We are all striving to make money online. But, whether you like it or not, only a few of us will succeed in doing so. And that’s not because that one guy is smarter than the rest of the pack. Or that he obtained the secret knowledge to internet wealth (I wonder if this mythical treasure actually exists…). What he have is patience, determination, and the correct understanding of what it takes to make money online.
Let Me Tell You A Story
I have a friend who has been blogging for over 2 years now. He had a fantastic amount of traffic coming to his blog and he also had a relatively good amount of RSS and email subscribers for it. The problem is, after 2 years in business, he haven’t managed to make a huge amount of money online. He had tried Adsense, promoting affiliate products, and even some sponsored links, but he can’t make more than a couple hundreds of dollars a month. So, he contacted me and asked me what’s wrong with his site and how he can fix it. But, there’s nothing wrong with his site. The problem lies with him.
It’s Not About the Traffic
One thing I noticed about him, whenever we talked about internet marketing stuff, is how he always boasts about how much traffic he can get using various methods and strategies that he learned from gurus or by himself. He spent hours everyday, trying to figure out what new traffic method he can use, rather than using the old, but reliable ones. And, there lies the problem.
Don’t get me wrong. Driving traffic to your site is important. But, it shouldn’t be the part that consume most of your time when making money online. Why? Because, traffic doesn’t necessarily makes you any money. Facebook is undeniably one of the largest site online right now, with hundred millions of users registered. Surely they have the traffic to make crazy amount of money, right? Wrong. They’re losing more money than they make as of 2008. Traffic eats up your bandwidth, slow down your site, and fill up your server. It costs you money, not making you more.
It’s Not About the List
Another problem that he had is that he focus on building his list without having any real purpose for it, other than promoting some affiliate products. Having a list is great. But, as I say again and again, the money is not in the list, it’s in the relationship you’ve built with the people in your list. So, if you have a list, but you never emailed them anything but affiliate product promotions, you only have yourself to blame for the bad sales.
Having a giant list is also useless if the people inside your list is not your target customers. That’s why you’ll never make a cent from a list of some 100,000 people from Africa or China. A huge list doesn’t mean anything if your prospects doesn’t buy from you. In order for them to do so, you need to spend as much effort (as your traffic and list building effort) on this last, and often ignored, part of making money online.
Everything Comes Down to…
Conversion and authority.
Conversion means transforming your prospects into buyers. You can apply this to your subscribers by converting your free list, meaning the people in the list haven’t bought anything from you yet, to a buyers list (list full of buyers), which he definitely hadn’t done. Let them make small purchases, like buying a $3 to $7 eBook. After they’re comfortable in making small commitments with you, you can start offering them higher prices affiliate products.
Authority is a result of your popularity and positioning in a niche or market. You can positioned yourself to be the traffic guru, the super affiliate marketer, or the authoritative blogger. It doesn’t matter what you choose, as long as you emphasize it in whatever you’re involved in. Be it social media space, your videos or podcasts, or even in your blog posts. By having authority, you’ll have an easier time to sell your products because the people in your niche have known and accepted that you’re the expert in your field.
You need to understand that your final goal in this industry is to make money online. I say this because I saw many people seem to be missing the point. My friend is proud of how much traffic he can get. Or how many people is in his mailing list. But, it really doesn’t matter how much traffic you have or how many people are in your list. You’re here to make money, huge amount of money if possible. And until you do, you shouldn’t stop trying.
Feel free to leave comments below or tweet it if you like it.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
You’ve made some very valid points Andi. With what you were saying about your friend always seeking new ways to get more traffic, I see the same problem with SEO. People are always looking for the ’secret’ search engine optimization tip that will catapult them to the top of Google instead of focusing on the fundamentals, that when done properly, will get them to where they want to be… just by working smarter.
Thanks for sharing,
Karl
Karl Foxley´s last blog ..Create A New Audio Product Every Single Month In Just A Few Clicks!
Hey Andi, long time no see. The membership site will be ready soon, join me by using my contact form.
Benjamin Cip´s last blog ..Seo Duplicate Content And How It Can Change Your Web-Site
Very simple and accurate. Making money online is simple but making enough to survive and quite your day job is tough. I usually have a look around digitalpoint the amount of money people throw away is phenomenal buying a free css template which is stuffed with content from other sites. Sometimes the most simple option is the best option.