Be Your Own Boss

I get the occasional daily e-mail asking me questions about making money online — is there a decent and quick way to make money with a blog or a website. Since I run 15 websites myself (most public, a few private), I’ve decided to offset the costs of hosting with monetizing the website through various programs such as AdSense and affiliate links. I try not to clutter the site with too many ads, and I always take ads down if they’re not relevant to my topic.

I firmly believe that there is a ton of money to be made online — whether it is with a blog or with an informational website. The downside, though, is that there is no easy money to be made anywhere. In my experience, there are a million ads about how to make thousands overnight with your website — none of these offer information that can’t be had for free on numerous forums and in free e-books.

Because I do receive an e-mail or two a day about making money with blogs, I planned 2-3 articles regarding the right way to do it, and a comparison as to why I don’t work that way. I don’t want to make thousands a day off of my blogs, I just like to cover the cost of hosting (which I do). Whatever is left I give back to my readers in promotions and giveaways. My blogs bring me enough real life business that I don’t need to charge for them directly, and over time I hope to be more consistent in updating them all every morning as time allows.

Here is the simple breakdown of how to make money online. It is not different than running a real life business:

1. Spend 18-24 months working 30-40 hours a week on your website(s).
2. Invest every dollar of profit back into promoting your site through paid advertisements on competitors sites and other sites.
3. Sell what you know: don’t try to scam your readers and visitors. If you’re not really familiar with a topic, any profits you make will be very short term.
4. The only way to make good money for a long time is slowly but surely.

There are numerous get-rich-quick schemes out there: they all make their authors rich but the readers end up doing nothing. There is money to be made early on with a website, but even at US$5 per day, I recommend putting it all back into promoting your site by buying advertising elsewhere. You will gain a better readership base and this means you’ll likely make more money in the long run. If you’re picking a topic to write about just because you heard it is a money earner, you’ll lose out. The best paying ads are affected by supply and demand: when no one is writing about a topic, the ads tend to pay more. When tens of thousands of people start writing about a topic, the best paying ads are taken, leaving you with low paying ones instead. Topics come and go in terms of profitability, it is the one who sticks with it in the long run that makes a steady income. This is also true of running a store or a consulting business: stores come and go, it is the ones that stick around that have the best return business.

If you’re interested in starting a small site in order to try to earn a living, I have a lot of experience in the information communications field: I’ve been in the business of writing since I was 13 when I ran my first text file BBS. For 19 years I’ve been writing and getting paid for it — it has never been easy money, and the time I spend writing would be better spent doing my regular gig. It is only because I like to pass on my experiences (good and bad) that I do it. But I know if I wanted to write for a major profit, the opportunities are out there, they are just not for me.

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