Make $400 a day, its easy..

[bl4ck1ce]

I'm doing a re-focus on my IM activities as well. I run several blogs that are monetized with adsense and affiliate banners, which have been pretty consistent income. Lately however, my clickthroughs have dropped off dramatically, so I've been focusing on some of my other projects while I mull over why people have stopped clicking on my ads.
So far, my biggest profits have come from domaining, with my personal record being a domain bought for $11 and sold for $500.. but that's been really hit or miss.

One of my projects in particular, is an info product on how to start a specific type of business, based on experiences in that type of business with a former employer (back when I had a j-o-b). I figured selling information about starting that type of business would be easy, and it is. The profit margin is fantastic, considering my costs are only for marketing the course and a few dollars for duplication of the CDs it's delivered on. Buyer pays shipping, and everything's good. So that's chugging along, not doing as well as I'd like so I'm back to freelance web design & marketing to keep a roof over my head and a Starbucks cup in my hand....

Meanwhile, I'd sent a pre-release copy of the info course to my sister, who used the technique and resources to actually start a business.. Now that it's running, she's having a blast, is making more money than me, and when people ask her what she does, she can say she has a ********* business, and can hand them a business card... meanwhile, when people ask what I do, I get to tell them I sit in front of my computer in my home office all day, writing blog posts, bookmarking niche sites, checking ebay auctions, and updating piddly details on client websites just because they're too lazy to use a CMS like I wanted to install for them.

/sigh

 

[195471]

I keep coming to BHW looking for something new, something that I can focus on with confidence that I will succeed, but I'm just not finding inspiration anymore and I'm not willing to work for nickels and dimes.

IMHO, this is not the best way to use BHW. While there's a lot of valuable information here, its value is, more often than not, to be found by reading between the lines. If you follow a method exactly as written, you will most certainly fail or not achieve the same level of success as the person who posted the method. (The same goes for "guru" ebooks.) Also realize that a lot of the methods posted here are no longer viable, and that is precisely why many of them were posted to begin with. For me personally, BHW is an awesome place for keeping up with what's going on in the industry and for getting ideas from one method that I can use in an entirely different context with great success.

As for not wanting to work for nickels and dimes, I feel your pain. Unless you have your own product or service, you will have to resort to pushing other people's products and services and, consequently, having to deal with inadequate commissions, shaving, fierce competition, and a growing anti-affiliate atmosphere (think about Google, the FTC, increasing consumer awareness, and a suffering global economy that causes people to not want to buy anything but the bare necessities). If you don't have thousands of dollars to spend on advertising and/or outsourcing to scale your business, then affiliate/CPA marketing is, in my opinion, very much a nickel-and-dime activity. I only do affiliate/CPA marketing to pay the bills while I'm building a long-term, whitehat business that suits my personality and passions. Based on what you wrote, I think that you've been doing things that really don't appeal to you, but you did them anyway just "for the money." Some people can put aside their interests, morals, etc. to make money, but it sounds like you're not that kind of person. There's an AdSense book that's been shared here (Fat Cat AdSense), and while it has some good AdSense tips, the most valuable advice in that book is as follows:

"The best method that you should use to make money online should match the nature of your personality."

"The reason behind my abysmal performance at email marketing I eventually discovered was that I was never truly comfortable with emailing desperate people and promoting offers to buy a course for $2,000, even though I have never tried or tested the course myself. This is just an example of the importance of doing what you are comfortable with instead of trying to force yourself into business activities that you are unconsciously resisting to succeed at."

Perhaps you are "unconsciously resisting" the paths to "success" that you've chosen thus far?

P.S. There's a blog I think you and other contributors to this thread will appreciate. It's called Lost Ball in High Weeds.

http://lostballinhighweeds.com/

 

[happymee]

1. you CAN make money online.

I agree, the reason I am doing IM is I interviewed a bunch of businesses that had grown to around 5million plus a year, and 90% of them where angry 60+ old men and bitter women, one guy sold me when he said I have 5 clients and 6 staff, which makes 12 people making my life hell if you include my wife.

Anyway I did meet 3 that had built online businesses, and had no staff, and they where young rich and happy.

God, I'm burnt out on IM.

......

I'll be blunt. I've become "risk adverse" and have no confidence left. ....
My latest misadventure is with outsourcing and offline marketing.

You inspire me with your reply, thanks. Im sure you will be a success with your services business, especially if you get payment up front.

/sigh

I feel ya, nice work on the ebook, It is one of the methods I have not tried as I wanted to learn from selling other peoples shit, story of my life, do something shit to learn to do something good, get stuck doing something shit.

IMHO, this is not the best way to use BHW. While there's a lot of valuable information here, its value is, more often than not, to be found by reading between the lines. If you follow a method exactly as written, you will most certainly fail or not achieve the same level of success as the person who posted the method.
......

As for not wanting to work for nickels and dimes, I feel your pain. Unless you have your own product or service, you will have to resort to pushing other people's products and services


....
There's an AdSense book that's been shared here (Fat Cat AdSense), and while it has some good AdSense tips, the most valuable advice in that book is as follows:

"The best method that you should use to make money online should match the nature of your personality."

"The reason behind my abysmal performance at email marketing I eventually discovered was that I was never truly comfortable with emailing desperate people and promoting offers to buy a course for $2,000, even though I have never tried or tested the course myself. This is just an example of the importance of doing what you are comfortable with instead of trying to force yourself into business activities that you are unconsciously resisting to succeed at."

I agree to tweaking the method, but I havent seen anything work tweaking. From your post and the last I see the suggestion to do my own product or service.

I loved that ebook, nice quote... if only I could work out the business that matched my sensibilities. I have found I am either great at it and it doesnt make money, hopeless at it and it does make money, or hopless at it and it doesnt make money...

 

[PlatinumPi4u]

I heard "ewhore2" is the way to go.....

 

[dontcallmebuzz]

I know what you are going thru- been thru it myself- (sort of still going thru it)
the advice given here is pretty good- these are not simply copy and paste businesses- but tools and techniques to help you with your ideas and plans

You might be suffering from a little bit of internet burnout- take a little time if you can, step back catch your breath- if you have too much flying around in your head all of it starts to melt into a useless glob after a while- i took about 2 weeks and didnt do any type of IM stuff- just need to clear my head and start to look at things with "fresh eyes" again

 

[frenchsquared]

Out of everyone not making money how many of theme have a real product they created that is worth the selling pricing.

I have seen Joel Comm clear 100k in a day, but it was a junk product. He built a list years ago with real products. He has a few real websites that make 300-500 a day. The problem is those site are 15 years old, and we cant match them.

I still feel that if you have a good product you can make money online. Still not sure if I will get to an amount that I can live on.

 

[makingfastcash22]

I feel your pain, In a real job you go to work 8-10 hours a day and at the end of the week you make several hundred dollars guaranteed...

so say $10.00 hr x 8 hrs= 80 bucks for a regular workday.

Its seems so little until you start doing internet marketing and are making only a couple of dollars a day from adsense or amazon, and thats after working 10 hours a day at home... ITS Depressing....

I do know a guy that lives in my area who has been doing dropshipping and he now works from his house and has 4 employees and make over 750K last year.

He sells rope light and motors that go on bicycles....

He said that he does spend a sh*tload on adwords for his business...

Maybe dropshipping is the way to go....

Not sure... Which direction to go in these days... LOL

 

[Hierarchy]

my best advice is to look at everything your doing and ask yourself?

1. Is this a good long term solution?
2. Do I enjoy doing this?
3. Will it make me money?
3. Can I outsource This?
4. Can I scale it up?
5. Is it worth it?

After I ask myself these questions about my projects I then pick one and stick with it.

6. Split test and find out every possible thing wrong and fix one thing a day... If your doing something that seems hard to do sometimes there is a big pay off because most people try the easiest thing then give up. This could be a good sign because if most people give up then you are more likely to succeed if there are less people on top.

7. Quantify the results then simplify the process.

When I started IM I faced the one of the biggest problems which was trying to do too much at once and stay focused on just accomplishing one simple thing.

Anything can happen...

 

[Jason_parker700]

It's all about numbers. You will be hearing this time and again. Right now the only thing that i can think about is giving out 1000 flyers to people who want to make money online and then send them to your HPK adsense site. easy $100 a day.

 

[craigygee]

It get's tough but you just gotta work different methods and see what works for YOU not what works for someone else. The first year of IM I spent 7 months learning it from ground up until one day I got into my first aff network and made 724$ that day from a college offer which paid 19$ a lead. Then I got into another network the next day and push a similar offer and made 200$. Things just took off from there. Times were slow and I had no income coming in at times but shit happens.


Now for this method you listed:

FREE WEBSITE DESIGN

So I use my remaining server time to spam 3 million people that I will build them a site, I CL post as well with some half asre poster and I get a massive 2 people wanting me to work like a dog designing their site so I can get $50 from hostgator, I email you suck and that ends( actually I email the hostgator link saying sign up and I will do it and they dont)

This method is one I use to make some quick income. You have to lay down the law with these people, you can't be building a 1000$ website for 50$. Instead you offer them a premium theme and a installation of plugins, they handle the content. Most of these people turn into future clients and refer others your way.

I don't use that method anymore because I do webdesign for a living now and I don't even build them from the ground up. Simple wordpress installation with a customized theme depending on which package they go with.

 

[romil2009]

one can easily make lot of money making multiple affiliate wordpress minisites with good amount of backlinks .

 

[MisterGemini]

I built tons, and I mean TONS of adsense, ebay sites with huge failure.

Had failure with some PPV stuff, but also had some winners.

Totally blowed goats at the CL ewhore stuff. Really wasn't my style, but gee, that $1000 a day sounded really good.

I lose on average about $20k a year in failed projects. Some of it by my own misdirection, but most of it due to failed JV partners who talk more than they work.

Yes, I also had my time in good ol' CSing. Ebay was the most fun, until the last payout of $10k didn't come through. Drat. I had other CSing going on, but then I decided that the time was up, and I wasn't happy with it, so I decided to shut down my operation, even though it was bringing in a lot of money each month.

OP your experience certainly isn't unusual. It's good you keep at it, and you are right about all these methods posted. They are leftovers, and as another poster mentioned, you can certainly apply it to other things.

Personally I have given up on the BH stuff related to gaming networks. The rest of the world is moving forward and getting better at everything, including spotting the gaming stuff. In my own business I have always said quality costs less, and that applies to BHing, and making money online just as well. As you have figured out, the junk marketing costs you more than its worth.

You have to consider, what if you had taken all that time and energy and put it into a few major sites providing either some service, or now standing as a major authority in it's field. I don't want to sound like some self righteous WHer because I'm not. I know some of them say exactly what I just said. However, I think the failure of the BH methods is their short sightedness. The investment in time and energy and money vs return just doesn't pan out so often. Sure there are a few gems, but finding them is getting fewer, and the mines run dry faster.

The next thing you do would be best to just take some time and come up with something you can work with that you can be proud of and can last a long time. Make it something simple to start that can grow as you continue to work on it. Don't rely on what someone else is doing, but go on your own path with what you think will be right. Take some of what you have learned an apply it to it as well. Some of the other advice above was pretty good... take it all in and start again.

Good Luck,

Mister Gemini

 

[CashFlowGuy]

I know to many IM who invest to much into one thing. For some its adsense, others its there 1 blog. I suggest having 2-3 main sources of income. Mine are adsense, and service sales. Also im looking into selling an ebook or two and buying a few websites and flipping them.

 

[GreyWolf]

@OP - well from reading your first post it seems like finding methods to do and being able get to work on them isn't your problem. There isn't really a point in giving you a new method because you obviously already know where to find them. So I'm going to give you a motivational type answer instead. Which is funny since earlier today I replied in another thread about how motivational threads aren't that useful in the making money forum, but I think in this thread it might be appropriate.

Every day there are people across the country, even across the world deciding to start their own businesses. There are countless books, training programs, and premade business plans that lay out complete step by step proceedures. The entrepreneurs pull some money together, extend some credit, and do whatever else they need to do to get their business running. They rent a store front, order products, stock their shelves and wait for customers to walk in the door. They advertise in the local newpapers, radio stations, tv stations and anything else they can think of.

So what happens with all these business owners? Well according to the U.S Small Business Administration, over 50% of them fail during the first year. Even worse, over 95% don't survive for 5 years. There are other sources that show statistics that aren't quite as grim, but the fact remains that starting your own business is a very risky decision.

The biggest difference between that and starting a business online is that it takes a lot less to get started online. Anyone that wants to can give it a try. There are online business models that require no startup capital at all. There is also a much larger market online. Those two facts combined make IM attract a lot more people hoping to make their fortune online. It also means the failure rate will be much higher than with traditional offline businesses.

So why is it that so many people fail? The reason is that even if following a sound plan, no two situations are going to be exactly the same. Different people will understand the instructions differently. When they do follow the instructions precisely, the very fact that it's been done before adds a new element to the plan. There are so many factors that can affect your efforts, it's impossible to say with certainty that you will succeed. For offline businesses it's usually more obvious; if there's already a successful shoe store on 4th and Main then it's not a good idea to open another shoe store right next door. For online businesses most of the factors aren't usually that clearly defined.

What is it that distinguishes the successes from the failures? Mostly it's an adaptability to changing circumstances. There's also a certain amount of luck involved, but an ability to evaluate available information and make use of it properly can help create your own luck as well.

The 'get rich quick' books sell an idea that anyone can make money online, but the fact of the matter is that most can't. Some people can be given just a hint of a basic idea and they'll take off with it and make a fortune. Other people might be let by the hand, shown everything they need to do step by step, seemingly leaving no room for failure and yet they still fail. Not everyone is an entrepreneur, not everyone is going to have what it takes to actually make an online method work.

If you've tried all the methods mentioned in your first post and failed at them all, then it's possible that you just haven't been able to adapt to the changing circumstances that are to be expected no matter what method you choose. A true entrepreneur will continue trying even after failures. They will try to learn from the failures so the have a better chance at success on their next venture. Whether it's worthwhile for you to continue is something that only you can decide, not everyone is suited for it.

If this business is for you then the fact you've failed in the past won't prevent you from trying to succeed in the future.

If you really want the best chance for success possible then you might want to start thinking of what your doing as a real business. Here is a thread by aftershock2020 that might have some good suggestions for you in that regard.
Basic Business practices for newbies

 

[rap8557]

First of all! yup! all methods here are saturated. No one will ever post a method here that is actually working.

Methods that are posted here are just a blue print. If you want to use them try to edit it to make it unique.

I've done that last few years ago. but i started to learn here that if you combine all you've read, you can come up a good method.

 

[happymee]

Wow amazing response, I just cant imagine in my other field of business saying to anyone "help" and getting anything like the response I have been given:

what if you had taken all that time and energy and put it into a few major sites providing either some service, or now standing as a major authority in it's field. I don't want to sound like some self righteous WHer because I'm not. I know some of them say exactly what I just said. However, I think the failure of the BH methods is their short sightedness. The investment in time and energy and money vs return just doesn't pan out so often. Sure there are a few gems, but finding them is getting fewer, and the mines run dry faster.

The next thing you do would be best to just take some time and come up with something you can work with that you can be proud of and can last a long time.

I think you are right, the problem is I came from a setting up authority site in the video production field, now I am great at video and tv production, but I hate it , so I did build a site around video production, ranked number one for some major keywords, and the best I got where some potential jobs that where about 3-4K and would take too long and cost too much to bother with. I couldn't outsource it without making a tiny profit. And I then tried to sell a course in that niche, before I'd even made it, paypal button went to a sorry we are full, got no takers, tweaked if 6 months or so, PPC, normal whatever.

So that's why I decided to just go for anything and everything. I have built about 800 wordpress sites in so many frickn niches, and learnt something each time, (mostly how annoying scrapebox is on the receiving end, I feel like I am just pin board for the vigra indrustry most days)

Ill tell you one thing I have learnt, I looked at my own spending and I have spent a bit on hosting, some on services through odesk , some on some course/ebooks, a larger amount on software, and the most on advertising.

I welcome your suggestions and advice, ideas and mostly your experiences, I too have thought about flipping and domain buying and am sure now that I will never do that.

So I get what you are saying about build an authority site, on a niche , and offer a good product or service, that is cash up front, that I love and believe in, and that people really desperately want, that is online, and matches my workflow and ethics.

Im going to think on this...

 

[GreyWolf]

OK, I reread the first post and it occured to me that most of what you've tried sucks. You've tried several methods but not really implemented any of them very well. Even still you've made a little money with some of them, so now you need to learn from what you've already done and try to do it right. I'll go through your list and give you my thoughts on what you said in the first post.

GOOGLESNIPER - This is just affiliate marketing using your own site to prequalify your leads. If you make a good enough website and choose a good enough product you can make a killing. Most people aren't that good at making an effective website, and it;s not always that easy to find the right high demand products so success is never gauranteed. If I were you I wouldn't just write this one off. Try to learn something from the sites you already made and see if you can determine what it was about those sites that worked and what didn't. Just getting on the first page of google isn't enough, you're title and description need to be good enough to entice searchers to click on your site instead of the others in the serp.

WP EBAY SITES - This is a quantity over quality method, at least that's how it seems you approached it. This is similar to creating mfa microniche sites. It can make money, but will take a lot of work. The method as it's most commonly applied is so saturated I wouldn't consider it worth the time. You should probably evaluate the results you got from it and then use the knowledge gained to work your affiliate marketing sites better.

EMAIL SPAM - The people that are good at this have been doing it for years, and even they get burned by it ocassionally. From what I've read in your post I'd say leave it alone, if you keep it up you'll probably get yourself in some hot water sooner or later.

FREE WEBSITE DESIGN - this was just an extension of your spamming campaigns. Even if you did get signups it would involve too much work for the ones that hold you up to the bargain you offered. (look what happened with the few that did respond)

SITE FLIPPING - This was another good idea, but if the example you gave is really what you were trying then you were off to a terrible start. Go look at flipping marketplaces and look at the type of sites that really sell. If you want to make money you need to make sites like those. To really succeed you'll need to be able to create sites with decent names (also stick with dotcoms, dotinfos aren't going to consistently make you any money), fill the site with some good content pages, work on getting a decent pr ranking, get a decent listing in the serps, monetize the site and actually have some tracking history to show how much the site makes per month. There are people that can make a site like that in about 2-4 months and those people can really make some good money flipping sites. That's the way to go about making high value sites, you only need to sell a few of those to make a substantial income. If you can't make those type of sites then you're left with the ebay turnkey sites method, register a site load a store template or mfa template and then sell the site for $20 on ebay. Be sure to have a reseller hosting account because your real money will be by selling them hosting on the backend. Doing this will take a lot of sales to make any substantial income and the market is pretty saturated.

EWHORING - yeah I agree, most people shouldn't even bother with it. I will tell you this though, there's a lot of things about ewhoring that can be adapted to regular marketing without having any kind of sleaziness involved.


So to sum it all up, it sounds like you've had some limited success with affiliate marketing, but rather than adjusting your approach to it you just let in languish while you moved on to the next 'easy road to riches' method. If you want to succeed at something you should take what you learned from all the other things you've done, refocus on affiliate marketing and use what you've learned to make it work better.

hope this helps a little,
Wolf

edit -

...
So I get what you are saying about build an authority site, on a niche , and offer a good product or service, that is cash up front, that I love and believe in, and that people really desperately want, that is online, and matches my workflow and ethics.
...

This is pretty similar to what I was saying about doing affiliate marketing. The only difference is that you'll be providing your own product instead of someone elses. If you have as many sites already built as you say, then it shouldn't be that dificult to repurpose some of them for selling your own products and others for selling affiliate products. Blogs are actually pretty well suited for selling multiple products so you could fit many of them into general interest niches and then promote multiple products on those sites.

 

[lookforbid]

man i really like to learn those method but it take me too long to make it..

 

[MisterGemini]

man i really like to learn those method but it take me too long to make it..

Which methods? OPs? If you read carefully what he is saying, they don't work.

 

[MisterGemini]

So why is it that so many people fail? The reason is that even if following a sound plan, no two situations are going to be exactly the same. Different people will understand the instructions differently. When they do follow the instructions precisely, the very fact that it's been done before adds a new element to the plan. There are so many factors that can affect your efforts, it's impossible to say with certainty that you will succeed. For offline businesses it's usually more obvious; if there's already a successful shoe store on 4th and Main then it's not a good idea to open another shoe store right next door. For online businesses most of the factors aren't usually that clearly defined.

I think we need to differentiate between what a 'sound plan' means and a method plan. Method plans are posted all over the board/internet/ebook garbage bin, but that doesn't make them a 'sound plan' in the sense of a true business plan, which was the genre of your statement.

I totally believe the opposite in regards to the source of failure. The source of 99% of everyones failure is putting the proper due diligence into the planning as a proper business plan would call for, and then following it. Take it from someone who has owned over a dozen businesses and had numerous partners/waste-of-space. If you don't do the proper analysis that goes into a business plan, you are just running in blind. That is where you can fail. So many people here will say 'well you don't know until you just do it'. This is true, but if you did some real planning, which allows you time to reflect on all sides of the situation, you could save yourself a lot of headache.

I have said it many times. Without a plan to succeed you have an automatic built in plan to fail.

The planning saves you the investment and time. The planning, gives you a real shot at being successful but ONLY if after you have done the plan, you see a viable business. During your planning you can see there are some things wrong with the model, or there is something in the marketplace that will affect what you are doing. Or there are threats you can or cannot be prepared for. This might all sound tedious at first, but when you have done it many times properly, you get to where you can look at something, do some necessary research, and a red light or green light goes off in your mind. Then write it all down. Until you get there though, it's good to open a doc, setup the headlines for each part of the plan, and fill it in with all you can get, then read it over a few times as though you were an investor reading it for the first time asking yourself 'would it be wise of me to put my money and time into this?'

As for shoe store on 4th and main, this actually happens all the time. There is plenty of business to be had riding the coat tails of bigger businesses. By positioning your store at the same location where people will see you when they go in there, all those that were unsatisfied with them come to your store. They spend the millions in advertising while you pickup the leads. It is not unlike some methods of media buying done online to capture relevant traffic. Afterall, what are the TOP10 positions on a keyword but a bunch of stores all on the same corner trying to get your attention. One of the quickest way to success often is to place your boat in the already high flowing stream and ride it. You only need to look at your local magazine store stand to know what they are.

Anyways... thats all I got to add. In your recent reply you said you worked in the video production feilds. Video is hot and getting hotter, so if you can come up with something where you see a unique need, you are golden. Here is one thing I have noticed. A few semi-developed systems have come out allowing you to convert text docs (articles) into videos that present the content like a slideshow with an automatic reader reading it out. The quality is sort of half ass. If you could come up with some way to do that better, you could hit higher end market, or go for the lower where there are more customers. .. Either way, it's something I would consider after seeing what is out there.

Good luck with your reflection.