Make Money Challenge - The Ideas Are Hatching
April 14th, 2008
First, I would like to formally welcome my friend from Finland, Jarkko Laine, to the challenge. Currently, he is setting the example for me…I might have started our little self-imposed challenge but he has already put some ads on his site. And according to his latest post, Jarkko is presently investigating a product (or products) that he could possibly sell. GOOD LUCK Jarkko!!
image source: culebrablog
It’s just my humble opinion, but I think unless you are developing a business or idea that is on the scale of Google you can’t be under the assumption that you are going to generate a million dollars :-(
As I have stated before (and this will be the last time), attempting to make money online is a learning experience for me. What I am attempting to do is to see if I can eventually become a fulltime lifestyle entrepreneur so that I can spend even more time traveling and enjoying my Caribbean surrounds.
Please feel free to let me know if what I propose below sounds completely cockamamie. Every one of us has a limited amount of time that we can put into our projects and personally I would like to maximize the return on my efforts.
Essentially I am hoping that the ideas that I have come up with can earn me a couple of dollars. However, I am really interested in being able to duplicate the processes so that I will be able to have a number of sites generating a couple of dollars. For example -
- ten sites earning $5 a day = $50 a day
- multiply $50 per day by 30 days = $1500
- $1500 per month x 12 months = $18,000
Which is enough to cover my monthly student loan bill and still have an extra $1,000 left over.
The Ideas
As of yet, I have not implemented the two ‘make money online’ thoughts that I have selected because I wanted to present them here first (remember – open source entrepreneurship :-)).
Additionally, some people have suggested that I place income generating ads on MyTropicalEscape and I think that would be an okay approach. My issue with that suggestion is that this site is the most basic of WP sites and it already looks ‘generic’ so I don’t think placing ads on here will help to enhance the reader experience. If anyone can recommend a good quality, simplistic, and FREE WP theme for MyTropicalEscape I am open to suggestions.
My plan as it stands now will be to pursue 2 of the ideas [note: hey - that’d be a cool name for a website 2ideas.com] from my Open Source Entrepreneurship post.
The First Idea
Create some niche sites that incorporate destination specific travel information and photos or video that are freely available on Flickr and YouTube for the most visited cities in America.
Specifically, I want to eventually setup ten sites using -
Flickr photos and YouTube video for the ten most visited cities in the United States
To do that I will need to see what are the popular locals in the U.S. and what search words rank high for each particular destination, e.g. Las Vegas pictures or photos. Then I will try to register a site name like lasvegasphotos.com as an initial test with the ultimate goal of creating at least ten sites based on the most visited cities.
What have I done so far?
Well, in preparation for this post I did the following activities:
1. Googled ‘most visited U.S. cities’
And according to Forbes Magazine that city is Las Vegas with 38.9 million visitors per year.
2. Undertook some keyword searching for keyword ‘Las Vegas’ using the Seo Book Keyword Suggestion Tool
You can see above the top three most search words/terms are Las Vegas, Las Vegas coupons, and Las Vegas hotels.
Following the initial steps that I have undertaken above, my plan for the coming week will be to do some additional key word searching and to find out what words rank high for the various other locations.
Additionally, I need to:
- Investigate monetization options - at present I am considering placing adsense, marketing some affiliate products like Lonely Planet guidebooks, and possibly some Amazon books.
- Come up with a theme – possibly use the DoshDosh adsense optimized theme (as recommended by Caroline in her ebook) and get a template going for the whole series of sites.
Project cost and associated time.
At present, I already have a hosting plan so that cost is absorbed. But I will have to expend some money registering the domain names and if I do the ten planned cities and registered their names with GoDaddy that would require an initial $100 investment for ten sites.
1 site x registration cost = $9.99
10 sites x registration cost = $99.90
With respect to the time commitment, (after I get the theme template sorted) I thought that I would try to do two new photo posts for each city, every week, for the next three months. This would be an initial test phase to see if the sites actually bring in any income. That shouldn’t really be too difficult, should it?
In closing on this first idea, I was also throwing around the thought of putting the ten or so sites under an umbrella or network name and creating a landing page that lists all of the sites. Kind of like Shana Ablert has done on her landing page.
image source: culebrablog
The Second Idea
Write an ebook. We have had some visitors recently who stated that they thought a manual or user guide on lifestyle design would be well received. Now I don’t know if they were saying this because they were on vacation and they were ‘escaping’ their everyday job/lives and the idea sounded enticing to them… I realize that nowadays everywhere you turn someone is writing or promoting an ebook, but what the heck?
The rough title that I came up with while out walking this morning is -
“Lifestyle Design User’s Manual – Creating the life you want to live, not one that has been chosen for you”
I don’t want to make the ebook exclusive to quitting your job and moving to the Caribbean. So, I thought that I could include case study examples at the end of every chapter of people that I know who are doing independent contract work, freelance writing, working at home, and even people who have chosen to sail around the world. Also, I would love to have some chapter suggestions on the subject areas that people think would be most valuable, e.g. knowing when the time is right, budgeting a lifestyle change, planning the escape, etc.
I don’t really know if I could sell the ebook but Jarkko had a good idea and suggested that I could always give it away for free and try to use it as a promotion to gain some subscribers. The only problem with this whole ebook idea is that it would take me a hell of a long time [S-L-O-W writer] to put together.
What’s Next
As I stated from day one, this it true Open Source Entrepreneurship and I encourage people to take these ideas or add to them. However, I would really appreciate some feedback if you think I am heading in the right direction, or setting up for disaster.
What I like about the informational photo sites is that it fits with most of my criteria – it can be done a couple hours a day a few days a week and there’s no need to post everyday. I just need to get the pages to RANK WELL when people search particular key words.
The ebook would be taken on more as a fun project. I don’t want to re-create the wheel there are some fantastic lifestyle design books out there like Dan’s Escape 101.
What are some ideas that you have for making money online? I would REALLY like to hear what other people are thinking about doing! If you are new here and enjoyed this post please consider signing up for my RSS feed.
[End note: I would like to personally thank everyone who has provided me with some feedback during this challenge thus far: Jarkko, Terence, Dan, Koka, Cath, Ross, Kelly, Joshua, Coqui, Chris, Sarah, Kevin, Sonny, Lid, Mark, Shana, Skellie, and Caroline.]
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April 14th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Mark:
I like your photo sites idea. I just don’t treat e-book as a long term $ maker, even thought I think lifestyle coach is a good idea. I think you will need to do coaching face to face. That’s why I attended the local millionaire club few days ago. It makes more sense when you see the speaker face to face.
There are some facts that I want to share with you.
1. Only use creative common or licensed photos or videos on your blog. There are people sharing their copyright or commercial content on those sites and sue you for using them two years later.
2. Finding a good photos or videos on those site could be very time consuming.
3. You need to make your ideas so unique that no one can copy that QUICKLY.
Here are some suggestions.
1. Social networking with the owners of those photos and videos you use. Encourage them to provide you more information and photos. It will guarantee your source of content.
2. The AdSense is just one of the ways to generate small portion of your incoming. Try connect with local travel agency and hotel marketing agency, they often pay a good money for Ad.
3. You are really good at interviewing people. Get some great travelers interviewed on you site will help drive traffic.
4. Think like a readers. What can you get from the photos, videos and the content of you sites. What do you expect to see on the sites as a readers not a blogger.
That is for now!
April 14th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I think you have to look at the difficulty in ranking for search terms such as “Las Vegas”, “New York” etc. A better choice might be to work a site that shows little known vacation spots in America. It might be harder to find Flickr and YouTube content but I feel it would be easier to rank for these places. You might also consider a site dedicated to do-it-yourself vacations, especially with the financial crunch the US is in right now.
Another thought I had back when I read your first post on this topic is, you should start out monetizing “Culebra Blog” and “Palmetto Guesthouse”. You could possibly use Amazon for books about the island and/or surrounding islands. You could also work airline and car rental affiliate ads. I am not sure you would find a huge Adsense(Adwords) inventory for Culebra but you could also give that a shot on the “Culebra Blog” but stay away from it on the guesthouse site, you don’t want to be advertising other hotels.
I found “Culebra Blog” on page 2 of Google when searching for Culebra so you are already way ahead of the game on that term. Since Google likes established domains better than brand new ones, with a little effort you could easily get to page 1.
Just my thoughts. Now back to work.
April 14th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Mark, agree with Stephen. One of the hardest parts will be getting the site ranked for the city(s) you pick. Not sure if 2 posts per week (8 in a month) will be enough content at the beginning. You will also need to get some backlinks.
It’s not that easy to get ranked for major keywords of popular destinations.
One idea - for the city you pick, base your initial posts on some up coming attractions / events. Use suitable keywords (phrases) and you might have better luck in the short term withg the search engines. It’s worked for my site, to some extent (still lots of room for improvement). Also set the site up with google analytics or some other stats, so you can see what keywords etc. are working
Using Flickr images is worth a go, just watch out for the creative commons as there are several types and some state not to be used for commercial purposes (but it is still classed as CC). I’m sure you have checked out Skellie’s post on this.
As for templates. If you have not checked out Smashing Magazine, they have a few lists of templates. There are plenty out there, that are fairly easy to set up withs ads.
Amazon has just released a new widget (carousel) which looks interesting and it should work for the type of sites you are thinking of. Even if they don’t buy what you are showing, they may click through to Amazon and buy something else. This is something I need to optimise more on my site.
One ?. Who do you have your site hosted with and how many domains can you have with that package?
Cheers
April 14th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
My goodness, Mark. You have been very busy!! Your ideas are really great. You seem to be very motivated in reaching your goals. Keep that motivation going and your closer to reaching them. I think that is where people fail…. they lose their motivation and focus. Keep your eyes on the end result and you’ll get there Mark. :)
April 15th, 2008 at 3:52 am
Good to see that you’re up to speed. This post also gave me some new ideas - and a better idea on what you mean by a niche site.
I’ll need to do something soon to keep up with your speed!
April 15th, 2008 at 7:57 am
@Everyone - THANKS for all of your well thought out responses!
Hi Terence - where are you getting the photos for your smilemyday site? Also, do you think it is better to skip adsense/niche sites altogether and just try to find products to sell?
Hi Stephen - thanks for all of the “food for thought.” I have given serious consideration to monetizing culebrablog but I think when I did some research there are only like 10 people a day searching for that term…The DIY vacations is also a fantastic recommendation. When is your new site launching? I went to have a look but the subscribe page was still up.
April 15th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Hi Brian [coqui] - For this project I was planning to use HostGator. With them you can have unlimited domains and unlimited SQL databases.
I absolutely agree with your suggestion to highlight upcoming events or special occasions. A recent experience I had with culebrablog highlights this quite well. Now if you Google ‘culebra sea turtles’ I rank third on the front page. This is due too the recent photos I put up of the hawksbill hatchlings.
April 15th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Hi Shana - many thanks for the encouragement! The ideas keep churning…but I think I might have to go back to the drawing board with the two mentioned in this post. The frustration is DEFINITELY there but so aren’t the monthly bills that I would like to offset with some online income.
Honestly, I am just not sure what would work better a few niche sites or attempting to strictly sell affiliate products via targeted landing pages…? Any ideas?
April 15th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Mark:
I use the photos on Flick with creative common license. If the photo is copyright photo. I will send flickr mail to the owner and ask for permission. In many cases, they allow me to post on my smile site. I keep a copy of the email. I give the photo and the photographer credit. I also take photo myself.
I have also started asking bloggers or visitors to share their happiness, photos and give them backlinks as appreciation. You actually gave me that idea, since you are really good at interviewing people. I just add a photo and few questions .
You still need AdSense, it may not generate a huge income at beginning, but it generates some. You only need to find right place to insert the AdSense code and forget it. Check it three weeks later, you may be surprised by the outcome. Just remember don’t click on those Ads yourself. NOT EVEN ONCE! Google can easily ban you for life!
Regardless what you do with your sites, get your sites up ASAP and put some initial content on it. Submit them to search engines. It will take at least three weeks to get your new sites indexed. So don’t wait.
Then, you can start focusing on your monetize model. To be honest, you don’t really know the best way to generate revenue until you test it out. You will change your layout, add content, switch Ads and put some affiliate product links, create a forum or add sponsors.
This is my personal process when starting a new niche site.
1. Find the niche
2. Get the right domain name - with the keywords in your domain name
3. Put the site up with some content
4. Register site to major search engines
5. Adding content
6. Add AdSense or other Advertisement code
I think the most important thing after you have a site up is to focus on the conversion rate and bounce rate, which is very much different between niches.
Just one more thing that I want to share. The best niche site is something that you love to do everyday. Don’t follow the hot niche like iPhone hack, while you don’t even have an iPhone.
Just to encourage you a little, my little 2 months old SmileMyDay.com starts generating some green with Yahoo Ads. I love to collect the smiles. That’s all it matters. The $ is just a small reward to my hard work. :D
April 15th, 2008 at 9:48 am
If 10 people search for Culebra a day that’s 3,650 a year and if you can get the site ranking near the top in Google good chance you are going to get a large portion of that traffic.
You can throw some AdSense and Affiliate links up in a few hours (you might try a different WP template for the site to make it easier). If only only 1% of the traffic clicks an ad or buys something you have paid for the site.
Another way to look at it is “if it only gets 10 searches a day it’s a hugely untapped market”. Once you get the site monetized and top rankings, spend a little time spreading the word on other vacation/travel blogs and forums. If you can dominate the search engines before the “word gets out” you might see a nice flow of traffic. And we all know traffic=income.
As for my own site, I have decided it would be to time consuming right now to maintain it the way I want. Instead I am spending all my time building income generating sites. I currently have a full-time job making someone else rich so I have set myself a daily income goal that will allow me to free myself from employment. Once I reach that goal and quit my “life draining job” I will start on my own blog again. Until then I will just be commenting around the net and building new sites.
Now back to work.
April 15th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Hi Jarkko - funny you should say that because I feel like *I* need to get up to speed…you have at least taken action and placed some affiliate ads on your site.
Hey Terence - you said, “The best niche site is something that you love to do everyday. ” Thank you for that piece of advice! I feel bad because I didn’t even have to pay for the millionaires lunch club to attend that meeting :) Do you mind if I ask how many niche sites you are running? And if you are making enough to cover your lifestyle? Don’t feel you need to answer…
April 15th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Hi Stephen - Man, I wish you well in your endeavor to remove yourself from your life draining job! It ain’t easy and I have TREMENDOUS respect for all who try. Part of my current frustration is that I have been able to leave a “life draining” job but figuring out how to generate income online can drive you nuts :)
If you need any support, or tips on how I left my job just let me know! Or if you would like to write a guest post about your quest for freedom?
April 15th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Mark:
Don’t feel sorry. Your inspirational posts are priceless, which I can’t pay back to you.
I have tried many niche sites. None of them cover my lifestyle at the moment. I do that for fun and as a way to learn Internet marketing!
To be honest, I can live without a job and enjoy my travel around the world with my backpack for 5 years. What is my life going to be after that? Becoming broke? I realized that I can achieve my dream to travel around the world now, but I also realized that I won’t be satisfied with that. Just like we dream to be a millionaire, but we feel broke when we are millionaires.
I am in the process to refine my goals for my life. I need to achieve something that is more meaningful for long term. I have been working from home for almost two years and enjoy my life a lot lately. So what?
My new goals are to setup an online business as a corporation that can support all my travel cost and not to worry when I am back. I mean to create a real multi-staffs company. Like Tim said in his 4 hours-work week book. I want to own a company, but not being a slave of my own.
I know it’s not easy, but I am getting there. That’s why I don’t believe an e-book, a blog or affiliate links can keep your cash flow in. I know I am good at IT and building e-commerce and web app, so I decided to start my own online stores. I am not good at what I sell, but I am learning it step by step. I know I will eventually come up that magic sparkle and get what I want.
:-)
April 16th, 2008 at 6:13 am
Hey Terence - “Your inspirational posts are priceless.” Thank you very much that is very kind of you to say. :)
Currently, I am very much tied to my business (as you note above) which I am grateful for but one of these days in the [very] near future it will be time to travel and explore again. Hence the reason for attempting to come up with some type of online venture…
My friend Jim in the British Virgin Islands has just set up something along the lines of what I am thinking of:
http://www.onlinebvi.net/
I am pretty sure he will monetize the site…And he also has the advantage of being a programmer.
April 16th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Mark:
Where will you be going?
Jim’s site is cool, but I think he needs some work to optimize he site to get more exposure. I think you can do the same for your region. You and Jim can promote each other or networking together. It may require some programming, but not too difficult. I think Jim will advertise on the video in the future. :D
Anyway, I think it could be a great niche sites for me too. :D
April 17th, 2008 at 1:42 am
Hey!
Your blog is lovely! Thanks for sharing your views!
April 20th, 2008 at 2:51 am
Even if you’re a slow writer, you could team up with a writer and perhaps do a revenue share? They would write the book and both of you would share the profits on an agreed-upon percentage.
I love niche sites — I tend to build niche sites and sell them to buyers, but I have a few that I’ve held on to. The promotion required for a niche website depends on how diligent you are — getting the site indexed for natural traffic is the best approach, but can take time. Using authority sites — like building a Squidoo lens and having it point back to your niche site, or guest writing on a semi-high-profile site can be great ways to jump start your travel site.
I love the headline, I think you hit the “need nail” on the head just right. I’m already at home, but I haven’t gotten to the travel part yet! Soon :)
April 20th, 2008 at 7:16 am
Hi Isabella - THANKS for your input! I have thought about teaming up with someone who is a better writer than I am…it’s finding the right person that I am struggling with.
How many niche sites do you run? Do you make your full time living from it?
April 20th, 2008 at 10:28 am
I currently run one; I had several in development and then I became incredibly ill. So I’m starting back from scratch and going forward, documenting the journey as I go along.
I actually make my living from supporting marketers and entrepreneurs on their online journey — promotion, writing, things of that nature. I also got into creating niche websites for profit — I plan to put my first project on the market next week — very nervous!
I think the right writer will share passion about the subject as well as knowledge of how to incorporate your ideas without losing your voice in all of it. Good luck!
April 24th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
You have to make sure you successfully target the customers in your area of sales. As the competition is very fierce in the internet market, there are many choices for the customers from which they have to choose from. There is a chance for of yours being skipped over if your sales tactics aren’t the best. You have to study the minds of the customers very thoroughly. It is better you seek the intimate knowledge of the people you wish to sell your products
May 29th, 2008 at 2:24 am
Hey!
Great post!Truly worth reading….