Mistake #3 – Monetizing from day one

Back in 2009, when the earliest Paid-To-Click websites opened their doors, people had access to the very first ways to earn money online without investment.

In PTCs, clicking ads is the poorest way of earning money and a bona fide waste of time, though that’s the whole point behind them and some have tasks that must be completed on a daily basis. Which takes me to the next point: the referrals.

They work a lot like Multi-Level Marketing; the more you recruit, the higher is your earning potential. Logically, having one or more active recruits under you will mean that your account becomes fatter and faster. The daily tasks enable you to earn from your recruits on the next day.

One of the most sure-fire ways of getting recruits at that time, which is now obsolete but still used, was going to Blogger, setting up a site with a bunch of banners from the PTC and a few pages containing basic guides explaining how to earn money with them and the advantages. The next step was heading over to traffic exchanges and voilà.

Instant sign-ups overnight.

Another easy way of earning money online was through Google AdSense, its terms are stricter now but it’s still doable. The process was always the same then as it currently is now, but the site had to have a certain age and amount of content and/or traffic, which Google is yet to disclose.

This was 8 years ago.

Fast forward to 2K17.

People still try their lucks and venture themselves in no cost opportunities with the same strategies but instead of PTCs, which in my opinion, are pretty much dead horses, what’s hip and dandy today are micro jobs, from Get-Paid-To websites.

Google AdSense’s Program Policy is tighter and ad blockers are available for even mobile devices.

It’s still common to see websites running advertisements from other networks, which aren’t as rigid as Google but the site is still under construction or lacks content. This is just a wild guess, but I would think that, to counter those new browsing “enhancements”, those networks made more options to display their advertisements, and some of them are quite intrusive and frustrate user experience while browsing:

The first two, most of are already aware of.

Which is a fantastic idea. Monetizing it from day one, not so much.

There are plenty of other matters that must be dealt with and achieved before even starting to think about how to printing cash through it. Let’s go through some of them step-by-step.

An example of a popular niche is “Technology”. Under “Technology”, we have more subcategories that can be discussed, such as “computers”, “laptops”, “smartphones”, “gadgets”, “apps”, “tricks and hints” and news about any of those.

Webmasters normally start blogs about something they are already comfortable with because it’s much easier to write about something you like and know.

But if you’re still undecided and the above examples aren’t enough, ClickBank has an article containing several categories of topics you might be interested in. It’s an affiliate product site but the general idea still applies. Just don’t get too distracted with them; there will be plenty of time for making money when you master the basics.

2 – Planning the website

The Portal you are able to see at Triplestrata.com was written on an A5 paper before going live, after 75 revisions. Seems like a lot for a homepage, doesn’t it? Few get it right at first, Thomas Edison to say so, but if you can’t get the page everyone will see first right, what follows probably won’t be inviting either, no matter how many Christmas lights you put around it.

Seek inspiration in other sites you go to, make notes of what widgets and apps you’d like to use and plan the basic layout of your site.

In case you already have an application you can build a website, like Dreamweaver, you can split test a couple designs you want.

The planning phase should encompass the following:

• Site name
• General site layout
• Widgets (share buttons, email newsletters, contact)
• Required pages (home page, blog, legal statements)

Fan pages are also something worth considering in the event you already have a lot of friends or subscribers you want to vector them to the new site.

3 – Building the website

We are yet to make our own tutorial about this but there are already plenty of good ones out there nowadays. And it really isn’t that hard.

However, it’s the part that matters just as much as keeping it alive and updating it with fresh new content. Hide your site from view if you’re still building it, so people don’t have to see the ugly unfinished pages and lack of content (like it happened to our Portal and the Gaming site).

4 – First posts

I personally recommend having 5-20 high-quality posts just before going live. High-quality posts don’t mean long, although I think it’s difficult to get anyone’s attention with two paragraphs.

The Yoast Team, the masterminds behind an SEO plugin for WordPress, has posts exceeded the above. We, at the TRI, rarely do not exceed 1000 words.

It’s not just about the length of your post but also how you convey the message. Our themes support a native page builder with numerous ways of displaying content, of any type:

That makes it attractive for the reader since it’s more than just text. In long posts like ours, it’s a primary concern to avoid tiring the audience.

From here on, you can share your site, build an audience and go from there.

Reaching the part where you can make a profit through a website is part of an ongoing process. Construction workers don’t start a building from its roof but from the ground up.

In a bid to monetize their websites and quit their day jobs (which is a common empty promise to the layman) a large number of new webmasters always place several ads on their site of every affiliate marketing opportunity they come across.

To earn money, through whatever, takes traffic. And traffic is a website’s own currency. Look at what you can “buy” with traffic:

Monetizing from day one – The Conclusion

Those of you with a keen eye might have noticed that I placed “Customers” last. In the last post, we explained that people are more likely to buy from other people they know and trust. That trust must be nurtured.

Too many ads and affiliate links repel that much-needed traffic that can be converted into all of the above and more.

Hence, it’s not only safer but more reliable to develop those ties first and go where your audience is telling you. Understand; there’s no problem with advertisements – we serve them too – it’s the money grabbing that may turn off surfers that could one day become your users.

Give your readers something to read so they have a valid reason to come, stay and return to your site.

Has this article helped you or have you learned something new? If so, consider sharing it with friends so they may see it as well.

Concerning your experiences, how does this relate to you? Have you committed this Affiliate Marketing Top Mistake? Or were you already aware of the risks it could bring you?