Provided that you follow THREE (3) simple rules from the start.
What are they?
Before outlining and discussing how these rules affect EVERYTHING you do online you’ll need some “back story” to help you understand why and where I’m coming from in this article.
Let me explain…
How to Make Money Online
Recently I responded to a LinkedIn discussion (normally a waste of time, since 99% of the time they are so self-serving).
Anyway, someone posted a question asking about social media success stories. So I volunteered how 1 client of ours made money (i.e. new sales) by using 1 strategy on Facebook.
Now, when you get right down to it shouldn’t this be the goal?
Actually making money online on a regular basis…
Needless to say about 30 minutes ago someone posted their “success” story which I am quoting in full — necessary reading to be sure before you read the rest of my rant.
Here goes:
The launch and success of my blog, Urban Gardens, in just over 1 1/2 years. The blog has received 3 awards, including a silver and gold recently from the Garden Writers Association, and was nominated for a Webby–which, according to the LA Times, is “The only award show for Internet sites that matters” and hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by The New York Times. I now have over 10,000 readers a month and over 3100 Twitter followers. The blog has a become a point of departure for for all the ideas that have sprung from it. I’ve been approached to write a book, have a concept for an online shop, and have many product ideas percolating.
Do you notice anything funny about this success story?
Being online is NOT about winning meaningless awards.
And ALL awards — when you get right down to it — are meaningless.
That’s just a bunch of ego-driven claptrap that sucks money OUT of your wallet versus putting money into your bank account.
If you’re not sure about this point, please check out this article on blog marketing.
How do I know they are not making any money from their site?
Great question.
Because the ONLY EVIDENCE of monetization are a couple of UN-TARGETED Google Adwords image ads on the site.
And by un-targeted I mean UNRELATED to your web content.
Now, I’m not asking you to check out their blog (I already did that for you). What I want you to notice is the complete lack of any discussion about making money.
This is KEY.
What’s more, at the very end of the “success story” is “talk” about a book (big honking deal), talking about setting up an online shop, and some “ideas percolating.”
Mind you, this is 18 months later.
Meaning, you’ve been banging around on your laptop or keyboard for 18 months and only now there is talk of making money. And remember, at this stage it is just talk.
Principles for Making Money Online
There are three rules you MUST follow if you are going to make it online.
They are:
- Speed of Implementation
- Market selection
- Systems for monetization
Each of these points relates with the other two, and you must deal with ALL THREE right up front, before spending 18 months “blogging your heart out.”
And that brings us to…
1. Speed of Implementation
I listed it first because the fact remains that most people fail to make any money online because they simple take too frigging long getting started.
And by getting started, I don’t necessarily mean getting a site set up.
You see, most people approach the online landscape in this order:
- Talk with a graphic designer about a logo
- Discuss with a graphic designer / web designer layouts and color schemes for your website
- Add content / copy to the site
- Yada yada yada
And in my expert opinion that is just wrong.
As in completely backwards.
Why?
Because for all you know at this point you are staking out ground in UNPROVEN TERRITORY. You simply have NO IDEA if you are going to make dime one from your efforts.
Quite simply, you are wasting time AND MONEY on an UNPROVEN niche, industry or market segment.
Speed of implementation involves:
- Market research
- Keyword research
- Conceptualization of your Monetization program
- Quick site set up (as in blog)
- Content creation
- Test and Measurement of feedback (both end users & possible content partners / advertisers.
And this needs to happen quickly so that you’ll know in a short period of time whether your efforts are likely to payoff or not.
Unless, of course, that your focus is on pseudo-recognition, meaningless awards or other ego-driven motiviation.
2. Market Selection
Market selection involves choosing your niche, industry, or market that you want to
Finally, systems of monetization entails how you are going to be paid for your efforts. For example:
- Will Google buy out your site (unlikely, but it worked for YouTube and other web properties)?
- Advertisers (from Adwords to companies paying for banner ads, etc.)
- End users paying you for access (i.e. membership site)
- E-commerce (an online store)
- Directory (subscription service)
- Affiliate marketing (getting a commission for sales made from your site thru “pre-selling”)
Do you get the idea?
There’s more than one way to skin a cat (as they saying goes), and you simply need to conceive of how you will make money before you waste 18 months of your life blogging your brains out.
3. Systems of Monetization
And if you still don’t believe me on this one, not long ago Wikipedia had to basically beg for dollars to remain in operation.
For real.
Look around. They are ALL OVER PAGE 1 of Google and they are NOT making any money.
And the number one reason is because they failed to conceive of money making systems when they first got started.
The fact remains that once end-users find and use your site, you can’t go back to force monetization on them after the fact. Because they will then vote with their feet (or for online properties, their eyeballs).
Are You Ready for Expert Guidance?
Whether you have worked with another web marketing firm in the past, OR you have been working at improving your website by yourself, here’s what you can do right now…
Call us to schedule a no-strings-attached phone consultation.
That’s it.
Call 888-542-2936 & Leave a Message!
After you call I will personally follow up with you to schedule a mutually convenient time to discuss your web sales, goals, and long-term plans.
And if it makes sense for the both of us to pursue a working relationship, we’ll decide together.
The choice is yours…