How many of your sites that you have built to make money actually make any. Do you do lots of research before hand. How many successes to failures do you have? In this instance success means profit, even if it's small.
I have a couple content and business directory type sites, and they all make money. I tend to make a website and buy a few domains for each one, test which one works, and pawn off the bad names. It is completely trial and error as you never know which sites will actually work well or grab peoples attention. The phrase "If a tree falls in the woods..." applies here. Good or Revolutionary content tools may work better on 1 site than on 1000 others. Test a site for 2 months after launch, if you are getting 10-15%+ direct visits then the site has a chance. Unless you are getting a ton of se traffic, and a good conversion rate.
w3bmaster, gurkic1, Kngavl, lightninggate - Nice to see you are doing well. Have you established a method that you repeat or do you just try an idea you have? Jim Guinn - No this is not another "how much do you make thread". I thought it might help others to know that not every site that is set up make $ and not to give up too soon. If you were to set up a new site do you have a method you use that you apply each time such as: spend X amount of time on research discard niche/ideas you think will not work Obviously don't give away your secrets but let other webmaster's know what sort of process they need to follow to increase their chance of success.
So you consider a website a success if it has ANY profit even if the opportunity cost of all of the time and effort put in is considerably more than the profit?
I would say my succes rate is 75% the 25% not making much money i have not put much work into yet. Most sites make me money after i work on them .
The secret of success is to make a site, and then get lot of traffic as Traffic = $$$ Traffic is the key. You can make money with any site. You just need to get lot of traffic.
I own about 5 sites and I can't say I have come across a failure yet. I just build them up and make them into success stories