First I started by determining what way to monetize my site.
What I knew I didn't want to:
-use affiliate programs - I do not want to hock other people's products. Why? I just have strong beliefs about this as you can tell from my recent post titled: Who's really selling you.
-pay a company - I mean what the heck - people may say you gotta have money to make money but I've never believed that! Besides I have no money! ha! That automatically rules that one out for me hehe.
-pay for ads to be on my site (see my reasons for the two above and plop it right in here)
So where did that leave me?
Needing a viable option for earning money from my website without paying for it and not selling other people's products for them (hey if you want to sell it - you sell it, what do I look like to you - an online door to door salesman?)
The only thing I decided I could accept was Google's Adsense - as it met my criteria:
1. I didn't have to pay anything for it.
2. I didn't have to sell anything.
But wait aren't the google adsense ads selling things? Yeah some of them are, heck probably most of them, I don't know I don't click on them myself, in fact I tell my users NOT to click on them. And no this isn't some reverse psychology game - I honestly believe people should only click on ads they want to click on, and the same thing goes for deciding whether or not to buy the item on the page the ad directs them to.
This is why I permitted adsense to "be" on my pages. Since it's up to the users to decide for themselves whether or not to click on the ad, and then whether or not to commit to buying the ad's product, it does not directly violate the rights of my users which I vow to protect.
So somewhere in here I assumed I'd need to drive traffic to my site to make money. I still had no idea how to make money once people arrived! lol "Hello great to have you here - now give me all your money!" That doesn't seem very hospitable - which reminds me I didn't want to sell anything to my users either - I mean I could easily write an ebook but I am really against self-promoting interests plus it goes against my philosophy that information should be free - especially online!!!
So now what you're asking yourself - how can you make money online without selling anything and without forking over cash in some shape or form?
Well that was my exact question.
So you know what I did? I entered that question into a google search! I'm dead serious. Apparently I was not the only one wondering this as the first 7 results specifically addressed this question!
Well the first hit just told me what I already "sensed" that google's adsense was a good method to try because it is "passive" - I just didn't know yet if it was going to be steady income I could rely on since I had never used it and I didn't even have any idea how much each click would earn me. But I figured, how could it hurt? And since it couldn't I figured the next part I had figured in - driving traffic to my site MIGHT be key to earning money through the google adsense program - because more users = more potential clicks.
But I have to admit I was a bit wary that anyone would click on it, I mean I sure wouldn't! And I had a foggy memory of something I witnessed once - I still can't remember the specifics - but I do know it had to do with the number of people vs. the number of actual number of results.
Maybe it had something to do with a statistic log I had for one of my sites years ago I don't know. But I do remember from those stats that the average user stayed on my page only 3.4 seconds - and I found that quite shocking - especially since I considered my content to be very high quality and well indexed. Yet no one stayed around to even check it out! Yes I was appalled!
Man we do live in a too-fast paced society! Instant gratification is so out of control - heck I don't take myself out of this equation - I am totally addicted to instant gratification! It's great, right? Of course it is, you know it is too!
Anyhow so that really makes you think how much time do you have to get people to read/listen to what you have to say - well you better learn how to paraphrase and do it well! Which is how I planned to write my blog postings. I had read several articles that kept emphasing the importance of short paragraphs!
And then I thought about what I do when I see big chunk paragraphs - I read the top line and the last line of each paragraph and move on - who has time to read all that stuff in between really!
Which reminded me of a course I took in college called "Rhetoric." In this course we learned to dissect the meaning of every sentence in a paragraph. I still remember the exercise - it was so brilliant - yet so simple (as most good ideas are I suppose!)
Here's what it was. You print out a page of text you wrote. Then you get a blank piece of lined paper. Now you go one line at a time, starting from the top and write down the essence/meaning of the sentence on one line. You can't go over a line.
When you finish a paragraph you look at your lines meanings and you can instantly see which ones belong, which ones can be trimmed down, and which ones should go! It doesn't seem like you could get all this from such a simplistic exercise - but I swear it works!
Anyhow back to my theory that large numbers of views does not equate to large numbers of clicks. Which means there has to be something one can do to get those clicks. And in my case without encouraging it! ha! Seriously. Not to mention it's against Googles Adsense Terms of Service which states "You shall not promote or facilitate a Referral Event."
So how in the world then am I ever going to get those much desired clicks? You know what I'm gonna be honest with you - this article you're reading I am writing only 6 days after I've signed up for adsense. The reason I've written it in the past tense is because my hope that this will pan out is my driving force! So here's my actual stats after 6 days strong:
Total page impressions 128 (and I'm assuming most of those are from me because I'm still creating my site! ha)
and the number of actual clicks getting me one step closer to my million dollar dream....drumroll please.... 0
I jest you not. Even if half of those clicks were from other users that means not even 1 out 60 people clicked on the google ads. You can do the math yourself.... zero clicks = well you know.
Click here to enlarge pic of my actual adsense report
So let's say the number of users somehow begins to climb - maybe I'll start commenting on other peoples blogs and somehow through God's good grace get some traffic to my site what are the odds of any of this traffic ending up generating any actual revenue for me?
I have to say it's hard to keep hope alive at times like these.
One begins to imagine that even if it were possible to get 25,000 people to visit their site how many of these would be "clickers"? I'm guessing it would be something like maybe 30 people. And I'll be generous and assume Google would pay me 6 cents per click - the grand total earnings then would be again drumroll please......a whopping $1.80! Gee wiz! Now I can get that chocolate shake I've always wanted at a fast food restaurant! Oops no those are $2.80 darn...
And this isn't even considering how long it would take to draw 25,000 people to my site...and dare we mention that Google doesn't even pay out until you reach the $100 mark?
So my million dollar idea, although still definitely worth a million dollars is frankly starting to pan out to be 0% earnings (for me anyways)!
Which reminds me of my great fantasy! When I came up with my original concept for Chatblog I thought - oh wow it's so great someday Google is going to shoot me an email saying "We'd like to buy your site!" Oh yeah what a dream! I thought - if the guy who made blogger could do it then so could I! I mean basically Chatblog is just the next expected evolutionary turn for blogger.com - even google recognizes this by offering group blogging services!
So how then was I suppose to get Google to see this? Well since I didn't even have one member yet I figured it was a tad early to send Google an anonymous email saying - "Wow that Chatblog sure is popular I wonder why you guys didn't think of it first?" LOL!!!
No I would inevitably have to wait for those 25,000 visitors to drop by and make an executive decision to join my service within 3.4 seconds....how long do you think that would take?
I don't know but I know I didn't want to wait around to find out...I mean if it ever happened then kudos but although I live in my own little fantasy world I do have some sense of realistic expectations.
Sure I had run across one blog who had a success story to tell about getting over 10,000 people to sign up for his RSS feed in less than a year but I mean even with "hope" one can't go around thinking - "oh yeah? Then that can happen for me too!" Let's just say I'm not much of a gambler!
Not to mention at this time I didn't have a dime to my name and I sure could use some "fast" cash!
So that made me sit here and write this article in hopes that some brilliant inspiration would come to me and I could figure out that age old dilemma of how to make money with your website without selling anything....
and since inspiration hasn't struck yet and it's 2:33 am I'm thinking about calling it quits (for tonight only, don't lose hope ppl!) and turning in but of course not before checking out one more search result for making money without selling anything....
Okay I checked out four more search results (you get more done if you start now - a fortune I got in a cookie one time) and all of them wanted me to buy the information! HA! That's funny.
Update: In case you missed it inspiration struck around 3 O'clock and I got up out of bed and posted my great idea here.
if anything you can't say I'm not persistent (haven't I heard somewhere that people who are successful all attribute it to "not giving up"?) Well then, perhaps there is hope left after all!
As President Lincoln said, "The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me."
Goodnight,
Your favorite (well someday maybe ;) CB Webmaster
P.S. If you subscribe to my RSS feed (shameless attempt to get at least one person to sign up, I know, I know) I will keep you updated on my progress with my million dollar dream! NOTE: I've updated the link to the RSS feed to my new blog called: CB Make Money for Free. To find out why check out my P.P.P.S on this post.
P.P.S. I've went back through this posting and put some hyperlinks to some of the interesting things I mentioned. Just remember before you fly off on these link adventures you owe me 3.4 seconds! Actually, wait, if you've gotten this far, never mind - you've paid in full - you never have to read another blog posting by anyone for the rest of your life! ha! Ya it was a bit on the long side this posting (sorry to all the other bloggers out there didn't mean to suck up your 3.4 seconds)
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