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Is You Online Business A Hobby or Investment?

Discussion in 'General Business' started by dscurlock, Jan 30, 2016.

  1. #1
    Some people think they can just put up a site with a few pages, then that is the
    extent of their work in order to go to the bank until they die, however, after a few
    weeks or months, they come here and start asking "Why am I not rich yet...?"

    I recently saw a post from someone saying that he had an authority site since
    2007, and was making money, or maybe it died in 2007, he was not really clear....
    however, he was wondering why his 9 other sites are not making anything...
    it was far easier back then to get a site to go to the bank, assuming you stayed
    on top of things, but 2007 is long gone, and the days of cheating your way to the
    top for free or very lost cost are certainly long gone, then he started complaining
    that facebook, mobile, social has just destroyed everything, bla, bla, bla...well
    buddy, we are in different times, in order to play your way to the top, you have to pay....
    It is certainly hard enough to get one site to the top, much less trying to maintain 9 others.

    I saw a video the other day made by some affiliate dude. He claims he spent $1000/mo
    for the next two years which would be approx $24k, and now claims he is making $50k/yr. If this alone does not tell you what compition is like, then I do not know what will....

    It does not take long at all to drop serious money into your site....
    How much do you have to put into your site in order to see the next level?
    Assuming you are doing most everything right, can you spare $1000/mo?

    Those "free" method days are over...
    I suspect if you ever want to see the top, then
    it will take money. If you want to play, you have to pay....

    anyone disagree?
     
    dscurlock, Jan 30, 2016 IP
  2. Matthew Sayle

    Matthew Sayle Prominent Member

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    #2
    I think making money online is a lot like poker.

    From the outside looking in, it would appear to be relatively easy and based on luck the majority of the time.

    However, the real players in the game understand that it's a very meticulous process that requires deliberate actions and an always increasing amount of skill.

    Some hands we lose, some hands we win - however, overall our chip stacks are always higher than the newbies until they learn to play the game correctly.
     
    Matthew Sayle, Jan 30, 2016 IP
  3. dscurlock

    dscurlock Prominent Member

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    #3
    The affiliate mentioned above had no skills (so he said) maybe his cost was so high because he
    paid for everything ie: content, link building, etc...So it was not his skill that gave him success...
    He simply picked a decent niche, however, what was his thought of mind about dumping $1k/mo,
    I would imagine there would have been days that he thought it was all just a complete waste of time and money.
    he never did say what niche he got into, and I am not sure how much time he put into his site, after all,
    the claims that he was making was that he paid people to do most everything....

    Working on just one site can be draining and tedious work....
    and mostly it is mundane and repetitive work day in, day out...
    skill maybe part of it to some degree, but this is something you
    have to love in order to do these boring things from one day to the next...
    however, in his case, his investment rather then skill as he paid
    others to do most that others can not afford or unwilling to do themselves...
     
    Last edited: Jan 30, 2016
    dscurlock, Jan 30, 2016 IP
  4. ARSTune

    ARSTune Peon

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    #4
    when i started it was hobby and showing my friend that i own blogs and website but now it's a complete busines with full planning...that how much should i invest in SEO, adverisment, Social networks and how much will i earn in how much time
     
    ARSTune, Jan 31, 2016 IP
  5. qwikad.com

    qwikad.com Illustrious Member Affiliate Manager

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    #5
    qwikad.com, Jan 31, 2016 IP
    Matthew Sayle likes this.
  6. Matthew Sayle

    Matthew Sayle Prominent Member

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    #6
    I couldn't agree more.

    I think 90% of website owners who talk about "investing in SEO" are simply referring to purchasing Fiverr gigs.

    The real investment in SEO is sweat equity and having the knowledge to not waste time on unattainable keywords.
     
    Matthew Sayle, Jan 31, 2016 IP
  7. ARSTune

    ARSTune Peon

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    #7
    investing in SEO means asking someone to do the job i'm noob about it
     
    ARSTune, Jan 31, 2016 IP
  8. Matthew Sayle

    Matthew Sayle Prominent Member

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    #8
    If you're a noob, how could you possible know who to ask?

    How do you know what questions to ask?
    How do you choose the right SEO?
    How much should your keyword cost to rank?
    How long should it take?


    Of course, there are no definitive answers to these questions, but a veteran SEO with years of experience should be able to give you a pretty close estimate depending on your main goal.

    Speaking of a main goal, this is very important as well.

    Are you in a hot niche and just want to get in and out?
    Are you building a brand and looking for long term results?
    Are you flipping an already established website?
    Are you in a micro-niche?
     
    Matthew Sayle, Jan 31, 2016 IP
  9. ARSTune

    ARSTune Peon

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    #9
    Are you in a hot niche and just want to get in and out?
    nope, i want to stay for long but i don't know anything about seo.....what i know is just sitemap which i already submited trying to make backlink......i don't know (tags, Meta Keywords and description or anyother thing)

    Are you building a brand and looking for long term results?
    Yes i'm loking for long term, i've my own few blogs where i have my own content not copy paste from other websites.....however i've streaming site as well

    Are you flipping an already established website?
    None of website is established yet

    Are you in a micro-niche?

    right now yes :( but i'll turn it to big i'm very sure about it i need atleast 2 years for it :)
     
    ARSTune, Jan 31, 2016 IP
  10. Matthew Sayle

    Matthew Sayle Prominent Member

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    #10
    Those questions were meant to be rhetorical...
     
    Matthew Sayle, Jan 31, 2016 IP
  11. ARSTune

    ARSTune Peon

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    #11
    :D i thought i should reply on it as well :D
     
    ARSTune, Jan 31, 2016 IP
  12. dscurlock

    dscurlock Prominent Member

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    #12
    So who is in the top spots for "seo experts"?

    To some degree, you need some type of seo...If we both build content, and I am
    getting backlinks, whose content do you think will be moving up the serps? Sure, you dont have
    to use seo to move your content, however, your content could be sitting stagnate....

    Take "DP" for instance, there would be no reason for DP to be doing any type of seo
    at this point, after all, what more could SEO actually accomplish for DP?

    You are saying that "seo" is a waste of money, so i guess we all should just sit back,
    post our content, and hope it moves up the serps? I am pretty sure that this is
    what google wants us to do, sit back and do nothing, if your content takes
    off then it is worthy, and if it doesnt then your content automatically sucks....

    I am not really concerned ranking for keywords that I know I will never rank
    for, so if I spent money to rank for keywords like "SEO Experts" then I most
    certainly deserve to lose my money. I think I would use the money on keywords
    that I know I could rank for much easier....

    It maybe somewhat safer not to use "seo" however, you are certainly
    not getting the word out about your site, you are simply waiting on google....
     
    dscurlock, Jan 31, 2016 IP
  13. Matthew Sayle

    Matthew Sayle Prominent Member

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    #13
    For someone that doesn't have a clue about SEO, this is exactly what I would recommend.

    Don't you think just focusing on content is a lot more productive then spending money on "guaranteed" Fiverr gigs that automatically get closed 3 days after delivery? They don't give the buyer long enough to evaluate the work before releasing the funds to the seller.

    If someone doesn't have a single clue about SEO, I would recommend not touching it. I would focus on more immediate and cost-effective traffic generation services like social media marketing.

    Sure, social media marketing isn't going to yield as much traffic as SEO ultimately would, but it's easy, cost effective and very beginner-friendly because errors don't cost you money, just time. Once you find what works, keep doing that!

    With SEO, you don't realize you made a mistake until weeks later, by then you have already dug yourself into a hole and need to hire an "expert" to throw you a ladder - which presents an entirely different problem "How to pick the right SEO professional".

    So, if you're new and naive - stick with Social Media Marketing. Make it your goal to get 10 visitors to your website per day via social sources. Then, bump it to 15, 25, etc.

    When you feel comfortable, start slowly applying some SEO to your site. Get started by Googling "How to do SEO on my site". THESE are the experts to follow. Chances are, you can't afford them - so soak up as much knowledge as possible using their free advice.

    It's like a bathtub, just stick your toe in at first - don't just dive in.

    Why do most people fail at this simple task? Because they want success NOW, not later. SEO takes time, period. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you fail altogether. But, time is the necessary requirement.
     
    Matthew Sayle, Jan 31, 2016 IP
  14. NetStar

    NetStar Notable Member

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    #14
    My websites are my hobbies that I treat as investments since I see a return on them. I have seen some sort of monetary return on most web sites I have launched. The problem I have faced with in the past is investing too much time in to web sites that yield unacceptable returns. Time is money. The time you invest in to your web site must be be valued when you are analyzing your profits. A while ago I was aggressively working on a project that was producing $2k/month. I abandoned the project after realizing that the time devoted to the project was greater than the monetary return.

    I agree and disagree with bits and pieces in this thread. I have a P1 web site that I built in 2008 in less than 2 weeks. I never touched it and I get 600-1500 UV a day consistently and make $200-$300/mo on a $10 hostgator account. It was only suppose to be a "test" web site that I built to be clean and crawlable. That's all.

    SEO is a funny "phrase". To some it means simply writing semantic markup with crawlable "make sense" links and clean content. To others it means tricking search engines in to thinking your web site is more important than what it is. And to others it means tweaking your web site with keywords that people actually use to find the subject of your content. I have always practiced writing good code and focusing on content first. I then do a LITTLE keyword research and alter my pages SLIGHTLY to try to grab additional traffic. But really with every single web site I launch I'm not concerned with search traffic first because it's something I can't control.
     
    NetStar, Jan 31, 2016 IP
  15. dscurlock

    dscurlock Prominent Member

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    #15
    Time is money, it does not matter if you do it yourself, or pay someone else, it still comes down
    the fact it cost "something" either way. like @Matthew Sayle says, people are so intolerate about waiting...
    2008 was a different time, so I imagine, if anyone setup a half decent site on a decent niche, then they
    should be doing good today, if they in fact have been keeping their site up today, google has changed
    even more over the last 1-2 years, so do you find it taking longer in 2016 compared to 2008 in regards
    to how fast your site is taking off, seems like to me, google is holding sites back longer then ever-before....
     
    dscurlock, Jan 31, 2016 IP
  16. NetStar

    NetStar Notable Member

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    #16
    To be honest I have not noticed. I never focused on Linkbuilding or submitting articles or links to directories.. I also never focused on keyword stuffing or any black/grey hat methods to improve my rankings. I've always focused on the standard basics ON my site and with every update from Google I have seen improvements on traffic. In fact, even my sites that aren't indexed so well in Google pull decent traffic from Bing and Yahoo. I stand by the theory if you focus on delivering content your audience wants to see and make it accessible by crawlers and write good sementic markup it will get you a lot futher in search engines than link building. These days most sites are discussed and shared on social media. I would bet money on Search Engines abandoning backend links as an indicator of importance relatively soon if it isn't being phased out already.
     
    NetStar, Jan 31, 2016 IP
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  17. gamblingdomains

    gamblingdomains Active Member

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    #17
    Easier to get working on a website you have some passion about where after some time does not feel like work
     
    gamblingdomains, Feb 22, 2016 IP
  18. VacationCrasher

    VacationCrasher Member

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    #18
    I don't know that I'd use the term investment, but it's certainly not a hobby.

    It's been a very meticulously planned business that's been profitable from Day 1 and has only grown from there. I'd say that anything less than a well-researched, well-planned website should be looked at purely as a hobby with little to no money expected to be made.

    For the most part, money doesn't "just happen" on the web anymore. It takes researching, testing, and working your ass off.
     
    VacationCrasher, Feb 22, 2016 IP
  19. Safaseo

    Safaseo Active Member

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    #19
    I'ts start from just a simple hobby for me. :)
    But now i'm investing in this hobby. Since its getting bigger every month.
     
    Safaseo, Feb 22, 2016 IP
  20. Diego Herrera

    Diego Herrera Greenhorn

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    #20
    In my opinion if it's just like a regular hobby then you'll need money to put into it and probably you wouldn't expect much money (or no money at all) to return to you.

    Now, if someone takes his hobby which it's something his passionate about it could of course turn into a very profitable business.

    So the the question (title) of this post is if your online business is a hobby or an investment and I believe it relates to how you actually look at your online business regardless if it's about your hooby or not.

    Again if your online business is about your hobby or something you're passionate about and you take a business approach you'll be able to make money off from it.

    It's just my opinion
     
    Diego Herrera, Feb 29, 2016 IP