I remember a few years ago share clubs were very popular and they may still be, the idea of getting together with some friends and investing together always appealed to me, and it also looked like a pretty good reason to have a ‘meeting’ over a bar lunch

My mate Ian recently came round for a game of snooker and asked if there was anything he could invest in with me, and basically offered to put money into anything I wanted to try, Ian doesn’t do any business online so this really was a leap of faith and a case of wanting to do something different, buying websites had to be ruled out quickly as I would do all the work while he would just be along for the ride, his budget was around $5000.

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I thought it time I revisited the mini sites topic again as it did generate some interest last time I talked about them and I feel I need to clear up a few questions of importance.

Q. Why not use one domain rather than lots of domains to save money

A. The initial reasoning for mini sites for many people is to find a use for domains likely already held but not used, many developers have lots of domains that are always on the to do list and never got round to so a mini site is a quick and practical use for a domain you already own.

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I have developed an interest in domain names recently and although it seems that you need deeper pockets to buy anything good in the .com game I found there are opportunities in the .co.uk market that could serve as an investment for a later date, note you can buy UK domains even if you are not in the UK so no geo restrictions. 

I’d maybe see it as a long term investment that anyone can get involved in pretty cheaply just now, even better if your a website developer/builder as you can add value that way in the short term. You can buy generic words for under $100 on some forums like Acorn Domains. I don’t really have experience in this market so I decided to seek out and question someone who did!

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Many a website or blog are started with the sole purpose of making cash (and if you’re reading this blog I’m sure you know what I’m talking about), I know a lot of new and aspiring webmasters and questions I get asked a lot are:

• How can I make money from my 3 hour old blog?
• Are my ads blended enough?
• My brother and his pet dog have been banned from Adsense how else can I make money?
• How many ads should I put on my page?
• I haven’t got any subscribers yet so how should I monetize my feed?

I’m a pretty helpful guy (maybe a bit selfishly helpful due to my belief in karma) and the answer I almost always give is:

• Ask me again in 6 months

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I have to thank Matt for pointing out to me last week that Google Checkout has now been opened up in the UK, this certainly appeals to me as I have a lot of small payments processed at present by Worldpay & Paypal. In fact most weeks I spend £70 on processing charges just for Worldpay.

For that reason the news the Google checkout has launched is of interest to me and they have dangled quite the carrot.

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Subscriptions are probably my favourite method of monetization. Sure you need a product or service and it can take a fair bit of setting up but no other method can bring the sustained and everlasting gain that subscriptions can.

Initially you need a service or product, this could be added features in a forum or a club or membership to a website, for my tattoo site I being the unskilled entrepreneur looked for a way to create a service/membership without doing much myself. I contacted a few artists through other websites and asked if they would be interested in building a library of art/images that could be offered for inspiration, the first payment from new registered members would be shared between all of us.

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Al and I both own $10k+ a month websites and it’s fair to say we are both still learning and earning, forgetting about mini sites, domaining and one off property flipping and concentrating on one main large website will be the subject of this post.

There are some basic rules that I follow now that I’d like to share and if you run a website that is your main earner or one which you are aiming to grow into your main earner then I would consider the following points quite important.

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Just to clear up some confusion there are two of us writing this blog, Al who can code and myself who, well can’t!  So far the blog has been quite positive, however we certainly don’t want to turn it into a ‘look at us’ and ‘it’s so easy’ type of thing. Personally I have made my fair share of mistakes along the way, usually because I had no idea what I was doing, so for your enjoyment today I think I’ll cover some of those hurtful lessons.

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Adsense offers a contextual advertising solution to web publishers who can simply copy & paste the code and then get paid for every click on the adverts, over the last few years there has never been an easier way to monetise traffic to our websites.

Let me just make one quick point that generally those adverts are there to take your traffic and sell them a product on another website, it is therefore a good assumption that for a lot of the money publishers make they could be earning more by removing the adsense code and replacing it with good contextual CPA (Cost Per Action) adverts if you have the time, effort and dedication to make it work. For many publishers its fast, easy and convenient to use adsense and it serves it purpose very well.

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First of all, I would like to thank Al and Scott for the opportunity to write a guest spot for Self Made Minds every once in a while. I have known both of them for quite a while and it is amazing to think back to just a few years ago on some of the major forums where we were all just starting out in regards to truly monetizing sites. I am used to my own highly modded Wordpress so please be patient if my formatting is off at all.

With that out of the way I wanted to make a post on continuous improvement. It is an area which is near and dear to my heart and one I feel is overlooked by most of those just starting out. Those who understand it and strive on it are the most successful in everything they do. I often times see people question why a millionaire writes an eBook or even why they do not just sell their valuable site(s) and retire? It is because they are deeply motivated by continuous improvement, not money. You can use that same drive to go from your site making $10 a day to breaking the $100 mark. I personally believe this is one of the hardest ceilings to break. (more…)