Own Your Income, Make a Website.
Note: This is not a “get rich scheme”.
The internet boasts a community of knowledge, art, innovation, communication, and social connectivity. With visitors racing to get online everyday, we truly live in a “web advertiser’s market”. But is it really possible for “normal” people to make even a slight residual income online? Of course it is, just ask Pat Flynn.
Pat is one of the internet’s greatest examples of self-success. While studying for a professional certification exam, Pat created a blog to help him study the courses materials. This blog later turned into an “e-book”, while his blog drew immense web traffic. People were interested.
It all starts with a website or blog.
We are still very much in the Wild, Wild, West of the web. Like gold miners who traveled to California in search for a better life, more money, or an adventure, “Intreprenuers” (internet entrepreneurs) also work hard to mine for gold (their gold is in the shape of web traffic) for ammasing fortune.
It is possible to create your own lifestyle. Think:
- “Do I want to create recurring income—even if it’s just $100/week—by sharing my wisdom with the world?”
- “Do I have a talent or skill worth sharing with others?“
- “Do I know enough to create a blog post once per week?”
If you answered “YES” to any of these questions, stop waiting and create something.
How do I monetize my website?
Do not worry about monetizing your website at first. The foundational trick to earning a lifestyle via the internet starts with building something that people care about. Think Pinterest: why did Pinterest succeed? Pinterest gave people what they wanted—you visit Pinterest to discover fun DIY projects or to discover what’s trending in fashion. The point is, you go to the website for a reason. Give people a reason to visit your site and money will follow.
Examples of Profitable Blogs
We asked some of our customers to provide examples of profitable blogs they created. Create your own blog today. Here are a few responses:
- Community News Blog
- “Let me first start by saying that I am not a technical person at all. But I learned how to blog in high school and the rest comes with the typical “blood, sweat, and tears” phrase. Ok so here’s how I make my extra income–two years ago I made 35 blogs (using WordPress), dedicated for 35 of the most populated cities in the U.S.A. Each blog had it’s own unique domain name (incorporating the city somehow of course) and I would spend no more than 7 minutes/blog/day writing a quick article (~7 or less sentences) on the community’s top news stories of the day. This would draw massive local web traffic to the blog and visitors would reshare my articles to Facebook and Twitter. Imagine, on average, that with just 100 visitors per day, and 10% reposting the 6-sentence article that I wrote, to two social media websites—causing at least 1 additional visitor to click their shared link. My 7-minute, 7-sentence article just drew 140+ visitors to the site, multiplied by 35 blogs (for each city), would bring in approximately 5,000 visitors PER DAY, or roughly 150,000 visitors PER month. If you’ve signed up with an ad-serving partner (like Google AdSense, read more here) and you’re earning $4-$5 per 1k visitors, that’s $675 in advertising money PER MONTH. I don’t rely on this income wholly but making an extra couple hundred bucks per month without having to drive people around or sit behind a desk is pretty sick.”
- Amazon Affiliate Blogging
- “Amazon.com is the number one retailer in the world, but I found out that without bloggers and third party sellers, Amazon’s ecommerce business would not be nearly as strong as it is today. If you Google something like “making money with Amazon Affiliate”, literally tens of thousands of web results populate. I read through hundreds of these pages and came to a conclusion: if all these fools can earn money through this program, why not me? I started a wordpress blog and signed up for Amazon’s affiliate program. The trick here is to pick something you are interested in. I reviewed kitchen supplies and household decorations. I would write about my own home and what I suggested to people looking to refurnish their home with affordable things, all available from Amazon.com. I was surprised that hundreds of people were coming to my blog everyday. A lot of visitors came from Pinterest (Pinterest is one of the easiest ways to get traffic, because if you Pin something from your blog and 100 other people repin it on pinterest, the clicks will come.) It only generates about $375/month but that makes my bank account $4,500 richer a year.”
We offer managed WordPress hosting and domain registration. Check out our Twitter for the most recent coupon codes. If you’re unsure of where to start, glaze through the Blogging for Beginners article.