How do I get started?

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Numbat

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Jun 26, 2006
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I'm suffering from a problem I think a lot of others are having also - being completely overwhelmed by the huge amount of information and number of options available.

So, for my sake, and hopefully many others' as well, what are people's opinions on how to get off the ground? General advice, personal anecdotes, anything really to give me and others here a direction to move in.

Content sites, direct PPC stuff, link arbitrage, forums, a blog, or one of the myriad other choices? Should I buy an existing site as a starting point? And, whichever you think is best, what advice do you have for getting started in that area?

As far as my abilities go, I'm a decent writer and I'm also not afraid of anything technology-wise (MySQL, PHP, JavaScript, ASP, perl, whatever). I can set up my own server and have access to a 10mbit synchronous pipe. I'm also willing to sink some money (but not a lot) into this until I see how it goes - say a few hundred dollars.

However, I'm not particularly good (actually, rather awful) at webdesign. My stuff always comes out looking like something that belongs in 1998.

Anyhow, what do you think? Where should I start?

Thanks in advance!
 


Numbat, I would not focus so much on the design to start with. And to get it out of the way first and foremost, take a look at plentyoffish.com - It pulls in XXX,XXX dollars per month and it is definately not the prettiest design in the world at any rate. ;) So you do not need a beautifully designed site to make money. I hope this helps clarify that part.

As for where to begin... Start by writing down topics that interest you and going from there. Research pays off but so does production. In my opinion, production is more valuable than research because it is the actual doing part.
 
Hello Numbat,

You know there is a ton of information out there, l feel you on that. Some horrible, some bad and very little that is actually true. What l would suggest for any beginner is to start with a PPC content site running adsense or YPN. This is the easiest IHMO to get going, tweak and build a successful site.

But what do l make my site about? - you ask yourself. That's simple - make it about what you love. For instance your coding abilities. Create a site with scripts, or tutorials on how certain things are done. PHP is a big hitter and l know of TONS of places that will send you A LOT of free traffic (pixel2life.com comes to mind) just for submitting a link to your tutorial(s).

What about Ajax, l'm sure you know a good bit about it; if not it's just a matter of researching one line of code XMLHttpRequest(); and combining it with the knowledge that you already have of PHP/sql HTML/javascript.

Why Ajax? It's hot.. .people are all over it and want to learn more. Take a look at digg.com on any given day there's an "ajax" article on the front page. So long story short, to get your feet wet and make it enjoyable for yourself // start with something you know.

Write a good 20 to 30 articles/tutorials for the launch of the site, toss up some adsense strategically (read an article or two about "blending your ads" into your content to find out what l mean by that).

Include a comment system, or some type of user interactivity to promote return visits. Be wary of creating a message board however, unless you're sure you'll have at least a couple hundred users and posters. A dead board will make your site look dead. ~ A good way l was able to gain 6k registered users on one of my recently launched sites within 2 months was by forcing my users to register to download files (such as *.psd's, fonts, photoshop brush sets). Try it and you'll see your registration and userbase literally explode.

Submit your articles // tutorials to the relevant sites to get the traffic started.

Then sit back and wait a month or two. You'll notice that after around 3 months the site will be making you at least $10 USD per day via adsense // if the content is good stuff that people can read, follow and understand.

Then what? Do it again.... and again....... and again.
Best of luck to you.
 
The biggest mistake you can make is doing nothing, just start doing stuff. Build a site about something you like. If you can program, all the better.

There are a lot of choices and it may look like too much. The truth is this stuff has a lot in common with each other. Blogs, SEO, PPC, all boil down to own thing: driving traffic to a source that turns you a profit. Sometimes its through Adsense, sometimes its an affiliate offer, it might even be your own product.
 
Andrew, would you not agree that affiliate offers are a little more difficult to "get going" than adding adsense/ypn to a page?

Though l'm working off of 6 - 7 months experience here, and l'm by no means an industry expert, but from my personal experiences it seems that PPC is a much easier avenue to get started with.
 
i say for get about going online.
turn off your computer, find a topic you like, and write 100 articles about it, draw 30 diagrams in relation to your topic, take 100 photos in relation to your topic, review 30 products in relation to your topic, and get the opinions of 30 people who know a lot about your topic. do that, make a crappy site using basic HTML, and SEO; do some basic link building, maybe post on forums; cash in. If you can do all that you'll have a very informative (hopefully) site - giving users a reason to visit it.
 
Start a blog.

I know that it is cliche', but hey why not.

Get Wordpress or something else going.....start writing...post every day, create some articles (actuall pages), create some categories, link to some other blogs.....

Put your URL in the sig fule of your forum posts....

submit to technoprati, Dmoz, Y, MSN, G

After about a week you will know what you need to do next. Your strengths and tendancies will start to stand out in your normal posts...This will help to decide exactly how to attack the 'real' site which you will launch from the blog (just put it in another directory on the blog site, if you must, point other domains to IT).

Of course use the adsense strategies and some affilate marketing is good too.

THen just keep doing what you do.
 
Thanks for all the replies - this has been very helpful. Hopefully, others will get some use out of it too. I'm drawn to the AJAX idea. I actually don't know much about it - I'm mostly a C coder - the stuff I mentioned above I picked up running my own non-monetized website while in college. However, it shouldn't be too hard to learn about it and come up with a bunch of topics to write about.

However - I certainly wouldn't mind hearing other ideas. What else have you all got?

Thanks again!
 
You are a C coder?

F... that. Write a good intro to C for beginners. Split it up into individual articles. Make it fun. (see the "HEad first XYZ" books for inspiration)
Make it easy to follow, short and sweet. "What is a compiler", "Where do I get a compiler for windows", "My first C program", "What is a header file")

Yes, I am a programmer, but I know nothing of C, those topics just popped into my head by hearsay. A good intro text into a hard language will always be needed.

Then create dozens of sites about different C topics (game programming, algorithms, how to get laid using C, ...)

Do the same thing for AJAX.

Rinse, lather, repeat.

As for the affiliate thing: I don't think it is harder than i.e. Adsense. Putting a nice amazon link to a related book next to an article usually works quite well. With a content-driven website, you can have affiliate AND CPM programs running at the same time, no problem.

Almost forgot: Hand-pick the books/dvds/whatevers from amazon.

::emp::
 
Thanks

I am an absolute beginner and appreciate you asking the question for me. I have been reading everything I can and now have some starting points. This is a great site and am glad that I found it.
 
Nir,

I'm sure there's something like that out there, but I haven't stumbled across it yet. My best advice is just to read everything you can get your hands on. Follow links and just keep reading. Eventually, stuff will start to make sense. If you have any specific questions, post 'em here and you'll get some help.

By the way - thanks for all your advice, people. I've written a bunch of articles and started site layout on my first site. Once I have it up, I can apply to AdSense and (if I'm lucky) make a little money. I'll let you know how it goes.
 
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