I've been a lurker of these forums for years and I have a few observations I would like to share with people that are just getting started.
You aren't going to make much money right away.
I guess around 2 years ago I gave both AM and Arbi a shot with a few hundred dollars I had laying around. I didn't make any money. Looking back, I realize I tried to make money right out of the gate and that's just not the way it works, at least not anymore. It's going to take time before you figure out how everything works, so be prepared to put in a lot of work up front for not a whole lot of money (and probably no money). As with anything, properly set your expectations.
You can't win if you don't play.
The flip side to the above point is that if you really want to give IM a shot, you need to make an attempt. You might setup a few domains, get a few shitty Joomla sites up and running, and write/buy loads of content before you make a single penny. Sounds lame. But everyone had to do the same thing before they figured it out. So don't despair, just work at it. It will take several months.
Avoid "paralysis by analysis."
Don't be the horse that died of dehydration because he couldn't figure out which troff to drink from. It's good to have a plan, but anything beyond a basic business plan is probably overkill for any given domain. Spending 5 hours researching whether or not the Linux kernel your server is running will most efficiently run nginix as a proxy for Apache... well that's not going to make you any money*. If you are chronically unorganized or you have trouble getting things done I would recommend you check out the following:
The Pomodoro Technique (there is a free ebook)**
"Getting Things Done" by David Allen (it's a book, dummy)
This isn't rocket science.
Good content + efficient SEO + smart monetization = Profit
See what other people are doing. Don't copy them, but learn from them. I think an excellent example on how to make a really popular site is imgur.com. I remember hearing about them about a year ago on reddit.com and they ended up becoming the photo hosting site for most reddit users. I've noticed a lot of digg users are using them as well... they're getting big now. When they started they were not focusing on monetizing their site; there were no ads to be found and they were not charging their users. They had lots and lots of traffic before they worried about making money. I would would guess they were spending over $1000/mo in hosting costs alone before they starting putting up ads. Now they charge for accounts as well as having ads on all the traffic they are getting. I'd bet they've recouped their loses.
I hope this is helpful for those thinking about taking the plunge.
*Unless you use your research to create content for a site, but you get the point I'm trying to make.
** I am not affiliated with this site in any way shape or form. Someone showed me this at work a while back and it has helped me get my act together.
You aren't going to make much money right away.
I guess around 2 years ago I gave both AM and Arbi a shot with a few hundred dollars I had laying around. I didn't make any money. Looking back, I realize I tried to make money right out of the gate and that's just not the way it works, at least not anymore. It's going to take time before you figure out how everything works, so be prepared to put in a lot of work up front for not a whole lot of money (and probably no money). As with anything, properly set your expectations.
You can't win if you don't play.
The flip side to the above point is that if you really want to give IM a shot, you need to make an attempt. You might setup a few domains, get a few shitty Joomla sites up and running, and write/buy loads of content before you make a single penny. Sounds lame. But everyone had to do the same thing before they figured it out. So don't despair, just work at it. It will take several months.
Avoid "paralysis by analysis."
Don't be the horse that died of dehydration because he couldn't figure out which troff to drink from. It's good to have a plan, but anything beyond a basic business plan is probably overkill for any given domain. Spending 5 hours researching whether or not the Linux kernel your server is running will most efficiently run nginix as a proxy for Apache... well that's not going to make you any money*. If you are chronically unorganized or you have trouble getting things done I would recommend you check out the following:
The Pomodoro Technique (there is a free ebook)**
"Getting Things Done" by David Allen (it's a book, dummy)
This isn't rocket science.
Good content + efficient SEO + smart monetization = Profit
See what other people are doing. Don't copy them, but learn from them. I think an excellent example on how to make a really popular site is imgur.com. I remember hearing about them about a year ago on reddit.com and they ended up becoming the photo hosting site for most reddit users. I've noticed a lot of digg users are using them as well... they're getting big now. When they started they were not focusing on monetizing their site; there were no ads to be found and they were not charging their users. They had lots and lots of traffic before they worried about making money. I would would guess they were spending over $1000/mo in hosting costs alone before they starting putting up ads. Now they charge for accounts as well as having ads on all the traffic they are getting. I'd bet they've recouped their loses.
I hope this is helpful for those thinking about taking the plunge.
*Unless you use your research to create content for a site, but you get the point I'm trying to make.
** I am not affiliated with this site in any way shape or form. Someone showed me this at work a while back and it has helped me get my act together.
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