How I make money with websites

Discussion in 'General Business' started by Brilliances, Jan 21, 2008.

  1. #1
    This post is really brought about by ac4sufc 's thread on How much his website is worth. He has a wordpress website that makes him $50 a month from affiliate links to Hostgator but wonders why he can't sell it for $100.

    Basically, as a introduction for beginners here (much like myself a year ago), a website needs
    1. a good domain name. preferrable with good target keywords and a dot com
    2. a google page rank
    3. consistent traffic for search engines

    Once you have these three, you can easily monetise your site with adsense or affiliate links to generate a nice profit for yourself. You will also notice that it will be much easier to sell your website :D

    Let's take one of my sites as an example. http://www.maltesedog.net
    1. It's built off wordpress
    2. has a exact matching keyword domain (a .com would have been a thousand times better though)
    3. I paid someone to write me some unique articles (cos I know nothing about dogs, let alone maltese dogs!)
    4. has a PR of 2
    5. comes up #9 in google if you search for maltese dog and #13 for maltese dogs so I have consistent traffic every day.

    Now I could probably sell this site for a few hundred dollars (maybe even $1000?) but I won't because it makes a profit for me and I put in minimal effort. The trick now is to duplicate this with more and more websites targetting different keywords.

    This is all part of my experiment and whilst I'm not making millions yet, it is proving to be a good investment of my time. You can keep up to date with how I'm going with this in my road to mega millions blog ;)
     
    Brilliances, Jan 21, 2008 IP
    ::TECHMAN:: likes this.
  2. ac4sufc

    ac4sufc Peon

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    #2
    Cheers Brilliances, i think there will be a few changes to my website now!
     
    ac4sufc, Jan 22, 2008 IP
  3. exstatic

    exstatic Peon

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    #3
    Cheers for the tips..

    I have a maltese x shitzu.. very cool dog :p

    Hey, just wondering, I have been thinking of starting a personal blog about my journey, but not sure if its worth it.. what are your thoughts? Do you think its good to write down your thoughts and what you are working on?

    What do you think the benefits are from having a personal named blog?
     
    exstatic, Jan 22, 2008 IP
  4. ::TECHMAN::

    ::TECHMAN:: Peon

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    #4
    Nice info, Jerry, I definitely learned a thing or two from your post. I'm working on a content site myself and it's in a fairly good niche; my only problem is I'm not sure about its sale value.

    On your maltese dog site, I don't see any ads so how exactly do you generate revenue, if you don't mind sharing?

    Thanks
     
    ::TECHMAN::, Jan 22, 2008 IP
  5. Barefootsies

    Barefootsies Well-Known Member

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    #5
    While you have some good points, there are some vague areas left open that are incorrect.

    1. .com is preferred. Not required.
    2. Where is this consistent traffic coming from?
    3. Page rank's preferred. Not required if you can convert.

    Not all sites need a search engine to make money chief. This is one of the biggest misconceptions I see all over this board. It's nice, and obviously the goal. But not all sites need a search engine placement or rank to succeed.

    There are hundreds of ways to promote a site other than SEO.

    Maybe your points are more catered to those doing the pump n dumps, or flipping sites to noobs. In that case, I see your point of view on trying to make it look purty for some quick sale to line your pockets.
     
    Barefootsies, Jan 22, 2008 IP
  6. Erthy

    Erthy Peon

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    #6
    Adsense top right, bottom left and bottom right corners?

    Heh, a tribute to your blending I guess :D
     
    Erthy, Jan 22, 2008 IP
  7. Brilliances

    Brilliances Active Member

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    #7
    yeah. I'm sure you're right.

    treasure these days as when you get deeper into monetising your sites, you will never look at ads and affiliate links the same way again! :p

    There's already too many of these going around. I would suggest you spend the same amount of time on maintaining a niche blog instead. I only keep mine updated because I've had it for a couple of years and it keeps me focused on making money (rather than playing WOW) . In fact, I think my blog is where John Chow got the idea of starting his experiment on a make money online blog :rolleyes:
     
    Brilliances, Jan 22, 2008 IP
  8. designexpert

    designexpert Guest

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    #8
    cheers buddy!
     
    designexpert, Jan 30, 2008 IP
  9. Barefootsies

    Barefootsies Well-Known Member

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    #9
    WOW will be the end of you chief. Just like evercrack.
     
    Barefootsies, Jan 30, 2008 IP
  10. Brilliances

    Brilliances Active Member

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    #10
    yep. i've kept myself pretty far away so far. Been clean for months :)
     
    Brilliances, Jan 31, 2008 IP
  11. JohnG

    JohnG Peon

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    #11
    I would think that any website making $50 per month could easily be sold for more than $100 on ebay.

    eBayers will buy anything.

    Wonder why he's not using cj.com for his hosgator affiliate links? Pay almost twice as much as hostgator
     
    JohnG, Feb 1, 2008 IP