Clicking or Reading to Make Money Online
Here is an awesome article from David Cooley. He is a very skilled programmer, web designer and very successful Internet marketer. David has been in this business for a long time and offers a lot of insight and advice to folks just getting started.
In his career, he has sold a dot Com website for $20,000 USD, invented the famous Google Video Bar and enjoys working with Google API and many other available API technology. Please give David a warm welcome and blast out some awesome comments for him. Be sure to visit his blog and subscribe to his amazing RSS feed. At the bottom of the article, David also included an awesome YouTube video. I really enjoy it when people take the time to assure that they are communicating an important message. David is a rare breed blogger who truly is out to help thousands find success in making money online.
Clicking or Reading to Make Money Online
By David Cooley
One of things that people are doing on the Internet these days is confusing Make Money Online with Make Money Blogging. They are not the same thing. Yes I know, there are a thousand blogs out there telling you how to make money online. Pay close attention to where they are making their income.
The current MMO climate reminds me of the old “Stuffing envelopes” routine. Back in the 70’s and 80’s there were all these deals that would show you how to make money from your home Stuffing Envelopes. Most of these would ask for $20 or so, then you would receive a package to tell you how to make money Stuffing envelopes. Can you guess how it worked? The package would tell you to stuff envelopes with the same letter you answered, telling people how to make money stuffing envelopes. So in fact, it was just a circle of nothing. Once it made the rounds, it died out. And personally, I think that is how a lot of the Make Money Online deals are today.
If you are trying to make money Blogging it is a lot different than how a lot of people are making money online. Find a blog that is making money by blogging and you will usually find someone who has made money on other ventures like an affiliate website first, and then they started blogging about how they made money online.
The first thing that needs to be considered is that there is a big difference between someone who is a “reader” and someone who is a “clicker”. Most blog readers are not clickers, and most clickers are not readers. Blog readers are typically a little more advanced in their knowledge of the Internet whereas clickers are people who are looking for an answer or a product search and really do not have a clue at the difference between a blog or a website. These clickers could really care less what the site is called, they just want their target search met. If it means clicking on an Adsense Ad or an affiliate link they do not even know the difference. A blog reader is different, typically they are savvy enough to know what is and isn’t an ad. They have developed “Ad Blindness”. If you are reading this line, you are probably a reader, and I challenge you to be honest and think about how many ads you have clicked on in the last 24 hours?
Here is a very simple breakdown. (certainly not the only options)
Making Money Blogging – This requires a lot of dedicated readers and traffic. Once a blog gets to the 1000 pageviews a day mark a lot of things can open up. Mainly it is in the form of direct advertising either using a program like BlogAds or selling direct. I know from personal experience when a blog hits a mark like 50,000 pageviews a week, people come to you to advertise on your site. While you are building this traffic you can certainly pick up a little cash with programs like Adsense, but, you have to leave room for others if you are going to succeed big.
Making Money Online – There are a thousand ways to do it. But, most are not blogging. The blog may be a springboard, but it is not the main income stream. If you want to use programs like Adsense and Affiliates that require a click you will have to target the non savvy visitor. The funny part about this is that a static site can have a better return on investment (ROI) than a blog. And with that, why would you want to run a blog that requires daily attention if you could build a site and let it run?
A double thanks to Garry!
First, thanks for the opportunity to guest post.
Second, thanks for the Camera recommendation. The Kodak Z1275 is awesome, especially for the price!
PS : Stop by my blogs anytime to say hello, CyberCoder and Ramble On
Best Regards,
David Cooley
Popularity: 1% [?]
16 comments
Great article, David! And I enjoyed your video. It is always nice to see the face behind the blog!
I’m subscribing to your feed.
Have a great day!
Great article and to be honest I’m more of a reader, however knowing that many get paid for clicks about once a week I go through and click on an ad at blogs during a visit. You did ask for honesty. I never did like those work-at-home opportunities you mention and I hate that I get them in the mail about twice a month. Not even sure how these people have my info.
-Tish, Thanks, I have always tried to keep my mug shot out of it, but video does help us connect.
-homemom3, It has always amazed me how much junk mail is generated, the scary part is how many people try all these crazy things.
it is easy to fall into those traps in the beginning, I know I did but learned real quickly. Everyone is always trying to stay home and make money, those newbies just don’t know about the traps that await them.
Hey Dave,
Loved the video, and your right about the whole blogging for money thing being like the stuffing envelope scams. I remember those. LOL, (my dad tried it)
I really never thought of the difference in clickers and readers, but that makes perfect sense. I’m a reader, and the only time I click on an ad is if it’s something that really grabs my attention.
I’ve always had the mindset of “if it’s too good to be true, it is”, which has probably saved me a ton of cash over the years. But then again, I’m cheap. LOL However, I’ve got a whole slew of e-books that were free that I haven’t done a bloody thing with. So it really doesn’t matter on the price, it matters on what you do with the information after you’ve got it in your hands. I’m guilty of this one myself.
Here’s a question for you. Do you think e-books that give you resell rights are worth the time? I have a bunch of them, but being a writer, it’s hard for me to sell a book that I had nothing to do with. Love to hear your views on this.
Great post. Thanks for the information.
David,
Awesome, awesome job on the article and thanks so much for including a video. What a bonus! Reading this will be helpful for a lot of people. People come to blogs to read them and not to click ads. Before I called it a day last night, I ventured out into the blogosphere and re-discovered that more then half of the blogs are produced for writers who don’t even know, consider, or think about monetizing their blogs. These blogs are journals and used religiously everyday. These authors do all this for free. Its an escape, or a way to do something they enjoy.
There are more blogs like that compared to the ones that worry about trying to make money off them.
-Christine, Thanks for all the feedback. IMHO, Master Resell Rights is probably the biggest Stuffing Envelope program around today. I have probably 100 of them, and there are people who say they make money. But then again, I am also not into the Ebay stuff and I know people who do very well with it. So as with most things, it’s a matter of personality and skill set.
Kind of what I thought, but wanted your opinion. A lot of the ebooks I have with resell rights are basically crap anyway, and I don’t want others thinking that I’m somehow associated with that kind of writing.
Thanks Dave,
David you hit the point, acknowledging the fact that the readers of my two blogs are readers and not clickers, summing it up with the fact that I preferr writing long articulated posts, with which I try to deliver good content but costs me a LOT of time but with a low ROI, was the starting point of a difficult battle inside my.
One part (the “ego” one) loves to blog, the other (the “businessman” one) want’s to make money online in my rare sparetime. This battle is bringing me to switch strategy: I’ll probably take near to zero care of my old blogs and adopt something what is less time consuming and easier delegatable outsourcing it.
My experience also confirms your statement that static pages convert better than blogs. I’ve a page which I’ve setup in 1997 during my college studies, last year I decided to put Adsense on them, it brought me my first bucks. Recently, as I decided that I want to make money online, I’ve registrated a domain and translated that page in four other languages. That’s all I’ve done and actually this site brings 50% of my actual Adsense earnings. I admit that I’m actually not already making big bucks online (I’ve hit my first goal to get every month an Adsense check) but the fact that the half of my earnings jump in my pocket doing nothing, while the other half costs my a lot of effort, remains.
As long as up to now I’ve never had the traffic figures you mentioned, I’ll keep in mind your advice to keep a spot free for the big advertisers when the traffic begins to raise, because I think that this is a very good idea.
Thanks for sharing your experience
ciao
alex
This post is very true. A lot of people think blogging will make steady income, but it does not. The big bloggers move onto real life business.
-Mike
Cool stuff! Based on the article, I’m a reader too but we’re exploring several options in making money online (mostly statics and forums), not necessarily through blogging. And we thought why not blog about this adventure.
BTW, CyberCoder’s great too.
Bong,
You know what man… I have failed to talk about forums. Prior to blogging I was a HUGE and I mean H-U-G-H message board junkie. Through just reading and being a member to moderating many through running my own… Forums are a ton of fun!
You know what? I just might start one up again. I know the programs like the back of my hand. I know a lot about PHPbb, SMF,as well as VB. There are some wonderful message board programs.
Just curious everyone, if I started a message board as an expansion of GCDC, would I have some folks joining in?
The thing I like about forums is that old content gets bumped back up when someone responds to it. Unlike blogs, the older content gets the more it gets buried.
Should I start a forum? Would any of my readers join?
Hello there Garry…
I started out in the web as a forum junkie. I still am, learned mostly about web development from them. More of a community than a blog.
A forum on internet marketing? Why not. I’ll sign up, it’ll be fun.
Knowing that you and David will jump around, obviously I’ll sign up but I have a love&hate feeling about forums.
PROS:
- you can ask what you want, there is (nearly) everytime somebody who answers you
- you know new people
- you know new things
CONS:
- it happens that threads are unfocused or that they deviate
- they’re a time blackhole and time is a scarse resource
Maybe I’ll be happier in knowing on how to make money with forums.
ciao
alex
I am extremely picky about the content on message boards. The same standard I hold this blog would be carried over to my message board.
I can assure you, that if I create a message board, it will maintain the highest level of quality.
I have a domain name already purchased and I have the message board already up and running.
I will write a post about it soon and invite everyone over!
I’m in. I’ll be honest though, I’m not a big message board poster. There are a couple boards that I check out, but can’t say that I’m one of the leading posters on either of them.
But, I’ll give it a shot.
Leave a Comment