Roll Call For Webmasters & Developers

[linux.poet]

Initially, I plan to make a content/niche website. Post as much quality content as I can and SEO the content as best as possible.

I'll focus on the quality of the website first and I don't plan to monetize it until I have at least ~100 articles and maybe at least 5,000 monthly visits.

When I achieve those numbers I plan to apply to AdSense and Amazon. If this project succeeds, then I intend to create new sites on different niches, and hopefully achieve a semi-passive income (I don't think there's ever such a thing as fully passive income.)

This sounds like a good plan. I like the content strategy and the traffic benchmarks. Monetizing too early is problematic and gives you a false sense of security when you really have nothing.

AdSense, however, is notorious for being murderous on users’ privacy for obvious reasons - it tracks you all around the Internet. For this reason, legislators are cracking down on it. CalCoppa and GDPR are the examples I know. The more they move stuff around, the more legal language you have to put in the site to protect yourself. And GDPR makes running Adsense near impossible. You’ll need to block all traffic from the European Union. No customers from Spain. :/

Adsense applications can take months to approve, too. And users block ads. For example, this very site we are posting on - the ads use up so much of my iPads’ processor that this site is barely functional on that device (I still don’t block them though). It’s disastrous for the mobile web. I also use slow internet and ads use up bandwidth, which is probably more true in Mexico than here in the U.S. For these reasons, I don’t think Adsense is a sustainable business model over the long term.

If I were to do this, I would focus on contacting direct affiliates and hawking my own products, doing a mix of that instead of relying on the Google overlords. Yes, it is more work of contacting people and product development, but I think it will serve me better over the long haul, and frankly that was the part of my affiliate experiment I enjoyed the most. The goal would be to keep myself out of a cube and enjoy the flexible work schedule this allows, and so I would want this to work on a long term basis. But you do you.

There are a lot of sites like that in English, but I don't think there's a lot in Spanish (or maybe they don't exist at all.)


I want to help people learn how to make money online basically.

This was a huge fad on Twitter back in 2016 that I got involved in, actually. You’ll want to check out the Hubspot website and Twitter page as a starting point for research if you haven’t already. If you follow them, you’ll get a huge amount of organic traffic related to internet marketing from other sources as well. The experts on internet marketing ironically market themselves very well.

But if have a Spanish-speaking audience, you’ll want to adapt Hubspots’ strategies for them. (Hubspot is in English, and you know the Spanish web more than I do.) You may want to consider selling or giving away an ebook in Spanish that you’ve written on the subject of making money online. There may be other books you can affiliate market, though your Amazon partnership or otherwise. But since you have 15 years of experience in the web design field, I’m confident that you got this. Go for it, and may the Lord be with you.

 

[ElCamino]

This sounds like a good plan. I like the content strategy and the traffic benchmarks. Monetizing too early is problematic and gives you a false sense of security when you really have nothing.

And not only that, I don't think any ad service will accept a site with no traffic. I think Amazon requires at least 3 sales from your affiliate links within 6 months to keep you on their program.

3 sales don't sound like a lot, but it's not always easy to build a big enough audience to generate sales. This is the main reason I won't rush into monetizing the content.

AdSense, however, is notorious for being murderous on users’ privacy for obvious reasons - it tracks you all around the Internet. For this reason, legislators are cracking down on it. CalCoppa and GDPR are the examples I know. The more they move stuff around, the more legal language you have to put in the site to protect yourself. And GDPR makes running Adsense near impossible. You’ll need to block all traffic from the European Union. No customers from Spain. :/

Well, that wouldn't be too good for the site for sure. AdSense won't be my first option necessarily, I'm considering Ezoic and MediaVine. I've read they're the "best" for content blogs, but I'm not sure if they serve ads for non-English websites (they should, but you never know).

The problem with those platforms is that you need to have at least (I think) 10k monthly visitors to get approved, so it may take me a while to get there; I might need to use AdSense until I reach those traffic numbers.

Adsense applications can take months to approve, too. And users block ads.

I already have an approved AdSense account. I created it a long time ago, when it was really easy to get approved. All you needed was a Blogger website and you were good to go.

You're still right though, you need to get individual approval for each site you want to monetize, and that can take months indeed.

And users block ads. For example, this very site we are posting on - the ads use up so much of my iPads’ processor that this site is barely functional on that device (I still don’t block them though). It’s disastrous for the mobile web. I also use slow internet and ads use up bandwidth, which is probably more true in Mexico than here in the U.S. For these reasons, I don’t think Adsense is a sustainable business model over the long term.

That's probably the main reason I didn't try content websites for a long time actually. I usually block ads too because of performance (and security) concerns. I've read so many stories of success though, that it seems that it's still possible to make good money with content sites, even with ad blockers.

Worst case scenario, I can learn a lot about SEO and that would help me in my web development business.

If I were to do this, I would focus on contacting direct affiliates and hawking my own products, doing a mix of that instead of relying on the Google overlords. Yes, it is more work of contacting people and product development, but I think it will serve me better over the long haul, and frankly that was the part of my affiliate experiment I enjoyed the most. The goal would be to keep myself out of a cube and enjoy the flexible work schedule this allows, and so I would want this to work on a long term basis. But you do you.

That's a great idea, thanks. I definitely don't plan to rely 100% on Google (or any third party platform.) My first content website will probably be in the fitness niche, which is super competitive, but after doing some keyword research I think I can create content that can rank high on Google (in Spanish).

It's content that is easy to promote on social media too, so that's another option in case Google doesn't trust my website. And yes, I could eventually contact personal trainers, gyms, or I could promote Clickbank products.

You never run out of monetizing or content ideas with this niche, the real problem is to cut through the noise.

This was a huge fad on Twitter back in 2016 that I got involved in, actually. You’ll want to check out the Hubspot website and Twitter page as a starting point for research if you haven’t already. If you follow them, you’ll get a huge amount of organic traffic related to internet marketing from other sources as well. The experts on internet marketing ironically market themselves very well.

Well, they don't always do.

But that's sort of the point, even if I don't succeed with my own websites, I could end up becoming a "teacher". I think most people who sell MMO or marketing products make most of their money selling those products, and not actually applying their knowledge for themselves.

There are a lot of scammers too, but if I end up going this route; I'll be as honest as possible, which will probably cost me money (like it does now with my current business). I always go to sleep with a clean heart and mind though.

But if have a Spanish-speaking audience, you’ll want to adapt Hubspots’ strategies for them. (Hubspot is in English, and you know the Spanish web more than I do.) You may want to consider selling or giving away an ebook in Spanish that you’ve written on the subject of making money online. There may be other books you can affiliate market, though your Amazon partnership or otherwise. But since you have 15 years of experience in the web design field, I’m confident that you got this. Go for it, and may the Lord be with you.

Thank you so much!