Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure • Hacker News Board

Re: Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure

#131

Post by brc » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 11:17 PM UTC

codingdave wrote: post #2

The general online audience has matured over the past 10 years, and most people have an excellent filter to avoid clicking ads, which includes affiliate links. You can still monetize a site these days, and make some money while not being sketchy, but it requires approaching it as a service to your users, not as an exploit of your users. What I mean by this is that whatever your site is, if your audience has a legit i…

I'm not sure that is true. There are always new people entering the internet in still large numbers, and their late adoption usually means they are technically naive. You also have young people becoming adults and sometimes getting their first taste of un censored internet use.

Re: Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure

#132

Post by brc » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 11:18 PM UTC

putzdown wrote: post #19

It's nice to know that people who fixate on making money not by building useful or beautiful things but by gaming the system are having a hard time too. I've seen enough obnoxious Acai Berry spam to know there must be money there. I'm thankful that the money was short-lived.

"One weird trick" - the scams and spams will never leave us.

Re: Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure

#133

Post by kposehn » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 11:23 PM UTC

JacobJans wrote: post #128

I read this earlier in the day, and I've been thinking about it a lot since. In many ways, my story mirrors the one in the blog post. However, I've been fortunate enough to make my living at it. I too started by encountering a lot of "internet marketing" gurus. I was lucky enough to find one idea that let me make a fair amount of money, relatively easily. Back in the day, Google SEO was shockingly easy. Looking back,…

> A marketing technique is not a business. A business is a set of activities that create a sustainable competitive advantage. A product is not a business, a marketing technique is not a business, any skill, no matter how well developed, is not a business. A business is a system -- a combination of activities that hopefully support and reinforce one another.

So true! This is what allowed me to succeed as an affiliate. What I tired of was the churn that kept the value I built from realizing a long-term ROI.

Re: Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure

#134

Post by dustcoin » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 11:26 PM UTC

guelo wrote: post #126

I hate sounding like some kind of prude but rap lyrics have got to be the worst advice being dished out to millions of impressionable young people.

Ben Horowitz begins all of his blog posts with rap lyrics: http://www.bhorowitz.com/

Re: Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure

#135

Post by Fiahil » Fri, Mar 20, 2015, 11:44 PM UTC

scobar wrote: post #56

Fiahil wrote: post #22

I have the firm belief that, being continually exposed to sketchy spam 10 years ago, made me extremely averse to advertising, clickbaits and affiliation. Today, I can't imagine the web without an adblocker, and I'm certainly avoiding giving money to a service when I'm prompted to by an ad. So, I may be wrong, but if the minority of "EnlargeYourMaleParts.com" hadn't polluted my visual field 10 years ago, it would be a…

I understand your aversion to ads. When I tried affiliate marketing, it made me sick just learning of the products shady companies were trying to trick consumers with. I quickly moved toward creating websites to offer useful content and including ads or affiliate links. Most of them failed to earn anything substantial. I don't think you're wrong, but many great websites that provide content people really want rely on…

I share your concern for the few website with high quality content, damaged by the reputation or shady moves of a lesser population. One of the greatest examples is, to my mind, Ted.

But, regarding to Ted, they have done something absolutely genuine: they run ads, yes, but at the end of the videos. And often the ads themselves are very high quality (comparing to the one on your average TV channel).

For me the benefit is twofold: I believe their behavior is rewarded by people, like me, who will stay and engage with the ads; because they don't feel betrayed and because they might learn something new or interesting during the advertisement. And, I believe it will become so difficult to make money with shady trades (because people are more and more protecting themselves), they will eventually come to disappear.

So, to be short, I think great websites which offer high quality advertisement, will earn back the trust of the users at some point. And, if they can manage to keep genuine user experience above their own greed, they will be rewarded for that.

PS: Not sure if it's relevant, but I should have disclosed this, I'm currently working for a startup who sell a recommendation engine to the travel industry. The product itself is not very far from an ad, but at least it only include references to the client's content. It's pretty ironic when you think of this.

Re: Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure

#136

Post by mb_72 » Sat, Mar 21, 2015, 12:19 AM UTC

socialist_coder wrote: post #36

Retra wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm somewhat surprised that anyone would have spent 10 years flailing in this arena and not learned that. "I’ve always had some type of entrepreneur trapped inside me. [...] I decided I’ll start a blog and make money via AdSense ads." This is not the thought process of someone with the competence to know how to learn effectively. It sounds like someone who just wants to be a cog in a money wheel, both learning as li…

Yep. This guy takes "get rich quick" to the next level. In that same time period he could have founded real startups with real products. Instead, he got 10 years of putting his blood, sweat, and tears into bullshit money making schemes.

At least he's being honest with himself. I see many posts here about people learning a tiny bit of some programming language, making (IMO) unnecessary products and then looking to cash out / sell out at the first opportunity and move on to the 'next big thing' to do it all again.

Re: Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure

#137

Post by Scoundreller » Sat, Mar 21, 2015, 12:34 AM UTC

dusing wrote: post #88

This article was like a trip down memory lane for me. 10 years ago it was Hoodia diet pills, pay day loans, and blockbuster trials that filled my war chest. Difference is after I multiplied my initial 1K, I invested the profits in starting a legitimate business. I treated every success in affiliate marketing as a fad, and I'm so glad I moved on after a few years. I've never "worked" with scummier people then those th…

Since it sounds like you're now out of it and have nothing to lose, could you elaborate?

Any advice for those now getting into content-based websites that would be supported by banner ads or affiliates?

(edit out of prompting questions that sounded like I was looking for help on being a bad guy on the internet)

Re: Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure

#138

Post by Scoundreller » Sat, Mar 21, 2015, 12:41 AM UTC

blumkvist wrote: post #124

paulhauggis wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

haha

What's funny? You can't talk about your business?

The poster is probably being deliberately vague, because the barrier to entry in this industry is low.

If you have something that works and share it with the world, you'll quickly find yourself with 1000 competitors. They'll probably be poor competitors, but because of the nature of SEO, they just might outrank you for no good reason at all.

Or the competition might bid up (at their loss, but yours too) whatever you need as inputs (like traffic sources).

Re: Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure

#139

Post by paulhauggis » Sat, Mar 21, 2015, 12:53 AM UTC

blumkvist wrote: post #124

paulhauggis wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

haha

What's funny? You can't talk about your business?

Why would I want to give anyone even a hint of my profitable niche?

Many believe that ideas are worthless, but I don't. Especially on a business/startup forum. I really don't want the competition.

Re: Make Money Online: Documenting 10 Years of Failure

#140

Post by egypturnash » Sat, Mar 21, 2015, 12:54 AM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #60

hackerboos wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, HN is full of this stuff too - Double your freelancing - Guys who create a not-very-well-known startup and then start pushing guides on how to be successful - Email marketing, write 3 tutorials on topic X to build your list and then spam your ebook. Don't get me wrong, things are better targeted and less shady. It just feels like people spend more time selling their systems than they do using them. It l…

First you sell the stuff you mine from the ground, then you sell shovels to the miners, then you hire the miners and make them dig stuff out of the ground for you that you sell. The final stage is selling miners to other mining companies.

This is starting to sound like an incremental game.