First, a little background about me...
If you don't care to know about my background and just want to get to the point of this thread, skip over my background
******* WHO IS BIGLEFTIE ********
I've been involved in software professionally since 1994. I have a Computer Science degree and have been writing software since before '94. I currently manage several teams of software developers at my "day job". I understand the entire life-cycle of software development.
A friend, with no computer training of any type, started trying to get me interested in IM in March 2009. His interest was peaked by a friend of his who is making $300K a year in IM. Even though his friend is making a bundle, I was not interested (mainly because I am making a good living doing very little from 9-5 and coming home to spend my time and money on fun). I'm 39 years old, married with no kids and no debt... this basically means I have time and money to burn. This also means I get bored often and look for new challenges (I got my golf handicap down to a 2 and got bored).
Every once in a while I would ask my friend how he was doing with his IM venture. In the beginning, he was making a few hundred dollars a month. After 5 months, he was brining in more than $1,000 a month. After 8 months, more than $2,000 a month. After a year, he was bringing in nearly $5,000 a month. That's when I got interested... and decided to get involved.
I started IM with a 4-page niche site and tried to monetize it using only AdSense. I've recently added an Amazon store to the site as well. After working on the site for about a month, it is currently ranked on Google's first page for 4 keyword searches (6th, 6th, 9th and 10th). Unfortunately, I made two mistakes that I'm aware of: 1) When picking my niche, I misunderstood search count results and chose keywords that get very few searches (under 500 a month globally for all 4 combined) and 2) I chose .INFO over .COM for my domain - (I know this is not considered a "mistake" by everyone here).
In the last month, I've spent many hours reading these forums, building my site, learning how to use many IM software products, writing articles, signing up for online accounts and services, and writing some small scripts that help me do some very basic IM tasks.
I have purchased (mostly based on recommendations I found in these forums) The Best Spinner, Magic Article Submitter, Micro Niche Finder, ScrapeBox and Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2007 - all of which I am VERY PLEASED with.
I also have, but have not yet used, XSitePro and SEOPS.
My long term goal is likely the same as yours - succeed in IM. At this point, my IM venture is not ALL about making money (perhaps it never was ALL about making money). It is about NOT FAILING at IM... it's about succeeding like many of you have... it's about the challenge that IM presents all of us.
******* THE MAIN POINT OF THIS THREAD ********
I would like to know what software WE need in the IM world. What software don't we have available to us?
Just to be clear - let me rephrase my question:
If you could have any piece of IM software created for you, FREE OF CHARGE, what would it do?
I have some ideas of my own, but thought it might be better to find out what some of you suggest before deciding whether or not I should build an IM tool to help me on my next site, or simply begin working on my next site.
I look forward to your responses - and being able to give something back to the members of this forum that helped me learn so much, so quickly.
If you don't care to know about my background and just want to get to the point of this thread, skip over my background
******* WHO IS BIGLEFTIE ********
I've been involved in software professionally since 1994. I have a Computer Science degree and have been writing software since before '94. I currently manage several teams of software developers at my "day job". I understand the entire life-cycle of software development.
A friend, with no computer training of any type, started trying to get me interested in IM in March 2009. His interest was peaked by a friend of his who is making $300K a year in IM. Even though his friend is making a bundle, I was not interested (mainly because I am making a good living doing very little from 9-5 and coming home to spend my time and money on fun). I'm 39 years old, married with no kids and no debt... this basically means I have time and money to burn. This also means I get bored often and look for new challenges (I got my golf handicap down to a 2 and got bored).
Every once in a while I would ask my friend how he was doing with his IM venture. In the beginning, he was making a few hundred dollars a month. After 5 months, he was brining in more than $1,000 a month. After 8 months, more than $2,000 a month. After a year, he was bringing in nearly $5,000 a month. That's when I got interested... and decided to get involved.
I started IM with a 4-page niche site and tried to monetize it using only AdSense. I've recently added an Amazon store to the site as well. After working on the site for about a month, it is currently ranked on Google's first page for 4 keyword searches (6th, 6th, 9th and 10th). Unfortunately, I made two mistakes that I'm aware of: 1) When picking my niche, I misunderstood search count results and chose keywords that get very few searches (under 500 a month globally for all 4 combined) and 2) I chose .INFO over .COM for my domain - (I know this is not considered a "mistake" by everyone here).
In the last month, I've spent many hours reading these forums, building my site, learning how to use many IM software products, writing articles, signing up for online accounts and services, and writing some small scripts that help me do some very basic IM tasks.
I have purchased (mostly based on recommendations I found in these forums) The Best Spinner, Magic Article Submitter, Micro Niche Finder, ScrapeBox and Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2007 - all of which I am VERY PLEASED with.
I also have, but have not yet used, XSitePro and SEOPS.
My long term goal is likely the same as yours - succeed in IM. At this point, my IM venture is not ALL about making money (perhaps it never was ALL about making money). It is about NOT FAILING at IM... it's about succeeding like many of you have... it's about the challenge that IM presents all of us.
******* THE MAIN POINT OF THIS THREAD ********
I would like to know what software WE need in the IM world. What software don't we have available to us?
Just to be clear - let me rephrase my question:
If you could have any piece of IM software created for you, FREE OF CHARGE, what would it do?
I have some ideas of my own, but thought it might be better to find out what some of you suggest before deciding whether or not I should build an IM tool to help me on my next site, or simply begin working on my next site.
I look forward to your responses - and being able to give something back to the members of this forum that helped me learn so much, so quickly.