How to Make Money by Writing Your Own, Part-time Website

“Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.”
– Anne Frank

In Issue #233

Editor’s Note: This is a special edition of Copy Protégé that is dedicated to a topic Monica and I feel strongly about: learning how to make money online. If you’re as interested in this topic as we are, you’ll pick up some useful tidbits from today’s essay by web copy specialist Nick Usborne. Nick offers timely—and truthful—advice about what it takes to make money online on a part-time basis. Enjoy, and more importantly, take Nick’s advice!

Guest Essay: How to Make Money by Writing Your Own, Part-time Website
by Nick Usborne

Some people tell you that making huge amounts of money online is easy.

It isn’t. Sorry, but it just isn’t that easy.

If it was, none of us would ever have any money worries. We’d just go online, follow some instant, magical process and buy a new beach-front home next week.

But at the same time, many of us do feel that there probably IS a way we can make at least a few thousand dollars a month online.

And that part is true.

You CAN make money online. And even if you don’t make enough to completely replace your salary, you can at least earn some extra money for vacations or to pay off some of those pesky credit card debts.

But how? The web seems to be getting more and more confusing every day. There are so many “hot” tips and “cool” new tools.

Also, for many of us, the whole idea of creating an online “business” sounds too intimidating and scary.

Well, it’s time to take a deep breath and explore a proven way to make money online that doesn’t involve any cutting-edge techniques or knowledge.

In fact, if you know how to write, then you have what it takes to make money online.

And you don’t need to create a business or start a company.

You just have to write a web site.

The cost to you? About $10 to register a domain name for your website and maybe $5 a month for website hosting.

That’s it as far as the money investment goes.

BUT…you will have to invest some time. And you will have to work hard. And you will have to be stubborn and determined in order to succeed.

Does that sound like something you could do?

If so, here is what you do.

You simply write a web site on a topic that already interests you. As an example, take a look at a website called CoffeeDetective.com. That’s one of my websites. I don’t have any professional background or expertise in coffee. It’s just a personal interest of mine.

So a couple of years back I started to write this site. My intention was to help other people who were interested in learning more about making great coffee.

And that’s it. You can follow the same, simple path.

Find a topic that interests you and then start writing a website about that topic, with the intention of informing and helping your readers.

How much money can you realistically make simply by writing your own website?

There are no hard minimums or maximums. But my coffee site makes somewhere between $2,500 and $6,500 a month, depending on the time of year. (I had no idea how seasonal coffee was until I started writing this site.)

I know people who make less than that with their sites. And I know people who make a great deal more.

The question of how much money you can make depends on a lot of different factors. But probably the most important factor is the amount of time you spend on the site.

For myself, my coffee site is strictly a hobby. I spend a little time on it during evenings and weekends. And that’s it.

When you look at it that way, the money I make is wonderful. This isn’t work for me. I’m simply writing about a topic that interests me anyway.

Can you really write a site like this on ANY topic?

There may well be some topics that won’t attract a large enough audience to make you any money.

But the number of topics that WILL make you money is simply massive.

For instance, you can make money by writing a web site about:

You get the idea? There is nothing special about any of these topics. And there are thousands of potential subjects to write about.

So HOW can one make money from this kind of website?

First you write your web pages, then you attract plenty of visitors coming to read your pages…and then you tap into a few different ways to make money from those visitors.

One way is to include what are known as “contextual text ads” on your pages.

The most popular contextual ads are AdSense ads, from Google. “Contextual” simply means that the ads are directly related to the topic of the page.

So if you have a web page all about how to learn to play the guitar, Google will deliver AdSense ads on the page about guitars and guitar lessons.

I have AdSense ads on most of my pages at CoffeeDetective.com and make four figures a month from them.

Another popular and effective way to make money from your pages is to sign up for affiliate programs. For instance, you can sign up as an Amazon affiliate. Then you place affiliate links on your pages to products on Amazon.com.

On that guitar page we could place an image or text link to a particular guitar that is sold on Amazon. If your reader clicks on that link and then buys the guitar, you’ll earn a commission on the sale.

Contextual ads and affiliate links are the two principal ways to make money from your website pages. It’s great money to earn, because it happens around the clock. In fact, you can be away for the weekend and then come back to discover that your site has made a few hundred dollars for you while you were away!

If it’s so simple to make money this way, why doesn’t everyone do it?

Good question. And there are two main answers.

  1. Many people just don’t have the self-confidence. However often you tell them they can do it too, they just won’t believe you. That’s a shame, because if they just tried for a while, they could see some great results.
  2. People give up too soon. This is the BIG reason why people say that you can’t make money online. Making money by writing a website on a topic that interest you takes TIME. In fact, you have to be downright STUBBORN. It doesn’t happen fast. Sometimes you feel like an idiot. Everyone around you is pointing and laughing while you keep working away on your site, with almost no income. They think you’re nuts. But you keep on going, week after week, month after month. And FINALLY you notice that the traffic is building faster and the income is growing faster too. And before you know it YOU’RE the one who’s laughing.

Here’s the bottom line.

While the web seems to be getting busier and more complicated every day, there are two fundamentals that will never change.

First, people will ALWAYS be coming to the web in search of useful information, whether it’s about cupcakes, orchids, cycling or something else.

Second, the search engines will ALWAYS send traffic to web site that are filled with quality information.

That’s it. That’s the foundation of any money-making information site. That’s how my coffee site makes money. Thousands of people want to learn about making coffee, and Google knows that my site is stuffed with quality content.

So whatever else changes on the web, whatever fads come and go, these fundamentals will ALWAYS remain the same.

That means that quality information sites will ALWAYS make money.

And that’s why I know I can depend on my coffee site to be my principal source of income when I retire.

[Nick Usborne writes copy for the web only. His copy has been featured in publications developed by Chrysler, MSN, Citibank, Apple, America Online and Diners Club just to name a few. He is the author of AWAI’s program, Million-Dollar Secrets to Online Copywriting.]

Resource Referral: You’ve Got the Skill, Now Just Put In The Time
by Krista Jones

I’m working with a man who wants to build his own information products business. Problem is, he’s very busy with his training business. I’ve learned from talking to him that’s he’s got plenty of valuable information in his head that thousands of people could benefit from. He just has to get the information out of his head and onto the page and then market it.

If he wants to achieve his dream, there’s only one way to make it happen: he’s got to put some time and energy into it.

So last week, he committed to giving his dream business at least one hour a day—no matter what else is on his schedule. I’m doing my best to hold him to it. After all, his dream is worth it.

I bet there’s something you love or know a lot about too. And if there is, as Nick says above, you could probably make money online by writing about it…if you’re willing to put in the time.

There are so many things you can do with your copywriting skill. One of them is using it to put an extra $500 – $5,000 in your pocket each month.

If you missed Monica’s special note last week, Nick has a new program called How to Write Your Own Money-Making Websites. He walks you through every step you need to take to create and run your own money-making websites. The other day, I talked with someone who already has the program and she recommends it highly!

The really good news is, you don’t need to spend much to get started. And if you get this course by March 27th you save $100!

So order How to Write Your Own Money-Making Websites today. It comes with a money-back guarantee and if you act now you save $100.