Archive for the ‘Development’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

A Job To Do or Passive Income Wealth, What’s Your Goal?

Friday, July 18th, 2008

I know some of the readers here are just looking for ways to earn a little extra income each week online. Whether for beer money or to help pay some bills, build some savings or whatever. This post really isn’t for you.

This is for those who intend to build a full-time income online, and the need to ask yourself a crucial question (the earlier the better).

Is your goal to create daily work for yourself that’s profitable, or do you want to build completely passive income streams to ultimately generate income for you while you play at the beach or travel the world.

I have to insert a word of warning here, the term passive income makes me ill. I absolutely hate the way it gets thrown around in sales copy by marketers who want to sell their systems of “free money” making to enthusiastic, desperate and motivated people.

The notion of passive income online as it gets touted too often is almost a myth, and is certainly not a reality for the average Joe starting out. Almost nothing you do today will continue generating revenue for you over several years without some additional input and upkeep.

However, you can build projects and alliances today that will be profitable for years to come with minimal input and upkeep, but that’s not truly passive income. You work for it and you earn it. For example, my web sites earn me money from around the planet 24 hours per day. I’m not online 24 hours per day, so some of that income is made without direct input by me at the time of transaction, but I still created the earning opportunity and generated the sale with my daily work.

I work every day on my sites. Not every site every day, I have nearly 200 web sites online right now and that would be too much. But I do give a few minutes to upkeep, maintenance, updating, promoting and etc. for almost all of them each month–plus I’m constantly developing new sites or products; and that makes up my daily work that I’ve created for myself.

In other words I haven’t built a business that just makes me money, I’ve built a job for myself to do every day that earns me a living. In my mind there is a distinct difference.

Now to shift positions…

If you’ve read this far you probably think I have some adverse feelings towards honest passive income, but I don’t. In-fact, my future plans depend on it.

In about 7 years I’m planning an early semi-retirement for myself. This has been my goal for a long time, and I’ve shaped my business so that when that time comes it will continue generating a nice income for me without my having to put much more than a couple hours per week into it at most.

While I work long, hard hours every day now, I do it with this future goal in mind so that I make the right decisions which will help me achieve it on schedule.

If you read my blog then you’ve heard me refer to Heather, Chrissy and Bobbi as partners and associates. Which is exactly how I view each of them. I’m not a business owner today, I’m a partner with the people I’ve surrounded myself with.

In 7 years I’ll be a business owner who relies on them to get the job done and keep things going forward. I’ll have a hands-off position in the daily operations at that point.

I can do this because I decided early on what my goal would be and have molded my business all along to be in position for that transition, and to have the right people with the right knowledge and experience ready to take over.

So, you could say that when I answered the question of this posting for myself, that answer was “sort of both”. I created a daily job for myself to do that would lead into a passive income for me down the road.

What’s your goal?


Email this post Email this post

Technorati Tags: , ,

Tags: , ,
Posted in Business, Development | No Comments »

Starting a Web Site

Friday, June 27th, 2008

I got a question from Natalie in the comments of this posting that I actually see quite a bit, basically it’s how to start a web site when you don’t have any knowledge about building sites.

Natalie actually gave the domain of an example site she would like hers to resemble, but I’m not going to go into specifics on achieving a specific look or style here because it’s too big of a topic for a single posting and I want this to be helpful to everyone who is looking to start their first web site.

Getting over the intimidation factor

Don’t let all of the geek language and the technical nature of the web intimidate you, at the core a web page is nothing more than a text file you save on a hard drive–just like if you were to write a letter in Office or some other text editing program and save it to your desktop.

The difference with a web page is that you normally use a special type of of text editor to create the file with, and instead of just saving it to your desktop you’re going to save it (upload it) on the hard drive of your hosting account online so that others can access it in their web browsers.

Web pages can be more advanced than that, they can be loaded with nifty scripts and applications and they can be highly interactive…but most of those things will be available to you through simple copy-n-paste type installations and even with advanced features added in your page is still just a text file at it’s core.

Examine what you’ll need

To start a web site you’re going to need a domain name, cheap (but reliable) hosting, and a program to create (write) your pages with.

I’ve linked to NameCheap above for domain names because they’re 1 of the 2 registrars I prefer to use, and of those 2 NameCheap’s user interface is the easier in my opinion for a beginner to navigate and make sense out of.

I’ve also linked to HostGator hosting because of the 3 hosts I like to use, they have a great deal and a very easy interface for beginners to work in.

A program for building your site

This is a little more complex because you have to decide what type of site you want to build.

If you’re going to make a blog, or even a blog-like site (which I would consider the example Natalie mentioned in her question to be) then I would suggest using WordPress.

It’s free to use and pretty easy to get up and running, plus has a large community of supporters who offer hundreds of free themes (site design layouts) you can choose from.

There’s a little bit of a learning curve with WordPress, however for just $15 there’s a great set of video tutorials available that I highly recommend.

For a non-blog type site where you’ll just be creating stand-alone web pages individually you can do this in 1 of 2 ways.

If you know HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP or ASP scripting then you can use any text editor you like to create your pages. (I told you web pages were just text files at their core!)

But I’ll assume that the people this posting is intended to help aren’t masters of scripting and coding and will want something much easier to build pages with. So, I’d recommend using the visual editor (it’s drag-n-drop what you see is what you get) in CoffeeCup’s HTML editor. Download CoffeeCup HTML Editor – Click Here

CoffeeCup has been around for years and theirs is some of the best software you’ll ever use, hands down.

Get it up and get running

Once you have registered a domain name, signed up for a hosting account and decided which software you’ll be using to build your site with it’s time to jump in and start tinkering.

That may not sound like professional advice, but the specifics of web design are beyond this posting and trust me when I say that the first few pages you create will probably not stay on your site very long because there’s a little “learn as you go” that needs to take place as you become familiar with the tool(s) you’re using.

So, the best advice I can give you is to go ahead and build a few pages, see how everything that you’re using works and get a feel for how you want your web site to grow. Then delete what you’ve created and start over using your new knowledge to create pages that you’ll be proud of and that will stick around for a long time on your site.


Email this post Email this post

Technorati Tags: , ,

Tags: , ,
Posted in Development | No Comments »

Picking A Niche Quick How To

Thursday, June 19th, 2008

Something I get asked about a lot, and see getting asked in various webmaster and business/marketing forums is how to pick a niche out of a larger market.

So, I put this quick video together that shows how I often use the same tool for coming up with narrow niche market ideas that I use for doing keyword research:

Picking A Niche

I hope this is helpful to anyone having trouble coming up with niche ideas for themselves.


Email this post Email this post

Technorati Tags: , ,

Tags: , ,
Posted in Development | 3 Comments »

Giving Away The Farm

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

Given the impressive results I and others have been having with the NIMS script, my associate Heather has convinced me to put together a full case study (almost an e-course you could say) on how I approach niche marketing, including how I see NIMS best fitting into what I already do.

Now, Heather thought I should put this together, package it with the NIMS script and sell the package for $49 or something close to that… I had a better idea though, I’m going to create the case study and give it away absolutely free right here to the subscribers of my eTips monthly newsletter.

Now, I know right away that some people are going to think I’m just trying to raise my subscription levels with this “ploy”. That’s absolutely not true.

Unlike a lot of mailing lists, members of mine know that I only send a single monthly mailing (I don’t abuse subscribers with tons of messages), and I almost never upsell anything at all in my newsletter. It’s all about sharing information that to be honest, I’m not always comfortable sharing openly here on the blog. I do like to keep some of my techniques and tips semi-private, and just won’t post those on an open blog, which is why I created the Leap eTips newsletter.

In fact, looking at all of the mailings I’ve sent out for 2008 so far, there hasn’t been a single affiliate product promoted in any of them and the only time I’ve included anything at all that made me money was this month when I offered my subscribers a discount deal on the NIMS script as a “thank you” for the time and attention they give me by reading my mailings.

So I hope that makes it clear that I’m not trying to raise subscription levels, since honestly I make more revenue from having people visit the pages of this blog than I do with the eTips newsletter since I just don’t use it as a sales venue.

Like I said, my reasoning is simple, there are certain techniques and resources that I use which I won’t talk about on an open blog. None of them are black-hat or dubious in any way, but they are valuable and I’ve learned in the past that when a valuable resource gets too much public attention it begins to get abused and loses value quickly. I won’t contribute to that by openly discussing certain resources.

But I will share them privately in my newsletter since I do want to help the people who are truly interested in doing better for themselves and are willing to put in the time and efforts to succeed.

Okay, enough about why I’m sharing this in the newsletter only, now on to the good stuff like what will I be covering?

Here’s The Deal
I’m going to start a new niche site from scratch. It’s going to be in a niche I’ve never worked before so I won’t have any advanced inside knowledge or presence.

Starting from scratch (not even a domain name yet), I’m going to enter a niche, create my own product for it and document the entire process from start to first sale as an informative and candid look behind the scenes for anyone who has struggled with some of these things.

I’m going to document each step of the process using a lot of video to really show what I’m doing and how:
- choosing the niche
- keyword research
- researching the market and competition
- decide what product to create and build it
- setup my niche site
- article marketing
- setup a niche funnel for building quick links and traffic (including the use of NIMS)
- monitor and tweak to first sale

Here’s what I won’t have or be using:
- any product to start with
- any email list to mail to
- PPC (pay per click) advertising

Goals I want to achieve with this:
- Enter a new niche and create a profitable product from scratch
- begin building an email subscription list for expanding in the niche later on
- make my first sale
- have the foundation for a full niche business to expand from in place

I’m going to start this whole thing this coming Monday, and my hope is that by the following Friday I’ll have my first sale recorded.

That’s starting with absolutely nothing (I don’t even know what the niche is going to be yet), no product, being completely unknown in the niche, having no email list and I won’t use any PPC (pay per click) advertising methods either.

The point to this is to show exactly how you can start with nothing and make a sale within a few days, and have the foundation for a whole business to build upon at that point.

And that’s key to know, starting out in a new niche is an “in the red” experience. You don’t hit profit with your first sale because you’re in the red from the time and labor invested to get up and running…and this case study isn’t about showing a profit–it’s about showing you exactly how I lay the groundwork for a profitable niche that once up and running, I can grow and expand upon until it’s a full-time income. That’s why I’m documenting this from start to first sale, to show the most vital early steps which properly position a niche project for that growth.

Now, I can share an inside peek right now at what you will see if you’re subscribed to the Leap eTips and watch this case study…taking action and doing the work is all it takes to succeed.

I’ve done this before, in fact I do it all the time, so I know that I should have my first sale in a new niche recorded within a couple days, but I don’t want to give the impression that this is going to show some “fast track” to easy success for you.

It isn’t, because there is none. It’s going to take a good deal of research and work to enter a niche market, create a product and set the foundation for a long-term business in that niche.

But, what this will show is that with a little commitment and effort, my mantra of “just put a desired product in-front of people who want it with an easy path to purchase” is a winning formula.

So, I believe this is going to be an informative and fun experience to share, I’m going to do my best to make it completely candid and easy to follow.

If you’re not already subscribed to the Leap eTips you can signup now right here:

Just enter your email address:

No Spam policy, 1 Mailing monthly.
Your information will never be shared or sold.


Email this post Email this post

Technorati Tags: ,

Tags: ,
Posted in Development | 3 Comments »

2 Weeks Using NIMS

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

It was 2 weeks ago when I first talked about the NIMS script here on the blog, and I’ve been testing it on my demo site since then to see exactly how well the script works for traffic, revenue and SERPs.

So, I wanted to give an update on the progress to date.

First, I want to make clear that this has been a fairly well controlled testing so far. I’ve not published the demo site URL anywhere at all, other than with the few social bookmarking sites I submitted the main page of my NIMS demo site to. I’ve done this specifically to see how well the site/script will perform on its own.

My theory being that with constantly updating content the search engines should appreciate sites made with NIMS and revisit them regularly after first finding them. So, I used the social bookmarking as a way to let the search engines know the demo site was there and then left it alone.

Also, I only created 5 pages for the demo site using 5 keyword terms. I didn’t invest any time into it just because it was only supposed to be for illustration purposes. Otherwise, I would have created between 12 and 20 pages for the site–which is what I think NIMS is best suited for–a 12 to 20 page niche site with each page targeted to a specific keyword term.

Anyway, after 2 weeks here’s what has come of the testing so far:

- The demo site is indexed with Google and Yahoo for all 5 of its keyword terms
- It is in the top 20 results on Google for 1 term, and Yahoo for 2 of them
- It has a double-listing on Google for 1 keyword
- It is getting a steady 30+ unique visitors daily
- It is earning more than I expected in average daily revenue

Now, to be completely candid I need to include that I’ve noticed the SERPs have begun to slide a little over the last few days, though surprisingly the traffic hasn’t. That SERPs slide makes sense though since I haven’t done anything since bookmarking the site on the first day to promote it or support it for its keywords.

My plan now is to publish a couple of articles today and tomorrow that link to the site with my terms in the anchor text and see if that boosts the SERPs and traffic at all.

Something else I’ve noticed with the traffic which surprises me a little is that I’m getting quite a few repeat visitors each day now in addition to fresh unique visitors. While I knew that a NIMS site would offer something of value for visitors to browse through on the page, I didn’t really expect that many people would bookmark a NIMS site or make repeat visits to it. The fact that some are makes me think I’ve done a pretty decent job with the “make it valuable to visitors” part of the mashup script and I’m glad of that.

Thoughts Going Forward

Obviously I’m limiting how the demo site performs by not doing more aggressive marketing of it. If this weren’t a test that I wanted to control as I am then I would have already published a bunch of articles and done some follow-up bookmarking as well. I’d also be publishing the URL every chance I got in forums and blogs too.

I do have NIMS running on several other sites and they’re all out-performing my demo test site for revenue, but I haven’t been tracking the SERPs for any of them since ultimately the point to the NIMS script was to be able to put up fast, quality and profitable niche sites on my domains and then leave them alone.

Overall, I’m really pleased with how NIMS is performing.

One Last Thing

I can already imagine somebody will ask why I say the demo site is “earning more than I expected in average daily revenue” but don’t give the actual numbers?

Let me get in-front of that question by saying that since I’m offering the NIMS script for sale I want to make sure that people who purchase it do so to get the tool that it is, and not the potential earnings that may result from using it.

I think that’s important here because there are a lot of variables that will go into how much success someone using NIMS may or may not have.

From topic and keyword choices to promotional methods and the amount of effort they put into driving traffic, all of these will factor into the success of a NIMS site.

And because I can’t have any input on those things for people who use NIMS, and because I didn’t want to sit down and write a step-by-step guide to picking topics, keyword research and generating traffic for a NIMS site…I don’t want to promote NIMS as a money making “system” in any way–including by simply mentioning the exact numbers my NIMS site(s) are earning.

I look at it like a tool, just like a hammer. The hardware store sells you the hammer, not the promise of what sort of house might be built with that hammer.

And I’m offering NIMS as a tool to create fast and quality niche mashup sites, without any hype or promises of how well those sites may perform.

So, that’s why I’ve been careful not to list specific revenue numbers, and will continue to do so for as long as I’m offering NIMS for sale.


Email this post Email this post

Technorati Tags:

Tags:
Posted in Development | No Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »