help a peasant make internet monies

DanielQ

DanielQ

New member
Jun 29, 2008
282
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A police state.
A little background: I’ve been creating websites on and off for six years, but it’s no longer paying the bills. I went off to college and worked intermittently, and lost my drive. I did a little affiliate marketing but never really got it down once my first money-making niche dried up. It looks like I’m about to start waiting tables… fark that.

So WF ballers… help a peasant out.

Now, I know exactly what my problem is: I have difficultly selecting the best project and committing to it’s success. I blame it on the ADD. I own 350+ domains, but only a fraction of them are developed and an even smaller fraction actually make money.

For example, I purchased the domain livefreeordie.com, hired a designer, got some custom code, and paid for some basic link building… all in all invested around 2k. Then stopped writing posts because I wasn’t reaching an audience and since I lost interest. I got distracted and moved onto the next project, even though this one could easily become a large site. (Unfortunately it’s not a big money-making niche). At any given time I’ll have between 5-10 projects going at once, which is far too many. Time management is my weakest point.

My problem isn’t lack of ideas or lack of motivation. I’ve self-taught myself everything I know. My problem is committing to a good idea and following through, due to a lack of results.

I’m looking for advice on:

- choosing a proper niche (too many good ideas/domains), developing a plan of action, and most importantly, committing to the project
- selling a portion of my domain portfolio. Some names are junk, others are probably worth some $$$. How do I find end users or a broker who will actively look for buyers? Is it worth developing them first?
- How can I increase my revenue on my primary site? This site is a large forum approaching 1 million posts, running adsense, but it should be making at least 2.5x what it is now. Creative Writing Forums - Writing Workshops, Writing Help, Creative Writing Contests If I could figure this out it’d give me enough cash to once again invest in other sites. There are some features I will be adding in the next few months that will increase income, but they require coding and therefore a monetary investment that I don't have. Suggestions on replacing Adsense and improving the bounce rate would be awesome.
- Any advice for making money online short term to pay the bills so I won't be working at McDs.

inb4 u gonna get raped

cliffs:
- been working online for years, online income no longer supports bills
- I take on too many projects at once
- need advice on choosing proper need, and committing to development
- need advice on selling domains (350+ names in portfolio)
- need advice on increasing revenue on forum


For your time:
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Here, I'll let you in on the big secret all the ballers use.

a_adderall_021.jpg


Pop that, and you'll focus like a motherfucker. Just look at what will happen to your brain.

adderall1.jpg
 
Honestly I expected something far far more lame, but at least you included the picctures!

1) Honestly unless you have some super diamonds in the rough for domain names, you are likely just spinning your wheels looking to sell them off. There are a number of domain forums where you can just throw them all up and see if you have any offers -- personally I wouldn't spend too much time on this since likely you are going to get <$15-20 a domain if you are lucky.

2) For your forum, I would forget adsense and instead look for higher paying offers that identify with your target audience. For instance, are these people generally looking to become paid writers - if so look on click#bank for relevant offers to sell them. Or better yet pay a writer to create your own product on how to become published. Or for instance if they are college students and hs students, look for leadgen cpa offers for education (most pay at least $20-25 a submit).
 
DanielQ said:
- I take on too many projects at once
- need advice on choosing proper need, and committing to development
Click to expand...

You already know these answers. Focus on one project.

And no one is going to give you a niche. Maybe you should find one yourself?
 
Dude - You have a diamond in the rough with your forum. Flip the script and offer a rev split with someone with more experience and a more creative mind regarding this project and bank hard! Don't ask for hand outs. Offer a reward for someones assistance and be willing to put in the effort based off of someones coaching.
 
Regarding the addy... I actually recently got a script. I don't take it every day, just to study, but maybe it will help.

imbo55 said:
Honestly I expected something far far more lame, but at least you included the picctures!

1) Honestly unless you have some super diamonds in the rough for domain names, you are likely just spinning your wheels looking to sell them off. There are a number of domain forums where you can just throw them all up and see if you have any offers -- personally I wouldn't spend too much time on this since likely you are going to get <$15-20 a domain if you are lucky.
Click to expand...

Ya, I tried the forums. Offers are always ridiculously low. I have maybe eight I think are worth $500 or so, most probably won't fetch much. Still, there's no way I'm going to develop them all, so I'd like to pawn them off if I can.

2) For your forum, I would forget adsense and instead look for higher paying offers that identify with your target audience. For instance, are these people generally looking to become paid writers - if so look on click#bank for relevant offers to sell them. Or better yet pay a writer to create your own product on how to become published. Or for instance if they are college students and hs students, look for leadgen cpa offers for education (most pay at least $20-25 a submit).
Click to expand...

Thanks, this is a good suggestion. I have actually tried exactly what you described, marketing offers for paid writers, self-publishing, education offers and over a month I didn't get a single conversion! Kinda discouraging but instead of banners maybe I should try a different approach, market the offers with an email newsletter or some other approach.

I'd really like to get private advertisers, but they only come around occasionally and don't usually stay for more than a month or two.

mpbiz said:
You already know these answers. Focus on one project.

And no one is going to give you a niche. Maybe you should find one yourself?
Click to expand...

You're exactly right. One project. Got it. :thumbsup:

As for niches, I'm not really looking for someone to give me one. More asking for advice for selecting one (from my current domain list of future projects). What criteria would you use? Just revenue potential and personal interest in the topic?

Wicked Ice said:
If you want to sell your site, PM me.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the interest man, but I have no real desire to sell. It's my primary revenue source and has sentimental value... started it back in high school and whatnot. I actually get unsolicited offers to sell about once a month.
 
you're not an idiot and laid out your problems and an action plan. what kind of help do you really need here? just got to get to work.

waiting some tables might be good for you temporarily.. you'll remember what you don't want to do, quite a good motivator imo.
 
Nice Forum.


My Fiancee' is a writer and I will be sending her your link. (She may already be a member there for all I know. lol)


I might be a bit off base here, but shouldn't you have like a Classified Section on the site? Or did I miss it?


Charge a fee like Jon does here for your members to place adds and then use your skillz to drive OUTSIDE traffic to "their" classified ads on your site.


I mean, they are Creative Writers and from the few threads I read through they would be GREAT at writing Articles or even Short Stories for website owners. Or even taking DULL information and TRANSFORMING it into an INTERESTING eBook to read that could be sold.

So, you could then market your Classifieds to outside people and charge a fee for WANTED ADS that your membership could look through to do some work and then they too could make some money.

Like I said, I might be WAY OFF BASE here, but if you haven't tried it or thought about maybe you should.


Also, I'd be looking around for Affiliate Products Like PROGRAMS for writers. Then setup another section on the site called say, "The Writer's Desk" or "The Writer's Shop". Then offer the Ebooks, Kindle Books, Writer's Programs and Writer's Courses you find that you can promote and make money from that are of ACTUAL VALUE to your Membership.

Something like these:

Character Pro from Typing Chimp Software
60 days free, then $69.99
“Character Pro puts a proven system for understanding human behavior at your fingertips – The Enneagram – to create a character spine for your character. But that’s only the beginning. Character Pro isolates each part of the character, provides tools and extensive help files to guide you to a well-rounded, complex and realistic character.”
​
Quick Story from Typing Chimp Software
$49.99
“Create a basic story structure with the Story Generator then use the tree to organize your structure while you develop the story in the edit box on the right. Simply drag and drop or insert and delete story items until your story is perfectly structured.”
​
You can get both of these for $89.99. Typing Chimp also do Character Writer, which combines features of both, and is Java Based (so runs on almost any system), for $39.99.


Or





Scrivener
30 days free, then $39.99
Mac & Windows
“Scrivener is a word processor and project management tool created specifically for writers of long texts such as novels and research papers. It won’t try to tell you how to write – it just makes all the tools you have scattered around your desk available in one application.”
​
Minimise Distractions When Writing

If you’re anything like me, distractions come up constantly when trying to write. Whether your problem is instant messenger, web browsing, email, or just using all the fancy formatting features on your word processor, a simpler writing environment can be the solution.


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Ok, that was about 10 minutes of my brain NOT on Adderall!!!




Lulz
 
Okay. so I didn't read your entire post (yup. ADD is my thing as well).

My best tip.. find a niche that has two elements.

1. Value (you can monetize it). A niche with no value sucks.
2. you enjoy the topic. I can't stress this.. It doesn't have to be your expertise.. but you DO have to enjoy dealing with it (fuck I deal with a stay at home female demographic... I don't relate. but I enjoy the demo).
 
Struggled with a similar problem for a long ass time, finally (after years) being forced against the wall to focus on just the most important shit. Are you comfortable? Do you have no reason to focus on one thing? If you were about to be homeless - would you still be skipping from idea to idea? Odds are you're comfortable enough for fear to not be motivating you to do anything.
 
PICK AN EVERGREEN NICHE AND STICK TO IT.
WORK AN OFFER UNTIL IT'S PROFITABLE.
LOOK AT OTHER TRAFFIC SOURCES (DON'T RELY ON GOOGLE).

It took me a few years to get shit rolling and make decent money doing this. I remember being stoked on getting $100 payouts to my paypal. Now I'm on wires and pushing as much as I can. It's nice to watch it grow. It's fucking fun if you enjoy doing it.

GET MOTIVATED AND STAY THE FUCK OUT OF MY NICHES.
 
yellowarrior said:
Okay. so I didn't read your entire post (yup. ADD is my thing as well).

My best tip.. find a niche that has two elements.

1. Value (you can monetize it). A niche with no value sucks.
2. you enjoy the topic. I can't stress this.. It doesn't have to be your expertise.. but you DO have to enjoy dealing with it (fuck I deal with a stay at home female demographic... I don't relate. but I enjoy the demo).
Click to expand...


How can you "monetize" a niche without diving in headfirst? Catch 22?

But yes, enjoyment is key. No sane person is going to focus hard for a long time on something that blows.
 
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