Membership is FREE – with unlimited access to all features, tools, and discussions. Premium accounts get benefits like banner ads and newsletter exposure. ✅ Signature links are now free for all. 🚫 No AI-generated (LLM) posts allowed. Share your own thoughts and experience — accounts may be terminated for violations.

Good income from internet?

Status
Not open for further replies.

spudleyk

Level 3
Legacy Platinum Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2002
Messages
51
Reaction score
0
Hehehe... Hey if you were making money (well i'm not) but would you share your secrets to the whole world? :)
 

domainAddict

Level 8
Legacy Gold Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2002
Messages
1,100
Reaction score
0
Actually I AM making money :D Still not as much as I hope to in future, but am working on it and future looks bright :) However Im sure there are few guys here that are already wery successful at what they do and could share their success stories with us. It gives people hope if nothing else, not to mention ideas.. But offcourse, who wants the additional competition :D
 

oneguy

Level 3
Legacy Platinum Member
Joined
May 22, 2002
Messages
92
Reaction score
0
Bu I'm also sure that there are those whom are making money and would do their part in passing on the techniques and their experiences to other ...

It's just that I have yet to meet one ... so in the meantime, I'll be ploughing on my own .....

<Hint> <Hint>
 

Togoodhlth

DNF Addict
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
May 1, 2002
Messages
1,449
Reaction score
0
Unfortunately for me my limiting factor is the inability to design a website. I have a zillion ideas and ways to make money online however I either have to pay a ton to develop the site or as I ahve in the past I end up partnering with someone to do the design only to have them get sidetracked and never complete the project.

Now for some insight on how to make money.

This is not rocket science and I don't claim to be any Internet Guru however I chose an obscure product (chimineas) that I knew something about and I decided I would create a website based around this product. Next I registered deleted domains that were relevant to my keywords, spent money with PPCs for about 2 months (about $200) and registered with the search engines of course paying the $299 for a Yahoo listing. I never would have thought that inside of a couple months I would be getting over 2500 uniques per week.

After it all started to take off I found a manufacturer of chimineas in Mexico and started selling container loads to distributors in the US.
Although this is still a part time venture I could easily make a decent full time living at it.

I have now added a similar product which is drop shipped. The sales of the add on item pay for all of my overhead.

The key to my success with this site was the domination of my niche market online. I created a "use and care" instructions page which is now used by several other chiminea websites. The site is content rich and I am sure to post at relevant forums from time to time in order to keep my name out there.

I have been number 1 at most search engines for the past couple of years, most notably Yahoo (search term: Chimineas).

There are thousands of other products like "chimineas" which someone could do the same thing with. You don't ever even need to sell the product. Just write a super detailed overview and offer tons of tips etc. and get the traffic flowing then add some affiliate programs etc.

I now have a few other similar projects in the works but as I mentioned earlier it is hard for me to find someone to do the design work as the designers I have met don't have the same motivation for money that I do. At least that's the impression i get.

I hope I was able to at least lend a little insight to someone here on the forums. As tons of others have stated here it's not a cake walk. You have to invest a good deal of time and a little money to get going but it beats spending tens of thousands of dollars to start a bricks and mortar business.
 

David G

Internet Entrepreneur
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2002
Messages
5,755
Reaction score
63
Everyone should listen to what Togoodhlth has to say. It can be done as long as you are selling your own products and services, especially in a niche market, where you have a better chance of dominating the market to a good degree.

It is extremely unlikely to make serious money with pay per click programs, most general affiliate programs, or non-niche market banner ads offering services, except for the big players. Places like Ultsearch do great with PPC, as very heavy traffic is required due to amazingly low click-thru rates. Banners may work involving products and merchandise in niche markets more so.

I have advertised on a fine website everyone here knows, with a click-thru rate of 1/10th of 1%, even with a very good banner. In other words only 1 out of a 1,000 page views would even look at my website, and a fraction of that small number would order, if it got to that point. Pay per click programs may have higher rates but from what I understand still only 1% or so.

Thanks for the great advise and details Togoodhlth :)
 

Togoodhlth

DNF Addict
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
May 1, 2002
Messages
1,449
Reaction score
0
No problem! I appreciate the nice comments.

BTW, I forgot to mention my URL for those interested in what I have for content. For those who actually looked up "chimineas" at yahoo then you already know it's:
Chimineasinc.com
 

Tombot

Level 3
Legacy Platinum Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2003
Messages
90
Reaction score
0
Good post Toogoodhlth!

btw, I never even heard of Chimineas and had no idea what they were before I went to your site. I was thinking they were some kind of plant. :)
 

RMF

Level 8
Legacy Platinum Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2002
Messages
1,437
Reaction score
0
Anybody try SMC?..

RMF
 

Tombot

Level 3
Legacy Platinum Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2003
Messages
90
Reaction score
0
Originally posted by RMF
Anybody try SMC?..

RMF

Nope, never tried it. There are people who do well with it. I don't know how they do with it online, but I do know that people use the net to recruit sub-dealers.
 

namedropper

Level 7
Legacy Platinum Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2002
Messages
756
Reaction score
0
Jsut some comments here...

First up, I do SMC... I wouldn't recommend signing up for their ecommerce plan if you do join, just one look and I was underwhelmed. I haven't gotten any links for their stuff live yet so can't tell how well it'd do, but I think my plan is solid... sell things related to great content sites.

For example, they have some dragon statuettes and things like that, I have mythology.com, once it's all live it only makes sense that I'd be able to sell things that way. I also plan to put up other sites with specific content that'd draw visitors interested in a subset of the things SMC offers.

If other people have sites with traffic in certain areas and would like to try selling stuff (mostly homedecorative stuff) but don't want to sign up for SMC yet, I can link you up through me and give you decent commissions... and if it looks like there are enough sales, you can sign up for SMC yourself and cut out the middleman.

For example, SMC has several pages of, say, garden ornaments. If you already have a site about gardening, obviously that target audience would have some interest in these things.

Other than that, I have run some sites with a local business that makes me some money. They had neat products, but no money to design any sites, I told them I'd put stuff up if they'd pay hosting fees, their domain name, and then 15% of all internet sales to me. I've done fairly well with that (4 digits each year) for something that didn't take too much time (probably not more than a week or two of work if it were fulltime), it's just annoying to be dealing with them sometimes. Like they ran out of their best selling item once and didn't know if they wanted to restock. I mean, duh, at the time they were selling ten of these a week just over the internet... it was like printing cash, and they weren't sure they wanted to restock.

I also have a friend who makes good cash with a site that just lists available savings and coupons for other sites like Buy.com. If there's a sale somewhere, he let's his audience know about it, and he gets affiliate money. He just quit his fulltime job to work on this fulltime.

All of this though lives and dies off of the whims of search engine placement and type ins. I have some good type in names, also can get some good placement, but every know and then some star product just stops selling like it used to because some other site clicks with just the right search terms or something.

There's money out there waiting to be made, but you need to concentrate on one particular area and draw a devoted target market.
 

David G

Internet Entrepreneur
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2002
Messages
5,755
Reaction score
63
Originally posted by namedropper .......it's just annoying to be dealing with them sometimes. Like they ran out of their best selling item once and didn't know if they wanted to restock. I mean, duh, at the time they were selling ten of these a week just over the internet... it was like printing cash, and they weren't sure they wanted to restock............There's money out there waiting to be made, but you need to concentrate on one particular area and draw a devoted target market.

Excellent post, agree, thanks for the details. What idiots some busineses are. I ran into a similar thing where I mentioned a financial markets computer trading system for sale in my Ezine newsletter several times. I knew it was selling as I had feedback on it saying some were interested in buying it from the advertiser.

Total cost to the advertiser on his ad was $200. When I called asking him why he failed to renew the ad he said he wants to try different marketing next time. When I asked him what type of response he got he said he sold 8 systems at $1,000 each from my ads but seemed unimpressed that $200 could turn into that much in sales...duh, even though that was almost 100% profit as it was a very low production cost high margin item, and came on a floppy disk. He never did advertise again, how stupid is that :confused:
 

oneguy

Level 3
Legacy Platinum Member
Joined
May 22, 2002
Messages
92
Reaction score
0
Guys, thank you for sharing all your thoughts and experience. Trust me, I have learnt a great deal from these posts.

A niche market -> everyone talks about it even people like Cory Rudl ... PS - I have his Internet Marketing course ... heck, I even have his email program Mailloop !

The problem is finding that niche market, I'm no website designer either .. take a look at domainpod.com and you will know what I mean. In Singapore, where I'm located, the online purchasing frenzy has just started, I consider ourselves someway from maturity so I presume that should be niches around .. the problem is getting them ! ... I know, now you guys must be asking - what the hell do you want ? Name you the niches and let you develop them ? dugh ..

NO, that's not it ... I know i have to look for these myself. However, I would appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction as to the "PRIVATE LABEL" reseller opportunties around ... I was thinking, maybe as a start, I could look at these private label opportunities and see if there could be an opportunity of promoting these to the local surfers ... I know, its lame ... but its a start isn't it ?

Singapore is extremely well-place to take in all these, especially since our locals are always going after the "western" trend ... its just taking in all these technology and existing infrastracture that you guys have and applying or migrating them to the local scene ... its going to be a HUGE challenge ......................................................
 

izopod

Level 8
Legacy Platinum Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2002
Messages
2,234
Reaction score
2
Originally posted by oneguy

Singapore is extremely well-place to take in all these, especially since our locals are always going after the "western" trend ... its just taking in all these technology and existing infrastracture that you guys have and applying or migrating them to the local scene ... its going to be a HUGE challenge ......................................................

Excellent post "one-guy". You raise a very good point. Emerging economies who are starting to take advantage of the internet would be a very, very good "niche" market. Bill Gates is investing heavily in these economies for this reason. Just as people follow Warren Buffet on his stocks we should be following Bill Gates on what countries he donating a lot of money and resources in the attempt to have "first-mover" advantage when these countries really start to use the internet.

If you are a stock investor some of the best performing stocks right now are from emerging economies. You really have to do your homework though as some of these economies can shoot up real fast then sink quickly. Also it's a good idea if you are going to create a web site for a particular market that you consult with people who actually are intuned with the business climate.

izopod
 

Togoodhlth

DNF Addict
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
May 1, 2002
Messages
1,449
Reaction score
0
Oneguy. If you have Coreys course then you have a good start.
Since Singapore is just taking off with the net why don'y you use Coreys affiliate program and advertise it on local websites and even in local papers or to local businesses.

BTW, what are you good at or what do you enjoy doing in your spare time? Other people somewhere like doing the same thing.

Right now I'm working on 2 projects. Project number one is a website about wooden Playsets (swingsets). I know alot about them because I have been selling them at my stores for the past 11 years. My website will be retailing Playset accessories (swings, toddler swings, gym rings etc) however I am concentrating on the information end of the site. No one in the industry has information about playsets in general. They are simply pedaling their product. Essentially, once done, I will market my site as an informational site with a buyers guide for consumers shopping for playsets. I hope that with all the information the Search engines will index me well.

My other project is a site about snowboarding. Unfortunately there are a ton of sites about snowboarding so this is going to be a little harder to get the high traffic I will need to sell snowboarding products however my domain name "boarder.com" gets me good traffic.

Even if you aren't really good at writing copy there are places you can go to find free, relevant information. For instance my playset website has information about the different woods which i have taken from the environmental Protection Agency. I ahve also taken information from other governmental organizations as it can legally be reproduced in part or whole without consent.

If you want to retail a certain product (there are a ton of drop shippers for just about any product) there are ecommerce website builders which are super simple to use. The catch is you have to use them for hosting. My playuset site I am doing myself using the ecommerce website builder and the only thing I have to do is use them for the hosting which is $39 a month (a little steep but the plan is good).

Hope you can take someting from this post that will help you with your search.

Good luck.

John

John
 

oneguy

Level 3
Legacy Platinum Member
Joined
May 22, 2002
Messages
92
Reaction score
0
Originally posted by izopod


Bill Gates is investing heavily in these economies for this reason.

Bill has been here and has invested heavily in the region in Singapore and Malaysia. Lately, he has moved on to India giving the *nix a run for their money in a land deminated by excellent programmers ....
 

ellisgolf

Level 1
Legacy Gold Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2002
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
I have been looking for some good dropshippers lately.....but really have not come across the "holy grail" of information on the subject. Can anyone suggest some good companies that they have used in the past (or still use)? What are some of the things to look out for with this type of venture? I would REALLY like to get a computer software business going - but I can't find any good suppliers that do dropshipping.
 

oneguy

Level 3
Legacy Platinum Member
Joined
May 22, 2002
Messages
92
Reaction score
0
Originally posted by Togoodhlth
Oneguy. If you have Coreys course then you have a good start. Since Singapore is just taking off with the net why don'y you use Coreys affiliate program and advertise it on local websites and even in local papers or to local businesses.

Mmm.. I do have his course - in fact I have read it twice. I've joined Corey's affiliate program as well and have been constantly trying to market his products to the local guys. The problem with the local scene is somewhat more complicated. As you guys would be very familiar with taking out your Credit Cards and giving it out for online transactions, an asian would think thrice about giving his cc number on the internet - that's the kind of fear that the people here have. But the situation is improving ... slowly.

Somehow, in the Singaporean mentality, home-based businesses, online marketing techniques, part-time internet businesses hasn't really taken off. The typical Singaporean, like me, is somewhat unimaginative and like what our govenment says .. very lacking in the Entrepreur spirit. People here are more content in working 9 to 5 ... with the occasional over-times, going home, watching TV before calling it a night. Weekends are mostly spend eating + shopping ... and more eating + shopping - those of you whom have been to Singapore would have realised this. Food and Shopping revolves around our daily lives !

I broke out of this cycle - at least I try to. Hopefully this would reap some kind of rewards for me ... maybe not now ... but hopefully in the near future.

With this, I hope to have provided you or any casual reader for that matter, slightly more into the typical lifestyle of the average Singaporean ... breaking ground in this emerging market is proving to be quite tough .. but I' NOT READY to call it QUITS yet !

I'll try .... and I'll learn.

PS - In case some of you might have noticed, yes ... this is the same ONEGUY that regged the following domains :-
notified.org
robbed.org
sg0.net
sg0.net
sg8.org
sg9.org
... and many others ....

Only to find them COMPLETELY useless as appraised by the DNForum gurus ... but I'm cool with it ... coz I'm nearer landing myself 1 domain that the Gurus would be proud off. Thanks for the experience and guidance - I truly appreciate it.

If anyone would be so kind to point this newbie in the right direction, I would be most appreciative ... what I'm looking for are opportunities, private label programs, affiliate programs that are accept INTERNATIONAL members .. particularly, I'm looking for programs in the following areas :-

(a) Online Chat Rooms
-> Somehow the average Singaporean teen is still CRAZY about this. Meeting someone unknown over the internet holds a special trill in their lives - I just don't understand - maybe I'm too old ?

(b) Ringtones / SMS and in particular MMS
-> Oh .. these are hot properties here ... but the existing solutions all require the user to dial a local 1900 number paying about USD$1.50 per minute - I'm looking for something more web-based ... like using the CC to purchase a certain amount of credits and using them to pay for download ... that kind of thing.
Oh, I've already got the domains for this ... SgMMS.Com & SgSMS.Com - hopefully these are good ?

(c) Drop Shipments
-> I've scanned a few directories and guys, you are the luckiest people ... you have an enormous choice .... but here's the problem ... almost all the drop shipment lists that I have seen cater only the US market ... What about Singapore ? Any lists that could cater to the international market ?

(d) Search Engine
-> Ha Ha Ha ... not another one - I heard that ... and I can still hear you laughter ringing in my ears ... but think about it, you guys have Google, Yahoo, Overture to content with ... what about us ? We only have Google.Com.Sg / Yahoo.Com.Sg which incidentially - Yahoo.Com.Sg still provides FREE listing should anyone be interested - but the problem is, somehow, it still returns global results ! .. if only someone could finance and comeup with a good search engine for SINGAPORE sites ... it would be GREAT !

(e) Affiliate listing
-> Thinking of creating a web site specially catered to the Singapore market for listing of affiliate programs that are GOOD and I WOULD USE MYSELF ... and of course, accept members from Singapore - anyone know how and where I could get information on creating such a list ? A simple program maybe ?

(f) Any other Private Label Solutions
-> Can't seem to find these sites on the web. I know, there are tons of affiliate programs around but I'm a TERRIBLE web site programmer ... so if I could get to evaluate some Private Label Solutions, that would be great ... any suggestions ?


Geez ... I do have a lot of ideas don't I ... but the problem if you noticed is the fact that :-

- I can't web design <Maybe I should take a course !>
- I can't seem to find the information I need

Anyway, as you noticed, I NOT afraid to put my thoughts and ideas up for everyone. If there are other Singaporeans on this forum, you're free to develop these ... but these are currently my ideas and I'll work on these in the meantime unless something better comes along ..

Oh ... before I go, I have set up a web site sourcing for co-developers and co-owners ... http://www.allinternettips.com - it's been there for sometime ... these requests don't get much mileage do they ? Or I am doing it all wrong ? Please advise ..

Okay .. gurus and fellow friends, its been a long post - thank you for reading .. and IF you have answers to any of my queries above, please don't hesitate to post, PM or even email me at [email protected] .... Once again, THANK YOU !

From a very appreciative newbie,
ONEGUY.
 

oneguy

Level 3
Legacy Platinum Member
Joined
May 22, 2002
Messages
92
Reaction score
0
Hi John, I realised that I did not answer most of your questions ... so here goes ...

Originally posted by Togoodhlth
BTW, what are you good at or what do you enjoy doing in your spare time? Other people somewhere like doing the same thing.

I'm a techie by profession. A Microsoft guy .. err .. yeah but I'm trying to get out of it - doing a course on Red Hat Linux now (RHCE) ...

What do I enjoy doing ? Mmm.. does surfing the internet count ? I spend alot of my spare time surfing the web, searching, looking, hunting for information - sometimes, my wife feels that I married the PC instead of her ! ... other than that, SOCCER as its known in your land ... preferable English Premier League - espeically Liverpool and Newcastle ... though I know a certain Brad Friedl and McBride are making some headway in the English Premier League

Originally posted by Togoodhlth
Right now I'm working on 2 projects. Project number one is a website about wooden Playsets (swingsets). I know alot about them because I have been selling them at my stores for the past 11 years............

Nice - my son would love this ... let me know the URL okay ?

Originally posted by Togoodhlth
My other project is a site about snowboarding. Unfortunately there are a ton of sites about snowboarding so this is going to be a little harder to get the high traffic I will need to sell snowboarding products however my domain name "boarder.com" gets me good traffic.

Sorry .. but although Singapore has our own 4 seasons as well. Winter doesn't seem to be one of them.

PS - Singapore's 4 seasons = RAINY, SUNNY, RAINY+SUNNY, SUNNY+RAINY ...

Originally posted by Togoodhlth
Even if you aren't really good at writing copy there are places you can go to find free, relevant information. For instance my playset website has information about the different woods which i have taken from the environmental Protection Agency. I ahve also taken information from other governmental organizations as it can legally be reproduced in part or whole without consent.

Thanks for the heads up on this - I'll keep this in mind when its time for me to gather all the information .... Thanks.

Originally posted by Togoodhlth
If you want to retail a certain product (there are a ton of drop shippers for just about any product) there are ecommerce website builders which are super simple to use. The catch is you have to use them for hosting. My playuset site I am doing myself using the ecommerce website builder and the only thing I have to do is use them for the hosting which is $39 a month (a little steep but the plan is good).

:sad: there you have it, my problem ... I've seen drop shippers .. but those whom support INTERNATIONAL members are really hard to come by ... any suggestions ?

Oh .. Ecommerce WebSite Builder ... sounds automated to me ... might be useful for a hopeless web designer ... URL please ?

Originally posted by Togoodhlth
Hope you can take someting from this post that will help you with your search.

John, trust me ... I have taken a lot not only from your posts but I have learnt and taken a lot from this thread ... and even this forum. It's one great place ...

Thanks guys !
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Who has viewed this thread (Total: 1) View details

The Rule #1

Do not insult any other member. Be polite and do business. Thank you!

Premium Members

Upcoming events

Latest Listings

Our Mods' Businesses

*the exceptional businesses of our esteemed moderators

Top Bottom