I used to read blog after blog every single day, signing up to the networks they were signed up too, promoting products they were promoting and somehow trying to emulate their success. I set myself challenges, told myself and my readers that is was a simple case of building blocks and putting time and effort into sites that I know today aren’t going to live for much longer.

I build and flipped like crazy, which is there the money was, yet I somehow still thought I was doing something wrong because I wasn’t blogging to the world how I promote network X and get $300 a day.

The fact of the matter is that It’s All Bullshit. There’s no such thing as an “easy way to make money online”, no free eBook or download, no guarantees, nothing! Making money online is the same as making money anywhere else; it is hard, takes time and isn’t for everyone. What started out as a few bloggers recalling their success became a blogging shithole of greedy people charging hundreds of dollars for an ad on their blog, getting you to subscribe to networks through their affiliate links and even promoting random products in a bid for that little bit of extra cash.

These blogs were like gold, and some even for sold (Remember NetBusinessBlog.com – the domain forwards to a Forex page now) for ridiculous amounts of money. It is a sad state of affairs when sharing news and tips becomes a way of sucking time and money out of people.

I’m glad I went and did my own thing. I can’t say I wasn’t sucked in by it all, but through time and learning I’ve realised that the best way to make money anywhere is to put your head down and get on with it. I still share any updates and have helped numerous individuals who have asked for help via e-mail. In fact, I still ask for help from my friends too…but they don’t ask me to click through an affiliate link and then download their eBook first.

I have no doubt some downloads and courses etc are worthwhile, but it just seems like greed has taken over and any old trick in the book is punted to whomever will chew it down. And it is for that reason I no longer read the crap they churn out and instead look for anything else with an ounce of quality in it.

Sorry for the rant, I had to get my point out.

Khalid.

I have agreements setup with companies in both cities to accept and complete work that come through the telephone numbers on the sites in return for a referall fee, a new kind of affiliate marketing. I am fortunate enough to have Mark Boyd working as an affiliate for me and promoting a companies on his Aberdeen Taxi site.

Things are progessing well with us racking up in excess of 1,000 calls per month. Mark and I are constantly competing between Edinburgh and Aberdeen, however he has a sub-affiliate promoting his number so qudos to him!

I’ve been trialling new marketing methods, including pairing up with local companies to co-promote each other’s services. I’ve also paid for adverts on student radio and Spotify, which I hope will spread the word about the number. I’ll let you know how that goes at the end of the month!

Like Rob, who is pushing some promotional items for his Claims site, I’ve got a giveaway in the pipeline that my friend Frank and a few others voted as a great idea.

I’m cautious about publishing every step I am taking as the taxi trade is particularly competative and it is difficult to comment on what worked and what didn’t as promoting a taxi number does not guarantee instant results – people may not use one for months to come and there’s no cookies tracking the booking!

Expansion online is one thing I’m focusing on as I’m fortunate enough to benefit from good positions within the SERPs and I’ve built up a small yet growing fan base on Facebook and Twitter.

Things are going well so my head is down and I’m working this idea until those 1,000 calls turn into 10,000!

Good luck with your pursuits,

Khalid.

I’ve spoken to a few affiliates recently, mainly Frank Smingle, Mark Boyd and Kirsty McCubbin, whom all have interests or experience in promoting adult related products, including lingerie and sex toys.

One of the ideas I’m trialling is targetting specific products or keywords but with profitable payouts. As Frank put it, “I’d rather have 100 visitors a month and 10 sales at £15 commission a pop than 10,000 visitors a month and 1 sale” (or something along those lines, but you get the point!).

So, this week I worked day and night to get Vibrating Fleshlight, Vibrating Vagina, Prostate Vibrator, Clitoral Pump and Magic Wand Vibrator up and running. We’ll see how they do, but with a simple layout and minimal inventory on the site, hopefully the conversion rate will be high. Oh and so you don’t think I’m a pervert, I also setup Indoor Hammock.

We’ll see how things go, and if it fails it’ll be an experience that cost me more time than money. I’ll report back in due course.

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

• Google Adsense: £19.21
• TradeDoubler: £16.45
• Affiliate Window: £10.99
• Website Sales: £600
• Total: £646.65 = $1024.08
• Daily Average = $33.03

As we speak I’m setting up bigger affiliate sites like sex swings (adult) and triathlon bicycles.

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

Whilst I received £160 in payments from an affiliate network, these were back dated so I’ve already taken them into account previously. Adsense was a dismal £7.75 but I’m not really bothered as I sold a few projects in January that ensured things picked back up nicely.

I was off for two weeks in December so I think I’ll count this month out and be happy I’m progressing nicely.

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

The date and location are still to be confirmed

Visit http://www.dotgathering.co.uk

Firstly, I’ve started an geo network of Edinburgh sites including Edinburgh Hairdresser and Edinburgh Taxis. In total I have 15 domains, 10 of which have active websites on them. A few are already on page one and the long term plan is to sell private advertising to local business owners.

Secondly, I’ve sold a few small affiliate sites and started re-doing things properly, with the launch of Bass Amp. I picked this name up recently in a clear out portfolio sale and had a private offer for it within 24 hours of owning it. I think it is a good name with plenty of potential and possible a sale to an end user in the near future. I spent a day manually adding products to ensure there is little copied content from the merchants so I am hoping my sore fingers will be rewarded with some cash on affiliate sales!

Thirdly, I am still running Trout as my main investment with a view of it either providing a decent revenue stream or selling to an end user such as a magazine publication. The site is on target to receive 3,000 unique visitors this month.

Finally, I am negotiating for a few domain names with potential to sell individual digital products (don’t worry not eBooks!). My idea is to then setup an affiliate program  and have people promote it for me. Targetting a niche and offering, say 50% commission, should be quite appealing to affiliates as ppc campaigns should not cost a lot and each sale offers a high return.

Being an Internet Entrepreneur is not an easy task and I’m constantly followed on Twitter daily by “Guru’s” pretending to offer get-rich-quick schemes that anyone can do from home. The fact of the matter is, if it was that easy everyone would be doing it and driving around in Ferrari’s. Hard work, determination, and the ability to learn from your mistakes is what it takes.

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

Beer Chillers Ranks 4th for “beer chillers” 108 uniques this month

Fire Bowls Ranks 4th for “fire bowls” 110 uniques this month

Hot Dog Maker Ranks 2nd for “hot dog maker” 56 uniques this month (hit page 1 on 15th so you could say over 100 uniques)

Ice Making Machines Ranks 14th for “ice making machines” 30 uniques this month

Assume no revenue as the sites have only been online for about 1 month and quite frankly I’m crap at converting visitors to customers but this doesn’t mean you can’t. For new sites the traffic is there so you just need to work your magic.

I’m looking for £250 per domain and this includes the site (on wordpress) in its current format. Buyer pays Nominet fee. Payment via BACS. Please remember people pay upwards of $250 for mini site creation so these are a bargain considering they are ranked too!

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

Whilst December is quiet I’ve had time to plan the future of my trout fishing website and build a number of affiliate and geo directories in a bid to generate revenue whilst Trout.co.uk builds itself up more. I think it’ll take a good 12 months to really make my place in the angling sector and I’m lucky to have a loyal and dedicated team of writers working with me…even if they do cost a lot! It is a real shame most companies just don’t get it otherwise we could work together and do wonders for the industry.

Examples of my affiliate sites include hot dog maker, beer chillers and skydiving experiences. I’ve never been any good at affiliate marketing so I decided to build some geo sites too, including Edinburgh spa, Edinburgh beauty salons and Falkirk electricians.

We’ll see how they turn out. Stay tuned and good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

A bit of a bold and brash statement I know, but let me explain…

One of the companies I used to work for tied themselves into a £2,000 a month contract (for 6 months) with a local radio station (before I started) without doing any research, taking advice or shopping around. The result – nothing. Not one sale came from £12,000 expenditure. Long story short I marketed them online, had them on page 1 for multiple geo terms then left because they wouldn’t give me a single penny for a budget despite their site getting 1 new lead per day and over 500 unique visitors a month.

The same company had multiple private listings in national directories and paying a small fortune for it too. I actually had an arguement on the phone with one of them when I cancelled it because the advisor thought the ad was amazing. My question “where is your my ad when I type in keyword in City because that’s what I’m listed under in your directory”? He couldn’t answer it because his ad was no where to be seen, and in fact didn’t rank for much. Yet, because the directory was a national company the owner thought it was worth paying for.

Sure, you can’t measure success by a search engine ranking but I dived a little deeper into previous sales feedback forms and not one person had written that they had found us from said directory.

The internet is so powerful yet so underrated by companies and I begin to wonder when they will listen. Five years ago I said to myself; “give it five years and everyone will realise the potential”. Five years has passed and I’m still twiddling my thumbs. Different generations mean old habits die hard and quite frankly I think it’ll take a lot longer than another five stretch before everyone gets online.

It amazes me how many business owners don’t even have an active website or e-mail address. In this day and age they are addicted to their fax machines and passing trade it makes entrepreneurs like me scratch my head and wonder  if they’ll last much longer.

Take my hairdresser for example. Recently I setup their website and it is already getting 150 uniques a month. That’s 150 potential customers and 150 people they are saying “hello” too every 31 days that they didn’t have before. How crazy is that?

So let’s say we forget the little fish in the pond and focus on retailers or manufacturers. Well, I’ve found there isn’t much difference. After setting up Trout.co.uk I contacted many retailers, suppliers, distributors, manufacutrers, holiday providers, tutors and more to see if they’d come on board and push angling in a new light to the influential youth of today.

Guess how many were willing to help? Zero. None. Nada

Why? Well you could say it was because the site was a startup but to not even discuss it was a sad sight in my eyes, especially as I hadn’t even mentioned costs. I didn’t want their money for myself, I wanted to put equal amounts in to push the sport through competitions and guerilla marketing.

And I’m not alone. I have a friend who owns two wine websites and he’s had the same response. I’ve also got another friend who owns a music website and I would have thought companies would be jumping down his throat to get on there.

Fact of the matter is web advertising/branding is 24/7/365 to anyone, anywhere in the world, so why go for traditional media that is outdated and will be thrown away the next day? We’re cheaper, more flexible, effective and appeal nationwide rather than locally.

The high volume of visitors and the influence players in the web/domain industry has is quite frankly scary. I’m just stunned companies don’t stop for a second and try to work more with them rather than against.

Google is tweeking search results constantly and making things harder for us, affiliate merchants are tightening their commission belts and companies are dragging their heels in getting online/advertising on sites rather than Adsense.

Never mind the little fish, where will that leave us in five years?

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.