Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

By Adam McFarland from iPrioritize

Internet entrepreneurs face an interesting challenge:

If content is king then how do you turn that content into money?

Many of the most visited sites on the web are social networking sites, blogs, forums, wikis, and news sites. Most first time Internet entrepreneurs tend to start a content site because the alternative (selling a good or service) requires inventory, shipping, customer service, and/or an advanced knowledge of that industry. The logical choice is to start a content site about something you know and are passionate about. But assuming you are able to build a loyal user base and consistent traffic, how do you then turn that traffic into revenue?

Ad Networks

Probably the simplest and quickest way to start earning some money is with advertising networks like Google AdSense and Commission Junction. Neither requires you to have any minimum amount of traffic so you can sign up as soon as you launch your site. AdSense is a favorite for site owners because you get paid per click as opposed to per action (making a purchase on the advertisers site after clicking), however many site owners take this too far and make the sole purpose of their site to get people to click on AdSense ads (as Yaro mentioned previously).

Commission Junction is popular because you get to choose what ads appear on your site. You can choose from thousands of publishers from the Wall Street Journal to MLB.com and everything in between. The downside being that they pay per action so it usually takes quite a bit of traffic to lead to conversions. Commission Junction campaigns also tend to require a bit more work in terms of choosing ads and rotating out those that aren’t successful. There are several other Ad Networks like ValueClick with other offerings that require a minimum amount of traffic.

Affiliate Marketing

One of the best ways to supplement your content is to offer products that relate to it. Affiliate Marketing programs allow you to list other businesses products and take a cut when they sell. You generally make 5% - 10% of any item that sells through your site. Not bad for not having to make the product, store it, process payment, or ship it! The most popular programs are eBay’s and Amazon’s, both of which you can set up in a matter of minutes. So if you have a site about video games, why not put the latest games for sale next to it? Or if you write a book review it’s only natural to give the reader the opportunity to buy the book on Amazon after reading about it. Proper placement of Affiliate Marketing advertisements can be very successful because they catch the visitor at a time when they are likely to take action.

Do-it-yourself Advertising

Building your own advertising network can result in more revenue than the other two methods if you do it right – and that’s a big if. Do-it-yourself Advertising involves selling advertising yourself by dealing directly with advertisers. You need to have substantial (and consistent) traffic to ensure the advertiser that their ads will be shown. Usually you sell advertising per thousand impressions (CPM), but you can also sell it for a specified amount of time or by other technique you can think of. Finding suitable advertisers can be difficult and many times you will have to contact several advertisers before anyone is interested. Once you find interest, you need to negotiate a deal that is mutually beneficial. You also need to keep an ongoing relationship with the advertiser and be willing to update and change their ads as their promotions change. Selling your own advertising and successfully managing the accounts is more work than Ad Networks or Affiliate Marketing, but it eliminates the middleman and if done properly can bring in much more revenue than the other two.

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Adam McFarland owns iPrioritize - lists that can be edited at any time from any place in the world. Email, print, check from your mobile phone, subscribe via RSS, and share with others. Adam also has a blog about being a young entrepreneur that can be read on SportsLizard.com.

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We got entrepreneur interviews!

Despite the bad grammar, that phrase should be the catch-cry of this website. Nathan Kaiser sent me a heads up email about his site, called nPost.com, which features hundreds of interviews with famous Internet entrepreneurs, all free!

I know some of you have told me you really enjoy interviews so I suspect if you are one of those readers nPost may be a site you lose some time in. A sample of the interviewees includes:

• Bob Parsons, GoDaddy.com
• Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia
• Jeremy Jaech, Trumba.com
• Davis Eraker, Redfin.com
• Doug Colbeck, Trails.com
• Reed Hastings, NetFlix.com
• Narendra Rocherolle, WebShots.com
• John Suryan, OfficeSpace.com
• Lance Ayrault, Flexcar
• David Rose, Ambient Devices
• Rich Skrenta, Topix.net
• Scott Heiferman, Meetup.com

From nPost.com:

Learn from entrepreneurs; their experiences and insights. In addition to 130 entrepreneur interviews, nPost.com also sponsors business networking events and start-up job board.

www.npost.com

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By Loren Nason from Mobile Office Technology

I started a blog – www.mobileofficetech.com. The problem is before I even get traffic I haven’t decided what to make its focus.

The original focus was to be a site that would talk about an e-book I have written (editing it now) and help drive traffic to the e-book. The blog would talk about how to use the technologies in the e-book and the e-book would be for the people that don’t want to sift through the blog to learn how to be mobile. In essence the blog is for the people that don’t want to spend the money, the e-book is for people that are willing to spend a couple bucks to save on time.

While setting up the blog, which I am doing myself and teaching myself CSS, PHP, and WordPress, I wondered maybe if I could also use it to generate more business for Your Local Tech, which is my current business in So Cal, USA. It is a small Concierge Tech Support company focusing on the solo business person and helping them break free from the office and be mobile.

When I heard about Yaro’s call for articles I decided to jump and I sent him an article maybe 45min after he posted the request. In my struggle to explain the purpose of my article, Yaro asked instead I write this article on my struggle of what to do with my blog.

The blog came about from my original business Your Local Tech. Most of my work is for the solo business owner and they want to be mobile. They have seen the technology but what they have been lacking is how to make it actually work for them. The e-book idea came along at the same time for the blog. I thought the e-book might be a good idea if it was priced right and I could use the blog to help promote and to continue the education of how to Be Mobile.

The main reason I want to have a blog and the e-book is to have an income stream that is NOT dependant on my being there. I want the e-book to provide a percentage of my income and maybe if it works I will write more books or “technology guides”.

What is the e-book about?

This e-book will not be just technology but will be a guide how to setup your company with technology to allow you to be anywhere you want without sacrificing on company image. The guide is aimed at the solo professional that wants to be mobile but at the same time still portray a professional corporate image.

The struggle is many fold and maybe you can help?

1. Is there a market for my e-book?
2. There are MANY tech blogs out there, am I wasting my time?
3. Should I pimp my e-book or consulting on my blog?

I think I have answered question number 3 from writing this article and that YES I should market my e-book and my consulting biz from the blog. The reason I say yes is look at Yaro’s site and see that he is promoting his other business’s with his blog.

What do you think?

Loren Nason
Be Mobile
Your Local Tech

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***Update***

It’s after 1AM in the morning and I just finished watching Rich’s video. All I can say is - if you are running an Internet business or you plan to in the near future, you need to watch this video. Go do it now!

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I have got to hand it to Rich, he has really delivered the goods in the last few weeks (and free goods I might add!). Here are two more resources he posted to his blog, Strategic Profits. Note I’m not in any way affiliate selling any of Rich’s stuff here either - he’s already sold out of his coaching club, although he does have something else up his sleeve based on what he says on his blog - something a bit cheaper than the coaching club, but he hasn’t said what it is.

The two new resources he has made available are a video from a presentation he made and a six page PDF, which lists some of the online tools and software that Rich uses every day.

You can watch the video by going to his post here - Full Length Business Building Video.

Down the bottom of that post you will find the link to the resources PDF he made or you can download it directly from this link.

I haven’t finished the video presentation yet - it’s one hour and thirty five minutes - but I did just read the PDF and there’s some great links in it to plenty of software and online tools I never knew existed and I expect could certainly speed up my online business.

Lately I’ve been struggling to deal with email and the Google hosted email solution looks pretty awesome. I’ve just applied for a BETA account so hopefully BetterEdit can benefit from it quite soon.

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Download the MP3.

Cameron Reilly and Richard Giles, two of the guys behind The Podcast Network’s 2 Web Crew podcast interviewed me for episode 10.

The 2 Web Crew show is…

The official podcast of 2Web.com.au, the social network for Aussie Web2.0 entrepreneurs

In the show we chatted about what I do to make money online, including affiliate marketing, blogging, BetterEdit and a bunch of other Internet business related stuff.

If you are interested go and listen to - 2Web Crew #10 - Yaro Starak from BlogTrafficKing.com or you can download the MP3.

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