Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

I watched the movie Titanic with Leo and Kate on Friday night. It’s a good movie and afterwards I was interested to learn more about the tragedy so I Googled up some answers. As I progressed through page after page something started to bother me. I had trouble finding the real content because there was Google AdSense in all the most prominent places on EVERY site I visited. It wasn’t until I hit the “clean” Wikipedia entry on the Titanic that I finally got some valuable information.

Google has to be commended for providing one of the best ways to monetize a website. It’s so good because even the most average Webmaster can easily cut and paste some code to start earning some cash from their web property. Even sites that have a clear purpose and real content still apply some AdSense here and there for the “extra cash” that can be earned. Afterall you would rather someone clicked AdSense ads on your site when they exit so you get your 20 cents.

The problem is that when a webmaster gets a taste for the money suddenly their eyes start to sparkle and you hear that “cha-ching” noise. The possibility dawns - I can make real money on the Internet - and suddenly the motivation behind building the website goes from one of indulging in a hobby to making money. More and more AdSense blocks appear on sites and it becomes harder to find the real content.

Theoretically of course you would think that the AdSense ads themselves should have the content I’m looking for. For me personally I long ago caught “AdSense blindness” unless it’s a very specific Google search. Any AdSense on websites I ignore, just the way I ignored banners in their heyday. Plus most AdSense ads are for products or services relating to my keyword -rarely does an AdSense ad actually provide the best free content about a topic, afterall, the AdWords buyer is usually there to make sales.

Now we are faced with a situation where AdSense is proliferating at an outstanding rate and thousands of webmasters build sites specifically to earn money. Many of these site owners realize that content is still important, so they work hard to locate original content for their sites, but it’s still contrived content - just enough to get some reasonable Google rankings so the traffic starts to trickle in and the AdSense clicks increase. It’s not content created from a genuine interest in the subject. Compare this to a webmaster who hasn’t discovered AdSense yet and builds a site to provide the best content. Money doesn’t come into the motivation equation at all in this case.

But does that matter? Does the quality of our Internet increase or decrease if everyone who publishes a website does it, at least partially, to make money?

If we go back to the days before AdSense people were trying to make money. They did it much the same as they do now - with affiliate programs and CPM banner campaigns - AdSense just added another, very effective monetization method. Perhaps my argument is moot - money will always be part of the motivation.

AdSense made it all too easy. When your average hobbyist can actually see that $5 a day come in there is an immediate impact on their motivation. The taste of the money is so much more tangible because the results are quick and easy. It’s because banner ads and affiliate marketing are generally harder for novices to have significant success with that they don’t spark the same far-reaching penetration that AdSense does.

Maybe Google AdSense will begin to perform poorly for advertisers and “blindness” may become a problem like it did for banners. However I don’t think the impact will ever be significant. The average net user does not see text as advertising and I don’t see that characteristic changing. This means finding the real answer to our questions may become harder and harder as more site owners drown their content with AdSense to make money. I find that quite ironic considering Google came about as a better alternative to finding answers to questions.

Yaro Starak

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In the forums member chrismc has put together a blog and ecommerce site in one day and even managed to make some sales.

You can read about it in this post - What Can You Build in a Day?

Could you start a business in a single day?

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Download the MP3 [ 35 Minutes - 8 MB]

Daryl Grant and her husband Andrew (www.andrewanddaryl.com) started selling e-books online in late 2004. The next year they had revenues of over $250,000 USD selling multiple information products on various niche topics. They now have a proven system for finding niches, conducting market research, outsourcing the production of quality books/information and marketing and delivering the products through the web. Not bad for a couple who barely could do much more than surf and email when they got started.

I found out about Daryl and Andrew after seeing a newspaper article about their success. I got in touch and arranged to do this podcast with Daryl. We ended up talking for nearly an hour so I broke this podcast into two parts. The second part will be released sometime soon.

If you want to hear how Daryl managed to create a $250,000 passive income stream in a year’s time then you will enjoy these podcasts. If you would like further information on how you can start your own information product business take a look at the resources Daryl has provided at her website - AndrewAndDaryl.com

Show Notes

• First up an introduction to Daryl and what she did before starting her current information product business.
• We find out how Daryl manages an Internet business despite her limited technical abilities
• I asked Daryl how she learnt the marketing/business skills to do what she does and she talks about Mal Emery’s mentoring program she joined with her husband
• I ask for specifics about the process of how she sets up each site, how she gets the books produced, how she gets traffic to the sites, etc

Part Two

You can now download part two of this interview here - How To Make $250,000 A Year Selling e-Books - Part 2.

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Ahh, I wish the headline was different but the bidding went too high for me. You may not have realized, but BlogExplosion, went back up for sale, this time with via the SitePoint Marketplace. It originally went up for sale about two months ago and there was a $150,000 deal done, but it fell through.

BlogExplosion is the largest blogger community site based around a blog traffic exchange service. So yes, basically everyone at that site is interested in increasing their blog traffic. In case you haven’t heard, I’m the Blog Traffic King and I have a Blog Traffic Course coming out very soon. It would have made very sound sense for the Blog Traffic King to purchase the largest blog traffic exchange and community site - the synergies are obvious.

Gaining access to a membership of over 50,000 bloggers would have been a fantastic kickstart for my new business and in fact one of the first places I (still) intend to approach for a partnership is the people behind BlogExplosion - which could have been me. I was going to find away to get the $50,000 together for the starting bid, but as I expected the price went beyond the opener and should go for around $75-$90K, which is quite a fair price given the potential of the site. It’s way under monetized as it is, plus there is a fantastic community and a lot of valuable resources beyond just the main site.

If I had the cash in the reserves I would have bid higher, but I don’t want to go into debt for a website, no matter how good the future prospects for income are. Perhaps I should have sought a partnership or financial backing, but since the auction only went up yesterday and the deal is almost done now as I type this, there really wasn’t any time to organize anything.

Hopefully the new owners will manage the site well, keep it growing and be open to some form of partnership with the Blog Traffic King in the near future.

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For something new today I offer a little question and answer interview with John about his technology blog called e-Fuze mobile.

Why did you start your blog/business?

The technology blog at e-Fuze.com was developed to provide enthusiasts and professionals alike daily information on mobile, tech and business news. The site is updated many times per day with up to the minute rumours and news.

Understandably, it is very difficult to compete in this market since there are countless established blogs, such as CNET, already covering technology. However, I did find that even the most established blogs can still significantly improve. Most of the time, you see information that is either not relevant, or simply not important. People today want information that matters in a quick nutshell. I’ve also found that writers are expressing their opinions throughout an entry. To be honest, personal opinions are simply insignificant and filtering this information can take a lot of time. At my blog, if an opinion is to be presented, it will be segregated from the news story itself to ensure you get your news as efficiently as possible.

The purpose of the blog is very simply to provide important business and tech news to all sorts of users. In addition we also hope the blog will eventually become a medium for users to engage in discussions and for users to get help on business and technology.

How do you compete in a crowded market like technology blogging?

There is a variety of ways online blogs compete against each other; these can include price, quality, differentiation, flexibility, lead-time (how often do you update?) and service. e-Fuze.com has set out specific goals in each of these groups to help not only ensure competitiveness, but a high quality blog for news information for technology/business enthusiasts to access on a daily basis.

Quality is perhaps the most important facet that must be satisfied. A nice looking website does not bring users back, however, quality content does. For example, I understand your time is valuable, and I understand you want relevant information. For that reason, my entries do not only get the point across in a concise matter, the entries are relevant too.

Because the Technology blog market is heavily saturated (perhaps the word saturated doesn’t even suffice), differentiation is key. e-Fuze comprises a diversified technology realm. The key topics that are covered include significant information on key companies, including Apple, Google, Microsoft and Research in Motion. In addition, I also track web 2.0 and provide news content on mobile devices, including Windows Mobile powered devices and news content about BlackBerry devices. In addition, you will also find many truthful reviews about various products and business insights – in fact, e-Fue.com has over 105 categories!

For you to be successful, you must be flexible. Essentially, this means that you must be able to quickly adapt to changes. Changes happen all the time, and if you’re not ready, it can be disastrous. For example, if you know downtime is probable, do you have any contingency plans put in place to mitigate downtime? What about significant fluctuations in visitor volume? Can you spot these things when they’re happening?

There are various techniques that you can utilize that will help you follow a proactive approach to help maximize the quality of your blog. For example, focusing on tracking visitor fluctuations, you should have an Excel spreadsheet with monthly visitor per day information with a simple line chart. Next, you should find the control limits to see where significant deviations occur from the mean. By keeping appropriate documentation, you can understand what and when certain events are occurring that are contributing to these non-random variations. This way, you will know what you are doing right and what needs improvement. By understanding non-random variations, you can mitigate and capitalize on various things you are doing right or wrong in the future.

Once you have a blog, it doesn’t stop there. Having a blog normally requires “after sale” service, if you will. Users will constantly write e-mails, participate in forums, seek technical support, and contact you because of website problems such as with user accounts. You must be prepared to spend a lot of time providing help and maintaining your community. Having a warm and helpful community is what ultimately determines success. At e-Fuze.com, I ensure to reply to queries within a few hours and our forums are always monitored by our knowledgeable and exceedingly friendly team and of course, monitored by our helpful users.

How do you intend to make money from it?

The e-Fuze blog isn’t actually intended to earn revenue. That is why, at this time you will not find any advertisements. Instead, the money comes straight from my own pocket. Of course, should readership significantly amplify, so will bandwidth requirements, at which point I may consider advertising.

What methods of marketing have worked best to get the word out about your site?

For e-Fuze, the best marketing methods that have worked for us include writing product reviews and having bigger websites link to them. In addition, leaving links in signatures on forums is also very helpful. Having other blogs write and link to your post about a topic can also generate hits. Working hard can also pay off. For example, we hope our hard work will be acknowledged by CNET among other companies and eventually listed on the Top 100 blogs, surely to help increase readership and ensure success.

Visit www.e-fuze.com

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