Welcome

What Is So Great About This Blog?

The only chance this blog has of succeeding is to be different then the 100's of other 'How To Make Money Online' blogs.

What makes this blog different:

• This blog is about a website. It discusses and analyzes the creation, maintenance, and performance of howthiswebsitemakesmoney.com.
• All claims are backed up by actual data. You will not see claims like: 'post comments because it increases traffic'. This blog will show, by using actual data, how much traffic posting comments has brought to howthiswebsitemakesmoney.com.
• There are no false claims of how I made 1000's of dollars a day using a secret system. With this blog, lies and exaggerated claims are impossible because howthiswebsitemakesmoney.com reveals all of its stats.
• Being a webmaster is not always a sunny day. This blog discusses the real trials and tribulations of being a webmaster. If this blog/website are doing poorly then you will see traces of tears in the posts.
• This blog has no advertising or selling of any kind. It is simply information and entertainment. The website howthiswebsitemakesmoney.com does all the money making, not this blog.
• Most blogs expect you to follow their advice on the assumption that they are an authority on the subject. This blog expects you to look at the data and decide for yourself.

All Posts Are Written With The Following in Mind:

• Honesty.
• Mix information with entertainment.
• The visitors time is valuable. Provide clear and original content.
• No claims without data to support it.
• One day this blog and the website it discusses will be successful.

Enjoy!

A few years ago I owned and operated a data transcription company.  It provided the service of copying old and outdated 9-track tapes to CD.  It was a small company with only 4 employees and a few machines.  But it had big clients.  The tapes contained seismic data which oil companies used to determine whether there is oil in the ground.  Clients included Shell, Exxon and BP.  These clients did not come easy.  It was a year before any of them even picked up the phone.

A typical phone call:

Me:  Hello, this is Roman . Can I speak to Mr. Smith (the data manager).
Secretary of Mr. Smith:  Can I tell him what it is regarding.
Me:  I represent TMT – a data transcription company. I want to discuss with Mr. Smith data transcription services we provide that I believe he would be interested in.
Secretary:   Just a moment please…
[2 minutes later]
Secretary:  Unfortunately Mr. Smith is in a meeting. Can you please give me your contact information and he will call you back.

I give my contact information and waited for a phone call that would never come.  Variations of this happened everyday, many times a day, for the first year.

Running your own business has many perks.  You have heard them all before.  Be your own boss, work whenever you want to, pay yourself what you deserve, profits go in your pocket.  These are the positive virtues.  But there is a major aspect of owning your own business that is usually left out.  Relentless, unbashful, almost arrogant self promotion.  Trying to convince complete strangers that you are what they need.  That only you provide a special service they cannot get anywhere else.  You are special.  Use me – I am the best.

As an employee you rarely need to promote.  You simply turn dials, punch keys and pull levers.  You do not need to persuade anybody that you work for the best damn company in the world.

But if you own your own business  you constantly need to convince people that your company is the best.  And indirectly, since you own the company, you are the best.  When you finally break past the secretary and have the attention of a manager the selling begins.  Hello Mr. Smith, let me list the ways why I am the best, why you need me, why only I can provide what your need.

Self promotion makes you feel dirty inside.  Because you know it is not true.  The competition is very similar to you.  Basically the same service, the same product, the same prices.  Actually you are aware of faults in your business.  You see it from the inside.  Half the machines are in dire need of repair and the service level needs improvement.  But that is not what you tell the potential client.  To the potential client you paint the perfect picture – every brush stroke a work of genius.

A Webmaster Must Self Promote Website

Being a webmaster is like being a owner and operator of a company.  Not only do you have to make sure the website is running, you also have to promote it.  As you can infer from the above I cannot stand self promotion.  I hate it. I would never walk down main street in a red shirt with big white text stating: “I am the best – you need me”

But it has to be done.  Promoting your website requires convincing people to visit your website.  In a forum post you answer a question and then at the end of the answer you have to write: By the way, I have a great post about this topic – click here to read it.  Or you send out emails to subscribers stating how you have found some amazing information that they need to know about – visit my website for more details.  You make a comment on a blog: Great post, I make a similar point on my blog – click here to see.

Always promoting.  Me, me, me.  Everybody look at me.

Its a necessary evil.  Most likely your post is not the best, your website is not the best.  The visitor does not need it.  Without your website the world would not end.  But that is beside the point.  To increase your traffic you need to self promote.  Convince people to visit your website.  Make yourself look better then you really are.  Comb your hair, tuck in your shirt, smile and to anybody who will listen say: I look good don’t I – come visit my site.

The good news is that the dirtiest type of self promotion must only be done at the beginning.  At the beginning nobody knows who you are and what your peddling.  But as time goes on and the word spreads you can tone down the self promotion.  Others will promote your website for you.  They will link to your website, they will tell their friends.  They will say: look at this guy – he is the best.

Unfortunately I am still at the beginning.  Still self promoting.  Everybody look at me.

Albert Einstein famously asked himself, “What would it be like to ride on a beam of light?”.  By answering his own question he was able to completely change our understanding of time and space.  Time became relative and space was curved.  He changed the world.

A couple days ago I asked myself, “What would it be like to be the only affiliate for all of Amazon’s products?”  What if everybody who buys a product from Amazon did so through my website?  For Albert it took years to answer his question, I had my answer in a matter of seconds:  My website would crash.  And I would be have a #$@! load of money.

The Standard Amazon Affiliate Model

The standard method of being a affiliate for Amazon is as follows.  Review a product and place a link to the product at Amazon.com.  If the visitor is persuaded by your review they will click on the link and purchase the product from Amazon.  You get paid a  commission for sending the visitor to Amazon. 

This website is about making money online.  The only products I could review are make money online books.  But for me to review them I would have to read them – and like them.  Find a few books I enjoy, write a review and try to peddle them off on my visitors.  If I do manage to convince someone to purchase a book Amazon would reward me 5% commission.   I could never become rich this way.

I do not want to review products.  I want people to simply use my site to buy products from Amazon.  And not just some products – all products.

How To Get People To Buy Products From My Website

The most obvious way is to ask them to.  I could post a picture of me on bended knees with hands clasped together under my chin, begging them to use my website.  With caption, “Please use my site to buy your Amazon products.  If you do I will become rich.”.  Although this is the easiest way, it is also the most infective.  Nobody cares whether I make lots of money.  There needs to be incentive, other then my financial gain, to convince people to buy products from my site.

The World Needs Help

Before Adam’s grumpy stomach overtook him and he bit into a fresh apple, the world was a happy place. The skies were an unpolluted blue, the trees tall and full of singing birds.  Everybody got along, had what they needed, and were happy. But times have changed.  The world needs help.  People are fighting, hungry and abused.   The environment is changing, skies are graying and choking;  the seas are murky and sick;  animals are fighting for their existence. The world is far from being a paradise. 

It is not all that bad.  There are places in the world doing well.  There are people doing well. People with plenty of food and living in peace. Parks and sanctuaries where animals and plants thrive. The universe  hands out fortune randomly.  Some have lots of fortune, while others are completely without.  Lady Fortuna deals her cards blindfolded.  Only the fortunate have the luxury to help those dealt a poor hand.

So far I am one of the fortunate ones.  I am better off then the world average.  But if everybody used this website to make their Amazon purchases then that would change.  I would become abundantly fortunate.  Too much fortune to handle by myself.  It would have to give it away.  Push my fortune down and pull other’s fortune up.

People Do Not Care About Me, They Care About The World

This website donates most of the revenue earned from Amazon to charity.  The possibilities are amazing.

According to Amazon’s 2008 income statement they receive almost 20 billion dollars in revenue annually.  Amazon pays approximately 5% of purchase price to affiliates.  This means that if in 2008 all products where sold through this website, Amazon would have had to pay this website (5% of 20 billion) 1 billion dollars.  Compared to how much this website makes now, that would have been a really good year.

1 billion dollars – that is a lot of fortune that can be passed on to the less fortunate.  And that is what this website intends to do.  Take most of the money and pass it onto the those that need it.

People might not care about me, but they care about the world.  By using this website to make their Amazon purchases the state of the world can be improved.  They will do it to help the less fortunate – people, environment, animals.  This website will make money by tipping the scale of fortune towards a more even tilt.

To answer the question: What would it be like to be the only affiliate for all of Amazon’s products?  It would be having hundreds of millions of dollars to give the less fortunate.  Change the world.

Update September 2009 – This idea was a total bomb.  The charity page was up for a couple months and only two people purchased a book from Amazon.  So the charity page has been removed.  The Lesson: Do not depend on people’s chairty to make you money online.

The first few months of being a webmaster are challenging. Especially psychologically. All new webmasters should be ready to deal with the following:

Silence

You pluck away for hours creating new content.  After reading it and re-reading it, adding sentences and deleting others.  Making sure every sentence flows gracefully from one to the next.  Creating perfection.  Finally it is done, your Saturday is spent, but it is done.  You post your creation online and wait. 

Nothing.  No comments.  No emails.  Like it was never written.  Like it does not exist.  Silence.  The tumbleweed rolling through a ghost town kind of silence.  The time spent trying to please the masses was for nothing.  There is nobody out there.  Like Robinson Caruso writing a beautiful story, putting it into a bottle, and throwing it out to sea.

As a new webmaster do not expect praise or feedback for your work.  Expect nothing.  Write it, post it, and then write another one. 

Zero

For the first few months expect to see a lot of the number 0.  Especially when it comes to revenue.  With so few visitors to your site, most of the time your revenue will be zero. 

Normally this means that once a day you are disappointed by seeing 0.  But you will see it more then once a day.  You will see it at least 10 times a day.  Because every free moment you have will be spent checking your revenue.  Waiting for the coffee to brew…good time to check the revenue.  A commercial on TV…good time to check the revenue.  Three o’clock in the morning coming out of the bathroom and walking past the computer…good time to check the revenue.

You will come to despise the zero.  Its size, font and color will be ingrained in your head.   $0.00.  As the revenue page is loading you will have a slight emotional high.  The expectation that maybe this time it will be some other number.  But the page loads and there it is.  $0.00.  You close the window and sigh.  For a   fleeting moment you consider the possibility that a mistake has been made.  Maybe the servers are not refreshing and the value is not being updated.  But your energy is drained – you do not care enough to do anything about it.  Acceptance comes at last – it is true. $0.00.  30 minutes later the process starts all over again.

The Unknown

Normally when you perform a task successfully the feedback is immediate.  The boss gives you a raise.  The teacher puts a big A on the test.  The dinner guests compliment your spicy spaghetti.  A website is different.  For the first few months you get no indication whether the website is good or not.  You think it is good – that is why you visit it so much.  But the real test is whether other people think it is good.  At the beginning there is no way to tell. 

For months you build with no feedback.  Similar to building a prototype machine.  Spend lots of time designing and assembling.  No way to test whether it will work.  You have to build it first.   Day in and day out you faithfully work on the prototype. Hoping that when it is complete it works.    Only then will you discover whether all that work was worth it or not.  If in the end  it works then it was time well spent.  If not, then you have to acknowledge that is was a waste of time.

Thomas Edison had the same problem.  He had no idea whether a filament exists that enables a light bulb to burn for days.  He just hoped there was.  His only option was to try as many different filaments as possible.  After trying the 500th filament he was no closer to the answer then he was after the 2nd filament.   No indication if he was on the right track or even if success is possible.  Days, weeks, months passed and he was no closer to finding out whether a filament exists.  No feedback.  Only the hope that one day he will find a working filament drove him to continue.

A webmaster must work the same way.  Not knowing whether what is being attempted will work.  Whether the website will become a success or not.  A webmaster’s motivation must simply be the hope that it will work. 
       

You Have No Idea What You Are Talking About

To have a informative website you need to know what your are doing.  You need to be a authority in the field.  But you are not.  You cannot be.  You just started your website.  Only when the website is a success and only after a few years can you claim to be an expert.  It is a catch-22.  You need to know what you are doing to become a success, but only by succeeding can you know what you are doing.

Fortunately the fact is that you do not need to know what you are doing.  You only need to appear like you know what you are doing.  All that matters is the audience believing that you have authority in your field.  It is an illusion that is not too difficult to produce.  Do your research and the audience can be convinced with ease.  Nobody will know that most of your information is coming from books and not your head. 

The real problem is that you actually do not know what you are doing.  This causes a confidence issue.  It is hard to wake up every morning with confidence in your efforts when you yourself know the truth – that you have no idea what you are doing.  Doubts begin to form about whether your website can work.  “How can I be a success, if I do know what I am talking about?”

The answer is that for all things new – for all things that where created first – like your website, the first person had no idea what they where doing either.  They were just bumbling along, making guesses, trying things.  But all along appearing to everybody else like the expert.  All creators need to sell the appearance of confidence and knowledge about their product.  And then if it works, and the product becomes a success, they become the true expert.  Just like your website.  When it becomes a success, after many years of writing about the topic and discussion, you too will be an expert.

So you have decided to create a website.  One of the first things you have to do is register a domain name.  Instantly your brain begins to conjure up names.  Your main thought is that it has to be a cool name.  It has to look good on the front page of the New York Times and it has to sound natural when  President Obama mentions it. 

But there are many other factors to consider when deciding on a domain name.  The most important one – the possible show stopper, is whether it is already taken by someone else.  It is great to go on a walk and gaze at the clouds for inspiration.  But if someone has already taken the name then even a domain name whispered into your ear by an angel is useless.  To check whether a domain name is taken go to the website whois.net and do a search.

Is The Domain Name Too Long

So you have decided on a name and have confirmed that it is available.  The next question you have to ask yourself is whether the name is too long or too short.  It seams like a simple question, but it is not.  Domain names can be anywhere from 1 character long to 67 characters long.  1 is too short and 67 is too long.  But what if your domain name is somewhere in between?  Is it too long or too short?

Is The Domain Name Too Long For…Somebody To Remember It?

There is a common claim about websites with names longer then 10 letters.  The argument is that if someone tells you a long domain name, lets say at a cocktail party, you will not be able to remember it when you get home. This is true.  The morning after the party the domain name will be long forgotten.  But so will will scene where you slapped the bartender for refusing to give you the whole bottle. 

Domain names are usually not exchanged verbally at social functions.  They are transfered digitally.  Just like phone numbers.  Initially phone numbers were created with 7 digits  because it is the most that a human can remember.  That mattered 10 years ago.  But it no longer applies.  Our phones store the phone numbers.  I can remember my home phone numbers from 10 years ago, but have no idea what my current cell number is.  If someone wants it then I send it to them through the phone.  They receive it and log it as my name.  They have no idea what my cell number is either.

Normally you come across domain names on the Internet.  Either you click a link on a website or you click the link that your buddy sends you in an email. If you like it you add it to your favorites.  In the favorites folder it is stored as the title of the website – not the domain name.  Most of the websites I frequent I have no idea what the domain name is.  Because I do not need to.   My bookmark know the domain name – I just need to know the name of the site.

I have never had to remember a domain name, because nobody has every told me a domain name.   I cannot remember anybody every telling me a domain name.   Well, maybe they did, but I forgot what it is.

Is The Domain Name Too Long For…Somebody To Type Into The Address Bar?

The argument is that if the name is too long then people will not want to type it into the address bar.  Too much work.  But I ask:  who type domain names into the address bar?  Few if any.  It is just not done.  Either they arrive to your site via a click on a link, through search, or bookmark.  Rarely by typing the name in the address bar.  Even a site like boingboing.net – the most popular blog on the Internet is hard to find using the domain address.  Because the extension is .net not .com.  So you type boingboing.com – that does not work.  Then you type boing-boing.com – that does not work.  Finally you do a search on google for boing boing and it appears as the first site.  Clicking on the link you make a personal vow never to use the address bar again.

What Are Long Domain Names Good For?

Long domain names are great for search engines.  If you have a website about a ranch that offers donkey back trail rides.  A domain name like donkeybacktrailrides.com is a lot better then donkride.com.  With long domain names you can put most of your keywords into the name.  Google and other search engines like this.  Because if a domain name has the keywords in it than your website has something to do with those keywords.  For Google,  donkeybacktrailrides means that your website is about donkeys and trail rides.  An domain name like donkback means nothing to google.  Long domain names increase your chances of ranking high on search results. Which means that long domain names increase your traffic.

What is more important – an intoxicated party goer remembering your domain name or increasing your traffic?  I perfer traffic, which is why this website has a long domain name with four keywords in it.

Want your own domain name?  See how to register domain name.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is a very inspirational story.  Scrooge is a man who knows his business.  He operates it at full optimization.  Every aspect of the business is calculated and profits are maximized.  All that is required is one piece of coal – so all he gives is one piece of coal.  Even the merriment of those around him does not distract from his purpose.  To run a highly profitable business.  Scrooge would be a wealthy webmaster.

If you are trying to make money from a website then you need to think about what is best for the website.  What will bring in the most money.  Your website’s purpose is not to make the world a better place or to help you find the meaning of life.  It’s purpose is to bring in the most amount of money possible. That is it. 

OK, so we have established the purpose of your website.  Now what?  How do you make the most amount of money possible?

Guessing What is Best For The Website

Currently this website makes around $2 dollars a day.  Could it make more?  Yes it can.  The chances that this website is fully optimized is very low.  The website was designed based on what I thought was best.  Not a really scientific method.  Put the ads here, the content there, the header should say this – hopefully that will work.  Unfortunately, at the beginning that is all you can do.  Just guess.  But Scrooge did not become rich by guessing how much coal to give away.  He knew exactly how much Cratchit needed to survive through Christmas.

To find out what makes the most money you need to perform tests on your website.  Tests that will tell you what works and what works better. 

A-B Test

A-B testing is one method to test what makes more money on your website.  You make two pages with  slight variations and then see which one makes the most money.  For example, on one page you put the text ads on the left and on another page you put the text ads on the right.  Run one page for a week and then run the other page for a week.  Compare the results and keep the page with the best returns.

The important aspect of this test is that the content must be the same for both pages.  You are not testing the content.  Your results would be useless if your changed the content.  The content is the product.  You are just changing the packaging.  Test what packaging sells the most content.

Change the location of ads, type of ad, location of the content, the size of the header, the text of the header.  What works better a banner ad or a text ad, a large font bolded header with short text or a small font  but descriptive header text?  ‘THIS IS A GREAT POST!’  or ‘This is a great post because I wrote it’.

Running A Test In Parallel

When performing an experiment it is important to keep the amount of variables that could effect your results to a minimum.  Isolate what you are testing.  Ensure what you are testing is only effected by factors you control.

The normal method of doing a webpage optimization test is to run a page for a week.  Record the results.  Change the page.  Then run the new page for a week.  This method has a major flaw.  It is run in two different times.  There are too many external factors that could effect the results.

The problem is that between the two weeks you receive different types of traffic.  For example, during the first week your website might rise up in reddit.com and you get lots of visitors from reddit.  These are completely different types of visitors then the ones you get the second week in which you make a great post on a niche related forum.  The first week was anybody and everybody, the second week were niche related visitors.  Two different type of visitors.  This situation makes your test completely useless.

What you need to do is run the two pages at the same time.  So that the test is not effected by the type of traffic.  Each page is viewed by the same type of traffic.  You need to run the two pages at the same time.

How to Run A-B Test in Parallel

I created PHP code to run A-B tests in parallel.  Here is what I do:

1. Pick a page on website that I want to test. Lets say tinytim.php.
2. Make an copy of it. Now I have two identical pages.
3. Rename the original page to tinytim_1.php and the copy to tinytim_2.php.
4. I make a small change to tinytim_2.php. Ensuring that the pages have different ads or create specific ad channels for each page, so that you I have a way of measuring the results.
5. Create a new third PHP page. Call it tinytim.php.
6. Paste this code into it:


<?php
srand(time());
$random = (rand()%2);
if ($random==0){
    include('tinytim_1.php');
}else{
    include('tinytim_2.php');
}
?>


How It Works

When the tinytim.php is requested the PHP code randomly picks one the the two pages to display.  There is a 50% chance that  tinytim_1.php will be displayed and a 50% chance that  tinytim_2.php will be displayed.  The PHP code will pick one of the pages and then copy the page to the tinytim.php page.

The visitor does not notice anything different.  As far as they are concerned they are viewing the tinytim.php page.

After a week of running this I compare the results of the different ads.  Which one made more money.

With this method you are certain that your tests is not effected by different types of traffic.  Each of the two pages has an equal chance of being called at any given time.  On a given day if there are a hundred visitors then 50 of them will be presented with tinytim_1.php and 50 will be presented with tinytim_2.php.  The daily variations in  types of traffic does not effect the test results.  Any A-B website test method that is not in parallel – I say ba humbug.