“Easy Money” and Automated Web Marketing

Since the moment when the Internet became widely popular, online commerce has attracted vast numbers of people seeking “easy money”. For some of us, online marketing is a combination of hard learning and passionate work. Some of us are already extremely successful. Most people, however, get easily discouraged and give up after losing a few hundred dollars and a few weeks in front of their computers. The reason why this happens is the fact that these people continue to believe in the urban legend of “easy money”.

The idea of “easy money” has been promulgated by the wide availability of “easy tools”. Today, in order to pose as a webmaster one doesn’t have to be an expert in any of the related fields. All the components for slapping together a full-scale web site are readily available online. Numerous companies are offering wide variety of affordable solutions ranging from shopping carts and remote support services to web site templates, SEO and advertising plans. Such availability of technical components would only be beneficial if the concept of “easy tools” hasn’t been taken further. The core of any web project “the content” is now being automatically generated, prepackaged and available for sale. An example of such automated content generating service, provided by the major domain registrar GoDaddy, is its’ so-called “Power Content Plan”. You may know nothing about geography, but within a day a few clicks will make you the owner of fully functional and widely advertised traveling portal. Everything, including web content, design and functionality, will be provided to you.

What is the problem here? Contemporary societies have raised a whole new generation of “ultimate consumers”. Everything we consume is processed, prepackaged and aggressively branded. Unfortunately this parasitical approach has spread to online marketing. Potential “web marketers” readily absorb numerous web development products and services but the apparent simplicity of automated online marketing turns out to be quite misleading. Most of the beautifully branded web solutions are nothing but attractive packaging offering the inexperienced web marketer the idea of “easy money”.

Beyond the breaking point

Most beginners do not realize that becoming a successful web entrepreneur requires either the launch of a major project or managing a massive number of simple web units. One of their common mistakes is focusing on their first project and expecting it to become a super-star providing a substantial income. A much smarter (and at the same time, safer) approach would be working on several smaller scale units. Each of these units would be a playground for testing one or more marketing concepts. Some, or even most, of these units will fail, but the ones that survive will give new entrepreneurs ideas on which direction they wish to evolve their businesses.

Any webmaster knows three basic revenue models used in online commerce:

1. PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
2. PPV (Pay-Per-View)
3. PPA (Pay-Per-Action)

The first one is the most popular and relatively simple to start with, which is why most beginners choose it as their main marketing tool. The prevalent strategy, shared by the majority of new webmasters, is building a simple, niche web site based upon an open source platform (typically “Word Press”) and implementing ad text blocks (typically Google AdSense). Even moderate but improper advertising of these little web sites is often labeled “spam” and many of these undertakings quickly show up on “ban lists”. Others do provide some income, which ranges within $10-100 a month. This is the situation for most beginners – the results aren’t worth the effort. This is the breaking point, where discouraged individuals discontinue their endeavors; only those who are really determined will take it to the next level.

”Taking it to the next level” may include the following steps:

1. Optimizing the business scheme you are already working with so that it becomes efficient;
2. Enhancing this business scheme;
3. Multiplying this business scheme;
4. Exploring and implementing alternative business schemes;
5. Merging a variety of business schemes within a single unit;
6. Creating innovative, unique business schemes;

Speaking practically, this could mean that a little inefficient blog that brings 50 dollars a month can be significantly optimized. Consider everything that can be improved and ask yourself the following questions.

• Did I pick the right thematic niche?
• Is my domain name appropriate to this niche?
• Did I choose the right content management platform?
• Is my content interesting, useful, and unique?
• Am I updating my content on a regular basis?
• Do I use controversial topics in a way that generates more buzz?
• Does my web site have features that would encourage anyone to check back?
• What functional elements can I add to my site to make it better?
• Does my web site look attractive and appealing?
• Did I implement any SEO methods?
• What other ways can I promote my web site?
• Am I using the most profitable affiliate program?
• How much money and time do I spend to update and maintain my web site?

Taking care of all these aspects will not make you rich, but it can provide you with your first working unit that proves the efficacy of the business model.

At this point you can either multiply a model, which has demonstrated its potential, or develop additional schemes. We all have different backgrounds and talents, which is why a diversity of approaches will help you determine what works better for you. Once you’ve tested a variety of business models, you will be better able to focus on the ones that give you the most return on your effort and investment.

Pay-per-click marketing is a good starting point in any revenue-enhancement program, because it doesn’t require an established web property. You can start a test PPC campaign with a small web site. Once you have an established web property you can try more marketing tools; at some point you may decide to use a combination of PPC, PPV, and PPA methods within one unit.

For some of us, the ultimate goal of online marketing endeavors is the introduction of a major project featuring one or more innovative and unique ideas. Sometimes it seems that everything has already been done and there is no space for new concepts, but if you make a research or better yet, check out KillerStartup.com on a daily basis you will find some interesting projects.

Like any business field, online marketing requires intensive and ongoing learning. However, due to the nature of the internet, the excessive amount and availability of information can be overwhelming. It is very hard to discern between genuinely useful tips and over-hyped marketing materials from a company that just wants your money. Successful webmasters do not like to share many of their secrets, which is why getting the right information and developing your own strategy will take time. Once you’ve failed but didn’t give up, you will see that your creative thinking, combined with the passion and the ability to push it to the very end, is all what it takes to succeed.

None of what I’ve said will be useful unless you work in a very organized and structured manner. If you are about to monetize one of your first web sites, I suggest you to consider the following points.

Information
• Do not trust a single source of information - including this article. Double-check everything.
• Ignore “Make up to $500 a day easily” and “How to become a millionaire in 6 months” programs.
• Learn as much as you can in order to be able to better control your projects (ideally: html, css, java script, and at least one server-side language, such as perl or php).

Budget
• Spend your budget carefully. Do not buy products or subscribe to services unless you really need them.
• If you have more than one web site, there are many host providers that offer multiple-site packages. You’ll get a global disk and bandwidth quota shared between all your sites – this way, a popular site won’t go over quota as quickly.

Theme
• Be accurate but creative when selecting your domain names. Depending on the nature of your project, find the right balance between a name that people will remember and a combination of keywords that people would naturally type into a search engine.
• Avoid making “general” web sites in the hope of covering everything. You’re not Yahoo! or Google. Since you don’t have their budget and technical abilities, focus on very narrow niches. Any niche subject will be ranked higher and get more targeted traffic.
• Consider projects catering to local needs, which can better develop a local following, and later expand.
• Ask yourself what you like or know and concentrate on your favorite subjects. Do not make web sites about pharmaceutical products just because it is a hot topic and you also want to take part in selling these expensive keywords. If you know nothing about pharmaceutical market, you will not be able to compete. Make web sites about tantric sex or ayurvedic cooking if it’s your thing.

Format
• Do not make plain search web sites as nobody likes them. Remember that search features and keyword links should only be an add-on to your content.
• Do not go for blogging unless you are certain you can handle it. I wrote about “Trap of blogging” earlier.

Publicity
• Employ proper SEO methods. In one of my previous articles I discussed this theme in detail.