Site Experiment: One Year - Part Two

The other day I started talking about a site experiment that was started a year ago.

Today, I’ll conclude it. Part one is located here: Site Experiment: One Year - Part One

Costs

While I’m a professional writer, I didn’t write any content for this experiment. Heck, I didn’t even edit it. The idea was to make money without working—a fine goal for anyone.

I limited my budget to $8 per article. For some articles, I got 400 words for that money. For others, it got me less. My main requirement was 250+ words per article. So, let’s say I paid full price for five articles, that’s $40.

Next, I needed a domain name—$7 or less.

On some sites, I paid $10-$20 for directory submission. On other sites, I put the cash in my pocket and just submitted to 5-10 places on my own.

Extras

One of the sites I put up at the end of 2006, using this rule set, was in a smaller niche than main site I’ve been talking about. I didn’t promote the site much at all and I decided to modify the procedure to include a new profit component—e-books. I found an affiliate program for an e-book that I thought my visitors would be interested in.

Despite only earning $10 in AdSense last month, which isn’t too bad given the newness and lack of promotion/content, it made an e-book sale. That sale made me almost $16. It made a sale in the previous month too.

I’m making almost $1 per day for this site with no work. The site has five articles and was given less than two hours of my time from the start of uploading WordPress to the last second I spent on the site. Each day those two hours grow in value.

If you’re going to try something like this, definitely look into adding an e-book or some other informational product.

Good or bad?

Is this a good way to make money on the Internet? For many, putting up hundreds of sites, like the ones I mentioned, isn’t a good idea. They will get confused and bogged down. But, for others it can be an easy add-on to their Internet business ventures.

Yes, it is possible to make thousands of dollars monthly doing this. But only you can decide if it’s a good method to utilize or not.

I think one of the keys of this experiment was my ability to let things go. Don’t try to put out a quality site. Don’t try to make things perfect. Just figure out a way to turn a profit and forget the rest.

Unexpected results

One of the things I found by doing this experiment was that I could find segments to focus on.

For instance, perhaps today I make sites for: classic guitars, gardening, email marketing, learning Tagalog, smoothie recipes, and history books. Months from now I’ll look to see how much money these sites are (or aren’t) bringing in.

If there’s a site doing very well, that’s my indication to focus more in that sector. I like to think of it as a way to get paid while testing markets.

What it is and isn’t

If you’re going to try something like this, you need to understand that your goal isn’t to build a site that’s known and loved. Your goal is to make money—only.

Your visitors will come and leave. Most will never return again. You’re simply trying to get them to leave through one of your paying channels.

Where to start

I’d start by reading Internet Business Entrepreneur—like you are doing right now. I’ll be sharing my quick-start guide for this project in the coming days.

Site Experiment : One Year Later - Part One

In the first quarter of 2006, I decided to try an experiment. I wanted to build a series of sites, do almost no work, and see how much money I could make. It’s been a year and the progress has been nice.

I started out by forming a set of rules for the operation of this experiment. These rules were somewhat against my normal rules of operation (namely not using quality content). Read more

Making Money with AdSense

AdSense is an advertising system owned by Google for website publishers. In this introduction, I will go over some very simple basics and begin a new series at Internet Business Entrepreneur about AdSense.

In a nutshell, AdSense gives website owners an easy way to monetize websites by showing targeted advertisements to visitors. Initially, the ads were primarily text based, but Google has recently begun video ads.

The program gives website owners a plethora of options for displaying ads—sizes, amount, colors and so forth. The system even generates the HTML needed.

If you want to sign up for Google’s AdSense, just click this banner below.

Signing up for Google’s AdSense is a snap. Once your website is approved, you can begin adding the AdSense code instantly. The system has a tracking component, so you always know what ad units are the best.

Another great feature is the ability, through the competitive ad filter, to block out ads from websites. For instance, you could put Ebay.com in the filter and all Ebay.com’s ads would be blocked.

Google pays out on a monthly basis, and their system provides tracking of payments due, sent and so forth. The Internet is full of businesses that revolve around AdSense.

As we go deeper into the AdSense series, I’ll be talking about how to set up ads, tracking, placement tips and more. For now, I recommend clicking on the banner below to signup for AdSense if you are not signed up already.