How Much Money Do You Make Online?

[christew]

I thought we may as well see how well everyone is doing with their online ventures.

Vote on the poll

Feel free to share your tips if you are doing well.

[Trent Brownrigg]

I make between $5000 and $10,000 per month online (sometimes more) depending on the time of year and other factors that change for various reason.

It is done by creating sites/blogs around various niches and then getting them ranked in the search engines, mainly by link building.

[WebBizIdeas.com]

Hi Trent,

What blogs & niche sites do you own & manage? I think readers of this forum need more examples. Every forum/blog have people like you & me that give advice, but real world examples go farther.

Can you list out your sites and tell people how you build your links?

Jeff

[christew]

I think readers of this forum need more examples. Every forum/blog have people like you & me that give advice, but real world examples go farther.

Many website owners keep their properties, niches and specific successes close to their chest for a very good reason - people copy, reverse engineer, sabotage etc. Unfortunately being helpful can end up causing more problems.

[WebBizIdeas.com]

HI,

I can understand if a business owner would not want to share, I guess I will take the lead and hopefully people will follow:

Niche Industry Online: Keychains
Website: http://www.WholesaleKeychain.com

Background: In 2002 I was researching products that were selling great on eBay (back when eBay was cool). I was comparing two critical factors that I used when deciding what products to sell back in 2002.

1. Search Engine Behavior - how many people are searching for the product

2. Websites Selling The Product - You used to be able to use eBay for great market research; back around the same time when ginsu knives were the hot sellers on eBay! (those were the days) You could find products selling HOT on eBay, find a wholesaler (usually also through ebay), and create a website selling the same exact products. The only difference is you could retail them on your website at a much higher price than what was sold on eBay because eBay was/is a discount marketplace. Plus, eBay was not that search engine friendly (still not) so you could beat them in the search engines.

So I ended up coming across "BMW keychains". They sold great on eBay and no one was selling them on websites. I threw up a website that sold BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, and some other high end cars before the Holidays in 2002 and ranked #1 through out Nov/Dec. Built up enough revenue in those two months to expand the business greatly.

What was the turning point of the business?

1. Realizing the reason no one sold them on websites becasue you had to be licensed; everyone selling on eBay was not and was selling them illegally! I spent an entire year organizing the licensing & manufacturing and expanded the product line. It was the worst experience trying to get licensed for all the car brands....that is why no one had done it. But it paid off when I accomplished it... and the rest is history as they would say.

2. Expanding the business to sell more than our original automotive keychains line. It turns out there was no market leader for retailing keychains; so despite the 'Wholesale' URL we set our goal to become the largest retailer of keychains online...we are getting pretty close too.

How Do I Promote It? - Besides all the basic boring online marketing...Our company gives away 1,000's of keychains a year to bloggers, automotive clubs, and websites that relate to the products we sell. We send the keychains to them for free, ask them to publish a review and link back to our site, and allow them to give more of our products away to their readers if they like the keychains they review....Ah true social media marketing when you convince influential bloggers to contact their entire twitter, facebook, etc... accounts to promote your site & product for you!

That is the story of my niche internet business and how I promote it. If someone wants to come into our the "Keychain Territory Online" you are free to do so; we would enjoy the competition...in the long run healthy competition would make us a better company

Cheers - Jeff

[Alan Mater]

I'm currently making $200 - $300 per month with my website: ReplaceYourSalary.com.

At some point I'd like to venture into other niches that are less competitive.

I also earn money through various freelance services and work.

[WebBizIdeas.com]

Hi Alan,

I saw your post and desire to find new niches. I have created a new sub-category on our company blog just for you. Over the next couple months I am going to share with you why the "Sun Protection" industry is the next niche industry you should get into.

You can follow along here:

Sun Protection Internet Business Idea - Large Niche Industry

Jeff

[Alan Mater]

Hi Alan,

I saw your post and desire to find new niches. I have created a new sub-category on our company blog just for you. Over the next couple months I am going to share with you why the "Sun Protection" industry is the next niche industry you should get into.

You can follow along here:

Sun Protection Internet Business Idea - Large Niche Industry

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Very interesting. I'll definitely take the time to read your post once I get some free time. Thanks for posting about it.

[Trent Brownrigg]

Yep, I could definitely see sun protection being a good niche. Nice find! Don't tell too many people about it or it will get piled on by everyone and their dog!

[Alan Mater]

Yep, I could definitely see sun protection being a good niche. Nice find! Don't tell too many people about it or it will get piled on by everyone and their dog!

Yeah, I agree. Once word gets out it spreads like crazy, especially online.

[WebBizIdeas.com]

Hi Trent & Alan,

I will agree to disagree. It has been my experience that telling people ideas & business secrets will not have a negative affect. Obviously, there are cases where the opposite will happen but let you share one experience and one theory:

1. My SEO Tutorial: I produced this SEO tutorial a couple years ago now and published it on YouTube.com. At the time the content was pretty relevant (still is) and it gave website owners the ability to do SEO on their own.

I have received many calls thanking me & many calls for people asking for the information I told them I would give them for free in the tutorial. Most people who watch the video makes our company $0.00 dollars. BUT, it has become the #1 video on YouTube.com & Google videos for the keywords "SEO" and "Search Engine Optimization."

Even though most website owners could follow the video and increase their search engine rankings on their own...I still get people saying I saw your video, I don't want to do SEO on my own, I want a quote!

So in this case giving away the "keys to the castle" has had a very positive affect. I have a new video coming up that will give any business owner that does business locally step by step instructions on how to rank in Google Local / Maps top 10 listings with in 2 months on their own

I guarantee their will be business owners that watch the video, trust in our company, and call & pay us to do it...just because they don't have the time to. So, in my experience giving away free information (even if companies pay us because we know that information) still has a positive affect.

In my mind there are two types of business owners who search online; ones that will pay for information & ones that will search until they find it for free. It would be better that those business owners find the info from your company (brand awareness & reputation management) for free, than another random source.

2. The Sun Protection Idea: I have been listening to business ideas for over 8 years (from working for WebBizIdeas). I usually sign an NDA so I can't disclose the idea. But how many of those ideas...even web development projects actually launch?

Less than 1% of the ideas every launch. Every employee in our company has internet business ideas; 100's of them. But our company only has so much available capital and resources to build them. So less than 1% every get developed.

My theory is that freely sharing information will 95% of the time have a positive affect. Why? even if wrote an entire business plan & marketing plan on a business that sells sun protection and someone read that idea...who else would they contract to build it? Most likely they would contract to the web development company that came up with the idea and has found suppliers already for the business.

Even if someone stole the idea, I always have the public record of the idea...then our company will be known for the company that comes up with awesome internet business ideas...positive affect anyway I look at it.

Jeff

Most likely not.

[Alan Mater]

Hi Trent & Alan,

I will agree to disagree. It has been my experience that telling people ideas & business secrets will not have a negative affect. Obviously, there are cases where the opposite will happen but let you share one experience and one theory:

1. My SEO Tutorial: I produced this SEO tutorial a couple years ago now and published it on YouTube.com. At the time the content was pretty relevant (still is) and it gave website owners the ability to do SEO on their own.

I have received many calls thanking me & many calls for people asking for the information I told them I would give them for free in the tutorial. Most people who watch the video makes our company $0.00 dollars. BUT, it has become the #1 video on YouTube.com & Google videos for the keywords "SEO" and "Search Engine Optimization."

Even though most website owners could follow the video and increase their search engine rankings on their own...I still get people saying I saw your video, I don't want to do SEO on my own, I want a quote!

So in this case giving away the "keys to the castle" has had a very positive affect. I have a new video coming up that will give any business owner that does business locally step by step instructions on how to rank in Google Local / Maps top 10 listings with in 2 months on their own

I guarantee their will be business owners that watch the video, trust in our company, and call & pay us to do it...just because they don't have the time to. So, in my experience giving away free information (even if companies pay us because we know that information) still has a positive affect.

In my mind there are two types of business owners who search online; ones that will pay for information & ones that will search until they find it for free. It would be better that those business owners find the info from your company (brand awareness & reputation management) for free, than another random source.

2. The Sun Protection Idea: I have been listening to business ideas for over 8 years (from working for WebBizIdeas). I usually sign an NDA so I can't disclose the idea. But how many of those ideas...even web development projects actually launch?

Less than 1% of the ideas every launch. Every employee in our company has internet business ideas; 100's of them. But our company only has so much available capital and resources to build them. So less than 1% every get developed.

My theory is that freely sharing information will 95% of the time have a positive affect. Why? even if wrote an entire business plan & marketing plan on a business that sells sun protection and someone read that idea...who else would they contract to build it? Most likely they would contract to the web development company that came up with the idea and has found suppliers already for the business.

Even if someone stole the idea, I always have the public record of the idea...then our company will be known for the company that comes up with awesome internet business ideas...positive affect anyway I look at it.

Jeff

Most likely not.

Hi Jeff,

Very well written explanation. I'd have to agree with you after reading, and the idea makes sense. Along with that idea is that most people may think about going in that direction, but an idea is just an idea until acted upon. Most probably won't go ahead and pursue that niche (or any niche) just because it'll take them time, or whatever excuse there is.

I still have yet to read the post, but I'll get to it.

[Trent Brownrigg]

Don't get me wrong Jeff, I think freely sharing information is great for business and should be done. That's why I have been a member of sooooooo many forums over the years (at least 100) and either currently moderate or have moderated at least 10 of them.

But there is a big difference between giving people SEO techniques, article marketing strategies, internet marketing tips, affiliate marketing ideas, online business tactics, maybe even some niches, etc... etc... etc... And actually telling people your not-so-well-known niches that make you a lot of money or at least have the potential to do so.

I will gladly help anyone with anything they want to know about internet marketing. But I am not going to flat out give them the niches that I worked long and hard finding, researching, writing content, creating a site, building backlinks, and everything else that goes along with finding and monetizing good niche.

You're right most people won't pursue it anyway but you never know when all of the sudden you just created a TON of competition for yourself when all you had were good intentions to begin with.

[Trent Brownrigg]

BTW Jeff, great SEO video you put together. I had never seen it before but I am glad I did. I completely agree with the points and information presented in it as well. I think a little has changed since then but overall still very relevant today.

[christew]

Don't get me wrong Jeff, I think freely sharing information is great for business and should be done. That's why I have been a member of sooooooo many forums over the years (at least 100) and either currently moderate or have moderated at least 10 of them.

But there is a big difference between giving people SEO techniques, article marketing strategies, internet marketing tips, affiliate marketing ideas, online business tactics, maybe even some niches, etc... etc... etc... And actually telling people your not-so-well-known niches that make you a lot of money or at least have the potential to do so.

I will gladly help anyone with anything they want to know about internet marketing. But I am not going to flat out give them the niches that I worked long and hard finding, researching, writing content, creating a site, building backlinks, and everything else that goes along with finding and monetizing good niche.

You're right most people won't pursue it anyway but you never know when all of the sudden you just created a TON of competition for yourself when all you had were good intentions to begin with.

My thoughts on this are in line with Trent's here.