There’s no money in Following

19 Mar, 2008 Money Makers, Rant or Raves

Follow? No

You see some of these big name sites like johnchow.com & shoemoney.com making a lot of money through affiliates, ad sales, etc. The basic theme of their site is telling people how to do what they do. While I enjoy reading their sites and do sometimes pick up some basic tips from doing so they are not in the business of giving up their true secrets to making money. They give you just enough to keep you around. Most of what they give you is to help you a little and them a lot. People flock to their sites with dreams of making their money. I’m not saying to stay away from these sites because I still read them but just take everything you read with a grain of salt.

Be a Pioneer

If you find the proverbial “honey hole” why would you tell people? Telling people would create competitors and take away from your share? Would Chevrolet tell Ford about a successful campaign they were working on? If you have ever watch the movie “Pirates of Silicon Valley” or know the story you would know that Apple was working on the Graphical User Interface (GUI) and invited Bill Gates and his Microsoft team to help develop it. Well we know what happened there, Microsoft took off and built their own GUI and came out with Windows 1st. That could well be why they currently dominate the operating system market, not because their product is better. Which brings up a good point, if you follow you are late to the game, you have to get there 1st. Be a pioneer, do something that no one else is doing YET! Johnchow.com & Shoemoney.com didn’t get to where they are by following and neither should you.

Your Focus

Your focus should be on content! You will hear about website design, placement, etc. Just keep it simple and provide good content. I browse a lot of sites and while while I may stop a very nicely designed site to admire it for a second if it doesn’t have interesting content my stay is short. Say what you are really thinking! Write about your passions. I see too many blogs or websites that write about “making money” or something similar and last only a month or two. Their focus was on making money which they knew nothing about and they wasn’t making any so they gave up. I write because I enjoy giving people information that will help them. If you focus on content then the traffic will come. I look at it as if I was pushing a snowball up a giant hill. The snowball is getting bigger but it’s slow going. The top seems like a far way off. Then I think about when I get up there, that snowball will take off and it will all be downhill. At that point it will be almost effortless and that snowball will be getting bigger & bigger, faster & faster!

No Expert Here

I am definitely no expert when it comes to this, but I try things and eliminate what is not working. You don’t need to be a website designer, SEO expert, writer, etc., you just have to love what you do. If you love it you will be more likely to continue it. I have had success, it’s been slowly but surely just like the snowball going uphill. My traffic has slowly climbed and the site is a more than self sufficient money wise. I am not selling anything and I don’t expect you to buy anything, I do have ads and sponsored links and if you visit them then great if not that’s OK too. I just hope you continue to visit this site and get something out of it, whether it be a great deal, or a great idea, I hope it is of value to you because that’s who I write for.

Thanks for Reading,

thetechinside

Comments

7 Responses to “There’s no money in Following”

Rick on March 19th, 2008 4:59 pm

Great advice for a newbie like me. I was very successful in the real world using a different medium but am a dunce with blogging. How did you get my information to automatically populate the fields of the comments when I just typed in the first letter? Very cool!
thetechinside on March 19th, 2008 5:22 pm

Thanks Rick. It was probably your autofill that filled in the fields. Your blog looks great and seems to be an interesting read. I get the feel you enjoy writing. I will read more when I get a chance. Thanks for stopping by.
Article Specialist on March 19th, 2008 7:02 pm

You are right. It’s very important to come up with our own ideas. Be a pioneer! Of course we still have to learn from others and pick up something good here and there as “add-ons” to our original ideas. But the most important thing is our own ideas (what first come up in our mind).
thetechinside on March 19th, 2008 8:58 pm

Correct Article Specialist. You can get ideas as I have and more importantly inspiration from the successful blogs/websites, that’s why I still visit those sites. thanks for your comment.
EzRich Project on March 23rd, 2008 6:51 pm

I agreed with your statement on being a pioneer. Be the first.

There is no benefit in following what JohnChow dictates because everyone else are following his formula or his strategy. To lead or to be in front, you need to be different or unique.

Have a productive day
manilenya on March 24th, 2008 6:12 pm

no problem…I enjoy reading anyways lol!
Adam Pieniazek on March 24th, 2008 8:48 pm

Great advice in general, business and life have one thing in common, you should follow your passion(s) and everything else will sort itself out.