Cheers
Brendon
$10,000 for a day’s work is a ton of money.
Would you like me to show you how I make – and you can too – that sort of money?
“You betcha sweet ass we would, Brendon!” you say.
“Heh, enough of the cheeky language….kids read this blog,” I’d say ;o)
And then I’d get on and tell you how I’m doing it:
The Start – $10,000 For A Day’s Work
Here’s what I did:
I went and did an amazing 7 day, 84 km wilderness trek along Tasmania’s famous South Coast Track with my 2 sons.
No real hardship there!
Harry Sinclair makes a wrong decision!
We had a great time and took tons of photos and a bit of video.
- When I returned I registered the domain name: SouthCoastTrack.com.au
- I then organised web site hosting.
- I then put up a WordPress web site.
- I then added lots of content about the South Coast Track to the site.
- I optimised the site for search engine rankings. I focused on getting high rankings for 2 terms:
“South Coast Track” (currently # 7)
“Melaleuca Flights” (currently # 8)
- I added Adsense (Google’s advertising program for publishers – sign up for free in about 5 minutes) to the site (means I get $ every time someone clicks on an ad on the site)
- I added a free shopping cart to the site and I now sell a book about the walk
Once the site gets to # 1 for the term “Melaleuca flights” I’ll be approaching one of the 2 airlines that fly into Melaleuca (this is the start of the walk and the only way to get in) and see if they’d like to take an advertisement on the web site.
The Numbers To $10,000
So let’s take a look at the numbers:
- About 1,000 people a year walk the South Coast Track
- There are about 2,000 searches done a month (on average) for terms related to walking the South Coast Track
When you’re preparing for a major bushwalk like this, you tend to check out a ton of web sites.
Searching for the South Coast Track
I’d be pretty confident of getting 60% of those searching to the South Coast Track site.
- That’s 1,200 visitors per month to the web site
Let’s assume we sell just 1 book per week. Each book gives us about $7 profit.
- That’s $364 in profit per year from the book.
Let’s estimate we make $1 a day from people clicking on the Adsense ads (can’t divulge the Adsense income we’ve got already, but let’s just say $1 a day is very achievable even at this early stage).
- That’s another $365 per year.
If you were marketing your airline doing $190 per person flights into Melaleuca (the starting point of the walk) then having a prominent ad on the most popular and extensive web site that talked about the South Coast Track would make a lot of sense.
Let’s assume we charge just $1 per day for that ad.
- That’s another $365 per year.
$364 + 365 + 365 = $1,094.
Let’s round it down to $1,000.
$2.74 Per Day – That’s All
That’s just $2.74 per day this web site is aiming to make.
That is chicken feed.
Or is it (insert scary music here!).
The web site has taken me a day to do.
It will make a minimum of $1,000 a year.
It will make that much for the next 10 years.
That is $10,000 for a day’s work.
The Naysayers & Haters – Their Angle
The naysayers and haters will come up with the following arguments:
1. Not everyone can set up a site as quickly, easily or as cheaply as you.
Answer: Bullshit…..mostly.
South Coast Track is a WordPress site. It’s free and bloody easy to install.
You can register a domain name for $10 and get cheap hosting in a ton of places.
There are a ton of free photo editing bits of software about.
If you have Windows, then you have Movie Maker for the video editing (the video I’ve done isn’t at all sophisticated).
2. Not everyone can get a web site up in the search engines like you can.
Answer: Every single thing I’ve done to get the site into the search engines is stuff I’ve talked about for years on this site.
You can find all you need to know here, here and here.
Spend a couple of hours reading and you’ll be good to go.
3. You’ll spend more than a day on the site by the time you deal with orders and sell direct advertising.
Answer: Yeh, you’re probably right.
But that extra time (about 5 minutes per week) is offset by me being conservative with the numbers.
Remember I rounded down from $1,094, I could make more money by adding affiliate programs, sell more direct ads, etc.
I could also spend that extra $94 dollars a year employing someone for the 4.3 hours it will take to maintain the site per year.
4. Not everyone can write as well as you can.
Answer: Oh for heaven’s sake, stop ya bloody whingeing and get on with it! Start writing and you’ll get better at it.
5. I can’t afford to go on a wilderness trek.
Now you’re just being stupid. The trip isn’t the important thing. Just write about something you do/did/enjoy.
Aside from a $30 pass and $190 flight, the walk is free.
6. Not everyone is as good looking in photos as you are.
Answer: Yeh, good point. You’re probably right on that one ;o)
I am a very attractive man – I’ve been compared many times to a famous movie star…..Shrek ;o(
Ongoing Site Expenses
And sure, I’ll have ongoing site expenses – about $20 per year.
Can You Do The Same?
Can you do something similar to what I’ve done with the South Coast Track site?
Of course you can.
And if, like me, you have to go on the trip of a lifetime for a week long wilderness trek with your kids to get something to write about, then so be it!
All 4 Together + Phil
l-r: Harry, Brendon, Phil (fellow I met on the track), Jack, Neil (brother-in-law). Click for larger image
Hope the above helps – let me know how you go.
Cheers
Brendon
“And Then There Was Salsa” from Frito Lay Dips on Vimeo.
Even Better Here
And it’s even better when you view it over here.
It Could Have Been Perfect…..
…..if only she was on a horse.
Cheers
Brendon
A big part of what we do in our marketing, search engine and web development work is research products or services we wouldn’t normally look at.
We’ve been doing a little work with a US created diamond company Diamantine.
As part of that I’ve been trying to get a feel for diamonds and how the whole diamond market and marketing works.
I stumbled across an article from 1982 in “The Atlantic” that blows the lid off the “value” of diamonds.
“Have You Ever Tried To Sell A Diamond?” explains in great detail how the control of the world’s diamond market has led to false high prices and a manufactured perception for this very common stone.
It’s a long read, but it’s one of the best articles explaining this niche marketing I’ve read for many years.
My client’s web site has a Diamond Cost Comparison page that demonstrates just how a real diamond can cost you for years.
Take the next 15 minutes to learn more about marketing and manipulation than you thought possible!
Cheers
Brendon
One thing all businesses should be doing is establishing their trustworthiness to their target market.
A terrific way to do this is by getting a trusted independent 3rd party to vouch for you.
Preferably this 3rd party should be highly credible to your target market.
Media Attention Can Be Hugely Beneficial
Journalists and TV shows are 2 highly credible sources for many, many people.
If you’re old, lime me, then you probably remember those ads that shrieked “As seen on TV!”
That was in the old days when being on TV in any way, shape or form was a huge thing and carried enormous credibility.
Having your business the subject of just about any newsy report gives you credibility.
Pest Inspections Gets TV Coverage
One of our clients here on the Gold Coast’s greatest termite inspections guy, Luke Taylor of The Pest Company.
Luke recently featured on a real estate TV program that also plays on the web.
Luke was interviewed as the termite inspections expert and had the opportunity to very professionally demonstrate his expertise during a 5 minute+ segment.
It’s All About Leveraging This Opportunity
Part of Luke’s challenge now is to leverage this segment as much as he possibly can.
He needs to use the segment to establish and/or confirm his expertise to his target market.
Here’s the Top 3 ways he can do this:
- Insert the video onto his own sites
- Get others to embed the video, comment on it
- Mention the story in his next communication with his market
Leverage, leverage, leverage.
Making the most of what you have is smart marketing.
What can you do to leverage the benefit of what you have?
Cheers
Brendon
Update: 12.57 pm (1 1/2 hours after I uploaded the post):
The image from the site mentioned below has been deleted, as has the comment I wrote on Jaime’s post.
And Jaime has apologized. Thanks Jaime.
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Over at Bookmom Musings, Jaime hotlinks to images she finds on the web.
What that means is that instead of taking/buying her own images, she finds ones she likes and links to it within her blog post.
She has linked over to an image on this site for use within this blog post.
The image did look like this:
This is the image that was licensed to me.....but Jaime uses it
Now it looks like this:
Image replaced with this
What happens is my bandwidth gets used up by Bookmom. Which is great for her because she’s not paying.
Not so great for me, because I pay for part of the costs of her web site.
I generally don’t like to pay for other people’s business expenses.
It’s because I’m not a charity!
My (Free) Advice To Jaime
Anyhow, here’s my advice to Jaime, or anyone else thinking of hotlinking to images they have no right to:
===========================================================
Hi Jaime
You seem to hotlink to images you find on the web. This is really going to bite you on the ass before long.
i.e. I’ve replace the image you link to on my site with a message asking you not to do it.
It could just have easily been some highly offensive image that would make you look very stupid/or hacked.
You see, by hotlinking to an image on site you’re stealing my bandwidth. Every time that image gets looked at by your readers, I get charged (via my hosting bandwidth).
(And as a “Bookmom” you really should be aware of copyright issues).
As much as I’d love your site to succeed, I don’t really think that I should underwrite it by paying costs that you should be incurring.
The other aspect that’s going to hurt you is that I purchased that image off Getty Images for 1 off usage.
They constantly scan the web to see who has ripped off their image.
That’s when they find you. That’s when they send you a bill for $1,500 for the use of the image.
That’s when you scream and cry that you didn’t know, that you’re ignorance should be justification, that you’re just a little blog, that you can’t afford the bill, etc, etc.
What happens next?
1. You’ll see this image or comment or your readers will alert you to it.
2. You’ll then quickly take down the link to my image.
3. You may apologise, you may not.
4. And then, in a surprise to no-one, I’m the guy that suffers the most because:
a) you stole my bandwidth,
b) I had to mess about and replace that image,
c) I then had to write this blog post,
d) when you do the right thing and replace that image I need to go back to my site and put my image back otherwise my page will look stupid with that “Jaime” image there.
Here’s a bit of advice to finish off with:
If you publish, you’re a publisher.
Learn the rules or get the hell out.
Cheers
Brendon
=============================================================
Will let you know what Jaime does.
Cheers
Brendon
Here’s a pretty typical exchange with one of our clients.
We’re trying to help her get Google to understand what her web site is about and to rank it higher for a very competitive term.
The client is in the US and I call her “Client” (smart, huh?!).
I’m the arrogant loud-mouth (”Me”) who essentially calls himself a genius.
=========================
Client: “Timeframe – when would we see the site move from the billionth page to somewhere in the hundreds 
”
Me: Within a couple of weeks the site will be in the top 100 for “xxxx xxxx”. Couple of weeks later, top 50.
Couple of weeks later, top 20. After that it gets more difficult to estimate. “
Me 2 weeks and 1 day later: Today the site is number 50 for “xxxx xxxx”.
I’m not saying I’m a genius…….but I’m pretty sure that’s what you’d be saying???!!
=========================
Yep, this is an email exchange when arrogance knows no bounds!!
Say it with me.....Show Pony
Cheers
Brendon
Below is my top 5 list on what you should be doing with your web site today to make it more successful tomorrow.
1. Install Google Analytics – gives brilliant data on your web site visitors.
You can only make the right future decisions based on past data, and that past data is great as a benchmark – Google Analytics is free and very easy to install.
For most web sites it would take 15 minutes.
2. Update your web site with fresh information.
Stale web sites are boring for everyone. Update it with useful and interesting information as much as possible.
3. Figure out what would be the absolute best term to get found for in Google.
We generally use this tool for that.
4. Start working on getting found in Google for that best term.
You’ll find ways to do this here, here and here.
Or you can contact us and ask us to help.
5. Work, work, work on getting your web site to work.
This might mean making sales or generating leads – whatever it is, continue to tweak your site so it gets the results your after.
(The most obvious way to start is with the copywriting of most sites – usually boring, non-benefit focused stuff.)
Hope that helps.
Cheers
Brendon
