Archives for the month of: June, 2007

Are you an internet expert?

June 20, 07 //
12

No, I’m not talking about being an expert on all things internet related. As some of you might already know, I’ve been pondering about choosing a subject for a new niche blog that I’m hoping to start in not too long. I’m adamant on finding something that interests me and that I will enjoy writing about, but also something that I know quite a bit about already, as people “in the know” suggest that you should always choose a topic that you’re knowledgeable on in order to be able to write interesting content.

This has gotten me thinking about on my past experiences, and just how easy the internet makes it for us to be an expert on more or less any subject. When I first started a website about the Legend of Zelda, I had only played two of the games in the series. But as I started the site, I learned more about the series, and eventually it came to the point where a lot of people, because of what I had accomplished with the site, held my opinions regarding the games in the series in high regards.

Likewise, when I started Bloggst, I wasn’t all that much of an expert on blogging. But because of my willingness to learn as I go, I developed a grasp of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to blogging, and people started reading what I had to say and acknowledged my opinion (and of course, disagreed). My point is that online, you don’t have to be an expert on the niche you pick, you can simply be an internet expert and learn as you go. To be a little cheesy and use a metaphor, if your knowledge on the subject is represented by a forest, a single tree is all you need to start with as long as you’re willing to keep planting seeds and grow new trees. And with all the information in the world available to you at the click of a mouse, or the very least a simple Google search, could it be easier?

Does anyone actually believe Darren Rowse knew everything about blogging and for instance the top reasons to build your RSS subscriber numbers back in 2005 when he startet ProBlogger? Or that Daniel Scocco over at Daily Blog Tips knew that social bookmarking sites love blogs around the time he started his blog? I doubt that they even thought about things like these when they started their blogs, and their journeys to establish themselves as experts on blogging.

My point is that on the internet you don’t need to be an expert on a subject before you start branding yourself as one. If you have a genuine interest in the subject, and a willingness to learn about it, you can be as successful as anyone, so why waste your time becoming an expert before you start to teach people when instead you can teach as you learn. In fact, I have during my days both as a student and an internet publisher found that communicating and teaching continually while you’re in a learning process is one of the most effective ways of learning.

Think about it, and if you have any thoughts on the subject, feel free to share them with the rest of us by posting a comment. I know I’d be interested in hearing what other people think about this, as I’ve never actually heard anyone talking about it in specific before – Perhaps because what I’m saying isn’t plausible? I’d love to hear from people who disagree with me as well!

How to make $3,000 online in less than three months

June 17, 07 //
6

Just like I mentioned in my previous post, I will in this post be examining the defining moments in the process of creating a website [Bloggst] that was sold for $3,000 in less than three months. Let me start by saying that in no way do I feel that I’ve accomplished something unique and amazingly huge with what I’ve done, so you can save the “wow you suck I sold a one month old website for fifty-billion dollars” comments. As I even mentioned in my previous point, from a business-perspective I probably made the wrong decision in selling the site at this point. I simply believe that people out there will find it interesting to see how an average guy with no special skills is able to make a bit of extra money on the side of school and work by building websites. Because that is most certainly true, if I can do it, you can do it too!

The first thing you should note is that even though the site had been online for less than three months at the point of the sale, I didn’t actually do it in less than three months. In terms of work hours, I would say that I probably spent more time preparing the site for the launch, than I did working on the site after the launch. I had a quite intesive month right before the launch where I worked several hours every day on getting everything ready.

You don’t have to be unique, but it doesn’t hurt!

Something that is often claimed when it comes to creating websites, is that to have any chances of any success you have to be unique. This isn’t true. What is true however is that you can’t duplicate something else and expect people to use it. The main vision behind Bloggst is that there didn’t exist a single decent forum for bloggers out there that I could find, and thus I wanted to provide one. Now it still has a way to go before it can be claimed to be a true gathering place for bloggers, in terms of size that is. Those members who have already signed up and actively participated have expressed that the reason they joined Bloggst is because they weren’t already part of something similar.

So you see, while the concept of an online forum isn’t unique, and while there already exists forums for bloggers out there, that doesn’t mean there’s no room for a new player on the field. You just have to identify something that you know you can do better than what’s already done, and you will have something to build on. I will still continue to be an active member over at Bloggst, and even today when I did some small modifications here at my blog, I had to venture over there to find some information that helped me achieve what I wanted. That was the vision I had for it, and that is what it’s doing so far, and hopefully will continue to do in the future.

If you’re building a forum, treat active members like family!

Now this is important. To any online community where user generated content is what drives it, you need to treat the members that actually participate as good as you possibly can. Get in touch with them, help them if can, form relationship. This is what keeps them coming back and contributing, and it is what can separate a community from sudden death or prosperity. And if you need more incentive, I’ll just mention that by doing this, you can get to know a lot of new, awesome people, and perhaps even form new, unlikely friendships that you can carry with you long after your community is taken off of your hands.

Build links!

I addressed the importancy of building links in a previous article (The Power of Link Building), but I can not stress it enough. I am not much of an SEO, but I know that if you want to make a website valuable, you can never get enough links. This will increase your rankings (Google PR, Alexa, Technorati and what not), and these are things that potential buyers of online real estate investigate thoroughly before they consider a purchase.

Build your network!

While we’re on the topic of building, I would also like to mention the importance of building your network of contacts. During the time I’ve spent working with Bloggst, I’ve gotten to know a large bunch of new people, and many of them have helped me, a lot. Some have helped me with suggestions on how to improve the site (thanks Gerald), others have helped me with coding and troubleshooting (Menguzar, before going MIA), some have been sources of inspiration (Matt is one cool guy), some have just given me great links (Deb with her N and g), and some with being the top poster on the forum (Yes, you Malin). There have been several other people as well, but I would like to single out Maki from Dosh Dosh. I don’t remember exactly how we got in touch, but he showed me ways of promoting a website that has been invaluable for me these past couple of months, and I owe him for it. He really knows his stuff, so if you’re serious about making money online, I would definitely recommend that you keep tabs on his blog.

I would say that if you want to have any chances of seeing any sort of success with your online ventures, the most important thing you can do is realize that building a network is the number one key to success. Not only in direct benefits, but the indirect benefits of getting your name out there among the people that can potentially visit your website, and tapping in to the pool of knowledge that your contacts are likely to have far surpasses everything else you can spend your time on.

Pick the right niche at the right time

Blogging is possibly one of the hottest buzzwords online these days, and sites where user generated content flourishes is also the thing that matters these days. It’s no secret that an equivalent of Bloggst, but in another niche, for instance video games, would not have been nearly as interesting to potential buyers. I’m not going to claim that this was a very concious decision from my end, because to be honest I got a bit lucky. I just happen to be a fan of forums, and I was fascinated by blogging, and thus I ended up creating what I did. It goes to show though, that if you’re concious about choosing the right niches and methods of execution at the right time, you can see a far more lucrative return on your investments than you would otherwise.

Work hard and persistently

Even when the going gets tough. It’s during the uphill battles than things go up, so when things aren’t looking too bright, just bite your teeth together and work even harder. The positive results will surprise you accordingly. I would even go as far as to say don’t quit where I did, because if you continue where I left off, you could well be headed for far greater things than what I ended up with!

That’s it. I apologize if any of you expected a ten step formula that shows you how to make some thousands of dollars with little to no effort in less than three months. This post is more about sharing what I think was the defining factors that resulted in me making a fair amount of money from what’s really just a hobby to me, as opposed to it becoming another tomb on the cemetary of dead online projects. And like I said, I’m not special. I’m not a coder by any means (if else echo this var is all greek to me), and I’m not much of a designer either. I’m just a guy who enjoys writing and occasionally puts together a website made mostly from premade scripts, adds a little twist to the mix, and tries to make it work.

And with the danger of repeating myself, if I can do it, surely you can too if you set your mind to it! So what are you waiting for? Get out there and put your ideas to work, enjoy it, and if you’re lucky like me, there might be a bit of financial gain in it for you in return! I know I will continue to do things that I enjoy online. While I’ve decided that building full-fledged websites that require a lot of maintenance might not be for me, that doesn’t mean I won’t be active. I will be writing on my blog, because I enjoy it. I will probably be starting a new topical blog in not too long, because I enjoy it. And I will continue to do all the other things that I enjoy online, just because I enjoy it. If there’s money to be made from it, awesome, but if there isn’t, I still won’t hang my head in shame, because I’ve been spending my time doing something I enjoy, and that’s important.

I sold my Bloggst

June 16, 07 //
16

I do feel like somewhat of a sellout writing this post, but the title doesn’t lie. Bloggst has indeed been sold. When I started the auction I really didn’t expect the kind of attention the auction got, and I certainly didn’t expect it to receive four BIN within the first 24 hours. To be honest, I really didn’t expect to sell the site at all, seeing how I wouldn’t have sold for anything significantly lower than the BIN price, but my expectations were most certainly proved wrong in this case.

So why did I end up with the decision to sell the site that I’ve been working so hard with for the past few months? My reasoning was relatively simple actually. From a business-perspective it was probably a bad decision. The new owner seems like a dedicated and knowledgeable guy, and I am absolutely certain that if he puts the right amount of effort into the site, it will be worth at least twice of what he bought it for within three months.

I am sure you must be asking yourself why I didn’t just keep it for a couple of months then, and then sell it for twice as much. The answer to that is coincidentally also the reason why I ultimately decided to sell the site now. As most of you have probably noticed, since my exams race started, I have hardly had any time to work on the site. Even when my exams ended, I’ve still been too busy because of my “real” jobs (right now I have two of them). This is because I want to improve my financial situation, and by working hard in jobs that guarantee me the return, I can do just that this summer. Now couple that with the fact that when working this much, I won’t have much time to work on the site, which would ultimately have led to a decline in the activity there, which would only decrease the value of the site this summer. The final ingredient in the mix was that even though it might not seem like the world, the money I got from Bloggst goes a long way in stabilizing my finances. I’m just a poor student after all!

During my time working with Bloggst, I also had an epiphany of sorts, or a moment of self discovery if you will. I discovered that as much as I like to work with websites, the constant maintenance most websites demand is extremely tedious for me, and it drains a lot of motivation from me. What is it that I enjoy then? Writing. I love to write, and my writing was also the main reason why Bloggst attracted a decent amount of exposure in such a short timeframe. So I have decided that from now on, I will be focusing my online ventures towards the area that I take most pleasure from. Most likely I will start a new blog sometime soon. I will use the summer to brainstorm for ideas and make sure that I pick the right niche, and then I hope to have everything ready by the time school starts up again.

I’m really looking forward to having a place where my writing is the main focus, and not every cool feature that I’m able to implement. This also means that I’ll be putting more effort into this blog as well (how many times have I said that by now?). It’s a nice place for me to relax and be more personal about what I write. I think many will be pleased to hear that I’ll be covering some of the same subjects that I’ve covered so far over at Bloggst. I’ve been thinking hard to try and define a niche for this blog, and I’ve landed on two things that will get the bulk of my attention here. Promotion and branding (online and offline), as this is something I enjoy very much (I study it). The other topic is “Web 2.0″ – Yeah, I know, done to death. I will however be focusing mostly on the social aspect of it, and try to tie it in with promotion and branding.

That said, I’m not afraid to venture outside of these topics and touch in on other things here on my blog however. It is after all just that, my blog, and if something catches my immediate attention I won’t be afraid to write about it. Hopefully there are a few souls out there who’ll still be interested in reading and participating!

I will be writing at least three posts every week here, and if you don’t believe me, just subscribe to my feed, and I’ll prove you wrong ;) The next post might come as soon as later tonight, where I will be telling you how I managed to create a site that was worth $3,000 in less than three months. Seeing how most of the people reading this blog are aspiring entrepreneurs and website enthusiasts myself, I think it should interest most of you!