The Home Biz Blog

Happy (Belated) New Year - 2005 recap

Like last year I wanted to do a little recap of the previous year (2005). I also just realized that it's been 2 years since I started this blog - wow, I sure hope I've gained a few loyal readers and that I'm not just writing into empty cyberspace ;)

Well, the year 2005 was good. I more than doubled my online income (as well as my expenses). Although, my goal was a bit higher - but you've got to have big goals, right? This was mainly thanks to PIPS and all the income streams built into that amazing system. I also sold a few resale products through PayPal.

What Was Big in 2005 in Internet Marketing/Making Money Online?

There is one thing that I think was pretty big in 2005: Google AdSense. A lot of people were talking about it (some reported making thousands of dollars each month), a lot of new products came out that were supposed to help you make money with AdSense (how-to guides, site generators, private label articles to use as content, etc...).

I spent quite some money (and time) on building "AdSense content sites" (sites whose goal is to attract visitors through i.e. search engines and generate revenue when these visitors click the Google ads). I wouldn't say I fell for the "hype" because this isn't hype - you really can generate a nice income with AdSense. But I got sucked into this because everybody was saying that you could make huge amounts of cash month after month easily. Well, it isn't easy - nothing is. Not if you want to have an AdSense empire that brings you a few thousand dollars a month - and continues to do so for a long time.

This is a classic example of fear of loss (loss of income) - which is one of the most effective ways to sell something. Then you heard news about the much coveted "UPS/FedEx Club" - it got its name because those AdSense publishers that made more than $10,000 a month received their checks through UPS or FedEx. So, people got pretty excited...

Actually, just like with the gold rush in the 19th century those suppliers that sold shovels, jeans, etc. made good money (while few miners made fortunes) - now, with the AdSense gold rush those that are selling tools and content to help people build AdSense empires are making some good money.

Making The Most Amount of Money in The Least Amount of Time

By the way, part of this blog post I wrote on the bus on my way to school. That's one of my goals for 2006 (and in the future) - to make the best use of my time.

That's why I'm looking for "business models" that take little time to set up and maintain but still generate nice revenue. I think I even found one system that fits that profile: Niche Products Monthly. A NPM membership gives you pretty much everything you need to start effectively selling eBooks that you can put your own name to as the author (private label rights) - all you need to do is upload the material and set up your pay-per-click campaign. You also get ready-made AdSense sites for the same niches. But unfortunately you can't join at this point because it sold out in 3 days! (However, you can sign up for the notification list if a few spots become available)

That is another thing that was pretty hot last year: Private label rights - software codes, eBooks, articles... It works because people want content that they can use and sell because you can make so much more money by having your own product than just selling as an affiliate - or people used it as content for their AdSense sites. It's also a very good business model for those providing the private label content - they either create it themselves or hire a ghostwriter (might cost them $300-$1000 per product/set of articles) but then they sell it to maybe 500 people for $25-$50 a month => $25*500 = $12,500 - $1,000 >> $11,500 in profit (every month!).

So, I'm not yet making thousand of dollars a month with AdSense... I'm still searching (by testing and tracking various methods) for the perfect system to create AdSense income that is worth your time. If I find it I'll be sure to let you know - I will probably blog about it here but you might also want to subscribe to my Home Business Tips Newsletter to be certain that you'll get the first scoop (you might even learn a thing or two from the messages you'll receive through that newsletter): http://www.workathomemadeeasy.net/homebusinesstips.html.

Focusing On What's Important

Although I think it was a good thing I set up little AdSense revenue generators (that I'll hopefully profit from in months and years to come) - it did take my focus away from what has kind of been my main project for a while now: The it's-coming-out-very-soon-I-promise book Residual Website Traffic. But here is an inside scoop for you: I'm going to change the name of the book because I had some concerns that not everybody would understand at first what "residual traffic" was. If you have any opinions about this please let me know by commenting to this post.

But I realize that by spending time on these AdSense sites I may have made some money that I wouldn't have. But if I hadn't done that it's possible that I would have finished the book by now and would be making money selling copies of that instead.

So, with that in mind - and with the help of Simpelology - I'm going to finish off some small projects I've got going and start focusing completely on finishing writing TSMGTWT (a little hint) and put all other less important projects on hold (as much as I can) for now until I've launched the book's website and started selling.

That's pretty much what Simpelology 101 is all about - only focus on one major target at a time because that will help you achieve all your goals faster. If you would like to learn more about the science of getting anything you want you definitely should sign up for the free Simpelology 101 course here.

On narrowing your focus.. I didn't join any new programs (like SFI, Empowerism, etc.) in 2005 because I don't want to spread myself out thin, just going to focus on the opportunities involved in PIPS. But I joined a few new affiliate programs (while discovering new niches and new products). I even got my first commission for a "high ticket" product which I think is good news and shows that you don't need a mailing list of 10,000+ people or a website that gets million visitors a month to be able to successfully promote these $497-$997 products.

Wrapping This Up, 2006 Predictions, etc...

While working on that whole AdSense thing I had a pleasant surprise. One of the websites that I created back in 1997 has been getting steady traffic from the search engines although I haven't been updating it much in the last few years. But just for fun I put some AdSense blocks on that site and let it run. Turns out that this small niche website is now making me about $20 a month in AdSense revenue and all I did was putting the AdSense code on a few pages :) So, if you have some small sites that you just have laying there but they're getting a few visitors every day you should try putting AdSense ads on it and see if it opens up a new income stream for you.

I think video and multi-media will get even bigger in 2006. Some people predicted that 2005 would be the year of the video but it hasn't been *that* big - but with the recent additions at the end of the year with iPod Video, Google Video Store, etc. I think we will see more and more video content being sold, video tools and more video on websites - possibly more video "newsletters" like Stephen Pierce's stuff. [By the way, his "3 Things You Can Do To Make it Big in 2006" video is very good - again, on focusing and don't letting yourself get distracted]

We'll probably see more private label rights (of any kind) and more high ticket products - it's already started with Mike Filsaime's Butterfly Marketing now coming out at the end of January.

I think AdSense will continue to be big in 2006 with more products and membership sites coming out catoring to that market. Now Yahoo! also has their AdSense alternative called "Yahoo! Publisher Network" and Microsoft is working on something similar called "adCenter". So, 2006 will be about content and making money from it. But with so many content publishers coming out you really have to stand out to survive (and continue to make money for a long time) - and you stand out with quality (day after day...).

The big companies are also starting to see the value of good content and the income it can lead to. In 2005 The New York Times bought About.com which is one of the largest content websites covering a lot of different niches. Also, AOL bought Weblogs, Inc. which generates about $1,000,000 in AdSense revenue per year with a lot of popular blogs like Engadget, TVsquad, Cinematical, etc. The price is reported to be about $25-$40 million - That's pretty nice considering that it's only 2 years since Jason Calacanis & Co. launched Weblogs, Inc.

Well, that's it... wow, almost 1,700 words - if you read this far, congratulations! :D This is definitely my longest post so far. But one thing I noticed while finishing up this post was two of my biggest "flaws" that delayed publishing this post: I often get distracted (thousands of thoughts on my mind, checking e-mail, etc.) and my perfectionism (I have to learn to be OK with sending something out that's not 100% perfect) - I mean, if Mike Filsaime can make over $800,000 a year with typos and grammar errors all over the place then I think it's OK that your stuff is only 99% perfect ;) But I do believe that I'm improving my life every day... making the strengthening decision like they say in Simpleology. So, that's a good thing.

To a successful year!

Posted by Hannes Johnson at January 23, 2006 10:44 PM | TrackBack | bookmark on del.icio.us