If you had 3 months to work fulltime on building a web income what would you do

Lady, I'm thinking of selling my body online, will you be my pimp? lol

 

Thats exactly what my plan is
I have realised that I am young, and have plenty of time to recover if I mess up, i started my main site last year, now it has just over 1,000 members. I have promised myself not to even think about selling it until i have left college (2 years away), by then the site will be 3 years old

 

Lol! hmmm, what's this "Kalina Shrine" I just read about? It's news to me.

 

geesh that sounds like ... I dunno heh

 

Is there a high milage discount?

 

... I did not mention the Kalina shrine, it sounds stalkerish to me lol and no high mileage discount.. but I don't know if that's cos you want to rent my body or you want to become my pimp.. either one worries me (if your male!) lol

Okay I'm not replying because I just got told off for hijacking dct's thread lol (sorry!)

 

I think you should not stop working, unless it will make no difference to you in the long run. Try and plan out what you would like to do on paper. Revise it a couple of times, run the ideas by some people whose opinions you value and then execute it. If and when it looks like you taking 3 months off of your job will make enough of a difference, do so. If not, then stick with your job and continue to execute your plan. I think I would choose to work in one vertical or area. So, if you know computers, then stick to computer related sites/blogs. You will be able to leverage related sites more than unrelated. I just don't think that taking unpaid vacation time to do something you have not planned out at all is a good idea.

 

I'm stopping working to try and make a huge difference in the long run, there are certainly risks involved but do feel the risks are worth it. I strongly beleive that instead of complaining about personal circumastances you should go about changing them.

By the time my sabbatical starts I will certainly have a well formed plan, this thread is certainly helping in that, so cheers folks .

 

There are many valid points here (esp. Dreamshop + Shoemoney)

Personally, I wouldnt only give myself 3 months (I have a year). I would make sure you have another way to earn. (maybe a couple of freelance projects) because if you lose your sites/ they crash/ or you have a problem - you will need to bridge whilst you fix the issues. So if you have design/coding skills or something it could be helpful.

I would:
1. Keep working (if you can extend it a little) for now

2. Buy a working site, with rankings + traffic - that has potential (badly designed/ missed opportunities etc) - If possible, buy something that provides a reasonable/ liveable income - even if you have to take a loan/ invest (and if you can afford it).

3. Buy a series of new domains that you can work on and place content management systems on them.
Its more work, but keep 2 independent networks. Ie dont link up the whole lot together, dont have them in the same name etc etc. This reduces our risks if you have a problem. Again, disaster recovery/ reduction is one of the most important things about keeping your business alive.

4. Target affiliates with good return. Gettin 3c a click or making 75c (books) a buyer will mean you need ALOT of traffic to make a living. However, if you target expensive/ products with large margins - A $6000 "Widscreen 42" plasma TV for sale" could give you $600 (10%) perhaps. So you need only a few VERY targeted visitors rather than 000000s typing "TV" - obvious, but many negelect this fact. Also, it is much easier to target these niches quickly.


5. Choose something you enjoy - Long term this is essential. If your competitor gets up everyday and adds to his site because he is passionate about his topic and you are not, its likely your going to come second

6. Invest in 'real/ offline' businesses too (or at least plan to) - Who long would many people survive if Google disappeared for the next 30 days? Some would I know, but many wouldn't. Although, it may never happen.

7. Always underestimate your rankings/ revenue and overestimate the time things will take to happen.

8. In the UK, there are grants and loans you can apply for, such as: the princes trust, eco friendly products perhaps.

9. Contact the industry leaders of the subjects/ products you are trying to sell, Find ways they can sponsor/partner you to improve your content etc..

10. Forget social life, be prepared to work harder than you ever have before (start a poll and ask who works harder - employees or selfempolyed and you will see).

Good luck

 

I'm late to the thread here, but here goes... (and it's my plan too)

Blogs. Lots of them. Some with ads, some not, but the point is to get lots of pages up that are man made. Targetting medium to high traffic keywords is a good target. Even if you don't make it to #1 for that 40,000 visitors a day search term, you can make it to #1 on 12 different 300 visitor a day search terms inadvertantly. People keep coming back if the site is updated regularly (or so they say )

The other strategy is to build content feed sites - rss feeds, amazon feeds, whatever feeds you can get your hands on. Don't be like me and fuss all day over how the site looks. Worry about appearance later.

Don't think just adsense - think adsense, affiliate programs, and your own products (at least a little cafe press site), and paid advertising.

Oh and don't stop working at 5

 

Um don't expect to be 'walking out of your job' after building your webpage.

Before you decide to enter this venture you have to decide whther you are going to go commercial or content.

If you decide to go content, then making money will take longer but the money making process will be automated.

If you decide to go commercial than you will make a alot of money sooner, but you will have sell and promote your products constantly and if you fail you can lose a lot of money in the process.

 

What bothers me about the adsense mania is the fact that so many people think about adsense first. It is so much easier to generate revenue when you have a products/quality first. There is nothing in life like self motivation. If you are into something, build a site around it and go for it, you may become very successful in a field you love. People can sense your spirit and likeminded folks will be drawn to you. It is so much easier to be the center of something good that you control than being forced to work 5 times as hard promoting something aggressively.

 

Agree, ST. As they say don't put the cart before the horse.

 

hehe ... you said it better than me and in one sentence

 

Hello, I'm back

3 months working your ass off, here are my recommendations...

You have made the right start IMO acquiring sites/pagecount for links. They will come in handy later.

The diversification idea is a sound one IMO. It's the eggs and the basket story as well as making it more intresting for yourself.

Knocking out 5 or more sites I'm not sure about though. 3 months isn't all that long and you don't want to end up with 7 half-baked, barely finished products. I'd narrow it down and stay laser beam focussed on 3 max. Then you'll soon learn what works well for you and what doesn't so you can copy the business model and knock out more of the same successful ones.

I assume it will be AdSense and/or Affiliate related or do you program stuff as well enabling you to come up with a service related site?

I have an idea you can have I was going to implement but can no longer do anymore. PM me if interested. It's UK focussed affliate based.

About timing your 3 months, ideally you would already have site templates and structures in place by acquiring those. Fiddling with designs can easily consume large chuncks of time you should/could be spending on revenue generating efforts.

As with most things, be first or be different. Keep that in mind. I'd search for niches about expensive services and products. Only a little targeted traffic (4-6 word search phrases, easy to rank high for soon) can bring in a fair bit of cash instead of working numbers on 5p pay-outs.

Ideally go with stuff you are passionate about or have a keen interest in in learning more about.

As mentioned before, try make the most of the time off. The pain of regret.... remember? Indeed write content as if it's your only cure from a bad disease. As soon as it generates a few dollars, re-invest it in more content (acquisition). I would re-invest all income for at least 6 months.

Steer clear of anything that might mess up your efforts. White hat might take longer but is at no risk to your business.

 

Absolutely! And another thing is: ask for advice from the right people. But when it comes down to making decisions, base them on your own instinct.

 

I've got to say thanks to everybody that has contributed here, I've found it all very interesting, useful and motivating stuff. I hope others are getting as much from this thread as I am.

 

dct - I will share a bit of my experience. There was a time when I had a similar amount of time off so I started my sites on Day1. I spent nearly my whole 3 months on SEO which was neccesary to get the exposure I needed. All of my sites were for actual product (which I prefer) so their was a lot to set up.

The thing is, right around the time I went back to work was when the sites took off (combination of sandbox and other delays the SE's have in place). They demanded a lot of my time and suddenly because I was back working I really struggled. I worked until the early hours EVERY night just to keep up. After a while I was able to then work from home full time but they were some really rough months.

My suggestion is to put off your 3 months as long as you can and start your sites in your free time. Slowly SEO them to start to get them to the point they need to be. That 3 months can be invaluable once the basics are laid as it can be used to expand your business (which requires a lot more time) rather than start it.

I don't run affiliate or AdSense sites so my experience really only applies to actual product. But it may help at least give you a different perspective

 

I certainly like the idea of putting off the three months until the last moment possible. Do the hard yards first, push it until you can no longer work full time and keep up with the business.

Once you have built the momentum you will really be able to run with it when you will need to most, and possibly enjoy it.