Anyone Developing at the moment?

[DaveP]

I haven't had a site of my own generating income for years now, but there's plenty I have built. I'm hoping to get back into it and doing my own.. so be warned.. mwahahaha.

 

[BeachLife]

Does this suggest that people are still managing to monetise and earn good livings from thin affiliate sites? I can't see how a quality, rich and well established site can be replicated easily, the idea maybe but not the success?

I've only ever had one thin affiliate site, which I sold a couple of months after launch. My field is more ecommerce really, either in services or using drop shipping with a direct agreement with the manufacturer.

I actually enjoy reading about other people's success, I find it helps motivate me.

Me too.

 

[accelerator]

Why is it that people don't like to share their sites? Is it that they're poor quality and easily replicated? They don't like to brag? Worried that they'll get treated like Chris (Accelerator) has?

It's not a good idea to share profitable sites that are doing something a bit different. Generally speaking if your site is making money and doing well, it's a very bad idea to tell people about it on forums like Acorn and the like, because people will copy it.

I don't mind sharing LowPrices.co.uk because it's not original and anyone could do the same thing. You do have to be tough though to share the "constructive criticism" you get on Acorn!

Rgds

 

[woffer]

Echo all the thoughts. If your sharing ideas, sharing them with people that could replicate within 24 hours is a bad idea.

Most sites would be
Logo - 5 Dollars
Design - From template basic $20, ecommerce $250
Hosting - Nearly all of us probably have resellers or dedicated
Articles - Varying quality from £7 per 500 for decent offshore to £20 per 500 for very good UK writers
Marketing - Depending on niche could just trawl competitors for the good stuff, add some of your own all pretty basic stuff.
Social - Do this more for signals and a little engagement

Pretty much job done. I think most sites under 50 pages could be replicated without to much trouble. There are obviously other factors such as domain age, exclusivity agreements etc etc.

 

[woffer]

The only way i could see it even slightly working is a private group where everyone signs agreements and is completely transparent about niches and plans. If ever an argument then everyone votes to see outcome and that has to be adhered to.

Alternatively a softer approach would be to share resources, contacts, methods etc without giving away specific niches

 

[accelerator]

The only way i could see it even slightly working is a private group where everyone signs agreements and is completely transparent about niches and plans. If ever an argument then everyone votes to see outcome and that has to be adhered to.

Alternatively a softer approach would be to share resources, contacts, methods etc without giving away specific niches

This kind of thing is incredibly difficult to make work. That said, I am happy to discuss stuff with other webmasters in private if they want to. My motives are mainly to have someone that can link to some of my niche pages. If that's of interest, get in touch via PM.

 

[BeachLife]

Echo all the thoughts. If your sharing ideas, sharing them with people that could replicate within 24 hours is a bad idea.

Most sites would be
Logo - 5 Dollars
Design - From template basic $20, ecommerce $250
Hosting - Nearly all of us probably have resellers or dedicated
Articles - Varying quality from £7 per 500 for decent offshore to £20 per 500 for very good UK writers
Marketing - Depending on niche could just trawl competitors for the good stuff, add some of your own all pretty basic stuff.
Social - Do this more for signals and a little engagement

Pretty much job done. I think most sites under 50 pages could be replicated without to much trouble. There are obviously other factors such as domain age, exclusivity agreements etc etc.

Well in the example I quoted earlier of a site I was selling that was used as "inspiration", it cost around £10K to produce a viable competitor on a good domain, but it was done very well. I wouldn't really worry about a site that had a five dollar logo and £20/500 words content. There are people here though willing to spend £5k or £10k, and invest some time, on a good idea if they know there is a decent profit to be made.

 

[accelerator]

I'm struggling to start because I'm a little overawed by the size of the projects I have in my head. It seems that you lads are knocking sites out at a rate similar to what Sean suggested i.e. one a week.

Is money the biggest motivator for most of people?

Sean, I don't know you very well, but from your forum posts I'm guessing that you are probably of the type that is quite good on the technical development side, but you aren't so good at judging market conditions and opportunities, or in business execution, and getting a viable business idea operational.

Making a living is a motivator for me. Back in the day money was more of a motivator, and things were much more exciting because it seemed much easier to make decent domain sales and make affiliate sales. My motivations are shifting and now I just want to enjoy life rather than make a lot of money.

Rgds

 

[martin-s]

The girl who launched wiwt.com once mentioned to me being a member of a young entrepreneur's group, which sounded good.

Maybe there's potential for an Acorn offshoot that does something similar.

 

[martin-s]

I'm struggling to start because I'm a little overawed by the size of the projects I have in my head.

You only need one project. Choose one and shelve the rest

How's bangers coming along?

 

[accelerator]

With regard to making a success of internet development, the balance of power has shifted heavily from those with technical skills that are good at development, to those with marketing skills that are good at business. It's a very different "scene" nowadays.

Rgds

 

[woffer]

Well in the example I quoted earlier of a site I was selling that was used as "inspiration", it cost around £10K to produce a viable competitor on a good domain, but it was done very well. I wouldn't really worry about a site that had a five dollar logo and £20/500 words content. There are people here though willing to spend £5k or £10k, and invest some time, on a good idea if they know there is a decent profit to be made.

I guess I have always entered markets cheaply, test the water and invest after that once the market potential is a little more known. I have gone into markets where I thought I would make a packet off, been ranked number 1 in Google for our main keyword and made only a few hundred quid a month.

Whilst our main niche I did not think was going to be as lucrative as it was and 2 years on I have 4 full time staff so I guess I was wrong. The point is that market cost us an initial £500 to test. We started to make sales after 4 months and it improved over the next few months further so started reinvesting, improving and evolving as any successful business should. Now we probably spend £5k on Marketing a month for the one website.

I do agree that some niches will require a lot of time, effort and money to enter, even to test. But those are not the niches i get involved in.

 

[BeachLife]

I guess I have always entered markets cheaply, test the water and invest after that once the market potential is a little more known. I have gone into markets where I thought I would make a packet off, been ranked number 1 in Google for our main keyword and made only a few hundred quid a month.

Whilst our main niche I did not think was going to be as lucrative as it was and 2 years on I have 4 full time staff so I guess I was wrong. The point is that market cost us an initial £500 to test. We started to make sales after 4 months and it improved over the next few months further so started reinvesting, improving and evolving as any successful business should. Now we probably spend £5k on Marketing a month for the one website.

I do agree that some niches will require a lot of time, effort and money to enter, even to test. But those are not the niches i get involved in.

I've always done a similar thing, and have failed in quite a few niches. However, and this is my point about sharing, if you know for certain that a site is making substantial profit, then it makes the decision to invest upfront far easier.

Care to share your main website?

 

[martin-s]

Would frozen be an issue?

Yes. So the first question to answer is, can you ship refrigerated instead?

 

[woffer]

I've always done a similar thing, and have failed in quite a few niches. However, and this is my point about sharing, if you know for certain that a site is making substantial profit, then it makes the decision to invest upfront far easier.

Care to share your main website?

Haha. I am tempted because I am a very open person and down the pub I would discuss anything happily. But on an open forum I am a little more hesitant. We have USP's now that make the barriers to entry far greater (namely our own products) but I just dont like being so open. If it was 3 or 4 people or some kind of private group I would be happy to discuss my niche, money, what has worked and not worked, ideas for the future etc.

 

[BeachLife]

Haha. I am tempted because I am a very open person and down the pub I would discuss anything happily. But on an open forum I am a little more hesitant. We have USP's now that make the barriers to entry far greater (namely our own products) but I just dont like being so open. If it was 3 or 4 people or some kind of private group I would be happy to discuss my niche, money, what has worked and not worked, ideas for the future etc.

My thoughts exactly. I think I have found your sites, they look good, one in particular. Cheers.

 

[Edwin]

If anyone is thinking about using websites for real-world, B2B lead generation you could do a lot worse than set aside a few hours to read through David Carter's blog.

Here's an introduction (in the form of a brief "retrospective" on the path he took to where he is now)
http://www.david-carter.com/transition-complete

The whole blog is at http://www.david-carter.com/

NOTE: if you get hung up on the look of his website you'll miss the point entirely - it's the blog content that delivers 100% of the value. I have never come across anyone who has gone into such meticulous warts-and-all detail about everything he's tried - though you have to hit the "Older Posts" link a lot as there are literally hundreds of posts worth reading.

 

[iamrofe]

Just read through all these posts, and what an interesting read!

I am surprised that a fair few people are still thinking and using what I would consider outdated techniques.

I’m happy to share my thoughts and my plans, although I’m going to limited the sites I share as I have been stung before.

I realised midway through 2013 that I wanted to move away from affiliate sites as it was clear that Google didn’t like them anymore.

So I decided to create sites where I still got commission, but that weren’t obvious to google that they were middle men sites. I decided to follow in Khalid’s footsteps and do lead gen for taxi sites (e.g. Manchestertaxi.co.uk) the number was forwarded on to a taxi company and I attempted to charge them per phone call (not as easy as it sounds). I ended up selling the site to a taxi company in Manchester. I also created lead gen sites in other niches too.

2014 created a small portfolio of what I’d call micro/niche ecommerce sites, one example being WankSock.com.

2015 – I realise that if I want to rank in Google now I’m going to need a bigger budget. I’m opting for a strong category killer EMD in a competitive niche with big payouts (which has cost me just under mid £x,xxx) as I still think these hold value in attracting links and building trust which will hopefully assist with conversions. I am going to be spending low £x,xxx on making the site look good and making sure it works on mobile. I’m going to get a shed load of high quality content written, and then I am going to spend low to mid £x,xxx on creating some shareable interactive content which I hope will get picked up by and linked from top tier sites and generate noise and signals on social media. All in all it’s probably going to cost me in excess of £xx,xxx. Cheap shitty sites and buying blog links aren’t going to cut it anymore.

Last year I went back to a full time job, and although I am time poor now all the money I make from my websites can now be put back in to reinvesting (whereas before I’d use it to live). So I feel I am in a better position to finance business ventures now.

Anyway, that’s my journey and plan – thanks for reading.

 

[BeachLife]

I'm researching how viable it is, the biggest hurdles being cost of shipping and the fact that most ship sausages frozen. Would frozen be an issue?

Ship them refrigerated, a pack of different high quality bangers each month on a subscription basis, with tasting notes and cooking suggestions. As the size of the subscription base increases independent sausage manufacturers will offer them to you at reduced prices, just for the marketing of their product.

Not my idea, seen Beerbods? They reached 1200 subscribers in a year, then raised £100k on Crowd Cube. I can't find any current claims for the size of their subscriber base.

 

[woffer]

Just read through all these posts, and what an interesting read!

I am surprised that a fair few people are still thinking and using what I would consider outdated techniques.

I’m happy to share my thoughts and my plans, although I’m going to limited the sites I share as I have been stung before.

I realised midway through 2013 that I wanted to move away from affiliate sites as it was clear that Google didn’t like them anymore.

So I decided to create sites where I still got commission, but that weren’t obvious to google that they were middle men sites. I decided to follow in Khalid’s footsteps and do lead gen for taxi sites (e.g. Manchestertaxi.co.uk) the number was forwarded on to a taxi company and I attempted to charge them per phone call (not as easy as it sounds). I ended up selling the site to a taxi company in Manchester. I also created lead gen sites in other niches too.

2014 created a small portfolio of what I’d call micro/niche ecommerce sites, one example being WankSock.com.

2015 – I realise that if I want to rank in Google now I’m going to need a bigger budget. I’m opting for a strong category killer EMD in a competitive niche with big payouts (which has cost me just under mid £x,xxx) as I still think these hold value in attracting links and building trust which will hopefully assist with conversions. I am going to be spending low £x,xxx on making the site look good and making sure it works on mobile. I’m going to get a shed load of high quality content written, and then I am going to spend low to mid £x,xxx on creating some shareable interactive content which I hope will get picked up by and linked from top tier sites and generate noise and signals on social media. All in all it’s probably going to cost me in excess of £xx,xxx. Cheap shitty sites and buying blog links aren’t going to cut it anymore.

Last year I went back to a full time job, and although I am time poor now all the money I make from my websites can now be put back in to reinvesting (whereas before I’d use it to live). So I feel I am in a better position to finance business ventures now.

Anyway, that’s my journey and plan – thanks for reading.

Sounds good and sorry you got stung. Again, maybe why that is best sharing in a more private way rather than everyone spilling their sites. I went to a conference with David Naylor and chatted to him for 30 mins or so after. Really down to earth bloke who knows his stuff. He said five or six ways he could get a competitor blitzed within a few days if they werent paying attention