Thread: Making a Web Income in 2013

Was talking to a friend... they mentioned that they are branching into a new area to diversify their income because making a living strictly off SEO and affiliate income is less productive than in the past.

Threads where people ask "How much do you make on the web" are a huge waste. The people that claim to make huge amounts are usually lying to sell you an e-book and the ones that are really making money have no desire to draw a map to the golden goose. So let's try a different tack.

Possible topics to discuss:
- Where do you see opportunities on the web in 2013 that might be worth exploring?
- Are you "staying put" in the income field you're in now because you think it's still growing?
- If you could start over and pick a different type of web monetization scheme... what would you do?

This isn't a formal thread by any means, so don't feel limited by the questions above. Just curious to hear what people think are the challenges and opportunities as we enter a new year.

What I have always said for years...
Those actually making lots of money on the net do not bother with forums and telling their secrets.
They may come out with an ebook, but that is rare.

Those on forums who say they are making money are just, like you say, wanting to sell something in hopes of actually making money!

Affiliates are going to be a thing of the past.
Too many people are smart now and can see amazon affiliate links, clickbank links, and more.
And just go to amazon, etc.
I do.

Two things for 2013.
One of them is hard to actually sell unless you practically give it away, so for this, forums are not that great of a place to sell.
And that is creating content, writing original stories and articles.

The other is again something that will not do that good on forums because like above, too many cheap sellers who do not have a clue.
That is helping companies and individuals clean up their act on facebook and get their facebook presence in front of people.
Same on twitter and other social sites like linkdn, etc.

So many just threw up pages, accounts, etc. and expected to get their message out.
They really need someone to get those pages, accounts, etc. done right and some money to be made there.
Oh, and do not use phrases like "I am a social media guru", "I am a marketing master", etc.

Now personally, I gave up some time back to make money on the net.
I enjoy my blogs and that is that.
If now and again I make something to pay my hosting, great.

One of them is hard to actually sell unless you practically give it away, so for this, forums are not that great of a place to sell.
And that is creating content, writing original stories and articles.

Yeah... the real problem comes in that there are ESL providers that offer a sub-standard product from their base in countries where making 5 grand a year makes you the equivalent of a multimillionaire in the US. I've actually been underbid on content jobs by US teams that have altered their structure to try and be marginally competitive with Pakistan and that crowd. That was for pretty low level work in high quantity, but you get the idea.

I think writers that are real writers, not just spinning or repackaging someone else's stuff, can still make money, but it won't be made trying to compete with the third world. Working on that tough nut right now... havent found the answer yet.

I also do not believe that the people selling secrets in e-books are making the money that they claim. If you have a method that really brings home the bacon, you keep it to yourself. Most of the e-book products that I've purchased on WF and other sites have been long on claims and short on proof and substance. If I learn one new useful tidbit I am usually happy with the purchase, but that is rare.

Google has most web site owners scared to death about SEO. The link building segment of the industry and the growing number of unscrupulous overseas SEO players really has done a lot of damage to the entire industry.

Most affiliate marketing sites have already been trashed by Google, even those that contain 100% unique content and have followed all of the advice from Google reps.

I see three areas that have a huge potential for growth, but each person has to figure out how they can make some money.

Video Training & Video Production -- Currently booming, but only a small number make any money.

List Building -- for those wanting to shake the Google monkey off their backs.

Mobile Web Sites and Mobile Technology -- about 20% to 25% of all web site traffic is from mobile devices, and growing quickly. It will likely be at least 50% in 2 years.

Most current money-making niches have either been trashed or are saturated.

On namepros, one person made this valid statement:
In his years of creating content, web design, and more....not once has he been contacted by anyone outside of the USA to outsource their work to him.

In short, like rob says, overseas one does not have to make much money to be rich.

And yes, more and more so called content creators, designers, and more here in the USA are outsourcing more and more.
Pay someone overseas pennies, charge the customer dollars.
Everyone is happy.
Until the customer finds out what actually happened.

Last year I earned a good percentage of my income repairing WordPress sites that USA-based SEO and web design companies farmed out to India. Some used table-based designs that have been obsolete for years, while others hard-coded all of the menus because they did not know how to utilize the custom menu features. All contained very poorly written code. One site had over 300 coding errors on the home page according to the W3C validator. It is pretty hard to cram that many errors into a few PHP theme templates.

Funny thing about most with a wordpress blog.
They will continue wanting jobs done to repair other jobs....by going to the same class of people that screwed up to begin with.

And finally, they will want someone who is a wp guru, blah blah blah....to do the job right.
And in most cases?
For the same amount they were paying those overseas!

Vicious circle is all it is.

I'd think given the number of people that are shopping on the web instead of at a mall these days there's opportunity there for those capable of getting their site found. That'd mean the SEO skills can go to making your own site rank instead of being paid to help others do it.

Have seen people using their blogs as an entry point to sales of related t-shirts, mugs, apparel etc. Not sure how much of their income comes from what though.

What do you guys see as the pros, cons, strengths, opportunities in the online shopping realm? Dropshipping? Making your own stuff? Affiliate sales? Other?

If you have a product no one else has.
A product not carried by amazon, wally world, etc.
Then quite possibly you could make money selling it on the net.

Too many people shopping on the net do not buy the first product at the price shown.
Instead they search and search for the lowest possible price.

Thus all the deals sites, all the coupon sites, all the check the prices sites.
And again, I believe the majority of people checking these sites?
If it goes to amazon, they bypass affiliate links.
Goes to any other direct sales sites, same thing.

There is, and always will be, a market for information. Years and years ago I created a site for a girl that worked with Rob and I at DMOZ. It's been on my list of "you really need to recode that" for a few years, but I haven't. The layout is plain, it does not work as well as the users want it to. However, it provides information that's not readily available anywhere else, so despite all of its deficiencies, it garners lots of site visits. Google sends me a check every month, and every month I wonder what other information people need that they're not finding.

I also agree with TopDogger that mobile sites and applications will be the largest areas for opportunity and growth (and I'm scrambling to get the skills to get there). QR Codes are becoming more commonplace, but there is still tremendous opportunity in that arena. Most business owners don't know how they can profit from them - that, in an of itself, spells opportunity.