A friend I've made online, took some advice I gave him recently. He had been struggling with a website of his. Someone had convinced him to build a website in a real competitive market and drive business to it with Google Adwords.
His plan was to provide information for the visitor (which he did a good job with) and then send business via affiliate links to merchants. If you don't know what an affiliate program is, it's a way to make money online where you send a visitor to a merchant and if that visitor buys something you get a commission.
Well, he's now, based on my advice, decided to pursue a new website. This time related to one of his interests. It's a more of a niche and I know he'll do much better.
Here some of my comments to him about what he should do with this site:
I know that Adwords thing can be discouraging. Maybe it's just because of the market you were in.
When I first started out all I did was send people straight to the merchant. I went through site after site before I found profitable sites that converted. Download sites were good, dog training sites were good... but other industries I just wasted my money.
Some I would get 100s of clicks, but I was spending more than I was making...
It's still trial and error with landing pages. You never know whats going to convert.
One thing that's helped me is I make sure that the sites I'm sending people to are professional and reputable. Brand names help.
I also target affiliate programs that have high payouts. $25 or more a sale. That way I know I have a chance of making some money.
I then very rarely bid over 10 cents. Very rarely. Maybe 25 cents.
This is funny. I remember my first day doing Adwords I set the per click to like 5 or 10 dollars!!! Luckily my budget was only $25. I used up the budget in about a half hour! :o
It's a process. I wouldn't give up on it as a way to drive traffic. You just need a different market I think.
You know a lot of people would be happy with $25 per day. :)
Now I don't know what you are planning with this new site, but are you considering multiple income streams? Maybe write a fishing eBook to sell or give away (viral). Are you going to write ariticles. Use Adsense? Have a Newsletter?
If you could create a decent eBook and sell it for 25 bucks or something that might work... give 5 or 10 bonuses away with it. Then you can drive traffic to the eBook and if it's targeted, people will buy it and you'll make a decent profit.
Then you can go after the free traffic from the SEs as well. Submit to directories etc......
I think you're on the right track. It happens faster for some than others. Don't give up though. It'll be great someday to live by the net alone. :)
Take her easy!
Matt
There is a lot of potential online. The best way to insure your success is to make sure you create multiple streams of income.
Doing a combination of things can really help.
Having a newsletter will allow him to capture visitors and down the road convert them to a sale. Not everyone buys on the first visit to your website.
Adsense is another good source of income. You have to have some good traffic to make a lot of money, but I was suprised when I started using it as a strategy throughout my websites. Hey, even if its another 30, 40 or 50 dollars a month, it can pay some of your expenses.
Submitting to directories is a great way to get the Search Engines to take notice. I do not recommend even submitting to Search Engines anymore. You can get crawled by the Search Engine Spider much quicker by getting some links coming to your website. Spiders follow links off of websites. So if a link to your website is on another site that gets spidered, you're all set!
Writing articles can get you a little traffic rolling as well. And it's a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field. The inbound links also help with your position in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS).
Everyone can make a living online. It's takes a lot of hard work sometimes. Many people fail before they find good income, but it is possible for everyone.
Keep learning. I learn something new everyday. I hang out in forums, read articles, eBooks... I'm continually soaking up information. You have to to keep up with your competition.
Just go out there and do it; I'll see you at the top!
