u/Soupertramp Self-Employed SEO'ers: How do you make money from your sites? Is there a predominant method? Blogging + ads? Selling products? Affiliate marketing? How many sites do you have? How long did it take you to be able to work for yourself full-time? 70 💬🗨📰👈
codefocus Good old AdSense, and affiliate programs. A few small sites pay rent (about $2k/month) and then some. Although it could be a salary in any other town, it's supplemented with freelance development work. I should diversify into selling actual products. I helped set up a few shops recently, and revenue per visit is much, much higher than ads and aff. All there's to is is finding a good niche, reliable supplier(s), and having the balls to invest the initial 10-20k into product, packaging material, storage, links and ads.
Soupertramp ✍️ For sure. Is dropshipping not an option? Or, is there reason you'd prefer not to?
codefocus Ehh I'd rather not. If you can afford to hold your own stock, margins are much better than when using a middle man. And when I start a site like this, I'd like to be able to build a brand, add a little personal touch (a sticker, a leaflet, a branded action figure, whatever is appropriate for the niche) into each shipment. That's much harder to do when dropshipping. Using a dropshipper requires handing over a certain amount of margin, control of your pipeline, customer service and independence for a more simplified process. It's an easy road to mediocrity, which is not something I ever aim for, but it's a good solution for some, because it's so easy and hands-off. Soupertramp ✍️ For sure. Thanks for the reply :)
mukeshitt I can say I have a decent income from my websites. I have about 30 websites of which 5-6 are orgasmically good while some are good and some are bad. I make most of my money from Adsense and affiliate networks. It is not a full time work for me though. I spent about 4 years before reaching where I am today.
must_kill_moe_WEEE Any tips for those of just starting out?
mukeshitt Get started. You will learn a good deal from success as well as failure. Just don't assume you can't do any better. I always have a goal to double my traffic every quarter. I do whatever it takes to reach that goal. I fail often but by a small margin.
Soupertramp ✍️ Thanks for the reply :) Can I ask how much the sites bring in?
mukeshitt Above $100K a year. Soupertramp ✍️ That's fantastic man. Congrats :) mukeshitt Thanks. Just to motivate you and other fellow bloggers, I have brought in as much as $10K in a day once and $5k a couple of times in past few years. Soupertramp ✍️ Wow. Haha. That's definitely motivating, especially to someone like me, who is looking to work for myself as soon as possible. I'd like to quit my job in the next year or two. Sometimes it seems daunting and super far away — thanks for sharing, mate. :)
bluey I'm not a big earner from passive income from sites. My main source of income is still an SEO job from a big agency. But my passive income sites make about $300 to $500 a month, still not enough to live on, but still helps pay bills. I earn by: Ad Publishing: Main Adsense Affiliate Marketing: Mainly CJ & Amazon Domain Parking: I have some on NameDrive That's about it.
Soupertramp ✍️ That's for the reply. Since you do it professionally already, do you think you could make more if you threw yourself into your own sites?
bluey I have different sets of friends that really make it big in ad publishing and affiliate marketing. And I also have sets of friends that also make it big in the agency environment. One thing in common I see is it takes time to build up your sites and turn it into something big. You still have to come up with good stuff, and it is still a lot of work. I personally believe the passive income side of things is better than working for an agency even if I have a 6-figure a year salary. But for me to earn an equal or higher amount of money passively, I have to devote more time to it and I believe I can definitely do that. But that will also mean I will have to stop working for an agency. And once I do that, then there will be a few months of earning low. Which is what I cannot afford to do right now. Just because of my current expenses, that also come with having a wife and kids. So I try to build my own sites at a slow rate, or sometimes I might just rely on outsourcing stuff to other people than me doing it on my own so I have no downtime. But 1 thing is for sure, if ever for any reason I lose my job 1 day (which I doubt will happen), and I find it hard to find a job immediately any place else (which I also doubt would happen), I do not fear being unemployed since I know I a fall back plan on building my own sites and making money in my own way. I'd probably choose a product and find a drop shipping supplier and optimize the hell out of it.
seo_murda I like to flip local sites. I build out a site in a city/niche build out all the social profiles, get it/them ranked then lease them out. once that is done i upcharge to get them on maps.
Soupertramp ✍️ What do you mean, "…upcharge to get them on maps"? Sorry, just new to this. :)
seo_murda well – you cant really create a site with any old address. if you do that and sell it to a client then you will have conflicting and/or duplicate addresses. getting them ranked organically in the regular Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) will provide them with some traffic but getting them ranked in maps can provide even more. its better to use an address with an actual business associated with it as Google really requires this these days. you can also do stuff like offer micro services to other SEO users, menial tasks such as manual blog commenting on relevant blogs. this will also give you insight into what other people are doing and may spawn some ideas of your own.
