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How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

blog.cubeofm.com

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Re: How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

#181

Post by mcdowall »

jacquesm wrote: post #79

Interesting, I've been doing just that for the last couple of years. It's been a mix of partial successes and total failures, mostly failures. I didn't want to go the 'mfa' route for obvious reasons, so I try to make these sites in to something that actually is useful, and that have a sense of community about them. Here is a breakdown of what you can make this way in a month based on adsense alone after several years…

You have a couple of nice earning Niches there.

Personally from experience the hard work is in the research of finding a micro niche, once you have that nailed down then you quickly understand what topics are likely to be winners and which are to be duds. An understanding of SEO is critical though.

In terms of someone setting up, the barrier to entry may seem minimal but theres nothing like getting out there and giving it a go;

Google Product Search + Market Samurai + Hosting&Domain + X Site Pro + Adwords Account + SEO = Done.

Re: How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

#182

Post by numbchuckskills »

jacquesm wrote: post #79

Interesting, I've been doing just that for the last couple of years. It's been a mix of partial successes and total failures, mostly failures. I didn't want to go the 'mfa' route for obvious reasons, so I try to make these sites in to something that actually is useful, and that have a sense of community about them. Here is a breakdown of what you can make this way in a month based on adsense alone after several years…

Why are you still using AdSense with such terrible eCPMs?

Re: How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

#183

Post by numbchuckskills »

maxklein wrote: post #92
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd add something else. It's all so very easy to say that you can quickly make a buck a day on the internet. "Sure, just throw together some videos of puppies and put some adsense on there" but that's not the reality of the net today. People and companies are heavily competing on every freaking keyword that anybody might be interested in. That doesn't mean there isn't opportunities, but it's a much longer haul than j…

Yes, if you're going to try to get into adsense or adwords at this point in time you are really behind the curve. The game has moved on - offer something people want. Use your hobby or pick something you can research and offer good info. For example, I suddenly need to know a lot about tax because with my sudden increase in income I don't know what to do. I would easily pay $50 for a tax-for-dummies who make above $1…

"For example, I suddenly need to know a lot about tax because with my sudden increase in income I don't know what to do. I would easily pay $50 for a tax-for-dummies who make above $10k a month book. It's a small niche, but it is valuable."

-> Get an accountant.

Re: How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

#184

Post by tjr »

allenbrunson wrote: post #54
gcheong wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I have 2 apps on the app store right now. One of them makes nothing, it's not free, just does not make any sales and one makes just about $1 a day (after I raised the price from .99 to 1.99). Both apps are pretty simple, are in the same category (healthcare and fitness) and I've done nothing to promote them.

Yeah, I'm in that same boat. Two apps on the store, one is free, the other is making about $3.00 a day: http://www.platinumball.net/hearts/ Kind of frustrating, because when I made my app free, it was being downloaded 1700 times a day. So it seems like there is demand, but not enough to push them over into the 'pay real money' category. I'd love to work with somebody who is better at marketing than I am, if somebody…

I experienced the same thing. There seems to be a world of difference between free and 99 cents on the app store. And, I think, understandably so. If I want to try a whole bunch of programs, I'd much rather try free programs. If it costs even just 99 cents, then I am forced to stop and think about it before downloading. "I can download hundreds of free programs for less money than this one 99-cent program... do I really want the 99-cent program, or am I okay with some more free programs?"

I also noticed that making an app that was 99 cents to be free not only increased downloads, but also increased bad reviews. I guess people who get programs for free expect a lot more out of them and are perfectly happy to express their disappointment both rudely and publicly than those who pay for the programs.

Re: How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

#185

Post by jacquesm »

iworkforthem wrote: post #172
jacquesm wrote: post #79

Interesting, I've been doing just that for the last couple of years. It's been a mix of partial successes and total failures, mostly failures. I didn't want to go the 'mfa' route for obvious reasons, so I try to make these sites in to something that actually is useful, and that have a sense of community about them. Here is a breakdown of what you can make this way in a month based on adsense alone after several years…

Pageviews vs earnings ratio seems a bit too low.

I couldn't agree more. When I started out I was budgeting the whole thing based on being able to make $0.50 ECPM, that seemed to be reasonable since I can't seem to be able to buy it under a dollar.

This still gives me the feeling that I'm being screwed royally somewhere.

Re: How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

#186

Post by Psyonic »

jacoblyles wrote: post #175
Psyonic wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the proverb taught to GO beginners: "Lose Your First 100 Games As Quickly As Possible"

Also works great for Chess. But horrible for Boxing.

You certainly do have to modify that advice to avoid serious injury, but from my limited boxing experience I'll say that nothing teaches you to keep your hands up like getting smacked around a few times.

Re: How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

#187

Post by lsc »

il wrote: post #148
richcollins wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trust me, taking one project and not giving up until you MAKE IT WORK will be much more profitable in the long run. This sounds like it could be recipe for burnout and a waste of your life. Some businesses won't work no matter how hard you try. It seems like the best strategy would be one that is good at finding a reasonably scalable business model. If you don't find one after a few iterations, it might be a good ide…

Maybe I should have added a corollary. I'm assuming you already have a solid business model, or at least a well-defined market. "Adsense" is not a business model. Also, monetization is NOT hard if you're selling something people want. Getting traffic is hard. Monetizing is trivial if you're running an actual business and not a hobby.

And what, pray tell, is the difference between a business and a hobby? I became an entrepreneur precisely because that allows me to focus on doing what I like doing and doing those things in a way that I can feel good about myself. To me, that means my business /is/ a hobby, even though I'm full time on it now.

Re: How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

#188

Post by lsc »

kiba wrote: post #31
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #6

This is an interesting post, and I'm eager to hear what other people who have spent more time in the startup scene think of it. Here's my thoughts: 1. I think I've seen the "two groups" that the post talks about, but I have begun to have serious doubts that they're as fatalistic as they're made out to be. For example: The in-crowd live in the U.S, they attended MIT or Berkeley, they write well, have interesting blogs…

Wikis are forever sustainable, even if it is horribly outdated. However, depending on the niche you occupied, you barely get enough money above your domain cost renewal. Beyond a certain point, it is not worth your time to invest in it. For me, it helps that I can wait a few year before bootstrapping my next website, along with freelance work. That wiki is still earning me money.

huh. my experience with my own wiki is that you need to watch it, else it will get filled with spam. have you got users doing that?

Re: How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

#189

Post by allenbrunson »

tjr wrote: post #184
allenbrunson wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm in that same boat. Two apps on the store, one is free, the other is making about $3.00 a day: http://www.platinumball.net/hearts/ Kind of frustrating, because when I made my app free, it was being downloaded 1700 times a day. So it seems like there is demand, but not enough to push them over into the 'pay real money' category. I'd love to work with somebody who is better at marketing than I am, if somebody…

I experienced the same thing. There seems to be a world of difference between free and 99 cents on the app store. And, I think, understandably so. If I want to try a whole bunch of programs, I'd much rather try free programs. If it costs even just 99 cents, then I am forced to stop and think about it before downloading. "I can download hundreds of free programs for less money than this one 99-cent program... do I rea…

i think i have that angle pretty well covered: there is a free version of my game. it's intended to give people a taste of what it's about. if you like it, then you can buy the better one. if you're a cheapskate, fine, stick with the free one.

people who like the game tend to really like it. here's the text of a review for the free version i got just yesterday:

  I've now played 150 games against the ai players and
  it's a great implementation! It can be a bit easy to
  shoot the moon (something apparently improved in the
  author's hearts net) but still MUCH better than most
  other iphone hearts games. Highly recommended, great
  fun.
so, let's review. here's a guy who has spent many hours playing my free game, and likes it. he is aware of my paid version. he is even aware that the paid version fixes a criticism he has of the free version. yet he is apparently still not willing to spend just a couple of bucks buying it. sheesh.

this has been enough to pretty much put me off the iphone ecosphere. i plan to port my game to macosx, whose users have a much better reputation for paying for software they use.

Re: How to become rich even if nobody is following you on Twitter

#190

Post by moconnor »

maxklein wrote: post #38
sabat wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Max is proposing that it isn't that difficult for a programmer to find a way to make $1/day. Max -- care to elucidate?

If you want to make $1 a day, go search for a keyword. Like Owls. Then find a bunch of videos of owls in YouTube, put them on the site and call the site OwlVideo.com. In a week you will be making $1 a day. Or if you prefer to program for the desktop - go wrap ffmpeg and make an AVI to MP4 converter. Def make $30 in sales in a month. Or if you prefer to program for the web, make something that parses Apples XML of new…

Ok, I'll bite. I challenge you to make an owl video site that makes $1 a day and post the link and revenue here. Ditto for an AVI to MP4 desktop converter. Ditto for the iPhone app site. Ditto for the annotated bible. Ditto for the file uploader script. Ditto for the Doctors theme.

I don't believe any of these will make $1 a day. I believe they'll make $0 a day. There's a world of difference between $0 a day and $1 a day.

Just because $1 a day sounds like almost nothing doesn't mean you'll get it for a site that's worth almost nothing. It's $365 a year. You won't make that with 30 owl videos and adwords.

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