The Truth - A must read for beginners

99% of the people here are either:

A: Trying to sell you something
B: Have no idea what they're talking about

I thought I'd post a little about my history on this site and how I've come to discern the good guys from the bad guys.

But before I start - let me just say this... There are very good smart, helpful people on here who are selling stuff. Don't think just because someone has a link in their signature their information is bad. That's not the point of this post.

If you're not a beginner, this really isn't aimed at you but it would be great it you could contribute.

On to the good stuff...

How do you know the guy/gal in the thread has a clue about the topic.

1. Their answers are specific
2. They might be supported by links to other posts
3. They engage in "professional" debate when someone differs with their opinion

And what I think is the most telling...

They have no link in their signature but go out of their way to help people in the thread. They make multiple comments, give specific advice, and just flat out help for no gain of their own.

Someone that comes to mind is Alexa (over in the main forum) and Yukon right here. In general they're not here to promote things. They like being here and just happen to provide great information.

I assure you if you took 4 hours and read as many posts by those 2 people you would know more about "IM" than if you bought 20 WSOs.

By the way there are a lot of people like this, I just happened to pick these folks.

How to spot the bad guys:

1. Their answers are short and vague
2. They only pop into threads that have to do with the service their selling
3. They are asking basic questions about a topic (take SEO) but selling SEO services.

I'm not going to call anyone out here, but if you spend 5 minutes here you'll see many people who fall into this category.

Now the truth about Adsense:

1. Making money with Adsense is hard, and there are better business models

2. However, the entry point for Adsense is low and it IS a great way to start generating revenue so you can grow to bigger and better things.

3. Your pipe dream of making $100/day with it is just that unless you're willing to work your butt off.

How do I know these things? Because I spent a lot of time, and I mean a lot (hundreds of hours) learning and figuring it out. I do make that $100/day but believe me it took so much work I would have been better off working at the gas station for the first year.

What's the point of this other than to brag about my Adsense awesomeness?

You have to be willing to put in a lot of work to be successful generating passive income. And passive is really just a made up pipe dream by people selling stuff.

I'll give you an example - I had a site cruising along making great money (for a 20 page site being monetized solely by adsense). Then Google came out with those silly ads with the colored circles and little arrows. Guess what - my income tanked by 70%.

I've been spending the last few months (or however long its been) trying to get my numbers back to where they were. I'm finally almost there, but it's probably cost me over 100 hours of work. How's that for passive?

Oh, and by the way the theme that I was using wasn't a responsive theme, so I had to take some high earning sites and convert them to a responsive design. The risk involved was enough to make me puke, literally I was so nervous about changing the design.

Again, how's that for passive?

Now I'm going to share how I've been able to be successful.

I don't make millions, I work a full time job still, but I make enough that if I didn't have a high paying full time job I'd do this full time. Make sense? What I'm trying to say is, I'm not going to work in a factory if I lose my day job. I'd spend the 60 hours a week I work there on "IM" and I'd be able to support my family.

Also - I'm not selling anything, I don't plan to sell anything, and this isn't a big lead up to a WSO. I've taught courses in the past with great success. My students actually make money. What I'm giving you is actionable information that if you use it properly you can and will be successful.

First - for the love of all things holy on the the internet, do this for all of us. Find something you're passionate about and ONLY create good content. This is not for SEO purposes, it's because I'm tired of reading the same crap over and over. And finding something you're passionate about will make things so much easier for you.

I have a site with a topic so boring and stupid it make you laugh (not in a good way), but it earns a lot of money so I keep writing articles and creating content. The content is good, but it kills me to make it, and even if I have someone else create it I hate posting into wordpress. It's that bad. Don't do that.

Second - Pick one method of monetization (for now) and stick with it for a period of 3 months. Let me give you a little advice here.

Email Marketing (list building)

- If you are going to build a list and use email marketing you MUST study copywriting or hire a copywriter. You will not be successful (kind of a generalization) if you don't. It is not easy to market via email, you are not amazon, walmart, or groupon. And heck, those guys pay for the best copywriters in the world. Don't you think you should study a little.

Buy some actual books about the subject. Dan Kennedy, Bob Bly, Gary Halbert's letters (free), there are some more but become a student of copywriting. It will increase your opt-ins and you will actually sell stuff to your list.

Don't listen to these yahoos who tell you just build a huge list and blast it with offers.

Creating your own product

Only do this if you're an expert. No one cares that you read a book about wood carving and now you want to write and sell an ebook about it. If you've been carving wood your whole life and can actually teach people how, then create some courses.

Create a beginners course, an intermediate course, and an advanced course. Promote it, advertise it, spend money to make money, etc. But don't make crap.

And for God's sake don't create another terrible IM product.

Using Adsense

Remember that whole passion thing. Well here's where it's critical. Get the whole 2007 "mini site" idea out of your mind. Create a site that's built around your passion.

Do these things:

1. Write for your readers, but write about keywords. After all that is what they're searching for.

2. Create awesome content. If you write a blog post, make it great. Do actual research, be specific, tell your readers something new, etc. If you create a video, make it funny, educational, just plain cool, whatever. But make it worthwhile. If you create a podcast, interview relevant people, discuss current issues, etc.

3. Don't forget the purpose of the site is to get people to actually click on your ads. So you need to test like crazy, document those tests, and continually optimize placements, colors, sizes, etc.

4. Have a traffic strategy (this is actually more important than anything, it just happens to be here). You can't make money without traffic. It's impossible. So if you have a site about fashion, you better be all over Pinterest.

If you have a site about doomsday bunkers, you need to be on forums and blogs.

If you have a site about your dog that does funny stuff and you make videos about it, then you need to be on Facebook and twitter.

If you have a site about toenail fungus well SEO is your friend. No one on Facebook cares about and people on Pinterest don't want to see your gross feet pictures.

Do you see where I'm going with this? Your traffic strategy needs to be just that, a strategy. The whole idea is to convert the traffic.

Here's a hint - if google sends you toenail fungus via search, and toenail fungus cures ads are running on your site, people will click them. Google isn't worth 400 Billion dollars because they don't know what they're doing.

OK, this thing is getting crazy long. So if you take nothing from this post, or it was TLDR, or whatever do this.

Make an awesome site. Choose 1 monetization strategy for 3 months. Research it via reputable sources. Know you have to work your butt off. And know there's no such thing as truly passive income.

Now stop living a pipe dream and get to work.

Paul