What is the quickest route to a profitable website? What type of category would you go into if your sole criteria is making money? General? Dating? Gambling? Adult? Should you focus on making money from clicks, sales, membership programs which pay for a % of a client's lifetime profits, or perhaps broker programs? What type of area should you focus on most? Generating traffic, PR, networking, content? Obviously all these things are important, but how might the percentages break down in terms of how much of your time you should devote to each? Is a unique approach essential or are there "canned" profitable approaches? Do you need a lot of money to do this, or is it the case that a successful website should generate its own cash? I have a good intellect, willingness to do hard work, and a readiness to risk funds if neccessary-but so far it hasn't really worked out for me. What are the qualities needed to succeed at this game? Is luck a big factor? Can't offer much in the way of a reward for all these questions except future goodwill in the event I become successful at this. Thanks for reading.
unless you have a lot of friends, with a lot of high pr links that they will throw your way, building a proffitable web site takes everything that you have mentioned: money, time, content, and a little luck as for niches, one way to determine a high paying nich is building a site around high paying adsense key words. Even the majority of these fail due to people simply expecting that it will all come to them with ease, when in actual fact, it takes years to reep what you sow if you do it properly... good luck hope this helps...
Also its worth mentioning that it is really important to test out a range of different earning methods. Big user driven content sites are great in the longterm, and will just keep on growing generally, whereas carefully planned and implemented PPC campaigns can boost revenue very quickly (or burn through your budget very quickly if not researched and tracked well). Just my thoughts on the matter.
I have all the answers right here in a bottle. Unfortunately, it is not a digital download product. So, there will be a slight shipping and handling charge... I do not mean to confront you...but just "poke my opinion" in as someone who learned by the "Hard School of Knocks"! Your post reminds me of so many affiliates now-a-days....All I read was "I want to use the internet to make money, and fast!" , rather than, "I want to use the internet to create a business that will grow over the years." There our so many affiliates out there today whose sole interest is "the fast bottom line." A "business" on the internet makes money and keeps making money for years. A "money-site" is usually easliy detected by the viewer and clicked off. That site has a short life and a sad ending. Just my opinion, but I've been around affiliate marketing for a long time and have seen a good deal. Or, maybe, at 50, I am now a member of the "old fart" generation when it comes to making money on the internet. Give me a "business" !!! Jim
Don't be afraid to start experimenting with different programs and advertising strategies. Adwords and Overture have the best reputation for quality advertising and are very user friendly. Start off with around $25-$50 and closely monitor how well your campaigns are converting. Just go for it!
i absolutely agree with Jim - your mentality must be one of building a business and creating value than just trying to make money. There is nothing wrong with wanting to make money, but you must have passion for a niche.
Excellent post Jim. These are things that a lot of people miss, including many of the affiliate managers who treat us like a source of freebie extra money towards their companies' bottomline. I personally only work with programs that are willing to be the back end and allow me to build my own brand. Affiliate, shmiliate...I want every vertical I choose to be a running business with accounting for every ingredient I put in...time, effort, money, organization skills. I also want a residual value in the business. Nothing pleases me more than social networking type websites discussing _my_ website as a good soource for <whatever>.
I think Jim is right.. I tried some affiliate selling too but never tried to start a business. Of course you need to invest some money time and so on but you can get big rewards
Emphasis on "learning"! If you don't know what you are doing, or are NOT ready, you can spend a lot of money with PPC advertising in a very short time and have no "results" (i.e. sales) to show for it!! Jim