Earned $662.26 online since Monday (in 4 days) | Hacker News Reader

Earned $662.26 online since Monday (in 4 days)

kreci.net

22 pointskreci44 comments

r.e. your book. I bet that if you spent a little time on the design you would get a load more potential sales. I mean this kindly but the current page looks a little like one of the "EARN MONEY ONLINE!!!!" scam pages.

Here is a great example that got posted here a little while back: http://createyourproglang.com/

Yes your example is looking nice. But I think that the information that I sell is more important than a design...

I don't want to sound like an asshole, but what "you think" here doesn't count for diddley-squat.

What you've got is a perfect opportunity for A/B testing-- check out Patio11's blog or comments here for examples and details.

You can (and should) be tweaking your page, and measuring the results of those tweaks. By keeping the tweaks that bring you better results (and rolling back the ones that don't), your conversion rate (and income) will continue to grow.

I am always tweaking my pages. Anyway I believe that good and interesting information is main key. Better than a beautiful graphics.

the problem is not that so much; it is more the fact that the page layout matches the sort of layout you get on one of the "make money online" scam type pages :)

It might put people off, I don't know.

But if your page looks bad, nobody will even start reading your information to find out that it's interesting.

Don't discount marketing.

But are you measuring the effects of the tweaks?

That's the whole point of A/B testing.

The whole "good and interesting information" vs "beautiful graphics" division is a false dilemma. You don't have to choose between them.

And, I'm not even saying that you should have "beautiful graphics".

What I am saying is: you are running a business here. The goal is to make money. There are tools (notably A/B testing) which will make you far more effective at reaching your goals than you currently are.

You're getting lots of valuable (but free) advice from the good folks of HN. It would behoove you to take it seriously.

I remember the parrotsecrets site (that sold an e-book on how to care for parrots, and apparently made tons of money doing so) and it looked a lot like this site. Maybe that kind of design actually does sell better. But as you say - A/B tests will prove or disprove it.

If you are selling to a semi-technical audience, it will just turn them off. "Intelligent" people are horribly afraid of falling for a scam, because not only does it mean they get ripped off, but it attacks their self-image directly.

So if you look like a scam, they're going to assume you are.

I got only positive feedback from buyers and my total conversion is really not bad. First I want to make a few bucks and then invest to design. Just my rule - first make money then spend it...

I took a look at your book and was interested in the subject, but found the page off-putting as the grandparent suggested. Looked kind of scammy to me, so I assumed it wouldn't be worth the time.

To be fair, it sounds an awful lot like an "EARN MONEY ONLINE!!!" scam, so maybe it's okay if it looks that way.

Hell, his "customer reviews" are pulled straight from the tri-color ad copy.

What's the tri-color ad copy?

You have to click through to his spammy sales page. In my experience, SEO is a common hideout for snake oil salesmen. Most of them make more money from selling SEO advice than producing any useful good or service.

I saw the copy. But I didn't understand what you meant by tri-color ad copy

http://www.improve-pagerank.com/promo/

It alternates between blue, black, green, and red. So you're right, it's quad-color.

I was wrong about the source of his quotes being his ad copy. It's actually an unlinked forum where he probably got his friends to write ad copy for him, presuming he didn't do it himself.

Reviews are real - if you would look a little you will find it on one of the forums.

Why is that the pagerank of your pagerank ebook page is 0? The book looked scammy to me because of that.

And if it is totally whitehat why not list a few sample sites which used that method?

I made a page where I sell my ebook just to sell my ebook. Check my blog PR and other of my sites :)

http://www.kreci.net/ is PR 3

http://www.minimotherboard.com/ is PR 1

http://www.madhostreviewer.com/ is PR 2

http://tweetrandomizer.com/ is PR 4

It looks like PR 4 is the odd one out and not the norm

It is not the odd one and I exactly described how to got similar result. I have not done anything similar to my PR 1 and 2 sites. If you are not interested you don't have to buy the ebook... :)

I was giving you feedback mate. I'm interested and i'm listing the reasons why I didn't buy it.

I checked the PR of both your blog and the ebook page and it was below 4.

And you are flipping the PR 1 and PR 2 sites. As said in your ebook page copy, higher PR means more money when flipping. Why wouldn't you invest the few hours to make it into PR 4.

I'm sorry to say but your attitude is defensive and a turn off. To my comment and the other comments talking about design of the page, you come across as defensive.

Anyway good luck!

I'm an SEO newbie. Mind explaining how you get the Pagerank for a given site? I tried http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php, but it never seems to have any information about my sites.

My sites (all appspot apps) do appear to be indexed by google, and usually show up on the 1st or 2nd page of Google results (even after clearing my Google web history).

Thanks!

edit: to answer my own question: install the google toolbar.

Argh. I read that as $662,260 because of the comma. Damn ingrained default US currency pattern recognition.

Congrats, you seem to be diversifying your income streams.

Thanks - I fixed the comma :)

I have to say, I remember reading your first post when you decided to do this stuff full time, and I didn't think doing just Adsense and Istockphoto would be enough to keep you afloat. It really seems though that you have the drive to do this, and it seems to be coming along for you, so I'm really happy to see that.

Also, I'd love to see a post with tips about selling photos on istockphoto.

Thanks for a great post idea. I will try to write something about it soon. Just stay subscribed... =P

I found good discussion on the ebook he is selling here http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-special-offers-forum/199...

Something I take from this (and it is very valuable) is not to expect to make a living from AdSense (or at least, that it is very hard!). Thanks for keeping us up to date :)

You are right. My adsense is very low source of income when compare it to others.

Your istockphoto link appears to be broken:

http://www.istockphoto.com/kreci

Link is ok - it looks that istock have server problems.

Good work! That's $165.57 per day. Which is $60,473 per year! Nice.

It would be great to keep such averages - but it was just a few of my best days like for now...

Any comments? Will be a pleasure to answer =)

Yes, the number in your headline isn't formatted in a way expected for a USD value. When seeing a figure like "$xxx,xx" it seems, to an American, that the ones digit must be missing ("$xxx,xxx").

Ups, sorry. I have formated it like people do in my country... In future post I will do it right :)

You have 2 hours, I think, to go back and edit it.

Fixed - thanks :)

Raise your book price to $30, open an affiliate program, give $20 per sale to your affiliates. It worked for Aaron Wall's SEO Book.

I keep the price low to be available to all my blog readers ;)

There are many who independently made a lot more than that on a daily basis. Your obvious pride just makes you look rather silly.

Keep it up though, working for SomeCorp is even sillier.

I know there are many who make more. But it is what I made and I am proud of it =)

Warren Buffett started his career going door to door selling chewing gum, Coca-Cola, and weekly magazines [1]. I'm sure he looked rather silly.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett

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