You may have heard it
thousands of times “just follow your dreams, do what your heart desires and the
money will follow”. Well, I disagree with it, chasing your dreams cannot bring
riches because there are certain principles that should be followed at all costs
hence only a handful rise to great heights. You might be thinking, well, what
it has to do with me? I am just a blogger, interested in writing a blog post,
that’s all.
 |
| MAKE MONEY |
If you
are just blogging for fun then go ahead and skip this article because it might
not interest you. But if you are serious about making money online via
blogging (websites) then bear with me till the end. Let me think! As a blogger
you are only interested in getting higher rankings in Search Engines which will
result in high traffic and thus more chance to make money through Google Ad
Sense. Am I right?
Although Google Ad Sense is really good when it comes to making money online but the
approval procedure for an account is getting harder day by day which can be
really frustrating especially for the newbie’s. As an alternative, they opt-in
for other option like annoying pop-ups / pop-under, full page ads, inline ads
from crap services (personal experience) like Clicksor, adf.ly etc. Earning one
US dollar from adf.ly would cost you more than ten thousand clicks. Do the math
for yourself and you will find out that most of our youth is wasting time,
energy and effort on getting 0.01 Rupee per click. Think about it, do you want
to earn 0.01 Rupee per click for the rest of your life or do you want to earn a
decent living from the internet?
The
first step in earning money online is to
get your own Top Level Domain (TLD), don’t rely on blogger if you are serious.
Posting articles on your own [dot] com makes you an authoritative figure in the
field whereas posting on BlogSpot might give the impression of an immature
blogger. Another thing that needs to be considered when posting on a blogger
platform is that the content you create is not your property, Google can delete
your all your data and blogger account at time without any reason. Therefore I
suggest spending a thousand or two on buying a good domain name and hosting,
relevant to the niche you want to work on and don’t just randomly pick any
domain or any niche, do the research then carry on your work.
Creating a website is just
like starting a new business, and all businesses need proper planning.
Therefore, you should have sufficient knowledge about the niche you want to
work in. Selecting a right niche in the beginning is so much important that
your failure or success entirely depends on choosing the right niche. Picking a
wrong niche is just like trying to sell lemonade in the middle of the desert,
once in every three to five years you might get a customer, if you are lucky 
so here
are a few tips when picking a niche.
so here
are a few tips when picking a niche.
Fear
Fear has been undoubtedly
the biggest motivator in the human history and you should use it to your own
advantage. People are more likely to respond if they fear to lose anything
important and will pay any amount not to lose it. Here is an example, a bit odd
but it will do the trick. What if Government of Pakistan decides to give Rs.
10,000/- per month to all those who are unemployed, you would appreciate the
government’s decision, aren’t you? But what if they decide to take your kidney
away and then pay you Rs. 20,000/- for the rest of your life, now what will be
your response to that? Select a niche where there is some sort of fear factor
involved then you can easily penetrate into the masses and if you offer any
product that can help others to overcome their fears, they will pay any price
for it.
Health,
Relationships and Money
If you are a beginner
then your niche should fall into one of these three main categories (1) Health
and Wellness (2) Relationships (3) Money and Business. These three categories
are easy to reach but remember these are not niches. You have to select a niche
within these broader categories which can be a bit difficult and requires a lot
of research. For example targeting the general population in the weight loss
niche is not a good idea you have to be more specific like weight loss for
teenagers or weight loss for brides. Being specific gives you more credibility,
authority and trust; therefore, don’t pick a broader category as your niche be
specific about it.
Affinity
You should also be
interested in the niche you are working in. You will quit very soon if you
don’t have any passion for what you are writing. Don’t select a niche that
requires too much technical knowledge because users will ask questions via
comments / forms and if you are not learned enough, you can get in a lot of
trouble.
Put
Ad Sense Aside
A lot
of the new bloggers begin their carrier keeping Ad Sense in the perspective but
very soon get disappointed by the fact that Google rejected their application.
Although Ad Sense is good but it is not the only way to make money online,
there is a complete industry of affiliate marketing. Many of the affiliates on Click
Bank make millions in a month just by selling other’s products. If you just
starting out then think that there is no Ad Sense, pick a good niche where people are eager to spend money (I would
stress it one more time don’t pick a niche where users want everything for
free), select relevant products from site like Amazon, Click
Bank, CJ and start promoting it. My recommendation is to start with Click Bank;
they only sell digital products so the commission rates are very high up to 75%
per sale.
Recurring
Customers
If you are planning to
work as an affiliate marketer, choose a niche that brings the customers over
and over again. For example if somebody had “bad breath” problem and you are
promoting a product that helps them solve it can be a good nice to work in,
but, once their problem is solved they will not come to your site again.
Compare it with a market where your prospect wants to gain muscle, once they
buy a product through your site they will become more comfortable purchasing
more products from you related to fitness and health.
Research
Although this is the most
important factor in selecting a quality niche but I’ve decided to keep it at
the end. If you ignore the above mentioned facts during your research then your
research is useless. Play around with Google’s Keyword Tool, Browse
through Click Bank’s market place, see Amazon bestselling products in your
niche, and search e-zines Articles and you will find a wealth of information
for the niche you want to work in. When researching a lot of new users tends to
pick niches where there is no or less competition, don’t do it. Competition is
good and is a sign of healthy market, a place where people are interested to
spend money.
It all boils down to this
don’t just randomly pick niches do the research, act as funnel, give “them”
what they want, and money will follow. And after selecting a niche, don’t just
“copy / paste” the content from other websites use your own mind and the
content you write should resonate with your audience’s problems.
Of course these are just
suggestions and you can surely reject it entirely or any part for that matter.
But remember one thing, if you have started something don’t be a quitter,
complete your goal no matter how many times you face defeat. Think about the
failures as a learning curve and you will surely succeed in life. The famous
inventor Thomas Edison failed more than ten thousand times when he was working
on the bulb but he didn’t quit until he finally found the right element to
light up the bulb. Today we remember him as an inventor for the Light Bulb not
as a man who failed ten thousand times.