“Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting.”
Bill is correct, but I would tweak his quote to say the content owners are the ones who will make real money. Simply producing content & being paid by the inch, per word, per article, commission or whatever means you’re a fool.
Don’t worry, you’re not the only making this mistake.
I also recently found out someone I really respect as an author & podcaster has left the website that was hosting his content …. for the second time. I don’t know this person, but through his work I feel like I do. I hope he hangs around the industry. He’s good. I sent him a tweet today that he seemed to appreciate. If during the past few years he had put all his content on his own site, it’d be worth enough to buy a decent car … even in a weak poker affiliate/ad market. That, or he’d have a wonderful head start on promoting US facing gaming sites once they grow to the larger markets like California.
But such is life, and life isn’t all about making money or capitalizing on every opportunity.
Maybe that’s true.
But maybe the content creators don’t realize how much the content they are creating is actually worth?
A quick scan of the #1 public website marketplace is full with websites selling for thousands …. Most were setup a few months ago, have inflated ‘revenue’ and traffic sources – but people pay. Rarely do quality websites come across that site where the owner has spent more than a few days on it.
But getting $1,000’s for a website you spend a few hours on is pretty good. I know guys who make a comfortable living doing this.
Real websites written by US authors are sold privately via brokers.
And it’s life changing money.
Spend 2 years writing about insurance or diet trends & you’ll have a new car & home you need insurance for.
Writing for a website that you don’t own is like buying stocks that never go up in value. You might as well keep your money under a mattress … and you’re always better off putting your content on your own website.
Now that we are clear, it’s time you NEVER give your content to another webmaster & it’s time to understand some webmaster basics:
#1 Never put all your eggs in one basket. Where Basket = website AND Basket = sponsor.
If you only have 1 successful website, with 1 advertiser that you make money from. You’ll be looking for a job one day.
#2 Outsource everything
You were once a pawn in the website game, now employ the idiots that want to write for pennies. Same with setting up the website, promoting it and all. Just simply outsource the entire thing and reap all the rewards & profits. Or just spend a few days watching YouTube videos and reading forum threads … that’s how I learned.
#3 SEO is a myth
I’ve thought this for years. If you put up content that the user likes better than what’s already out there, you will get traffic immediately. Used to take months, regular content, links … ect – now you don’t need it. Which is good, Google shouldn’t reward websites that just contribute to the countless thinly written ‘articles’ that are out there. If you only have 3 pages on your website … it doesn’t mean your website sucks.
How do I know?
I’ve tested it a few dozen times.
Here’s a website – I spent about 3 hours of my own time, and I paid someone $5 for an article on Fiverr. the website only has 6 pages … but it’s exactly what the user needs.
That wasn’t too hard. That’s a really competitive niche too.
Here’s another one. Set this one up at the end of August & it’s doing really well. It has lots of unique content that I actually write myself. It’s more work than I like normally, but there should be plenty of potential buyers … some have already bought advertising.
I’ll end up selling both of them. So if you’re interested just contact me and I’ll let you know when they go on the block.
No backlinks. No webmaster tools installed. No site-map. No blog commenting or trading links. Just put the content up and they will come. SEO is a myth, but incredibly profitable since so many are willing to pay for ‘secrets’ or tips that don’t do anything.
#4 There are lots of dumb webmasters
Most have no idea what they are doing. Many don’t speak English very well. Many waste time on things that don’t matter or will become obsolete one day. Remember, content is still king – focus on that.
#5 You can do it.
Your reading words of living breathing proof it’s possible to do everything on your own. You don’t need partners, sponsors or support from the community you’re writing for. You don’t even to really know much about what you’re writing about. Figure out what your readers want and deliver for them. Sometimes it’s lots of work. But that beats doing all that work for someone else.
