For the past year that i've found this place and been in the business a little, i've learnt how things work, and what and what not to do. Now, I feel like i'm ready (if not desperate ) to start up a big project, but what i'm curious to know is just how easy it is to create and run a successful site that makes $xxx/x,xxx/xx,xxx a month. I understand that the plan goes something like this: - pick a profitable, but interesting/relevant topic, like 'making money' or 'flash games' or 'poker'. - buy a good domain name, maybe new or maybe used - therefore with existing PR. - put it on some half-decent hosting, and install a CMS on the site. - write your own or pay someone to create good content for your site. - put AdSense or something similar if you feel like it from the start, or have a product (e.g. an eBook or similar) ready to sell. - buy some links or advertisents (e.g. AdWords), do some SEO, and then hope for the best! A pretty dodgy business plan, but that's what I gather from reading this forum. So, in anyone's experience, does executing this fairly standard strategy result in good profit?
Frankly, that's a recipe for throwing money away. You're looking at very competitive niches, it'll cost a lot to promote that with adwords, and if you're expecting to make money from adsense e.g arbitrage, it'll cost even more, because Google doesn't like it, and will try to price you out.
In all honesty, that plan is really broad, and could use a lot of revising. I've written some articles that might help you out on my webmaster blog. Before you jump the gun and get in too deep over your head, you really need to figure out what kind of site you want to make. try sitting down and thinking about what your good at, and what you enjoy. This is debatable, but in my opinion failing to plan is planning to fail. I mean you don't have to plan out every single thing before you start, but you should at least have a good idea of what you're doing and what your goals are. Magda is right when he says that you will be paying way too much if you use Adwords to promote the site. I have a tech blog that I don't Adwords, because it would be way too expensive as well, so instead I use AdToll. They are pretty low cost and reliable advertisers. However there are many things you can do to promote your site without spending money. If you want, you can check out my blog for other tips and advice.
Whats a business plan? Just get out there and do it. You can knock a site together in night for $10 dollars