Being in the Internet marketing industry for 13 years has taught and shown me a lot. I’ve seen markets go up and down, left and right. Survived some big crashes in multiple industries, invested in a few startups and lost lots of cash but gained a ton of far more valuable experience and lessons. Over the years while some thing have become more expensive, in terms of operating, advertising or startup costs most things have stayed the same. There are always two type of people in every industry on the Internet that I come across. Those that are focused on the short term, and those that are focused on the longterm, with very few in between.
For the first 12 years on here I was only focused on the short term. Even though I desperately wanted to be focused on the longterm, I was never really able to pull myself away from those quick cash making schemes or projects. I mean, seriously, they are pretty damn hard to resist. Considering that I can come up with about twenty quick cash making ideas in under an hour for any niche or market in the world.
But over the last year, well, since my little WickedFire revolution I suppose, I’ve been forcing myself to focus on longterm investments and projects. Sure, they are definitely slower (not always though), and many times require a lot more in-depth research or analysis but for the most part, they make for smarter investment decisions and give me something to fall back on just in case I really can’t resist a short term opportunity and fail at it (yes, even now, I still fail, as I am always learning) at least I’ll have my longterm operation to fall back on so I won’t feel as bad.
I know as you guys read this you’re probably thinking “well yeah, easy for you to say, you come up with all these ideas and use them whenever you feel like it, but what about the people who don’t have the gift of a never ending constant flow of cash ideas like you?”. Well, I thought about that too for ya. I spend at least 10-15 hours a week (7 day week, not work week) doing developing market research. I’m constantly on the forefront with finding out what the next big markets or innovations are. Not only does it fascinate me, but I consider it a hobby of mine. So being that I do have some information to share, here’s something for you people to look into.
I’ve noticed for the last few years that there have been a lot of services targeting businesses to pay for blogging software. Which seems to be a fine business service, and is certainly doing well, but at the same time it seems like they are taking the wrong route for doing things and selling themselves short (the service, not the businesses). I mean, you can always find a programmer and get them to code some custom blogging CMS if that’s what you want to do, but personally, that’s a lot of leg work (think of the lead gen and sales closings, customer support, blah blah), and when I think of a longterm income plan, I want something to be as automated and hands free as possible, but still profitable.
So here’s the idea. Instead of trying to sell to business, why not do a bit of research on say two or three different sub-niches or sub-industries. What you can do is make the blog yourself, and go a few service routes if you’d like. Either sell a leased area for businesses to create their own blogging space within your blog/network for a monthly fee (monthly fees are key to longterm income, or at least one of the easiest ways for it), or maybe just get into contact with as many people within their business industry and let them know about this great new media/blog source that you are running. You can hire a part time content writer, or even just make the blog into an RSS syndicated hub where all news stories and blog content converge at your blog, and sell ad space to the businesses within that industry. See, there are literally hundreds of different ways to make money from businesses using blogs, without making it a priority to sell them some really expensive solution that they probably don’t need anyway. Also, if you own/run the blog or news site yourself, you have a lot more control over content distribution, even if you don’t actually write it yourself. Since sub-niches for businesses, especially the B2B markets consist of a fairly small and easy to find group of companies, once you sign one up as an advertiser or low cost service client, the rest feel like they have to follow, and the best part about that, is that you don’t need a sales team to do it. You can sell them services, for a low cost, like $50/mo or $22/mo (bill them monthly or quarterly) and they will be signed up to you for years to come. I’ve seen this happen over and over for years already. So why not take a crack at it? How much will it cost you? I’d say under $600 total if you want to go as professional suped up as possible, or as little as the price of a domain and hosting, because all you need to do is get a blog (Wordpress is fine) or website type of CMS (although I love WordPress and believe it can be used as a CMS regardless), get a nice corporate or simple sleek design made, get some content onto it, and decide where you want to go from there.
I’ve given out lots of ideas on my blog and forum for longterm profitability, and while some of you have sent back feedback letting me know that it’s working out for ya, I think the majority of people just think it’s a good idea but never do it. Which isn’t such a bad thing, I mean, you’re only letting yourself down, because I could care less. But really, you shouldn’t have to force yourself to follow through. Perhaps you’re just not ready for it yet. You may be happy in your current situation, or you may not have failed much so you still have lots to learn. Whatever your case may be though, this is not something you NEED to do right away, but I’d strongly suggest you put it into your five year plan as a must do at the end of that.
Alright, enough blogging for me today. Time to go outside and enjoy the summer weather.