Made other websites without success

Daddyoftwoboys · #1 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 03:32 PM

Hi everyone. I need some help as a lot of us do. I have a lot of free time, less money than I need to keep my family and I living a decent life, and want to make moey from a websites. I know websites are not just there to make money but a lot of them are and I really want to try again.

So far I have made a gaming website, it was setup with the old Joomla and SMF bridge, I had worked on it for weeks to get it up and running. Created custom graphics for the banners for each page which was for a different game. I made lots of forum catagories and I even tried starting things off with making a number of fake accounts and trying to show people the site was more popular than it was, dishonest but not a bad way I thought. But alas all my hard work went unnoticed. I tried advertising on other gaming sites but there were just too many.

My next website was a local buy and sell site. At the time there was one major local selling site and another up and comer that stole most of its original clients from the big one by spamming the site and messaging all the members. I did not want to do that , I put just as much effort into mine as they did but without the spamming I got next to nothing for results. I even added a local business specific catagory for people to advertise for free but it didnt help.

My next site is still around and has been for about a year and a half, its a cheerleading website aimed at Canada, my girlfriend/wife was a club cheerleader and after a few years after quitting that she became a judge and is now a coach of her own team. This site has a decent flow of traffic but nothing serious compared to other sites like this one for example. I would love to show the website but I dont want to break the rules. I will say though that if you type in key words in google it will be first on the list. The site has links to a lot of teams in canada and the homepage has a few banner ads running on the side and last month I actually had someone pay to put one on there (first time I made money on a site I made)

A site I no longer have is my most popular one for posting and forum page views as well as members. It was a clan for an online shooting game that needed a site. My cousing wanted one made so I offered to make it for him. the site lasted a year, had over 80 members with 2000 posts in all the boards. But there was no way to make money off it because it was mostly all a small group of people that used it.

So I dont know what to do. I thought of making a parenting site for canada but there is alread ya number of very large ones, I thought of maybe another buy and sell site but with ebay, craigs list and kijijji its hard to compete. Even the one that was dominating all when I made my other buy/sell site has dropped down to 5% of its original traffic. I find the biggest issue is finding an idea where a lot of people would be inerested but not a lot of sites or none at all exist already.

Any ideas? sorry for typing so much

ssmorgan · #2 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 04:09 PM

Hi Bobby,

You've covered a lot of grounds

If I were, this would be my action plan:

1. First, identify what I have learned about internet marketing/making money online from my past experiences of previous websites.

2. (It sounds like you do not want to pursue further any of the sites you've started...) I would think of a new topic for a website while keeping the following in mind:

a topic or market I am interested in or passionate about.

identify a niche within that market (a niche is a specific group of people who share interest or passion in that market)

make a list of what your niche's wants, needs, and desires.

since your goal is to make money, make sure that your niche buys stuff (information, products, accessories, etc) to satisfy those wants, needs, or desires

Of course, evaluating competition is important, but don't be discouraged by the big websites, like eBay, Craigslist, or kijijji. Those sites try to serve everyone. Remember, that's not your goal... focus on your niche.

Create a website with quality content that is relevant, helpful, and adds values to your niche

This is what I would think about if I want to start a new website. Take your time. Do not rush through this, because often times, the research can really make or break the success of your project.

Hope this helped.

jazzguy · #3 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 05:34 PM

Hi Bobby. ssmorgan has some great recommendations. As for the cheerleader site, could you not expand on it? Does it have a forum where cheerleaders could "hang out" and discuss issues and events relative to them? Are you a member of any related affiliate programs? Oh...you can display the site by having it as your signature which can be edited in your CP (control panel). Or you can request a a site review for more help/discussion. This probably doesn't solve your problem but hopefully it pushes you a little further. Take care and all the best.

Daddyoftwoboys · #4 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 05:55 PM

yes the cheerleading site has a forum butniether she or I can get people to really use it. I have been thinking of revamping it a little as I made it a while ago and havnt updated it completely in about a year. Not sure what you mjean by being a member of an affiliate program though. Brains not working tonight.

jazzguy · #5 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daddyoftwoboys

yes the cheerleading site has a forum butniether she or I can get people to really use it. I have been thinking of revamping it a little as I made it a while ago and havnt updated it completely in about a year. Not sure what you mjean by being a member of an affiliate program though. Brains not working tonight.

Hi Bobby. An affiliate program is where you sell a product or service for someone else. As an example, it looks like you are a already a member of an affiliate program with that Cheerworx ad banner on your site. If that was through an affiliate program you would get a commission on every sale. That being said, I personally think the Cheerleader niche might be quite workable given a good amount of work towards it. I definitely think you should add the site to the Site Review section. There are a few immediate issues that need to be looked at and this is not the proper area for me to being them up. Let me know if this makes sense to you and take care.

James · #6 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 06:17 PM

Daddyoftwoboys

Yes, the cheerleading site has great possibilities IF that is something that you would really want to work on. If you do, follow the above suggestion and ask for a review.

Otherwise, the two primary things you will hear from those who have been successful are to focus on content aimed at a definite niche so that you have what can attract people and then learn how to market it. There are folks here who can help.

jazzguy · #7 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 06:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by James

Daddyoftwoboys

Yes, the cheerleading site has great possibilities IF that is something that you would really want to work on. If you do, follow the above suggestion and ask for a review.

Otherwise, the two primary things you will hear from those who have been successful are to focus on content aimed at a definite niche so that you have what can attract people and then learn how to market it. There are folks here who can help.

Nicely said James...

Daddyoftwoboys · #8 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 07:31 PM

cheerworx is actually not an affiliate, I didnt know things worked like that to be honest. I have made a few sites but never one to make money before cheerleadingcanada. They pay me $10 a month to have the banner up there but thats about it. Should I be asking for an affiliation? they actually came to me originally for the banner ad because they saw the ad for it

jazzguy · #9 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daddyoftwoboys

cheerworx is actually not an affiliate, I didnt know things worked like that to be honest. I have made a few sites but never one to make money before cheerleadingcanada. They pay me $10 a month to have the banner up there but thats about it. Should I be asking for an affiliation? they actually came to me originally for the banner ad because they saw the ad for it

Hi again. I knew that the cheerworx was not an actual affiliation banner...that being said, I would up the price of the ad if at all possible...unless of course you have a year long contact then I would wait until they renew. You don't have to charge them great amounts of money but I think you could do better than 10 bucks a month. Do you know how much traffic you send to them? Maybe there is something you could work out with them on a commission basis. What I would do is check out other sites in this cheerleader niche and see if they are using an affiliate program. You can usually tell if you mouse over an ad and see a long string of URL and alpha-numeric characters. Then just follow that affiliate ad to the site offering the affiliate program and see how you could join. Also, you could do a Google search for cheerleader affiliate programs (stay away from the adult sites in that niche) and see what results you get.

Like James, I think this site could have lots of potential and by taking your time to see what options or open to you, it could prove to be a profitable site as well. All the best.

Daddyoftwoboys · #10 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 09:00 PM

I have no idea how many hits thye get from my site unfortunately, im not sure how to find out other than asking them. I know the site itself is showing 1500 distinct hosts served a month, not sure if thats good or bad really

lisa · #11 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 09:24 PM

Such great advice everyone. I just had to add that I started out a lot like you, Bobby. I tried forums, sites that sold different services, etc. but it was so dang hard to get enough traffic to make much money. My breakthrough was when I created 2 Create a Website. While there's nothing earth-shattering about the content or design, I knew I could reach a niche that needed help - beginners who wanted to build a website without getting bogged down in technical gibble gabble. The site started off small and only focused on the basics of building a website and once the site grew I added the "building traffic" and "making money" sections and I used my own experiences to make it seem more personal.

I said all that to say, sometimes the best sites come from your own experiences. The great thing about life is that there are always valuable lessons you learn from that you can use to teach other people who may be where you were. So you can always take that approach. Of course, that's not the only way to make money online, but it's a recipe I like to follow.

Take your time. It will come to you.

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