Affiliate Marketing

First up, you’d put affiliate marketing into that bag… I’ve tried several “networks” with varying degrees of success. The most successful one has been with the promotion of the digital products available through ClickBank. Considering my sites were beginning to attract a LOT of traffic, it was easy to sprinkle quite a few ClickBank links in the form of article/reviews or product listings, to generate a fairly “regular” income of $250-$500 a month. Not much to really write home about, but a good start.

The biggest problem I’ve found with affiliate marketing however has been with those networks where the advertisers change often… No sooner do you get a campaign up and running, and you’ll find it’s closed down because the advertiser can’t pay… or their budget is all gone… It makes it hard to build a long-term business from this sort of thing when you have to work on “fixing” things every few days.

Which means that careful selection, recording and monitoring of EVERY affiliate link you have is essential if you enter this field. And don’t promote every single product you can… be selective, test and continue with only those ones that actually work for you!

OffLine Business

I’ve also set up an offline business (an Internet Service Provider – ISP – actually) which involved going back into the real world, renting premises, phone lines, paid advertising… the whole shoebang! Needless to say, that was just starting to go fairly well after 18 months or so, with around 400 monthly customers (the point where it starts to get profitable) when the company I purchased from decided to go belly-up and out of business.

Oh… I so-o-o love life’s little lessons

And that’s why I went…

Back To Google

Since I knew my sites can earn money from Adsense, it made sense that if I had more pages… I’d earn more from Google. And it isn’t really a plan “B” as such… because I was actually doing things to increase my dependency on that source of income.

But at least it was income, and that was what I needed right then and there at the time!

So back to Google, and expanding my virtual real estate to (hopefully) increase my earnings by creating a few thousand more pages carrying Adsense ads…

That meant expanding on the content offering in my existing sites, in particular now carrying thousands of “vacancy notices” at Careers OnLine (grabbed from a major job network using RSS feeds) has been a big hit there! And trying different combinations of the Adsense ad formats to see which converted better (using the “channels” feature to help with stats).

It also meant setting up even more “directory” type sites, seeing that was a model I was very familiar with. So a “themed” network of eight sites was established in early 2006. But recently, although it was pulling in an average of 18.5k visits a month, the whole eight sites were earning practically zippo from Adsense. In 2.5 years, these sites made under $1,000 in Adsense income… not good! Seems that this type of site went “out of favour” with Google, and that was reflected in the number of ads that were NOT shown on the network.

If you’d like to see where it is now… check out the very recently (October 08) “revamped” version at Latest Sites which so far seems to be doing a much better job (you can also add your URL for free over there).

Use What You’ve Already Got

An important part of any “expansion” is to re-use existing content wherever possible – i.e. with the RSS Vacancy feeds from a major job network, and re-using the existing web site listings I already have access to in different ways.

So, using the Latest Sites listings which have indicated they want reciprocal links, has seen the establishment of a site I’d had planned for a some time (pre 2006). Linking Works is a directory of people who ARE very interested in exchanging links with other interested webmasters.

I’m also re-using the Australian web site listings from Come On Aussie at another new site called Advance Australia Fair. This one has also allowed me to experiment with CSS to design a more functional site (and to give credit where it is due… the design is based loosely on the search results pages at cuil.com).

OK… while these are still “directory” type sites, I hope the “flavour” is slightly different enough to encourage Google to think they are not the standard “run-of-the-mill” directories that they don’t really like (i.e. the link farm model).

Internet Marketing

Since early 2007 I’ve also been looking at the “Internet Marketing” niche to see what I can make of that. This niche is not what you would assume it to be… It is NOT about marketing online as the name might suggest. It IS seen to be more about “how to make money online”… and it has been a very strange area for me to get my head around

Probably because there are an awful lot of scams in the area… lots and lots of useless products on how to chase the “lifestyle” dream of getting rich quick overnight using the Internet! Sheesh! While there’s lots of money to be made selling that dream, I like to sleep at night and have not been able to come to terms with promoting any products that I am not really comfortable with!

So I’ve spent a lot of time “researching” the area, and have developed a couple of sites to test the water… to see what works and what doesn’t. And while those sites now seem to get reasonable traffic, Adsense still doesn’t earn a cracker in this niche! Seems these people don’t like clicking on the ads.

Re-Visit And Re-Vamp!

So while I sat back and thought what I could “do” with that niche that could actually “help” and offer something of value to a very hungry market, I’ve taken the time to re-visit many of my existing sites and do some much overdue maintenance on them – including a total revamp of a couple of these to bring them into the 21st Century (told you it was much needed!).

And that process included a redesign of some of these sites (still in progress as at October 2008) to be based on using my now preferred CMS (Content Management System) which is WordPress – the same software I use here.

It’s too early to tell at this stage, but I’m hoping that apart from making things look fresher, and the content easier to manage, these changes will also attract additional traffic (Google likes WordPress based sites, and the RSS feeds they generate), and that traffic will result in additional Adsense impressions and earnings. People also like this type of site because of the more “social” aspect of the design – i.e. the ability to comment on each page, and to engage in conversations with other users… but that’s something that also takes time and effort to develop!

New Plan “B”… or is that “E” by now… I’m not too sure…

To bring things up to date, that “reflection” has provided me with a new direction I am now taking!

By going “back to my roots” and working on my sites… I was reminded WHY I have been doing this since the mid 1990′s… I’ve been reminded of the main reason why many of my sites actually exist!

And that’s to teach people about doing business online!

Although I’m no longer “officially” a teacher, it seems I’ll never actually stop trying to teach!

And THAT now forms the basis for my first “real” venture into the Internet Marketing field with IM CheckLists – a site which takes people right back to square one with their online learning, so they can (hopefully) set up in business online properly!

I’m currently developing content for a complete course in Internet Marketing based on my 13 years experience online as a web designer.

My intention is to offer access to the first few modules for free so people can get a good feel for the type of content on offer, and the style I use to teach it. I would then hope a significant number of these “students” will sign up to a continuity program where they can step through the remaining modules of the course for a recurring monthly fee.

It’s the “ideal” mix of what I’ve learned you need to be “successful” in the IM niche, and that includes:

• having your own “fresh” product to promote to a hungry market,
  
• offering great value for free first,
  
• using a continuity/recurring income model,
  
• building your list of prospects and “cultivating” a relationship with them,
  
• providing both front and back-end opportunities, and
  
• leveraging affiliates and joint venture partners.

As IM CheckLists is only just now in “pre-launch” phase (end October 2008), I can’t yet report on any outcomes right now… I’m too busy keeping my fingers crossed to see how it goes:)

Conclusions

A few things are obvious from all of this:

1. You are trying to build a business online, so approach everything from a business perspective. If you think of it as a hobby, it won’t have the “legs” to go the distance!
   
2. If you rely on other people for anything, be careful that WHO you use can’t have a significant negative impact on your business.
   
3. Things do NOT happen overnight – they WILL require a lot of planning, preparation and implementation – so approach what you do online from a long-term perspective.
   
4. You need to try lots of different things, and not everything you try your hand at will succeed, and there are varying degrees of “success” in everything you do. Do lots of testing, and learn from what doesn’t work.
   
5. If something works for you, devote time to improve on it (as opposed to using that time to chase new and unproven ideas)
   
6. Don’t try to do too many different things in different niches at once. You’ll lose focus on what’s happening.

Not!

But you can’t really tell the public that, and my competition was hotting up, with the “kid-next-door” and “Joe Blow” all able to do the same thing I could… and they could do it for peanuts too! And you know what you get when you pay peanuts don’t you? Hmmm.

So one of the reasons I started setting up this “network” of sites/directories in the first place was to earn some money from people who were interested in paid advertising.

Well good luck with that!

The Internet was, and still is, essentially all about “free”!

If people think they can get something for nothing, they will be reluctant to pay money for something they see as “similar” – even though we both know it probably isn’t!

So things were a bit slow, but I was building both pages and traffic on the handful of sites I had. Something must happen soon.

And it did!

Google’s Adsense program was launched in mid 2003, and I jumped on that bandwagon in July of that year. At first, I put just a few ads on my Careers OnLine site to “see what might happen”.

It didn’t take me long to put those little ads on EVERY page on that site! Actually within a couple of days, that’s how significant this program was! I actually had some reasonable money coming in – for once!

And then – change all the other sites to include this new form of advertising, designed it seems, especially for small, struggling web publishers just like me!

Today…

Adsense has been my saviour! and still is!

It allowed me to be a stay-at-home single dad, and not worry too much about going back to a “real” J.O.B.

But while I continue to add new sites to my network, and have mechanisms in place to add new content to my existing sites (and NOT by scraping other people’s work), the Google income fluctuates too much for my liking. One month I can pull in US$3800 (my best ever) and then shortly after, I’m lucky to get $2100. If I can’t average at least US$100 a day then I start to get a little pannicky, and I certainly love it when the Aussie dollar is down as it’s worth 25% more on the conversion!

So there’s been a real need for a “Plan B” to supplement my income long-term, instead of putting all my eggs in the Google basket!

My “aha” moment was when I realised back in late 2001 that no-one had registered the domain name “Come On Aussie”.

Now remember, the “Aussie” theme was what I was working on building, and nothing says “Australian” more than that expression – mainly because the catchy little jingle “Come On Aussie Come On” was the anthem of World Series Cricket back in the late 1970′s.

And wasn’t I a happy chappy when I realised no-one had the domain name!

Why not? What could be the problem? Was it trademarked? Could you be sued?

Oh dang it – just do it! Go and get it registered and deal with the consequences (if any) later!

And so Come On Aussie was born.

First cab off the rank was a revamp of my original Aussie web directory, under the new name. A name which meant something – to Australians anyway

A name which one day just might have the same “impact” on the Aussie public as Yahoo or Google.

Well, fast forward almost seven years on to today – and while it might not be that “big” on the scene,

1. it does have industry recognition (many big web design and SEO firms regularly add their clients sites to the directory)
2. we’ve just passed our 10,000th listing milestone, which is quite a remarkable achievement for a site with no big corporate backing, and
3. it’s now serving over 100,000 visitors every month!

And that’s why I’ve got green and gold web sites plastered all over the place now!

Basically around that time I saw that by trying to do more for Aussie businesses on the web, and getting my name out there, that I could grab some more web design work. And one of the ways to do that was to take the “SydWest” concept and enlarge on it a little more…

You know…

“Today, Sydney. Tomorrow – The World!”

(can you hear the evil maniacal laughter there?)

Well, not quite the world. Australia should be an easier target.

So it was time to set up my first Aussie directory where people could promote their Australian web site for free. To be brutally honest, that concept never really took off. There was no real “hook” to inspire the masses. I mean it wasn’t a “Google” or a “Yahoooooo” (and my “aha” moment was yet to come).

Around that time I also began work on Give An Aussie A Go – which had a very unique way at showcasing Aussie businesses, products, towns and regions to the world. It was interesting… We got a lot of good Press, and even got onto the Tele too!

Again – unfortunately – it was far too innovative for the time! It’s not easy being a trailblazer on the frontier of technology!

But the seeds were sown, and the “Aussie” ideas were beginning to flow!

Fast forward to now…

It seems good ideas never die… they just get re-vamped!

That first “directory” now has a new leash on life as an outlet for some affiliate products I promote and is due to get a redesign shortly…

And Give An Aussie A Go? Well, it too has been recently reborn into a handpicked collection of Aussie ideas, information and web sites. This new leash on life has meant some renewed interest in the site… again I also partly credit this to using WordPress as the CMS.

And in 1996/1997 there were ALL sorts of snake oil peddlers making very inaccurate and outlandish claims about the “power” of the Internet!

The same STILL applies now… people flogging web sites come out with all sorts of crap about what a business needs to make it on the web.

So it seemed back in 1997 that I was still going to be teaching (even though I’d officially left the profession). Only this time, teaching people about the ‘net, about what web sites are, and what was REALLY needed so they could avoid all the shiesters!

It was time to add another web site to my stable.

The Small Business Support Network was launched in mid 1997 to help people learn the correct way of doing business online. It ALSO provided free advertising for small businesses with web sites in its directory.

More than 10 years later it is still doing its job… and still providing opportunities for registered businesses to network with other businesses.

I’ve had ongoing concerns for a couple of years with indexing and traffic fluctuations from Google that I just can’t seem to get my head around. This means that sometimes this site helps 40,000 people a month… and at other times I’m lucky to get 5,000.

Fast forward…

Just recently I completed a long overdue over-haul of the site with a completely new design, using WordPress as the core content management system. As a result of this change, it’s a lot nicer to look at, people are making comments, listings are easier to edit, and I now have RSS feeds that can be used to syndicate the content! So far, average daily visits appear to be up over 27%, and average daily Adsense earnings from the site have increased by 260%. It seems the redesign has had a positive impact in many ways.

I lived in the western suburbs of Sydney Australia at the time… so after a fair bit of head scratching about how I can earn some money, I started “chatting” to local businesses about getting online.

There weren’t many web designers around at the time, and this whole Internet thing was so new that I spent an extraordinary amount of time simply “teaching” people about what the Internet was about, and how it could help them in business.

I made presentations to local chambers of Commerce, to trade Association conferences, to all sorts of people, to tell them about this new fangled technology that was known as the world wide web!

While people were fairly interested in this phenomenon… they didn’t want to part with any cash on something that wasn’t “proven”… It was probably only a fly-by-night fad anyway!

I discovered very early on the pressures facing small businesses when deciding what to spend their advertising budget on… and a web site wasn’t anywhere on the list!

Say “Hi” To SydWest

I actually beat CitySearch to the Local Search Market!!!

I needed to demonstrate how the Internet could be useful to LOCAL businesses… Let’s face it… what point was it to a local business getting enquiries from the other side of the world???

So “SydWest” was born – a site which (between 1996 and 2001) focussed on providing local people with information about what was going on in their very own backyard!

Sydwest was one of the very first local web sites on the ‘net – ever!

It gave me an opportunity to cold call any business in the area, and get to speak to the owner real easy… I simply asked
“I’m compiling a free directory of local businesses… so what’s your URL?”

Since most receptionists had NO idea of what I was talking about, I often got through to the owner to talk to them about it… and explain what the net was… etc etc etc.

Thankfully, I got some good work out of it at the time.

Fast forward to now…

Even though the site is no more, I’m still in touch with, and doing work for, some of the clients I picked up from way back then. And it got me “started” in the web-design business.

This web site was based on my (self) published “Ideas for Careers” teaching masters which had been sold to Aussie schools for the previous 4 years.

Careers OnLine was the very first Australian based career information web site to be launched on the Internet.

Seriously

It was “serious” enough for me to resign from teaching in November 1995, to begin my new full-time career of self-employment.

Back in ’95 I intended to make a living by selling “space” at what was going to be a “virtual careers fair”. However, 1995/96 was very early days for the Internet, and there was a LOT of doubt and uncertainty about the ‘net as an advertising medium.

It was a hard sell, with little actual reward (financially).

And that meant I had to look further afield to get “work”.

Fast forward to now…

Today Careers OnLine still serves 80,000+ visitors every month of the year and pays its way through Adsense and affiliate earnings.

I think it’s pretty incredible that I’ve been able to help that many people every month through the Internet! I mean… at current rates, that’s almost 1,000,000 people a year!