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Getting started on the web

futuremills

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Jul 29, 2007
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Okay so i just read RDPD and i want to get my entrepreneural feet wet on the internet. I am a recent college grad with no job and living at home so I do not have much money to play with. Today I was wondering what are my best options to start off with. Should i create a blog or learn some type of specific program for website design? i am pretty clueless as of right now and have no idea where to start. I read Rich Jerk last year so I tried a blog and tried doing affiliate stuff but it did not work out. I got turned off when i heard that sometimes google adsense may not pay you get paid or that someone can hack and steal your commish. At the time i was busy with school so i did not have much time to spare. Now that school is done and I pretty much have all day to work I am open to all suggestions.

I would like to know the best technical books to read on the subject of blogs or programing or anything considered to be useful and must reads to get in the internet game. I am not looking to read another motivational book at this time since my spark has been ignited :cheers:. I am about to start reading Robert Allan multiple streams of internet income and probably re read Rich Jerk
 
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kimberland

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Jul 25, 2007
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I read Rich Jerk last year so I tried a blog and tried doing affiliate stuff but it did not work out.

How long did you give the blog
before deciding it didn't work?
'Cause Google normally puts new domain names in the sandbox
for about 9 months.
Til then, you won't get much traffic.

I like to blog because it ties into other things that I'm doing.

I'm in new product development
so I read constantly, taking notes of new ideas/developments.
Made sense to put them online.

I travel quite a bit
and continually gather up tips on how to do that on the cheap.
Made sense to put my photos and these tips online.

Not much extra work + possibility to make income = why not?

BTW... Jon over at ArtOfMoney.org has a great little project called $100 a day blog (or something like that).
 

futuremills

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Thanks for the info and that site. Last year when i did my blog it was only for a few weeks because i had to start getting ready for finals and since i had received no hits I buried the idea. Basically were you saying that it takes 9 months to get any traffic? I think im going to do my blog centering around fitness.


BTW im looking to maybe get $50-100 a week when i first start my blog until i can get it to be a major player.

Besides blogs what other direction can i explore?
 

Luke12321

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Getting started on the web is not easy. I have never started a blog but if you are planning on making money off of the ads on your blog, I would suggest writing about a topic that you have great interest in or high level of knowledge. (Both would be great) Also, way to go on thinking outside of the box and wanting to get to the fastlane at such a young age. I am 21 and plan on starting up a business that came from an idea that I thought of a few months ago. What I did was think about "what is my area good at?". "What do we produce cheaper or better than anyone else? " I then looked at all the products that would fall under that category and started to look at the process in which the product is sold. I am going to leave it at that for now but I will be starting a thread in the ideas section soon and look forward to the dicussion about my idea. Keep your mind thinking and keep reading! The idea will hit you soon!
 
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JesseO

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I know of a blog that has made tons of money...but the site is a bit tasteless. It is www.tuckermax.com and is all about some drunk college dropout's adventures. They have a team there and are accepting peopler, but from what I've seen it is a pretty gorss (yet funny) site. Check it out and get in touch with them if you want. Sorry I don't have much more info other than that.....
 

futuremills

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Luke,
congrads with your progress. My passion is fitness and sports so im brainstorming what i can do in that area. Its pretty tough

Jesse,
I checked out that site last year, it was pretty funny.. Do you have an estimate to how much a site like that takes in.

Besides blogs i am still looking for another angle to try online. so if anyone can put me in the direction of any technical books it would be much appreciated
 

royemunson

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Jul 24, 2007
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Getting started in any business is tough, but the goal/fundamentals always stay the same.

As some of the experts here will agree and add to...

Find your passions - Are they marketable or saturated
Put a spin on them
Fill needs
Solve problems
Make things easier for people/business
Connect people - people want to be involved
Provide quality content that is relevant
Do it better than anyone else

There a ton of ways to make money online. The focus is to
bring the idea to life and ensure that it is feasible.

I read about Cameron Johnson - another whiz kid who has started
11 online biz's and he is only 20.

I have to disagree that these kids are more apt to this, I just think
they trust their instincts, follow a process, and build systems around
their idea. then they market the hell out of them, test them, tweak them,
and grow them.

I am working myself on finding a business idea to structure adn fill a need.
IN business things can always be improved upon.

Joe
 
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Luke12321

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I can say that with my business idea, currently...it is not a passion. It is more along the lines better quality, convience...that sorta niche. Anyways, if fitness is your passion...go for it! Trust me, it is easier to keep motivated if you are passionate about it. You have to believe in your idea and have confidence. If you believe....others will soon as well! Faith is very strong...have faith in yourself and idea and others will see that and help you along the way!
 

kimberland

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Jul 25, 2007
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Last year when i did my blog it was only for a few weeks because i had to start getting ready for finals and since i had received no hits I buried the idea. Basically were you saying that it takes 9 months to get any traffic?

I think what we have here is a great lesson.
One most of us have to learn.
That is, to set realistic benchmarks before starting on a project.

For example:
I recently decided to explore ezine submissions as part of a marketing strategy.
I did my research and most of the pros said it takes about 100 submissions to get any sort of traffic.
I wrote that down as a benchmark.

After about 10 submissions, I was seeing not much traffic.
I was getting frustrated.
I thought about quitting.
Then I looked at my benchmark.
Nope, no quitting.
I said I would give it 100 tries.

Thank goodness I didn't quit.
The traffic is growing exponentially
even though I'm still not at my 100 submissions.

This holds true for any project,
whether it be marketing,
launching a new business,
paper investing
or even starting a new exercise program.
You don't want to quit too early
or if you don't meet the benchmarks, hang on too long.

: )
 

JesseO

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Jesse,
I checked out that site last year, it was pretty funny.. Do you have an estimate to how much a site like that takes in.

Besides blogs i am still looking for another angle to try online. so if anyone can put me in the direction of any technical books it would be much appreciated

Honestly I have no idea what the site makes, but the guy gave up being a lawyer in order to start his company. His friend Maddox (The Best Page In The Universe.) is also a part of it but takes no money. I would assume that the Tucker site makes 100k per year, but that is based on nothing except inept assumptions. If you have some schocking or interesting true life stories, there is a link on the web pages. They now have about 20 affiliates or web pages of people who have been approved. I guess my whole point is that if you can be shocking, then you'll make money. Look at Rosie O'Dummy...she makes tons of money for nothing other than flapping her big mouth and arguing with a big-mouthed idiot who calls everyone a loser. And no, I'm not talking about RK, but rather a friend of his...Good luck with everything, I'm sure there are a lot of big companied who would advertise anywhere just to get their name out if your website gets enough hits.
 
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Z5 FILMS

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Thanks for the info and that site. Last year when i did my blog it was only for a few weeks because i had to start getting ready for finals and since i had received no hits I buried the idea. Basically were you saying that it takes 9 months to get any traffic? I think im going to do my blog centering around fitness.


BTW im looking to maybe get $50-100 a week when i first start my blog until i can get it to be a major player.

Besides blogs what other direction can i explore?


Making money on the net is not easy. Blogs are no exception. Even that guy form ProBlogger said it took him a good three years. And that's back when it was "easy" because blogging had not really taken off.

If you want to make money on the net, you're going to need to have different revenue streams. Have multiple sites, have Adsense, sell a physical product, do affiliate marketing, etc. All these people who just depend on Adsense as their only income source are going to get a rude awakening one day. That's just my opinion.
 

Nate

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Some of my favorite blogs about how to blog (although I would at this point not suggest creating a blog about blogging 'metablogging'). Very saturated.

problogger.net
doshdosh.com
johnchow.com
45n5.com

All probably colleagues of Andrew who floats around here.
 

AllOutOrNothing

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Sep 15, 2007
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Its about getting web traction. Most sites take about a year to be able to mature and have decent rankings just to achieve okay levels of traffic.

Its rare in this day and age with the sandbox filter for new sites to come right out of the bat and start making revenue and growing right away.

A blog is a great way to start but if you expect to make money from it within a couple months that is usually a rare outcome.
 
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John

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If you write well and have interesting things to say you should be able to get a blog off the ground. You'll have to stick with it for a while before you start to see results. A constant stream of fresh content is very important both for search engines and to keep your readers coming back. Half of the battle with getting any kind of website off the ground is making yourself stick with it while you're not seeing any initial results. I'd say that you should aim for a minimum of several quality posts per week. If you're going to do this at all you should commit to yourself that you'll stick with it for at least 1 year. By that time you should at least be bringing in at least a little extra spending money if you're doing a good job at it.

Also, as you're deciding what kind of website to launch don't limit ideas to just blogs. There are lots of other possibilities out there.

Here are a few of my favorite resources for learning about the various types of website publishing:

www.websitepublisher.net
www.webpublishingblog.com
www.selfmademinds.com
www.sitepoint.com (more geared toward the technical side than business, but still useful)

Good luck!
 

Andrew

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Aug 8, 2007
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Some of my favorite blogs about how to blog (although I would at this point not suggest creating a blog about blogging 'metablogging'). Very saturated.

problogger.net
doshdosh.com
johnchow.com
45n5.com

All probably colleagues of Andrew who floats around here.

I've never met any of those guys, although I am friends with Jeremy [SIZE=-1]Schoemaker[/SIZE] of Shoemoney.com

Still tons of money in blogging, just pick the right market and work aggressively to build personal connections with people who own websites with lots of traffic. These guys aren't leaning back and waiting for free Google traffic.
 

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