Well it’s been a while since my last post. It’s not that I’ve been busy…it’s more the fact that I couldn’t be bothered writing for this blog. Sounds bad doesn’t it? But when it comes down to it, this blog isn’t how we make our money. In fact, it makes us nothing at all except when we write up a review for something (which is few and far between) or when someone pays for advertising space.
For now, this blog really is just a way of expressing my views of this online business I am in and also provide advice to others who are wanting to make a living online. So I personally don’t want to have to feel forced to write every day for it simply to keep the traffic coming in order to make sales.
But not only that, I find this business model for making money online quite time consuming. It also requires consistent action in order to maintain the momentum and quite a bit of networking in order to build a following.
In contrast, I find that the model we use to make money online is so much easier and once set up requires minimal work.
For instance, to get this particular blog up and running to a level of making a consistent income I would probably need to do the following on a consistent basis:
- leave blog comments on other peoples websites
- leave forum posts
- tweet regularly
- regularly post on Facebook
- write at least one blog post a day
- network, network, network!
- regularly post to my email list
- check RSS feeds on a daily basis (something that I don’t do at all by the way)
- write guest posts
- work on JV’s
That to me is a lot of work.
On the other hand our model requires the following:
- find a product in Amazon
- do a bit of keyword research
- write up a really good review for that product and post to one of our blogs
- get traffic to it
The difference between the two is that the first model requires consistent effort (usually daily) whereas the second model requires a one-off amount of work. The only consistent work involved with this is getting the traffic and even then once a level of traffic is achieved we don’t have to worry too much about it.
So we can take a week off and not do any work without it affecting our business. In fact, we can take a month off because the pages we have set up already get traffic and don’t need constant work to maintain that traffic. Obviously we can’t neglect those pages totally but the work involved with maintaining them doesn’t have to be done on a daily basis nor on a weekly basis once the traffic is there.
When it comes down to it, you only need a handful of good pages to make a full time income online. We have individual pages that consistently make over $500 a week and that is without ongoing effort on our part. So we don’t need to blog consistently or leave blog comments or check RSS feeds or post regularly on forums or Twitter constantly. All we really need to do is get traffic to our top product review pages and that really is just a handful of pages per website.
I’m on a mission at the moment to simplify everything we do. I want the The 4-Hour Workweek lifestyle…who wouldn’t?…but the only way we are going to get that is to consistenly analyze what we do to see what is working and what isn’t and then refine the process.
What me and Wanda do is get out the butchers paper and write down the tasks we do on a regular basis. We then go through each to see whether each task is actually worth the effort. For instance, at this moment in time we don’t see the value in spending hours a day on Twitter. It brings in minimal traffic for the amount of time and work that is involved. So you’ll notice the Twitter account for this blog has been pretty quiet these days as has the rest of our Twitter accounts. That’s not to say that Twitter doesn’t have value but for us it’s too much work for the results we are getting.
So what about you? Have you thought about the effort you put into your online business? If you are new to making money online then obviously you are going to have to do a bit of work before you see results but what about those that have been online for a while. Are you actually making any money for all the work you are putting into it? If not, then you need to step back and look at exactly what tasks you are doing on a daily basis and see if they are getting you the results you desire.
Paula,
I’ve tried and failed at what you do to make an income. Perhaps I picked the wrong products or keywords etc.
Is it hit and miss?
I tend to concentrate on getting opt-ins, build relationships and make an income that way…but it does take hard work!
Andrew
.-= andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..10 Powerful Post Ideas to Help Build Your Blog’s Following =-.
It was ‘hit and miss’ for us for quite a while. That is until we hit on a formula for doing it the right way. We have a criteria for choosing products in Amazon and a format for writing up our product reviews that work. It’s not always 100% spot on but in most cases it works.
You could sell that!
Andrew
.-= andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..10 Powerful Post Ideas to Help Build Your Blog’s Following =-.
I know – I’m thinking about it.
Hi Paula – When you say you have individual pages, are you talking about having separate landing pages for each item you’re promoting? Or do you create a product review page on this blog?
.-= Jack | Online Marketing Blog´s last blog ..Unique Twitter Tool To Promote And Advertise For Free! =-.
What we do on each of the product blogs we own is create a Page (not a post)for each product review we write. I use the Flexsqueeze theme so I can create landing type pages without the sidebar interfering with the page.
Ah. Thanks for the clarification. Sounds like a lot of work and an initial investment buying a domain and hosting for each product blog, but well worth the effort!
.-= Jack | Online Marketing Blog´s last blog ..Do You Use These Top 3 Ways to Monetize Your Blog? =-.
Actually not really Jack. The only reason we have so many blogs is that was the way to go years ago.
With this method you don’t need to do that. You can create one website (like a gift or shopping site) and create as many product reviews as you like on the one site.
The site doesn’t matter so much as the pages. Technically I could add an Amazon product review to this site and still get it to work but I don’t really want to do that for this blog.
Ok, Now I understand. If you really wanted to promote something related to your blog’s niche, let’s say an affiliate marketing ebook or tool, then I guess it would be ok to use your blog.
And those squeeze page themes would give that page of your blog more of a landing page look and feel by removing the sidebar, etc.
.-= Jack | Online Marketing Blog´s last blog ..Unique Twitter Tool To Promote And Advertise For Free! =-.
Yep that’s it exactly Jack.
I saved your excellent info about writing product reviews. Have you ever shared your criteria for choosing Amazon products?
.-= Julie @ Write for eHow´s last blog ..My Thoughts on the Future of the Writer’s Compensation Program at eHow =-.
Not yet Julie but I think it’s probably time. We have been debating about whether to write up an ebook for a while now. There are literally hundreds of thousands of products in Amazon so it’s not like we are going to be competing with anyone.
I sincerely hope you do. I would be first in line to buy it!
.-= Julie @ Write for eHow´s last blog ..My Thoughts on the Future of the Writer’s Compensation Program at eHow =-.
I too am attempting to stream line but it’s an ongoing process for sure.
I recent;y purchased flexx and am really looking forward to get into it’s different features.
Don’t be surprised if I come back for consultations! ;) lol
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Slowly We Move Inch By Inch =-.
The Flexsqueeze theme is brilliant. We use it on all of our blogs. I still haven’t uploaded it to this blog for some reason so might do that today. This theme is the Flexibility 2 theme which is the free version of the Flexsqueeze theme.
Happy to help if you have any questions about it but I wouldn’t think you would have too many – Flezsqueeze is really easy to use.
Easy indeed. When I first uploaded it to my test blog and looked through the admin, I thought I got jipped with some newbie toy. LOL
I haven’t played with it much yet though, so I may indeed be back for tips. The custom theme I’m building now was paid for long before I bought Flexx…I’ll be damned if I’m just going to toss it. :)
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..$100 – 10 Winners – Comment Contest! ‘Till Months End… =-.
Forgot to subscribe to comments.
Sent you an email also.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..$100 – 10 Winners – Comment Contest! ‘Till Months End… =-.
I am definitely making more money on projects other than my blog. I don’t really thing blogs per se make money it is the products that they promote that make the money.
.-= Ms. Freeman´s last blog ..Don’t worry be happy! =-.
Yes that’s right. I think a lot of bloggers think too broadly when it comes to their blog. They try to do everything possible to improve their blog and get more traffic to it but instead they should be trying to improve a few product pages and getting traffic to those.
Wanda, for marketing do you rely on keywords and search engine traffic?
.-= Katherine´s last blog ..Kids TV Shows News | Phineas and Ferb Second Season Happenings =-.
We do a bit of keyword research initially but we don’t get hung up on having exactly the right keywords so we don’t spend a lot of time on it.
Our traffic comes purely from organic search so Google mostly and then Bing and Yahoo.
The first approach is indeed time consuming and it’s what I’m currently adopting. I did not know there are other good approach like the second you have stated here. Still, I’m considering to create my own product, though I know that I need to build my authority–and such will take time and effort.
I believe that success comes with patience, perseverance and learning. So shall I be. :-)
Yes your definitely right there Walter. This whole business in general takes “patience, perseverance and learning”. Not many people get that and give up very early on because of it.
Gosh Paula, I love reading your feed and posts. Always so honest and practical! Being new I too would buy/read your planned e-book!
Stay well
.-= Ian Anderson´s last blog ..Awesome camper! =-.
Thanks for visiting Ian. I am working on the ebook as we speak.
Hi Paula,
I’ve been coming across a lot of people who’ve been same kind of business model like your. And it really does seem easier than making money online from “making money online” niche. Would you care to show one of your website that is making money from Amazon?
I’m more into make money online niche and have never tried to make money from Amazon.
We used to reveal our websites but we no longer do that now. It just caused too many issues with people trying to copy content.
For some reason people seem to think that our sites are something special but really they are just regular WordPress blogs with really good reviews. The reviews that convert really well are over 1000 words each and provide as much detail as possible.
The website itself isn’t important so much – it is really the individual pages that are important. You could throw these reviews on a Squidoo page, Hubpage, free WordPress blog or whatever you like and it will still work assuming you get the traffic to it. Having said that however, we do recommend WordPress because Google seems to love it and it is easy to use.
I disagree unless you’re targeting those that know very little; literally very little.
Squidoo/Hubpage maybe, but not free hosting like WP.com, Blogspot or any of the others.
I am a firm believer in the saying that few who know a thing or two are going to take MMO advice, much less buy something from someone using free hosting.
.-= Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Oops I Lied-HAHA =-.
You have to remember Dennis that the people who look for reviews for Amazon products are not internet marketers. They wouldn’t know a free hosting page if they fell over one. They just see a page on the net and that’s all they see.
So yes, I agree, if you are promoting something to those that “know a thing or two” then free hosting just won’t cut it. But for Amazon products it really doesn’t matter. In fact, in some ways, the less professional looking the site the better as people who are looking for reviews want reviews from ‘real’ people not a business.
Agreed, and I should have added that.
I would think it depended on the product as well.
By the reply, I assume you review non-internet marketing products…..Amazon does have marketing related products too, yes?
We mostly promote non-marketing related like household products, sporting goods, hardware, jewellery, baby good etc etc. We will review anything really.
Hi Paula & Wanda,
Congratulations on your wonderful success!
I first heard about you two from James Martell. I’m going through a course with him right now.
My site has been up and running for about 6 months now and I’ve been following the PAD technique religiously and currently have about 35 published articles. My question to you is; how long should it take to start seeing steady traffic and income. So far, I’m not seeing very good traffic numbers. I put in a lot of hours and effort, about 40 hours a week.
Am I being too impatient?
Kind regards,
Kimberly Aardal
It’s so very hard to answer that Kimberley as so many things can affect traffic.
Can you let me know your traffic numbers and what keywords you are trying to rank for? Send me an email if you like. Just go to the Contact page on this site.
Paula,
That’s a good figure for a passive income. You both really know what you are doing. I agree. It really takes a lot of hard work at first. But if you are in it for a year and still doing the same effort then there must be something wrong with the strategy.
lol, how true. As they say if you keep doing the same things you keep getting the same results. I guess that’s why we need to sit back and take a critical look at what is happening, and be prepared to change tactics if things aren’t working.