As much as I tell people to seriously reconsider buying too much into the hardcore Make Money Online hype, I can not argue against its allure and the fact that, well, people DO make money online.
The problem is, there are the usual caveats:
- It's not fast. It's not easy. You WILL encounter problems and tough challenges. You might not always enjoy it.
These are challenges facing Roman who asked me for a blog critique. He has been building a site all about his experience of creating a website that makes money called How this website makes money (how meta). Problem is, while he is getting some pretty OK traffic, it isn't making him much money.
Roman shows how his website works
Kind of important for a site about making money with websites to make money, right?
It would be remiss of me at this point to ignore another challenge that would face many people …
- People might well say hurtful things, some of whom will be random internet strangers.
I would like to keep the conversation constructive. When you are considering what to write in the comments, please keep this in mind, ok? 🙂
Making Money with Websites is Hard
We have established that most people who set out to make money at anything will have a hard time. Most businesses fail, just a fact of life. What fail means in reality is a lot of people give up, a lot of people start multiple business and focus on the successful ones, and so on. I have a whole bunch of abandoned sites and domains just waiting for when I have time . But suffice to say, it's not a certain or easy thing by any means.
Looking down that list above (which is not anywhere near exhaustive) and hearing this might well put you off.
At the very least it doesn't seem as glamourous now, does it? But if you are still interested in learning about how to turn a website profitable, despite how hard it can be, then read on.
Still here? OK, I did mention that some people manage it … So how do you REALLY make money from a website?
Two Types of Websites that Make Money
There are two main types of website that make money.
A business that is marketed online. A magazine or media business.
Mine is the former. I have a consulting, training and coaching business, and I mainly market that business via a website and other online channels. Another example would be Copyblogger Media. In fact, I would say now Copyblogger Media is a software business, but that is a discussion for another time 🙂 A business sells products and services, the content is a way of attracting people and retaining their interest.
Examples of the second category would be the stereotypical blog any of the gadget and tech blogs, such as Techcrunch, Gizmodo, et al. Your news sites. They use advertising (and maybe affiliate links), and therefore are monetized media and eyeballs, clicks and page impressions.
Sites do not have to stay rigidly in one form versus another, but you do need to know your business model or at least the direction you are headed. Take Darren's Digital Photography School. It started out magazine style, quickly turned into a community, and now sells information products.
For sure there are other models of profitable site that work, but for the most part these two categories are the ones that work for more people.
Back to the Critique
Roman's business plan appears to be as follows:
Use the site as it's own case study. Report on the progress, metrics and tactics used. Make money via hosting and domain reselling/affiliate, and some Adsense.
So far, at the time of writing, he has achieved the below milestones:
Milestones at "How this Website Makes Money"
Which business model would you guess Roman is following?
Yes, I would say Roman is following the Magazine format, and he is facing the classic challenges of that format.
Challenges of the Media/Magazine Website Format
While there are nice benefits to the magazine style format, there are several challenges too.
On the one hand, it seems like you can put most of your effort into what you do best and what you most enjoy, such as writing, engaging with your audience, and so on. You can make your own hours, or even not work at all. Some might even suggest you can make money with zero effort once the hard work is done set it and forget it. And that is all true, for some, and for a varying amount of time.
It's not necessarily true for you. though.
What becomes immediately obvious to anyone who has tried this approach is you need a LOT of traffic. Much more than what Roman is getting.
Adsense does not pay very well in all but a tiny number of high competition niches, so you need a heck of a lot of clicks, and that means a great deal of traffic and you need your ads to be very in your face (perhaps to the point of being obnoxious).
If you are going to be an affiliate or reseller for a commodity like domains and hosting, again you are going to need a great deal of traffic. If that commodity does not have an already in demand brand name that you can rank in search for (especially for the purchasing type phrases, such as [Brand] Review or Buy [Brand] , then expect to need an eye-watering amount of traffic.
Relying on search traffic? You are also going to need a design that drives as many people towards clicks or purchases as possible. Blogs are made for browsing and ooh shiny , not pushing people down tracks that end up at conversions.
It can be done, but there is an alternative …
A Different Model
The good news is, while Roman has been struggling, he is actually in a pretty good shape.
His intentions and approach are not necessarily wrong, but I think his business model does not match his tactics, or at least implementation of them.
We had a brief discussion in email and he said he was wary of being too out there in terms of engaging his community, social media, public speaking, and so on. While all those things definitely do help, it's not the only way.
What Roman needs is to improve in four areas:
Targeting. Retention. Conversion. Sharing.
Audience Targeting
Right now, Roman's hook is kind of self-referential. It's all about Roman's site. OK, there is the aspect of the reader learns by example , but the big flashing neon message subconsciously says This is me doing my thing, come admire it 🙂
The you can too aspect is let down by the lack of any proof right now it is a case study in NOT making money, right? But that can be turned around by first focusing on what you CAN teach credibly (creating and maintaining a website under your own personalised domain that attracts traffic) and after making some money, you can return to the making money aspect.
Your hook is a promise. If you are not delivering on what people think you are promising then you will not get very far. Make a promise you can keep.
What does this have to do with audience targeting? Right now Roman is attracting people he can't help very much. He needs to attract people he can help.
And actually there is content there that will help them. It might need to be packaged and promoted differently, but Roman has the experience and knowledge to help anyone who is having trouble building a website. Don't overlook that I get questions every day from people confused with domains, hosting and FTP all things Roman knows well.
The best place to be is to find an audience with a self-identified problem that you can solve (profitably).
OK, they might not all be ready to buy quite yet, which brings us on to the next part.
Retention
When you have something to sell you have two choices. First you can try to make the sale right now, which is tough. The second option is easier, keep them interested until they are ready.
Retain the audience you manage to attract and keep them warm. Get people onto a list.
Let's see how you can do that with some examples:
This is it. You have finally found the website you are looking for . You have been browsing the web looking for real information on how to make money on the web but you always run into these websites that sound great yet deliver nothing. They pitch you a big hype and then you get to the bottom of the page to realize you haven't really learned anything; but you can learn it all by buying their "Fantastic Amazing ebook that tells you all the secrets of how to get rich on the internet".
Return Visitor? And looking for any new pages? They are listed at the top of the column on the left.
Does all the stuff on this website work? Yes it does and here is the proof: I own the website epic-fantasy. com and if you do a search with google of "Epic Fantasy" that website comes up on the first page. Not too shabby. (Note: This has changed: as of Nov 20, My site now is ranked #1 for this term. And March 13, 07 still number one :) - Update: May 18, 07 - Still number one, April 24, 08 Still number1:) And of course this is just an example keyword, I have accomplished this feat with many other terms.
If I were making loads of money on the internet I wouldn't be selling a book on how to make loads of money on the internet. That seems to be the way it is done. They make money on the internet by selling you a book on how to make money on the internet. There is something about that approach that doesn't sit well with me and I won't do it here. You will not get to the bottom of this page, or any other page on this site, and discover that you will learn all my secrets by buying an ebook. It just won't happen.
So what is this all about?
Already have some abilities with website building? Go to my quick list of books you can buy or my list of free affiliate programs you can sign up for.
Just like you have probably done, I have spent way too many hours scouring the internet for information on how to make a living with a website (or at least make some money) and sites like that are hard to come by. So I have decided to create the site myself and this is it.
I have owned several websites for years now and I have done a lot of work and made a lot of mistakes and I am going to show you how you can do it. My websites are making money and your website can make you money too.
(Take a look at the wayback machine and see how long I have owned and operated websites. This is my first website and it dates back to: May of 2002. So I have owned a legitimate website for five years now. I actually owned this site longer than that; The wayback machine only picked it up then. As of the writing of this tutorial I now own four domain names with many sub sites and thousands of pages of content packed information).
So What's the benefit to me?
I also have partnerships with companies like Amazon. com, Google, Allposters. com, Art. com, Postersupply. com, sideshowtoy. com, Overstock. com, Genericgifts. com, Magazineline. com, Musicnotes. com, The Franklin Mint, Netflix, Barnes Noble, and Simply Audio Books.
Whenever somebody goes to one of my websites and buys something from one of these companies I get paid a percentage. Can you see how I can make money with this? I am going to teach you how to do it too. And you know what? Every single one of these companies is free to partner with. It won't cost you a penny.
You have stuck with quite a bit of talk and that means you are persistent. Great! Persistence is one of the qualities you will need to get the money making ball rolling!
So now let me get to the point of this discussion and tell you exactly what you need to do to make money with a website:
You are going to pick a topic, subject, hobby or field that you are really interested in and you are going to make a website about that. Then you are going to post a lot of interesting stuff about the topic on your website. You will become a bit of an expert on this topic.
There are thousands of people that are also interested in this same topic and they will find your website. This is what the web does. It constantly searches for interesting stuff about topics. The internet, the search engines and people are hungry for information about every conceivable topic and if your site is interesting they will find it and you will make money.
But here's the kicker and the bonus. This website is about something that you love, or at least enjoy. You are going to make money doing something that you enjoy! Beats the heck out of working a job that you hate doesn't it?
So if you are ready to get started you should roll up your sleeves, get a notebook so you can take notes, and continue on to my tutorial. In no time at all you will have a website up and running and you will be making money.
One more thing before you get started: Here's my philosophy about spending money. My goal is to get you to first make some money before you spend any money at all. Everything I teach you will be free. You won't have to spend a dime. Once you start making a little money then you can spend some money to make more money. But until those first checks roll in you can keep your wallet closed. You won't need it.
