KHALID

I’ve often purchased a domain name on a whim, setup a site, played about with it for a bit then forgotten all about it when I realise it won’t become a money maker. I did this with two sites, Red Hot Wallpapers (RHW) and Ribbu.

If you remember, my challenge with RHW was to purchase cheap traffic and convert it to clicks on my ppc ads. Unfortunately it didn’t work out, and I couldn’t go down the social media route as the traffic is adult(ish!). With Ribbu, I received a huge surge in traffic from StumbleUpon then it all died down very quickly.

I recently re-visited both these sites only to find they were generate about 500 unique visitors per day each! A lot of the traffic is from Google Images but it’s still traffic! So I’ve slapped on some more ppc ads and hopefully they’ll convert in due course. I’ve started posting on these sites again, and even if they aren’t successful in gaining a good position within the SERPs, I’m still getting daily visitors.

Just remember never to forget an old site, they’re probably worth something.

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

One of the few projects I’ve been working on is Students Uncovered – a cross between an information site for all and a student portal with student related news, questions and more. The site has plenty of useful information for both students and non-students, including nightclub reviews and accommodation advice, as well as photo galleries and funny media.

I managed to find a fantastic wordpress theme to use that is very adaptable and integrated both pay-per-click (PPC) and pay-per-lead (PPL) adverts with two good companies, Media Jump and Tradedoubler.

I’ve mentioned Media Jump before – they are a small UK company and an alternative to Adsense. I managed to earn about $10 per day with them through my tattoo network and this was through “double clicks” – a user would have to click on a link then click on a paid link. Imagine the possibilities if it was single clicks only!?!?

They’ve recently introduced a new system called “FastBox” that is single clicks, much similar to Adsense. I have a good relationship with Media Jump and was invited to try this system out. Although their system is not as advanced as Google Adsense, things are going well and hopefully they will continue that way. If you are interested in signing up with them, drop me an e-mail and I’ll introduce you to my account manager.

Tradedoubler is an affiliate company who provide a marketplace for large organisations such as the Natwest bank. I decided to opt for PPL programs, specifically credit cards as many students are looking for 0% interest offers. PPL basically means a user will click on one of my ads and submit a true application that will be processed. Regardless of the decision to offer or not offer a credit card, I will be paid. This model is good however with the credit crunch, people may be less inclined to attempt to borrow as they are being easily refused and each credit check reduces your credit score.

I intend to build some good backlinks to the internal pages of Students Uncovered and get them ranked, such as “Nightclubs in Edinburgh” and have a cool marketing plan to get the site known amongst the party hard undergraduates – offline marketing.

I have purchased t-shirts and rubber stamps with my logo (and web address!) on it and intend to send attrative photographers to nightclubs across the country, wearing my t-shirts and stamping people they photograph. If the students don’t remember the hot chick wearing the t-shirt the night before, they’ll certainly be reminded with a web address stamped on their arm in red ink!

What do you think of the idea and marketing plan?

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

The other day I realised it had been such a long time since I did anything with my blog and decided I should have a little cleanup. I decided to only display adverts for ppc/cpm networks that I made money using and that I believe work – so I removed a few of the 125 x 125 banners and added Chitika – a new ppc company I am trialling and Adversal – a solid company that pays for unintrusive pop-unders (can be added to any site). I placed a Chitika banner in the footer of my posts to see how they do.

I changed the title “My Earnings” to “My Progress” as I believe I am making progress and you don’t need to earn more money to go forth. It also sounds less boastful. Finally, I upgraded WordPress to the latest version for security.

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

p.s. the sexy cleaner helped me clean my blog haha!

Let’s face it, making money online isn’t easy or every Tom, Dick and Harry would be doing it. Sure you can setup a simple site with a few pages of unique content, rank it decently for a minor search term and slap on Adsense – but realistically how long do you think that’ll last?

Google is already trialling search voting whereby users can vote for or against the rankings of a site – do you really think someone will vote a MFA site well? An easy business is easily flawed, and whilst you may be making money now it probably won’t last.

I agree, content is King and people may just think your 5 page mini site is useful, but what they are looking for is regularly updated content, fresh media and up-to-date resources. And, this is why I am building a stronger, better network this time round.

But, like anything you want badly, it comes with a price. I don’t need to remind you of my daily routine to highlight the extend to which I will work for success. Recently though, it shows – my eyes are bloodshot.

Stupid yet significant, it highlights that you need to go that extra mile if you want to succeed. I work before my job, I work after my job, I think during my sleep and I work on my holidays too. Still, I am not collecting enough money from my persuits to pay my food bill nevermind drawing a full time income from it.

And whilst some people reach nearly seven figures, I plod along, towards the light at the end of the tunnel.

Stick in, and good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

I recently completed the ground work for Bar Vacancy by means of creating a network of over 50 sites relating to licensed trade work. It was tough and took many hours to complete, and in addition to this I forked out hundreds of dollars to sponsor many wordpress themes as a way of backlink building.

Like a good wine, you need to let a product mature before it becomes any good and so I must leave the network for a few months now and let the magic happen. As I can’t switch off – and don’t really want to – I have decided to focus my attention on a new site, relating to students across the UK. I have a neat .com and .co.uk name which I am using to create a wordpress based site targetting students and student nightlife in major cities.

I have already commissioned two writers from the UK to complete in depth articles and will be hiring photographers to assist in the marketing of the site – more on that in due course. I intend to launch during Freshers Week – the first week of term where students go out literally every night and party – a way of getting to know one another and form friendships.

Lukily, like with Bar Vacancy, I have one or two contacts in the nightclub industry that are keen to help as they’ll be getting premium exposure on the site. I’m really excited about this venture as I intend to generate revenue from private advertising through local businesses, rather than networks. Competition between these business is fierce and if you have a product or service that will give them a lead, they’ll bite your fingers off.

Like all of my projects, I don’t provide a lot of information until it is out there to avoid being copied. So watch this space and find out more soon!

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

I know it’s slightly late, I actually almost forgot to post my earnings until I was kindly reminded through multiple blog posts by other webmasters. As you know, I don’t really have any sites earning money except CoolNicknames.net and this blog as I sold my entire network recently.

A trickle of revenue came in from Media Jump and TTZ Media. Here’s a breakdown….

>> $42.71 : Media Jump (down from $119.30)

>> $0.15 : TTZ Media (down from $36.45)

>> Grand Total: $42.86

>> Daily Average : $1.38

A shocking month for TTZ, I think I’ll need to review the networks I have placed on this blog to earn more money, after all it is the website I update the most!

Moving forward, I have been ploughing money into a jobs network I am working on as part of the foundations for Bar Vacancy and I am considering placing advertising on their in addition to links and banners pointing to the site. My aim is to have multiple base sites in specific niches, for example “Bar Jobs in Edinburgh” with information and a link to the Bar Vacancy site for them to find a job or post for staff. I’ll let you know how I get on!

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

It has been a tiring return to work. I couldn’t sleep the first night, as you do when you are getting back into a routine. Then, on the second I didn’t have my usual eight hours and tonight I’ve been working solid for what feels like eight hours!

I’m ranting, but whichever way I put it what I’m trying to say is that I really need a rest. My ambition and drive for success sometimes means I skip sleep, cut out breaks and sit solidly until the job is done. Whilst this is really good and means I can hammer out sites quickly, it does mean I’m constantly yawning, my eyes are blood shot and I feel like I am getting no where!

It’s important to rest and take breaks so you return to work with a clear head and fresh enthusiasm but everyday when I get up at 6.15am to go to work I kick myself for not living my dreams of being a full time internet entrepreneur. And when I sit at my desk doing boring work, hating every second, I kick myself for not earning enough online.

I’m still ranting, I guess I just need to zip it until the day comes where I am earning enough to write inspirational blog posts and food reviews like Mr Chow. In the mean time I’ll be repeating my working patterns of coming home to build more sites until I have a network with hundreds of domains – 30 so far, I want 200. My time will come…I hope.

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

Since the launch of Bar Vacancy, a trickle of jobs have been posted on the site however this has since stopped as my target audience is either away from their desks for the weekend or just not interested…yet.

Many people don’t believe in the one-man-band startup, especially if he/she is offering something for free. Something that seems too good to be true is generally ignored. People are wary of a catch or hidden cost and trying to prove there’s not whilst promoting the benefits of the site is difficult.

As a result, I’ve been focusing on recruiting representatives in Europe, mainly areas where UK bar staff travel in the summer to work, such as Tenerife and Ibiza. The idea is to have these people go into restuarants, bars and nightclubs and have them promote the site face to face with the owner/manager. By doing this, they are effectively pushing word-of-mouth advertising and will even offer to post jobs on behalf of the business.

A difficulty that spawns from the above problem is having a balance between jobs and workers. At present, I have more workers than posts, especially people looking for work in Tenerife and Ibiza etc areas. This is annoying as I don’t want people thinking there is nothing available or the site is useless so I need to act fast.

I’ve posted on pretty much every applicable forum and replied to threads for people looking for work.

Watch this space I guess!

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

I’m back and I’ve already been working hard to launch Bar Vacancy. After sending out a few hundred e-mails to bars, nightclubs and agencies, I’ve setup an Adwords Campaign covering a lot of keywords. I’ve decided to let it run for a few days and if it doesn’t work well then I’ll need to look at another form of advertising.

The site is simple, easy and best of all FREE. There should be no reason people don’t want to use the site, I just need to ensure an balanced number of visitors between employers and employees. Word of mouth will hopefully play a big part in ensuring people recommend the site and I intend to advertise privately across bar/nightclub/security forums.

If anyone has any comments or suggestions I’d love to hear them. Perhaps you have an idea or opinion that could help?

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.