Gave up a day job. Now what? - Income report #2
kreci.net
kreci.net
Perhaps someone here has some insight into how much money software with embedded ads can realistically make.
And investing more time into monetizing with ads is a waste.
I recommend two resources for you: Desperate Buyers Only and How to Launch the Out of Your Ebook.
(For the record, I made $40k off my last ebook.)
Do you look it purely as a business proposition (ex: google search for subject matter x is trending over the last 6 months, I'll become an expert in that and write a book) or do you write about things you already know and care about?
I write about things I know about, and that fall under the category of solving a specific problem. :) The bits I don't know, I research obsessively.
I don't really pay attention to search traffic overall, except to drive a few extra sales here and there, but figure that if all the experts I know talked about it last year, everybody will want to learn it this year.
The three things I recommend are: solve a real problem (see DSO above, if you don't have the first clue about this), and build an audience and a mailing list, and charge a lot more than you think you should.
Charge enough and you only have to make a thousand or so sales to make a very pretty penny.
For sale, of course ;)
But if you want less-compiled, less-curated info now... check out my old blog: http://slash7.com. I talked about the book, you can see some of my marketing first-hand.
My new, biz-focused site is http://unicornfree.com. But it's still ramping up, as you can see, since I'm focused on growing http://letsfreckle.com at the moment to >$10k/mo.
I didn't "get rich" selling books on how to get rich. I have two of what I call 'primary' products -- and the number is only growing.
One of the reasons geeks stay broke & unsuccessful is because they view anybody who charges for their knowledge with suspicion... regardless of evidence.
If the community wasn't mostly aspirants, there wouldn't be so much posting about how to make yourself work, how to work more, how to attract VC, why not to attract VC, how much to charge, etc., etc., etc. Or so many people making elementary mistakes.
And all the time, they convince themselves they are the world's best empiricists.
Take the OP for example. He's choosing to focus on the revenue streams he can least control. I'm glad he's striking out on his own, taking the risk, but that last bit is not the wisest choice.
Did you click on my profile? I have 10x the karma you do. That's because I'm here helping people.
I see people here all the time making stupid decisions that keep them from earning money. And then I point it out.
Mostly, like you, they get their feathers in a ruffle at the mere insinuation that they might be mistaken (itself a counter-indicator of future success), but when they listen, I can go on knowing I was able to help somebody.
You also seem to think you are helping when people don't question you or your methods. Funny world view.
You can't do all things at once. Yes, naturally.
So you choose to focus on the things you can least control.
Does that make sense?
Your income is going to rise and rise, just remember not to get lazy. Keep yourself hungry, otherwise at some point you will stop growing.
(Well, less whatever tax your local jurisdiction charges rich plutocrats like yourself.)
If you want to be web developer go get a job.
If you want to be an entrepreneur then you better go where money is. Besides how do you expect web development to function as passive income source? Offering a service/application may be such an opportunity - but then you're an entrepreneur who uses code to leverage his business.
BTW. Your project is mint - love every installment of it!
If you do go the ebook route (and if you keep blogging at your current pace, you should certainly have enough material), check out fifobooks.com (disclaimer: my startup runs that site).
It's not sexy. At all. But if it works, then you can focus on stuff you really want to do.
So web publishers will promote them more, since with an ebook, they have to sell someone a $37 product to get $30. While with Amazon, they'd need to convince them to buy a $1,000 product to get there.
Unless you're targeting a few niche keywords then it is almost certain that the price will have to rise for adwords to be profitable (and as Vaksel mentioned to get affiliates).
I just checked out the ebook and improving google pagerank is a common topic so there's likely some tough competition in SEM.
My votes for a higher price or maybe find other marketing channels so you can keep it at $9.
No. You need a decent camera (as in a fairly expensive SLR model) and to know what people are looking for on Stock photo sites.
kreci seems pretty good at it - he's got a huge portfolio containing lots of very similar photo's (which is what you usually get) covering all the themes that are popular on stock photo sites.
If you want to do well his portfolio is good inspiration :)
There are people earning a lot more than this.
I hear it's much harder to get photos approved now though.