Moving into my first year as full time internet entrepreneur is both a stressful and exciting time. I’ve decided that I would document my process by sharing my earnings publicly via this blog. These posts aren’t meant to brag or anything instead I’m trying to use this as a means to help motivate myself to reach my goal of $150k in 2010 while at the same time keeping me publicly accountable. Besides, I know internet entrepreneurs out there making significantly more money than I do (most of them I met at the Elite Retreat). In any case, I believe what I share in these reports will help other part time internet entrepreneurs looking to make the leap full time and newbies alike. While I personally didn’t have the luxury of deciding when to quit my job and work for myself – because I was fired – I am always willing to help out others that ask questions. I respond to every blog comment as well as personal emails. With that disclaimer in place, let’s move onto the earnings continued after the break:
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Tagged: Income Reports, make money on the internet, make money online
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Earlier this week I shared the top 7 tips I used to earn $41,438.42 with Amazon Associates in 2009. Today I’m going to show you the 7 worst ways to make money with Amazon Associates. I’m using data from over 40 different tracking codes I used during 2009 so that I can show you with actual numbers the worst ways to make money with Amazon Associates.
1. Do not use Amazon.com banner ads: 5% of total 2009 earnings
Even though I made 5% of my total earnings from Amazon banner ads (which is the same amount as the Buy Now buttons I implemented on my websites) it’s important to recognize just how much screen real estate I devoted to their use (most times a 468 x 60 ad and a 300 x 250 rotating ad unit with Google Adsense both above the fold). The reason why I believe these ads perform so poorly is two fold:
a. Web visitors avoid clicking advertisements in general, but I’ve found the Amazon ads especially tend to convert very poorly (all varieties)
b. The ads Amazon does offer are far too general and don’t work well for niche specific websites. i.e. if I was running a site focused on just LED HDTV’s the closest ad I could use is one for electronics.
The most effective Amazon ads I did run were carousel widgets and even those performed poorly when compared to the tactics I know work. One unknown trick is to simply create your own ads for products on Amazon; however, you must email the customer service team to get approval before running them (if you want to play it safe that is, which I always tend to do). The ads I did go through the hassle of creating and getting approval for were even more effective than the carousel widgets, but again none of these solutions were as effective as linking to content within posts my most effective means of earning money from Amazon. In fact, as you can see from the last post I earned over 80% of my total income share based on in content related tactics.
More terrible ways to make money with Amazon Associates are continued after the break
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Tagged: Amazon Associates
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There has been a debate that rages on around paid directory submissions and whether they work or not for years. However, when I spoke with SEO guru Aaron Wall at Elite Retreat back in October I asked for his opinion and he told me that they still do work, and since he’s the guy that “wrote the book on SEO” to perpetuate the cliche phrase – I took his word for it.
So after I came back from Elite Retreat I paid for directory submissions for a few of my websites from both Yahoo’s directory which runs $299 per year and BOTW.org which runs $150 per year for the directory or $75 for the blog directory. I did see improved search engine traffic from the sites I paid for the links from, but it’s far too difficult to determine whether or not it was as a result of the paid directory submissions or a combination of the other tactics I have since implemented to improve organic search rankings and traffic. With that said, I do still believe they are worth the price and just recently paid to get into the BOTW.org blog directory with this blog MakeMoneyontheInternet.com. The main reason for this post is because I wanted to let you know they are offering 20% off everything until the end of January using this promo code: newyr. So the yearly link only cost me $60 instead of the usual $75 – not a huge savings, but it’s still worth it if you plan to pay for the directory submission sometime soon anyway.
In any case, hope this post saves you a few dollars over at Best of the Web.
Also, I didn’t plan on writing anything else before my follow up post to my article on the top 7 tips that I used to earn $41,438.42 with Amazon Associates in 2009, but because this deal ends soon I had to share it now.
Please note: The above post does include affiliate links; however, as I’ve stated multiple times in the past two years I’ve been blogging – I will not promote a product or service I haven’t used myself and genuinely believe is worth spending money on.
Update: I just got approved and am already in the directory here. The grammar in the sentence they used is off though – I sent them an email to fix it.
Tagged: best of the web, botw, promo code
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The Amazon Associates program was my top earner last year and while I’m in the process of looking forward to achieving new goals in 2010 after getting fired from my job in 2009, I wanted to take some time to share my absolute best tips on how to make more money with Amazon.com’s affiliate program as we move into the new year. This list will be different than any other list you’ve read because to compose this list I used over 40 different tracking codes across the wide range of blogs, websites and forums I run to conclusively test what tactics worked best. So not only will these tips help you earn more money, I can also share specific figures as to how well each tip helped contribute to my $41,438.42 earned in 2009.
This will be a 2 part post. The next post will cover the least effective ways to make money with Amazon Associates, so be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed (or RSS email) and follow me on Twitter to avoid the common mistakes.
1. Use multiple Amazon tracking ID’s
If you are using only one Amazon tracking ID for each website you’re running, you’re still making a huge mistake and this is a mistake I’ve seen perpetrated across a vast array of websites. You absolutely need to use multiple tracking ID’s for every single website you run so that you know what is working and what isn’t. Part of why I believe so strongly that this list will be a valuable resource for you is simply because of the fact that I used so many tracking codes during the course of 2009 that I was able to determine exactly what tactics pays out the best and what pays out the worst. In fact, I wouldn’t feel comfortable writing an Amazon tips list without showing proof that my tips do in fact work. The tips I’m sharing may work better for me than they will for you which is precisely why you should not only try what I’m suggesting, but you should also test it with multiple tracking ID’s too (Once inside your Amazon account you can create additional tracking ids here).
Please click the continue reading button for more tips after the break.
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Tagged: Amazon Associates
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I run a wide variety of websites ranging from product reviews to video game forums, but one commonality spreads across everything that I do – when dealing with people over email there is always a feeling of disconnect. With all the advances in technology it’s become increasingly easier to communicate online and there is almost no real reason to meet up with people in person. These days I experience this feeling of isolation even more now that my morning commute is 20 steps away from my bedroom and the only people I talk with are online or over the phone. My desire to connect with people in person has been strong enough recently that I decided to go to Las Vegas for CES early this month. During my time I learned 5 advantages of in person networking as compared to doing it online or over the phone:
1. Legitimacy:
If you go to a conference to cover it on a blog or website you run it adds legitimacy to your blog. When I paid $6,494.03 to go to Elite Retreat I knew that it would help lend credibility to what I write about on this blog. After all, why would I spend over $6k to go to a conference if I wasn’t making enough money to cover the expense? Likewise, I went to CES so that I could report live from the event and show the readers my operation is more legitimate than they may have thought before.
2. Strengthen Old Relationships:
Going into CES there were about twenty marketing reps that I knew I wanted to meet face to face. These are the people I had been communicating with over email for 6+ months (or more) and I knew that it would improve my relationship with them by meeting with them in person. This also builds on my previous statements of adding legitimacy. They may have had questions about the fact that I was a solo blogger in the past, but knowing that I spent about $1,000 to come down and see CES first hand should make them take me more serious for future requests (i.e. direct ad buys).
3. No Gatekeepers:
When you first call a company asking for demo equipment to review (or even worse – the person in charge of buying online advertising space) it’s very tough to get to the right person in charge. The administrative assistants are trained to not pass through calls to many individuals unless they are given a compelling reason. But when you are at an event like CES you are speaking directly with the PR agents and marketing managers in charge of promoting their products, so it’s in their best interests to listen to what I have to say and take my call in the future.
4. Forge new relationships:
Even though I have had the opportunity to work with many companies, I still haven’t worked with everyone. By going to CES I was able to surpass many of the roadblocks that stood in my way as a solo operation and start to build relationships with new companies that I can turn to at a later date for clarification on a product they’re releasing or for demo equipment. I knew going into the event there were about 10 primary companies I wanted to speak with and I not only spoke with them, I’ve already begun dialog about potentially doing direct ad buys (more on that in the future).
5. True relationships pay dividends:
Am I advocating that you try to be friends with people just because of what they can do for you in a business sense? No of course not. But if you look back at the past advantages I’ve listed off there are now over a hundred people that I can go to and ask questions that I would have felt uncomfortable asking in the past such as: “I know we’ve worked in the past before, but I was wondering if you could provide me some contact info for the person in charge of media buying” or “Hey, I had an idea for a joint promotion where (insert company name) could give me a few units of product to give away on my website” etc. These are the types of tough questions that it’s very difficult for the person on the other end to say yes to if the only contact you’ve had in the past is over email and a couple phone calls.
Wrap up:
If you have an opportunity to go to a conference highly related to the websites you run I suggest you take it. As long as you know it may take some time for your initial investment to pay off you’ll be more than happy you did it. In fact, I already have a lead on a company that may be willing to pay my way to the next CES and they’re asking for very little in return.
What do you think? What have your experiences been like with conferences?
Tagged: networking
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Now that I’ve settled into my new home and have had time to think about going into 2010 as a full time internet entrepreneur I thought it would be best to write some specific and measurable goals for the new year. I’ve split these up into professional and personal:
Professional:
1. Earn over $150,000 across my network of websites
2. Spend at least $50,000 on quality domain names to be developed
3. Work at least 5 hours a day for a minimum of 25 hours per week
4. Hire at least one full time writer
My first goal of earning $150,000 in 2010 will be tough, but I make $410.97 every day of the year I’ll earn more than $150,000. Because I watch my earnings every day I can make sure I keep tabs on where I’m falling short. I also want to spend at least $50,000 on quality domain names. I believe in buying quality domain names and then developing truly great websites for them. I’ve also found that since Oct 13th when I got fired from my job last year I found it difficult to work more than 4 hours a day at a time, especially since I was making more money than my day job where I spent 8+ hours a day working. I know that if I devote at least 5 hours a day or more to work that should help me to achieve my primary goal of earning $150,000 in 2010. I also know that I will need to create a ton of content for the websites I’m creating so I need to hire on a full time writer to help with content creation. I haven’t decided if I want to hire on a native English speaker or if I should just opt for the cheaper $500 a month overseas writer instead… I’ll cover this in more detail when I get there though.
Personal goals are continued after the break…
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Tagged: 2010 Goals
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This is Part 1 in series of posts where I will document the results from moving my old blog at ChrisGuthrie.net to the new URL here at MakeMoneyontheInternet.com
I’m going to document this blog move as a case study and share how long it takes for the search traffic to bounce back. In the past I really didn’t get a lot of traffic to ChrisGuthrie.net especially because I didn’t write very often; however, I did still have a few search keywords that continually brought me traffic every month. With that in mind the main thing I’ll be looking at is to see how long it takes for these ranks to recover or if they’re lost for good.
Here’s how I moved my Wordpress blog
I followed the steps on this great guide by Yoast; however, the 8th step didn’t work in his guide didn’t work so I used the .htaccess code mentioned in this guide to finish up the move.
There is no need for you to update your RSS feed as I’ve already done this on the backend (side note: don’t try to update the Feedburner URL as that won’t work, you can only update the source URL. You’re stuck with the Feedburner URL unless you want readers to resubscribe hint: don’t do that).
Why I made the move
By now you may be wondering why I would choose to move my blog to a new domain in the first place. Well, I made the decision to move my blog to a new domain for several reasons.
1. No one searches for “Chris Guthrie” (well, actually 27 people do per month)
2. I was annoyed that I couldn’t convince the owner of ChrisGuthrie.com to sell me the domain name (my last offer was $1,500)
3. When people arrive at my blog it’s not entirely clear what it is I do until you read some of my content
4. The Chris Guthrie character drawing is one of those things that says to readers “Don’t take me serious” and puts me in a hole that I have to dig out of with the quality of the content I write. Or in the worst case scenario leads them to leave the page before they even see what I have to say.
5. There is no potential for selling in the future (not that I care to, but I like to have my options open)
I am using the character for a new project I’ll be starting soon and will document on this blog a different case study. I plan to have a lot of fun with that new project and am flying to Las Vegas for CES next week partly because of that project (more details to come).
There are other reasons why I made the move, but the list above consists of the main ones. Either way I am very excited about the move and the opportunity to start blogging on a more regular basis now that I’m officially self employed. In fact, I’ve been holding back several ideas that I’m very excited to share in the coming weeks. In my next post I’ll share my highlights from 2009 and my goals for 2010 so be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed.
Tagged: move wordpress blog
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Long time readers may remember the post I wrote back in January 2008 where I outlined my goals for the year. Looking back on that post I can only think to myself – too bad I didn’t know what I know now. The goals were almost laughable. So when 2009 rolled around I was the first to call out how unbelievably unsuccessful 2008 was from a goal achievement perspective. I gathered my thoughts and wrote out a 2 year goal towards self employment with an end goal income target for the year of $32,000 (the starting salary at the job I used to have)
Goal Success:
Well, of any goal I’ve ever set out to accomplish this one means the most. Based on my earnings for the past several months I’ve decided that it’s safe to call this goal a success 1 year and 5 months ahead of my original schedule! I am making enough now to officially quit my job errrr, oh yah I was fired so I didn’t have to quit after all. In any case, Boo yah!
Game Plan:
I’ve decided that I will take $3,500 a month as income from my websites during 2010 to pay our fixed bills and it should leave some left over for other random expenses that crop up. My wife is still finishing out her masters program and unpaid internships until December 2010, so I only need to make $42,000 during the entire year to cover our bills. The rest of the money earned will be kept in the business to buy more domains, websites, coding help, etc. So as long as I can continue to earn more than $3,500 a month we should be fine.
Why I didn’t share this news earlier:
I’ve held off on writing this post for over two months now because after I got let go fired from my job October 13th I had begun searching for a new job. I know employers look up potential candidates by searching them online so I marked a few of the posts on my blog private that illustrated how much I hate working for someone else and plan to quit in late 2010 hah hah. But after half looking for a few weeks I decided that the timing of getting fired was for a reason. This was the gentle shove (well maybe a kick) that showed me it’s time to do my own thing and I couldn’t be more happy about why lies ahead than I am right now.
Why was I fired?
To this day I still have no idea why I was fired. I had already helped to achieve my full year sales target 3 months ahead of schedule and I also had numerous awards. I am near certain that it was because my outbound rep that I partner with on deals wanted me to work more than the regular 40 hours a week my salary requires. But the pay wasn’t really all that great in the first place and I was much more focused on building my online empire than putting in extra hours to earn just a little bit more commission.
Looking forward to 2010
I am looking forward to 2010 and a full year of self employment and an opportunity to do even better. In fact, I will be moving this blog to a new domain in the next week or two. You shouldn’t have to subscribe to the new feed, but the reason for the change is that I wanted to pick something that was more focused on what I do online and not just my personal name. (More details on this new URL soon)
I have several exciting posts, case studies and more to share in the coming weeks and months so be sure to stick around. It’s very good stuff.
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Tagged: featured
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