Misguided Ramblings

In my intro post I mentioned that this is one of my “things”.  I really want to generate some passive income streams, and I don’t have enough cash to buy another house, so I decided the web was a better answer.  I started on April 15^th, (tax day!), by buying some domain names, registering for Digitalpoint and Sitepoint, and reading as many posts/blogs/info sites as I could find.  So far I’ve spent $633.78.  Here’s the breakdown:

Domain names only - $216.44 (approx. 51 of them all total, 36 unique – some are the same names with different TLD - .com/.info)

Actual sites - $345 (meaning a site someone else had for sale – I bought 5)

Hosting - $49.87 (reseller hosting at $19.95 a month)

Other - $22.47 (bought some blog posts and links)

Yes, but how much have you made?  $0.52.  Not bad huh?  That’s like a negative 6 million ROI.

Ok, so it’s not a loss if you learn something from your mistakes – so what did I learn?

First of all, DON’T buy a domain name until AFTER you have created your site.  I bought 3 different domain names for a site I was building before it changed focus and then I had to buy another one instead.  And that site still isn’t up yet.  Also, DON’T buy a domain name thinking that you are going to turn it into some wonderful site later, because you probably won’t get around to it.  I now have a network of 16 domain names waiting for me to turn them into sites.  Obviously, if you are going to be a domainer this rule doesn’t apply as you’ll need to buy plenty of domain names for reselling later.

Second, DON’T browse the boards looking for sites to buy until you have figured out what niche you are going to specialize in, otherwise you might wind up with impulse buy sites that you don’t need and that just sit on your server…..

Ok, so what would I DO if I had to do the last 4 months over again?  Obviously I would buy less, but I would also read more and I would have spent more time finding my “niche”, (which I still don’t have).  The thing about a successful website is that it needs something to draw in traffic, that something is normally content, and you can’t really write good content if you don’t know anything about the subject or aren’t really interested in it yourself.  So the first thing I would do is decide what subjects I’m interested in and would be willing to produce content for.  Second, I would learn everything I could about SEO, (Search Engine Optimization), and social marketing.  You need these two skills to drive traffic to your website.  And traffic is the most important part of the equation.  The best website in the world won’t make you money if no one visits it, and the worst one in the world will most likely make you something as long as people are getting to it.

Only after I had done both of these steps would I then start looking for a pre-made site to buy, or start creating one of my own.  As for hosting, there’s really no point in buying it until you have a site to host, but while you are reading up on things take the time to view some cpanel/whm demos if you plan on using a reseller account to host multiple sites.  If you only have one site it’s best just to go with a $5/month plan from any of a number of reputable hosting companies.

So to sum it all up.  Decide on your niche.  Write the content for your niche.  Create or have someone else create the website that will display your content, (don’t forget the SEO), and then promote your site on forums/blogs or wherever else the readers of your niche would likely hang out - which obviously you should know if you have an interest in that niche right?  Once you have traffic coming to your site you can monetize it through adsense or affiliate programs.

Now if I can just figure out my niche before I spend any more money….