Jinxus

*ran a PPC campaign on Facebook one time with a $70 coupon... made about $65 back
*abused the Facebook like feature when it first came out. Made $300, should've made close to $600, but BidVertiser closed my account because my site went down due to an overload of traffic before they could "review" the site
*closest to success I've come is last year when I had a website. for the first 3 months or so, I made about .50 cents a day, but then it stopped. In the last 4 months, I made the site go viral. Was making $15/day with Adsense, but my host shut down the site 20 days before the contract ended. Didn't really care about the site because it never really made money. They shut it down 4 days after I started making $15/day so I hadn't thought to make backups yet. Lost everything.

feels like I should be more successful than I have been If only I could make $30/day.

such is life in soviet russia. feelsbadman

Kiopa_Matt

Fuck off. It's 2012, we're all connected. These days, in the IM industry, a guy in Bangladesh can do just as good as a guy in New York. No reason they can't, and anything else is an excuse. The only barrier many people have is their native language is not English, but that's hardly an impossible barrier to overcome.

Anyway, advice -- quit putting up shitty little sites, or trying to "trick" Facebook / Google. Start an actual business.

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xMarkPro -- Ultimate Blog Network Management
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aproxaday

These small adsense sites can only bring in a decent amount of money if you have hundreds, if not thousands of them

ShadowCaster

Then tweak your shit and try again with $100 adwords coupon.

Open another account then?

That's not an excuse in IM

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Andrew Scherer

what host were you using

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tonymontana

You're probably jumping around too much. Pick one thing and stick with it.

Jinxus

friend bought it for me at the time because they had a great deal so I thought why not, but I didn't realize they would fuck me over this hard. company is called xenonservers

lordothelog

Gotta say I'm on a similar boat, only been able to make money with local SEO & web design. Not complaining though, the main reason I haven't made much is that I've still got lazy cunt tendencies to get rid of, they are on the way out.

Also like many others I expected a magic button that would make me bank... Now I know it's possible but it certainly takes more than I expected.

I've already taken my first step, incorporated etc just trying to build some capital to get into paid ads. For all the noobs reading this, where would all of the experienced members recommend taking the first step if you have little or no capital?

ericchristopher

that's not exactly true.

business is basically about information. fuck skill, fuck all the other stuff. it's who knows where money is hiding. a lot of small sites do wonders for people.

stickyicky

You could always do what these guys are doing:

Enlightened Members - WickedFire - Affiliate Marketing Forum - Internet Marketing Webmaster SEO Forum

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Jinxus

I'm not actually Russian... in 2009 though, I was obsessed with the Russian culture, hence my signature with the famous Moscow landmark. and "such is life in soviet russia" is just me complaining like a bitch + it's a meme

Johnathan

Why are you complaining on a forum about your failures?

ShadowCaster

Oh, well in that case

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secretagentdad

pew pew.
Hustle moar.

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Exact Match Domains Done Right
http://EMDLISTS.com

Yuckystuff

Have you ever considered the above?

stickyicky

hustle n bustle bro its all u need 4 reelz

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Jinxus

looking at sites on flippa. I see one site listed for $500, but it says it makes $300/month. No one would ever sell a site that makes $300/month for $500, would they? How do I verify the monthly earnings?

emp

Hahaha... I am on a similar boat.

I make money, but mostly by local web design/development and SEO services.
Some from affiliate sales, but not as much as I'd like to.
Have not found my "passive income stream" yet.

Jumping around on projects is one big factor, me doing this only part time another (I have a 9-5 I am not gonna give up too soon).

2012 is gonna rock tho... err... really, right? Ya know?

::emp::
PS: Sorry to disappoint all those who thought I am mad balling outta control.

__________________
Your Logical Fallacies - know them to avoid them

That's because all programmers are also ninjas.(but not all ninjas are programmers) - LogicFlux

Blind Ape Seo

aproxaday

My guess would be that site Grosses $500, but it nets a lot less, more like $50. I bet the owner spends a shit ton on CPC ads to drive people to his site. There is no way that if you were to buy that site, you'd see a profit in 2 months.

JCash

The guy who wore an "SEO SUCKS" teeshirt to SES in 2008 recently blogged about turning a $1000 investment into $100,000 with linkwheels. Of course a picture of him with a faked check was featured on photoshopdisasters. But it was supposed to be funny. But his secret was he put post-it notes all over his house with how much money he wanted to make, and the Law of Attraction kicked in. Or something.

guerilla

I don't know anyone doing well who is doing today what they did 3 years ago.

So while a stream can be passive, it's pretty unlikely it will stay passive for long.

Hustle or fail.

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Change Your Life
Twitter ^ YouTube

Thank you for your attentiveness,
the forward thrusters, engage on you busters,
I cut the mustard.

kingofsp

It's hard to say what the problem is...maybe you jump around too much and don't focus on projects long enough to see them through? Maybe you focus on niches that are interesting to you but aren't very profitable online?

I honestly work like 1 or 2 hours a week. I have reached my apex of laziness I think. Guerilla is probably right, it can't be sustained forever. I think I will work 4 hours this week.

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W4 - Like Hуdra, but like way better.

learningcurve

I don't find it disappointing at all, but rather refreshing to see someone like you letting this be known. I came here to learn and I have done so, in bucket fulls, and it is starting to show in my returns.

When I started, it was simply domaining for me, but the arse fell out of that a couple of years ago and I guess I got a bit disheartened with it all. I found this place and decided to begin from the ground up again, I still had a few decent names and I have been working from there. I'm grinding more now and it is a slow process but one I can see heading in the right direction once more.

I'm not a baller and will not be for quite a while I imagine, but while I keep seeing progress I will continue the grind.

Honestly, I think the only way to truly fail is to give up completely and to be honest, with the wealth of knowledge here and the really good people that share it, to give up would be criminal.

Just my 2 cents - for what it's worth.

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purger

This is the best advice you've received here, and btw do not listen to the "gurus", no such thing as overnight success. You have to learn this to succeed.

Dark Cognitive

Get decent hosting, or at least host your shit with a company thats unlikely to go down.

I dont use GoDaddy, but i'd recommend you go with someone as large as them. Built another $15 a day site, that'll cover your monthly hosting costs in a day. Make sure and pay it.

Build more sites. You know where you went wrong. Do it right this time. Learn from your mistakes.

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Everytime someone insults me, God creates a kitten..

kamired2

Pick an easy paid traffic source POF/FB/PPV. Sign up for STM private forums. Read for 10 days and soak up as much information as possible. There's a thread in there that tells you which the best networks are. Ask the AMs of those networks on STM to get you into the network. (You're on STM so they're more willing to work with you) Talk to them, start campaigns. $$$

That's what I did, I'm profiting ez and I just started this shit ... when? Look at my account registration date.

Mike619

way too many people competing in affiliate marketing, just gotta keep finding new untouched ideas and implement them.

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遼寧人

cardine

Depends on whether you are in a growing industry or not. The internet, and companies on the internet are growing and changing too much for completely passive money. On the other hand, those oil execs are still making a lot of money doing pretty much the same thing.

For instance forums, if setup right, will be completely passive earners for a long long time.

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I might have a super secret spinner in private beta. PM me for more info

seohug

I would say focus is your problem and hit and run strategy.
Build sites, but not as many that you can't manage. Focus on authority and and long term plan for them and stick to it. The SEO game is maraton, forget the crap 15 days or 30 days to #1. Depending on a niche, it can take a couple of months to few years to have solid presence with steady income stream.

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tacoX

There are two problems here:

1) Focus
2) Affiliate marketing is dead.

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butcher

Pick a niche and stick with it. I have been in the same niche for over 5 years, very competitive niche but I didnt give up. Its only the last year or two that I have really seen good returns

b_sun

We are the same! WE ARE LIKE BROTHERS.

Seriously, that's my exact story.

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LOGOS - BANNERS - HEADERS - CHARTS - BUSINESS CARDS ---> http://tinyurl.com/designgrind

guerilla

That is what I meant, the internet.

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Change Your Life
Twitter ^ YouTube

Thank you for your attentiveness,
the forward thrusters, engage on you busters,
I cut the mustard.

JarredLv

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- NO FAPPING POSSE -

The world is divided into armed camps ready to commit genocide just because we can't agree on whose fairy tale to believe. In the end, religion will kill us all.

efeezy

In my mind there's about 4 ways that most of will go to make moneiez on the interwebz.

1. Build sites around a products that you can make commissions on.
2. Build sites that you can sell advertising on, adsense, etc.
3. Build sites & do SEO work for others who haven't a fucking clue about either.
4. Build your own service or product and promote that to make money.

That being said, no matter which you jump into you better at least have some basic skills in setting up some kind of website, be it Wordpress or otherwise, and in basic graphics manipulation. Aside from that, this shit isn't rocket science. Any idiot with a brain can do a WP install and get a site up and running. It's identifying the products & niches that are worth your time that's the tricky part. Do your research. Find a product that is being underpromoted, but has some demand. Make that project your baby and build it out all the way. Don't stray off onto other projects or ideas that will take you away from that. Focus on that one thing and find ways to make it better. I dont' care if you make a site that pushes coffee makers on Amazon, that shit can make money if you go into it 110%. Once you've either had some mild success or been a complete failure, hopefully you'll have a better understanding of what you should do on the next one. But give it time to succeed or fail. Don't bail on it after two weeks when you haven't made a sale. Now go fucking do something instead of worrying about why your'e not making money.

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IceToEskimos

Solid advice in your entire post...especially this. +rep.

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Andrew Scherer

Complacency is the devil

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Your_Pal

by far the best advice.

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avatar33

Haha yeah I can see that. I think in many people's heads, being a mod at WF automatically means you shit in a gold toilet...

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You're born an original, don't die a copy.

RalphySeo

DO WORK.

adionline

What you need to do is learn to rank easy shit. Pick a .com EMD with 300-500 searches per month and learn to rank it in the top 3 results. Once you learn how to rank easy shit just learn how to monetize then rinse and repeat. Adsense is the easiest way and will at least motivate you enough to keep going. Just keep in mind that Adsense is only one way and there are far better ways to monetize traffic.

Keep it simple dude and get some small victories under your belt. Everything you need to know to start making money is on this forum.

kingofsp

I agree wholeheartedly with every other part of your post. lol.

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W4 - Like Hуdra, but like way better.

tspesh

This thread is great.

My biggest issue is focus as well. I'm full of ideas, every week I've got something new. I know something will hit but I need to slow down sometimes and just do.

transistor

my passive income stream is coming to an end after 2 years. i'm really struggling to find something to replace it...

metalshark

ALL THAT since 09? Seriously?

efeezy

Ha ha. Yeah I guess you're right.

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minsco

Keep trying and get creative, nigga.

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smoke was blown

seolinker

Decided to quote only this reply of all thread.

TRY MORE, OP! And FB and PPV is not easy at all. POF - maybe, not that one. Start with individual media buys or small PPC campaign on Bing, or some not that big seo project for some niche monetising adsense/affiliates

emp

I DO in fact, shit in a golden crapper. It just is not from AM/SEO.

::emp::

__________________
Your Logical Fallacies - know them to avoid them

That's because all programmers are also ninjas.(but not all ninjas are programmers) - LogicFlux

Blind Ape Seo

genetic

[PLACEHOLDER FOR JOKE ABOUT EMP SUCKING DICK FOR GOLDEN TOILET MONEY]