Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I'm having a hard time figuring out what topic I should have for my first page.
Maybe I'm just a dumb norwegian guy with no interests, no hobbies, and a stupid brain that can't even come up with one single idea? ;) Could anyone teach me? =)
You research topics of interest. You build a web page/site around it. You place your Adsense code on the pages and submit it to search engines. You add content on a regular basis to get better search engine placement.
but everyone is saying you should only make a site or a product on subjects that you are really interested in, else there will be no success..
I mean - I like dogs, but they do not interest me THAT much.. I also like snowboarding, but I'm no good, I just think it's a nice thing to do a few times every now and then... I have no special interests that I really know plenty about, except internet marketing, but I think that idea is already taken a couple of million times..
So when you guys says your starting up your 5th site on a 5th subject.. does this subject really interest you, or is this something you have to spend hours on educating yourselfes on before you start working on it?
I'm sorry about my english.. but i still hope you understand it.
I think you will find that most people here who earn between $5000 - $10,000 in Adsense revenues, usually do it with between 1 - 8 websites. Folks who claim to run 200 websites have often been questioned about their practices!
It is rather difficult to maintain multiple top-notch, quality sites with lots of content, and have them all producing lots of $$$$. The guys and ladies here who do it, do it with experience, good content, and TONS of effort.
Your question is actually one of the biggest problems webmasters have...(coming up with a good idea and running with it). It seems that all of the niche markets have been taken already.
No... you're not dumb. You're just entering into a field that takes a lot of work to get it right!
But here's a note for future reference: Most folks won't just toss a cool, money-making idea your way. Meaning, if a new website idea is a potential money-maker, they'll probably keep it for themselves before passing the idea on to someone else! :)
Is so damn easy isn't it? and I don't even come close to thinking the way I should.
I hope it's a combination of beeing a little drunk saturday night (03.08 at night in norway now), overstressed from my daytimejob and just beeing overwhelmed with the opportunities i've been unfamiliar with until this week...
And whooohooo.. I've made $0.37 so far on adsense to day, which is about 3 hours..
I think I should try to get some sleep now, and maybe just continue thinking of something newbielike to ask you tomorrow.
Just kidding. But thank you all!
I suppose it helps to be one, but you don't have to be an expert in the topic of your site as long as you can present an interesting perspective on the subject or some aspect of it that your visitors are likely find worthwhile.
Beyond that, everyone has to start somewhere. Pick a topic you have some interest in, and go from there. As you go along, you'll learn more about the topic and be able to write more and more interesting articles or at least gather more factual knowledge that you can put on the web.
Facts can carry you a long ways, even if you are not an expert.
It is better if you are a journalist or writer who can compose articles about certain topics that people would want to read.
That was almost three years ago and I'm still expanding the site. It now has three language versions (English, Greek and Dutch) and about 2.000 pages in total. The site (www.athensinfoguide.com) is getting about 500.000 page view per month, still rising every month because I keep adding new content, at a lower speed then when I did in the beginning but the exesting pages also need updating and fine tuning so there is less time to make new pages.
AdSense does not bring mutch. I often add sites to the AdSense filter too keep competitors from my site. As the site also contains a hotel booking engine, I now am trying to figure out wheter or not AdWords would be a good way to promote the booking engine and if the promoting is not going to cost more than the engine brings.
Anayway, I started off with the goal to make my (nice)site the best in its field on Internet. After almost three years of putting in about 10-14 hours a day, 7 days a week, I reached my goal passing all other sites with the same subject.
There are two conditions you need to meet before you start:
1. Do you want to make my site the best there is and 'live' in front of your computer for a long time?
2. Good content is crutial if you want your site to be noticed by search engines.
I talk to a lot of collaegue webmasters online and trust me, a few hundred Dollars per month is possible but those say they earn 5000-10000 per month and have 200 sites or more are, how should I say this, expressing their wishful thinking much more than that they are counting money.
but those say they earn 5000-10000 per month and have 200 sites or more are, how should I say this, expressing their wishful thinking much more than that they are counting money.
Well I don't think anyone said they had 200 of those sites, only that they could have up to that many and make considerable money.
My take is the guys who make the money have (like was mentioned ) 1-10 sites. Probably closer to 5 as it takes alof of work to develop even that many with daily content.
There are members here who make that much and other publishers who make 1/2 that much that I personally know.
It's not impossible, but as most say it takes dedication, and dedication follows mucheasier when you are doing / researching something you like.
Hard for me to care about the histroy of sewing or how to apply paint correctly...
To each his own
That is the wrong road my friend. You can run into duplicate content penalties on the search engines and not be able to climb out of the hole.
Best to write your own or have someone write exclusively for you alone...don't overlook knowledgeable family members who may not care about the web but would be up for earning a few bucks for their efforts.
Getting an idea is the hardest part. Listen to others and watch what the majority of people around you do on a regular basis. Listening to complaints is good to, you will get information worth much gold if you take the time to analyze it, and be dubbed a good listener and someone who cares. Neat, eh?
watch what you do and your particular gripes...your gripes could be the same as a million others. Then step in with your website and fill that niche with how to or any other kind of material such as a buying guide, etc. then you are off and running. A website is like a snowball rolling downhill. It starts with an idea, that idea lends itself to others and so you grow.
Good luck and welcome to the forum
Ann
(edit by Ann)
Don't miss those magic words, I wish... Therein lies golden ideas.
Like, I wish I knew where...., I wish I could make....., and so on. There's gold in them there words!
:)
pay others to do it
You will have a risk getting articles like "I like to travel to India because India interests me. You can travel to India by train. India has lots of hotels. You can book a hotel in India."
Do you know some good writers?
Turbo
Come on! Lighten up!
I have the opposite problem. Can't find the time to make all those websites I want to make.
Just go outside and look around you...
- Hey, aint that a '73 Saab 99? (Swedish, I must admit).
Let's make a website about old Saabs!
- Heya! There goes my very slender and tall neighbor girl!
Is it true Norwegian women are the tallest in the world?
Let's make a website about tall people!
- Shall I take the car and have a trip to the nearest Fjord?
Let's make a website about the Norwegian Fjords!
- Remember the good old days when Morten and his gang sang "Take on me". Did you know Harket still makes beautiful songs? Let's make a website about him!
How can you possibly not know a subject to make a website about? I have 5 websites now, and when I started them, I didn't know much about the subjects. I just liked them. While reading, writing and building my sites I learn more and more about these subjects. And it's getting more and more fun and producing more and more cash. So go for it Fjordman!
Wanting to start a website with more free information?That is the wrong road my friend. You can run into duplicate content penalties on the search engines and not be able to climb out of the hole.
I read it as wanted to start a site 'offering' more free information, not using other people's free (and as you quite rightly point out, duplicate) information. It was a heavy night last night, so I could be well off track.
d
So obviously I wrote a separate page and I'm preparing whole section of the site covering various aspects of it. I put first page online yesterday, so it's not indexed yet, but it will be in Google in hours and I'll track if I was right about good CTR on it.
I'm having trouble filling 25 pages on my tiny site
A fair report from me has usual 20 to 30 pages.
At big fairs, I split the fair report to up to 3 main themes deployed on up to 50 pages.
Follow the news- your daily newspaper and tv news can inspire ideas. One of my best sites comes from noticing that a topic in health care "had legs"...that is, the story wouldn't die and every week grew larger. It took another week of research and thinking to see how I could present non-technical but good information (I have no expertise in the field at all); and piggy-back on the growing public interest in this topic. As time goes on, you'll get more comfortable with the subject, and your content will improve.
This isn't real easy: in my experience, it took several failures before getting a success. It was worth it, though, and I think I've found the next subject.
There is too much regurgitated info on the Net anyways.
Some of the best sites out there make a pile of $$$ from "evergreen" content, the likes of which you would find tons of in a library. Topics like building models, woodworking projects, crafts, automobile customization, winemaking, etc, could be good places to start.
Its also best to build a site that attracts non tech savvy people.
If you don't like writing enough to build a big site -- consider making some mini-sites with like a dozen pages each. (after researching keyword prices, etc.. for the topic to determine if it is worth it.)
1. Do I like the topic?
2. Do I know the topic?
3. Can I make money off the topic?
The best topics are the ones you can answer yes to all three. Personally, there is only one topic I can answer yes to all three. So, I'm splitting that topic into a handful of sites. I also have a site that I like and know, but isn't very profitable. I have one that I know very well, I don't really like, but it's profitable.
The only thing I avoid are topics that I don't like or know, but are profitable. Every time I've tried this, it has failed. I simply can't motivate myself to work on these. But like I mentioned above, everyone is different and there are plenty of people making a lot of money off these types of sites.
A couple tips - research, research, research. Take the time to research your topic to see if it can realisticly be profitable within the time you are willing to spend. The other is set goals - duh. The third is record ALL the time you spend. This is not a hobby, it's a business. Record everything you do and how long it takes. I just use an excel spread sheet and it takes about a minute. This way you can look back in 6 months or a year and determine what is making you money and what it a loser.
The best place to find valuable information that might not be on the Internet is in your local library.
I was about ready to post that, but maxgoldie nailed it.
The other benefit--it's all organized at the library, so if you are looking at one topic, other related topics are shelved nearby usually. And there are plenty of niches where bookspace is rich in info relative to cyberspace.
