When I sift through my overflowing e-mail inbox, the title of this post represents a popular question I often receive. Or it may go a little something like this…
I don’t get it, Lisa. I’ve followed your advice. I add content everyday, did some guest blogging, optimized my site for SEO but I still find it hard to get noticed and make money. Why won’t people visit my site? What was your secret?
If you’ve been following me long enough, you know by now there are no secrets. Of course, hard work was a key component of my early success, but timing was another major one.
Does that mean Internet / affiliate marketing doesn’t work today?
Heck no! It just means you’ll have to work 10 times harder to deal with the saturation of “experts” online.
When I created my first website in the late 90’s, the only people who had websites were the ones who either took the time to learn a bit of HTML (or an editor like HomeSite, FrontPage, etc.), or the people who paid someone to create a website for them. There were no tools like Artisteer to ease the learning curve.
Today things are much different. While blogs and CMS tools are cool, easy and convenient, they’ve leveled the playing field a bit. Anyone can build a website in seconds and become a so-called expert on any topic they choose.
This is great news for people looking to build a quick and easy website, but it also means there is an incredible amount of competition for almost any niche that exists.
The search engines, social media and bookmarking sites are flooded with self-proclaimed experts writing about the same topics, and it seems to be getting harder to find much originality across various topics.
People’s attention spans are shorter than ever, and they are overwhelmed with all the redundant content on the web today. Mediocre content just won’t cut it anymore. You’ve got to bring it and show why you’re worthy of being followed.
It’s easy to get frustrated with algorithm updates and it may be hard to shake the feeling that Google is against you, but I can only imagine how difficult it is for any engine programmer to ensure the “best” sites are ranking well. You can only expect the tweaking and yo-yo rankings to continue.
Now, having said all that, what can you do to make your site stand out? How can you build more direct, loyal traffic so you won’t be as dependent upon Google and their ever-changing algorithm?
10 Questions You Should Answer
1. Can this information be found easily by going to Google?”
Look at the majority of articles on your site and ask yourself that question. And if the answer is yes, what kind of spin have you put on your topic to make your site stand out?
Does the web really need another generic AdSense or SEO article? Instead of regurgitating these same old facts, why not develop a revealing post sharing your mistakes and/or experiences.
Any new milestones? What mistakes did you make? What did you learn? How can you turn this into a helpful, more interesting article.
2. Am I a leader or follower?
In other words, are you often the first to report any news in your niche, or do you just paraphrase what the popular sites are writing about?
You don’t always have to be first, but at least add your own spin or additional information that makes your content personal and engaging.
For example, instead of just reviewing the iPad2 like 20 million other people did, create a video showing how you use one of the apps to conduct business online.
3. Am I doing anything to keep people coming back?
Are you posting regular updates, contests with meaningful prizes, etc. Do you have an email list and do you keep in touch with your subscribers?
4. What does my audience REALLY want and need?
Are you really in touch with what your audience wants to know regarding your topic or are you only assuming what they want?
Visit other forums and blogs (read the comments too) in your niche to get an idea for what people are talking about. Use Google Trends to see what’s trending. You may envision the best way to deliver and arrange your content, but what is your audience actually saying? Is there a disconnect or gap that needs to be filled?
When I first created 2 Create a Website in 2002, I focused on teaching how to make money with a website because that is what I was trying to do.
However, after using Survey Monkey, I discovered most people who arrived at my site just wanted a personal site for themselves or family.
In other words, I was trying to force feed information people weren’t asking for. So I had to adjust my content to fit what my audience wanted. Instantly, my bounce rate and page view per visitor improved.
Don’t be afraid to poll or survey your audience. Also encourage feedback via e-mail. Ask people how you can help them. If you get several of the same requests, that’s a good indication of what you should write about next.
5. How can I take my content to the next level?
Conduct an experiment and display the results. Interview someone interesting in your niche and ask unique questions. Create a case study on a related product you’ve purchased and don’t be afraid to say what you DON’T like.
6. Is my site lacking personality?
Do you talk AT your readers instead of TO them? Remember, the most important word you can use on your site is “you.” Personalizing your content can have a dramatic impact on your content flow and audience engagement.
7. Does my site appear credible?
People want to know what makes you the authority on your topic. Are you really walking the walk? If you’re telling someone how to make money online, why would they believe your tips or buy your products if you have no proof you are succeeding?
Use real-life examples and case studies to build credibility, create compelling stories and illustrate why people should trust your content. This goes for any niche, not just the “make money online” arena.
8. Am I really an expert on [topic X] or did I just choose this topic because I saw someone else succeeding with it?
If you’re faking it, people will know it. Why not write about something you really enjoy or care about? Almost any site can make money if there’s enough traffic thanks to 3rd party ad sales, AdSense, selling your own product, etc.
Plus, you’ll have so much more fun in the process. Trust me, I’d never be where I am today if I didn’t enjoy what I do. Too many of you have turned this into a job out of desperation for money.
While needing money may be motivating to some of you, for most people it typically leads to frustration and boredom. As I’ve always said, you need to find something other than money to motivate you.
9. Have I developed a brand? Is my site known for anything online?
For example, many people affectionately refer to me as the “The woman who keeps it real when it comes to making money online/affiliate marketing.”
If you’re known as that “anonymous person who paraphrases content and never has anything original to say” that could be a sign you need to work on developing a brand for yourself and your site.
10. Is this even for me?
It’s tempting to choose AdSense and/or affiliate marketing because people you admire are succeeding with it.
But is this method really for you? Many of you are trying to emulate sites and people you admire when you don’t even have an interest in the work that is required to succeed.
If you hate writing then why are you trying to be a content affiliate marketer or professional blogger? If you’re not a salesperson then why are you joining MLM programs to hard sell people?
A big part of being successful is finding a business that aligns with your skills. You don’t have to be an affiliate marketer or AdSense publisher to make money on the Internet.
You could try selling items you create on eBay, become a freelancer, develop a niche YouTube channel. The key is to find something that fits your individual skill set.
I have always enjoyed writing. I wrote my first short story at the age of 10. And as far as video goes, any friend or family member will tell you that I have always loved being in front of a camera. So what I do online is merely an extension of what I’ve always enjoyed in my real life.
Can you say the same?
Time to Get Real With Yourself
I bet if you seriously address the above points, not only will your site improve, but they may cause you to examine your approach and goals.
I know many of you are frustrated with AdSense and the lack of clicks. Some of you don’t understand why you don’t have more traffic.
Perhaps you were bitten by the Google Panda and you feel like you have to start over. You may have even questioned if this “Internet marketing thing” still works.
These days, this business is so much more than just throwing up content on a blog. Don’t underestimate the amount of lackluster, redundant content spread across the web.
People are inundated and overwhelmed with mediocre sites, and it takes a lot more to get and keep their attention.
Think about websites you follow religiously. There’s a reason you are so loyal to them. Maybe the site is funny? Creative? Perhaps it delivers the news first. Does it help you learn a new skill? Adopt some of these strategies to generate that kind of loyalty for your own site.
I think blogs are great, but their convenience has fooled a lot of you into thinking that the work stops after publishing. If you want to succeed in 2011 and beyond, learning how to think outside the box and establish a brand for yourself and site is an absolute must!
I hope this blog post is the kick in the pants you need to get rolling! 😉
Click here to read my guide to creating a successful niche WordPress site.
Wow!..That was really something.LOL thanks for the info and the time that you so freely give.After following you for such a short time,I ‘ve allready gain crazy knowledg allong with the know how.So I’m saying now THANKS!!!for being you and for being the blessing that you are. -DWAYNE-
Hello Lisa, As this is the my first comment on your blog i wanna say you that your blog is the one of the best blog on this web world. Second if today i don’t read your post then may be i will go to the wrong topics of blog ‘starting online money blog’. Now i understand that there are lots of blog on web and to become a genuine blogger one must write only what he/she knows with proof or have experience of that.
Actually before getting money online is not that difficult. this is because of the scam and spammers.. dang them..
Yes it is saturated now. I use to get frustrated when I would see my Google account bringing in 5 dollars a day. I found another way to make money by getting 50 sites to do 5$ a day. But it’s still hard…….it’s a full time job!
Wonderful and informative post. The truth today about
making money on the internet today goes beyond the
ordinary. It is all about creativity, hard work, smart work
and of course consistency whether it is building website,
writing content, driving traffic and so on.
Ed
Hey Lisa,
I’ve been a student of yours for a while, and I just have to say….Great Stuff! Thank You!
I’ve tried to followed every thing from SEO to being original and credible, having a unique spin, and creating GREAT content (so I’m told).
I just recently launched my site greatcornerback.com on May 2. I’ve gotten 2600+ unique visitors in July (up from 1200, and 1600 in May and June).
Seems like things are going alright, but I began monetizing at the 50 uniques/day mark in June and have seen ZERO results from my affiliate campaigns. I’ve had some click-throughs but NO sales. NONE.
Am I being impatient or is there something I’m missing? Can can anyone direct me to information/forum/person that might help? I’ve read just about every SBI e-book (and I’ll gladly read ’em again).
Thank You
P.S. It’s not that I’m not getting enough sales, I’m just a bit wary that I’m getting NONE.
Hi Dennis
Hang in there. 50 visitors per day is still very small. So I’m not surprised your results are not showing just yet. Assuming your traffic is targeted, it may take a few hundred visitors per day before you start seeing results — of course this is assuming you are doing other things well like PREselling, reviewing, building credibility, etc.
Lisa,
Thank You. I’ll continue to do those things better, build momentum, and have fun.
Great insight into this tough market we have.
Hi Lisa
It all boils down to 2 simple task.
1. Create a website or blog and add unique content(your style) or originality. Content must be added daily if possible or weekly if you have that xfactor quality. I prefer to add text, maybe some images depending on what I want from the post. Sometimes a video if necessary. The googlebots(spiders) need food to eat. You provide the everyday food and they will come to eat, hence high search engine rankings.
2. Market your articles or ideas on Social Networks such as delicious, stumbleupon, Reddit etc. Write articles and place them on ezinearticles. Create a video and place on youtube.
Facebook is another traffic generator. Make comments in forums.
Exposure, exposure, exposure is the key.
That true that now hosting do provide free CMS in their cpanel.
Within one day you able to design out your website. Some even purchase template. The barriers to earn money online is getting low and giving more opportunities to most of people.
Competitor is everywhere !!!!! so is time to taking advantages as fast as possible. Is time to stress on followers benefit since it hard to be innovator now.
Lisa, I do agree you must LOVE this business in order to be successful. Making money online is not easy at all — it does require passion. It is important to write/blog on items of “real” interest rather than merely writing on subjects that seem to have an enormously high search rate. I’ve got to keep plugging away. By the way, I love how you write — it’s easy for everyone to understand and walk away with something of value.
Very very informative I must, I really liked all your tips. I have just launched my blog and these tips are surely gonna help me get traffic. Thanks alot 🙂
Interesting points. It is really hard to make money online.. many things you need to consider…. What does my audience REALLY want and need? It is important that you know what your audience want, so you must better give your best shoot for your project for your audience to follow. Make every day a new day and fresh!
This is so helpful for me.. Thank you so much!
Hi Lisa, Thanks for this great post! Making money Blogging is really hard. It takes good market research and knowing your supply and demand for the product you wish too sell.
I’ve been at it for 5 months and still get less than 60 page views a day, it sucks. Hopefully, things will change in another 2 months.
Hello Lisa! This post inspired me a lot. Since I’m not yet into making money online, it encourages me to do so. I am just a new blogger searching for people who found success in the internet to get some effective advice how they did it. You are the only successful bloggirl I ever found. Hehe. I hope to learn from you more. In fact, I am reading your old posts to get some tips with this making money online stuff. Thanks for the share, Lisa!
Thanks for sharing this Lisa, it was very informative and encouraging. We are trying to make money so badly (and still fail in it) that we’re keep forgetting the important things – do (write) what you love, interact with people, experiment, be original, a refreshment for people and not a copycat – that way you’ll stick out of the crowd.
YEah BEcome leader analyse your experiments and improve yourself.. Once google google’s your posts people will reach u and pay you thru clicks and affiliate leads..!!
im new and real enjoying articles and the various feedbacks
A lot of people get try the latest trend instead of building a credible site.
good stuff Lisa – the last question (#10) is most likely the first I’d ask myself, or anyone else. is it for “me” to begin with ! ? ! for many, it takes experimenting to find out it is not.
Nice top ten list, but I wish you would have made mention of the fact that you don’t really always need an abundance of clients, that it depends mainly on your purpose/niche etc. Now maintaining that client base definitely becomes more important for sure. Perhaps a future article? I’d read it! 🙂
It found helpful for me.
That is true; some individuals are always starting that way since they do not understand what really the best topic that they wanted to create is. I believe that visiting blogs and forums can be a great help to enhance your knowledge about making money online. You need to talk to other peoples’ suggestions and think about it to make your business successful.
Man I’m impressed with this informative blog, and in fact you hav a genius mind. keep up the good work.This is really nice info.Thanks for such a wonderful post.
Number 4 is so true. It also applies to teaching. Teachers have to pretest to see what students need to learn. Then you know how to focus your instruction. An interest survey asks them questions about themselves(likes, dislikes, etc.) So you take what they NEED to learn and what they are INTERESTED in to make your lessons. I’ll just have to apply it to my blog. I’ll go over each tip as homework for my site. ;0)
I completely agree with this post.
Recently I created a site using wordpress, I knew it would not be easy to build traffic and make money, but I discovered that is 10x harder to make money online than I could image…
Too many “gurus” talking about the same subject, nowadays looks like internet is very saturaded with the same information.
So is very difficult for beginners to make money online.
Interesting points, although I don’t try to make money online – I promote an offline business and many strategies (as I have discovered) used by affiliate applicable quite nicely to my own efforts
I have been reading your post for 2 1/2 years by now and what started as a simple HTML website has now grown to 5 full-blogs for me. Still, I have not make any money
I think it is only going to get harder for those who aren’t consistent. If you look at the successful bloggers who make money online they all have one thing in common. PPC –> Persistence, Patience, and Consistency. Even though you don’t make the money you would expect in the beginning, I realize you have to keep moving forward with some blind faith. Soon enough your forward momentum will get you to those income goals.
Samuel, you are totally right on the money! It takes a lot of work and time to learn how to do all of the things that will eventually bring the money in.
It’s all about multiple streams of income. One day you make a nice amount from Adsense and the next you capitalize from an affiliate banner.
Once you develop your own products, you then have more streams that increase your online earnings.
The beauty of it all is that it’s automatic once things are set in place.
I find it hard in terms of SEO, there are millions of blogs out there that are sharing the same idea/niche. How will you stand out? I think by giving your reader a true learning experience, and not thinking about money.
Good thing I found your blog!
Wow, Lisa, time and time again, you are able to come up with Captivating Title that make me read your post, well done!
Yes, I have been reading your post for 2 1/2 years by now and what started as a simple HTML website has now grown to 5 full-blogs for me. Still, I have not make any money!
Why didn’t I give up? Like what you mentioned. It’s the passion or desire to want to provide some information that I know to whoever is “Willing” to read my articles and along the way, hopefully click on some ads or even Optin to my Newsletter (still struggling to get a fully working one 😉 )
Even till this day, I am still learning as the fluency of the blog sites are getting more sophisticated too. My number one question on my mind is “What exactly that I have will make this visitor read more about what I have to write or offer here?” Well, information overload is always the main culprit here, causing delay in building up the contents.
Thanks once again for the kind of inspiration you brought to this community of readers who keeps coming back for more!
William
How To Make Money With A Computer
P/S: Somehow, with the new CommentLuv, you are not able to pick up my last blog post….bug?
Thanks for sharing this wonderful and valuable post. Making money online is really not an easy thing to do. You need to make a lot of research to find out the best and legitimate site to deal with. When doing an online business there should be a business plan, a good marketing strategy and determination to succeed.
I think the FACT that there are people who think it’s easy to make money online, makes it harder for the rest of us. What I mean is: Google has to sort out quality sites from the average or bad sites.
If there where no “bad sites” then there wouldn’t be a need for algorithym changes and the people with “good sites” wouldn’t get punished by mistake.
That’s a good point, Scott. Everyone is so frustrated with Google and this Panda update, but they are only trying to weed out the mess. Unfortunately the “good” people often get affected.
Hi Lisa,
Great post and very timely. I just finished shutting down some sites and blogs that I didn’t really enjoy because I’d only put them up in the first place to “make money” which they weren’t even doing that very well. The reason? I wasn’t interested.
Instead I’m sticking with the two that I really enjoy building on to and maintaining, tweaking and generally gazing in rapture at 🙂 lol.
Additionally, I’ve changed my mindset to view these sites as “all in good time” ventures; they will make money eventually. And in the meantime, they’re my hobbies and I enjoy all the time spent on them. That’s what hobbies are all about, after all, right?
Cheers and have a great day!
Good for you, Rachel!
You tell em Lisa, you have to do this online thing for love and passion not money. I started my website less that 2 years ago thanks to Lisa introducing me to SBI. I choose a topic I live, one that isn’t even easy to make money with, but I love writing. U have over 150 pages of original content and just as much as that from content 2.0 submissions. I had my highest traffic day yesterday 406 unuque visitors, I make regular money with adsense and I have received 3 clickbank cheques and I’ve almost hit my threshold for another one. But it’s been tough, the love of doing it is what keeps me going, in fact recently my bounce rate decreased and my traffic is increasing steadily despite the algorithm update by google. I am presently updating the look and feel and trying my hand at CSS switching from the block builder. In short what I’m saying is that just like Lisa said, there has to be more driving you than money, you have to love your site and see it as an extension of your personality not just a money maker, and you have to be patient and give people content that solves their problem, you have to sincerely want to help people not just make money and like the bible says never despise the days of small beginnings. Even in a narrow niche like Christian dating advice, I’m making this thing work ;with Gods grace I believe) which shows it can be done if you are doing it properly. Sorry for the lecture!
Thank you Lisa.
It helps to know that I’m not the only one struggling.
I did my research and set goals. When goals are not met, discouragement sets in and you can loose interest in what you set out to do.
I have a pie recipe site. I thought it was a good choice but now I’m wondering if it is a highly competitive subject. Pie is my thing.
The challenge I face is not so much me, but that of my spouse. She thinks I’m wasting my time. I have an 8-5 job and time is taken from the family to work on website. So you can see my challenge.
Your statement about, what can you do so as not to depend on Google is something I have been giving much thought to. I know some who have quit their jobs and now are hurting due to income from their site no longer produce.
Nothing is lost. I plan to take what I have learned with my recipe website to sell a product that I invented to help feed those who want fresh produce.
My wife thinks it was a waste but to me it has opened up many doors to explore ideas and look for new areas for a website that could be unique.
Give Google what they can not find any where else.
Thanks lisa! I have just started my website about 2 weeks ago on C Programming and the traffic has not caught on yet but in still in the development stage! Your Blog posts and videos are just such inspiration to carry on and push!
Thank You.
Ok Lisa, you have out-done yourself with this well thought out post and it has giving myself a good kick in the pants and inspired me take a good look at my blogging cheers.
Hi Lisa,
I had to read this post twice so that I can fully absorb all the information in it. Every paragraph is a post in itself. I am printing it straight away as my mantra for my project-in-the-making!
The example you used in No 2 really struck a cord with me. Me and my fellow newbies all want to target those keyword phrases that were searched millions of times the previous month but we forget that those are being targeted by the SEO and SERPs giants in our niche too. We sabotage our own success by even attempting to compete with these established websites.
If only we can learn to pay attention to those keywords that received only a couple thousands searches, we will be building a brand that will last for a long time to come.
IMO, these small numbers are searched by people who really know what they are looking for. With the Google’s search phrase suggestion, those huge numbers may actually be lazy people who do not care to type in their search phrase fully and just select what Google suggests and we all like sheep follow the numbers. I believe what will help our readers lie in the small numbers and this is what will get us dedicated visitors.
Brankica cracks me up. I see lots of blogs that are the first blogs of their owners teaching us how to make money with a website or blog. Where did they get the experience they are teaching us? In the abstract? 🙂
Exactly! Those are called long tail keywords and they make up 80% of my search engine traffic. I think people assume the keyword “create a website” brings me most of my traffic. Not even close. Most of my search engine traffic comes from a collection of a bunch of different long-tail (less popular) keywords.
I agree with some of what Ileane said. It’s true, people need to follow their true calling. I was just saying to someone yesterday how there is so much pressure on the net to be a gruru at everything. Perfect blogger, perfect SEO, perfect Tweeter etc… Just be comfortable in your own skin and let your personality shine and be true to yourself, then what you do (on the net or not) will be genuine and succeed rather than scrambling to be fake and lying to everyone especially yourself. Be a guru at being yourself. 🙂
Yes, Heather! Couldn’t have said it better myself. No one has to be perfect. Nor do you have to pretend to be a social media or blogging expert if you’re really not. At the end of the day, people just want to see the real you. And if you can find a topic that allows you to do that, then this process is so much more fun.
You said it Lisa, FUN! That’s the key to all of this. Although, I can see how stressful things could be for people who are making a full-time living from the Internet and suddenly algorithm changes slash their income by fifty to seventy five percent.
There seems to be a fine line between fun and discouragement in the online world.
I have found every step of the blogging process, from setup and content creation to obtaining links and learning html/css, to be far more difficult than I imagined when I began. Now I realize that blogging is truly a long-term endeavor and that I will not achieve positive results overnight. The good news is that blogging is engaging and fun. Thanks for the insights!
A great post Lisa. I have found it difficult to make more money than I do because of two problems:
1. I lack motivation.
2. There are so many scammers in the niche I’m in that people are incredibly wary.
I have the “too many scammers in my niche” problem too, but the way I’ve been able to overcome that is to show examples and proof and not just talk the talk.
@Lisa – Enough can’t be said about building credibility. I’m still relatively new to this, but I can tell you that I am much more trustworthy of those “gurus” when they can show real proof, not those photoshop’d screenshots of their bank accounts.
Hi Lisa
I have had my little hobby blog for about 6 months now and I am glad that I don’t have to make money on it 😉 I write about Tech stuff because I is a big interest of mine and because think that I have something to offer other people in that niche. If I am going to earn a little bit of money on it someday it will be fine, but that is not why I am blogging. I think that you are right about personality is very important to succeed as a blogger. In my niche there are so many big companies with employees hired just to run their blog like was it a newspaper. I can’t compete with that. The blogs I like to visit is blogs that are personally, where the owner comment back, where there are videos and guides and where I can learn something for my own blog. I love your videos by the way and know that creating videos are not as easy as it looks and takes a lot of time.
🙂
Saturation! Lisa, you’re not kidding! There exists a plethora of blogging “gurus” and experts seemingly waiting to pounce on the next pay-pal account holder that stumbles upon their site…
Maybe the healthiest way to a healthy blog is to keep it “mixed” –
OK – I can easily be found on Google and Bing – I think I have enough personality and some credibility to make an acceptable presentation. I’ve been busy “branding” too!
I am BOTH a leader and a follower – and wearing each hat I have had astounding successes and dismal failures
In efforts to entice visitors to come back for more, I’m looking at LENGTH OF TIME they are spending on my blog, in efforts to determine what kept them there for so long… did I write something incredible or were they waiting for my page to load, went to get a cup of coffee, the doorbell rang and they forgot the computer was on?
As for that friendly kick in the pants, Bennett Cerf once remarked “A pat on the back, through only a few vertebrae removed from a kick in the pants, is miles ahead in results.”
Have people spread the word for you. Use viral marketing. WordPress lets you use a plugin called Wp Email. I use this and it works great! People have also been using Facebook apps these days to market their products! It def. works when you have a bunch of fans liking your page. Their friends see it and then more friends see it. Viral traffic is def. something you should try to get.
Hey Lisa: This is a great checklist to keep as a reminder and an action plan for charting a course to a more successful and purposeful experience creating a website. I, too, get discouraged about lack of traffic growing fast enough and have whined about to some of your forum members, but each day I just keep putting one foot forward and continue to build my brand as I build content. One thing that has been helpful is having a coach from SBI look at my site to give an honest opinion so I know whether I am on the right track. That has given me more confidence that although it is taking time, my site is continuing to improve. Thanks again for another great post.
Getting another opinion from someone else is a great idea, Ann!
Lisa – been a big fan since I saw your videos for the first time a few months ago. You’re very good delivering information and I like your true-grit style.
I have one question for you. I wrote a 3 page fairly technical article about 6 years ago. Today, I’m getting about 8,000 visitors a month. I’ve had adsense on it for most of the 6 years and have update the content now and then. My question is: I bring in an average of $1.50 per day on it but I have no idea if this is good or if it can do better. The information on the web including yours does not give me any ideas if I should be trying to get it to perform better. I recently added 1 Amazon product per page, but no revenue yet. Any thoughts?
Best,
Bart
Hi Bart
Are there any good Clickbank products related to this topic? Have you searched for other affiliate programs?
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for your response. Since the topic is technical/engineering information on LEDs, I haven’t found any relevant Clickbank products. I put a few related Amazon books up last month but it didn’t change anything. The thing that has me in the dark is the relationship of 8000 visitors a month to revenues of ~ $1.50 per day. I have no idea if that is low, medium or high performance and whether it needs tweaking.
BTW, your videos are amazing – nice work!
Bart
Yes Lisa you are true, I am reading your blog for 2.5 years, a lot of patience is required to get traffic, when it starts pouring on your blog, you can not stop it. To get traffic
1. You should keep on writing good quality content for few months even without thinking of any traffic.
2. Upload videos on youtube that also contributes to traffic and adsense earnings.
3. Images in articles also provides good traffic on my blog, I capture then by my camera only.
I struggled for around 5 months to get few traffic on my blog which is constantly increasing with the God’s Grace.
Dear new bloggers do not get frustrated, just have trust on yourself, keep on writing you will get the traffic this is my guarantee.
Lisa, this really is inspiring and encouraging as Ileane said it. You reminded us of important points and I am amazed at how people are desperate and getting into wrong niches. I like sharing my tips but I only started the blog about it after almost two years online and trying out SBI, learning SEO and what not.
But today, you can see that at least 80% of blogs about blogging, making money online and internet marketing are written by people who started all that with – the blog itself. How are they going to add knowledge to their readers.
If they were blogs like “Let’s learn SEO together” and then just keep “reporting the SEO news” it would make more sense. I would see it as “Hey, I have no clue but we can learn all this together” spin. However in most cases, this isn’t what happens.
Anyway, this really is a great reminder, you are obviously fresh off a vacation 😛
Agree. Also, I think a lot of people start out that way because they can’t really think of topic they are passionate about. So they think that since they WANT to make money online, they should build a site or a blog about making money online.
Having a passion for making money when you’re not making anything is not the same as having a passion for something you are currently involved in that allows you to bring a fresh perspective (hobby, etc.) So the content ends up being repetitive/redundant because there’s no personal experience or fresh examples to bring to the table.
Like you, Brankica I didn’t start my “make money online” section of my sites until I actually had experience and success stories to bring to the table. Had I started out writing about how to make money online before I actually was, I don’t think I would have had the same success.
Lisa, I find this post very encouraging. Sad to say that for many people reading this – if they really and truthfully answer all of the questions you posed here, they will shut their sites down and find their true calling somewhere else besides the internet.
I like how you said “bring it”, that reminds me of Ingrid from NiddyGriddyBlog. She often uses that phrase in her post titles and it really gets your attention. So come on y’all – bring it!!
Thanks for the inspiration Lisa.
You’re right, Ileane. It’s not always an easy thing for people to admit or discover, but this biz is certainly not for everyone.
To piggy-back on what Ileane said, “…they will shut their sites down and find their true calling somewhere else…”
Obviously. not enough freelancers and bloggers have hung up their dancing shoes. Like a hungry fighter in the 3rd round, they’re still fighting it out and throwing punches.
So for those of us who can bide our time in the midst of this saturation, working alongside every Tom, Dick and Harry who thinks he can create a website and sell SEO services, …ah the eating shall be good, my friend. Fore good things DO come to those who wait.