I just got a comment from Stephanie asking about what I do to make money online, and as I started to reply it turned into a massive answer so I’ve decided to make it a post instead of replying to her comment. Enjoy.
Tracey,
I think I’ve read just about every word on your site – but sorry if these answers appeared somewhere else already. Do you have any opinion on the Postrunner system? Are you still finding success with creating your own Web 2.0 backlinks (not counting Hubpages and Ezines)? There is just so much info – not sure where to focus. Creating 2.0s? Angela and Paul’s backlinks? Postrunner? Or all?
I’d really like to focus my efforts to get the best results.
Thanks
Stephanie
Hi Stephanie,
Glad to hear you are enjoying my site. Let’s see if I can answer your questions:
1. re: Postrunner System
I’m not a member of the Keyword Academy anymore so don’t exactly know what this system does. I think it’s a form of guest posting on other people’s blogs through the one system thereby distributing your articles to lots of different places online to gain backlinks, am I right?
If so then yes I believe that this can be very powerful. It’s not what I do, but it can work very well if you don’t have many of your own sites online yet.
Because I have quite a few sites of my own now, I usually use them to get backlinks to my other sites. I also use web 2.0 properties for links as well.
2. Success with web 2.0 properties?
I definately do use web 2.0 sites a lot because they work great for me. I mainly use hubpages and ezinearticles, but also occassionaly squidoo, xomba, infobarrel, snipsly, weebly, blogger and others. Don’t ignore the power of these properties – especially ones that you can directly control. I have one hubpage that is a pr5. A link from that page is VERY powerful.
3. Angela & Pauls backlinks
I don’t use these anymore. Twelve months ago they were super powerful but now because so many people (newbies) use them they have lost all their link power. I also think during the last Mayday update Google gives less juice to these types of links. Plus it’s a pain to fill out all those profiles 
4. What to do now?
I like to keep my system pretty simple. I believe it’s really just a numbers game. The more pages/articles you have online the more money you’ll make.
My basic system is slightly different depending on what I’m promoting.
For Amazon sites, it’s usually set up a blog or html static site (which one depends on my mood for that day, it really makes no difference to rankings). I try and get a close match domain name like redwidgets.com although sometimes it’s more general (tip: if you are having trouble getting a good domain name just add a generic word to the end. I like adding blog or site or something, so redwigdgetsblog.com.)
Next I check Google Adwords for a good main keyword. Usually it’s something with three words in it because it’s less competition.
Next I’ll do a search for that keyword online. On the left of Google search if you click advanced options, you’ll see a wonder wheel option. Click that. The related phrases that appear are usually my secondary keywords for the site (and I’ll create a page/post for each of these).
Usually my amazon sites have around six to ten content pages (or more if they are very profitable).
Now depending on whether they ranking and if they are making sales or not, I’ll then add a few hubpages and articles pointing back to the sites. These are not always related. I might have hubs on cat breeding that link to sites about lego star wars. If it’s related then great, but don’t think it definately has to be.
Oh and another tip: always add an outbound link or two to a relevant authority site. It actually helps your own site! I didn’t beleive it either until I tried it, but it really works.
For my Adsense sites, it’s roughly the same except I have way more posts on these sites. Usually I try and get AT LEAST 30 posts on these sites but many of my sites have more than 100 pages. The posts/pages target lots of different keyphrases (please don’t try and target just the one phrase with these sites, you want them to look as authorative as possible). Tip: do a search for your keyphrase on Google then advanced options again and just look at either News or Blogs – there is some really good fresh information you can use on your blogs that is topical and gives your site some really good articles.
Definately add some tracking to your sites (I usually use Google Analytics, but sometimes I’ll use Statcounter instead). See what keywords that Google thinks that your site is relevant for and then write some more posts on that.
Adsense sites definately need more support in terms of articles and web 2.0 sites linking to them. I lot of my traffic to my adsense sites comes from ezinearticles.
I don’t have as much luck with Clickbank as I find many of the products don’t convert well for me. My best strategy is usually to do a case study, full review website covering a product (that I’ve actually used!) giving my results and experiences with the product. Can be time consuming, but ranks so much better in Google than just have a one page review that every other affiliate does. Plus it gives me credibility because I actually do use these products.
That is really all I do. As you can see it’s not complicated, it’s just a matter of lots of writing (either posts or articles) that I spread over the web either on my own site, or for backlinks on other sites.
I don’t use any special software, I do everything by hand. (I’ve played with autoblogging before as I have WPRobot but I just don’t seem to make any money this way). I only make money when I sit down and do the hard work. Writing Writing Writing.
So there you go. My big secret to making money online. And you probably knew this already.
23 Responses to My Secret to Making Money Online
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Hey Tracey
I think it’s great you turned a comment into a post, it shows you really value the input you get from your readers, it’s one of my favourite ways to generate blog posts, more blog authors should do it.
You detailed a very precise and easy way that anyone can make money online WITHOUT SPENDING A TON OF MONEY FIRST.
I have not really used Google Wonder Wheel yet, but I am going to take a look now you suggested it.
Great post, enjoyed reading it.
Hope all is well with you and your little bundle of joy.
Take care and speak to you soon,
Sally
Hey Sally, Yes everything is good this end. I’m over the cold weather though (it’s winter here brrr). How are you going? I’ve been seeing your emails, looks like things are going well.
Talk soon, Tracey
Hi Tracey,
When you say you add a link to a relevant authority site, do you put it in the post itself or in the blogroll?
Hi Cathy,
I put it in the post. Not every post though, I probably only put outgoing authority links in every 10th or so post.
Tracey, for amazon site, do you start with hubpages first. Then if it is profitable, you would go with a website? Or do you just create a website.
Ridna, Sometimes I do set up a few hubpages first to see what is selling well. But if a product seems to have longevity (has been around a long time and you think it will continue to do so), has a few related products then I’ll go straight ahead with a website without testing first.
Richard, Hey thanks for dropping by! Hope I can give you some more tips and ideas in my future posts.
Yasmina, I pretty much do everything myself. Occassionaly I’ll use humanrewriter.com to rewrite some articles but that’s about it. I really should get into outsourcing more though, and I plan to do more of this in the future.
Hope that helps!
Tracey
Hi Tracey
Found your blog after visiting Sally’s blog.
This is a very interesting post and has given me some ideas to boost my own blog. I will be coming back and will also check out your hub pages as they are something I know next to nothing about.
Richard
Hi Tracey, thanks for sharing. Just wanted to ask – do you outsource your work at all or you do everything you’ve just stated yourself? Thanks.
It’s always good to see how a real person does there stuff. I’m pretty much doing the same method. Lot’s of writing, lot’s of posts and lot’s of sites.
I did note with interest how many pages and posts you are putting on your site. I have a few which I am having trouble getting ranked. Maybe it’s because they’re too thin.
I use a keyword tool myself and some spinner software but instead of synonyms I spin 3 or 4 sentences together. I find that makes it more readable and Google doesn’t seem to mind. It does take extra time though.
Been cold down there has it? Up here in Qld it’s like “winter, what winter?” Barely had to put a jumper on.
Tracey,
Are you familiar with Info Barrel (It is a Web 2.0 Social Media content aggregation revenue sharing site, similar to HubPages or Squidoo)?
Take care,
Howie
…ah….lol….I see you DID mention them….I apologize for my previous comment….
Are you familiar with their growth trends? I would keep a close eye on them….
Hi Howie,
Nice to see you here, I’ve read a few of your comments over at the Warrior forum and you always have some good stuff to say.
Yep I definately think InfoBarrel has got some great potential and is improving all the time. I haven’t used them much yet but they are definately in my sights for the future!
Take care,
Tracey
Yep. I did know it already.
I think you’ve convinced me – I’m going to be giving up on all the fancy pants tools, and all but one monthly subscription…
I need to spend more time here. You shoot it straight, Tracey.
Hugely useful Tracey. May I ask a really dumb question…I’m going to anyway….
You know your 1,000/1,000 rule. Is it
intitle:”your keyword” (with the “inverted commas”)
or is it
intitle:your keyword (no inverted commas)
And thanks
Hi JamestheJust – I gave up all my fancy tools to because even though I had high hopes for most of them, they just didn’t give me the return I was looking for. Probably the only one I’d go back to if I had more time is UAW because it was good for backlinks – but I wasn’t get the use out of it due to lack of time to write the articles.
Hi Cowell, you can use inverted commas with intitle: or no commas with allintitle: (gives the same result), but to be honest I don’t use that much anymore, I think I’ve got a good feel for which keywords I can rank for now by just looking at the top 10 results in Google. Unless they are big authority sites, I usually go for it.
I wanted to ask you a question about your career online – did you ever do freelance work?
Just curious since it seems to be battling with all my other time to do passive income writing.
James, nope never done freelance work online. Although I have written for magazines offline (but that’s in my other ‘career’ as a women’s finance writer). Google ‘shopping for shares’ by Tracey Edwards *wink* .. now that’s really off topic LOL.
Tracey – if someone asked you “what’s step one to making money online, the definitive first thing to do, a guide, etc.?”
Where do you send them? I’ve never read Grizz’s blog, personally – but just curious how to help out a friend.
Ohh good question! You’ve really got me scratching my head. Hmm let’s see … I think the VERY first thing to do is to decide which monetization model you want to follow and focus ONLY on that. I know when I started online I jumped from one thing to the next before I really mastered anything. And since everything used a different method I never really got good at anything – and thus never made any money. It wasn’t until I started focusing on doing one thing well before I moved onto the next thing that the money started rolling in. (Promoting Amazon products is still my favorite method though as it’s really easy). As for a guide though, I really don’t think you need one! Seriously all you need is some experience and action. The more you do the more you get. (Or something like that
)
(Oh and if you want to get good at Adsense then you really should read Griz’s blog)
Thanks, Tracey – I thought I was subscribed to the comment thread, I’m now losing my battle against procrastinating.
Darn…another hundred dollars down. You owe me.
Hi Tracy, pls do you mind explaining how to use snipsly? Is it the same way as squidoo or hubpages?
Thanks.
@ Yasmina, Must have missed your comment! Sorry about that. Yes Snipsly is sort of like squidoo and hubpages. They do revenue share with adsense. You need to either write original content: 50+ words for a ‘bookmark’ or 150+ for an article. You can direct link to either your website, other articles or use an amazon affiliate link in your posts there (but no other affiliate programs). There links are no follow but they rank pretty well so and they don’t require much content, so it’s worth using them.
Thanks, really appreciate the information. Will all your strategies work for creating sites and web 2.0 sites for earning with adsense? Thanks.