Which route should I take?

Hey scott,

Congratz on your new journey! Blogging and list building while getting paid is simple concept but not easy.

It is very rewarding though and once you have got your system in place, you just need to learn investing time on organic traffic and scale with paid traffic to show your long term brand in as many eyes as
Possible.

Making your own sales funnel is pretty easy and better to do yourself (this is the creative side of marketing)

I have been blogging for 10 months now and loving every minute of helping others find solutions to their problems.

Its all about giving VALUE first before cash

Joe

Scott,

I'm not sure where you heard this but I believe it's totally wrong.

What does a newbie have to offer by way of experience, knowledge, authority, and practical helpful advice in the "make money online" market? Until the marketer has been in the business and understands how to make money, what does he have to offer?

I think you're going about this quest from the wrong angle.

What business topic and business model is best for you will never be known by someone else giving you there opinion about what they think is best. They don't know you, your experience, your training and education, your financial and time constraints, your passions and desires, your goals for your business, or anything else.

Besides, only a small portion of all the people on this forum actually have a profitable business. Who are you going to listen to?

Here's a better approach: do some inventorying of yourself and what you have to offer, do some market research into what people online are looking for (demand) and create your own business niche.

What if you discovered and created a niche that was based on some advantage in the marketplace that you personally have that others trying to compete with you don't have? Build your own profitable business on something that you enjoy doing every day.

Inventory your skills, education, past training, your passions, your talents, your life experiences and those things that you do well - not perfectly - but those things that others would say you're very good at doing.

Once you see what you can do - then you are in a position to see if others would like to learn or do the same type of things. You can do your research online to see what type of demand there might be in the marketplace by others that you can satisfy with what you know or have done. You're not "picking a niche" from the things that others are doing - you're creating a unique position for what you do best.

There is a huge difference in creating your own niche and "picking" to play in someone else's niche where your competitor's are already established and most certainly have the edge over you already.

Market research into demand for products and services coupled with a topic that you have some advantage in - that's the way to go, IMO.

Good luck,

Steve

My suggest would be either. However, if you have the funds, I'd buy a site that's earning and/or has that potential.

The first option: the MMO niche isn't easy for a newbie. It's actually a super competitive niche. Once you're making money, and can prove it, it'll be easier to get into that niche.

The second option: I'm not sure what type of blog, or your competition, or your situation. But as you know, not many blogs become highly successful overnight.. If ever. Unless you're offering something greatly unique or a much better value than the alternatives, I'm not a fan of this.

SteveB nailed it. All we can give you is opinions, because we don't know you. My profitable businesses are ecommerce. I've blogged, drop shipped, sold services, been a (horrible) affiliate, had review sites, etc. It wasn't until the ecommerce site that it all finally 'clicked' and I realized that was the avenue for me.

What I like to do, is browse Flippa for ideas of what type of websites are out there, what websites/products could I make related to those, or how could I improve the website? Flippa will show you the claimed revenue etc. Hint: go into advanced search, search for the type of website you're interested, making say $1000 per month, and browse through them.

My Only Suggestion Is This, Build A List And Sell Affiliate Products

Hey Scott, I can relate to your situation. Especially since there are like a million ways to make money online. I started completely from scratch not knowing anything about IM and I managed to reach 4 figures monthly in under 6 months by simultaneously learning and then marketing those skills to businesses which need them. Even if you had just read a single IM book, you'd know more than 80% of the small businesses out there.

If you have some capital, you can invest in a website from Flippa. That way, you get to see everything for yourself on what works. You also get to test stuff since there will be traffic coming in daily (given that you bought a site that gets decent organic traffic). I am actually thinking about selling one of my review sites. It's already making money and it's pretty much the most basic way of making money online on full auto-pilot. If you are interested, just let me know.

Hi Scott,

I'm glad you reassessed your idea about getting into IM. If you really want to help people, the last thing you should be doing is promoting IM products if you haven't actually used the Ideas in those IM products to make money yet.

You seem really genuine and like a human being when you talk about personal development, but when you talk about IM you seem to be repeating what you've seen/heard online. I think you should always go into what you believe in most and what you enjoy the most and that seems like personal development for you.

Oh and there is no rule saying that you can't work on your personal development blog AND do something else that makes money a bit faster.

Create a successful non MMO site then leverage your success and experience sharing what works for you in the MMO niche.

My question to you is, if you're "new" how would you even know if the pre-built sales funnel even works or not?

and no matter whether you start in the personal development niche, or internet marketing niche, there will always be crossover on your list...

personal development is still typically considered to be apart of the make money niche, because most often then not the person looking for "personal success" is really just looking for how to make money and be happy...

so you could start with either...or build both lists together...

Let's say you start with internet marketing...you drive traffic to your email list,
and in your followups maybe on day 4 or 5 your autoresponder email
encourages your readers to optin to a list on personal development that you own...

and that way you can actually build two lists at the same time...

Most of the most successful sites have a sales funnel which they use to make money. However, they also have a block to build relationships and attract customers and buyers + to promote the funnel

I would start with a blog, and I agree with SteveB. Unless your are an expert in something people need, you are going to have to establish yourself. I would take the time to consentrate on this, and then begin to build a list along with writing a blog.

Nothing happens fast you need to work at internet marketing to be successful