail why this kind of idea is generally stacking the deck against yourself in a fairly extreme way. I acknowledge that you're not talking about a "fake it until you make it" sort of blog (and neither are many of the others: they're more often a "share my journey" idea - there are tens of thousands of those, until they get abandoned), but without knowing exactly what you are talking about, it'd difficult to say more.

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rustygecko

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

Starting off with an IM-related blog is probably the single commonest mistake that beginning marketers make, and almost undoubtedly the commonest individual reason for the very high failure-rate in internet marketing. Sorry, but you did ask, and there's a lot of information on the board discussing and explaining in some detail why this kind of idea is generally stacking the deck against yourself in a fairly extreme way. I acknowledge that you're not talking about a "fake it until you make it" sort of blog (and neither are many of the others: they're more often a "share my journey" idea - there are tens of thousands of those, until they get abandoned), but without knowing exactly what you are talking about, it'd difficult to say more.

As you say, I did ask.

Better to make my mistakes in a forum thread than spend months heading in the wrong direction. Ah well, back to the drawing board I guess. Thanks again.

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Alexa Smith

Banned 11 years ago

Good thinking, Captain. Here, if it helps, is maybe one of the drawing boards to get back to ...

You're 10 (perhaps even 100) times as likely to make some real money in a non-competitive, low-glamor niche like "cauliflower soup recipes", "hydroponic gardening", "decorating kids' bedroom ceilings" or "skating videos" than you are in anything to do with IM, MMO, dating, dieting, fitness or health. Because you won't have tens of thousands of highly established, professional competitors, some of whom have 4-figure daily AdWords promotional budgets and to several of whose lists nearly all your prospective customers will already be subscribed.

What you will have is some quality products to promote as an affiliate (which you have to research and find), perfectly adequate markets for them, an income-producing opportunity, and a chance to gain some real experience while learning things of great value to your longer-term IM future.

You might even (as I do, in some ways) find one or two or more of those lower-key niches so profitable and productive that you'll stick with them for the long term, too. A much bigger slice of a smaller pie tastes better (and is more easily maintained, too). Who cares how big the pie is? What matters is how big your slice is.

I don't suggest that you'll be able to retire quickly, or anything of the kind ... but you'll have a good and productive and maybe profitable learning-curve, that way, and in the long run be stacking the deck in your favor rather than against yourself.

It is, literally, "just my perspective". Food for thought ... http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post8192216

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rustygecko

11 years ago

The three months starts on Monday, and Alexa has persuaded another newbie to try article syndication. I have a few more questions, mostly directed at Alexa, but I would of course appreciate answers from anyone else who does this.

1. Keyword research

We're writing for people, not search engines, and most of our traffic is going to come from the sites/ezines of people who have syndicated our content, not from the SERPs. Is keyword research (beyond the most basic level of just making sure you're writing about a topic some people are interested in) still important in either niche selection or deciding what to write about after you've selected your niche?

2. E-mail marketing

Alexa - I read somewhere that you don't like to broadcast to your list as it breaks continuity, but just use a series of automated followups. You've had some of your lists for years now, so does that mean that some people have just stopped getting e-mails from you, or do you keep adding more and more messages to the automated series? You also have a small number of products that you promote in each niche (about 1-3 IIRC), which presumably means that people who have been on your list a long time have seen pitches for everything you promote already, so you're not going to earn any more from them without adding new products.
EDIT: Seen a more recent post where you say you now promote 30 products between your 8 niches, which perhaps answers my question.

3. Physical products

Do (m)any of you article syndicators promote physical products on your sites or to your list? It seems like most niches have both physical and digital products available in them, and I'd have thought e.g. some reviews with Amazon affiliate links in them might be a nice addition to the main aim of promoting your ClickBank product(s).
EDIT: Seen another post of Alexa's where she says she's started promoting some non-ClickBank products, so I guess this question is also answered.

Thanks
1 reply

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Alexa Smith

Banned 11 years ago

Originally Posted by rustygecko

Is keyword research (beyond the most basic level of just making sure you're writing about a topic some people are interested in) still important in either niche selection or deciding what to write about after you've selected your niche?

It isn't to me, but I do some anyway. Just during the process of niche selection. So that by the time I've decided to enter a niche, I'll have a little list of 15-20 keywords which I consider to be of "medium competition". I'll sometimes use one of these as the first word in the title of an article.

Don't take too much notice of people telling you that things like "5 Things To Know About Keyword" are good article titles. Those people missed the boat. A much better article title is "Keyword - 5 Things To Know About It". (I learned this from Chris Knight, the owner of Ezine Articles, and he was absolutely right about it, of course).

Beyond that, I'm not really interested in it. I have more Google traffic than I can handle (just because high rankings follow article syndication to relevant sites: Google loves backlinks on relevant sites) but you can't make a living from it. At least, I can't. Not selling ClickBank products. SEO traffic isn't very conducive to ClickBank sales. (I don't claim it's entirely worthless, of course, and overall I'd rather have it as a little extra than not have it at all, since it's almost effortless to get floods of it, once you're syndicating articles anyway.)

Originally Posted by rustygecko

Alexa - I read somewhere that you don't like to broadcast to your list

Yes - I don't. For my sort of business, I think it's a mistake: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post7301227

Originally Posted by rustygecko

You've had some of your lists for years now, so does that mean that some people have just stopped getting e-mails from you, or do you keep adding more and more messages to the automated series?

I keep adding more. If I'm still active in the niche (which I am, if I'm earning from it), then I write a few articles for it anyway, and it's easy enough to re-word those articles slightly and put them into email format. Each article typically makes up two new emails, with a bit of easy fiddling about, so it costs me nothing, really. (There's no "right and wrong" about these things. I happen to know that Paul doesn't do this, and he's been an article marketer for a lot longer than I have and earns much more from it, too).

Originally Posted by rustygecko

You also have a small number of products that you promote in each niche (about 1-3 IIRC)

Yes - about 4 on average. I'm in 8 niches and promote about 32/33 ClickBank products altogether (but some other stuff, too - Amazon and some "in-house affiliate programs").

Originally Posted by rustygecko

which presumably means that people who have been on your list a long time have seen pitches for everything you promote already

Yes; this is often true.

Originally Posted by rustygecko

so you're not going to earn any more from them without adding new products.

You'd think not, but I do. Surprising, sometimes. People will suddenly order something they've seen promoted a dozen times before. They do say (though I have no idea how people work this out, or even whether it's true) that the average number of pre-sales contacts for something, before a purchase, is about 7, and if that's right it stands to reason that there'll be some subscribers for whom the figure's much higher than that? I'm only theorizing here, but the reality is that if I keep emailing, I keep selling (albeit in declining quantities, of course, to the "older people", as it were). Note that in order to do this, realistically, you have to maintain very high open rates, which means expectation-setting, continuity, and all the rest of it.

Originally Posted by rustygecko

Do (m)any of you article syndicators promote physical products on your sites or to your list? It seems like most niches have both physical and digital products available in them, and I'd have thought e.g. some reviews with Amazon affiliate links in them might be a nice addition to the main aim of promoting your ClickBank product(s).

I do, anyway, in several of my niches. I think others do, too. I know Paul does.

[ 2 ] Thanks
1 reply

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NewbieLifer

11 years ago

Alexa- You sound like you really know your stuff. Would you be willing to share a couple of your website addresses so that those of us who are still learning can see what a profitable site layout and content look like?

I find myself still obsessing over the right colors to create the right emotions and the right headlines to make people read further and just the right layout and whitespace to catch attention. It's tough when trying to accomplish all that without having a good example to follow.

Thanks
1 reply

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Alexa Smith

Banned 11 years ago

Originally Posted by NewbieLifer

Alexa- You sound like you really know your stuff. Would you be willing to share a couple of your website addresses so that those of us who are still learning can see what a profitable site layout and content look like?

With apologies, like most affiliates here who aren't in any IM/MMO niches, I don't disclose my niches (which is why I also use pen-names for all of them). I've done a lot of very time-consuming research to select niches and products partly on the basis of their not being too competitive, so I can't afford for anyone to see my sites.

Originally Posted by NewbieLifer

I find myself still obsessing over the right colors to create the right emotions

I avoid bright red, whatever I use. Bright red is salesy and is the one color for affiliates to stay away from. (And actually all the color split-testing I've ever seen of sales pages has shown that bright red converts worse than dark blue and dark green - it's kind of the opposite of what many people imagine and what many desperately old-fashioned copywriters believe. Not that affiliates need sales pages anyway, of course!).

Website design (as long as you keep it clean and simple and easy to read, and avoid the "obvious howlers" like cluttered pages, garish colors, Capital Letters Starting Every Word In Headings and the things that understandably make people think you look like a salesperson) doesn't have that much to do with results, in my opinion. It's easy to waste time and energy thinking about and testing all sorts of minutiae which collectively make very, very little difference indeed.

Originally Posted by NewbieLifer

and the right headlines to make people read further and just the right layout and whitespace to catch attention.

I just err on the side of "plenty of white space and no clutter and not too many pictures". (And especially not on the home page where I don't want too much to distract from the prominently incentivized opt-in without which I can't make a living!).

Sorry not to be more helpful.

[ 1 ] Thanks
1 reply

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rustygecko 11 years ago

Hi all,

Thought I'd post a quick update for any interested in my progress. Life has got in the way, so I haven't been able to put in 40 hour+ weeks all the time, but I have been making steady progress. I've selected a ClickBank product and niche, researched the niche and written 3 articles of ~1000+ words, set up the site and email list, written a short eBook as an optin incentive, and just in the last 24 hours started emailing people to see if anyone's interested in republishing my articles. No bites so far.

rustygecko
- Thanks
- 1 reply
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- MarketMaster13 11 years ago
  
  Get advices from experts or probably get a coach or a mentor(paid).
  It get you high returns in the long run,its worth investing on it.
  
  Thanks
  
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Alexa Smith Banned 11 years ago

Originally Posted by rustygecko

as with almost everything I say, this is from reading about other people's experiences, not from personal experience.

I understand. I suspect that nearly all (maybe "all") the SEO-based information you've read about was either out-of-date or provided by people directly or indirectly selling SEO-related services/information.

Originally Posted by rustygecko

Are you objecting to the initial work in setting up and ranking the sites?

I'm not "objecting" to anything. I'm mentioning that I wouldn't, myself, be willing to use my own time, effort, energy and resources in doing that because long experience in multiple niches over many years has taught me that search engine traffic is very poor quality and often temporary. I happen at the moment to get floods of traffic from Google in multiple niches (because high rankings for multiple keywords happen to be a small side-benefit of my primary traffic-generation strategy) and I know how little it's worth to me.

Originally Posted by rustygecko

Once that is achieved, the income is passive/residual.

I don't believe that this is correct or realistic.
- [ 1 ] Thanks
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FitMarketer

11 years ago

There are several ways to build up a passive income online.

I love adsense and clickbank commissions becuase one the sites are done you can earn without putting in more work.

I would also recommend looking into investing into niche apps. They are far less saturated and can give you a more reliable steady passive income.

I would recommend flipping sites and/or apps for extra quick cash along the way.

Product creation is also a great way to earn but can take more time and effort and sometimes requires ongoing support.

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Curtis2011 11 years ago

OP, if you are interested in SEO marketing, you might want to read this blog.

The owner created a 100% white hat, content-creation-only website as an expirement and within a few months was making some pretty sizable earnings.
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edhuu

11 years ago

Build your list like a boss in 3 months. And start monetizing them asap

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DTGeorge

11 years ago

Originally Posted by rustygecko

Hello all,

I may soon have a period of three months which I can dedicate to making money online. I've made very little money online in the past, but have a fair amount of experience with WordPress blogs and writing content for said blogs in reasonably coherent English. I also have a basic understanding of a lot of the common ways to make money online (from extensive reading, not from personal experience). I don't have a lot of money to put into this venture, but hope to have a lot of time (~40 hrs/week).

My aim is to use these three months to build assets which will generate about £1000 (=$1500) per month relatively passively. It would be nice to see some evidence that things are working along the way - for example, I don't want to spend the three months creating a product and preparing a launch, only for that product to flop miserably and earn nothing when I launch it. I also want a method that is pretty certain to be earning some money at the end of the three months, even if I don't hit my target.

For these reasons, my provisional plan is to build medium-size niche websites at a rate of 1/week for 12 weeks, targeting low competition keywords. They will probably be monetised (at least intitially) with AdSense and/or Amazon Associates. I'm probably going to aim for about 15 posts/site to start with, all written myself. Perhaps fewer posts would work, but I want to be certain I rank in Google. I realise that the sites built in the final month or so probably won't be earning anything much by the end of the three months, but I can live with that.

I want to ask you two main questions:

1. What do you think of my plan? Is it realistic, is it likely to work, do you see any major problems with it?
2. If you were starting out again from scratch, and had three months to try and hit my income target, what would you do? Are there better ways than mine (bearing in mind that I don't want an all-or-nothing approach, and need to see some evidence of progress along the way)?

Please don't respond with links to specific products/courses, I just want general advice. Thanks in advance for your time.

rustygecko

have a fair amount of experience with WordPress blogs and writing content for said blogs in reasonably coherent English.

You have experience with wordpress blogs and you can write reasonably well.

So why are you trying to work on passive income?

I'm not trying to discourage you in any way, but passive income is quite elusive for many people, even those who DO put in genuine effort

However, you have two options to generate you quite a bit of money WITHOUT having to wait for three months in

a. Website/Wordpress sites
b. Content writing.

Why not use the talents and skills that you already have and make money?

Just my 2 cents

Thanks

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arkina

11 years ago

I think your plan is good.

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JasonBennet

11 years ago

I will start off with list building by building a simple squeeze page and promoting a product that is proven to sell. I will then focus the majority of my time on traffic generation activities that will get more people to come to the website. Yes it seems like a simple model but it works

And regarding passive income, I feel it is not really true yet at the beginning because you need to be prepared to work hard first to become stabilized become the passive income will come. Just my 2 cents.

Thanks

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koppster

11 years ago

Stick with one technique and master it.

Thanks

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KevinChapman

11 years ago

With only three months I'd definitely suggest you get a mentor or join a membership site, it'll help to keep you on track and give you focus.

With your 40+ hours per week I'd get on and build a wordpress blog with an opt in, start promoting it and sell affiliate or your own products to your list.

Thanks

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rustygecko

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Geri Richmond

Hi,
Have you ever tried Google Sniper 2.0? You set up micro niches with low competition keywords in whatever niche you want. You don't have to blog or get traffic. Google does all the traffic getting for you. It's a set it and forget it system. The cost is about $47, or it used to be. It takes about 3 hours to set up one site. You will have to buy domain names for each site, but, with Honey a firefox add on, you won't spend much money on domain names. I get most of mine for $1.17 for 1 year. If you want to know more PM me.

Geri Richmond

Thanks for your reply, but I did ask in my initial post that people not respond promoting specific products. You're probably well-intentioned, but there's no way I can be entirely sure you don't just want to make an affiliate sale.

Originally Posted by DTGeorge

You have experience with wordpress blogs and you can write reasonably well.

So why are you trying to work on passive income?

I'm not trying to discourage you in any way, but passive income is quite elusive for many people, even those who DO put in genuine effort

However, you have two options to generate you quite a bit of money WITHOUT having to wait for three months in

a. Website/Wordpress sites
b. Content writing.

Why not use the talents and skills that you already have and make money?

Hi George. That is what I'm trying to do - building a WordPress site and writing content for it (which others can also use). I've just chosen to do it for myself rather than on a freelance basis. I'd much rather have a few months not making much money and then start making a decent amount of relatively passive income, than just grind away forever at the pretty low rates generally offered on Elance etc. Of course, it remains to be seen if I'll manage to do that!

Originally Posted by JasonBennet

I will start off with list building by building a simple squeeze page and promoting a product that is proven to sell. I will then focus the majority of my time on traffic generation activities that will get more people to come to the website. Yes it seems like a simple model but it works

And regarding passive income, I feel it is not really true yet at the beginning because you need to be prepared to work hard first to become stabilized become the passive income will come. Just my 2 cents.

Originally Posted by KevinChapman

With your 40+ hours per week I'd get on and build a wordpress blog with an opt in, start promoting it and sell affiliate or your own products to your list.

Thanks both for your input. This is more-or-less the model I've been persuaded to try in this thread, using article syndication as the main traffic generation method.

If any article syndicators are still reading this thread, I'd be grateful for any responses to my question about pictures in articles.

Thanks

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DeanJames

11 years ago

@Rustygecko

The main issue with what you are proposing is that you are at the mercy
of what the search engine algorithms are doing.

When you are in that situation you cannot steer the ship fast enough to
adjust and maintain a predictable/stable income.

To add more stability to your income choose niches which lend themselves
to building a list.

Look at ways of connecting with your target audience that don't just rely
on search engine rankings.

I would write more but I'm pushed for time this afternoon.

Good luck!

Thanks
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rustygecko

11 years ago

Originally Posted by DeanJames

@Rustygecko

The main issue with what you are proposing is that you are at the mercy
of what the search engine algorithms are doing.

When you are in that situation you cannot steer the ship fast enough to
adjust and maintain a predictable/stable income.

To add more stability to your income choose niches which lend themselves
to building a list.

Look at ways of connecting with your target audience that don't just rely
on search engine rankings.

I would write more but I'm pushed for time this afternoon.

Good luck!

Thanks Dean - my plan has already changed largely for this reason. The new plan involves a single site (to start with) with traffic driven by article syndication (more information available if you read the whole thread).

Thanks

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Fazal Mayar

11 years ago

List building should be your priority. Building content sites and monetizing with adsense has been proved to be a slow yet not much rewarding type of thing today but it depends if you use seo or not too.

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3 months to start making money online - advice?

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