I'm making money online so I don't have to get a Job
17 Aug
This week has been fairly good online, and while it’s been fairly boring doing the same old thing everyday (except for weekends which I now take off), I’ve been quite productive.
I have to say that Internet Marketing isn’t all that glamorous. I know you hear all these stories and false promises of how you can make a million overnight just by doing this one easy thing, but really it’s like anything in life – the more you put into it, the more you get out. There aren’t any shortcuts – it’s about putting the work in: building websites, writing articles, getting backlinks and so forth.
And while you are likely to make a little bit of money in the beginning, the real money comes when you have hundreds of websites up, hundreds of articles directly traffic to them, hundreds of backlinks pointing at them.
Yes it can seem overwhelming, but just start with that first blog or first hubpage and take baby steps and build from there. If you can make $10 a month from one website, then build 100 more and you’ll be making $1,000 a month. If you can only build one hubpage or blog per day (5 days per week) then by the end of the year you could have over 250 pages out there that could potential be earning you income.
Imagine if those 250 sites/blogs/hubs (whatever you build) were making an average of $10 per month each. In 12 months time you’ve just made yourself an income of $2,500 per month. Of course you could make more or less than that – but I think that estimate is pretty reasonable.
But it does take commitment and action.
Autoblogging Update
My auto blog that I set up two weeks ago has now got over 100 posts indexed online, but the problem seems to be traffic. Yes I already knew that this was a highly competitive niche but when I had BANS on it I was still getting a trickle of traffic. Now it seems I’m getting none at all. In the past week, the search engines have sent me a total of 3 visitors. 3 !! Hmm . Perhaps this experiment isn’t turning out as lucrative as I would have hoped.
I know it’s still early days, but I might hold off adding any more new posts to it for a while until I can see that it’s going to pay off.
Making Money Online with HubPages
I’m still really enjoying the income and rankings that I’m seeing with Hubpages. Of course not every hub is paying off, but the more hubs you have out there, the more chance you will have of making some money.
Recently I’ve just started experimenting with Hubpages and the eBay affiliate program. My goal is to get as many eBay hubs going as I can. Right now I’ve only got 5 up, but I want to get at least 100 up if I can manage it over the next few months in the lead up to Christmas.
Now using the eBay affiliate program is a little different to using the Amazon one in that eBay don’t allow you to add your affiliate links directly into websites that you don’t own. You can however use the eBay module that hubpages supplies. Same goes with squidoo – no direct links, but you can use their module (or capsule or whatever it’s called).
This of course does limit the income you can make since the revenue is shared with Hubpages, but it will be a good way to see which products are winner’s so that you can then go on and expand on them.
I’m choosing the products by going to eBay Pulse and seeing what the popular searches for different categories are. Then I’ll use my usual method of choosing suitable keywords which I’ve now named Tracey’s 1000:1000 method of keyword selection.
Tracey’s 1000:1000 Keyword Selection Method
I’ve already gone over this in a few of my previous post, but for new reader’s the rules are this.
Go to the Google Adwords Keyword Tool and enter your keywords. Change the match type to Exact Match. You only want the keywords that have 1000 exact match searches or more per month. Next you go to Google and check out the competition. You enter intitle:”your keyword” into the search and see how many search results you get back. If the results are 1000 or LESS then you have found a good keyword to use.
That is the method I use, it works well for me.
ClickBank Update
I don’t know what happened last week, as this week my ClickBank sales are back to normal. Admittedly I’m not a huge Clickbank affiliate since I think most of the products suck but you can make a decent living promoting them. I will probably try and increase this over the next few months though.
Making Money with Amazon
I had quite a few questions regarding the Amazon method I’ve been taking about in my last few pots which I’ll briefly go over here. Mainly asking how many incoming links you need, how many supporting sites you should have, if you have to write articles, if you can choose products not on the bestseller lists, and so forth.
Here’s the deal. Yes you will probably need some sort of backlinks to your hubs for them to rank well. Hubs do rank quite well on their own, especially if the competition is crap, but some do need more work.
How do you tell which ones need backlinks and which ones don’t?
Easy. Write a hub. Leave it two weeks. If it’s on Page 1 for your main keyword then hooray you don’t need to do any more work.
If it is not then you’ll need some backlinks to it using your keyword as the anchor text.
How do you get backlinks?
Other hubs that are related – say your first hub was promoting a certain tennis racket, then have a second hub for another tennis racket with a link back to the first hub. Or even a tennis ball, heck it doesn’t even have to be that related, link to it from your weight loss hub if you like – the whole myth that you need backlinks from related websites is a crock – I have links from all sorts of places and do well.
Articles are another great source of backlinks. Ezinearticles, GoArticles etc.
Other Web 2.0 sites. Write a blogger blog linking to your hub. And a squidoo lens. And an InfoBarrell. And a free wordpress blog. Heck if you wanted to, you could go right ahead and create your own linkwheel to boost your rankings. I’ve often done that for more competitive items.
And finally, no you don’t need to target only the bestselling items on Amazon. Target anything you like. I only suggested that as a starting point because it’s easy. Any product that fits the 1000:1000 keyword selection rule is fair game.
I suggest you get started making up some Amazon and EBay product related hubs now because come Christmas (when everyone is in a buying mode) you are likely to pocket some very nice cash. If you get all your websites and hubs set up now, you’ll be in a very good position come October/November (when Christmas buying seasons starts heating up).
Well I’m getting hungry so it might be time to end this post and go make some lunch. Hope you enjoyed it. Catch you all again next week
Tracey xx
19 Responses for "Making Money Online with HubPages & More"
Thanks Tracey, good post.
About your 1000:1000 method, for checking competing pages should it be allintitle or intitle before the keyword. I always thought that allintitle meant that all the keywords in the phrase were in the title.
Just wanted to be sure I understood it right!
Thanks
Once again Tracey, great post and really informative thanks.
I think a lot of people try and fail at internet marketing due to the amount of hype and buzz that flies around on a daily basis.
You really do need to put in some serious hard work if you want to succeed. Even the word “succeed is a funny one really. Is being successful making a sale here or there or is being successful being able to live on the income you generate from internet marketing.
I suppose you’ve really got to say the latter. However, just how many people make it to this level is tiny and the chips are heavily staked!
I agree with you, I think hard work and dedication are the keys to success and doing little things each day that will build up over a period of time. For those that want to get rich quick it just simply ain’t gonna happen.
The boring things are what makes you money in the long run, not promoting Cost Per Action (CPA) products with adwords. Yeah you might make money short term, but I guarantee you that these types of models ARE short term and won’t bring you a nice consistent income over a period of time.
At least you know you’re hubpages will be online for some time and the articles you write will help people and further promote your website(s) for many years to come.
Internet marketing is made up of several boring tasks that need to be done by you initially and then later outsourced. Unfortunately the hard work has to be done at the beginning and as Tracey says “start with that first blog or first hubpage and take baby steps and build from there.“
Des
My 2c
Good post Tracey. I just wanted to say that I like your natural style of writing. I feel it’s just as if you are here talking to me.
When I used to think of the huge task ahead of me in doing zillions of sites and links etc it felt so overwhelming. Now I just try ot think of the next one. And anyone can do just one.
And then another – one – etc etc.
And, in my opinion, that is where the success comes!
Hi Tracey,
WOW, some great infomation there however in some instances i`m not sure what you mean by terms and uses like”hubs or an info barrel” but it all must be good sound way to make money , or you wouldn`t have this blog telling us !
Cheers Tracey..TTFN….Ed.
how do i start my work
@ Vince
there isn’t a lot of difference between allintitle and intitle the way I’m using it because I’m putting the keyword in quotes with intitle. If I didn’t use quotes then I could use allintitle instead, although that would return titles that were not in the same order as I’ve got them.
So basically, if you use quotes like I have, they pretty much do the same thing.
@ DesDrec
Hey Des,
Good to hear from you. You are totally right, there are ways to make a quick buck here and there but they don’t last or need a lot of skill to master successfully.
Nobody ever wants to hear that you need to take action and do the work – you can’t sell an ebook telling someone that. But tell them they only have to work 15 mins a day and they’ll be rich and they’ll be sucked in. Sigh.
By the way, I’ve got nothing against making a quick buck – but I know it’s just that – quick and fast and won’t give me long term income. Good for a bit of fun every now and then (and I do try these things from time to time) but I’d still rather get to the stage where I can laze on the beach and watch my bank account fill out automatically from work I’ve done that keeps paying off.
@ Dave
Hey thanks. That’s exactly the way you need to think so you don’t get overwhelmed. Just do one. Then another one .. and so on.
@ Ed
So you need more info on hubpages and infobarrel’s huh? Hmm sounds like I’ve got a good post for next week already. Ok then – I’ll go into more detail on each next week including best layouts and more.
@ Malsom
Sit down at your keyboard and start writing.
You tell it like it is,which reading your comments from your following. All good points, but I would like to add one more thing. Staying focus and doing one task at a time. A great way to understand yourself and keep your mind alert. Till your next blog take care…
Reg B.
@ Reg B.
Thanks Reg, staying focused is definately important. I usually write up a to do list of what I’m focusing on so I don’t get distracted. It helps me keep on track.
Tracey
I get distracted so easily. Instead of focusing on one technique, I tend to run around trying 1/2 of everything, which truly leads to NOTHING!
I have to admit though, your Amazon strategy is rather interesting…….
@Tracey I also reckon that if people are still working full time and want to make money online they’ve got to find that extra bit of time in the day. If needs be you’ll have to get up extra early.
Let me give you a quick example. There are teams at work as we speak that are outsourced from the west who’s job it is to frequently add content, take part on social sites, build websites, make constant changes, testing, tweaking, write eBooks etc and the list goes on and on.
If you’re just starting out then you’re going to have to wear many caps and fill a lot of roles until you can outsource them. I also think that you need to focus on one thing or one topic and become an expert in that area. Sure, when you’ve built up a solid reputation you can spread your wings a little, but until then it’s all about focus.
To be fair I used to do the exact same thing and that wasn’t really that long ago. I came to the opinion that successful people had and still have focus. If you’ve started a project, set aside a couple of hours a day and dedicate your time and energy fully. Even turn of your internet connection whilst you’re doing this.
Yeah I know, the last one was a bit extreme but it works
Des.
P.s. If you purchased a domain name for your project, get it live as soon as possible with an opt-in form for people to join an “ealy bird list”, then when you finally release your product you’ve got a nice little list of pre-qualified clients to market to.
Hmm, I thought you were using direct links on your hubs and squids. I’m surprised you can make much using the capsules, but maybe the hub split is good?
@ Des
Turn off my internet connection? Shudder – I just got chills.
@ Carrie
Yes for most of my hubs I’m using direct links. But because eBay doesn’t allow direct links from sites you don’t own I’m experimenting with using the capsule instead.
I’ve had a few clicks but no sales yet – I’ll keep you posted.
Hi Tracy,
I really enjoy your blog, you give a lot of info and it’s free!
I have been blogging for 2 month, 5 Squidoo lenses, 5 blogger blogs and I am only just working out the basics! as for earnings…$ 2.48 total. Oh US $, but you know what, I am having a blast, I am crap at writing, technically very challenged and it took me until a week ago to work out what backlinks did!
So, what I am trying to say is: keep writing, I need your tips.
Thanks
Maya
@Tracey A quick question for ya. I’m kind of new to hubpages and noticed you were able to place a link back to your site. Is this only allowed once your hub has a high enough score?
Thanks,
Des.
@ Maya
That’s a great start. If you are earning $2.48 from just 10 sites (5 squidoo & 5 blogger blogs) then imagine if you had 100 sites or 1000 sites (yes it sounds like a lot but can be done over a period of time).
Keep going – you’re doing great for a beginner.
@ Des
You can get dofollow links from hubpages (either from your hub or your profile page) if you author score is over 75 and the hub itself over 49.
Each hub can have up to two links to the same domain (you can have more links, just not to the same domain). The exception is linking to your other hubs, you can link back to hubpages as many times as you like.
Most people use hubpages for the backlink juice to their sites.
It’s pretty easy to get your score above the required minimum. If it’s unique content and has a picture or video or something it will be fine. It may take 2 or more hubs to get your profile score above 75 though – can’t remember.
You can have as many links on the profile page as you like (but again, only max two to the same domain).
Hi, Tracey.
Really enjoying your blog. Thanks for the tips on hubpages and amazon. I finally put up a few hubpages the last few days and got like 100+ views on one, with 25 clicks to my amazon link.
No sales, but the potential is pretty amazing. Those clicks would have cost me $2-$5 each on adwords.
Gonna start building them up for the holiday season. You really are too kind to share this information.
Hi Rob,
That’s excellent. Sales will start to pick up the closer we get to the Christmas selling season. Glad to see you are seeing results.
Tracey
Hi Tracy,
I have a Yahoo account but for some reason I have been unable to join your blog which I think is terrific. I have tried to join about 10 times and it doesn’t work. I’m tired of changing everything and still not getting on. HELP!
Hi John,
What do you mean by join my blog? Do you mean subscribe to my RSS feed?
Tracey
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