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!

I am not a social butterfly. I do not enjoy going to house warming parties and commenting on the beautiful red rug. I do not care that my friend’s Facebook status is “Gone to store for apples.”

I had a Facebook account, but after a few months stopped using it. Too much information about things I do not care about. Why do people spend so much time exchanging the minutia of everyday events. Should I care that my friend went to British Columbia for a vacation and that he saw a moose. Should I look at his 22 pictures of the moose eating grass and be entertained? I do not understand it.

Now there is Twitter. Exchange even smaller bits of information. It is so easy to do that you will get details like, “feeling hungry, thinking of eating a carrot”. All day you can watch these little bits of unfiltered information scrolling across your screen. When I first heard about it, I thought that it was a ridiculous idea. Nobody will use it.

Not only are people reading these little packets of non-info. They also enjoy writing them. Lots of them. “I found a dime under the bed today”. Before I started this website all these social networks did not concern me. They are a success – great – but does not concern me.

But now it looks like I need to use them. On every blog about increasing traffic you read about how vital the social networks are to traffic. Sign up to as many social sites as you can and start building your network.

That scares me a little. I do not want to turn into a micro information junky. Spending hours exchanging small talk with 200 network friends. Small talking to 5 people at a cocktail party scares me. “How’s the weather?”, “Good” “Hows work?”, “Good”. Repeat 5 times. And now with Twitter I would have to do that 200 times a day.

Social Networks are Great For Traffic

Social Networks are good because you can send information through them very quickly. It is a very simple principle:

You know something (1 person knows)
You tell two of your friends (3 people know)
Each of them tells two of their friends (10 people know)
Each of them tell two of their friends (18 people know)

As this continues through the network more and more people know at a faster and faster rate. Simply by telling two of your friends you can get the information to hundreds of people in very little time. It just depends how big the network is and how willing your friends are to tell their friends. You tell them that you won the lottery and in no time all your friends will know.

The other advantage is that your friends do not have the same friends as you do. So your friends might tell somebody that you do not even know. Now suddenly it is in a network that you did not even know existed. People you do not know are receiving your information.

Networking sounds great. A great way to get traffic. It is. But I am not going to do it.

The First Step Is The Most Important

The most important step in the social network is the first one. Tell two of your friends. That gets the ball rolling. After that they tell their friends and on it goes.

The question is: why should I spend my time doing that first step? Other people will do it for me. If the website is interesting, if people want to pass it on to their friends then they will. I would have to start my social network from scratch. I would have to login everyday and chat with my network. Reading all the banter, and writing banter. Day in and day out. Lots of time wasted.

Let Other People Do the Social Networking

Instead of me doing it, there are people out there already with huge social networks. They enjoy exchanging information. If one of the people visit the website and finds it interesting then they will pass it on.

Currently I have 50 visitors a day. I am guessing that lots of them use Facebook and Twitter. At least some of them will find the website interesting and pass it on. Start the network process. Why should I spend my time starting the process when there are so many others that enjoy doing it and have much larger networks then I could ever have.

My small contribution to the increase in traffic via social network would be small compared to the abilities of my visitors. I would just be one out of many. My contribution small compared to the whole. Not worth the effort. I will focus on the website. Adding and improving content. Let the social butterflies with their establish networks do the marketing. They want to do it.

Of course, if my traffic does not increase, then I will register onto Twitter and tell my friends that “I just got back from the store. I am so happy. The apples where on sale.”

When you first start a website.  Do not monetize.  Do not put up any ads.  First get a steady traffic base and then put up ads.

That is the recommendation that you will hear often.  I heard it too.  But I did not do it that way.  From day one there have been ads on the website. 

Like B.F. Skinner’s piano playing pigeons, I need to be constantly rewarded to perform a task.  The pigeons learned to play a toy piano by being given a treat when they hit the correct key.  I make updates to the website when an ad is clicked.

For me to create the website, post on forums, answer emails, for months without gain would be very difficult.  Make an update to website, get a treat.  Make a another update, get another treat.  This is the way I operate.  Like a pigeon.

So I put three ad zones on the website on day one.  Graphic banner on the left, unit ad on the top, and text ad on the right.  The website has been up for 26 days with 517 visitors.  Here are the earnings results for the different ad zones:

• Left Banner Ad: $5.38
• Top Unit Ad: $2.50
• Right Text Ad: $15.83

You can see the text ad on the right is the clear winner.  The unit ad on  the top is far behind.  Time to get rid of it.

Too Many Ads Increases Bounce

Not only does it not make any money, it also makes the site look cluttered.  The home page looks messy  – smothered by ads.  This is a major turn off for a lot of visitors.  They think to themselves, “This guy is only concerned with making money.”  I am.  But the visitors should not know that.

The clutter of ads on the website might explain the high bounce rate.  Currently 50% of the visitors land on my homepage and without looking at any other pages they leave.  They come in, look at the mess, and leave.

So, I will remove the unit ad.  This will:

• Make the site look cleaner
• Decrease the bounce rate
• Increase revenue

How will removing an ad increase revenue?  By removing the ad, the page will be less cluttered.  The visitor will be more willing to look at the other pages instead of leaving.

More Page Views By Reducing Bounce

Lets guess that had the unit ad not been there from the beginning, the bounce rate would be 10% lower as a result.  10% of all my visitors would not have bounced off the site, instead they looked at more pages. 

• Total visitors is 517
• 10% of 517 is 51 visitors
• Average page views per visitor is 2.83

Therefore instead of these 51 visitor just seeing 1 page and bouncing off, they would see   2.83 pages.  51 * 2.83 =  147 pages.  Now all we have to do is subtract the 51 pages that the bouncers already saw and we have 96 additional page views.  96 more page views by reducing the bounce rate by 10%.

How Does That Translate Into Earnings?

• Total Page Views: 1445
• Total Revenue Ads (minus Unit Ad): $21.20
• Revenue/Page View: $0.0146

So we multiply 96 additional pages by $0.0146 and we have $1.40.  Because of that unit ad I lost $1.40 of revenue.  Does not sound like much until you consider that it represents a 6.6% of my total revenue.  Reduce the number of ads and increase revenue by 6.6%.

Today I removed the unit ad.  In a future post we will see whether the bounce rate has decreased and revenue/pageview increased.   It will.

Having a website means having content.  And unless you pay somebody to write it, you are going to do a lot of writing.  So it better be about something you want to write about.

This is the advise you will always hear.  Choose to create a website about something that you enjoy – something that you can write endlessly about.  It is good advise.  Nothing will kill a website like an owner who does not want to update it.  Who wakes up in the morning and thinks, “Oh God, what am I going to write about today.”

The problem is that what you like to write about might not necessarily be something that people want to read about.  A website is a partnership between the writer and the reader.  The writer agrees to write and the reader agrees to read.  If either partner does not fulfill their side of the bargain the website will fail.

You Love Writing About Gerbils

You want to start a website about gerbil care.  Your pet, which you lovingly call Tooku, is the best friend you ever had.   He listens when you complain about the world, he watches TV with you, he even lets you know with a cute squeak that it is around supper time.

You have been with Tooku for many years.  In that time you have learned a lot.  What he likes to eat, his favorite toy, how to keep his cage nice and clean.

Your going to write a website about proper gerbil care.

The website will be called “Taking Care of Tooku – Your Guide to Taking Care of Gerbils”.  It will be a great looking site.  Lots of pictures, tutorials, stories and even a video of Tooku eating a whole carrot in just under 6 hours.  There will be lots of content – you love writing about Tooku and how to take care of him.

So far, it looks like you have everything you need for a successful site.  Your love of the topic, and lots of content.

Problem 1 – Nobody Cares

But there is a problem.  Does anybody want to read about gerbil care?  My gut instinct tells me no.  But there is a way to find out.  Go to to Google’s keyword search tool and type in “gerbil care”.  What you will discover is that for the last month the words “gerbil care” have been searched for only 2,400 times.  That sounds like a lot.  But it is not.  In a whole month only 2,400 people care enough about gerbils to look them up on the Internet.  Compare that with the number of Internet users who care about carpet care – 33,100.  People on the Internet care about carpets 15 times more then they do about gerbils. 

Problem 2 – If They Care, It Will Be Only Once.

I cannot imagine somebody spending their Sunday morning on your site reading about gerbil care.  You could be the most entertaining writer and have the best advise.  But nobody, besides your mother who loves you, will want to spend too much time reading about gerbils. The few visitors that do find your site will just want to quickly find out if it is OK to feed their gerbil left over spinach.  They will not forward your site to all their friends, they will not make it their homepage.  They will quickly get the info and leave.  Completely ignoring your story about how you took Tooku to Disneyland.

Problem 3 – They Might Care, But Not Enough To Spend Any Money

People who do searches for gerbil care are not going to buy anything.  Your visitor is probably a six year old boy wondering why his gerbil has been sleeping for 4 days straight.  He is not going to click on the ad for ‘One size fits all gerbil boots’.  Nor will someone purchase your 156 page e-book ‘What to do when your gerbil is too fat to fit in the hamster wheel?’

Also consider that according to the Google Keyword tool the advertiser competition for the word gerbil care is low.  So if someone does click on the ad then you will get 2 cents.  Best case scenario:  everybody who searches for ‘gerbil care’ finds your site and clicks an ad.  You make  2400 * .02 = $48 that month.

It is Nothing Against Tooku

He is a great gerbil.  A real pal. He has taught you lots and you love to write about him.  But that is only half of it.  Your visitors need to care, but they don’t.  Your visitors need to spend, but they won’t. 

In case your wondering - no, I have nothing against gerbils.  I am just arguing that if you want a successful website you need to write about something that people want to read about.  For example, “Pest Control” which has 1,000,000 searches a month.

Before you begin creating your website you need to know who will be visiting it.  Knowing your audience enables you to build the website to suit their specific needs and tastes.  What writing style should you use?  Should you have videos, pictures, flash movies?  The only way to know the answers to these questions is to know who will be visiting your site.  And what they will be looking for.

Knowing your audience also helps determine whether they are likely to clicks on ads.

When I  was thinking about my website’s visitors I quickly realized that I might have a problem.  I do most of the adverting for the website through forums for webmasters.  The problem with webmasters is that they are ‘non-clickers’.

My Ad Non-Clickers

My website is most useful to a new webmaster, or someone considering becoming one.  Someone looking to start a website but does not know what to expect.  By looking at some of the data a aspiring webmaster can get an idea of what the future holds for them.  That is why the forums I visit are motley for webmasters. 

The forums are a great way to advertise my site.  I have the URL of the website as a signature so every post I make my website is displayed.  This is good because the people on these forums are mostly webmasters and therefore will find the website relevant. 

The problem is that webmasters will not click on my advertisements.  The advertisements on my website are mostly about making money online.  “Make 100 in 1 day”, “Work from home and make money”, “Easy money”.  For most webmasters these advertisements are useless – the webmasters are already working online.  And most importantly they have seen these advertisements hundreds of times before.  They have clicked on them in the past and will not click on them again.

So it looks like I have a problem.  My target audience.  The audience that the website is specifically built to serve will not click on my ads.  Of course there will be a few clicks here and there, but definitely not what it should be.  My CPM (clicks per thousand views) should be very low.

But my CPM is not low.  Why?  Because the purpose of the webmasters visiting my site is not to click on the ads.  Their purpose is to forward the website to their friends.  Friends who are not webmasters.  Friends who are thinking of becoming webmasters.  These are the visitors that will make me money.

My Ad Clickers

My revenue generating visitors are not webmasters.  Instead, they are people who just passively use the Internet.  Non-webmasters.   True window shoppers of the web.  They bounce from website to website.  No real direction.  Just going where their friends send them.  Passing the time between dinner and bedtime.

Like most people, they are not happy with their current financial situation.  Like me, they go to work with their heads down.  Their days at work are unsatisfying.  One of their reliefs is to come home, fire up the computer and be entertained by the Internet.  Amusing themselves with the wacky and wild online world.

Then one day they receive an email from their friend the webmaster.  “Here your go buddy, check this link out.  Now you can quit your hellish day job and work online”.  Well…something like that.   It does not matter how non-webmasters end up on my site.  But once there, here is what should happen. 

1. They see the number on the homepage clearly stating how much the website has made.
2. They look at a few information/data pages and see what is involved in making money online.
3. They think to themselves, “Hey, I can do this”.
4. But then while reading about the countless hours I have spent creating the website they suddenly notice, on the left panel, the statement “Easily Earn 100’s of dollars from home”.
5. They click on it.

If your reading this post you are probably a webmaster, or at least planning to be one.  You know what to do…(hint: )

After 22 days online a milestone has been reached.  100 people have stumbled onto the website.  That is a lot of people.

If I had to make dinner for 100 people then I would have to start cooking at dawn – it is a lot of people to feed.  If I was at the supermarket buying supplies for the dinner and the line up at the cashier was 100 people – that is a big lineup.  If I had to wash the dishes after everybody has gone home – that would be a lot of dirty dishes.

But in terms of website visitors 100 is pitiful.  Like 100 people going to a Rolling Stones concert.  I need thousands, not hundreds.  According to my Google AdSense account these 100 visitors have earned me $4.34 by clicking on ads 8 times.  I serve dinner to 100 people and all I get is $4.34.

So far 157 hours have been spent creating this website.  This past month has been completely devoted to the website’s creation and maintenance.  Had I spent the time as a employee for a website design company paying $25/hour then I would now have $25 x 157hrs = $3925. 

This means that I have sacrificed $3925 dollars to please my visitors.  In return they have given me $4.35.  100 visitors came to my house, have a delicious dinner, and then pay me $0.04 cents each.

I should not complain.  I knew this would happen before I started.  The beginning is hard.  Lots of work with no reward.  100 visitors come, they look at 2.53 pages, and then leave.  Almost all of them not paying a single penny. 

But that is how the website business works. It is very ‘front heavy’. You must do lots of work at the beginning with little return. After many hours (I do not know how many hours yet) of being a slave it begins to turn around. Once there is a big visitor base and the visitors keep coming back and inviting their friends. Then you will be receiving lots of money for little work. You will be making money while you are sleeping, walking the dog, growing your chia pet. Your website will become the slave. Working for you 24/7.

Unfortunately I am not there yet. Maybe far from it.

So for now, still at the beginning, it is nothing but blood, sweat and tears.  Only the hope, that one day 100,000 visitors will come and leave a big tip on the table, drives me to continue.  Because then I can take the money and buy a dishwasher.