Many believe that in order to build a successful web site you have to invest a lot of money into it and become some web programming genius. Or they believe you have to have some kind of product to sell.
Not true at all.
In fact, there’s a company called SiteSell that proudly shares their customer’s success stories. Many of them have created affiliate sites that now earn enough to allow them to quit their full time job.
See the successful affiliates here.
The key to success with affiliate programs is finding your topic of passion and developing a web site on a topic you love and know a lot about. Find your niche, develop your site’s theme, and attract as much targeted traffic as you can.
The examples below display how simple web sites created by everyday people like you, can generates thousands of visitors per day — and in return, bring in hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month.
Why are the sites below so successful?
Each site was created based on a hobby or a topic of which the webmaster has a great deal of knowledge and interest in.
These people get loads of their traffic from word of mouth and other web site owners who are voluntarily linking to their site out simply out of admiration.
The search engines are also happy to provide free traffic because these sites provide relevant, useful information.
We all have a passion and/or significant knowledge that will help someone. The beauty of the Internet is that there are always people out there that will benefit from what you have to offer….even if it’s just plain ole information. You don’t have to be the next Amazon.com to generate a profit on the web as you’ll soon see.
Site #1: Two Thumbs Up!
An impressive movie review site run by long-time film buff, Mary Ann Johanson. She reviews movies and then earns revenue by referring her visitors to DVDs, CD soundtracks and more. A great example of how a casual hobby can turn into cold cash on the Internet.
http://www.FlickFilosopher.com
Site #2: Move Over JerrySpringer.com
TVTalksShows.com won’t knock you over with its site design, but it must be doing something right. According to PC Data Online, Trevor Rieger’s site, TVTalkShows.com gets more traffic than the heavily promoted Ricki Lake and Jerry Springer sites. It has also gotten the attention of the New York Times. What’s Trevor’s secret? It’s simple. He built a web site on his passion and continues to update it day after day.
http://www.TVTalkShows.com
Site #3: Look CARefully
Another successful site built on the owner’s experience. If you have never been involved in a car buying scam, you probably know someone who has. Jeff Ostroff took his own car-buying experience to the web and is now helping people avoid many of the scams people may run into when searching for that perfect vehicle. Sure he has probably made some enemies with some car dealerships, but that pails in comparison to the consumers he’s helped.
http://www.CarBuyingTips.com
Site #4: Laughing All The Way to The Bank
Ray Owens cashes in on people’s laughter. He runs JokeaDay.com, a site full of jokes, puns, riddles, and knee-slappers. You can even find the “joke of the day” on his homepage. This is a brilliant concept for getting people to return to his site regularly. To bring in additional revenue, Ray offers a “Premium Subscriptions” section where visitors can obtain access to more jokes for a small fee.
http://www.JokeADay.com
So hopefully you’ve taken some time to visit these sites. As I mentioned before, none of them have blow-out designs with fancy animations, but the key is they all have information that people need and want.
More importantly the webmasters KNOW and ENJOY their subject matter and spend time updating their sites frequently to keep people coming back for more.
Don’t waste your time building a copy-cat site. You’ll just get bored with it and the site will end up getting stale. So many people see web site concepts they like, attempt to build a similar site and then after about a month they run out of ideas and the site never gets updated again.
Why?
Because the ideas were never the owner’s to begin with. They borrowed the idea from someone else because they thought it would be “easy” or seemed like a good idea.
So of course the motivation runs out quickly and burnout sets in. Find your OWN passion and build a site with your OWN ideas. You’ll be amazed at what will come of it.
I also want to point out that one of the main reason all 4 of the sites are successful is because of:
I-N-F-O-R-M-A-T-I-O-N.
They’re not selling any do-it-all gadgets, services, or anything of that nature. They don’t have these flamboyant animated graphics bouncing all over the place to distract your eyes. People keep coming back to their sites because of good ole’ fashion information.
1) Mary Ann’s loyal visitors anxiously await her reviews on the latest movies.
2) Talk shows air almost everyday so you can always find Trevor’s message boards flooded with new conversations on anything from Jerry Springer’s out-of-control cheaters to Oprah’s latest book club.
3) Used car buying is a task that will never grow old. As long as there are cars to buy, there will always be scams for Jeff to review. Hey, if you can save someone from buying a lemon, you might have a friend for life….or at least a loyal website visitor.
4) Ray’s domain name, JokeADay.com, is a huge marketing gain in itself. Who can forget to return for a laugh with a domain name like that?
How Do These Sites Make Money?
Many information-based sites make money from affiliate programs. This is where a company pays the web site owner a commission for every sale that results from a link/referral from the owner’s web site.
So all the webmaster does is provide links to the company’s site, and when a sale is made, the webmaster receives a commission for each sale.
Most affiliate programs are free to join.
Google now has a free affiliate program that makes it super easy for webmasters to earn extra revenue. It’s called Adsense. Basically, you are paid to help Google advertise by displaying text ads from other advertisers. Learn more about Adsense here.
Try Site Build It
I mentioned this web host above, but if you are really serious about becoming a successful affiliate, I would highly recommend looking into Site Build It.
I’m also a customer and used them to build my latest site, www.flat-stomach-exercises.com. This site now pays my mortgage and I only update it once or twice a month.
SBI is not just your average web host. It’s a complete tutorial that walks you through the process of becoming a successful affiliate by simply providing information to a targeted audience.
It’s amazing what’s possible out here if you select a topic you are interested in and keep building more content.
Don’t forget to read how other people are using SBI.
In Conclusion…
Always remember to build your site on your passion and find your niche.
If you continue to update your site daily with fresh, unique content that your target audience can use, the search engines will reward with you lots of free traffic. Other webmasters will voluntarily link to you because your site is useful. Over time, you’ll see your traffic begin to grow and grow.
Join affiliate programs like Google Adsense and earn revenue by simply displaying text links on your site.
So what’s your passion or hobby? Find out and start building a site based around it. And if you’re REALLY serious about long-term income, check out Site Build It
