Hello, I was in the adult industry for about 5 years, spent up to 18 hours per day working my ass off to build an online empire and got sick of the industry, got rid of everything and decided to go back to school. I'm about done with the program, and the entrepreneurial bug just won't stop biting me! So, imagine if you were in my boat; plenty of technical knowledge, and plenty of experience with building networks etc. Where would you start from scratch if you wanted to start turning a profit online? Just hoping for some tips and guidance from one veteran to another in an entirely different sector of online marketing. I would be willing to trade information and contacts too. (and no, I don't want to get back into adult). Thank you for your time!
Depending on your skills you can start small as a freelancer. Get your name out there. If you a web designer, you can make some good money designing websites. Or if you have a new fresh idea that you want to bring to the web, then this is your chance to shine. Start a small website with a big idea and start spreading your idea to everyone on dp and everywhere else in the world
While I appreciate you guys taking time out to provide some input, I was hoping for something more specific. I know how it works guys, I'm not looking for any hand holding, or for anyone to share any trade secrets; but if anyone can just point me in a good direction to catch a starting point I can certainly reciprocate. Thanks
Is about as specific as you can get... in the broadest sense. One of the reasons that you did good in the adult industry was because you seemingly liked it for a time. When your interest waned so did your empire. Find that new passion and run with it. Use your previous skills to build up your new network in something that you enjoy yourself. You know how it works, you don't need hand holding, so all that is left is WHAT, as you know the where & why...
Heh, I appreciate the irony in your first sentence, but I know what you're getting at. Truth be told, I was never fond of adult, it was always about the money for me. On the other hand, it looks like following a preference did produce results. Maybe there's something wrong with me, but I am having some trouble seeing monetization in mainstream. In adult, the model was simple; the almighty conversion. Any work I have done with adword-oriented pages has never done spectacularly well, and that seems to be the bread and butter for a lot of people here. Maybe I am missing a big picture that relates to the "what".
The 'coopetition' is too high in my opinion for typically low payouts. Plus, we're talking about the somewhat limited idea of "niches" vs. the virtually unending supply of things that Amazon sells. Apples and Oranges, from what I can see. Please feel free to straighten me out if I'm wrong, though. Thanks
I think its time to get out of the webmastering job. Why don't you try something new such as forex trading. Or if you have no big capital then you can start with share trading.
Well I defiantly wouldn't go back to adult. The money just isn't the same anymore and it's getting worse every year. Too much free stuff available these days. I make my living doing it but it's getting harder and harder each year. I would actually stay far away from any sort of affiliate models and instead work on building sites that sell advertising. No need to worry about conversions or trojans that steal your affiliate codes ect..ect.. Let the other guys worry about that. The other option is build a service that webmasters use, that's the route I'm currently moving into.
Probably why the adult industry insists on SPAMMING family web sites. Competition is getting fierce forcing them to target children.
just follow the trends because it is work. try to make some research on hot keywords on build network through it
Crockett, good to see another vet; would you say the similar model of the hub & spokes network building is effective in mainstream? And as far as a webmaster-oriented service, good luck! That is not an easy road. BTW: "Quit Webmastering" ? "Forex Trading" ? "SPAMMING" ? Come on guys, wrong time, wrong place. Is there a way to downrank posts that are silly or irrelevant? Otherwise, thanks to everyone who dropped a bit of help here. I think I have an idea of what I want to do.
I think what you do might depend on what aspects of Internet marketing you enjoy the most - or can tolerate For me, I'm not a big fan of customer service. So while I publish a few reports I mostly do affiliate marketing. Now, if you sign up with some of the higher paying affiliate networks you can find products that pay $20 and up per sale, which is about where you need to be to be able to do this full time. Also Clickbank is good for digital products (downloadable) and the commissions are usually even higher. Unfortunately Clickbank has had some major tracking issues for about a month so I can't recommend them at the moment. One of their competitors is Paydot.com which is pretty good for selling downloadable products. If you focus on high paying commissions and also recurring commissions (programs where there is a monthly membership fee so you get a piece each month) you can make a lot of money in this industry. And you don't have any customer service issues. Just set up sites, drive traffic, and make commissions. If you want to go the customer service route you can outsource and have someone create an ebook or software product and sell it yourself. Some folks says it's wisest to be on the product creation end, but personally I do much better as an affiliate and love working when I feel like it and avoiding customer service hassles. Dan
You should go do a google search on :seo book ... i think its the first link on top, they have a keyword searching tool that estimatesdaily searches from several search engines and cpc of that specific adwords keyword. Based on that you can think of a keyword with good ratio of value/popularity and competition and then choose a new niche
*smirk* I could not resist... It does seem you are in it for the money... I'd assume there is still money in pr0n, so why not just get back into that? I'm sure some of your older connections are still about and re-networking there should be a bit easier then starting off someplace new. Though, honestly, I think the world would be a better place if more & more webmasters would follow their passions rather then their wallets...so maybe start with something a bit smaller then millions and follow that passion of yours. Master that, then move on to the next passion. The smaller niches would likely be easier to master then the major money makers, so the effort it could take to reach number one for something that has millions of hits may be harder then it would be to do something you actually enjoy (times 10). As in, master four niches that have a quarter million hits that you actually like rather then something with a million hits that you are just in for the money. You may actually ENJOY the work that way and earn just as much. Either way though, best of luck! Q
I depends what you are doing. hubs and spokes will work in mainstream just the same as adult but I think most have replaced those kinds of sites with blogs these days because it's just a easier format to work with and can be easily updated. The problem is any kind of affiliate driven venture is bound to have problems in the future. It doesn't matter if it's adult or mainstream. I personally think it's better at this point to build sites geared toward selling advertising. The deal is with mainstream the traffic doesn't always come as easy as it did in adult, so you really need to target the right audiences to be able to build a lot of traffic in mainstream. Example building a page that talks about a widget isn't likely going to bring in traffic like building a page with a hot chick. However building a site that caters to a specific user group will have a much better chance of gaining traffic in mainstream. In mainstream you have to think more about the end user and less about selling something. As far as webmaster services go, you have to pick something that will be big and fill a need no one else is filling. Otherwise you just end up doing grunt work for a dollar. Doing services can be tricky because someone else can always under cut you or maybe do a better job, so you have to hit big right off the bat and make your money fast then evolve to something else before too much competition pops up.
The world would be a dirty place with out Janitors. I can't imagine many people grew up thinking what a great job being a janitor would be. The simple fact is money has always talked.. and a wise man once said. Never turn your hobby into your job, because you will soon hate your hobby and your job.