Hey everybody I’ve been reading stuff on here for a while now trying to learn some new stuff. I have run various businesses in the past but never anything online. My situation has recently changed which means I have spare time to spend on other things. Having done some reading elsewhere on the net I am currently looking into methods of generating income streams online. However, the bulk of my experience in IT is with hardware (worked as a buyer for a large electronics retail chain) rather than software. However, I think I have an aptitude for all things technical and am more than willing to upskill to be a success. With this in mind could people give me some generalist advice as to what I should be looking into. From what I’ve read Adsense and affiliate marketing are terms that jump out at me. I’d be lying though if I said I currently had anything more than a basic understanding of these areas. Also the fact that people are saying that whatever you do it needs to be interesting to you is comforting as it shows I can apply principles learned from other business models. I’m not asking for blueprints to make a million or even a step by step. Just sound, honest advice from people in this industry as to what it takes to be financially viable. Could people who run websites and monetise them give an indication of how long you are spending maintaining/running your sites over a week or day? I’m trying to figure out if the time I put in would be worth my while or if it would be easier to concentrate on my other non-internet related businesses. Also if I just wanted to experiment with some of the principles discussed on here what would be the cheapest/quickest way to gain some ‘hands on’ experience? Set up a free blog, put some adsense on it and play with the technicalities? At this point even I could generate $10 from a site/blog I created it would boost my confidence and give me the motivation to invest my time in it. So any and all advice and hints/tips would be appreciated.
If you want my recommendation, buy a domain name, set up a blog on your own hosting, and offer your expertiese in a blog on how to fix hardware, hardware reviews, and answering people's questions on how to fix hardware, what is the best hardware for me, etc. Blog the whole thing, put up Google Adsense and network with other bloggers, like software bloggers, etc. After a few months, you'll be making a few bucks. If you promote it write, it could go really well. It's probably the easiest way to make money online, without selling something.
Thanks for your advice Calissa, it is really appreciated. In reply, could I apply the principles you outline with a free blog, just to see what kind of traffic I could generate. If it was a success could I then port everything to a paid, hosted domain name and somehow redirect people from my free blog to the new site? I am really looking to start from nothing i.e. pay nothing upfront and see if I could monetise something like that and then use the experience and knowledge to apply to something I have invested money in. Like I've said, even if I can make a few dollars from a blog or site that I've put no money into it would improve my confidence no end.
DesiTrackStar You can apply the principles with a free blog - start with blogger, then move over to your own domain later. The downside - a large part of the effort that you would put into building traffic / readership may need to be redone when you move to your own hosted domain later. While you might be able to redirect people, getting them to sign up again for your feed / bookmark you etc. needs to be done all over again. If you can afford to buy a domain name, start with that, and look for free hosting or a sponsor. (I do sponsor hosting / domains occasionally - let me know more about your plans. There are many others too, if you look around.). A second option for you to consider. Earning with your own site is a slower process - it's faster to start earning by providing similar services to other siteowners who are looking for content / link building / other webmaster services. Look through the buy / sell forums here (especially content / services etc.). Use this to earn your initial money, and reinvest it back into developing your own. Best wishes.
Thanks Newrhodes that answered my question. Its easier to pay for a domain than having to build up the traffic later. I understand from what I've read so far that Adsense would be one way of making money from a site, but affiliate programs seem to be another area. For fear of sounding a dunce, could someone please give me a quick overview, in laymans terms, of how this works. Aso, presumably, this is something which works better, the higher the traffic you pull in? I'm a meticulous planner and like to have all the ideas straight in my head before I go ahead and do anything so I'm trying to concentrate on getting it right on paper first.
Broadly, I'd say there are 3 ways of earning revenue 1) Sell your own product or service (whether customized or standard) 2) Help someone else sell his / her product or service, and get paid for each sale you bring in. That's the fundamentals of affiliate marketing / programs. 3) Help someone else sell through giving them an option to advertise their offers. Advertising is of various types - the pure ad form would be banners or others at x $ per 1000 views, there are several variations including pay-per-click (Adsense is the best known), text links (usually on a per month basis), reviews & blogposts (per review basis). You'll need to decide which of these models suits you best. In general, your total revenue could be defined as No. of visitors to your site X % who take a desired action (click thru) x Conversion rate x earnings per conversion. Usually - higher the no. of visitors, higher the earnings, assuming that you are getting good traffic and not bots or the "get paid to view this site" traffic. % click thru : usually is higher for ads than for affiliate; partly because clicking on an ad doesn't cost the viewer, but buying something does have a cost. % conversion : For ads, this is 100%; if he's clicked thru, you get paid. For affiliate, you get paid only when the person buys the product - and this percentage could be low. Earnings per conversion : For adsense, this varies between a few cents to a few dollars - I've typically seen between 10 cents and 3$ on my sites, but I don't cover the entire spectrum of niches. Other forms of ads like text links or reviews do pay higher (5 / 10 / 50 $ per transaction). Affiliate commissions depends on the product, can be as low as 10 cents in rare cases, more often between $5 - $100 depending on the value of the product. Please note the above are NOT absolute limits; there are affiliate programs that do pay thousands of dollars, but being successful there isn't easy for a startup. I've talked about the above with reference to what a newbie could look at. Any of these can work, and provide you with a reasonable earning if you go at it right. Don't expect overnight results; you will need to persevere over a few months to reach a stable state. Also - don't make the mistake of putting everything (ads, affiliate, products) into a single site; that's a recipe for disaster. Focus is the way to go. Best wishes.