1. You Don’t Have a Reliable Traffic Funnel
Email is a great tool for setting up a traffic funnel.
Not only can you use a list to notify your subscribers of new content (I use AWeber’s Blog Broadcast feature for that), but you can also setup traffic funnels to other products, affiliate links, etc.
You may have already noticed that I have an email opt-in form here on this blog.
Here are ways this email list creates income & traffic for me…
- When people sign up, AWeber let’s me use a custom thank you page. This page has a coupon to my affiliate marketing course.
- There’s also an autoresponder message that is sent where I often include coupons, affiliate links, etc.
- Since my email list is setup to auto notify subscribers of new posts, I can continually drive traffic back to my new content here without relying on Google
This post I wrote on Visual Composer instantly generated affiliate sales the day the post launched because of my traffic funnel that was all setup with my email list.
If you aren’t collecting email addresses, it’s a big mistake.
With all the changes to SEO, social media (algorithm filters that limit your post visibility, etc.), you need reliable traffic sources.
Ways to Use Your Email List
- Use the broadcast feature to auto notify of new posts
- Send occasional promotional emails (affiliate links, products, etc.)
- Inform your subscribers of big news and updates
- Stay in touch with your biggest fans
Sign up with AWeber here. All you do is copy and paste to insert a sign-up form into your site.
NOTE: I am an affiliate for AWeber. That means I earn a commission if you sign up.
2. Not Enough Targeted Traffic
Not all traffic is created equal.
So while you might think announcing your site to your Facebook friends will instantly catapult your business to the next level…
Think again.
Targeted traffic means people are genuinely interested in the topic and are actively seeking info.
Your Facebook friends will give you a few courtesy visits at best.
And unfortunately, courtesy visits don’t earn a lot of money, but targeted traffic — the kind you get from Google certainly can.
There’s one problem though…
If you’ve started a website in the last few years, you have probably realized by now (if not, you will soon) that you won’t be able to rely on Google traffic if you want to make serious money.
What’s interesting is SEO (search engine optimization) works the complete opposite of how it used to work.
Back in the day, you had more control over what keywords you ranked for by…
- using those phrases on your pages
- registering a domain with the targeted keywords
- creating backlinks to your site manually
Today, Google makes you PROVE your site is worthy of a ranking for those desired keywords by generating external signals such as organic links back to your site and social media shares.
What Does That Mean?
Let’s say you have a blog targeted to people who want to learn how to play tennis.
Under the old “system”, you would register a domain name like “HowToPlayTennis.com” and put out as much keyword-focused content on playing tennis that you could.
It really was more about quantity over quality.
As a result of that, your site would eventually rank for various tennis-related keywords and you’d drive free, targeted search traffic to your site day after day after day.
Today, you have to use other methods of getting exposure such as YouTube and social media. Establish a presence on these platforms first, and then use them to direct traffic to your site.
As a result of your unique and awesome content, different site owners will share your content on social media or even link to your content.
Stand out. Be unique! Approach your niche with a fresh perspective that no one else is using.
Best way to stand out is to study what everyone is doing, and do something different.
— Luke Guy (@imlukeguy) March 17, 2016
Now, you have to EARN your rank. Yes, that makes it more challenging, but it’s one way Google can gauge how authentically popular a website is.
I say “authentic popularity” because under the old system, people would create artificial popularity by generating links to their sites through blog comments and other linking schemes (link exchanges, blog farms, etc.)
Many times websites would rank on top only because the owner knew how to play the Google game. Today, websites on tops typically have a lot of links and social media shares.
That’s why you see so many well-known brands up top when you search. They naturally have more links across the web.
So if a relevant, popular blog links to your website, Google views it as an “authentic vote” because a high-profile website is not just going to dole out links to other sites for no reason.
Content still matters, but external shares and linking matter more. And the more popular the site is, the more power that link/share has in terms of impacting where you could rank.
These links and shares are signals that Google looks for to gauge the authentic popularity of a website.
For example, if I contact a blogger and ask for a link exchange, Google may ignore the “link juice” each blog is bringing to the other — especially if the blogs do not have a lot of popularity themselves.
This tactic was often used to artificially inflate the popularity of a website, and it helped with rankings for a long time.
Not anymore!
Why Did Google Do This?
Two main reasons…
- Google realizes they can make more money by making it difficult to rank so people will buy ads (AdWords is how Google makes most of its money.)
- It also prevents low quality sites from being able to “game” the system by just putting out a bunch of low-quality, keyword-rich content.
Before 2013, the search results were flooded with low-quality sites because rankings depended more on on-page factors that site owners could control.
What Are Other Ways to Drive Targeted Traffic?
- Start a YouTube channel
- Begin broadcasting live on Periscope weekly
- Create a podcast
- Use social media
Start out by keeping your content centered around a specific topic/niche so you attract a more targeted following.
The next one is huge…
Always make sure you drive people back to your own site where you can collect their email addresses!!
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Periscope, you name it — they may be hot today but gone tomorrow. At least when you collect email addresses, you can always reach out to your biggest fans and not rely on traffic sources that can be temporary.
This blog gets 85% of its traffic from social media and my email list (most from my list). It doesn’t rank for many worthwhile keywords on Google. So if social media and Google died today, I’d still have an audience because of my list.
This is what you should strive for.
Sign up for my email list here!
3. You Have No Trust
One of the best ways to earn trust with a website is to appear authentic.
Do this is by showing proof.
In other words, if you want to sell a book about “how to build traffic”, show exactly how you are building traffic and display your numbers.
If you have a website about how to get more YouTube subscribers, you should have a channel with a growing number of subscribers as proof that you are walking the walk.
This tip may sound like a no-brainer to you, but you would be surprised at how many people have sites about “how to start an online business” when they aren’t earning a dime!
Then they wonder why no one is signing up for their “Get Rich Program” they are marketing.
Just because you WANT to make money online doesn’t mean you should be blogging about that…
Yet!
Most people who are successful in the “make money online” or “online business” space are successful because they made money FIRST and then teach on their experience.
4. You Won’t Invest In Your Site’s Future
I’m going to go there.
If you won’t invest $5-$10/month in your website (yes, that’s all they cost today on average), then I seriously question how serious this venture is for you.
Compare the cost of starting a website with the cost of starting a brick and mortar business.
The cost difference is so extreme, it’s almost laughable.
You will never, ever find a more affordable way to start a business than online, and there are ALWAYS limitations with free hosts. Not to mention, you don’t even own your site.
In March 2016, Weebly announced that you have to upgrade in order to get any search engine visibility for your site.
So does that mean anyone who is on the free plan will have their site de-indexed and lose any traffic they earned? Their website is not clear on this, but that is something that would never happen if you buy hosting for your site.
Not to mention, I can’t tell you the last time I Googled something and saw a website hosted on a free platform ranking for any worthwhile keywords.
Let me take that one step further…
Have you ever read a success story and the owner had a Blogger or Weebly website?
That’s not a coincidence!
It’s not that search engines don’t rank sites hosted on a free platform. It’s just that the owners usually abandon them quickly and/or they never generate enough authority (links) to rank for anything worthwhile.
Often times the site owner and the rest of the web don’t take free-hosted sites seriously.
It’s easier to abandon something you haven’t invested money into. I believe people work harder at projects when there is a financial investment.
That means always buy a domain name and use paid hosting. Your site needs a home that you own. Here’s a tutorial here.
What About Starting Free and Moving to Paid Later?
I’m still not a fan. Moving a site can be a royal pain. I’ve been there when I moved this site from Blogger to WordPress back in 2007. Ugh!
Not to mention, the links on your site may change with the upgrade, so that means you’d have to setup redirects to the new content.
And not all free hosting platforms allow you to do this.
If you need to wait and save money, then do that instead.
It’s better than starting with free and going through the hassle of moving your site later.
Gareth Morgan says
The focus on my authority site is mainly for my primary business, The Six Figure Mentors. I don’t use any form of advertising and only make money by signing people up form the ongoing training that the SFM community delivers.
Do you think I need to broaden my horizens? I’ve never liked adsense as it only seems to generate pennies and don’t want to advertise anything scam like!
Kamal says
I am into blogs for last few days only. But I am looking forward to make it big. This blog is one of the most informative blogs i have ever seen. Excellent Work.
Don James says
Interesting question, Lisa. I was wondering how many people make money purely on topic blogging vs. affiliate blogging. I really think there is a difference between the two.
My affiliate blogs have made thousands–but, in my mind they were specifically created to drive affiliate sales.
However, recently I’ve been trying a pure topic driven technique that is only information and does not have any monetization tied to it — yet.
Interestingly, I’ve seen this blog jump in page rank and traffic much faster than my affiliate and adsense blogs. So, I would like to know who has driven income from a informational blog only.
Rahul Ghosh says
Hey Guys,
I am getting 15-20k pageviews a month for my social media blog and I am just earning a Chicken bucket at KFC every month. Don’t know what Adsense Payments are so low these days. :(((
Matt says
Great post. I have just started up my new blog over the last few weeks and just implemented Adsense and have been using Amazon affiliate links throughout my posts. So far not much, but again it has only been a few weeks. I am trying to write as much as possible and hopefully over the next few months/year I’ll see some financial gain. Love writing about my topic though so I’m enjoying blogging without any type of income associated with it.
lisa says
You said a key word… enjoy. That will take you very far, my friend! 🙂 Cheers and best of luck, Matt.
Matt says
It seems that almost everyone expects to earn money after putting in two or three months of work. It can take years before a blog or niche site attracts enough traffic to earn money from Adsense or any other advertising platform. 1000 unique visitors really isn’t that many in a month (maybe for a day) – and the reason niche blogs seem to make more money is that the CTR is often higher and the price paid for high ctr is greater.
Justin says
I hate programs such as Google ad sense. The reason for this is because when you put yourself out there, you’re bound to get haters. This results n invalid clicks. I should know. I’ve been there. Which is why I use Project Wonderful. Granted, I’m still not making any money from my blog. However, it’s only a few months old.
akasharora says
Hi Lisa. According to you How much money can one earns from Google Adsense in Tech Niche only if he gets around daily 150 unique visitors to their blog out of which 80 from INDIA and 70 from USA , UK and other foreign countries.
Erim says
Nice post Lisa I love it keep good posting, what you write is very useful for me who looking for money from blog.
arul-mandiri says
I earn money from my blog by providing info about KTA Mandiri Personal Loans). But I lose when the competitor come and my blog left behind in serp.
Kim says
For the first four months of 2012 here’s how my income has been spread out. For January-April I’ve been paid $11,260. For an average that’s about $2800 per month. Here’s how it’s broken down: My Squidoo pages have averaged $1167 per month; Amazon Associates affiliate income, with most links on my Squidoo pages have averaged $342 per month; Online Small Business Marketing I do for a local company (they pay me commissions for each new customer I bring them) I averaged $689 per month; Cash Back Website referrals residual income averaged $512 per month; and the other $29 per month is misc with Google Adsense including in that misc. However, I have recently started building my own websites so my Adsense is increasing. You can see more details about my earnings on my website (just click my name above).
Prestashop Themes says
Thanks for this article, it’s been really helpful as I am just about to do my first e-commerce site on wordpress. 🙂
Sam says
Hi Lisa. I have been following you for quite long already and you are such an inspiration. Your tips are such a great help especially for me who is struggling to earn a dime on adsense.
Dennies John says
My blog makes all the money from Adsense alone ! not too much !
i have low traffic and so affiliate won’t work !
Harry says
Hi Lisa………..
I am so amaze that you earn a lot of moneyy from your site, But I have a question that, What is the difference betwen the earning from blog or website… thanx
Atul Garg says
now a days CPM and CPV websites are more popular as being a webmaster you can earn from every visitor you get into your website. there are many program running like edomz.com, clicksor and chitika anyone you can join and just need to put cpv code in your blog and site.
Jaycee says
Hi Lisa. I have not made a dime yet. LOL. Then again, my blog just launch 3 weeks ago. I’ve been working on it 6-15 hours a day EVERY day. A lot of stuff with setting up, I did not know how to do. I really thought I was computer literate until I started blogging. I really don’t know Jack. Right now I am using my free ad coupons just to get people to my site in the hopes a few of them will like it and become loyal viewers. No such luck yet. I know it’s coming. I know it will all work out for me. I truly believe that. And I am very willing to work at it until it pays off. I’m also looking forward to having such a knack at what I’m doing that I can start other blogs with a lot less effort and be able to keep all of them up at the same time. Thank you for all of the info you have shared with us!
Nabbit says
I started last month. Well, I’ve been in luck with Stumbleupon. The highest amount of traffic I got from stumbleupon was 356 unique visitors. I started using Contextweb as a way of monetizing my blog, and so far I have earned .67$s in 2 days from it. I like it.
amy says
I’ve only really been blogging since December this year. I’m on about 50 visitors a day. I’ve made a little bit of money from a paid link. But I don’t expect to be making money (or even trying ad sense as you advise) until I’m on at least 300 visitors a day.x
Abliukh says
Adsense is a top Earning way…
Cepreu says
I use only Google Adsense. But I don`t get much of it(((
Maheinfo says
Adsense is the best option for me.
zel says
Hi Lisa, I’ve been following your blog and always learning from you. I started being active to my blog last year 2011 and it seems like nobody clicks my ads. But when I received few clicks with cents conversion I was inspired that this cents might convert to 1 dollar and so on… I’m always upbeat whenever I read your write-ups because you inspires me a lot.
Rafaqat says
hi lisa i have start blogging nearly 8 months ago,at start i have zero clicks but now by the time i made change in blog layout and also work for seo,and now getting a handsome clicks for a couple of months,tell me how can i increase all stated above effectively.
Sean R. Nicholson says
While I haven’t made a dime off revenue from my blog, I do get revenue from consulting work and even got my job as Director of Social Media because of my blogging, tweeting, and social media experience. Sometimes, it’s not about the dollars and cents from direct revenue, it’s about the paycheck for being a thought leader.
Just my $.02. (pun intended) 😉
–Sean
Genycis says
Very good blog entry Lisa. I’ve seen some of your other videos as well on Youtube and I like your honesty and you’re always full of information to help out.
I’ve actually debated on doing a blog and will actually start on it now, more in thanks to this entry as well. Planning to do a blog of our son and promote affiliates related to children, toddlers, etc on it, as well as adsense. It’s nice to know that there are potentials to making money on blogs based on some of the posts made here, even if it is only a few hundred a month.
One thing I noticed that you said was that Google Analytics was better to use.. I’ve questioned that, as I’ve also read up in the past that if people do not allow or use javascript or cookies, then GA doesn’t pick up those visits, whereas Awstats will. I’ve always wondered which is better to track, though I guess using both of them wouldn’t hurt too bad. One thing I noticed though is that the traffic is drastic in comparison, with GA being much less than Awstats.. any more light you can shed on this question?
Thanks again in advance, and thanks for continuing to bring great information and keeping things honest.. I particularly liked your video about online scams and staying away from them (you used a Youtube video example that some woman contacted you about who got scammed from someone’s Youtube channel, sadly).
Dipendra@Givemegoal says
I use just 3 ideas. Sales(major source), Google Adsense(secondary source) and sometimes direct Advertisements.
Kevin Martin says
My blog doesn’t make any money, but I’ll get there at some point.
Ben says
I’ve only just started blogging, but I’m looking to do my research for monetising, thanks for all the tips!
Frank says
Ok, so I put off selling ad space and just focus on SEO. Thank you
Frank says
Thanks Lisa……………………………………………………………………………………
Well that was a real buzz-kill! I thought I was getting a lot more visits a day. Google shows 21 for today and 7 were from me! Why such a huge differenc?
lisa says
Some stat programs (especially AWStats) use log files which count images and other things as views which can be confusing. Google Analytics actually counts views/visits more accurately.
Frank says
What is with site stats?
AWSTATS says I get over 1600 unique visitors a month with over 30,000 pages viewed. Word Press says 350 total visitors a month and not many pages at all. I would like to try to sell ad space but do not know which to believe. I would imagine if the AWSTATS are closer to the truth then I should be able to sell some space…no? Frank
lisa says
Hi Frank, install Google Analytics. It’s the most accurate.
Autumn@fallfordesign.com says
Hi Lisa –
Google Anayltics only works if a user has javascript enabled in their browser, right? So therefore it’s not 100% accurate?
Sajith says
I made a new blog targeting more and more specific keywords. But my previous blog which is getting around 1000 visitors per day is helping me for my pocket money. I am earning around 100-150 $ per month from that blog. But recently I drop my traffics a bit,but the earnings remain the same.
christopher says
We have our own ad network, but we also bring in money through the sale of ad space.
Teresa Schultz says
Since I started with Adsense on my sites more than three years ago now, this is the first month (Feb 2012) that I’ve earned over $259 – and there’s still 8 days left of this month, so I’m pretty pleased. Nearly half of these earnings come from my one site for which I write articles about work from home ideas. I have found that adding a WordPress blog to a site, to the same host server that the site is on, can result in a very strong SEO’d URL – if you make the name of your blog similar to the name of your site (that the blog is on) or repeat that site’s name in the blog’s name and then just add a word or two, you often end up with a really strong Search Engine Optimized URL. Of course writing and adding many articles related to those two sites’ names is important too (important for trying to increase traffic to a site)
I also mention the freelance services I offer, on this work from home ideas site and blog – I make a living from working from home, doing the freelance services I offer, so although all my earnings from my sites are not all passive income, yes, I could say I make a living from my sites. The extra earnings passive income from Adsense is a welcome bonus, though.
bl-magazine says
The problem with me is that adsence banned me after my first month , it was an opportunity for me to work on my blog traffic that is between 600 and 1000 unique visitor monthly after 6 months blogging , but until now i didn’t find another way to monetize my blog , can you please help me
Cables says
hey i´m a newcommer in this business and so i don´t have any idea how to earn money with a blog but it sounds interresting so could you tell me something more about it ?
Thank you
Diana says
Making money with Adsense is rather difficult and it is not cut out for everyone. It took me 1.5 years to make my first US 100 from Adsense.
Name (required) says
By building a list way to make money money using a blog is This refers to the process of. the email addresses of visitors to your blog gathering provides you with the opportunity. This distribute to to information packed emails them will earn their trust that Having earned their trust. you are in a position to, recommend a product can be either your own or those of an affiliate to them, which If you are looking for a way.
carefully consider to make money using a blog, methods the just mentioned Use any. these of today ways to make money using a blog start reaping the benefits, and within the week .[inserttext]
This is a guest post by Matthew Wolfe. He teaches entreprenuers how to create blogs, generate traffic, and make money with his free video tutorials at The WordPress Classroom. You can also find out more about Matthew, as well as learn more tips and tricks at his personal blog, MatthewWolfe.com.
Eddie Obenauf says
I enjoyed your website, you really helped me out and I appreciate it! I am starting a clothing and design business and its not too big so far. Hopefully it will get a little better here soon. Like you said once you get the right people coming to your site and having people come back then you make money. If it is interesting to users with a professional and easy for them to access then my opinion they will come back. I appreciate all of your help you definitely know what you are talking about! Thank you again!
Eddie
suraj says
i heard Micro niche blog and websites earn more than a normal blog, I don’t have idea and knowledge how to start such a website. Adsense CPC is high for such a website.
will says
Hi there Lisa,
I had a problem on my blog when I was using Adsence – It took quite a long time for money to start stacking up so I started to look into sites that specify in intext advertising/ contextual but soon ditched that when I saw Infolinks highlighted almost everything on the page and it looked too ugly. At the moment I’m testing out “powerlinks” apparently they specify in highlighting only certain words that have the biggest hits.. It’s look half decent on my site at the moment, not too intrusive. I’m going to be testing a few more out such as Kontera. Infact, Powerlinks contacted me via phone about a month ago, I was pretty suprised, do these big company’s have a list of phone numbers to every site that we can’t get hold of? That’s a main concern.
I’m not into banner adverts since i havn’t had any clicks on them – ever – since I opened up my site so I’m looking for a better monetizing technique, anyone got something for them that works?
CheapWeds says
Will, you are right.
I had a wonderful blog on freelance affiliate marketing, but now a days I don’t pay too much heed on this blog and I rarely post. But this blog had PR 4 once and drove 40-100 visitors a day. I used all of your contextual advertising networks as you mentioned. But something I got very special in this segment is “Text-Link-Ads”, it really worth to mention that I earned more than $300 from this site until the site bared sub-domains and blogspots from approving.
Overall I made around $550 from affiliate marketing through blogging in 5 years!! Where is the profit? Does blogging this way match to your efforts and time spent? Not absolutely. So, I quitted.
But my cousin is in Travel industry, his static site powered by his blog generates good traffic and he has a very good conversion ratio. He never uses Adword, still his organic traffic clears bread and butter.
Thereby, I have learned from my experience that a great blog is essential for building a brand. But the major revenue naturally come from static pages with your own product. To survive online- you must have a good line of products which is the basement of online marketing.
Thanks Lisa for giving this opportunity to share emotions and share experiences.
breakup to makeup says
@Weltsecret yeah putting a affiliates sites or products and Google Adsense on it we still cannot make sure that we can gain a money out of it if we don’t market those blogs of ours by way of SEO… 🙂
Weltsecret says
Although as a person have not being making anything from blogging but still believe that the best way is through affiliate marketing and google adsense
Frank says
I am averaging over 100 visitors a day and have not made a dime. I guess it just takes persistence and constantly trying things till one or more work. Throw everything you can against the wall and sooner or later something will stick….I HOPE
Piusking says
Hi Alisa, I just sign up on wordpress and created a blog post. Pls how can I make money from it. I tried to sign up on google adsense but it’s not working. Pls some one should help.
tom buck@instant payday loans says
you need to put significantly more effort in than that. Create a wealth of good content that is worth someone coming to your site to read. Your site has to have value to be accepted into adsense program. Once you have enough decent content and you have been accepted into the program then you can concentrate of building on that content and generating some traffic, then if your layout is well thought out and your content is thematically arranged such that relevent ads will show in appropriate places people will click and you will generate income. Don’t expect something for nothing, don’t expect to get paid for contributing nothing.
mike says
now reading your blog i like to try more things to earn money as at that time i mo only earning money through affiliate programms like click bank and cj.i got inspiration of doing this after watching your videos on you tube 1 year before.thanks lisa for this.www.freebiesworldz.blogspot.com
jaishan says
Hi Lisa , a guy approached to me for selling a blog. as per what he shown by by adsense he is getting nearly 850$ per month. can you tell me before buying the website what are the factors i must know. And what should i ask him.
tom buck@instant payday loans says
Hi Jaishan
You need to check his Adsense stats to make sure that that figure is an accurate figure for the income from that one specific domain over specifically 1 month, and that it is consistently around that figure for the last 6 – 12 months, not simply peaked at $850 one month but is much lower in all other months – if it’s ramped up to that and is still climbing that’s ok, but you don’t want that to be a really high month in isolation; like if it’s some Christmas product and December was much bigger than Jan – Nov and now income is tiny again until next Dec. Usually the value placed on a site like that is regular or average or expected (however you want to negotiate it) monthly income x 12 months.
I would suggest you probably also need to know how much work he’s already put into it, what keywords are generating the income, what other keywords does it rank for and what other keywords could it rank for. This will all tell you how much scope there is to improve. If the site already ranks no.1 for all the keywords in it’s niche there probably isn’t that much scope for it to make more than $850 pm. However if it ranks no.5 for some low traffic keyword so you can improve on that and start ranking for some of the bigger terms in the niche than you have scope to make a lot more money.
Are there any good affiliate deals that would compliment this site, if it’s making $850 on adsense there is probably good scope to make a lot more on affiliate deals.
Probably good to check where the traffic is coming from and why it’s ranking well. If all the traffic is coming from one or two sources, are these sources that the guy selling it owns? Is it going to dry up once you own it? Similarly, why does it rank well, is it because it’s part of a network, does the guy selling it own the network, could it be cut off from this network. Stuff like that, just be very sure that nothing is going to change for the worse causing traffic to dry up once you own it.
Slamet R says
hi Lisa
I am love your article and i am interesting all your information because i am new in online, could you please teach me how can i start with my blog to make money. please please help me, i don,t know how to start,,,
thank you Lisa Congrat for you and success
Michael says
Well lisa, with your advice on affiliate marketing I am now making $200+ per month, which may not seem like a lot but its a lot to me because before I was getting a lot less and I was offering a service meaning it took more time for me.
I found a niche that was one I was interested, very small but it converts! It just goes to show that just 40 visits per day from targeted keyowrds can make you a lot of money!
lisa says
Michael, that’s EXCELLENT! So true, the more defined the niche is, the better it can convert. Congrats!