Here in the good old USA, we live in what is called a free market economy. That is a fairly complex topic in itself but basically it means the law of supply and demand determine what the price will be for goods and services. A vendor can charge whatever they want and the consumers will decide whether it is worth paying the price they ask to acquire it.

If they decide not to purchase that item then the vendor can either choose to lower their price to entice them to buy or hold the line and hope for the best. This system works pretty well and I don’t foresee any changes in the near future, although I hope we do something about gas prices pretty soon.

Other countries have very different regulations regarding commerce but the Internet is the great equalizer there. The Internet has brought a free market economy to most of the world with the most common good being shared is information.

The Internet is FULL of advice, with most of it being free.

Information Overload

I wrote an article a few weeks ago titled Information Overload that encouraged you to stop reading and start DOING. You can check out that article for the details but in a nutshell it was intended to be a wake up call to get you to engage, stop reading other people’s bad advice and get to actually working towards your own success.

When it comes to that aforementioned economy there is an old saying that should ring true that you get what you pay for.  This holds true when it comes to the Internet as well, you will find NO shortage of bad advice available and it seems as though you can’t throw a rock in any direction without hitting a 12 year old telling you how to make money online.

Many people pick their niche based on what they want to write about or what they hope to become an expert in. The MMO niche is infested with these types of blogs as many naive bloggers think that in order to actually make money online that you have to write about making money online.  This has produced a plethora of newbie bloggers who are trying to learn and teach how to make money online at the same time.  That simply won’t work.

These bloggers are not experts, they are not authority figures and in most cases, the time you spend reading their blog, is a complete waste of time.  They simply repost everything they read on someone else’s blog about Making Money Online.

Stop reading, start doing….remember.

Garbage In Garbage Out

I would recommend that you be careful when reading blogs for your advice as you never know what the credentials are of the person that is writing it. What do they know, what do they do, why should you listen to them. These are some points to consider when deciding what to add to your feed reader.

These are also key points that you should ask YOURSELF when determining your own niche. If you don’t know the first thing about Making Money Online then you probably shouldn’t select that as your niche. Not only will your readers not get anything out of what you write, but you will not enjoy what you do. It’s hard to write 3 to 5 times a week on a topic that you don’t love.

Whatever you are an expert in, that should be your niche. If you offer a wealth of knowledge in a certain area such as say antiques, then that should be your niche.  It isn’t as glamorous as John Chow but if written properly you could quickly build a huge following for a niche like that.  Once you have readers, monetization isn’t that difficult.

Write with Authority

Readers want to learn from people that are experts as it is a waste of time to try and learn from someone that knows the same or even less about a subject than you do. Your knowledge of the subject will allow you to naturally become an authority figure.

Being an authority figure still does not make you a compelling writer.  You will still face the challenge that we all do of how to engage your readers and make them want to listen to what you have to say but being an expert in your field, will certainly give you a leg up over someone who isn’t.

People will always naturally listen to authority figures, you just need to convince yourself that you are one and tailor your writing style to show it.

You are an authority.

Conclusion

As the work weeks grow longer and the demands of daily life intrude on our free time more and more, it will become that much more important for people to be efficient when it comes to reading blogs or searching for content. They simply don’t have the time to read a dozen different blogs on all of the topics that interest them.

Write with Authority by choosing a niche you understand and excel in and then share what you know as confidently as possible with your readers. They will be happier for it and so will you. Nobody can write for long in a niche that they don’t enjoy.

You might want to be the Forex trading king but if futures, stocks and bonds put you to sleep then you won’t enjoy writing in that niche anyway. Do the right thing from the start and use your own time wisely and be respectful of your readers time.

Pick a niche you know, pick a niche you enjoy and then share.

.

This Friday Featured post was written by Bill so if you enjoyed reading it then check out my own blog at The Blog Entrepreneur where I write on a variety of MMO topics but particularly niche site creation. Sign up for my FREE Niche Site Creation Newsletter.

Originally posted on May 25, 2008 @ 11:51 am

Over a month and a half ago I looked through the Top 100 Make Money Online blog list (see the previous post entitled: Five Months Later: Top 50 Make Money Online Blogs Shuffle), and compared it to five months previous, and to my surprise, very little had changed. Many blogs shuffled around, but for the most part, there weren’t many new blogs in the Top 50, and there weren’t many double digit shifts in position.

This time though, there are factors at play that have totally changed the playing field and confirming to me that there are a few types of blogs in any niche.

The first group are the ones that are thought leaders. They stand at the top of the pack, and consistently rank in the top ten for their niche.

Then there are the echo chamber folks that sit near the end, and probably won’t get into this top 50 list any time soon.

Lastly, there is pretty much everyone else, and there is a strange pattern appearing to me with regards to this middle section. Some of the blogs rise to the top, joining the though leaders, others fall to the bottom, and almost none stick to where they are now.

It seems to me like many blogs rise quickly, make a good impression, get a wide following and enjoy a period of success before slowly dropping back down, and being replaced by someone new.

My guess is that most of these blogs have realized the sad truth about blogging in this niche: it is hard to make money blogging about making money online.

Continue reading →

Originally posted on May 12, 2008 @ 5:21 pm

I used to read a lot of blogs when I was new to blogging and learning affiliate marketing. I wanted to be a sponge and soak up as much information as I could find, thinking that the secrets to making money online could be found in my feed reader.

I was wrong.

Information Overload

It is easy to get caught up in the cycle of information gathering. If you are a student of whatever you do, then gathering information is an essential part of the process. The downside to gathering information is that many people fall into the trap of trying to absorb too much and doing too little.

It is pretty common for many readers to subscribe to 100 feeds or more in order to not miss any idea, thought or suggestion on how they can make money online. They will read and read and read about all the different things that other people are doing, yet do nothing themselves.

I call this “paralysis by analysis” and it’s a pretty common affliction even in the corporate world. Managers are so engrossed in reading P&L statements, emails and reports that they have no time to actually manage. That’s crazy but true.

Bad Advice

Another thing you need to consider is how much bad advice is given everyday on the Internet. Once you do know what you are doing when it comes to affiliate marketing, keyword research and making money online, it becomes very obvious that most of the people giving the advice don’t actually practice what they preach.

They will write sponsored reviews for products they don’t own, they will put affiliate links in their articles for products they have never used and have no real knowledge about. They will write an article about exploding your traffic when they have none. You get the idea.

Why would anyone listen to someone that isn’t an authority or offers no value? They shouldn’t, so if this is you then quit reading and start doing. It is a very well known fact that the reason most people fail, is because they never do anything to begin with. They think about it a lot, they want to, but they don’t.

The Best Advice

My experience has taught me a number of things, but the best thing I have learned over the last few years is that there are no rules. You cannot make money by using a top ten list of things to do to make money. The key is to experiment.

• Try AdSense, see if that works for your blog. It might and it might not.
• Try article marketing, it might send you sales, it might not.
• Try Niche Sites, they might be your thing, they might not.
• Try putting your ads in the middle of the articles instead of the top.
• Try BANS stores, try Niche blogs, try it all.

Whatever the situation is, try it for yourself. There is absolutely NO replacement for experience. What some joker says works for him, will not necessarily work for your blog or website. The key is to experiment, learn what works for you and then MAXIMIZE it.

Once you have the recipe or the formula, repeat it. Don’t stop experimenting but repeat what works and learn how to maximize it. Add to your niche site or build more using the same recipe. If one site earns you 10 dollars a day, could 100 sites earn you $1000 dollars a day?

Conclusion

Everyone wants to live the dream. Some hope they can find the dream on a blog somewhere for free and others hope to find the dream in a affiliate product for the low, low price of $97 dollars. Ninety-seven dollars will buy your ticket to millions.

Come on, how many independently wealthy people do you think are going to bother hawking a $97 dollar e-book? The real power brokers charge thousands of dollars for their information and it is an exclusive club.

The dream cannot be purchased, but it can be earned through hard work and dedication. If you aren’t willing to invest in yourself then you simply will not be successful. Affiliate tools have their place but they are TOOLS and not the answer. An affiliate product won’t make you money, but it can help you do the things that make you money.

Here is the best advice you will ever get and it’s free.

Experiment. Fail. Fall on your face. Every time you fall on your face, you are that much closer to being successful, because you are doing something most others aren’t and that is TRYING. To win the game, you’ve got to get in the game.

So how about you? Are you READING about becoming successful or are you DOING the things that will make you successful?

This post was written by Bill so if you enjoyed reading it then check out my own blog at The Blog Entrepreneur where I write on a variety of MMO topics but particularly niche site creation. I will be back next Friday to punish you some more.

Originally posted on May 16, 2008 @ 7:00 am