$100,000/$50,000 of Motivation
April 5, 2005 by Mary Jo Manzanares
Filed under Business
As I mentioned in the previous entry I have decided to get off my ass and start doing things right. I have a new company coming soon (signups are tomorrow by the way, 24 hours only) and have put new focus into my sites and blogging. I did all of this even before I read about the $100,000 that Weblogs, Inc. has made from Adsense in 7 months or the $50,000 that Darren has made in that same period of time.
That just added more fuel to the fire.
To put things into perspective and not make it seem like I have no idea how to make money online I have earned over $50,000 in that same time period as well, but that includes more than just AdSense (of course I have only begun to start and get into the psychotic habits of Darren who blogs 28 hours a day) and I am pretty sure I have spent all of it. Let me emphasize that most of that was due to luck and I am no where near those numbers currently so don’t get disillusioned.
To be honest last year was the good times, then the Amazon sites disappeared and I wasn’t getting any ads on Bet Fest (soon to be chipface.com) and I was putting in time with Business Logs and I stopped writing for Whitespace and I just wasn’t applying myself. I had money to spend and parties to attend.
I have all this online ‘real-estate’ and it’s time to make use of it. So to make this entry of use to you I will show you a simple gameplan outlining some of the plans I have for my sites.
The Gameplan
- 9rules. Obviously this site becomes the site for the network so monetarily it does nothing.
- Whitespace. My pride and joy. The site that started it all. The audience there is very strict and my design tastes doesn’t allow for any clutter basically so not much will change there. Web design ads and blog ads do not pay very well. Increase post rate with higher quality content mixed in with a bit more features to draw newcomers in.
- Forever Geek. It is quite possible that I would be making over $100/day from AdSense alone on this site if I didn’t implement a revenue sharing scheme, but I have no regrets as the community of authors has only helped to improve the site many times over. Traffic is definitely large enough to interest sponsors. Need more original articles though.
- Web Drug Database. Weak traffic-wise. Strong eCPM-wise. Increase traffic there with infrequent article posting and over time the site may become a hidden goldmine. Not enough time or interest to invest large amounts of time into it.
- Insert25. Working on adding a new section to the site that should increase traffic and revenue greatly. Just need to get around to finishing it. Find more authors to increase posting rate and intrigue readers enough to submit reviews/articles.
- Big Money Tips. You can read my thoughts about this site here.
- Work Boxers. Just continue to write on a frequent basis and finish that other project…
Along with these sites I have two more ones that should launch shortly (one may launch this week). What about all the other ones in your portfolio? Well some of those just have to sit for a bit, while others have been handed off for other people to take over. I control over a million pageviews a month and that number is going to increase greatly with the launch of the network (a good reason to try and get in) so hopefully I can make something out of it.
Finally I am setting a goal to help the network achieve $X amount of AdSense revenue in Y amount of months.
Curiosity Keith,
Why not show strategically placed Google ads for visitors from Google or other search engines? Something like Russell Beattie does on this blog?
That may be a way to monetize your Google visitors…
Great read, I am looking forward to seeing your visions evolve and maybe gather a few pointers on the way. I am new to the blogging world but am starting to see some money come in from Adsense. Nothing compared to what is being done around here but it was your blogs that got me rolling and in the right direction.
Funny Kieth… I swear just the other day you were telling me that you didn’t have that large of a readership… ;)
Although, Scrivs hit it on the head there – I’ve found that content sites are what makes money – but not in the literal sense. It’s more like, content sites are the reason people go to a site – and you just need to advertise other explicitly-for-profit ventures on the site.
So, make a quality content site (like you have) and use it as a way to spread the word / Google Juice to your for-profit ventures. I’ve been slowly doing this with some other sites of mine, and it seems to be working quite well.
Of course there are exceptions to the rule, everywhere – look at what Cameron Moll has done lately. He’s started a business off his blog – and seems to be offering some sponsoring options as well.
Scrivs – off topic – if I might say so – you should consider writing about advertising new sites (where to find publishers for your niche, etc) – because that’s where I know I’m lacking. I don’t have a problem pumping some money back into my sites – but I’m unsure of where to go.
I agree with what you say about WIN Keith, but I really can’t beat Calacanis to death since he does make money. I just can’t help but think he could be making a lot more. Yes I know the graphical ads command killer CPMs at sites like Engadget, but what about the Cancer Blog? Those are the numbers I am most interested in.
As for leveraging your current traffic you have the advantage of just possibly adding a banner or button on your site advertising your new service (or whatever you are launching) along with writing a blog entry. With your power, there is no doubt that entry and the new venture will get linked to many times over from other sites and that will help build things up.
The main problem is creating a brand new venture that doesn’t directly relate to the audience of your current traffic. For example, CSS Vault and Forever Geek launched around the same time, but CSS Vault grew much quicker because that site related to the Whitespace audience.
There are other things, but I need to take a nap first, but I would definitely advise you to look at blogads and search their network for sites where you can place an ad for cheap. I was able to put an ad up for Insert 25 on Damned Machines for only $30 for 3 months (I see they upped it to $75 now).
Also I know I have hounded you enough about this, but I really do think the 9rules network could play a large part in this.
I’ve got to say, reading this stuff is…”edutational” or something like that. I’ve got no doubts you can achieve your goals, and by sharing your methods and tips you help others in the process.
As you know I’m working on starting some for-profit (although my goals aren’t quite as lofty) ventures and I’m taking in much of what you’re writing here man.
I look at Weblogs, inc. and I see a general lack of quality. It shocks me that they make so much money when there is so much great content out there being given away for free!
One thing I’m curious about. I make very little money from Asterisk* (money is not a priority there) but I’ve got very high traffic. I don’t want to sell that out. In fact I’m trying to think of was to make the focus more on the content. I imagine it’s a similar situation to Whitespace (or 9rules?) and wanted to know how I can leverage that traffic to help get any new ventures I’ve got off the ground.
Any ideas?