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So Just What is it That You Do, Anyway?
Posted by Scott on 4th June, 2009 | 21 commentsI get this question from time to time, usually from other adults who aren’t Internet savvy and have absolutely no idea how it is that I earn a living from “some websites”. “So you make websites for people?”… is usually the question I hear. Kids are even more dumbfounded and think that what I do is magic.
The problem, I believe, is that people don’t understand the sheer numbers involved. The basic premise is the creation of a website that people want to look at, and earning money from people when they do (either when they click on advertiser links, or view advertiser ads, or buy stuff direct). That’s all well and good, but because visitors aren’t easily visualized, people don’t “get” how a few people visiting a website can translate into big money.
A visualization is in order. Every month, 2 Million people visit our ResellerRatings, Dealighted, and TechIMO websites. Here’s 1 million people:
That’s a lot. Double that crowd to get the monthly visitors to our sites.
Or thought of another way, the combined populations of San Francisco, CA [800,000] and Dallas, TX [1,200,000] (every single resident of those cities combined), visit our sites each and every month.
San Francisco, CA -800,000 people
Dallas, TX - 1.2 Million People
What’s more, we don’t just get random people, we get targeted, highly sought after people. People who are interested in shopping and buying consumer electronics and computer hardware. People who earn high incomes and/or are well educated. Advertisers pay us money to reach those people, whether via fees based on the number of times an ad is viewed (CPMs) or a fee per click on an advertiser’s link (CPCs), or a percentage revenue share when we refer people to buy stuff (CPA).
So what do I do?
I create reasons for people to visit our sites. I create ways to compel people to visit our sites and to come back frequently. I manage and build technology that makes our sites useful and worth visiting. I create ways to make money from those people when they do visit our sites. And I manage people who work with me to help do these things.
How do I make money doing this?
The sheer number and quality of people who visit, a clever business model to make money from them when they visit, and websites that don’t cost a lot to operate.
How have I been able to do this so well?
A lot of work, a lot of lists, a lot of good ideas to identify needs and meet consumer demand (and testing bad ideas), years of implementing those ideas, a lot of skill, and a bit of luck. Read my blog and archives to get tips!
Maybe this will help you respond next time someone asks you what you do, or scoffs at your website or blog as not being a “real business”, and you can tell them that the Internet definitely did not blow up in the 2001 bubble like the media reported.
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Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at 6:10 pm and is filed under Web Business. If you like this post why not subscribe to my full text RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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that first pic is amazing. Most people don’t realize what 2 million people looks like
I also get this question a lot , especially in Sri Lanka where online shopping is hardly done. Getting 2 million targeted visitors is amazing to say the least , will definitely go through the archives
Thanks for the visualization - great idea.
Indeed it is very difficult to describe to others what I do, how I do it and why. Although the ‘why’ should be the simplest thing but many still think that everything on the www is free and there is no cost involved.
Awesome pictures
Yes those pictures do help us visualize just what kind of numbers websites deal with. I am usually super vague when someone asks what I do. I just tell them I make money getting websites search engine rankings, which is only half the story.
I am fairly new to your blog and I admit I never took the time to read your about page. I had no idea you were behind resellerratings. I am well aware of that website. You must be doing extremely well. I actually thought they were the same company as shopping.com, but I guess that is just due to how they share the same search technology.
I know how it is. Too many times I had to show my friends the checks to get them to believe me.
Many of them have tried to make money online, but failed. They don’t understand the amount of work that goes into making a sucessful website, and all the times you have to fail to find something that works.
They give it a go, have a failure, then quit. It doesn’t work that way!
@Chester
I get doubters all the time, who cannot believe how easy it is to make an income from a small number of websites, even with a low volume of visitors.
All I have to do is show them the Clickbank stats or checks and they instantly become interested!
Visualisation is the key, show me the money!
I am a student at a University here in the united states, I have often been asked as to what it is exactly I do for work, especially coming back from the summer breaks. And often times while I was in the college dorm room, creating content for different websites, or working on stuff the students wouldn’t quite get what it is I was doing. I guess they were too busy worrying about the next party or whatever, while I was busy working on becoming successful before I was even done with college.
Although one time when I told a professor of mine what it is I do, he totally got it, and it light up a smile on his face, as he was amazed by it and saw the big potential.
Till then,
Jean
The sheer size of your audience is truly impressive, and I really like the way you’ve gone about illustrating your point! You sure do have loads of feet through the door, and that will result in some pretty impressive earnings, methinks.
Heard that visualization one of the great method to achieve goal. Massive crowd in first Snap. great way to describe.
It’s interesting nowadays, when you ask the “what do you do for a living” question you can’t really expect a generic answer from everyone anymore. Wow though, that’s certainly a lot of people in the first picture.. lol 1 million. Impressive that you have 2 million people to your site. As they say, a picture is worth 1,000 words.
-Kevin
thanks for have a nice article with have a good topic….
Very impressive. The internet has the ability to pull big numbers…. But even with your success you could easily double or triple it!
Great point - there’s always room for optimizing and tweaking.. always.
I also have this problem with friends (but not nearly on the same scale as you haha). They’re always asking how I can afford to go out so much and buy new clothes etc. when I supposedly earn as much as them.
“Kids are even more dumbfounded and think that what I do is magic” This gave me a good laugh. I agree with you, I get the same thing if I say I make money on the internet, it has to be magical.
Quite brilliant idea of making money if really any one getting such huge amount of traffic it will become more easier to earn money.
Once I’m up to your standard I think I’ll prefer to make up my job - I’m thinking secret agent or something like that
Keep ‘em guessing.
That is crazy. I can’t believe that many people visit your sites
It it how it was the years before. Content is king and will it be the next few yeas. If you´re running a website with really good content you will refer by other people…