How To Make Money Online - 15 Golden Guidelines

[micmol]

Dear All

Your comments would be much appreciated.

1/ "Making money" from your website is not as hard as it sounds just depends on how many mouths you have to feed.

2/ Selling information is much easier, cheaper and cost effective with little to no risk.

3/ Quality dynamic content helps drive traffic to your site therefore to your message.

4/ Being a big fish in a small pond has its advantages.

5/ Get large amounts of traffic and people start to offer you opportunities.

6/ Focus on multiple interlinking self owned site strategy.

7/ 10 small sites are better than one big one, but you still must have the one big one.

8/ Multiple sites perform better if there is a common thread, even if this threat is merely target audience.

9/ Don't make a site do multiple things - one site one goal works beautifully.

10/ Optimise your site for traffic before you optimise for the eye - but don't ignore the eye.

11/ Quality traffic will make you money - just depends on how much quality and how much traffic.

12/ Online traffic attracted from online sources are better buying prospects to buy online.

13/ If your promoting a bricks and mortar entity don't try to sell product online sell the enquiry instead.

14/ Basic offline marketing and selling skills work online assuming the product stacks up.

15/ Its not only seeing the idea that counts its how you implement it that counts.

Kind Regards

Micmol

[Darin]

Very good, good job. I like #15 the most. And I'm soon to be doing #7.

[aspen]

There is not really a good answer to how to make money online.

There are good answers for "How to make money with an ecommerce site." or "How to make money with a content site." But something that applies to one site might not apply to the other.

One thing to keep in mind is that commerce drives revenue. Internet advertising has had it's ups and downs but ecommerce keeps growing strong. So if you can get a piece of the ecommerce pie you can definitely make some good money. The ways to do this would be to build a content site that is attractive to ecommerce advertisers, build an affiliate site that you can out-market the parent site with, or to build a real ecommerce site.

The Internet is still relatively young and in 20 years the people who get in the business now will be pretty well off. Its not to late to get in the game.

[johnn]

7/ 10 small sites are better than one big one, but you still must have the one big one.

Could you explain more why "you still must have the one big one."
Thanks,
John

[micmol]

Thanks Guys

Yip .. I only put these out there for discussion.

Re 10 small sites are better than one big one, but you still must have the one big one.

It has a few in-built meanings.

1/ Harder for your oppostion to take you out with 1 or two shots .. their target is not so clear. Safety in numbers theory.

2/ If one pond dries up its only 10% of your profits .. therefore should not be fatal.

3/ Somtimes you can "fly under the radar" of your oppostion.

4/ However, still aim big on one site. Make yourself a big fish in one pond. Brings volume to the business .. which should mean better buying power over the whole group. Also brings the apperance of strength in a given pond.

Hope this explains what my thoughts where.

Regards

Micmol

[jtresidder]

I'd add (or rather expand on point #7):

When planning a site, think about whether or not it could be a successful franchise model.

I'm currently working on a site that I wanted to make for my local area, but rather than just write it for that purpose, I'm making it a franchise system and will be running my area as if I were a franchisee. I can then sell franchise rights to other people who will run other areas. This will a) provide a direct revenue stream and b) make the site bigger and help with visibility.

[beley]

I agree totally about diversifying your income streams... even if it's in the same industry. I'm seeing so many friends and family members that are 1-income households getting laid off from their jobs of 10, 20 or more years. With the job market like it is they can't find work for what they were making, but everyone in this area is downsizing.

It's a bad situation. Fortunately for us, my wife has a good job and I have several very different businesses. When one is slow, others may be doing well. It really helps when all your eggs aren't in one basket.

[Samia1667]

13/ If your promoting a bricks and mortar entity don't try to sell product online sell the enquiry instead.

Could throw more light on this one. How do you sell enquiry.

Regards,

Samia

[dethfire]

aspen do you think that in 20 years the internet will be super saturated and only the walmarts of the internet will win ? and maybe we'll not even have the internet, something different.

[micmol]

Could throw more light on this one. How do you sell enquiry.

Yes .. give people a reason to make direct contact with you.

ie "Call In Today And Save 10%"

Selling online is a very passive form of selling. People buy people in many circumstances .. not the product. You are attempting to build a relationship.

Hope this answers your question.

Regards

Micmol

[Samia1667]

Thanks Micmol, You've answered my question.

aspen do you think that in 20 years the internet will be super saturated and only the walmarts of the internet will win ? and maybe we'll not even have the internet, something different.

Good Question dethfire, I would also love to know.

Regards,

Samia

[ezcharge]

can you please explain this point:
15/ Its not only seeing the idea that counts its how you implement it that counts.
thank you.</snip>

[M. Johansson]

Jeremy, it means that it's not enough with a good idea - you also need a good implemenation of it.

[jtresidder]

Jeremy, it means that it's not enough with a good idea - you also need a good implemenation of it.

Just my 2 cents:

As a (fairly obvious) example, think of how crippled friends reunited and their ilk would be if they only allowed members to view the list of people who have registered. As it is, you can see exactly who's registered as a guest, but you can't contact them until you're a member. The idea is exactly tre same either way, but the implementation makes a big difference to the success of the site.

[micmol]

Hi All

Mattias you are spot on.

IMHO .. ideas are a dime a dozen. Implemenation is the tough work.

I have a good collegue who goes further .. he calls the idea people "the useless dreamers." The implementars the "valuable doers".

Also like this quote says ..

"Everyone who has ever taken a shower has had an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off, and does something about it that makes a difference." *Nolan Bushnell

Regards

Micmol

[gengar56]

Indeed #15 is a tip that could change your life. Bill Gates didn't come up with a new idea. He did a great job of implementing an old one and making it easy for the masses to use.

[amirdavies]

You could write an e-book on the thread - padding out the items to answer most possible questions.

I think that the points are very good at getting the mind to think about how they apply to each individuals own beliefs or ventures.

[micmol]

Hi Amir

Over the next few months I'm going to build a website around the 15 points.

However, I'm working hard on point 7 ... getting my 1 large site.

Regards

micmol

[City_Foon]

11/ Quality traffic will make you money - just depends on how much quality and how much traffic.

Of cause everyone knows the more traffic your site, the more money you will gain.
But how can you ensure your site will 'continuously' attract your visitors?

As you said:

6/ Focus on multiple interlinking self owned site strategy.

7/ 10 small sites are better than one big one, but you still must have the one big one.

By theory, it's 'impressive'! I have saw a lot of websites that come out with that kind of ideas, but not all are successful.

You have list down all the points to achieve a successful website, how about the failure for those unsuccessful one? What are their reasons?

For example : To become a successful person, you need to do 'this and that'! But why I have done 'this and that' but i still can't get success!!

[Tombot]

There's gold in this here thread if one does indeed implement some of the ideas.

Something that I'm really starting to look at is viral traffic generation. Implement one good viral traffic strategy and you could be set for life.

[vprp]

i totally agree with #2. if you're going into business on the web, i think it's much better to sell a service than a product. there's money to be made in both but it's much easier to succeed with a service. look at the most successful internet companies. ebay, yahoo and google. they don't sell any "tangible" products. then look at amazon.com. they have low margins on products and this affects their profitability.

now for #7, i'm not sure i quite agree with that. i can see how it can work out and your idea of "not putting all your eggs in one basket" is a valid one but doesn't making 10 successful sites sound difficult? a large site has so many things it can take advantage of.

first is the amount of traffic. that can be taken advantage of in so many ways. you have a large user base to start a forum or you can sell more advertising. that's why google adwords is so successful. because they have so much traffic and such a large inventory.

catering to a niche can be great, too. a lot of times, there are much higher margins because you know your niche and they know you. there isn't as much competition. but starting 10 successful small sites? sounds pretty difficult to me. i'd take the one (well managed) huge site over the chance of running 10 smaller successful sites anyday.

[mayiema]

I just read everybody's posts, most of you people seem honest but... Is it for real?

I mean... can anybody tell me if one can really make some money online? During the past 6 or so months I've been home trying to make it happen and it seems overwhelmingly difficult sometimes. During this time I've bought many eBooks, I have built three websites, I've written my own eBook, I've tried selling both tangible and intangible but nothing seems to have worked. Frustration is knocking hard in my head!

Talk about marketing!! I've tried pay-per-click, banners, banner exchange, etc.

Last week only, I spent $400 in pay-per-click from google and the few sales I made, buyers requested a refund! I know the eBook is well written as it is the result of countless hours of study of the online world. I've compared it to the other many eBooks I've bought and I know it's better. Are people out there just to take you? It's rough...

and talk about my tangible product sites...my online jewelry sales are aweful although I have a great selection and a great price as I am in Colombia and emeralds, gold and labor here is so cheap. Traffic to this site is only brought by my weak efforts on google adwords and it is expensive!

Can anybody jump in and give good advice to this hopeless parent????

[aspen]

This is the problem with ebooks. Someone writing one with no real experience, based on what they read written by others with likely no real experience.

There are many reasons why a site could fail. Instead of wasting money on ebooks I would look at sites that do work and learn from them.

[mayiema]

What sites "do work"? Ebay? Paypal? Amazon?

[aspen]

You said you had problems selling Jewelry.

Well compare your site to a Jewelry site.

http://www.thaigem.com/

Thats a international jewelry site run from a developing country too. How did yours compare with theirs?