Bringing my game to the next level

[Aveligand]

So I've been into IM for about 3 months now and I'm pretty happy with how far I've come given the relatively short timeframe. As of right now, I have 7 small to medium niche blog sites with steady taffic coming in. But here's the problem: my revenue - it sucks. Each of my sites only generates between 30 cents to a dollar each day with adsense, even the ones highly ranked on the serps. I feel those sites are a good starting point for learning the basics, but obviously I'm not retiring early because of them.

So my question is, what should I do to bring this thing to the next level? Over the course of the past few months I've learnt a tremendous amount about SEO and web marketing in general (in no small part thanks to WF), and I want to get my online income to at least 3k/month, but I don't really see a large collection of static content sites as the long term solution given the initial investment required on them.

Should I focus on building one massive site? Help me out here.

 

[springer]

Ave,

Congrats on admitting to reading and learning before posting, and on actually doing something with what you've learned.

I believe you've answered your own question. You have 7 sites that each earn between 30 cents and a buck a day off AS. You can add more monitization methods to those sites, or you can create more sites... or both, until you get up to your 3K/mo goal. Then, keep reaching. It's all about scale and it's your choice.

$1 a day, then $10, then $100... why not $1000 or more?

What initial investment per site? Are you hiring each site done or are you talking about the time investment. If you're hiring, learn to build them yourself. If it's the time, no one said it'd be easy.

Look into some of the aff. networks that are peppered throughout this forum. Maybe there'll be offers that would fit your niches. You can also go to the G and search for products that have an aff. program that maybe don't use the networks, where you can sign up individually.

At least you're on the right track as far as already seeing a positive cash flow. That's a lot more than a lot of people can say, after a longer period of time.

I don't think I'm alone in recommending you not make a single, mega site. Relying on something like that, (even if your exit plan is to sell out for big bucks) is putting all your eggs in one basket and that can be a disaster if something happens to your single income stream.

 

[Demon]

How long did it take you to make those $1 a day blogsites? I'm sure it didnt take a tremendous amount of effort, so why not do it 100 times and make $100 a day? Earning 1 buck a day for each of your 100 sites is better than earning 100 through just one site. But the easiest option for you right now would be to just expand your niche by developing new, seperate sites which are in the same niche and linking to them. Spread out your content and use one way links between your blogs. Look to different ways of generating traffic and just keep going with one project or another.

 

[Aveligand]

Thanks for all the replies so far.

Generally, each new site costs me around $100 to make. The bulk of it is spent on content creation. I ususally just slap on a wordpress theme so design is essentially free. After the site's up and running, I do a bit of manual link building in addition to a combination of paid directory, deeplinking and social bookmarking submissions. I use QUIT to get indexed quickly (none of my sites have taken more than 2 days to get indexed) After that, it takes about 3 - 4 weeks to get it to a stable $0.50/day or higher level.

I guess my biggest stumbling block is scaling. As you can see, the initial investment is relatively high and I can't afford to keep throwing in money like that at this point, especially since the return is so low and slow.

Demon, I am thinking of doing the interlinked niche site thing since so many people recommend doing it, but at the same time I'm wondering how much of a difference it'll make when it comes to the bottom line. I mean, say I create a network of 10 sites all revolving around the theme "Dogs". I can have a site on dog food, one on dog breeds, dog training...etc. But aren't they all still essentially small minisites just making a few cents or a few dollars a day? Am I missing something here?

 

[MyOwnDemon]

Here's the ultimate secret to making money online: Power in Numbers.

Let's say you have 1000 sites. Each one is making you $1 per day. That is $1000 per day.

Each site is only costing you $6 year for registration/renewal/hosting. So basically, $6000/year.

But with $1k per day income on all your sites combined, you are making $365k per year. Only $6k is going to hosting which leaves you with $359k per year profit.

And each site only makes a low $1/day.

This is what people mean when they say scalability. Hope that helped you see the big picture.

 

[emp]

Scalability also has to do with two more things:

1. Automating
2. Outsourcing

1) Automate all you can. Obvious, ain't it?
2) Outsource all you can, cheaply. Get some cheap content writers/rewriters.

Also: Don't only rely on adsense.
I know a lot of people do not like amazon, but there are good WP plugins for their offers. Throw in an amazon book or gadget link once in a while.

::emp::

 

[glowleaf]

In reality, making 1000 similar sites will not give you 1000 times your income. Some will make less, some will make a lot more.

You used the word "business", so start thinking like a business man!

Every business starts with a simple model. As soon as they have that model up and running, they see how to minimize expenses and maximize profit.

Ideas?
Find out how to minimize the original cost. Bulk info domains sounds good.
Renting a server might be a good investment.

but I don't really see a large collection of static content sites as the long term solution given the initial investment required on them.

Why static? Set up wordpress right onto the sites, and put a nice template on it. Have it scrape 5 posts per day. (wp-o-matic works fine). Now your site is not static

Keep in mind, that rss was made for easy to access news. No site is banned for scraping 5 news posts per day.

And, I agree with the previous posters, putting all your eggs in one basket is not recommended.

If you like, you can pm me with your niche site urls so I can be more specific.

You are doing great, actually.

 

[RuDeDoGg]

I don't have time to read through the posts, so sorry if this has been posted or isn't exactly what you're looking for.

My 2 cents:
Ditch adsense, I also spent some time ranking well and using adsense to monetize my sites. It pays horribly! If you can find an affiliate offer (check out commission junction or other affiliate CPA networks) then do that. The google CPA idea someone above posted will work great too. I bet doing this alone will get you earning at least a few dollars a day for each site, probably more (depending on what kind of affiliate offers are relevant).

PS: I haven't looked at google referrals in awhile, but last time I checked they didn't have many advertisers using it. Check out CJ (Commission Junction) if you can't find something to promote for one of your blogs.