Why Traffic Does NOT Equate to Money (My Response to Ana Hoffman)

Thursday, February 21st, 2013 at 10:45 pm

Oh… my… gosh.

There’s so much I want to say about this topic; I just don’t know where to begin!

Alright, so on Tuesday Ana published a totally raw and honest piece about why TGC isn’t making as much money as it should.

I’m telling you, her post was so inspiring and it really got me souped up because I’d planned on writing a similar post this week.

Well, actually, this post was suppose to be about the best ways to monetize your blog.

However, after reading Ana’s post, an old wound has been reopened (per se) and I just have to vent (more like… express and relate.)

So, instead of posting what would be an incredibly long comment on Ana’s post, this post is going to be a response to hers.

I hope that what I have to say in some way helps you put the whole “make money from blogging” thing into perspective and let’s you (and Ana) know that you’re not alone.

Right off the bat, let’s get one thing straight:

Traffic does not equate to money

It’s true, it doesn’t.

Even though traffic generation is one of the hottest topics in our niche and you have knowledge of how to drive it, that doesn’t mean that your traffic numbers will match your income.

Ana’s proven that in her archived monthly income reports and I can prove it too.

It’s been nearly 5 months since I relaunched my blog back in September of 2012.

In those 5 months I’ve managed to generate nearly 40k+ visitors to my blog and make roughly $1,465, with about $250 of that being from affiliate sales. The rest is from being a BizSugar moderator.

What do you think?

I’d say it’s okay for a start.

Although, I do have certain income goals that I’m aiming to reach by the end of the second quarter of the year.

About $1k/mth to be exact, derived only from affiliate income. Haven’t quite reached it yet, but there’s still 4 months left until the end of the 2nd quarter; we’ll see how it goes.

True, relaunching my blog and driving traffic to it using some of the modalities that I did brought opportunities to make additional monies that I didn’t expect.

However, someone being new to the blogging arena may think that having a blog that’s built up so much traffic and exposure so quickly would be bringing in more income.

Not so.

You see, throughout my blog relaunch I’ve learned that the kind of income a blog generates depends on a number of things: mostly on the individual and how they choose to monetize and structure their revenue streams.

It also depends on the type and kind of content they create, conversions and other jargon I won’t go into complete details about here.

So, for instance, if you follow Ana’s blog then you know the premium caliber of the content she publishes.

Like, she could seriously be charging hundreds, even thousands of dollars for the kind of info she publishes for free.

However, out of the kindness of her heart and her dedication to over deliverance, she generously and consistently publishes pillar content which in turn attracts salivating, new traffic hungry and repeat visitors (like me ).

Ana’s content, honesty and her cool personality is the very reason I’m a raving fan of hers and why I’ll purchase anything she recommends (assuming it’s something I feel I can utilize for my business and if I have the money to do, of course.)

Ana also chooses to promote affiliate products as one of her blog revenue streams. And, because most of her readers know this and like her, they’ll show their patronage by purchasing through her affiliate links.

I, like Ana, choose to use affiliate products as one of my revenue streams as well:

(1) Because they’re simple to promote when you’re just starting out and

(2) I don’t have to deal with tech support and spend hours of my time creating a product

To recall the things that I’ve tried to bring in the “doe” is totally exhausting:

Network Marketing (yup, I actually tried to do MLM online after I was introduced to the internet marketing concept)
Consulting (never got a client; good thing too because I was charging to teach them something that I didn’t really understand how to do myself in my early days)
Cash gifting (Ugh… let’s not relive those days)
Content mills (try getting paid $3-$5 for 300 to 1,000 word articles… virtual sweat shop anyone?)
Rinky dink, fly by night affiliate programs/systems and info products that were here today and gone tomorrow
Incentivized freebie sites (sort of like CPA sites like Project Payday and ZNZ – I actually made some halfway decent money for a short while doing this, but it quickly became more of a headache then what it’s worth)
Squidoo lenses/Hubpages (#EpicFail)
Adsense (#EpicFail x’s 2)
Various afflilate products/tools (Blah)
And plenty of other things that I can’t recall at the moment

Long list, eh? I know.

As far as the affiliate products that I promote now, I only promote 2 main ones and aggressively promote 1.

That’s it.

Ana mentioned in her post (and I’m paraphrasing here) that they’re aren’t enough good quality products that she’s willing to promote.

I couldn’t agree with her more.

I’m not willing to jump on every shiny ball that rolls past me just to make a few hundred bucks (not anymore anyway.)

While we’re on the topic of shiny balls, allow me to insert a word here about…

Empower Network

To be quite honest, the thought of EN actually makes me cringe a bit (it’s an involuntary reflex, really.)

Soooo, I used to be apart of EN.

(Why do I feel like I’m airing my dirty laundry? Lol.)

Yup, I was apart of the EN brigade. And I mean I was a die hard EN’er.

I attended the calls, faithfully
I chanted “100% commissions!”, faithfully
I blogged on their platform, faithfully
I listened to their training, faithfully
I even spammed the list I’d built while with them… faithfully

Yeah… I agree with ya’ Ana, they did teach us to spam.

I joined EN about a week or two after it first launched, eventually spending a whopping $875 to get “all in”; actually much more than that with the $125/mth I paid for however many months it was (I forget, maybe 6 or 7 months?) before I decided to split.

I’d already been in the IM/blogging game for 6 years or so before joining and I truly thought that EN was finally gong to be my end all.

I actually gotta give it to them, they did one helluva job hyping the crap out of their program when it first launched.

However, although EN wasn’t my end all, it did get me going on the path of where I am today.

Seeing that I actually discovered The Traffic Dashboard via one of the “head honchos” in it. (Can you guess which one? )

I could say a lot more about EN that would be considered… unpleasant or maybe even offensive to some, like, the entire time I was with them (after the hype wore off) I couldn’t shake the cult like feeling I had.

But I don’t want to give it my energy and that’s not the point of this post.

What I will say though is that EN was a fantastic learning experience for me.

And I’m actually glad that I had the experience because I wouldn’t be where I am today.

So, thanks EN; you really did change my business for the better!

Oh, and if you’re wondering if I made any money while with them… eh, about $300 or so over the 7 months I was with them, give or take a few bucks.

(Awaits the EN pitbulls attack.)

I say that to say this:

We all have our trial and errors that we’re going to have to go through to reach what we personally deem successful.

Notice I said “we” (i.e. you as an individual deems successful)

Don’t ever let anyone dictate to you what “successful” is.

Ya’ hear that, Ana?

You create your own definition of success and run towards it. And don’t forget to celebrate the milestones you accomplish along the way.

For instance: I wouldn’t necessarily deem my blog and business monetarily successful at the current time of this post.

But I damn sure deem myself successful at generating traffic via inbound marketing, social media and building relationships.

And that’s something to be proud of.

I’d much rather have my integrity and a respectful relationship with you as my loyal subscriber, sharing all that I know (and am still learning) about traffic generation then shoving every tom, dick and harry product down your throat.

But what about the money?

My blog (and Ana’s) is about traffic generation, a subject that we both know rather well.

Not about how to make millions of dollars over night (which doesn’t exist, by the way, like some lead you to believe.)

This is a journey blog. I use it to detail and document my traffic generation and business building escapades.

Kinda like my own personal reality TV show.

But it also serves as an important business building tool: mainly used to build and engage my subscriber list, rather than to sell products directly from it.

Yes, I will write the occasional review on my blog in hopes of making a sporadic sale from it. However, I don’t expect to make much money directly from my blog.

My main goal is to generate income via my email list.

So, I’m willing to go to more lengths to drive traffic and build my list outside of just blogging and driving traffic through relationships and engagement.

Because I realize that with my income goals in the time frame I want to hit them this year, my blog traffic and it’s conversions alone ain’t gonna cut it (at least not until I make it real big running up there with the lights of Yaro, Pat and Darren.)

I’ll need to generate a lot more traffic and subscribers than I do currently. Especially, with the business model I’m focusing on.

(I’ll be telling you more details about that in part 2 of this post next week.)

I don’t blog for the sole purpose of making an income from it.

And I don’t believe Ana does either.

She thoroughly loves what she does and authentically does it from her heart, not to just chase after our money.

And that’s why she generates such massive traffic and has a “to the ends of the earth” like following.

I also actually genuinely LOVE blogging and writing.

And, I get the most kicks out of actually teaching and helping you have “Ah ha” moments or what have you.

As I said, this post was meant to relate, express and dispel some myths that many newbies believe about traffic generation, blogging and online marketing.

Yes, traffic is an important factor to building a successful blog and business monetarily, but “success” is in the eye of the beholder.

No one that tries to make money online is going to completely escape the learning curve. We all have our trials and errors to go through; some just may take longer than others.

I want to hear from you:

Would you deem your blog and business a success?

What is YOUR personal definition of success as it relates to your blog?

Let me know in the comments below.

See ya’ around the net!

P.S. If you found this post invoking in anyway or feel like others could benefit from reading it, would you do me the favor of sharing the ish out of it? Thanks!

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!

http://gabejohansson.com/ Gabe Johansson

You know… You and I both would probably be making more if we weren’t (almost) exclusively promoting Traffic Dashboard. I know 6 people with a much larger subscriber base promoting it consistently, not to mention the MASSIVE guru launch that happened in it’s beginnings.

I’m averaging 1 or 2 sales per 100 clicks I send to TD (not including upsells), which is really low for me but the fact is that I have a hard time finding something of high quality to promote that pays well enough.

As for Ana, I couldn’t even tell you how many people I know promoting Tweet Adder and CommentLuv… its tough to sell what a lot of people already have. Far from impossible, but just more difficult than necessary.

**Note** I’m not downing Ana or anyone for that matter, I respect everyone here. All I am saying is that it’s a competitive (and overlapping) market, which lowers our affiliate sales conversion rates!

One of my products sells every 30 clicks I send to it, sometimes even higher. Granted, it’s only $10, but almost no one else is selling it. I don’t promote it much anymore since frankly it’s getting outdated.

I’m looking to put together a list building and traffic generation course by summertime. I can give you more details when I have some but one thing I do know is that very few people will be approved affiliates and it will be 100% instant commissions!

Thanks for the post, it’s very insightful!

-Gabe Johansson

P.S. Try collecting email only to really boost conversions! The increase in subscribers outweighs use of the name tag in emails by quite a bit, at least for me

http://twitter.com/Jeff_Machado Jeff Machado

Gabe,

Have you tried coming up with a bonus that you can offer people to convince them to buy from you rather than someone else? This can have a nice effect on your conversions I’m sure.

Maybe try a webinar for people who buy from your link. Have the people who come to the webinar ask you a ton of questions. Then, turn the questions and your answers into the list building and traffic generation course that you mentioned!

http://gabejohansson.com/ Gabe Johansson

There does come a time when I product is too exposed to convert highly. And I’m sure the bonus method works. Ti uses it, as do many other people.

Why won’t I?

It almost becomes an expected thing and will kill future conversions if I don’t offer a bonus later. I don’t like that “who has a better bonus” game, and if I recommend a product, I want that recommendation to be the conversion factor, not because I give away free coaching or something.

Also, that devalues whatever product or service I give away, OR I would have a tough time re-purposing that content for anything but that bonus.

I guess the only time I’d really consider putting together a bonus package would be to increase conversions of a high end coaching course of $500 and up. Traffic Dashboard only pays $76 commission including the (super awesome) up sell, which really isn’t that much.

Just my thoughts really.

Thanks for the input,
-Gabe Johansson

P.S. I almost forgot an extremely important point… I’m incredibly lazy. I have no problem admitting that lol (now that whole comment I wrote makes more sense)

tiroberts

Valid points as well, Gabe.

I don’t necessarily mind making bonuses. It doesn’t take too much to whip up some quick vids and slap them inside a membership site.

But to each his own.

Lazy? Lol, I think I’m more of a procrastinator – which I guess could be deemed as the same thing, sort of.

Thanks again for sharing!

Ti
http://twitter.com/Jeff_Machado Jeff Machado

Gabe,

I really did love this response and think that a bunch of us should have a Google Hangout some time and talk about these things. I wish I could invite you all to coffee (Vanilla Latte for you Ti!) so we could dive deeper into these things. None of my friends are interested in this stuff.

tiroberts

Absolutely, Jeff!

That sounds like an awesome and fun idea, actually. You’ve got my wheels turning now, yet again!

Hey, Gabe, what say you buddy??

tiroberts

Great suggestion, Jeff.

Bonuses do work well for increasing conversions in my experience You always want to aim to make the bonus outweigh the value of the entire package and over deliver.

Webinars definitely make great bonuses.

Thanks for sharing your input!

Ti
http://twitter.com/ryzeonline Jason Fonceca

Jeff!! Great to bump into you and Ana, for my first time to Ti’s site

I’d love to weigh in here with a Timeless Universal Success Principle, that I really feel, once clarified, will impact everyone here in MAJOR ways.

Ready?

Buckle in.

Everyone’s talking about things:

“products” – which can mean: something that’s produced – moneymaking, egg-laying, or mathematics depends on your context and your
mindset. Not only that, but some people, can be products. Or some name’s like Kim Kardashian can be a ‘product’.

Same goes for

“free”

“gift”

“making money”
“selling”

etc.

These words are used everywhere, often with people claiming that they ‘wont work’ or are a ‘struggle’, etc.

Thing is — these words are usually understood only on *verrry* basic levels.

And like anything that is only “kind of” understood, we most often only “kind of” get results.

Sooo…

Let’s take the most important one to this discussion:

SELLING.

There exist human beings who’ve built empires off of “selling” 1 product (Beanie Babies). There exist people who can “sell ice to eskimos”, so adept at selling that the product quality is irrelevant.

There exists everything in between.

The key takeaway here is that “selling” ISN’T related to products, or even PEOPLE.

“Selling” is related to Viewpoints and Perspectives.

Selling is taking an idea or view of the world, and infecting another with it in some way,

And it’s going on in practically every moment of life, and most clearly in every interaction.

It can be done in negative, hurtful ways (“Here buy this swamp in Florida”.)

Or it can be done in positive, uplifting ways: (“Look, I’d be doing you a DISservice if I didn’t get this miracle cancer cure into your hands and reward the man who created it. Let’s DEAL.”)

And if you want to see masters of “selling”, study kids.

They’ll FIGURE out to INFECT another with their IDEA or DESIRE or VIEWPOINT, no matter what.

There are three INCREDIBLY life-changing books that can help peple REALLY get a handle on selling.

1. Selling You – Napoleon Hill

2. Selling The Invisible – Harry Beckwith

3. The Science of Influence – Kevin Hogan

Hope that helps

I love people, and I love to see ‘em RYZE UP, and the stuff I’ve shared here helps TONS.

Why? Because wisdom & understanding sheds light on everything. Don’t keep yourself in the dark, get out their elevate yourself and bring in the funds

Oh my, Ti had the class to not leave a giant comment on Ana’s blog, and now I’ve come here and done exactly that

Hope ya still love me!

tiroberts

BOOM! What a way to add some serious value to the conversation, Jason.

I totally appreciate such insightful input; you’ve really broken it down for us all, thanks!

And YES, I still love ya’!

Ti
http://twitter.com/Jeff_Machado Jeff Machado

Jason,

This is awesome stuff. I always love your insights – rockstar for sure! I’m looking forward to reading those books as sales is one of those topics that fascinates me but I don’t put it into practice nearly enough.

Funny thing is, when I have put it into practice, it’s really worked so thank you for the encouragement and the reminder. It’s all about the Big Idea and Infecting people with it.

I’m so thankful for you, bro – you have no idea!

Jeff

tiroberts

You make some good points, Gabe.

TD is rather widely known in our niche, however, like you said, it is one of the only programs that I’m willing to promote because it’s proven to work for me.

I don’t know that I’ll promote any tools like Commentluv and Tweetadder. I’m thinking that I’ll only stick with promoting traffic and list building based tools/programs as that’s what my blog is mostly about. We’ll see.

At some point towards the end of this year, I’ll be coming out with an exclusive group coaching program. It won’t be a massive launch as it’ll be a high ticket program and I’ll only be accepting about 10 people so I can work closely with them all.

I won’t go into all the details, but the end product will be a 6mo to 1yr/term membership site. I also plan to have an affiliate program attached to it with recurring commissions.

I’m pretty excited about it! I see that both you and I are working on rolling out some neat projects. I’m looking forward to seeing how it all plays out for us.

Thanks for commenting!

Ti

Oh, and thanks for the list building tip!

http://twitter.com/Jeff_Machado Jeff Machado

It’s so funny that you aired all your “dirty laundry.” That is something I’ll have to do once I get my personal blog set up. Of all those things, I actually had the most success with Squidoo. I took myself out of the game for a while to recuperate so I missed the whole Empower Network thing.

And, yes, she really could generate more from her blog. I hope this is the year that she gets the confidence to create bonus products to add on to affiliate promotions – this is a major thing. Honestly, it could be something like “Buy from my affiliate link and join my super secret webinar” and her conversions would skyrocket. It’s going to be an awesome year for her (and you too, my friend!)

tiroberts

Oh, Jeff; I just had to get it out in the open.

I feel so FREE now, lol.

Yeah going through the whole EN thing was quite an experience You’re lucky you missed it.

Absolutely; I believe that this is definitely going to be Ana’s year. In fact, it’s going to be a great year for many of us. I can feel it; can’t you?

Thanks for dropping by.

Have an AWESOME weekend, my friend!

Ti

http://www.TrafficGenerationCafe.com/ Ana | Traffic Generation Cafe

Ti:

Thank you.

Thank you for your support, encouragement, honesty, and putting your readers first.

EN: I know that you definitely don’t lack in zeal. The fact that you got in so early and still didn’t make enough to get your money back says it all.

One thing for sure: you and I have what it takes to figure this whole money thing out.

tiroberts

Absolutely, Ana!

I’m so glad that I’ve met you, Lisa, Kim, ILeane and many of the other bloggers in our community.

You all have really taught me how to be a TRUE, upstanding blogger and marketer that stands for more than just chasing after dollars.

Although I do want to eventually make a full-time living blogging, that’s not my only reason for doing it and I have a much bigger purpose that drives me now.

Thanks for ALL that you do!

And yes, we’ll definitely crack this making money thing soon!

Ti
http://twitter.com/ryzeonline Jason Fonceca

Ana, you`re a worthy, wonderful, valuable, generous, contributing, SHINING human being.

I`ve been off the radar, but I`m glad I found this and was able to share

Keep ryzin`!

tiroberts

Dido! Thanks for your out pour of encouragement, Jason!

http://www.marketingyourfarm.com/ Iain Robson

Making money online can be a funny thing. There are so many ways that you can do it.

I’m no pro, but I can tell you the opportunity is there for you. I guess it is a question of taking the bull by the horns and steering it in the right direction.

http://www.marketingmy.co.uk/blog Katherine Salt

Great post, really interesting to see what you have tried already.
My blog has so few readers I get a tad embarrassed but I know it positively contributes to my revenue stream. It helps generate interest from potential clients, demonstrates I know what I am talking about and that I stay up to date. It’s also fab to direct people to when they want some ‘free’ consultancy work

tiroberts

Hi, Katherine,

Wonderful to see your comment; welcome to the community!

Having a low readership is nothing to be ashamed of.

I mean, the community that I’m starting to build here is nothing compared to the lights of Pat Flynn’s, Yaro’s, Darren’s or even Ana’s.

What matters is the quality of the people that DO read your stuff; you seem to realize that and that’s great.

Thanks for dropping by and sharing your input; I appreciate it.

I’m looking forward to seeing more of you around.

Have a great weekend!

Ti

Shahzad Saeed

Ji Ti,
I am new here. Just landed here by clicking the link from Ana’s facebook share.

I hope over time you’ll make more. I am always the believer of Google policies. You can make money without doing evil…

tiroberts

Hi, Shahzad,

So great to see your comment; welcome to the community!

I’m glad you found your way here and that you’ve found my post valuable. Thanks for your kind words.

I appreciate your feedback and I hope to see more of you around.

Ti

http://twitter.com/davelucas Dave Lucas

Ti: Money should never be the reason one blogs. The personal idea-sharing diary model is the oneI started out with, and the one I’m headed back to! By the way, nice little blog you keep here!

http://twitter.com/DIYMarta DIYMarta

Have to agree with you. I’ve won the “traffic generation game,” but failed miserably at the money-making game. I’m looking for a way to make money with something I don’t particularly care about so I can spend time blogging about what I do care about (but can’t make money at). : ) Happy blogging everybody!

tiroberts

Appreciate your input, Dave; welcome to the community!

You said that you’re looking to make money with something you don’t care about. Is that because you don’t believe you can make money from something your passionate about?

I believe that you can make money blogging about your passion. It’s just a matter of being creative, consistent and not looking to make a ton right off the bat.

Care to clarify your meaning for us?

Ti

tiroberts

Hi, Dave,

Great to see your input; welcome to the community!

I agree; if someone gets into blogging for the sole purpose of making money from it, they won’t last long. It takes a high level of commitment and passion to really make the blogging model work for you.

Having a diary model is the best way to blog, in my opinion. It’s what keeps me wanting to publish new content because I don’t feel pressured, like I have to be an expert. I can just publish from my experience and that’s enough.

I wish you the best of luck on your continued blogging efforts.

I look forward to seeing more of you around; let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you.

Ti

Eleanor Prior

Amazing… I was in JustRetweet.com and saw your request to RT this post.. I adore Ana and Kim Roach. Of course they are how I learned about JustRetweet.com.

Your list of opportunities and gig’s wow so me.. Maybe not the same companies but same story. Thanks for writing the post and Thanks to Ana and Kim I am glad to of found you. My list and affiliate commissions are my goals also. It is nice to see that I am in about the same place as you in reaching them to. Look forward to cheering for you when you reach them at the end of the second quarter. – Eleanor

tiroberts

Hi, Eleanor:

Wonderful to see your input; welcome to the community!

It’s great to hear that you can relate to my pain in regards to my attempts to make money, lol.

Yes, Ana and Kim are traffic generation royalty. I’m so grateful as well to have connected with them.

I wish you much success in your continued efforts. I’d love to keep up with your progress so please do keep me posted; and let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you.

Looking forward to seeing more of you around!

Ti

http://thefranchiseking.com/about-joel-libava-the-franchise-king The Franchise King

I’ve been somewhat of a fan of Anna’s for a couple of years. She has pretty good tips.

But, I feel that she pushes products way too much.

It’s caused me to take a look at how much I’m doing it, and I’ve made the choice to not put links to my franchise advisory services after every blog post. I also don’t put affiliate links in as much as I used to.

My weekly newsletter reaches 2200 or so readers. Even there, i don’t try to sell something every week.

I figure that if other’s are doing it way too much, and I’m turned off by it, my readers must be, too.

Having said that, I’ll continue to read Ana”s stuff, but I’m not subscribed to her blog anymore.

I just don’t want affiliate links shoved down my throat all the time, from anyone.

Great post, Ti.

PS – I see you. I know that you support my business.

Maybe I can support yours a bit more, too

The Franchise King®

tiroberts

Hi, Joel:

Substantive input; welcome to the community!

I personally would like to see Ana do more promotion, possibly create bonuses for the products that she promotes.

I have no doubt that she could be pulling in significantly more revenue from her blog if she does so, however, she has the right to choose how she wants to monetize her site. Plus, different people will respond to her methods in their own way, as you’ve proven.

Currently, I do a fair amount to linking to the affiliate products I promote, the only 3 that I do promote. And I send out at least one sales driven email to my list per week.

Many “guru” marketers would say that’s not nearly enough, then again there would be some to say that it’s too much.

I’m pretty comfortable with how my process is set up.

If nothing else, it’s way better then the process EN had me doing, which was sending out 2 hard-sell emails to my list EVERYDAY. Complete overkill, no wonder I hardly made any money with them.

But alas, to each his own I suppose.

Thanks again for your input; I hope to see more of you around.

Ti

P.S. I’d surely appreciate any support you decide to throw my way. Thanks!

josylad

Great Post Ti,

To me, Money is not everything, and one should never setup a blog with the sole aim of making money else you will just get frustrated.

This is my 4th year in Blogging, Assuming I started blogging because I want to make some quick cash, I know I would not be a blogger anymore.

My Joy and success comes from getting feedback from my readers and people that they love my stuff, I feel good and happy when I get those messages via my contact form that my blog have been helpful to them, to me that is success.

I thank God too that the money is also coming in gradually, at least I made around $1K in January via blogging.

tiroberts

I totally agree, Joseph.

Although money is a prominent factor as to why I blog, it’s not really the driving force of why I continue to blog. I love the people I get to connect and engage with. That’s where my true satisfaction comes from.

I appreciate you sharing your input; and congrats on hitting the $1k mark! Totally excited for you.

Keep me posted on your progress and let me know if there’s something I can do to help you out.

Ti

http://www.facebook.com/jacquelinewatersTV Jacqueline Waters

First off I would like to say that I really like your blog Ti. That being said, iframe comment systems like disqus suck, but thats a personal choice.

The biggest problem I see with MOST bloggers and why they dont make money is simple…they dont make their own products and have their own affiliates. Affiliates will always be betas where the product creator will always be winners.

I really think it is that simple, nobody is single handedly making money hand over fist on a website. Only product creators with their own products who pay their ARMIES of affiliates are making real money online. I don’t know how to harp on this enough.

As you mentioned, Anas Traffic Generation Cafe site is a premium site filled with oodles and oodles of nuggets. Truth be told, why buy anything concerning traffic from her? Its all on the blog…MORE than anyone can possibly handle.

I love her site and this is no dis against Ana. I would be thrilled to be bale to pull the type of traffic she does daily and I learn alot from that site..but again I learn ALOT from that site. In fact it would take me nearly a month or more to put into action all the things I could learn in a single post on TGC…its total overwhelm!

It’s a sad state of affairrs that the honest folks on the internet are the ones who suffer the most concerning income. It is my hope that one day people will leave the broke homeless shirtless millionaires in van types alone for good..but people continue to buy that crap!

If Ana put together a product and sold it, I would buy the hell out of nearly anything she put out at almost any price. She has already proven her true value if she stopped blogging right now. Maybe she should put the same effort into putting out a product a week for a month and set up her own affiliate program?

Maybe you should too? It’s what I am doing and it is the only thing that has ever made me money in the past. I never was a serious blogger ever, I am just starting to learn how to blog correctly to be honest and my personal blog is only a month old now..

BUT in the past I have made over 20k in a single month with NO LIST AND NO BLOG…how? Easy. I made products and put them on clickbank and had mad affiliates promoting my wares. That is the real honest truth that nobody talks about on how the real money is being made online….No product…no dinero. No affiliates…..hoours and hours of doing all the leg work yourself and you will NEVER catch your competitors…ever.

Those are just the facts of life.

Thanks for the great post. I look forward to reading more on your blog, which BTW I found through TGC.

~Jacqueline

tiroberts

Hi, Jacqueline:

So great to see your amazing comment; welcome to the community!

I’ve come to the realization of what you’ve disused in your comment a while ago but I was going to put it off until the end of the year.

However, because of some recent issues that I’ve had with an affiliate product I promote, I’ve come to realize even more why it’s so important to OWN the asset that you’re selling, even if the affiliate product your promoting does pay out 100% commissions.

So I’ve decided to do something about it and create my own product. It won’t be one of those products that you just slap together, I plan on investing about a good month or two to create a truly world class product that over delivers in value.

I’m totally excited about it and I appreciate you for sharing your experience with me.

Thanks for dropping by; I look forward to seeing more of you around.

Ti

P.S. I enjoy your colorful personality and your blog. Very original and you definitely know how to stand our, girly.

http://twitter.com/Jeff_Machado Jeff Machado

Excited to see how this product turns out, Ti!

http://twitter.com/ryzeonline Jason Fonceca

Ti! Fantastic post! Made a great impression on me for my first time here

I love how open you are about your journey/*fails* etc., I love how passionate you are about this stuff. I love how you highlight the (non)connection between traffic & revenue

I’ve already weighed in with a lot of my thoughts in response to Gabe and Jeff, but I wanted to give you some props.

Keep ryzin’!

tiroberts

Jason, it’s so great to see your comment here; welcome to the community!

I love your enthusiasm and energy; it’s quite infectious.

I’m glad you’ve enjoyed my post content and decided to voice your input; and what wonderful input it was, my friend!

Passionate I am, I def wouldn’t still be doing this after so long if I weren’t; I appreciate the kudos.

Thanks for dropping by; I’m looking forward to seeing more of you around.

Have a great week ahead!

Ti

http://twitter.com/marthapreston4 martha preston

If we are being totally honest I started my blog to make money but that was over a year ago now I know that should have been my focus.I feel successful when I created a relatively lively community to share my thoughts.If I make steady bit of income on the side thats great too.

tiroberts

Hi, Martha:

Great to see your comment; welcome to the community!

I’ve developed a true love for blogging and it’s become more of a hobby than a business for me. Of course, I still aim to make money from it, but, that’s not the only thing that I’m focused on.

Thanks for sharing your input with us. I hope to see more of your comments soon.

Ti

P.S. I remember checking your blog out a while back; it’s neat! You have an awesome writing style and I enjoy reading your content. Keep up the great work!