This morning I wrote an article about Making money on the web using Ed Dale’s 30 day challenge, I partook a couple of years ago and will admit that in amongst the shite that Ed propogates I learned a few interesting things. My problem with the 30 day challenge is Ed spends too much time teaching stuff about browsers and other insignificant issues. Here is what I know works. PS I earn my income from the web directly and indirectly.

If you want to make money from the web you need a product, You cannot make money, OK not sufficient money to justify the inputs from advetising on your site unless you have a site that attracts 20 - 30 thousand visitors a day. I know of people earning a few thousand rand a month from blogging but mostly these folks spend 14 - 15 hours a day blogging.

I earn my money supplying services to people with good products and supply chains. My product is a service that I offer and last year I made enough money to live and  attribute at least 50% of my earnings to my successes on the web.  There are a few things that I can attribute to these successes.

1. Ranking on Google

I watch my google organic results religiously. If I cannot be found on page one I do something abou it. Currently I am doing a lot of writing to reestablish my position for a number of keywords. My rankings have slipped because I am busy with a big project but you will still find me on the front page for many search terms.

2. Keyword research

I am fanatical about keyword research. I study trends, I look and see what keywords I need to rank for, I look for synonymns, antonymns and even mispelling and work on getting there for all of those. My clients get results because I study their businesses and learn how people search for them. We offer photography services in our local area and I am betting very few people will search for Guy McLaren photographer, yet they will search for Nelspruit wedding photographer.  I am a big fan of being at the top of local results and focus my keyword research at gaining those results.

3. Product

You don’t see google ads, banner ads or any other distractions on my sites. The question I have here is, Could I be earning money from the ads on my site? Yes I could but they would distract from my main offering.