As many of you have probably already felt making money online is not quite as easy as people think. And the actual different ways to translate your blog to what type of actual niche or style determines very much how and if you can monetize the traffic you have. I have always said and I will keep repeating it. Traffic is easy monetization is a fucking bitch.
Our buddy Frank from OpTempo wrote a post a few days ago named eBook Review: How To Develop Money-Making Niche Sites with WordPress now let me say this review is so dead on it is scary. Now this ebook was written by Caroline Middlebrook again she seems to be a very nice lady but geezz she is so fucking clueless it is just painful. Now the sad part is that Frank made a really good description that this could be an awesome ebook for the noob on setting up a wordpress blog. But for making money online even though Frank did not say it in these exact words, it is a fucking joke.
What made me write this post is a comment she made.
Thanks very much for the awesome review – it has really highlighted a couple of points for me that I think I need to address in the book.
Firstly, I differentiate between a niche blog and a niche site and thats the reason why I advocate the use of pages over posts and the decision not to have comments. I think I need to explain this further.
Secondly the book really is about WordPress and not about making money, but I might need to either expand on this a little or perhaps even link out to some external resources about making money with niche sites as that is not really something I am an expert on yet.
Now I ask you if the ebook is not about making money can please some one explain to me why it is fucking called How To Develop Money-Making Niche Sites. Please can some one clarify me mmmm does the Money-Making Sites part by definition is about making money or is it that my illness has just made me a fucking idiot?
I sometimes ask myself why is it for some people so hard to just say fuck it, I admit it, I do not know and just move on. But the fact is that she wrote another fucking ebook full of fucking fluff with a bunch of affiliate links. Because this is the shit she sees the so called A-lister do and she thinks this is the way to the holy grail. Grizz made this point very clear in a comment he made.
People I will not go deep into the facts but you need to make and take decisions before you start a new niche and you need to understand that if you are looking to make money online from a blog you need organic traffic period and this is not fucking debatable. If you are fucking clueless to this fact then you are done before you even started. Grizz wrote an article that just outlines this and uses my best friend John Chow as an example his post it is called The Make Money Online Niche Grizz breaks down this point that even a fifth grader could understand it.
Now folks as with the rest of the bunch what seriously scares me about Caroline Middlebrook is she has up to now 1024 feed readers and not counting the people that read her blog and are not subscribed to her feed. Folks I really really hope she has all this readers because they enjoy how she writes and have become friends but if these people are actual bloggers trying to learn to make money online I can tell you right now their are 1024 people who are getting fucked and kissed at the same time and have years ahead of them trying to figure out how to really make money online.
People if you are looking to make money online you need organic traffic any dumb fuck that is telling you how to use StumbleUpon or Twitter or any other service to drive traffic your monetize blog is fucking clueless about how to actually make money online. Anybody that is telling you to tell Google to go fuck themselves is fucking clueless to how to make money online. THIS IS FUCKING UNDEBATABLE!!!!!
NOW TO PROVE THE POINT AS GRIZZ HAS STATED BEFORE THIS IS A PR0 BLOG AND I JUST GOT INSTANT INDEXING ON HIGHLY COMPETITIVE TERM JUST BECAUSE OF THE KEYWORD AUTHORITY.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the link Vic.
I feel kind of sorry for her since she only made $395.77 last month and most of that was getting people to sign up for affiliate programs a couple of "A Listers" are promoting. Just check out her December stats post to see the sad tale.
I'd be happy with that at this point in time
Frank it is sad no doubt. And she seems to be a nice lady. Maybe she should just get a paid gig writing technical books like you mentioned.
Mike dude we really need to figure out how to monetize your site, dude your site is to cool not to make some cash from it.
Alright Vic! You seem to be coming out of your health slump
Glad to see it.
Yeah what's up with Caroline Middlebrook? Not making a dime and yet publicly telling people how she's getting traffic.
I'll stick with you, Court and Grizz all day long:)
She gets a ton of social traffic to earn that Alexa of around 24,000. The problem is that, as Vic said, traffic is easy but monetization is a fargin batch.
Mike lol I am still a bit under the weather but trying to rest and follow Doc's advice. It is like Frank said she works social sites a lot and tweeter but that type of traffic is great for stats and for killing your CTR
Dead on right!
Thanks for the encouragement in usual Vic fashion, I love it!
Hey thanks also for the tips about Adsense and making money online as it "paid" off with that niche blog we were talking about!
So your CPC is climbing?
fire and brimstone!
But dead on accurate, i love this blog all the more for reading this amazing post
Tnx hope something I write sparks an idea and makes you some cash.
Vic,
Spot on as was Franks review. A question, what do you think about the latest release SMARTS by Stompernet's Andy Jenkins, etc.
http://www.stompernetpresents.com/SMARTS/
They advocate all for social media traffic and claim that the marketing of it made them a fortune. Since I am a new disciple of yours, Griz and Court I figure there must be a downfall to the hype they are currently generating on the Internet.
I'm thinking they might have collected names with their social media traffic and then marketed to them to make all that money they are claiming, but I guess this is only a thought since I don't know.
Most of what I've seen from Stompernet would apply a lot better to an ecommerce site than it would to a blog. For ecommerce you want as much targeted traffic as you can get. It doesn't matter if it comes from search, Adwords and other paid traffic sources, social networking or whatever. As long as the profit you make from the targeted visitors is good, you're happy.
It's a different business model but since blogging is big today they're trying to sell bloggers on their plans too.
Looks like the same old same old to me. Another product with a price tag to hook in noobs with yet another angle on "Hey, buy my great product and I'll make you rich" shit.
None of them work unless you have a big list to exploit like milking cows, which is why so many newcomers spend fortunes on that crap and end up disillusioned and disheartened and give up on the whole online deal well and truly out of pocked.
As Vic said, it all boils down to one thing and that's attracting organic traffic – and your own hard work and never give up!
I love it when other's answers are dead on. It is crazy but one of my hopes was exactly this that the community would rally to help each other out and this seems to be happening.
Monika what Frank and Terry said right on the money.
Vic,
I think the real issue here isn't Caroline – it's that it's hard to find decent information on how to really make money online. At least it was… You, Grizzly and Court are changing that.
I’ve only recently found you guys I've learnt more in the last couple of weeks than I did in the previous 6 months. As more people find you, real information will get out there. I suspect that if Caroline had learnt from you rather than some other people, she would have written a great ebook.
I respect Caroline because a month or so ago she came out with a post saying most email lists are sleazy, then she released the book for free without asking for an email address. Sure she's included affiliate links, but she could have earnt more by charging $30 for it and getting others to sell it for a commission (as all those affiliate marketers do). So she's not just following the A-listers.
Anyway, the real problem is that there's a lot of misinformation out there. What's the solution to this? Well, you might just have to become an A-Lister, so everyone's following your advice! That'd be a breath of fresh air.
By the way, what's your take on the whole incestuous Affiliate Marketing ebook thing? It seems there is money to be made through this method – if you're near the top of the tree. That method relies on being an authority and having lots of followers to sell to, rather than search engine traffic. Personally, I don't like that style of marketing, but if you can sell 1000 ebooks at $30 a pop, that's decent money for most of us.
Stephen I understand you and your empathy for her but let's look at the facts. Don't you find it either arrogant or just plain idiotic to be writing an ebook called "How To Develop Money-Making Niche Sites with WordPress" when you yourself make no money what so ever. It is deceitful and a plain out right lie.
Stephen the way I look at it is. If some one tried to shoot me it would not matter if he did it saying how much he loved me or saying I was an asshole. He would still be trying to fucking kill me!
For the Affiliate Marketing ebook thing no doubt some serious cash to be made. I am not a writer so it would be kind of crazy for me to even try. I suspect that if I would have put all the info in this site in an ebbok form well written I could easily have sold it for $97.00 and you folks would have felt it was worth the money. So if some one has a new idea and it is viable I have no problem what so ever with them selling it as an ebook. As you know one of my rules for BU is if you see something I advertise here it has to be something that I actually bought and use. As an example of just an extremely valuable ebook for me was Domains Into Dollars I was clueless to the pre-owned domain business, tell you what it has already made me over 2k since I got it.
A question about DID: Phil Craig shows how to create a site using 'instantvideowebsite' but isn't it against Google/YouTube TOS to create an Adsense site with Youtube videos?
He also shows how to create a personal park page using an ezinearticle and strips out the author links and source credit. Is that OK terms of use?
I created a parked page with keywords and immediately got the Google public service ads – not the 'set and forget' he boasts. Do I need to do something differently?
Mirol the thing with Adsense is you need enough keywords to trigger the correct ad if not you get either public ads or the 3 cent click. I have used Domains Into Dollars strategies in buying and selling them and it has paid off big time but for parking I am using BANS I have just love it it has helped me to grow my Domain Portfolio the crazy thing I started using it just for Domain Parking and when I started watching money trickle in from each site I started to actually buy domains just to make BANS sites and use the promoting strategies from Promoting BANS and Niches The A-lister way
Thanks Vic, that's what I wanted to know.
Hey, this blog of yours exceeds my expectations! As a not native English speaker, it is sometimes hard for me to follow your language, because I have to strip it from all those fucks… etc, to get to the meaning of the phrases
But besides helping me improve my not-to-be-learned-in-school English, your posts confirm once more my personal conclusions as of making money online.
Vic,
Great post! Thanks!
As a person who was following Caroline because she seemed to be laying it all out for the world to view, I probably would have given consideration to her new book.
I have lost way more money and time than I could afford listening to people like this. Thanks to finding you, Court and Grizz, and implementing your ideas I am hoping to get out of debt this year and start making money instead of losing money.
I had to go back to work just to get out of debt from buying into all the crap that is online. When I started out to make money online I had just lost a job but was personally debt free at age 57. I was looking to make money to stay debt free and support myself and husband. Now I am in worse shape than when I started.
Now with all you guys help I am working at making my dreams a reality with the correct knowledge and without a big price tag.
I also owe a big thanks to Ruck from Cash Tactics for pointing me in your direction. He is another hell of a guy who shoots from the hip. Another blackhatter trying to go straight.
Thanks for giving so much! Hope to be able to give back some day.
Denise bless you. You are the reason this site created. I remember living in a car and not eating for days at a time and think of people who could be close to the situation I was in and suddenly they find them selfs being sold on a dream for $49.97. Denise from me you will never get the dream for only such and such $$$. An online business is hard and I ave said it before their is no magic bullet but it is also the only business I know that with solid fundamentals you can guarantee success. Denise the important thing is for you to know you are not the only one to fall on hard times it can happen to anyone and now you are not alone Court Grizz and me are here to walk you through the process and I believe we have formed a community where everybody wants to help everybody succeed.
Denise I will make a post today that I hope you have the opportunity to join and I can help you all succeed.
Denise I agree with you, tell you what though you don't half lose some sleep and get squared eyed following Court, Vic and Grizz. Ruck is new to me, am I gonna lose more sleep hours reading him?
You guys are turning me back into a geek, I haven't taken a photograph in weeks! But thanks to the combined advice, I have had the first week in 2 years where I earned adsense money each and every day. Imagine. It's not loads but it's a start.
Thanks Vic!
And thanks for understanding the hurt this business can cause to people who are deceived.
This has been a nightmare at times but one I believe will achieve the dream in the end.
We are not all looking to get rich or famous, we just want to earn an income that will support us.
Denise same here all I want to do is make some cash to pay or my kids college and hopefully take a few trips around the world I really want to go to Italy and Spain after that the rest would be gravy.
Not sure where to put this comment put just wanted to say cheers for all the info you have been given me here. I have been applying a lot of what I have read here to business site I have, ones without ads on them. I have been able moved sites from page 10 and further on google up to pages 1 and 2.
Can't wait to see what I might be able to do with a niche site.
Vic,
Nice analysis. I hope everyone who reads your post will question every ebook being hyped. Even free ebooks take time to download/read and time is valuable.
Rhonda