Photo credit: © 2008 Paramount Pictures, from the movie "The Love Guru"
Many of us had a dream of starting a website, putting some content, slapping some Adsense ads and then we watched to see the money rolling in. On the very next day, we checked our stats and logged in to our Adsense account and drop down our jaws we looked at our earnings, consisting of a grand sum of… zero dollars. This may have continued for some time until we met our first Internet marketing guru. We then proceeded to religiously study how to make $1523. 57 everyday, on autopilot! And then here we are, a couple of years later…
Well, things may not have gone that well but that’s only because we didn’t know the following 3 secrets. And now, for the very first time, I’m going to share them with you. 
1. Your Super Secret Formula
What your guru might not have told you is that when starting a website you must have some sort of plan, just like with any other business. In addition, you must properly understand how people search online and what it takes to get them to make a purchase. Adsense is great but why stop there if you really know what you’re talking about. Why don’t you spend some extra hours and write an e-book. This shouldn’t be too difficult; there are many resources that will teach you how to do this very quickly. Now, if your e-book is really good, there are many of your visitors will be more than happy to pay for consultations with you. I know this is a great source of income because I do it myself too. The truth is you can monetise traffic much better with just these simple additions. Yes, there may be some extra effort required on your part; however, it is really worth it. You can’t imagine the excitement you will feel once you sell the very first copy of your e-book.
2. Your Money Blueprint
You don’t have to be an expert web designer to create a website that works. Nevertheless, spending a bit of time selecting the right template for your site will pay dividends many times over. You want your readers to easily find the most relevant information. You also want them to easily see what your latest content is etc. And of course you want them to click on your ads and. if you applied the step one above, you also want them to see your e-book or consultation sales page. This part gets a bit tricky. You may have to experiment a bit. Testing is everything in marketing so you will have to see what works for you. Don’t get me wrong though, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There are certain principles, such as a great headline, bullet points and a clear layout that work all the time. But you still have to see which words work the best for you and which headline brings in the most conversions and so on. Isn’t this more work than you expected? This brings us to our last secret…
3. “Not So Quick” Money
This is a real online marketing secret. I mean really, it is. Your marketing guru didn’t tell you how much effort you’d have to put into your website, to be able to make a living from it. But can you blame him? Would you have gone in, knowing the amount of time and money you will have to invest before seeing your first dollar? Maybe you would, maybe you wouldn’t. But the truth remains that, as with any endeavour, you get back only as much as you put in. So, you may want to decide today, whether they are in it for real or are you just hoping it all kind of works out by itself.
very good write up. I agree that there are many people who think that simply setting up a simple site with some adsense ads will give them tons of money. that could not be farther from the truth. I recently started a new blog and I am still trying to optimize it. I dont think there will ever be a time that I will just “set it and forget it.” Success is really based on how much time and effort you put into something. I also took on another challenge of trying to create a successful .co blog.
I like the idea that you told people to write an ebook. This is a very good piece of information – another tip would be to give free ebooks on a blog if the person cant write his own. there are many sites that give free ebooks with master resell rights.
zoopco recently posted..Make EASY Holiday Money With Amazon
Thanks for reading and for the comment!
If I’m to be completely honest I have some reservations about most of the master resell right sites, but nevertheless, it may still be a great option.
Twitter: lavenderuses
says:
Hi Jean Paul
I agree. It takes passion, perseverance and patience to have a successful blog and not give up. I like when people are honest and tell us that there are no silver bullets. Just hard work! But then if it’s enjoyable it doesn’t seem like hard work does it??!!
Patricia Perth Australia
Patricia recently posted..Lavender Products Galore-Must Be Party Time
Patricia, you are a great example of what it means to be passionate. And personally I find your website to be a great inspiration (even though I’m not a fan of lavender myself!
).
It’s nice to see how people respond to you…
You have probably experienced that, sometimes to become better at what you love you must overcome a period of “not liking it so much any more”. That’s the feeling you may get when you have to really leave your comfort zone in order to improve.
I think that’s what often stops people from doing their best.
In addition, people buy books etc.but they don’t even apply all that is asked of them!
Online success comes from combination of different aspects so at the end of the day, any particular strategy will only work if you get the other stuff right.
Jean Paul recently posted..New Kid on the Block – Google Adwords Call Metrics
I agree with all, especially the last one. Sadly there is a misconception that making money online is quick. And a lot of the so called ‘gurus” use this to sell their worthless ebooks and reports promising newbies easy and quick money.
satrap recently posted..10 Reasons to Consider Selling Services Online as a Way to Make Money
Yes, they do!
Jean Paul recently posted..New Kid on the Block – Google Adwords Call Metrics
Great tips. I can’t help but feel too many people now days have a misconception that they can blog full time. To me this is farthest from the truth, it’s a hard market to crack especially over the short term. But with perseverance it can pay off.
dailyart recently posted..25 Amazing Long Exposure Photographs
nice post….and the idea of the e-book is cool….but one question(sorry for being a noob im new to these things) How do i sell it?
Thank You
animecrazy recently posted..My Little Box Arslan Poetry Blog
The easiest way is to use lulu.com if you are a beginner.
However, it is not necessarily the best.
I think I will write a post with some other tips soon,with several other methods.
Jean Paul recently posted..New Kid on the Block – Google Adwords Call Metrics
It’s just a matter of strategic planning and patience. The dotcom days are over, and anything done online nowadays is a matter of following the 7 P’s of success…
Proper
Prior
Planning
Prevents
Pathetically (has been known to be substituted with a 4 letter word meaning urination)
Poor
Performance
simplydelicio recently posted..O’Charley’s Coupons
Uh Oh! Somebody is telling the truth! Look out, the Internet Guru Union is going to come get you!
Ok, I’m joking, at least I think I am joking, do they have a union? All kidding aside, I definitely remember way back when I first started, and Google didn’t have as many guidelines and information that anyone can get to, for FREE! Do a search or two or a thousand, look at the available information on your topic, once you do the research, you may then be able to call yourself a guru! That is what they did, but remember, most of it is available for free, just like this wonderful article.
CarpetGuy recently posted..What is a website and why do I need one
Jean Paul,
Thanks for sharing this insightful post. For me I didn’t think I had a huge dream of making tons of money for my blog when I first started (but some would be nice). I am always trying to grow and improve in my understanding of all this. For me, the biggest issue I have is developing a community and having people leave a comment on one of my posts. Thanks again.
Twitter: yourmarketingfriend
says:
Maybe I am missing the point. It sounds more like your trying to talk us out of blogging. I continue to build up my blogs hoping to get them to a point where I can sell the business and start a new one. I share my Affiliate Marketing Training at my Wealthy Affiliate Review Website
yourmarketingfriend recently posted..Is it Possible to Make Money With Wealthy Affiliate
Why do you think I’m trying to talk you out of blogging?
Jean Paul recently posted..New Kid on the Block – Google Adwords Call Metrics
Twitter: yourmarketingfriend
says:
Quote: “Would you have gone in, knowing the amount of time and money you will have to invest before seeing your first dollar?”
Mainly because of this line. It kind of turned me off, but I still think that your post is very informative. I meant no offense by it at all.
I am always looking for a new way to build up my blog. I got some old and new, but mainly for now I am focusing on my affiliate marketing training blog.
yourmarketingfriend recently posted..How to Make Top Money Online From Your Computer
Its nice to now that there are still people who willing to help people without asking them to pay something for what they teach or share. Nice work. A newbie like me sure did learn a lot from your post. Thanks.
Richard Fobs recently posted..Twitter- Top Twitter Tools Exposed & Explained at Lightning Speed by Zebolsen
Twitter: wordpresswb
says:
What a classic!!! I did the same thing, checking my Adsense account and finding ZERO dollars. It took my at least two years to drum up enough traffic to earn a decent amount of money.
Even though it takes along time to build a great website I love the challenge and would never give up doing this. Some people are just made for this website game.
Mitz Pantic recently posted..Create A Mini Site Sales Page Website With The Socrates WordPress Theme
Twitter: susancampbell24
says:
The one thing I agree they don’t tell you is how long it can really take for you to experience any success whatsoever. I admit, I did think I could just put up a website and there would be sales when I woke up the next morning. Even still, I am enjoying my work on my website and am lucky enough to have the passion and drive to continue on indefinitely.
Susan recently posted..How To Lose Weight This Thanksgiving or Not Gain It
Twitter: rwperkinsjr
says:
This seems to be the plight of the newbie.
I also threw together a site, put a couple of adsense ads on it then waited for the riches. Right. It takes a lot of work to get enough quality traffic to the site to make any money on ads. I eventually started to get the hang of it then I found traffic exchanges which brings me to my first point.
One very important thing to remember about using Adsense and trying to generate traffic. Never and I mean NEVER use your page with Adsense code on it with any traffic exchanges. Google will ban your account quick and there is no recourse.
Another important thing to remember is never click on the ads on your own site. Google sees this as click fraud even if you are genuinely interested in the ad and they will shut you down forcing you to TRY and find another advertising network to fill the space but nothing pays like Google in my opinion.
MRR has done some for me too but now I use MRR to get people to my list. Clickbank is a great resource for MRR but the money is in the list and that’s the biggest secret.
Richard recently posted..Maybe You Can Help – Spray Nozzle
Thanks Richard, that’s really useful information!
Do you have any idea how Google finds out you are using traffic exchanges?
All the best!
Jean Paul recently posted..7 Things You Don’t Know About Google Adwords
Twitter: rwperkinsjr
says:
I can only assume that the geniuses over there at Google have a script that detects referral links and red flags them for a human to take a look at and determine if they are from a traffic exchange or not.
I generate thousands of hits using traffic exchanges so I am sure that when you are getting thousands of referrals from the same IP and referral URL then the system flags it.
I do know that Google will ban you from their program and never let you back in if they catch you doing this, and they will trust me, they got me….
Richard recently posted..Maybe You Can Help – Spray Nozzle
Yep, Google got me too! Back when I was using traffic exchanges, Google actually had a guide on getting traffic from traffic exchanges! Then, things changed and everyone doing it got banned! When I tried to point out that they had recommended it, that info was gone, and the sad part was that I found my first exchange from a link that Google had listed.
Stay away from traffic exchanges, period, yes, it will build up stats that only you can see, but the Internet god, Google, will penalize you in PR, and the natural traffic from the search engine is real customers, traffic exchanges are a nest of “Get rich quick” scammers, email harvesters, or worse, believe me, I have a traffic exchange site that I have recently disabled, since stopping, my sites have more pages actually indexed.
As far as how do they know? Even the plugin, statpress, will show you where the referral hits come from, Google Analytics will too.
CarpetGuy recently posted..We Fix 5 Dollar Websites!
Twitter: tonymcgurk
says:
I put Adsense on my blog. After about a month I had received 4 clicks amounting to a grand total of 5 cents. I remember when I signed up that i’m sure it said they mail you a cheque when your total gets to $150 but I could be wrong on the amount. I will be waiting a long time for a cheque at this rate. I figured that even if I get no clicks Google is still getting advertising space for free on my blog. If no-one clicks they still see the ads. Therefore I deleted it from my blog because there’s no way I am giving a company the size of Google advertising space for free which is what it really amounts to.
Tony recently posted..Wordless Wednesday–Big & Little
I think it was after $100 back when I signed up, which was ok, I got a check about every 3 months, but, I was using traffic exchanges, in fact, mst of the manual traffic exchanges promoted clicking on each others ads. Don’t get me wrong, I think Google was right for firing us all, do you remember the law suit? I think I got fired from Adsense one day and about a month later got a check from Adwords, a mandated refund from the law-suit, I think I got about $1, and back then, I was spending about $30 a month with Adword, either way, Google gets paid.
CarpetGuy recently posted..Trekkies and Progressives- can it be
Twitter: Markoshoo
says:
Hard work is only the start . The learning , planning , implementation ,then you have to get traffic so you go to blogs and social activities .If they told you all that was involved nobody would do it. But when you start – its fun setting up your site and then you find it very addicting and then you find out you`re in a super competitive niche . Well most anyone at this point will not give up because nobody wants to be a quitter . To me this IM is more challenging than a game of chess (against Casparov)per se.PEOPLE LOVE A CHALLENGE. So do i.
I tried traffic exchanges – you do get traffic but it seems Google don`t like it.My site fell in the ranks a little and they sent me less traffic for a while.
I have looked in to trying Adsense but it seemed like they get ad space and i get squat. Instead i use Clickbanks Hopads . They are targeted to your niche and you get a good portion of every sale(the same as a regular commission – 20-70%). I`m trying to get an RSS feed from my blog but i am being stymied – (more learning).
You are so right about the amount of effort involved in making a website work. I made the mistake of not planning the whole thing the first time, and then only had to go back and do it again.
I love the idea of an e book. I am going to get writing.
Thanks!
All the best Holly! I’m glad you found my article useful. ;0)
Jean Paul recently posted..How to Pay Less for Your Google Adwords Advertising
Twitter: coopetitions
says:
Yes that’s really true, I had to learn a lot myself on a lot of thing regarding this topic… But I didn’t made it a big issue I just move forward a learn…Thanks
Twitter: Anklebuster
says:
Yep! Yep! and Yep! All three points are spot on. Although, I did get off to a blazing fast start with AdSense. So fast, in fact, I was banned for click fraud. All was restored, after some wheedling, cajoling and secret magic (get my e-Book, “HOW TO GET UNBANNED FROM GOOGLE” – just kidding).
Writing an e-book is hard work, indeed. I have a half-finished one, where I ran out of passion before I ran out of pages to fill.
Finally, I’m stuck at just over $74 on AdSense. How many of us “really” financed Google’s expansion with interest-free loans, eh?
Thanks for reminding folks that work is work and hype is hype.
Cheers,
Mitch
Mitchell Allen recently posted..RSS Ate My Brain
Hello Mitch,
You’re right!
Personally, I think Adsense is OK but creating useful content is much more profitable.
I think there are two main kinds of online businesses: those who want to make money by contributing and those who want to take what they can with as little effort as possible.
Besides, a bit of hard work is good for the soul!
Good luck with your ebook!
Jean Paul recently posted..Good Old Google Adwords Catches “Evil Clicks” and Brings You Results…
Twitter: SwanBizCentre
says:
When I look at the number of books on bookshelves and squillions of e-books going on-line I marvel that anyone can come up with new content. It’s hard for me to even think I could write something that someone will want to read.
From the common sense of the original post (where WERE you Jean Paul when I was handing over my cheque to the first ‘guru” to promise me overnight riches?) to the variety of comments, I’ve learned heaps just in this past half hour.
It fun to see you all taking a stand against free ad space for Google.
Reading this is better than an e-book – it’s dynamic learning.
Where’s my pencil – I have to start again with all those P-words.
A-now-a-little-wiser-Julia
Julia Hayes recently posted..Perth Office Space Available
Hello Julia,
Thank you for your comment!
You will be surprised – people are always looking for new information and there seems to be a shortage on quality info products.
All the best!
Jean Paul recently posted..Good Old Google Adwords Catches “Evil Clicks” and Brings You Results…
Twitter: vergentcom
says:
Yeah, I agree that the key ingredient is time. It takes a very long, very sustained effort to see any sort of return at all. Most people aren’t willing to give it the amount of time that it takes.
Jenn recently posted..More People Prefer FireFox over Internet Explorer
Twitter: rdgubaten
says:
Thanks for providing this well kept secret that newbies like me doesn’t know. At least I already know this secret and this will be beneficial. Hope to read more from you.
Rose recently posted..Making Money Online with Revenue Sharing Sites
Whatever work/endeavor you choose to invest in, the same old advice is this: hard work and passion. Its hard to do something when you’re not passionate about it. And when you’re passionate about it, naturally you will work hard for it.
Thanks for the post!