Bloggers Journal

Everyone would love to make a little extra cash – let’s face it, in the current economic climate, the cost of living is getting beyond a joke.  Some extra cash is always a relief as it eases the strain.  Some of the most straight forward ways of generating more income is to get another job.  But who really wants to be working longer – if they really have to?  I know I don’t, and I’ll bet if you’re reading this now, you don’t either.

The internet is a great resource which has been used by many to carve new careers for themselves.  What’s more is it is relatively straight forward – so why doesn’t everyone have an internet job?  What stops the masses from being successful running a website and making cash?

Can you really make a living online?

That’s a good question to ask.  It always seems far too good to be true.  At least, that’s how I felt when I initially stumbled upon some of the internet entrepreneur websites.  But let’s take a look at the numbers.  Let’s see if it is theoretically possible to make good money online using a website.

Say for instance you have a website, which receives about 2,000 visitors a day.  Sounds like a lot, but that’s not a lot to some of the top sites like Pro Blogger.  Okay, so I’m going to make some really rough estimates of numbers here.  Suppose,

1% visitors/day click on AdSense (or equivalent) at $0.05 per click = $1

1% visitors/month click on Amazon Affiliate and follow through with purchase at $1 per purchase = $20

5% visitors/month (average) buy your shiney new eBook at $20 a pop = $2,000

That totals $30 + $20 + $2,000 = $2,050

So the numbers are crude, but you can see that theoretically you can make pretty good money.  Imagine this with more visitors, or over 2 or 3 sites!  Those income sources haven’t even considered other opportunities.  Anyway, my point is made – there is money to be had.

Why is it so hard to earn this?

Seeing numbers like that, it all seems really very easy.  This is why so many people try to earn a living online.  But what makes it difficult?  Why can’t any Tom, Dick or Harry make a living online?  The difficulty is something that eBooks and eCourses do not stress enough.  It’s all well and good buying a domain, getting some hosting, and running a pretty little WordPress powered website, with a groovy template.  You add the content as recommended.  You consider monetising your website, some of the easiest options are,

• Amazon Affiliates – simply register
• AdBrite (aff link) – simply register
• Google AdSense – application process

Back to my point – the difficulty.  Many people that start up a blog/website start with the sole interest of generating revenue quickly.  They lack real interest, and pick a subject that they know will be a profitable one.  They lack passion, and when the first month or two passes, they get disheartened by the lack of money they are earning – if any!

Another thing that is particularly difficult – if not the most difficult – is generating traffic.  2,000 visitors per day is a massive amount of traffic, that takes a serious amount of work to achieve.  To get this traffic, you need to exploit every opportunity to advertise and market your website.  You need more than a few blog comments.  You need social media like Facebook and Twitter, as well as the bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon.

The best traffic to your blog is organic traffic – traffic that has got their naturally – usually through search engines.  You need to carefully research the keywords you want to rank for in the search engines.  The art of search engine optimisation (SEO) is challenging, but very rewarding – check out Keyword Research Blog, or Smart Passive Income.  Alex at KRB writes a number of very compelling articles on the importance of SEO.  Pat at SPI writes about marketing using tools such as Market Samurai.

In addition to the challenges in developing traffic and not actually being interested in your website (beyond the money), you focus too much on others than yourself.  There are tons of start up blogs around.  Most people stumble upon them naturally when looking for similar niches.  It is all too easy to become fixated on your competition and what they are doing.  They key to success is to absorb everything around you, but remain focused on YOUR goals and YOUR ambitions using YOUR methods.

All of this takes time.  Lisa at 2createawebsite.com says to stick at your website work for at least 6 to 12 months before you will see any sort of income.  Real success takes a long time – years!

To sum up

Success is achieved through passion, determination and hard work – and lots of it!  The more effort you put into it, believing in yourself and your methods, you will eventually succeed.  Don’t get bogged down by the negatives along the way.  Instead, use the negatives as something to improve and build upon.

Your turn

Many of you are starter bloggers, and are keen to live the “internet lifestyle”.  Some of you are fortunate enough to be living it.  What methods are you taking to realise your dreams?  What advice did you find most useful on your journey to success?  I look forward to your feedback.