Did I just waste my money?

Okay, so this is my first post here, but I've been reading for a while not (though clearly not enough, after this blunder). I'll put it simply, I'm a newbie. I currently live and study in a foreign country that doesn't allow me to work, so I've been looking into building websites and monetizing them. I recently (maybe... a week ago?) did what I thought was proper keyword research and bought three domains with names exactly matched to searches on google's keyword tool, related to three seperate clickbank products I intend to promote.

Here's the thing though, I didn't do [exact match], I did broad search (not even realizing there was such a thing. The exact matches for my websites are completely worthless, apparently.

What should I do? just ditch the webpages? Also, what method would you suggest I use to get started making some money? I don't care if it's not much money, as I don't really have any unrealistic expectations. I have tons of spare time to work on it, and i'm not exactly new to the concept of web design, etc., but I don't have the money to buy any amazing SEO software, so it has to be doable the 'old-fashioned way'. Suggestions?

read some popular posts at "Making Money" section as well as SEO sections and you'll find some ways to make some money fast

I don't really believe that there's any way to "make money fast". Everything requires work, and SEO definitely takes time. There's no money without traffic

If the exact match keywords don't receive any traffic then yeah I would probably ditch them, but that's just me.

Blockatiel said:

I don't really believe that there's any way to "make money fast". Everything requires work, and SEO definitely takes time. There's no money without traffic

Click to expand...

It is obvious that you haven't gone through the Making Money section of this forum. There are lots of Blackhat methods on this forum which will make you quick cash. Though you won't be able to do it in the long run.

If you are planning put serious efforts to build an authority site, then select an evergreen niche in which you are interested.
Buy a brandable domain name in that niche.
Start a wordpress blog
Stat posting at least one article a day.
Slowly build backlinks using article marketing.
When you have some decent traffic start monetizing slowly.
Reinvest your earnings in tools like AMR and Scrapebox to speedup your seo efforts.
Keep posting quality content
Keep building backlinks.................................

I am not sure if you bought the domains from Godaddy, I think that there are few days where you can try to get a refund or a credit that you could use to buy better domains.

Here's the thing though, I didn't do [exact match], I did broad search (not even realizing there was such a thing. The exact matches for my websites are completely worthless, apparently.

Click to expand...

I did same mistake myself...but its obvious to make mistakes while learning SEO. Good lesson learned atleast

why not try to rank them for something that isnt the exact domain name! It's still going to be slightly related surely?

It depends on your financial situation really. If you have money to spare then you can ditch them for some better keywords and you've learned a lesson. If it was an investment for you then you can try what nokturnal said and try ranking them for something closely related. Having a matching domain to your targeted keyword helps sure, but it isn't the only deciding factor.

No matter which way you decide to go with it, just follow through until you get something working. It's only a waste if you give up before getting a return.