Anyone making a living...

[Duke]

off of their websites, webdezine or other internet related business?

Just curious.

[temi]

Duke,
Loads of people are making a living from it, including me. I also believe on of our member Paul K Y makes a handsome monthly income from his various Internet ventures. I got into the business about five years ago when Internet was still growing very fast, its still growing but not as fast as it did in the early days. Are you relatively new to this industry?
If you need help in any way I would be pleased to help.
Temi

[Duke]

Thanks temi, I really appreciate it.

I am not new to the net. I either moderate, super moderate, co-admin, or admin on a number of sites. Up till very recently (July 3/ 04) did I become a website owner. It's opened up a whole new world for me that I wasn't aware existed. Funny thing is, a lot of the sites I'm part of don't seem to be aware it exists either. One site in particular has over 4,000 members and isn't making enough to cover it's huge overhead (game servers).

My site (Lifesupporters.com) is meant to help people. I'll never add a Donate block to the site because my primary focus has been freely available help and a place for you to air your problems, thoughts, concerns, feelings with people who may have already been there. I accept the fact that I may be out of pocket for a few years to come. Eventually I'll offer a tiered membership program that will bring some money to the site but will also have part of the proceeds go to member chosen charities.

I'd love to make money at the site but it cannot:
- be intrusive
- have audio of any kind

I'm not sure if there's ways around this on the pages. Currently I have blocks at the bottom of the main page and a Web Link page to put the advertisers. I may change this to scrolling blocks along the side of the page to increase exposure if I feel it's necessary.

I also have 2 more future sites that are yet to be realized. I have a third co-run by someone who's paying the bill but putting in little effort and a fourth that's exactly the same as the third. I've also been asked to help out with some other sites to which I graciously accepted because I think the person doing the asking is quality!

In other words, I'm extremely busy. Almost forgot, been asked to fix up the website for the company I've worked for for the past 16 years.

[temi]

Ken,
I don't really think most site (except HUGE sites) make enough money from adverts, affiliate etc, I will say over 90% of forum and portals run by little people like us are lucky if we make enough money to cover hosting and maintenance cost. Most forums are run by enthusiast or enjoy it for the fun of it so that if the forum makes any money that is a bonus.

In my experience, I think selling text adds off your site is about the most lucrative way to make money from a website or forum, I have never been lucky with affiliate or AdSense, I always get silly cheques which are not worth cashing where are when I had time to sell text link on my well ranked sites I once made over $800 a months.

I am sure there are lots of other ways to make money but most of them are dependent on the number of traffic your site generates so market your website pretty well, once you have decent traffic you can choose and affiliate program that goes with your site theme or sell adverts on your site.

Temi

[Duke]

Ya I kind of figured it was traffic related. My site doesn't get a huge amount of hits at present. Last month was my highest by far and it was only about 30,000 hits. I know that google was extremely active on my site last month so I'm not sure how many of those hits are google related but the numbers gonna be high.

I'm advertising my site in every direction I can think of. Been accepted into Family Friendly and am applying to The Orange Pages today. I have a huge bookmark section of sites to contact and list with that will take months to go through but I'm sure will increase exposure.

I've also spoken with the store manager at one of our busiest local supermarkets and he's agreed to give me exposure in the form of 8.5' x 11" ad pages of my design in their busy community board. The best part is that everyone is restricted to handwritten recipe card advertising which gets little exposure compared to the larger pages such as the ones I'll be creating. My sites been readily accepted in short order virtually everywhere I've applied so it's only a matter of time before I get sizeable traffic. I'm interested to see what my numbers are this time next year.

Anyway, meeting quality people such as yourself temi has been a huge positive influence for me and I'm extremely grateful. Plus I see you've registered so when you visit next, check your inbox as I've already spammed it with my Welcome PM that goes to all new members. Thanks again for your terrific support :!:

[temi]

Ken,
Thanks for your kind works, I am flattered I think you should concentrate most of your marketing efforts online especially in the link building. I have read a few authoritative Internet marketing which suggest that over 80% of traffic arrives via search engines and most search engine base how your site is ranked on the number of quality links you have pointing to your site (there are lots of other factors but link building is one of the most important). So let offline (as magazine, billboards etc) adverts bee complimentary to online adverts.

My main website is www.velnet.co.uk , I advertise online and offline (In about 5 Internet related magazines). The traffic delivered by my online adverts is unbelievable compared with the traffic and call I get from Magazine adverts, I have actually decided that I will stop advertising in magazines when my current magazine adverts finish in 3 months time.

So the keyword to getting a higher ranking and more traffic is LINK LINK LINK. Links from site with similar or complimentary contents to your site carry more weight that links from site with completely different theme to look for family support related sites and get theme to link to your site or exchange links with your website.

Directories are also good, submit your website to as many directories are possible. You can find a list of directories here:http://forums.ukwebmasterworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=138

Temi

[Paul_KY]

"Ya I kind of figured it was traffic related"

Sure, you're going to need eyeballs to view your site/s, but getting traffic is the easy part. Any donkey can draw traffic. Converting that traffic is what's key.

Duke, are you in the, "Internet Games" sector?

Paul

[temi]

Ken is in family support services: http://www.lifesupporters.com/ I have a games website: www.gamesareus.com
Temi

[Paul_KY]

"I think you should concentrate most of your marketing efforts online especially in the link building"

Another alternative would be, pay for your search engine traffic, get your listings in the top 3 within days, not months/years, and then spend most of your time building more sites/pages, looking for new advertisers, tweaking your sites so they convert well, cashing large checks at the bank :mrgreen: , etc.

JMHO

Paul

[Duke]

Thanks for the great suggestions guys, very nice :!:

I only wanted to increase local exposure at a supermarket I visit almost daily so I felt that would be a good place to advertise. Also, it's free and getting one member from it means it paid off is spades.

I'm building links nearly daily and am listed with a few sites that have traffic numbers that shade mine. I'll continue the link building into the distant future as I too agree this is one of the best ways to get good PR.

As far as paying for advertising, I can't do it for a few reasons. First off, I want to find a way to build a busy site with the only out of pocket being webhosting. I want to pass on this info (for free) to other webmasters on a limited budget. Also, I am a part time father to the greatest 9 year old girl in the known universe and my child support expenses are quite high. I am not financially strong at the moment and even if I was I'm not sure I would put too much more money toward my sites. I may drop some money into them in the distant future but that's only if I can offset the costs through a tiered membership program.