Dec 18 2007
Reinvesting in My Sites
Before I started earning anything online I was pretty tight with my cash. Back in 2001 when I first started doing this as a hobby I was already shelling out about $20 a month in hosting fees and $35 a year for my domain. I figured that was enough for something that, at the time, held no promise of financial return.
But once I was able to cover my expenses and started earning more, my wallet suddenly loosened up a bit and I found myself putting most of my earnings back into my sites.
Website things I spend money on:
- Domain names - If I think of a good name and it’s available then I’ll be all over it! Back when they cost $35/year each with Network Solutions (I was getting ripped off by them up until a year ago) it wasn’t really possible. Now with them under a tenner it makes snapping them up a lot ess painful.
- Advertising - Ill keep this short because it’s a bit taboo but I will buy *ahem* links if I come across a great site with a good price. Not something I do a lot but if I see a good deal then I will. Havent in a while though. Honest.
- Articles - I’ve recently started buying London area guides for ten quid per area which I think is a total bargain. I could probably do some research and come up with guides myself but it would take ages and would never be as good as someone with first hand knowledge. This is something I’m going to do a lot more of in the future because I think first hand experiences make a site a lot more useful and interesting.
- Programming - I got a guy to do my London price guide for $20 initially then another $25 to re-jig it a bit. I think this was money well spent and I know enough about how it works to be able to adapt it to other sites. Having the idea is the hard part because it seems like these guys can make almost anything happen. Obviously, the more complicated the idea the more it will cost but it’s nice to know that there are people out there who will be able to put any big ideas into action.
Stuff I don’t spend money on but will at some point:
- Website design - My favourite part about building sites is, well, the building of the sites. I like sketching out the designs, tinkering with the colours and layout and experimenting until I find something I like. That’s ok with HTML sites but I’ve started thinking about using Content Management Systems (CMS) like Wordpress and Joomla to make managing my sites easier and that’s where things start to get a bit over my head. Paying someone to set something up for me will make sense if I ever want a site that’s a bit more complicated than I can handle myself.
- Nerd books - So far I haven’t had any time to learn new things but I’m thinking that will change once I find myself in Beijing without a ‘real’ job. I’d like to read up on CSS and PHP for sure at some point as well as general web design and SEO stuff.
- Logo design - This is another thing I really like doing myself but I can never seem to achieve the same professional finish that the experts can. I’m still a sucker for a site with a great overall look and I wouldn’t be against buying a logo to complete that look on my sites.
Most of my web earnings head straight into my Paypal account and all of my spending comes from it as well. It’s a lot easier to spend money that I never see and even easier to spend it knowing that it has been earned my sites in the first place.
So if you find yourself with a couple of sales and a bit of money in your Paypal account, have a think of ways you might be able to invest your earnings back into your site. Don’t blow it, but don’t be stingy either. If you make some smart buys it is sure to pay off later.
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I've been travelling since January 2008 living off earnings from the web. Follow me as I bum around Asia and beyond, getting up to mischief and working online as I go.
Great idea this area guide for London. I notice you wrote one guide yourself. This is exactly the type of content that should with time rank highly in search engines. How did you manage to get other people with first hand knowledge to write about their area for only 10 quid a piece? Did you advertise for writers somewhere or was there some online writing service that handled this for you?
“Content Management Systems (CMS) like Wordpress”
If you are happy doing the HTML for websites then you will almost certainly be able to do a Wordpress template too.
You just need to find someone to spend 5 minutes (probably literally) to say ’see here? and look at this, and this bit…’ and you’ll be right.
Wordpress can get fancier with php stuff and plugins, where you might want to hire someone, but the basics are no harder than straight html.
I do recommend moving to a cms - you’ll find publishing sooooo much easier
WJM I just posted an ad on a London forum have been lucky to get some good quality people. Some have been pretty average but most have been exactly what I’ve been after. I’ll be putting another ad on soon looking for specific areas and I might also go in search of forums for the places I still need. I know Chiswick has a forum just for the area so it might be time to cruise that message board. People tend to like to write about this sort of thing and the guide I wrote only took me about 45 minutes. If the person knows their stuff then it’s easy money for them. But I agree that for what I’m getting, it’s a bargain for me.
Lea I’ve been able to customise a theme to match my HTML but it was a struggle. For a new site I’ve got some different things in mind that might get a bit more complicated. I could pay someone to set things up but I think I’m still the type that likes to know how it all works in case I have to make changes. For now I think I’ll try to work things out on my own until I get stuck and then call in the troops after that.
I also meant to mention that Adwords might be something I’d be willing to pay for in the future but hae only dabbled in briefly so far without much success.
I have purchased many nerd books in the past and they have been very helpful. I just discovered something that I really like and have subscribed to. I wish I could earn a return on the number of people I have referred to them because that list is growing.
It is called Safari Books online. I think it is run by O’Reilly, you know the books everyone says are great for web design, programming, etc. Well I have a subscription for $19.99 per month. It allows me to “take out 10 books on my shelf” and read them online. Once you use them more and more then you get to bring some of the content offline, etc.
I like this arrangement because I have access to thousands of books. Everything technical I could ever imagine is here, the popular titles, ones you supposedly can’t live without, and they are never out of the books. I also just moved from the US to France and got rid of many books because they are a pain to haul around. If you are really going to travel for so long it might be perfect for you because you don’t have to lug the books around. It is not only the programming books but SEO books, Adsense Strategies, etc. Largely the programming oens are the ones I find useful.
I read the O’Reilly book to Word Press while setting up my first WP site. At the same time I had a book on PHP out so I could learn how to modify PHP files so my WP site could look more and more how I wanted it to. A third book I was reading was about basic SEO strategies, ones you probably already know but I didn’t and they helped me a lot and it was useful doing it from the ground up. You can put book marks in them and make notes and all the things you might do if the book were your own. The hard part is deciding which 10 books to put on your shelf. You can pay more to have more books on your shelf but for me I can’t imagine reading 10 at a time.
Sorry for a long post that sounded like I was a shill but i think the service is great and it won’t burdon you with extra books during your travels.
Thanks for that tip, Owen! I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet but an online subscription type thing seems like it’s the exact thing I’m after but I had’t even thought of that. Ya too bad you can’t collect a bit of cash for referrals!
I forgot to mention that the interface for reading the books is pretty good. I have seen a few that were really crappy and I thought I would never get into reading books online but theirs is okay, not perfect but really decent.
I’ve actually put in an inquiry asking if they have a reward system or affiliate program where current subscribers who refer new members can earn money or credit for their referrals. An idea hatched while reading your blog and thinking about referrals. Either way it will be my first attempt.
Don’t change your writing style, it is just the right mix.