Which Monetization Model Should I Use?

[tw0manyhats]

First off, this is my first post, hi everyone!

I have been learning internet marketing for approximately 4 months now and I am at a crossroads. I have of course done a lot of things wrong and well, I have a surpluss of domain names sitting idle that I really need to do something with. I have 3 different domains that I was thinking about monetizing differently.

1. This is a hobby site that I was thinking about hosting with citymax. I was going to find offshore sourcing for small electric motors for hobby enthusiasts and utilize drop shipping. E-commerce site of course.

2. This would be an advice site where each subdomain would cater to a different market so I wouldn't need to register a boatload of domains. I wasnt sure how the search engines would like the diversity though. I was going to classify this as a trusted review site with multiple subdomain niches.

3. "Things" being related to multiple industries with subniches people can comment on as to why they would avoid them. I figured that it might be nice to let commenters create a lot of the content for me even adding subniches that I didnt think of. I guess this would end up being a blog/maybe part trusted review site.

I am just trying to shoot for the point of least resistance so I can see the fruits of my time invested sooner than later. If I see something that actually works I'll have motivation to keep going. I tried the Adwords thing and that was a disaster...oh well I know I'm not the only "sucker"

Sorry for the long post and any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi tw0manyhats,

Welcome to 5 Star.

I really feel strongly that the best and easiest way to get started is to focus on ONE site and one very carefully selected niche - one that's not too competitive.

Think about it this way... even if you had site 1 or 2 above already built today - what would you do TODAY to drive enough traffic to even begin to generate revenue with all the competing sites out there?

Site 1) I would not recommmend going the drop ship route unless you were already highly skilled at site building and driving traffic. If you can join an affiliate program and get someone else to worry about customer service, taking orders and everything why would you even want to? (Granted I'm partial to affiliate marketing.)

Site 2) Ask yourself - Why would someone go to your blog/review site over the million that are already out there? You asked about the search engines liking a multi-themed site, but think about how hard it is to target human visitors when your site is trying to appeal to a broad range of people, interests, topics.

Before you go any further, I really recommend reading all the stickies in our newbie forum about the best ways to get started. Then go through some of our niche marketing threads about how to pick a niche.

It's very important IMHO for people to see some early results, success and a check - or they give up before they even get fully started. A small targeted niche is easier to build a site for, easier to generate content and easier to target market for.

Hope this helps!

 

[tw0manyhats]

Thanks for you insight Linda. I have some follow up questions to your comments. I will definitely read the stickies before going too much further.

1) When you say affiliate marketing were you referring to somethong the lines of a "legitimate version of internet speedway"? I have been interested in this but did not know where to look for such an animal. I know CJ and others do not offer anything that would seem transparent enough for the electric motor niche the domain name represents. I figured finding direct mfg or wholesale sourcing was my only option.

2)I would attempt to target the subdomains with separate keywords. The blog sites would not have their subdomains linked to each other...would that help or would I need to use a robot.txt file (do not follow)? I'm probably getting ahead of myself.

Thanks again for your advice.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Well 1st off I'm suggesting NOT doing both, do one or the other or preferably a 3rd, more focused niche option.

1) I don't know anything about the market for #1 but would not recommend a product like speedway - that doesnt even seem to fit. If the market is fairly niche (not too competitive) and IF you know alot about it and IF you are passionate about the topic and IF you can find an affiliate product to match possibly #1 would be an option for you.

You need to evaluate the market, the keywords and your interest/knowledge. Then if all that stacks up Google: "Main product Key phrase" affiliate program.

2) "I would attempt to target the subdomains with separate keywords. The blog sites would not have their subdomains linked to each other...would that help or would I need to use a robot.txt file (do not follow)?"

I think maybe I wasnt clear. If you have a site about several unrelated markets it will be too tough to get started. You have to build out, research, create content and then market to each separate niche and I think you'll end up dividing your efforts and never get far enough to make progress in any of them.

Think of it like BUILDING a brick and mortar store. Do you think it would be faster to start making money by building one target market store. Where the design, location, marketing all target one market and all the products in the store appeal to one demographic?

What you are proposing is more like building a mall with several different stores each targeting a different market all under one roof. Each individual store needs to be built, merchandised, stock products and then market, specifically to that type of customer.

Lets say for fun it takes a month to build a store. By the time you get 10 different stores built and stocked and ready to get the 1st customer in the door, the single niche store could have already been open and making sales for 10 months.

I know this analogy does not perfectly line up but I hope you get the point I'm trying to make.

Pick one thing, build it and make it profitable!
You are trying to wear TOO many hats!

 

[tw0manyhats]

I wasn't expecting the 2 many hats bit but that was funny and accurate. I always feel that time is of the essance. Thats another story. You were clear but my post probably wasn't.

The subdomain portion of the discussion would be more like nich venting post where people could post a comment on the issue that the subdomain was catering to. The posters would not really know about the other subdomains. I was thinking about working on one at a time making each one profitable first before moving on. They're not really markets per se but more like separate blogs.

A crazy example would be a widget with 100 parts:

Posters could vent about ony one part that really bugged them about this thing on a particular subdomain. Each subdomain would be representing a different part that someone could complain about. For campaign purposes the subdomains would not reference each other and I wouldnt need to purchase additional domain names.

I was curious if google would flip over this or if I would need to purchase separate domain names. I wouldn't want to blow my chances at rankings before I started.

 

[tw0manyhats]

Thanks again Linda...I am greatful for your comments.

Kevin