My newest site is doing very well -- here are a few tips

[Cutter]

I launched a new site at the beggining of the month (plus about 4 others :D ). By far, this site has done very well. It is averaging about $7 a day on Adsense. This makes me very happy considering I have sites that I worked weeks to build and ended up averaging $1 for months.

Additionally, my opt-in e-mail list is at 63 subscribers. This is almost shocking to me as my other "flagship" e-mail list is only at 126 opt-ins and I've been running it for just under 3 months.

Here are a few tips that have taken me a year to learn:

- Keep things simple, everything should be on your pages for a reason, but never overcrowd it.

- Target your site. There are millions of hobbies, niches, products, etc. out there. The world economy is trillions and trillions of dollars every year. People are buying lots of stuff. Think about these niches that other people are missing.

- Don't be afraid to test out wild new ideas. One of my sites I made a few months back I made the design as amateur as I could -- "cute" font, rainbow colors, etc. Its doing pretty good.

- Look at what other people's sites are, but don't copy them. Competative markets usually have lots of ad money available but it is going to be very hard for you to get your slice.

- Read blogs, marketingSherpa, and other relevant sites & articles. They may not directly relate to running advertising sites

- Be active on forums, but don't go overboard. When I started I spent 90% of my time on webmaster boards. Once I was able to filter the good stuff from the BS I started to get somewhere. I was able to filter out the BS because I was testing things myself.

- Front page links from other sites are invaluable for new sites. Those link exchanges with sites that have 500 other unrelated links on their link page... worth somewhere inbetween very little and nothing at all.

I've said this before, anyone who knows about this forum is in a very good position -- you just need to apply the knowledge and work your *** off. This stuff works. If you can't believe in yourself, well, McDonalds is hiring.

I spent months being happy if I made 30 cents in one day. I'm not driving a Ferarri yet, but this is the straightest path to that point ;)

[MarkB]

Good tips :) I'm going to be restarting my publishing efforts big style in September (I'm on holidays for half of August, so no point starting now!), however I recently made some changes to how I implement Adsense on two sites I've done nothing with for ages; I'm now getting double the Adsense than I was a month ago. Still small change, but my earnings had dropped considerably, so it's nice to see them picking back up again!

[chromate]

Cutter, Some good points. It's a good feeling when you make progress like that. Unfortunately, it's a feeling I've been lacking for so long! :( I seem to have hit a brick wall these past few months. Can't seem to jack my earnings up past the few $k mark.

I think my main problem is Google (isn't everyones!?). I used to be able to get a site indexed in a few weeks. Now it seems hit and miss as to whether it'll get listed at all. I'm still playing with PPC advertising for this reason.

Where's the traffic from your new $7/day site coming from? Have you had some luck with Google?

[Billyray]

Top post Cutter. That's what I like about this forum, friendly, helpful people willing to share their experiences. I just wish I had more to share like you.

[Cutter]

Thats what I like about this forum too! On biggest forums things get burried so fast and you don't really know anyone.

Don't worry about not having much to share, I didn't either for a good 9 months.

90% of the traffic is from MSN, which certainly doesn't make things as stable as I'd like. With a little more work I should start getting an equal amount of traffic from Yahoo. Google is a tough nut to crack if you still want to get the Yahoo and MSN traffic.

The big secret to getting traffic to a new site is getting people to give you those front page links. You will indexed within 24 hours.

[John]

I was reading this forum for a while before I recently decided to get into the development game. My first site is almost ready to go live and I know it wouldn't have been half as good as it is without the help of this forum. Before making any decisions I researched this forum, without you guys and your help I probably would have had a much harder time getting to where I am today, Thanks... :D

[Cutter]

Yes, I owe the same to people here!

[Dalex]

"...One of my sites I made a few months back I made the design as amateur as I could -- "cute" font, rainbow colors, etc. Its doing pretty good."

Funny you should say that. I approached one of my sites with the same mentality a while back and it's paid off. Sometimes simple (and pathetic! :)) and approachable is the way to go. Every design project has to have it's own 'feel' utlimately laid down by you based on your target audience.

[agua]

Thanks Cutter - somtimes you need reminding of the staple ingredients of a good website.

I totally agree (as much as I hate the idea) with your amatuer design tip - I can second that this works a treat.

Great post

[Cutter]

Interesting this thread was dug up.

I think I should clarify the "amateur design" idea. I'm not saying make your site look crappy, but rather get rid of the un-needed clutter that doens't contribute to your bottom line. Another really important factor I've found is matching the font & link size & color with Adsense (so throw out the silly font idea I listed above; at least for Adsense sites.)

Of course, there is a whole know your audience element as Dalex pointed out. A rainbow background on a mortgage site probably isn't a good idea.

[Masetek]

While we're on the subject of seeding sites, I thought I'd add 1 link to a new site and time how long it took to spiders to get to it.

Results after 12 hours or so...

Googlebot: about 45 mins!!
MSNbot: 2 1/2 hours
Inktomi: No show

[Giles]

I wish people would give examples of the sites they own, its sometimes really hard to tell what they are talking about.

Im starting my career as an online worker. And its low-risk for me. I havent spent a penny yeat and im only 14 so living with my parents and being fed etc.

One day i will buy hosting and domains....

[Kyle]

Giles, I understand your frustration, but I've learned over the years not to show what you're working on.... unless you dominate the topic that given website is on (Chris's literature site for example).

There are still plenty of extremely profitable niches out there that aren't saturated with websites.

[Cutter]

Just look at other sites; if a site shows up in the top 10 on Google for a heavily searched keyword chances are they are doing something right. This forum is hardly an exclusive community of all the people making money on the internet.

[Emancipator]

good post icebane

[Giles]

Sorry, im not exactly frustrated, I just get confused sometimes.

If my post seemed a bit negative then I apologise. This is great advice and i'm new here so i'm still learning the ropes.

I have been looking for good nieche hobby topics for a long time. It has to be simple so that you can make a site about it, even though your not an expert. I have had some pretty good ideas but I keep getting discouraged by the amount of time I spend making websites and the amount of return i get.

I haven't made a very successful site, but im waiting for my break and building up my sites, I have 10 or more.

I am also pleased that my earnings in the last 7 days have hit a record high. i just hope I can make it to 100 bucks so that I actually get some money out of all my hard work.

Wow, long post.

[Cutter]

My first year I just built a bunch of sites, some worked, some didn't. Out of those first sites, my best took me 2 days to build and averages $10 a day with no additional work. Its a far cry from $10,000 a day, but with a few of those in your portfolio you can dedicate yourself 100% to the business.

I think you are on the right track, just don't over think this. Get a list of niches, don't worry about what they are paying per click but rather that people are searching for them. Use overture's tool to find the top searched keywords in that niche, and then build pages around them. Get a few quality incoming links, and move on to the next project.

[Giles]

Thats the million dollar question though isnt it:
What is a niche that is easy to rank with and pays well?

I've got a list, but every time I search the terms I find massive sites that are right where I would want to be.

I'll keep trying.

[chromate]

Keep in mind you don't need to rank #1 to see good results. There's normally room for a few websites to do well out of a single search term. So don't be put off just because #1 and #2 have been filled.

[Masetek]

It helps if you write an attention grabbing description. I dont always click the #1 spot :)

[Emancipator]

being #1 is not the be all end all. I speak from experience. Top 10 is most important and making sure you look like you belong there!

[Giles]

I could probably make the first page on a few of my niches. I'll have to have a look at some related domains...

[izwar]

im launching my website very soon i will let all know how i did or are doing, ive learned so much from this site

[michael_gersitz]

My new site halo3site.com gobbled up some nice MSN rankings within a week, by the end of two weeks I got some good google spots. This is just a site I created because I want to stay ontop of the news of halo3 even though it comes out 11 months from now.

It might be a good idea to start targeting topics in the future like a movie that comes out in 1 year or to, and then you can gobble up the rankings.

Throw some google ads up, and you can earn yourself some easy cash.

[Cutter]

Absolutely, the guys who created cellphone sites early on are making a killing today sitting at the top of the rankings even though they may have been lucky to make enough to pay the bandwidth for the first few years.

[allout]

Hey thanks Cutter for the info, I've been reading alot of post on other forums about making thousands a month and was getting a little bummed because I can't get traffic.
But your info makes sense and I am happy if I can just break even and learn for the future. :idea:

[Emancipator]

never get fooled by big talk Allout. Most the people who say they are making thousands are talking out of their ***. I know I am friends with some of em :). start a few small sites, focus on MSN search and you can build up a steady stream that will at the very least keep your expenses covered.

[Sagewing]

True. And also remember that the more money people make, the less likely they are to talk about it.

[Giles]

I have a good idea about a TV show which I love and is just about to go from satellite tv to regular free tv. I love it and it's really addictive. The problem is I'm not certain iut will become popular. It only had 200 seacrhes last month.