Success Saturday: Yes, You Can Make Money Online
Last month, I wrote about not quitting too soon. A lot of people fail to make money online because they quit too soon. They don’t allow time enough for people to find them, for backlinks to build and for the search engines to index and rank them. Some bloggers quit after just two or three months.
In June, John Chow made over $40,000 on his blog. Many bloggers say they would be happy with half that. Some would be happy with even a tenth of that. But, people forget that he didn’t always make that much! In his first month blogging, John Chow made under $400. It wasn’t until 21 months later that he made over $40,000 in a month. And, John Chow had previous experience running businesses online, so that gave him advantages the typical new blogger wouldn’t have.
Things take time. Quitting too soon is certainly a mistake.
But, it’s not the only mistake.
Earlier this month, on The Thrifty Entrepreneur dot Com, I wrote how you can increase sales and save money by testing your ads. But, this is something that extends beyond advertising too.
No doubt you know someone who hasn’t been able to make any money online. Perhaps you’ve heard excuses like:
- “Article marketing? That doesn’t work! I submitted three articles. I didn’t get any sales out of it!”
- “AdWords? That doesn’t work! People click on the ads, but they never buy anything.”
- “Affiliate marketing? That doesn’t work! I set up an affiliate site, and no one ever bought anything off it!”
There are two problems at work here: inconsistency and stagnation.
People will try the various things they’ve heard will make them money, but they don’t do it consistently. They’ll start blogging, but, after an initial flurry of regular blogging, they will become less consistent. They’ll post then and now, maybe updating you on why they haven’t been blogging. And, then they’ll just stop, because they can’t figure out why they’re not making money. After all, they have a blog; why isn’t the money rolling in? That’s where inconsistency will hurt you!
Other people will try something like putting together an affiliate site. They’ll put one up, make it look nice, and start promoting it. They’ll get some traffic, but no buyers. They’ll check their links to make sure they have them set up right and wait some more. After a while, they just give up. The problem here is that, if you’re getting traffic and no conversions, you might need to try something different. Many people will just conclude “I did what everyone said! Affiliate marketing just doesn’t work!” This is where stagnation hurts you.
First, you need to be consistent at what you do, and continue to be consistent. If you start to veer off into inconsistency, you’ll undo a lot of the work you’ve done! And, you’ll have to start over. So, if, for example, you start blogging and blog every day for a month and then suddenly stop for a few weeks, you’re going to be starting at nearly square one when you start up again. Many people don’t put this into consideration. “I’ve been blogging for six months…” they cry, but really, they may have been only blogging for less than two months because they dropped off the face of the Earth for a month prior to starting up again!
Realize that, if you stop something online and then start again later, that’s just about equivalent to pressing the “reset” button on a video game.
Second, you have to try new things. For example, if you have an affiliate site and are getting traffic that’s not converting, the solution isn’t to try to drum up more traffic! You need to find out why the traffic isn’t converting. This is where some split testing can come in. Try a different affiliate product to promote. Try rewording some of your text. Look at your headlines–are they drawing attention? Might something else work better? Don’t be afraid to test! Testing can help improve your results. If option A isn’t converting, see if option B does. If option B converts, drop option A and compare option C against option B. Which performs better?
You might also want to try different websites. If blogging isn’t working out for you, try promoting an affiliate website. If affiliate websites aren’t working for you, try blogging. If a one-page sales letter website doesn’t work for you, try building an authority site, or vice versa.
How about your traffic? Maybe you’re just not getting good enough targeted traffic. Look at rewording your ads. Or, look at rewording your page descriptions and keywords. Maybe your traffic generation methods need to change?
And, keep reading! Read marketing blogs and forums. Learn from others. There are no secrets, but there is a lot of knowledge out there! Always be looking for ways to improve!
Look at John Chow again. He’s changed his blog layout at least once to increase his blog income. And, look how he tries new things to see if they will make money for him.
Can you make $100 a month online? Yes. Can you make $1,000 a month online? Yes. Can you make $10,000 a month online? Yes. Can you make even more than that per month online? Yes.
But, you will never make any of that without some hard work and constant evaluation of what you’re doing and how you can do it better!
Great post. I especially enjoyed reading it since I have been out spending money all day.
Thanks, and I know the feeling!
Oeee John Chow is on there eating lobster and posting pictures. Let me subscribe to that…
I think John Chow is involved in some sort of crazy web voodoo to pull in figures like he claims. Black Hat- white Hat- grey hat- voodoo hat- dirty hat whatever, he does it all I imagine.
I prefer Problogger over John any day- at least I don’t have to wade through pics of Darren eating better then I do, to learn valuable tips about blogging.
I see he took down the top commenter widget, no need for you to bust your hump over at Chez Chow anymore eh?
I told him he took it down as soon as I made the list; he claims it was causing “database issues.” He said it would be back once those were resolved. I’m expecting it back anytime now; I’m sure I’m not on the list now as I haven’t commented as much lately.
I have Problogger in my RSS; but it’s in my backlog!
John Chow is a good read when he is posting usable information, and the food post are one of my favs. Pro blogger’s new site design quite frankly is too cluttered and confusing, although I do like the video in the center, back logged in my reader as well.