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Your Questions on Site Build ItHere are some of the most common questions I hear about running a website.
Q: How much money do you make? Always a popular question, so I'll get right to it. In the last 12 months I made $40,000 from my website. In the 12 months before that, I clocked $25,000. Before that, $13,000. And before that... my site didn't exist :) I don't usually publicize my income but this is one time I don't mind sharing because it helps people understand the scale and potential of a Site Build It website. These figures demonstrate not only that you can earn a healthy living online, but that it also takes time to scale up. Whether you're building a website to generate your main income, or just to provide a supplemental income, you need to have realistic financial goals. So do expect to have a period of low income from your site while you establish it. Like any other business model, you're building something up from scratch. However, unlike a standard 9-to-5 job, your income is ultimately unlimited. So while I made a low income in my first year (which I supplemented with freelance work, showing it's possible to achieve all this part-time) I saw this double the next year. How? As I wrote more articles, drew more web traffic, and added new income streams, my income grew too. The work I put in at the beginning has paid me off many times over already. This is passive income which means my website works on my behalf 24/7, while I work, rest and play. That's the benefit of owning your own business. Now obviously, every website is different, and your income potential will likely be different from mine. You could do a lot better in your first year - or a lot worse. The main factors that will affect your income potential are:
There are numerous factors weighing in on the second point, such as the popularity of your website niche, and how successfully you monetize your visitors. But these all come under Site Build It's formula, so if you stick to that, you'll maximize your potential. I note that many successful website owners using the SBI model fall in the realm of earning $2,000-$5,000 per month.
Q: How did you choose your website niche? I always knew I had a strong interest in lucid dreaming, but I never thought I could make a living out of it. That was, until I started using Brainstorm It, a feature of Site Build It. This tool took a list of all my hobbies, passions, expertise and areas of interest, and ran them through a comparison of web searches. It then analyzed my favorite topics for searchability, competition, and profitability. In the end, it was a numbers game. Based on my chosen topics (feel free to make a list of all your interests... it can get quite long once you get going) SBI used its own formula to calculate what the most popular and profitable website niche would be for me. And that's how I ended up making a website about lucid dreaming. If you're interested, my other site concepts included: unexplained phenomena, science fiction, playing piano, photography, travel, New Zealand, cake recipes, writing, stock market investing, natural vision improvement and paranormal activity. You don't need to be the world's most foremost expert on a particular subject to make a website about it. As long as you are knowledgeable or can research your niche, and have some level of personal insight which will make your website unique. It may be your favorite travel destination, your experiencing of owning a pet lizard, or your fascination for psychology that gives your niche website a unique and personal edge. Q: How do you make money with your website? There are a few main routes (and dozens of sub-routes) to make money with your website. Most SBI users go with:
Site Build It will help you decide which route to go down first, but the reality is, the proof is in the pudding. For example, many websites make good money from Google AdSense - blocks of text and image advertising placed throughout the website content. However, my lucid dreaming site doesn't lend itself well to this. I guess people are enjoying my content too much to click on ads :) So I turned my focus to affiliate products (eg, books on lucid dreaming) and making my own products (eg, my own digital course). If people value my website content, they're more likely to respect my product reviews and purchase my own digital course. Today, my income arises from a handful of sources, such as:
How you decide to monetize your website is up to you. You may find there are no affiliate products you want to sell, so just stick to pay-per-click advertising. Or you may exclusively create and sell your own e-goods. When you develop a serious following, you may look at producing your own teleseminars, conferences and workshops. You can even create an SBI website to support your local offline business, such as restaurants and real estate, and use it to generate new customer leads,
Q: What are the challenges faced in building an online business using Site Build It? What mistakes would you avoid? One big reason why I like Site Build It is that it simplifies the technology behind site building and gives you a proven, step-by-step methodology for creating a successful website. This significantly reduces the number of challenges involved. I think the real challenges are personal. Some people have a problem with lack of motivation. They might start a business with all guns firing but then give up a few weeks later when they don't see instant results. Building a business takes time, and even though Site Build It is there to hold your hand, there is no getting away from the fact that your future online career is 100% dependent on your own motivation and work ethic. Your website will require your hard work and creativity. It's not an automated money making machine - at least not until you build it! Similarly, a personal issue I faced was not having confidence in myself. I held myself back with my own self-doubt. It took me two weeks to pluck up the courage to start using Site Build It - and some users take years to start the process. Yet once I got established, my readers began giving me supportive feedback, my website starting generating a serious income, and I realized how exciting it all was. I found new confidence in my abilities and wished I had started even sooner.
Q: Should I build a website on personal development? Personal development / self-help is a really popular subject and there's a lot of ways to monetize it. As a result, there is huge competition in this area, so you might find it hard to rank well on Google for personal development keywords. It will take you a much bigger investment of time and a lot more articles before you become a true player in this field. The question is, do you have what it takes? Assuming you are happy producing a truly massive website on personal development... there are two ways to look at this, and I'm going to be blunt: If you are a great writer, a great thinker, and have the ability to be truly original, then I see no reason not to develop a website on the broad subject of personal development. However, if you don't have the skills to compete with some of the leading personal development experts in the world - then I say leave this one alone. Of course, you can still operate within this profitable niche - just narrow it down a bit. There are many sub-niches within personal development, like:
...and so on. These are off the top of my head and I'm sure you could create an enormous list if you wanted to. You can even Google it. Then you can plug your brightest ideas into Site Build It and find out which ones are still popular enough to make a website on. In this field, I'm sure there are many.
Q: Does Site Build It allow readers to make comments on my articles? Yes - and this is one of the most exciting developments in recent SBI times. The tool is called Content 2.0 and feeds off the idea of user interactivity. When a reader wants to make a comment, it's easy to do so (without registering for anything). And if they want to tell their story in-depth and add pictures, they can fill out a form on your website and SBI automatically creates a whole new page of content for it. The page is also submitted to Google and other Search Engines so it's the equivalent of you writing a new page for your website - except you don't even lift a finger! In this way, your readers can effectively build your business - for free. And why do they do it? Because they want to. The rapid rise of social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube shows that internet users are gagging to create their own content. The fact that it is hosted on your site just makes your site even more popular. SBI has a really informative page on this concept. (In fact, this tool became such an important feature they decided to rename the whole package as SBI 2.0).
Getting Started with SBII hope that helps flesh out your understanding of the SBI process and what sort of difference it could make to your personal income. Three years ago I was in the same boat you are now. I was fed up with the rat race, desperate to forge a more creative career and kick the 9-to-5 routine. When I got started with Site Build It, I found exactly what I was looking for. Click here to order Site Build It yourself and start your own website today. I wish you all the best in your new career.
Rebecca Turner PS - If you have more questions, send them to me for publication here, or feel free to contact the SBI customer help team directly. |
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