50 Websites Making Only $20 Per Month Equals $1000 Per Month In Earnings

I really like this sort of idea Mark. Some of the Blogging Finges sale money is going to go towards domains for this strategy. In a few months I'll let everyone know if it's hit!

LOL - uhh uhhh

I am redesigning my tech blog and site - for ebay amazon - and then trying to re organize your ebay amazon you tube mashup - hopefully


ebook - paid perview - scripts - other sites

I do all of the above mark! whats next :)

If domain costs are a problem, you could build a whole network of different subjects or themes on one domain by slotting your various topics in subdomains (think wordpress.com, blogger.com, etc.). I don't believe one subdomain can pull down the rest (as long as they're not link spamming each other), so it's a decent/workable alternative IMO.

I hate one-line comments but all I can say is:

You're brilliant.

Great video, thanks for the information. I still have to get to a point where one of my sites makes $20/mo....baby steps....

Now Cashquests, that wasn't a one-line comment :)

The only thing why I still have just 1 domain bought myself, can be described in one word "father". Really, I want to create some other blogs, mashups, 19pages sites, but whenever I start talking about that I want to buy something, he says "Huh... why not do it on the site you currently have..."

Oh gah, I'll convince him anytime soon, or else get my PayPal money spent...

Nice post. This is the same message I have been communicating on my site for awhile now. I believe it is easier to get multiple blogs to a minimum level and deal in mass volume compared to banking on building enough traffic to one blog in order to make enough money to make ends meet.

Personally, I have over 175 blogs now and generate quite a bit of traffic globally across my entire network of blogs. I make in excess of over $5000 dollars per month. I haven't really come out and have said this publicly; however, with this post... you nailed it on the head.

This is my secret, this is exactly to a "T" what I do to make money online. And when you learn how to do it automatically, like get even better. :)

Best Regards,
Garry Conn

@matt - congrats on the sale, for sure keep us updated on your next steps

@cashquests - you're more brilliant

@roberta - stick with it, making the first $20 took me a few months, yeah I was a very slow starter

@koen - interesting that you mention 19pages sites. The one I used in the example using wikipedia content averages 250 uniques a month:

http://www.45n5.com/permalink/howto-build-a-content-minisite-in-under-10-minutes.html

@GarryConn - holly cr@p dude! awesome.

@Terry - cool idea, I may have to try this one ;-)

You described my business plan. ;)

I have been doing this quite successfully.

I wish I had the time for this sort of thing - but the idea sounds like it would work. Anyone DOING this?

BlackHat thinking at it's finest :)

Automate the creation of 1000 sites that make a measly $0.20 per day = $6000/month. Keep going, it's automated, right?

And... ahem, what is the youtube ebay script you were talking about? I'll crawl your blog!

@amy - thanks for the comment

@vern - see amy's comment, that's what she is doing. I've also done similar except some of my sites make less per month and some make much more. I also plan on doing something like this again in the near future, but per terry's comment probably all on one domain.

@egonitron - I wouldn't call it blackhat. Doing something to scale doesn't make it blackhat. For instance creating sites with 19pages.com, doing 1 new site a day, would be very far from blackhat.

I've never been one to shy away from having fun with filling the serps with tons of garbage to see what happens however I've tried to get away from it because I got tired of worrying my income would die with the next google update.

Also if it were a blackhat mentality part two would be:

build another 50 sites

But I think part two should be

Don't build anymore sites. Rather, see what sites are doing the best after a few months and make those sites even better, or promote them more, or monetize them more, etc. ;-)

@vern

the youtube ebay amazon script

http://www.45n5.com/permalink/howto-build-a-youtube-ebay-amazon-mashup-affiliate.html

the 19pages script

http://www.45n5.com/permalink/howto-build-a-content-minisite-in-under-10-minutes.html

@==> Terry, indeed I've been thinking about your tip for some time. I know there is some value in having keywords in the URL, etc., but OTOH creating either a 19pages style site or a WordPress bog (hint, use WP MU software ... it's the system that runs www.wordpress.com, so you know it's robust enough) will make automation significantly easier. And, unknown to many apparently, Google still has in a free submissions page and they seem to visit a new subdomain in hours.

@==> Mark ... tip of the week. Do or do not, there is no "try" ;-)

Hey Guys I'll Jump in here... The biggest problem I seem to have is getting traffic to my sites. I've tried different niche sites, blogs, etc, but have never gotten much traffic other than an occasional stumble upon spike. I do reasonable SEO - is it just a matter of picking popular niches?

Also where do you guys get your webhosting? I get a pretty good deal but if it's still costing me $35/yr to host each domain, it seems like I'm throwing money away.

There are thusands of _much_ better host deals out there, PHP ebook. I use these guys, have for years (and no this is not an affiliate link)
www.qualityhostonline.com
I use the first tier of their reseller service ... I'm not a re-seller but I can put up thousands of sites for $10 USD a month and I have unlimited flexibility. I've now completed more than 14 months with them with absolutely 0 downtime. Again, there are other values out there but you want a re-seller type account where you cna host multiple sites ... $25 a year per site is way out of line, especially for tiny sites like 19Pages MFA sites.

"But I think part two should be

Don't build anymore sites. Rather, see what sites are doing the best after a few months and make those sites even better, or promote them more, or monetize them more, etc. ;-)"

I really like this idea and it's what I'm doing with my own sites. In the last couple of months I have started several new websites. As I see which of these sites is attracting attention and generating some income I can concentrate on that site or technique.

It's sort of like split-testing an advertisement, only with whole websites instead of a single ad. When I find a format that works for me I can concentrate my efforts in that area and improve my results in the future.



"it's still costing me $35/yr to host each domain"

I would suggest working with a host that allows multiple domains per hosting account. I use GoDaddy for most of my hosting. I get on of the Basic or Premium level accounts and can host dozens of small sites, with their own domains, on just one account. They provide enough monthly bandwidth and storage space that there is plenty to go around while these sites mature. If one of the sites outgrows this setup it could be moved to it's own hosting account.

Wow, I guess this subject (and the vid) have grabbed my interest.

Mark, I think your "part 2" idea is the best one. If you have 50 sites up and running ... and monetized ... Google or whatever your monetization tool is ... will rapidly tell you which ones are hits and which are misses. My guess is an average group of 50 will have 1 or 2 that well exceed the goal, 5 or 6 that pretty much hit the goal and the other 40ish pretty much duds.

Before you strt another 50, see what the top producers are doing and replicate that as much as possible on the poor performers ... this will certaily be a valid use of time.

Also something I seldom see mentioned ... parking. If you are like me and have a umber of URL's that I thought would be good for something ... once upon a time ... instead of frustrating high level research, just put them all on Sedo or some other name-brand parking service. In a month or so, while you are busy with profitable UL's, they will not have made much money, but you will have hard data on how many search engine query hits each one gets, how many uniques pe rmonth, etc., and all automated. Then just leave the ones that are duds on the parking service, they will likely earn enoughin a year to pay their domaion renewal fees, and dvelop the ones that attract search or type-in traffic.

Formula that virtually GUARANTEES $1.000/month:

Blogger Blog = Free Blog
Youtube with ads = content and advertising
Adsense = advertising
Youtube - Free marketing

+

Digg
Technorati
Stumbleupon
Facebook groups

* 50

+ 5 minutes every other day per site (2 hours a day)

= Virtually guarantees $1.000 a month

This is how I got started. Just pick a topic and start hammering out your video-blog (music videos, jokes, skateboarding, movie trailers etc..) and you cant go wrong.

All you need is a few clicks per day / per blog and you are there! Remember, $20 a month is less than $1 per day which translates into maybe 2-3 adsense clicks at medium eCPM!

Hope you find it useful!
Daniel

Ps. You can always take your blogs to the next level by adding a custom domain to your blogger blog WHEN your blog is earning enough to cover expenses. Ds.

Hi Mark,

I have been trying a similar tack but with just eBay content. I find that google doesn't seem to love these sorts of sites as much. At least thats my experience so far.

I don't mind sharing the domains so everyone can give feedback or maybe even learn something.

http://www.handbags4sale.info
http://www.thewiibay.com

When I saw the title of the post I was raising objections in my head about how difficult it or time consuming it would be to maintain 50 websites. I had not seen your script before - I like the out of the box thinking! I think as others have alluded to, the traffic would be the stumbling block. I think there's two things you can do there - firstly do the keyword research to target words that are likely to get traffic in the first place, and secondly, don't just put the sites up and forget about them, but build backlinks to them.

Nice video
Although I do think one has to have a lot of time in order to do this, as in not having a fulltime job :)

I have hundreds of domains and sites, but just a few of them make most of my monthly income. Having lots of sites is good for testing different stuff out. For people just getting started though, I wouldn't be doing anything too quickly and just work on a couple of sites at a time.

@Mark: You're right, what you explained certainly isn't inherently blackhat, but I suppose that's how my brain defaults. See I was thinking:
1. Create a site
2. Make sure it pulls it's own weight (hosting/domain)
3. Automate the creation of a similar site
4. Do this 1000 times (since it's automated it doesn't take as long)

Don't worry about quality, it doesn't matter.

Anyway, if you all are looking for a way to save money on domains instead of paying $8 for each blog, there's something called

Hmm, wonder why that didn't work. Anyway, it's called Wordpress MU, check it out here: http://mu.wordpress.org/

It allows you to have one domain (let's say LLLL.com) and create multiple separate Wordpress installs on subdomains (blog1.LLLL.com, blog2.LLLL.com, etc.) It takes some technical know-how, but it's a good way to save on bulk WP installs.

I've done this on a small scale with 20 sites. They're either old fashioned handcoded HTML or Wordpress, no builder scripts. The biggest one brought in about $10 a month but jumped up to $40-50 a month when its search position suddenly improved in August. The others usually get about $1-10 a month.

@php ebook - hosting for unlimited domains:

http://www.45n5.com/permalink/dreamhost-max-discount-promo-code.html

not the most reliable but cheap stuff or check out some of the other suggestions by davestarr. You are paying way to much for hosting. my vps is only $20 per month.

@kitchendon - never thought if that way but I reckon it is like split testing domains, lol. good stuff. except you even the junkers are keepers most times. remember, even a bomb only needs to make $10 in one year to make it worth keeping.

@Daniel @textadsearch - thanks for the feedback, cool to see people doing similar concepts

@Stefson - you can do this with a full time job, you should get weekends off every week, that's over 100 free days per year just in weekends, add holidays, vacations, snow days, etc and you probably have 1/3 of your year free.

@egonitron - thanks for the wordrpess mu tip. I do see the blackhat resemblence but for the purpose of this post I'd recommend peolple not go that route ;-)

@Mike @caroline - thanks for the feedback

@all - thanks for the comments, I hope I got everybody if not sorry

the one unanswered thought I see is "how to get traffic to the sites". hmmmmmmmm this comment is already long enough for me, but it seems like the 50 site idea is golden then if you just figure out how to replicate a system to drum up a little bit of traffic to each site each month ;-)

Very cool idea. I need to check out your mashup script.

Definitely something to think about!

By the way, what's up with your ScratchBack widget? I see there are still two spots open, but it won't let me buy one.

wow pat - thanks for the heads up. I reckon that is why they call it beta ;-) I'll shoot an email off to Jim.

I have two sites that get under 20 visitors a month and make me nothing. I don't see anyone here telling how to get traffic to your sites. Anyone can build 50 sites, BUT HOW DO YOU GET TRAFFIC TO THEM? The traffic does not just magically come, you know.

@dayjobnuker - "The traffic does not just magically come, you know."

yes it does. I spent literally 10 minutes on bonsai training and it gets 250-300 uniques per month, every month.

creation of the site chronicled here:

http://www.45n5.com/permalink/howto-build-a-content-minisite-in-under-10-minutes.html

Mark, I thought you mentioned this sometime back - I might be wrong. But it was also Garry reinforcing this (175 sites wth?!) that got me putting in time on it. I got 'lucky' with the first 2 and it's pretty much all systems go from there.

I'm no expert but I'd say whether the traffic comes with effort or not depends on many factors, like seo, or using various other methods like SU or advertising (free or otherwise). My guess is if your site serves a niche that is regularly hit on SE-wise, and it's relatively well optimised - shouldn't that be a good start to get traffic.

Great video!

@yc - I did no linking to the site other than 1 from here and no advertising.

Think about it:

with google, ALL the other search engines, all of the bookmarking sites, all of the article writing sites, all of the classified sites, and all of the social networking sites combined, available to you - getting 10 visitors to your site per day is NOTHING!

seriously, the site I mention gets 300 uniques per MONTH. That is ONLY 10 visitors per day.

Plus - You only need a .033% conversion per month with a 20$ commission to make your system work. You need only a .66% conversion with a $10 commission to make your system work. etc...

I ain't saying it's easy, but I don't see it being the hardest thing on the planet to do.

@all - I see people had the open question of traffic, but it's not that big of deal when you look around.

if everything else like building the sites is so "easy" and traffic is the only thing you need to work on, GREAT! you know where to fight your battle then. You are way ahead of the other folks.

if you don't figure it out it's not a problem for you it's an EXCUSE!

And sorry but I won't be breaking down for people how to get 10 visitors per day to a site. I love the feedback but I'm gonna say you are on your own on that one ;-)

If you have more then one site how do you find the time to run them all. How do you post in each site and keep the content fresh?

@Collin - there is no rule that you have to update a site.

Some sites I haven't updated in over a year still bring in steady money.

I am sorry, but I will never believe that 10 visitors a day is enough to make any sort of money. It just isn't. And BTW you get your Bonsai (pronounced "bone-sai" and not "Banzaii" like you erroneosly say over and over in your video) traffic because you put out the video and promoted it.

I think you are not helping any newbies by saying that the traffic "magically comes" because it doesn't even if you say it does.

If you have 50 sites it will be a full time job working on getting traffic to them. 50 sites is A LOT OF SITES. Seriously, 50 SITES IS A LOT OF SITES.

@dayjobnuker - you've made two critical comments that aren't helping anybody.

if you have a better solution then post it on your blog.

I loved reading all your comments. I think this video post is a great idea.
Firstly, I own 25 domains but most are parked (on parked.com) as I'm trying to test this option out to see if money wil flow in while parked.

I run ONE main site (www.insanemoneyblog.com) but will be purchasing probably 30 to 50 new domains in the coming weeks. I stil don't know if I'll be parking them all or doing an auto-build as you suggested. I'll check out the script nonetheless.

I agree that only very few people have the chance to run one or two sites and create a huge income stream. Most of us need multiple income streams to cover our expenses and to make a little extra.

I hope that, eventually soon, I will be able to say that I own 200 sites that each rake in roughly $1 per day. Geez that's $6000 per month. Isn't that the whole idea?? :)

Insane Seb

I have started doing something like this. I have 5 sites/blogs that earn around 300 a month at this time. One thing I do have problems doing though is finding the right niche..... I think niche research is one of the hardest things to do.....even more so than keyword analysis......

Good luck in you continued endevours...... eric aka NoviceSEO

This comment thread has also been very helpful. I've put up some blogspot pages and some test sites on subdomains to see what I can put together, what kind of traffic I can get from Google, etc. Nothing much to report yet. I submitted to onlywire and some other pages, it took a few days for my sites to get listed and not all of them have listed yet.

@insane @novice seo - good luck

@tyshcr - interesting twist to put them on free hosts.

the only problem I would have with that is do you have access to the search data on those hosts?

for me that's critical because I can take that data a twist it up, write more about it, mispell it, add products about it, beef up the affilaite links on trafficed pages, etc.etc.

@tyshcr - also the data is important because you can take it if it's product related and go to amazon and find "related products" and use that ingo and for any keywords you put them in google keywords and find related keywords people search for.

a great type of site for your system is an "evolving" site.

I'm testing Terry's suggestion about subdomains, using them to replicate something I've been doing for a while now that's a quick easy setup, needs almost no maintenance, and just rolls in a nice steady bit of cash every month.

If it doesn't work with subdomains, I can always 301 them to a new domain and start again.

It's also possible that using subdomains on AGED domains might be more beneficial than starting new domains. If I can tell from my results, I'll keep you posted.

@saphire - the only drawback to using subdomains is you can't sell them. if a regular domain doesn't work well for you it can still be sold for 30-50 dollars (or more).

@ Mark - On blogspot and my subdomains, I added Google Analytics - I haven't gotten any search engine traffic to these sites yet (been fighting with Google) but I was able to put Google Analytics on each of these sites... is that what you're asking about?


Also, what's your definition of an "evolving" site ?

"Also, what's your definition of an "evolving" site ?"

I don't have one, that's for you to decide ;-) Manual or programmaticly updated. it would be cool if it kept updating, but not mandatory..

Very Cool thought, Think outside the box

Wow, what a great website (and video). This is pretty much what I have been trying to do for a while now, although I am still waiting to make my first $20 on a single website in a month! Hopefully I'll get there one day :)

Darn and my goal was 6 sites by this time next year, but I did make $80.00 today, better than yesterday which was 8.00, or the day before which was less than a dollar, what a life we live!

One of the most interesting articles/threads yet.
@ everyone on the subdomains issue. True they can't be sold ... but if they are throwaways, like the original idea of starting 50 sites and seeing what flies, that's even better. They can easily be redirected to a real domain if they come alive.

I have a friend with a 150 plusd WordPress network, all self-run (with paid help). He switched to WordPress MU and has seen big advantages ... and MU is putting those blogs on subdomains, and Google sends people to subdomains ... PR only mans anything to TLA, means nada for search.

@ Bruce. Wow, I thought I had a negative outlook. If you have a blog/site that talks about, gives information on, helps people find info on something that people search for, traffic will come ... period. I think it is a service rather than a disservice to beginners to say this ... because it's true, with no SEO mumbo jumbo. One of the reasons I am now working on a blog on my retired pay site is that it was sitting moribund because I was no longer interested in the rather obscure subject matter. It was stillmaking$20-odd bucks a month just from AdSense. I notice a lot of searches on combos of retirees and making money and lots of matching AdSense ads ... strating a new "make money' blog is something experts ... and I ... would counsel against, but who am I to tell people what to search for. My public spoke, so I responded. It makes much more AdSense per month now and is turning affiliate sales ... sell just one SEO Book per _month_ (as just one example) and you're in. And believe me, if you can't do that and work a regular job you need vitamins ... it just ain't that hard.

Here's another idea I'm using on this kind of site -- A page with a Google Adsense Video Unit. You get fresh content for your site's topic via YouTube plus Adsense revenue.