Keep on Keepin’ on

Since I last created a post to this site, I’ve been busy developing strategies on how to make more money from the ‘net.  I’ve tried a few different approaches with varying degrees of success and have come to the realization that only 2 things really matter when it comes to making money.  One of the variables is easier to manipulate (and should be!) and the other has more to do with how much money you want to spend to see things through.  Sure, it is possible for the 2nd variable to occur naturally but it will take time.  If you’re like me, you like to see results quickly.  So, here are the two variables:

1- A captive audience – This is your target audience.  You design your website and fill it with content so that these people find your site and make a decision to spend money through it.  I say “through” it because you’re most likely building an affiliate site so you’re not selling anything.  Your website visitors see your content, and decide you are trustworthy enough to click on a link and go spend money at the target site.

The ‘captive’ part of having an audience is the bit that’s really interesting.  You are able to almost completely manipulate your audience so that they are captive.  If you are anything like me, this part stinks.  I have no artistic ability and really struggle to make a website design look good.  I spent a lot of time going through design iterations and end up settling for something that I know is less than optimal…but then I spend a lot of other time creating good content on my website so I think that things balance out.

2- Traffic.  This has been my mantra: “Traffic is the new gold”.  I believe that if you have enough visitors to ANY site, you’ll end up making money.  If you’re selling something desirable (like a Nintendo Wii) and get average traffic, you’ll make money.  If you’re selling crap and get a bazillion visitors, you’ll make money.  It all comes down to traffic.  If you have a budget of $100-$500, you can create a lot of traffic rather quickly (Google adwords, paid ads on relative websites, etc…) and hopefully build from there.  However, if you are a cheapskate and don’t want to spend any money, you have to earn your stripes and do hard-core work that will take months to give you any results.

Right now I’m still working on factor #1.  I am getting organic traffic to my websites and need to create a more captivating environment for these folks to decide to spend money.  In the future, I plan to grow the number of websites that I have and will also have a budget for marketing.  This is all still trial and error for me but I believe that I’m on the right track.