Question from my readers: Regarding starting up a website business, what is the number one thing you do for the most profit?

In regards to starting a website, I guess my advice would be to start small and test your market first. Don't rush off and invest a lot of money until you figure out if the idea/product is going to work... or if there is even a market for it... etc. Patience is also key. New websites can take a long time to catch on, and they require tons of work on the owners part to market and keep it going in the early stages. I would say most of my ideas/websites fail miserably... so expect some failure as a learning experience.

Last but not least, I've found that if you stick to ideas you have an interest in, or are passionate about, you will find it much easier to be successful... So don't just pick a product/service you think will make a lot of money... pick one that you think will truly be valuable and help people... etc.

Remember that there is no such thing as easy money. You need to put your time in (years in some cases) before you start to see the fruits of your labor.

Good luck!

Sockfucious On Top Paying Keyword Lists

I am always stumbling across these "top 100 paying keyword" lists in webmaster forums around the web. Top 100, top 50, top 10, whatever... you get the point.

Then, as sure as the sun will rise every morning, a flock of newbies comment on how great the list is and how they are going to make more sites and get rich...

It got me to thinking. Why do I never pay attention to such lists? I see them all the time. Sure I've browsed one or two many years ago... But after taking one look, there really is nothing to gain from them.

Thousands of webmasters try every day to build blogs around these "high paying keywords" in hopes of making money. No one wants to take the time to build something useful anymore. Which is why none of these blogs every make a dime. They get zero traffic. Most have zero use to a visitor.

So what is the point to all my rambling? Don't build sites based of keyword lists. Build sites based off what you think people might find helpful or useful. Build sites that people will trust. Build sites you can look back and be proud of.

The sites making the most "per click" are not focusing on keyword lists, they are focusing on providing value to the visitor, and putting the visitor in a position to make a purchase or sign-up for a service, etc. They are converting visitors into customers for their advertisers. That is why they are making the big bucks per click. Not because the title of their blog has some big expensive keyword in it.

Kick Starting A New Site

I recently launched a .TV site. It was a single keyword domain, and I offered a service related to the TV industry. I made sure my design was standard SEO... good file names for the URL, short URLs... Simple content pages with unique titles, etc.

I paid for a few site reviews (ReviewMe, etc) and I sent out a press release. Then I did some period plugging of my free service when appropriate out and about on the internet... nothing spammy... just mentioning when it fits the conversation.

I spent a little and advertised with StumbeUpon. Very easy traffic, and my site consistently got rated high and re-stumbled. I usually got 2-3 times the traffic I paid for... plus links from folks who marked my site as a favorite.

I submitted to all the search engines, DMOZ and a few other directories... (just a few!). Then I hand picked a few of my best content pages and sent them off to Digg and Reddit once or twice. Some caught on and got some votes...

I wrote a few ezine articles related to my industry and included links to my new site... Wrote about 2-3 articles.

My site has only been up since maybe around April... I'm currently getting a couple hundred visitors a day from search engines.

Not bad for very little link building work and a lot work delivering a quality site and service that folks will talk about and link to.

Total spent: About $200

It does not take a fortune to kick start a new site... you just have to spread out your investments wisely.

When is the right time to put ads up on your site?

I came across this question the other day on another forum. It was interesting to me because I noticed there were two distinct replies that kept surfacing:

1. Place ads on your site right away. If not, you are wasting opportunities to earn money.

2. Wait until you get 500-1000 visitors a day, then start to run some ads.

I had always been of the mindset that you should wait until your new site gets an established flow of visitors before running any ads that might potentially have your new members clicking off your site. But I started to think about it some more, and realized the answer is not that simple. A second variable needs to get added to the decision process. What type of site do you have?

My initial thoughts are if you run a new forum, where you are trying to get folks to sign up and participate, well then you don't want them leaving your site so soon through an ad. Hold off on the ads until you get some adequate traffic and activity.

However if you run an informational site (content only), with no stickiness or social aspects, then you may not care if your visitor leaves once they see an interesting ad. Your site could have answered their query/question with one page, and they are now ready to jump somewhere else. Why not make a little money off their departure? A site like this could probably benefit from ads being run from the start.

This of course opens up another question, why would anyone want to design a site that did not encourage visitors to stick around? Well it is not that we don't want folks to stick around, but it could just be that our site is really good at answering their main question/query. For instance if someone is looking for a recipe, and I have a recipe website, they may find what they are looking for and move on. They may bookmark me and come back the next time they want a recipe, but for this visit, they got what they wanted and they are leaving. Running ads from the start with a site like this might not hurt my traffic growth, since I'll get the bookmarks from folks who thought I was a useful reference they'll use again.

Other factors to consider is your ad placement, and of course the number of ads. I always recommend starting small. Don't open the doors to your forum and then pour on the ads. One or two wisely placed ads per page is usually all that is necessary. If the ads are placed well, they'll perform well and not be overly distracting. High performance will lead to higher payouts, which will lead to more money in your pocket.

Good luck!