How to Move On From ‘Make Money Online’
June 18th, 2008 by MarkMany of you have make money online blogs, and you’re feeling very frustrated by the difficulty of building an audience in the niche and/or the lack of income even after you’ve had some success. Many of you are considering getting out of the niche completely. I believe that’s wise. Don’t give up on making money online. Just give up the idea of making money online by talking about making money online.
If you want to get out of the ‘mmo blog’ rut, the first thing you need to do is commit to not writing about it. Plain and simple. Here are a couple of reasons I think you’re smart to move on from this topic.
1. Look at your competition. Three of your competitors are Vic, Grizz, and Court. Then you have folks like Darren Rowse, Dosh Dosh, Aaron Wall, etc. I don’t have much interest in competing with them. Do you? If I wasn’t writing for CourtneyTuttle.com, I wouldn’t be writing about making money on the internet.
Contrast those big names above with the competition on my ecommerce site. It’s a low tech, low glamor niche, but there’s enough traffic for my keywords to sustain a business. Trust me, there is not a Vic or a Court to be found among my competitors. I hope it stays that way.
2. The upside of this niche is limited. Most ‘mmo’ sites make basically zero dollars. Darren Rowse has published his income - it’s in the neighborhood of a few hundred thousand dollars per year. That’s a lot of money, and his income is likely to continue growing. But as I observe what he has to do to earn that money (in the way of content creation), I’m not enthusiastic about trying to become the next Darren Rowse.
In the make money online world your audience is tech savvy and the vast majority of them believe they can learn everything they need for free - so why would they ever buy information from you? Your audience has a tendency to be cynical and act very entitled. It doesn’t happen often, but we still get the occasional comment that says basically “Hey, you guys need to give me incredibly useful information every day, for free. You didn’t post yesterday. What’s the deal?”
In Make Money Online World, The Reward May Not Justify the Risk
So what am I saying? I’m saying that by deciding to be a make money online blogger you are risking huge amounts of time on a niche with plenty of high quality competition and relatively limited income potential. You’re better off investing that time in a different niche altogether. I know that most of you that have make money online blogs for two reasons: 1) most of the blogs you read are about making money online, and 2) making money online is what you think about all the time, so you find it easiest to write about it.
In the comments on the last post I wrote, Rhys and Sara indicated that the solution is to find a different niche. Sara made some great points about looking at what topics are highly searched and finding a new topic that way. That’s sound advice. Simple keyword research is how I found the products for my ecommerce site.
Passion and Curiosity Will Help You Find The Right Business For You
But if you’re looking to create your flagship web business I’d recommend going beyond keyword research. Here are some thoughts from my favorite copywriting book that I think will help:
“The best copywriters in the world are those who are curious about life, read a great deal, have many hobbies, like to travel, have a variety of interests, often master many skills, get bored and then look for other skills to master. They hunger for experience and knowledge and find other people interesting. They are very good listeners.
The thirst for knowledge, a tremendous curiosity about life, a wealth of experiences and not being afraid to work are the top credentials for a good copywriter.” - from Advertising Secrets of the Written Word by Joseph Sugarman
Read those paragraphs again and substitute the word ‘entrepreneur’ wherever it says ‘copywriter’. Apply your energy to researching your hobbies and passions and think creatively about how they might be leveraged into a business.
Start looking at the world through a problem solver’s eyes. The bigger the problem, the more lucrative the solution.
It’s likely to take a while for you to discover your ideal business and then a period of years for it to evolve into something that gives you the freedom you want. I spent four years in a job I spent equal time enjoying and hating so I could learn enough about sales and marketing to start a successful business. It was well worth it.
By the way guys, Court is not dead, and he hasn’t been kidnapped. Other than the case study he posted last night he’s going to be taking a short break from posting. After a year and over 350 posts, I’m sure you’d all agree he deserves a break. He’ll be back in action sometime next week.
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June 18th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Another great post, Mark! The passion thing is the most important thing on this list. It does not matter the topic, if you are passionate, you will succeed - even not at first. I am VERY new to posting as you can see in my blog, but I know that I will succeed over time by building links, building content, creating an audience and then finally monetizing. In the meantime, I will have as much fun as possible and learn a few things about myself along the way.
Great work.
June 18th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
You’re right, Kevin - as you persist in your passion, and stick with it, success will be inevitable, although it’s not likely to take the exact form you expected at the start.
Great theme and posts on your new blog. Best of luck with it.
January 17th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
Thanks for the great post! There is so much helpful info here, I will be back to read more as it grows.
June 18th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Excellent and sound advice Mark. I can agree with you wholeheartedly on this since I too started out thinking I could make a fortune in the MMO industry. LOL, how wrong I was.
Thanks to Griz I turned my blog around to reflect my business and what I’m doing to earn money online. While I don’t earn any money with my blog (I have never bothered to so far), I know it serves me in creating an online presence, helping me to brand myself as a freelance writer. In short, it helps me to attract new business all the time.
I could have sworn you wrote the above quote about “the best copywriters” with me in mind (minus the copy writing bit). I am everything and more mentioned in this short excerpt and it fills my heart with joy as life is just so much fun when we are excited about what we do. Don’t you agree? Maybe I should set my sights to copy writing after all.
You wrote a wise post and I hope that many new MMO bloggers will see this and use it as inspiration to make the transition. After all, between all the bloggers mentioned in the post they are in great hands to have every bit of knowledge they need to succeed at their free disposal. All it takes is time to read and implement it.
June 18th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Monika I believe the natural order of things would be for you to use your talent and evolve from freelance writing to the lucrative field of professional copywriting.
I would especially encourage you to think of products you could develop that leverage your experience as a freelancer. Then you can enjoy the benefits of business ownership and the copy you write will build that business!
June 18th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
@ Mark: I have been dabbling with this idea myself. Trouble is, when it comes to product creation my mind goes totally blank. Besides the obvious ebook, membership site, tutorials, e-course and what not I’m honestly confused about what would work best and what not. It’s a bummer really since I know this could propel me to the next level.
Maybe you ought to hit me on the head to engage my brain some more.
June 18th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Couldn’t agree with you more. MMO is a vast wasteland for improbable tech titans.
The Masked Millionaire
June 18th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Since I have my name in my domain, I can write about most things. Sure, I write about making money online but I also write about other things like virus, blogging, Blu-Ray, HDTV…. If I make a buck or two a day, I don’t mind.
I diversified it some time ago. Of course, I still can rank well for some terms.
I also started a movie web site last year(split from the main blog) since I like movies too. I even wrote a free ebook and created a landing page on Vic’s recommendation based on that.
See free movies legally(and make money too)
I update it from time to time(v1.2). Maybe I should sell it $7 instead forcing people to act on it. I have a feeling that it’s being read but nothing more.
Note: Vic mentioned some time ago that we should keep MMO blogs.
June 18th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
I guess if you don’t mind making a buck or two a day, then what you have there is a hobby more than a business. And that’s fine - hobbies are a great way to relieve stress, feel fulfilled, etc. Well worth the time investment. I would discourage anybody from pursuing a business that paid a dollar a day.
I didn’t see Vic’s post about why you should keep MMO blogs - I can only say an entrepreneur has to invest his/her time in those projects that will give them the best return on their time. I don’t think MMO blogs will do that for most people. Vic has also told me personally that he looks forward to shutting his mmo blog down and returning to his ’set and forget’ websites which are the highest earning projects he has relative to the time invested (not to mention much less ongoing maintenance).
Thanks Steve!
June 18th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
It was in one of his video pertaining to flagship blogs(I think).
It’s an hobby but it’s also my flagship blog since I post more on it than my other blogs. But I post when I can and if I have the time. My post are long but not long like Griz.
I get mostly search engine traffic($$$). I also write about my own products(new one coming soon). My movie blog make more money per month than my own blog.
Vic’s model is $1/day(set and forget) but people must have more than 1 site to make money like BANS. Btw, I got my fist check from eBay a few hours ago
. Vic talked(video) often that he wants to get out of the MMO so, it’s more public knowledge now. I can understand those that want to get out since they need to post almost everyday.
June 19th, 2008 at 1:09 am
Hi Mark!
It is really good of you to respond to my question with this post.
You said; “It’s likely to take a while for you to discover your ideal business and then a period of years for it to evolve into something that gives you the freedom you want”.
It doesn’t seem to matter where I go, I get this same answer, “It is all about defining your passion and then getting serious about it;” serious to the point even of devoting years to developing it properly. I guess I really do have to abandon the quick fix, instant reward mentality and get serious about what I am doing.
Oh well, I did have fun dreaming on about instant riches…………..
June 19th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Anyone wanting to experience sustained success has to abandon that mentality Rhys, so you’re not alone. The good news is most people give up once they have that realization, so you’re chance of success goes up proportionally to the amount of time you’re willing to persist in seeking your goals.
And, when you’re chasing your passion, you enjoy the journey anyway!
June 19th, 2008 at 8:03 am
This is a spectacular post, Mark, and one that I hope a lot of people read before they start their first blog. Many people start an MMO blog because it seems to be the popular thing to do right now, and there are a bunch of “famous” people out there making a lot of money from MMO blogs (Darren Rowse, John Chow, etc.). But the simple fact is that this is a very tough niche to get into, with a huge amount of competition, and it doesn’t pay very well. It’s really not worth the time commitment it is truly your life’s passion, which for most people I would surmise it is not.
People should really do some soul searching before they start a blog and figure out what they are passionate about, then do some research to determine it’s viability as a business. I guarantee that for 99% of the population it is not MMO, so don’t try and convince yourself it is. I almost fell into this trap when I started my first blog and I’m very thankful I didn’t.
Thanks for the post, Mark!
June 19th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Excellent advice!
I hope everybody reads this post and gets out of the money making niche. That way there will be less competition for those that are already succeeding! Like me.
June 19th, 2008 at 11:24 am
C’mon Jason….bad form to leave a comment like that with no link back to your successful site. Creates questions of legitimacy, don’t you think?
June 19th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
So sorry for the bad form but I’d like to stay under the radar.
But I will say that becoming sort of famous and competing directly with the Chows and Rowses of the world is not the only way to make money with a MMO site.
If you spend time working your way up the search engine rankings and getting on the first page of Google for many terms then it is possible to make money with almost any niche site, inluding the make money niche. Don’t you think?
June 19th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
I don’t understand what you mean by staying under the radar. The purpose of having a blog is for people to visit it, so by not linking to it you are shooting yourself in the foot. You’ve already done the work to comment, why not leave a backlink to your blog? Maybe I’m missing something…
any ideas Mark?
June 19th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Jason can speak for himself, but I think he means he’s able to run a successful mmo site based purely on search traffic and the income it can generate. I’d guess that means he’s making his money off adsense and affiliate offers as opposed to brand building, services, etc, which is a fine way to go. That’s how Grizz does it.
The only difference is Grizz is able to leverage his brand into more links, which lead to more traffic and more money for him.
June 19th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Oh sure… now everyone knows! Thanks Mark!!
June 21st, 2008 at 9:03 am
I know who Jason is, but won’t be saying it
June 19th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Nice post Mark. I think passion is very important in anything, not just making money online. It is hard to keep from being discouraged sometimes though when it seems like you’re doing everything right but getting no where. Just a few days ago, I had a friend come to me that’s been really putting in the work on a new niche site. He’s already in the top 10 @ G & Y for some of his keywords too.
I really felt bad for him, but unfortunately there is nothing I can do other than saying “just keep at it, your doing great”. Sometimes, I think there should be more answers.
June 19th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
I’ve recently moved OpTempo from being about 80% MMO articles to about 20% MMO articles. Instead I’m doing more product reviews and more general overview articles on things like collectibles and such. The result has been about a 300% increase in that blog’s income.
Having a flagship blog, MMO or otherwise, can help boost new sites you want to start, something to bear in mind.
June 19th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Court,
This article hurts, but at the same time it feels good. It is discouraging, but at the same time inspiring.
I did feel at first, like Jason in the previous comment, that it may be a ploy to discourage people to reduce the level of competitors. It also can be an informative post to help stop people from wasting time. It can be both really if you think about it. I think it IS both of those things which is what makes it such a powerful article. It is rather brilliant really.
I don’t believe I will be discouraged by this article because, I am simply learning right now. My blog http://revenuereservoir.com is basically a log of what I have tried so far and it will eventually be an account of all I learned. My only goal with this blog at this time is to snipe the keyword, “revenue” higher ranked than http://WWW.IRS.GOV.
Court, Do you think this is a waste of my time?
June 19th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Great Stuff, as usual, Mark.
You are absolutely right that keyword research should come after passion. In fact, the very first step I suggest (I outline a seven step process on my niche-choosing site) when choosing a niche is to make two lists: a list of things you love and a list of things you know about. If you don’t have a love for a topic there is just no way to continually create quality content. Readers can feel the enthusiasm of a writer and it can definitely be the difference between a blog with a solid community of regular visitors (like this one!) and a flop.
The quote you included is great. It reminds me of the first time I heard the term “lifelong learner.” I think I was about 21 and I felt like I’d finally found a way to explain my constant need to know about everything I possibly could. As a kid I lived in a small town and each week my parents - both self-educated, voracious readers - took me to the library. I worked my way through the Dewey decimal system. Despite the sometimes raised eyebrows of the old-lady librarian (I guess she thought Freud was a bit much for a 12-year-old), my parents completely supported my curiosity. If it hadn’t been for that I think I might have been stuck reading Sweet Valley High like the rest of my friends. Of course, in my opinion Sweet Valley High is much more detrimental reading material for young women than behavioral psychology could ever be! =)
As far as completely dropping my MMO blogs, I have to agree with Monika. I too continue with my MMO blogs because I think they help to build my brand. Eventually I hope to freelance (write and proofread) full time and when I decided to do that I will have some solid writing samples already accessible to potential clients.
The other reason I keep up those blogs is because they help my readers (and sometimes me) learn from my successes and failures along my way to making money online. I don’t consider them income sources at all, but I do think they have value.
Thanks again for another through-provoking post, Mark!
Sara
Note to Jason: Yes, you can compete in MMO without throwing your name around. However, despite your level of personal fame, you are still technically competing with the “Chows and Rowses” in terms of keywords, pagerank and all the other minutiae that puts you at the top of the SERPs and leads to profit. And, by extension, if you are able to compete with the big guys why not put your name out there and reap the added benefits that come with effective branding?
June 19th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Are comments disabled for me or something?
June 19th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
I guess not, but how come the long comment I just posted did not appear? Are we allowed to add links in the comments?
June 19th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Hey Mark, If your not a leader in the MMO industry then your never going to make it. If you do affiliate marking there’s room to talk but your never going to be huge either as you will end up just trading stories with others in your niche and give each other tips from time to time.
Most profitable niches are covered and have industry leaders all ready the only thing you can do is be yourself and leave your tagline (or the concept of your blog) open to allow you room to move in what ever direction seems to be working for you, and you will know when that time comes. There really is no money in blogging, or blogging about money but one thing I have seem more of is the so called MMO blogs have started posting more on affiliate marketing which is proving to be a usfull source of money for a lot more people today then 6 months ago and yes PPC is the strongest method of affilaite marketing but is also one of the most costly to get into.
I have a pole on my site asking a few questions about what people want to learn and affiliate marketing is the top spot. Which tells me there is either alot of different ways to do it, which is true or there is just not enough information on it that is helpful and that does not require you to buy the latest ebook.
As far as Vic being a leader with his site I think that is very doubtful. He does have a lot of information I can tell in his brain about the internet industry and building sites but I have been reading a lot lately that Google, once they find the BANS sites are kicking them out of there search engine because they don’t want thin affiliate sites period. That has come from a very trusted source of mine but at this point it is still a rumor and I have seen nothing supporting this from Google either. If that is the case I think Vic’s market is not only going to get pissed at him for sinking a lot of money into something that is going to die but part (and I mean only a part) of Vic’s income source or any one elses income source if they are using BANS sites is going to dry up leaving them in the cold and broke.
I know building high quality affiliate sites is a great way to make money, and I fully believe that, building a high volume of thin affiliate sites in mass numbers is going to get some reaction sooner or later from the search engines they rely on to make money from, it is simply not quality and that is what every search engine wants to have.
June 19th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
There are a lot of horrible BANS sites out there, but this is not just limited to BANS. There are horrible sites out there everywhere. I can’t imagine Google targeting a site because of the software used to build it. The true problem lies in the person who thinks they can just slap a site up with auctions and nothing else. Google may start slapping some of the sites that have no content other than eBay, but what reason would they have to target a site with lots of unique content simply because of the CMS platform?
June 19th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
If there is a lot of great content they your right , they wouldn’t slap it. I think I am talking about the same thing you are though…..the crappy sites with little value other then a way to really get to where you want to get to and in the case of BANS thats ebay. Why not just go there? There is another program, a lot cheaper then BANS called the Google cash machine….basically the same thing.
June 19th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Collin,
I think you are absolutely right that crappy sites with no value to users are not a sustainable or reliable source of income. However, I do think compact sites with solid, valuable content can be monetized with Adsense/Yahoo!/whatever Ads and be made into viable income streams.
Of course, as with nearly any online venture that involves monetization through advertising and niches, if someone doesn’t set up multiple streams of income (and I don’t just mean multiple sites/blogs, I mean completely different business models), they shouldn’t be surprised when their “online business” tanks. There are just too many variables (search engine algorithm changes, decrease in topic popularity, etc.) to depend on these types of sites as your only income source. At least as far as I’m concerned.
As for Vic, he’s the real deal. He doesn’t just use BANS or any other single online income stream. He started out black hat SEO (he’s not anymore) and has been making money online for a very long time. I see your point about BANS, but it really is a nice tool if you want an easy way to create super-targeted eBay affiliate sites. If you are just going to create some random eBay clone (and I’ve seen a lot of that crap) then you are absolutely right that the visitors are just going to go straight to eBay.
Sara
June 19th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Sara
If bloggers follow the 33% / 33% / 33% and leave 1% for shits and giggles “rule of thumb” they will never fail. It is highly recommended that bloggers follow this system for there traffic to there site (like not putting all there eggs in one basket like Google) then there site will always be strong and have steady traffic, they need to follow the same rule for making money as well. If that makes sense and I hope it does. I use the end up the day for my veg out period online and work on my safe lists.
What would not be a bad series to do is 33% on your blog , 33% on affiliate sites and 33% in PPC, now you master and get all those rolling…you should be making some very nice cash.
And I know Vic does not only use BANS sites, you can tell he is way to smart to put all his eggs in one basket, I just don’t think he is as high up the ladder as some do, thats just my opinion though. And other then BANS I never found anything on his site that I didn’t all ready know or read somewhere else. BANS or Google Cash is way to much work for me and a bit boring as well. I like the challenge of PPC, keeps my mind focused because I can lose a lot if I don’t watch what I am doing very very closely.
June 19th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Collin,
I can understand how you might not find any information that is new to you on Vic’s site. For me it was a real eye-opener, but I’m only a bit more than a year into MMO so I think my experience level when I found Vic’s site had a lot to do with my opinion of him.
Also, he has started doing live chats on uStream. He answers questions and shares some of his tips and I’m always impressed with his level of knowledge. And that he shares that knowledge without charging $47 a month for a membership site.
(Not that there is anything wrong with that either. Membership Sites are excellent business models for people with large amounts of original, profitable information)
I think your third (plus 1% free-for-all) model sounds great. It gives you enough time and energy to properly devote to projects without spending 100% of yourself on something that might not be profitable next month or even next week.
Sara
June 19th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
“right on the money”. But of course, with any niche chosen, you’ve got to stick to it and don’t quit.
June 19th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
I gave up on the MMO niche as soon as I started and put all my efforts into telling the world about my love for zodiac signs, and application of such in relationships. That is a niche I am passionate about, and I believe that no one else can match my passion for these topics.
I love the quote about copywriters, it encouraged me. For the longest time, being a ‘jack-of-all-trades’ made me feel guilty. When I discovered blogging, I found a venue for my learning addiction.
I quit my job and decided to go full time the same week you published your article on what one has to do to work full time on the net. Coincidence, or am i just addicted to your advice too?
June 20th, 2008 at 7:10 am
I agree with Susan. Find your niche which is hopefully something you enjoy and then stick to it.
June 20th, 2008 at 10:16 am
I agree and disagree at the same time.
I agree passion is very important. It makes up for a lot of other stuff that are not your cup of tea.
However, looking at making money niche as too competitive is not 100% right. While I agree it will be much harder to get yourself in, isn’t that what passion suppose to help?
I work 12-14 hours a day in two niches, and one of them is about making money. All I have is passion, I don’t dread working on it ever. It is fun.
Think about it this way. If the niche is crowded, that means you have more bloggers to link to you (easier links?) and more partners to sell your products (yes, you have to be different. don’t follow a typical strategy. create products, be different.)
If you wonder how you are going to compete in this niche, you have not enough passion. Find the next niche topic.
June 20th, 2008 at 10:17 am
I think the MMO niche is crazy. Everyone talks about how worthless it is, but everyone is trying so hard to rank for it.
I personally prefer the related but separate internet marketing and SEO niches. They’re so closely related to MMO, but they’re a whole separate beast. I personally enjoy the crowd at places like Sphinn more than the generally MMO only blogs. Places like SEOMoz, SEOBook, Graywolf, and more recently Slightly Shady SEO.
I’m keeping my SEO related blog to have a public face, but I’ve been 1000 times more successful in other niches. There are a ton of keywords that get more volume that MMO, and they’re all full of people who don’t know anything about SEO. My first keyword sniping site enjoys 5,000 visits / day in an awesome niche, and there isn’t a single other blogger on page one with me =) It’s really nice.
June 20th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
If you are doing niche sites, then you do not need “passion” about the subjects. I look at them as expanded high school term papers. Research, write, and fuggedaboudit. With a little update every couple of months or so. Do a bunch, as Court suggests.
Your flagship site(s) may be the ones you have passion about. But those may take you a long time, if ever, to make any money from.
I started off doing some sites and blogs about my passion subjects. I did not make hardly anything ($). Then I started following a “guru” who promoted that we should do “internet business” sites. So I made one of those sites. I did not make hardly anything ($). I did learn enough about SEO then and since, for Court and others, to learn that “MMO/internet business” is way too competitive for a mere mortal like me. And my “passion” sites either had nobody looking for the keywords, or the keywords were much too competitive for me to rank for. That “guru” disparaged niche site building, but inadvertently, some of the “nichier” pages on my more general sites were the only ones that made any bucks for me, to the extent they did.
So, now I have my first niche site up. Going to do another one. Then look at my “passion” sites to see if anything salvagable by extracting from them to make niches.
David Bean.
June 20th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Wow! This is great post. However, it’s depressing as all get out for me since I just started a make money online blog. Ugghhh! I guess I have some re-thinking to do.
June 20th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Thanks for this post. I’m going to give my scrapbooking blog a go. As tempting as it is to start an MMO blog, I found the competition to be too daunting. Although, I’m finding scrapbooking ain’t much easier. Good Luck to all!
June 21st, 2008 at 4:01 am
Thank you for this article. Thats is really interesting! I have add your blog to my favorites!
June 21st, 2008 at 5:39 am
I have been doing Internet Marketing for about 2 years and I realized there are many ways to drive traffic online. I was wondering what are your top 3 traffic generation methods do you use to drive traffic?
Here’s my top 3
1. Joint Venture
2. Article Marketing
3. Blogging
What’s yours care to share?
—————-
Simon
Click Here To Get Your Free Blogging Theme
June 21st, 2008 at 7:14 pm
What a great post! Yes, MMO is one tough niche to play in - but it is so tempting for new bloggers. Just take a look at the BIG commissions available thru Clickbank products!
I also agree that the audience for a blogger in the MMO niche is much more demanding than ‘other niches’. However, you can literally give them step by step instructions for free, but there are two things you simply can not teach another person - curiosity and determination. Just as the quote you posted relfected, it takes both of these qualities to make it online.
Funny, I got in trouble as a kid for being ‘too curious’ - now it pays the bills
Thanks for the thought-provoking post!
~PotPieGIrl
June 21st, 2008 at 8:50 pm
I write about MMO on my site, although it’s only about 10% of my posts. I think there are two keys to picking the right topics. First, you have to be able to monetize it. Frankly, there are a ton of opportunities to make money in the MMO space. Second, you need to know something about the topic. For a small niche site you can quickly learn what you need to for 5 to 20 posts. But for a flagship site, you can only fake it for so long. If you know what you’re talking about and can provide valuable content, I think you can compete in any space. You may not be number 1, but I think you can add value and make some money at the same time.
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:05 am
I like what you wrote about Darren Rowse and what he has to do to keep it all going. It’s like that old “be careful what you wish for” teaching.
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:57 am
What’s Your Top 3 Methods To Drive Traffic Online?
——————————————————————————–
I have been doing Internet Marketing for about 2 years and I realized there are many ways to drive traffic online. I was wondering what are your top 3 traffic generation methods do you use to drive traffic?
Here’s my top 3
1. Joint Venture
2. Article Marketing
3. Blogging
What’s yours care to share?
__________________
Simon
Click Here To Get Your Free Blogging Theme
June 22nd, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Good question. For me I’d have to say my 3 top traffic drivers are:
1) Linking out to relevant blogs, namely the ones on my blogroll.
2) Deep-linking
-and-
3) Stumbling friends’ posts and getting the favor back (never Stumble unless it is an article you think is valuable.)
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:29 pm
MMO is very high demand and relatively well competitive subject. Sure there are over 100 blogs already famous about the subject but there is still lot of potential in the niche.
June 22nd, 2008 at 8:11 pm
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June 23rd, 2008 at 2:22 am
very inspiring article, and so true,now i have to re-think idea about my blog, d’oh ..
thx !
June 25th, 2008 at 11:23 am
MMO is definately a magnetic topic of all time. You are right one should not give up trying mmo.
June 27th, 2008 at 9:23 am
It’s very difficult ! At least if you’re a semi-hermit misanthrope like me. Plus now and again Google whack you for some unknown reason. My ’serious’ blog - where I talk mainly about domain name trading used to be a PR3 - I never understood why, as it doesn’t get many visitors and the visitors it does get rarely click on anything - but still a PR3 was something and I had fantasies about improving it to a PR4 ! So I’ve been working at it a bit more lately. But to my disgust I just checked my PR and it’s now a PR0 ! Why ? Who knows. I don’t pay for links and as far as I know I don’t do anythinbg else I shouldn’t but there you go - hey ho - maybe if I ignore it it will climb back up to a PR3.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:55 am
i agree with u chandra..MMO is d most hot spot in making money online..even i find it very intresting as it can help in fetching out a good amount of money…
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Jack
July 10th, 2008 at 5:55 am
IT’s a nice arctile. Passion,curiosity,eagerness plays an important role in achieving the goals. If one has to make money then he has to find the best and more lucrative sites. One should not be frustrated but should move forward with more zeal and enthusiam. One should work hard on building links, driving traffic and then generate money.
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Angelia
July 11th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Id argue that the bigger problem with meta blogs - writing about how to write etc - is that the content is inherently limited and they can get repetative quickly. I think even Darren Rowse has pointed out in a post that he expects to get much more commitment from new readers and this drops away in time.
I would suggest that anyone that feels passionately about writing a MMO blog shouldnt be put off. I have no doubt that in 5 years time there will be other “names” we all recognise that are just starting out today. And maybe Darren will fall out of favour (I’m sure he won’t :)!). The key point that should be made is that it is tough, it needs commitment, and it is likely, ironically, you’ll not make any money from it. Not at the start at least.
But if your expectations are right, and you love it, then go for it…
I think part of the prob is people still think MMO is a “get rich quick scheme”. Although im sure, like in any other business model, some people have had rapid success, this is surely the exception and not the norm though?
GL with whatever you enjoy writing about
July 13th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Since this post went up, I put up a new non-MMO niche site, and it climbed to 5/22,500 in the SERPS in 10 days. WOW! This is most encouraging, I’ve never had that kind of rapid result before.
Working in a less competitive arena seems to be an awful lot easier, thanks Mark.
July 17th, 2008 at 2:10 am
hiiii…
Online money making is basically for the earn money;working through internet.Online money making is the way through which you work online, post your blogs,share your ideas and increase your social network.
Its not requires any kind of special knowledge and skills.
_________________________
mary
July 17th, 2008 at 3:39 am
Money making online has been an attraction for all the bloggers around the world and also you can’t overlook to the neck slashing competition you have in this industry but due to these reasons one must not give up to try making money online because of a reason that making money online through blogging does not require any special qualification.
______________________
Scott
July 19th, 2008 at 12:42 am
Money making online has been an attraction for all the bloggers around the world but what about some disreputable organization who can creat some problem for the newbise. One must check the organization before working for it. To start blogging rocket science information is not required but one should take it seriously.
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Rogers
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:21 am
Why to move from Make Money Online (MMO), when one has lots of opportunities related to it along with various relaxations such as no particular qualification or expertise is required, one can work at his own pace and place. We can earn easy money through MMO, and that is what all matters.
________________________________
Samuel
December 15th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Thanks for all the tips everyone - it looks like I need to do some serious article marketing !
December 16th, 2008 at 12:17 am
Sound very familiar. Making money online is very challenging especially if you started late.
January 20th, 2009 at 12:54 am
Article marketing has very much helped me but perseverance is the the key . It has to be part of everyday marketing plan.
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:56 am
very true,,, thx for posting this
February 10th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
And, to state the obvious, shouldn’t people teaching others how to make money
online, already be successful at making money online? Does anyone else not see
the intense irony in this? How can you teach others to do something that you
have not done and cannot do yourself?
February 18th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Damn, now ill have to try to switch niche’s!!! ill probably go into achne or pornography lol
April 14th, 2009 at 6:20 am
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June 23rd, 2009 at 11:32 am
I have asked this before - is the blogosphere getting tapped out? I visit the same blogs that I have for years - load up a new one now and then.
July 26th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
I agree about that, better we focus to niche that we like than focus fighting in make money online niche.
From david
August 12th, 2009 at 8:40 am
start making money online from promoting “Make Money Online products is not that easy but with hardwork and patience, the profit will definitely come.
I make money from this catewgory but I’ve just started to try out other niche products and some of them are very converting
August 21st, 2009 at 12:32 am
fruitful results comes from doing a job you love…and the rest shall follow
September 3rd, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Awesome piece of information all in one place. thanks for the information.
September 27th, 2009 at 9:55 am
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October 14th, 2009 at 6:16 am
И я тоже отмечусь.
October 15th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
А Вы знаете какой сегодня праздник?
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Mark, sometimes people don’t believe no matter how logical it sounds. They just have to learn for themselves. We have a few clients that are convinced there’s gold in them there Blogs ! Anyway, once again excellent, excellent post.
November 29th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Mark,
I agree 100% about passion. If your not interested in your niche, its going to suck having to write about it all the time. A much better idea is of course finding something that you are passionate about, and also it should have as little competition as possible.
As far as the MMO blog goes, it never hurts to have one of them too! Writing what you have already done and used successfully makes writing content easy, and at the very least you have a nicely aging domain. We all know the value of a nicely aged domain!
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