1. Search traffic is king. When a person finds you by searching in Google or another search engine, they trust you more than they would if they find you through other sources. If Google says you’re legit, people believe that you’re legit. This traffic is many times more valuable than traffic from other sources.
2. Social traffic doesn’t pay. In 2007, I used about a trillion hours of my time trying to hit big Diggs and Stumbles. It wasn’t until 2008 that I decided to track the performance of the traffic I got from those sources. It turned into very little income.
3. People that own successful sites are regular people. I have always approached big bloggers and site owners with a lot of respect – too much respect. I assumed that I had nothing to add and for a while didn’t even try to make a splash. As it turns out, they are regular people who are motivated by the same things everyone else is motivated by. If you can add a unique perspective, there’s nothing they would like more than to publish one of your articles, on their site.
4. Google isn’t that complicated. They look for evidence that your site has respect from other sites, and they do this by looking at links. Your ability to get traffic from Google is a simple combination of the content you produce (the things you put up on your site) and people’s reaction to that content (the links pointed at your content).
5. Volume matters in a huge way. After I started to focus a LOT more on how much work I got done in a day, my results started to explode. Having more content always matters. This might mean you need to set up more sites or it might mean that you need to expand the ones you already have.
6. Outsourcing is also king. I’m pretty amazed at this point that I was able to make as much as I did in 2007 and 2008 without oursourcing. Frankly a lot of the work that needs to be done is really monotonous and it takes a ton of time. 2009 was the year that I started to focus hard on outsourcing and it’s no coincidence that I made many times more dollar bills than I had every made before.
7. Thinking doesn’t pay nearly as much as we wish it would. I have learned a lot about myself in the last few years and I’ve figured out that I’m a dreamer – that can be good or bad. I think big but I can waste a lot of time thinking. I’ve had to learn how to execute and I can tell you that it was hard for me. I’m still not as good at it as I need to be. Execution is crucial, much more crucial than ideas.
Number 5 is the most important in my opinion. Many internet marketers know how to rank their sites in the search engines but simply don’t put in the work that is required to be successful. If you don’t produce much, you won’t make much. Produce a ton, and you’ll make a ton.
I’d say those are all very good points about internet marketing that I agree with completely. I really need to focus on #5 more because I could get a lot more done and make a lot more money than I do, but I don’t focus enough on actually getting work done when I am online. That’s something I am definitely going to change this year.
Trent – great post for a newbie blogger like me.
I have to work on # 7 – big time. I have to convince myself that execution trumps research everytime.
Also, because you are looking back at what you would have done differently if you were just starting out (like I am!) can I get your opinion, please?
I just started a personal blog (linked to my avatar)- mostly to teach myself how to do it and to figure out what I should blog about. But I’m wondering whether I should: (A) start a new blog with a monetization strategy (I want to “daddyblog”), (B) reposition my existing blog for daddyblogging (since my personal blog is already gaining a bit of momentum and my name and rep associated with it are getting great feedback) or (C) somehow monetize my current blog (I don’t really have a niche there – it’s mostly developed on its own, organically)…
Thanks in advance!
- Don
great post!
Maybe you can explain us in another post how you exactly outsource your work?
thanks,
ben
Thanx for sharing the info. The point #1 is very important. Search Engine traffic plays a key role in success of a blogger. I wish to see some more detals on outsourcing as its a new thing for a newbie blogger like me..Waiting to learn something new from u..Thanx
-Krish
#6 was a biggie for me and many of the people I have been teaching outsourcing strategies to this past year.
My Outsource Coaching membership jumped from 78 people to over 350 people just in the fall of 2009 as you can see… the demand for good outsourcing education is really on the rise and people want to know how to do it, who they can trust, how much to pay and what type of stuff people can outsource.
If anyone has questions, look me up.
Jeff Mills
http://www.outsourcecoaching.com
Hi Jeff,
I am starting too. I have over 20+ years in IT Industry. I am interested in quality outsourced jobs. I can take care of Needs, Solutions, ERP/CRM, Data Capturing etc. I am in India. Even if we start small, I would like to grow with the partners. If anyone is interested in outsourcing, can get in touch with me please.
Thanks
Padma
Bravo! Every one of those points matter big time! I kinda laugh a little to myself when I suddenly discover someone has Stumbled a post or two, especially when those posts are deep in the archives rather than first page.
Targeting search traffic and post volume is what it’s all about. I somehow managed to post three times today without even trying hard, but I know I can’t keep up that pace every day since I still work full time, dang it. I’m getting there though and it feels really really good when those checks arrive!
wow, this should be gospel to all serious internet marketers out there. too bad i know a lot of people out there aren’t very receptive to this ideas. they continue to go the social networking route of getting traffic and maintain 1 or 2 sites that aren’t even optimized for any keywords and continue to be so. stubborn really.
Excellent post…
I was impressed by the first poiunt that the traffic google is sending you generates the revenue…thats why people are concerned too much about their rankings
Court, Can you share some of the resources you use for outsourcing some of the most tedious tasks?
#7 is the big one IMO . We see it all the time in forums. I have improved a lot in this area but still got ways to go. Now back to work,
I’m glad to learn #2. I don’t think I’ll need to worry about #6 for a while…but numbers 1, 4, and 5 are really helpful. Thank you so much Court, great post.
Courtney,
Thank you for keeping things so simple and to the point. I am sure others appreciate it as well but I must shine the light on you if no one else will because how much you have HELPED ME. I am new to blogging and right now I am narrowing down by niche before I begin putting up my content. I will admit I was all over the place with ideas and wanted to cover everything but after reading your blogs as well as “www.JohnChow.com” I had to step away to brainstorm before rushing into blogging.
In the internet world there is a lot of CONTENT our here to read but how much value is put into publishing helpful material we really would have never known until coming across your work (at least I wouldn’t have)!
Keep up the wonderful work… I look forward to your updates!
Thanks!!
Great info. The key to making money on the Internet comes down to the basics. You need to have a plan. You need to have the work ethic. And you need to have the drive. So, all that talk about how anyone can make money on the Internet is true; but, you need to follow a systematic approach.Internet Marketing as we all know it is pretty crowded with funny people making lots of huge bombastic claims over their nonsense crappy books and stuff.
search engine traffic is always good to have in order to make more money
Making money online is where we all should be doing in order to keep up with todays economy. I’m a blogger and I pretty much explains this at my site http://www.incomeblend.com . Thanks
i wish i had known this kind of thing a long time ago