Web sites

[PrincessPerky]

So I am trying to get an idea of a website that my DH can do (he is a bit more talented than I am) and I was wondering if anyone had an idea just how many hits you would need to get the net to pay for itself. While I would love for DH to quit his dayjob, what I really want when my cable net contract runs out is a good reason to keep it. (I just can't do dial up!)

So doing something simple like google ads how many visitors would I need to con (vince) enough of them to click thru to make 30$ a month? (the difference between cable and dialup around here)

[DivaJen]

It isn't just how many visitors you get. It's what kind of content your site has, and how much advertisers are paying for each click on their ads. Do you have an idea of what kind of site you'd want to create?

[PrincessPerky]

One that makes about 30$ a month!

No idea really. Actually other than teaching I know nothing, but DH is great with computers, I just can't figure out how to translate that into a site yet. 'Specially a site I can edit while he adds the knowledge. (and spell checker)

[mjrube94]

Here's one thing he can try: How about going to small businesses in your area that don't already have websites, and offering to create one for them? Maybe at first, he can offer to do it in exchange for their product (e.g., a free dinner from a restaurant). Then, after he gets a few and can show them to others, he can start charging for them?

[jmjj215]

For google ads, make sure you read their terms of service or they'll can you quick (if you do something out of line - ignorance isn't an excuse).

What diva said is right: the keywords matter a ton. If your site is about budgeting it won't pay too much. However, if it's about debt consolidation? It pays quite a bit more. Of course, there isn't as much competition for budgeting vs. debt consolidation so getting traffic easier..perhaps you make up for a smaller per ad payout with more volume.

It can take a good six months to get listed meaningfully in the search engines, especially google. They tend to sandbox new sites for a bit.

The most important aspect of it is to write unique and helpful content for your target user. Then the money will come in.

Also, you don't want to really convince people to click on your ads per se, as in saying "click on these ads to support this site" or something like that b/c it's against Google's TOS. $30/month can be earned w/in six months if you're willing to spend several hours per week updating, adding new content, submitting to search engines (not that important), link exchanging w/ other relevant sites, learning all about how the ads' colors can be used more effectivly to boost CTR, and optimizing all of your pages for the search engines through good keyword research, targeting, and writing (all while still pleasing your end-surfer).

It's quite fun once you have it running and it's auto-piloting itself. Although to be honest, ask Jeffrey how much autopilot this site does. It's a big job to run a good site. I spend probably 10 hours per week at least doing something related to my online business.

Hope that helps? If you want to know what high-paying keywords there are to write a site about that, just search it in google. You'll find it soon enough (don't pay for a list!).

[jmjj215]

I should add that it would be better to just choose a topic you're interested in. Who wants to write about attorneys (high-paying) for money? I certainly wouldn't.

[PrincessPerky]

Thanks for the advice, I certainly have no intrest in law! (hate it in fact)

Is that keywords on the page or keywords on the metatag and the other thingie? (I found themn rearanging my goof off stuff, no idea what they mean)

[jeffrey]

Originally Posted by jmjj215

It's quite fun once you have it running and it's auto-piloting itself. Although to be honest, ask Jeffrey how much autopilot this site does. It's a big job to run a good site. I spend probably 10 hours per week at least doing something related to my online business.

It's a dedication that goes well beyond earning money. Nate and I have made pennies per hour for the amount of time we've put into the site and although we hope it will be our full time job in the future, we know that is still a few years away. We basically spend every free moment we have on the site - just imagine having another full time job on top of everything you currently do and that about sums it up

If the goal is to make $30 a month, ebay it for the money. A lot less time and a bigger return.

I'm not saying that building a website isn't a good thing to do - but if you are going to do it you should do it because you want to even if no many comes from it. That is the type of dedication you need to make it work. The main criteria is to keep plugging away even when it seems like nobody is visiting the site.

It is also a long process until you begin making some money if you aren't selling anything. We hardly made a dime the first year we were up - just made enought o cover our expenses (popularity is a double edge sword when you are still growing - we started out on a $20 a month server and now have to pay a few hundred dollars a month) Stiil, if you can keep at it over a long period, the rewards will eventually come.

[jmjj215]

Great points Jeffrey. I heard a great entrepreneur speak the other day and he said something along the lines of: "Making money should be a byproduct of what you do." I guess that would apply to a lot of dedicated webmasters out there.

And don't calculate your per hour anymore! It's always depressing Ha!

[DivaJen]

Originally Posted by jeffrey

It's a dedication that goes well beyond earning money. Nate and I have made pennies per hour for the amount of time we've put into the site and although we hope it will be our full time job in the future, we know that is still a few years away. We basically spend every free moment we have on the site - just imagine having another full time job on top of everything you currently do and that about sums it up

If the goal is to make $30 a month, ebay it for the money. A lot less time and a bigger return.

I'm not saying that building a website isn't a good thing to do - but if you are going to do it you should do it because you want to even if no many comes from it. That is the type of dedication you need to make it work. The main criteria is to keep plugging away even when it seems like nobody is visiting the site.

It is also a long process until you begin making some money if you aren't selling anything. We hardly made a dime the first year we were up - just made enought o cover our expenses (popularity is a double edge sword when you are still growing - we started out on a $20 a month server and now have to pay a few hundred dollars a month) Stiil, if you can keep at it over a long period, the rewards will eventually come.

I wanted to say that pretty much everything Jeffrey has said here about running SavingAdvice has been true for me and DivaTribe as well. You don't start a little ol' web site and immediately have people generating income on it. I started DT with a friend in late 2001, and it's only recently that it has become profitable.

And frankly, we never set out to make a ton of money from it - we started it because we felt driven to create a women's community unlike the others we'd been seeing at the time. It is a labor of love, and my hourly income ain't much.

[PrincessPerky]

Hmm sounds like I have to wait till I have something I really care about. Which unless I can convince thousands to listen to me brag about my kids I prolly never will!

[lisajane]

I'm with google adsense I only make about a buck or two a day since my site is very frugally minded, I doubt they'd pay that much for the ads on my site, so that's what I get. However, if I spend more time writing articles and specialized content, I'm sure it will pay off more for adsense.

[BillsGirl]

Originally Posted by DivaJen

I wanted to say that pretty much everything Jeffrey has said here about running SavingAdvice has been true for me and DivaTribe as well. You don't start a little ol' web site and immediately have people generating income on it. I started DT with a friend in late 2001, and it's only recently that it has become profitable.

And frankly, we never set out to make a ton of money from it - we started it because we felt driven to create a women's community unlike the others we'd been seeing at the time. It is a labor of love, and my hourly income ain't much.

I'm going to quote on that "It's a labor of Love" It's quite costly, but I do enjoy the time I spend on the foruma nd the work I put like when I add new avatars to hear a thanks is great for me and thats about all I get right now!!!!! I spent all my birthday money to put my site together and hoping to have it run itself but I don't have any money yet to pay fo9r the hosting fees and the domain name fees for next year..... hopefully I'll have the money by the time it's due (I'm sure I will) Although my site started out on a great foot and my starting success is very unlikely It's still no where near where I'de wish it would be... Some day I wish to be HALF of what savingsadvice is!!!

I just started a new project to have the site pay for itself... I stumbled on a website selling ads on ebay and shes making quite a large profit although she has a LARGE amount of traffic I figured I could start to and with small amount but hey every .25 counts towards something and in return someday I hope to make the money she is making!!

[acezz4e_tish]

go to sites that best represent you and stuff you like, click on affiliate/banner swap. theres another c word but it escapes me at the moment.lol