How to Turn Your Website Into a Six-Figure Income

In today's lesson, I'm going to share my experience with blogging, Internet publishing, and running a home-based business. Specifically, I'll tell you what I did to turn a hobby website into a six-figure income, while working from home 100% of the time.

First, let me say that the lessons I've learned along the way might not apply to you. Heck, you could be a lot smarter than I am, and you might be able to achieve success in half the time. I'm not saying this is the only way to run a home-based Internet business. This is just how I've done things -- for whatever that's worth.

A Website is Born

My first website is now my biggest website. It's a real estate website that educates consumers on all aspects of the home buying process. It has thousands of pages of content, mostly related to credit scores, mortgage loans, house hunting and the like. It's also my primary source of income.

But it wasn't always this way. This site started out as a hobby website, something I did in my spare time. Don't get me wrong. I always had big aspirations for the site. But it started small ... very small. In the early days, I added about one page per week (compared to the rate of 40 pages per week that I currently publish). Like I said, it was a humble beginning.

A Dream is Born

Managing a website forces you to learn. You have to learn how to publish new content on a regular basis, and you have to get better at this as you go along. By writing and publishing web content on a weekly basis, I began to learn about the many ways to monetize a website. Mostly, I was intrigued by the stories of people who made a living from their websites or blogs. I can't tell you how many articles I read about people who made six-figure incomes from their websites.

These stories fueled the flames of my innermost desires. Early on, I knew that was the life for me. So I began working toward the goal of running a home-based business, and making a decent living at it.

Class in Session

First, you have to learn what you don't know. This is true for any profession, and the same goes for running a home-based Internet business. Early in my path, I made a list of the topics I needed to learn. My list included the following subject areas:

• Writing website content
• Search engine optimization
• Online public relations
• Generating website revenue
• Website lead generation
• Website usability
• Publishing content efficiently
• Social media marketing

The more I learned, the more I wanted to know. In my opinion, this is one of the most important qualities you can have when running your own business -- the desire to learn. It's a never-ending process, and it helps you grow your home-based business consistently over time. Here's another bit of motivation for you. The more you learn, the more you can earn!

Learning to Duplicate Success

When I found something that worked well (for improving search engine rankings, increasing website revenue, or whatever), I would immediately try to duplicate it. This is another hallmark of a successful Internet publisher. Find something that works well, and then duplicate it. Repeat it across your main website, and then apply the same lessons to any new websites you create.

Of course, the lessons from one website or audience don't always apply to another audience. So you may find that the trial-end-error process starts all over again, in some cases. This is why I recommend limiting your focus to one audience, or several closely related audiences. For example, I have dozens of websites, but most of them can be classified as real estate and/or consumer education websites. This allows me to use what I've learned over and over again.

Creating Multiple Revenue Streams

There are two types of home-based Internet publishers -- those who survived the recent economic crisis, and those who had to go back to a "day job." I've been fortunate enough to find myself in the first group, and I can attribute my survival to one thing above all else ... diversification. I have worked hard to diversify my revenue streams, and I highly encourage you to do the same.

When the economy started to go south (back when the first banks started failing), the consulting side of my business came to a grinding halt. If I had been relying solely on that, I would've gone broke. But because I also had ad revenues, and commission programs, and e-book sales, I was able to weather the storm and even come out stronger than before.

Most professional Internet publishers make the bulk of their income from the following:

• Advertising revenue (Google AdSense, direct ad sales, etc.)
• Affiliate programs (Commission Junction, Link Share, ClickBank, etc.)
• Services of some kind (web writing, blog setup, SEO, etc.)

I call this the three-legged stool of website revenue, and I'm constantly looking for ways to reinforce the legs of my stool. In fact, this is how I spend the better of my days lately. I work on boosting my ad revenues by increasing traffic, experimenting with new placements and such. Then I'll take a look at my affiliate programs and see what I could do better. It never ends, but it's an exciting and challenging process I wouldn't trade for anything. Beats sitting in a cubicle all day.

Establishing Your Authority

What is your website about? What topics are you most interested in? This is where you should focus your energy when going forward. You have to build your website publishing "empire" around topics you're interested in. Otherwise, you're defeating the purpose of working for yourself.

Once you choose your topic and direction, strive to turn your website(s) into one of the leading sources for information in that field. This is your ultimate goal, and it will benefit you in many ways. When people view your website as the ultimate guide to [blank], they will be more inclined to link to your site and recommend it to others. This means more traffic, better search engine rankings and higher revenues.

Of course, in between your current status and the ultimate resource status, there's a lot of work. You'll need to create plenty of authoritative / educational content about your topic, or develop the programs needed to make your website features work properly. That will take plenty of time and effort, and you may find that you need support from other as well. But nowhere in this lesson did I use the word "easy." If it were easy, everybody would do it.

Hundreds More Tips - Coming Soon

I add new lessons to this blog about twice a week. I'd do it more often, but I have an Internet publishing business to run, and this website is not part of my income. :-) So be sure to check back often for more tips on turning a website into a six-figure income for yourself.

Recommended next step:
What you need to start a work-at-home Internet business

Starting a Home-Based Internet Marketing Business

So you've decided to start a home-based Internet marketing business and now you're asking the eternal question, "Where do I start?"

My advice is to plenty of research, planning and soul searching before you begin. Most people who start a work-from-home Internet marketing business fail within the first six months. The most common reason for this is a lack of planning. So if you really want your home-based business to succeed, you need to give it plenty of forethought. I'm hoping this article will get you started on the right foot.

Internet Marketing Lessons Learned

I've learned many lessons about running an Internet marketing business, and I'd like to share some of them with you today. I've finally reached a place in my business where I'm happy, but it took a long time and plenty of trial and error to reach this point. So who knows ... maybe you'll find a shortcut to success by reading some of my own lessons learned.

1. Start by finding a niche for yourself.

There are thousands of Internet marketing companies in the U.S. alone, so if you want to enter the market successfully you need a niche. This might be an industry niche, a geographic niche, or a combination of the two.

For example, when I started my SEO firm, I realized it was a crowded industry. So I focused on providing SEO services to (A) small businesses in the Austin, Texas area and (B) real estate companies. It was a lot easier to enter the market this way. If I had tried to be a general SEO consultant for any type of company anywhere in the U.S., it probably would not have worked. Too much competition. Anyone starting a home-based Internet marketing business can benefit from this piece of advice -- find a niche!

2. Create an informative website.

You need a website that explains the Internet marketing services you offer. Not everyone will read through it. Some people will just shoot you an email and ask for help without reading a single word of your website. But you still need to provide sufficient information about your services, for the people who do read carefully.

At a minimum, this information should include:

• A clear explanation of the Internet marketing services you provide, along with the benefits of those services.
• A list of credentials. This can include past projects you've done, training and education, specific accomplishments, any articles you've published, etc.
• Testimonials from past clients, if you have some.
• An overview of how the process works, including the payment side of things.
• You might also want to create an FAQ page.

As you add this information to your website, be sure to optimize it for search engine visibility. This will help people find you online, which makes your marketing efforts a lot easier. You might also want to create an article library on your website, which can help you pull in even more search engine traffic.

3. Beware of time-wasting logistics.

If you spend too much time on logistical tasks like writing proposals, talking on the phone, and invoicing, then you won't as much time for billable works. This will limit the amount of money you can make with your home-based marketing business.

I learned this the hard way. I used to spend way too much time talking to potential clients on the phone. It ate up a lot of my workday, and it didn't always generate business. So I started handling all inquiries by email, until people were ready to move forward. You have to find a system that works for you, and you have to be on constant guard against logistical time-wasters.

Blogging for a Living - 3 Strategies to Consider

Thousands of Americans publish blogs these days, and they run the gamut from family to business blogs. Even retirees are getting involved. So blogging, by itself, is certainly nothing knew. But a rising trend is the idea of blogging for a living from home. And in this post, that's exactly what I'm going to talk to you about.

Specifically, I'll explain three different strategies you might use to start a work-from-home blogging business of your own. Then I'll offer what I feel is the absolute best approach.

3 Ways to Blog for a Living

These are by no means the only way to go about it. These are just a few of the ways I've used blogging within my own home-based business. See if any of these ideas tickle your fancy.

1. Becoming a Freelance Blog Writer

Many companies publish blogs these days, but some of them don't have the in-house writing talent needed for consistent blogging. So you with a little bit of hard work, and a healthy dose of self-promotion, you could position yourself as a freelance blog writer for such companies.

I've done this in the past, and I can tell for a fact there are plenty of potential customers for this type of business model. Over time, you could find yourself blogging for a living this way -- and making a good living to boot!

2. Earning Ad Revenue

If you have one or more blogs with a good amount of traffic, you could earn a decent living from advertising revenue. There are two main strategies to choose from -- you can sell your ads on an individual basis, or you can use a contextual advertising program such as Google AdSense.

If you don't have a ton of blog traffic, I recommend the contextual ad programs. When your traffic increases to more significant levels, you may be able to sell ad space to individual advertiser as well. I personally know a handful of people who are blogging for a living with Google AdSense alone, so it can certainly be done.

3. Using Commission Programs

Similar to the advertising programs mentioned above, you can generate revenue from a wide variety of commission programs. The difference here is that you are making money by generating a specific action. The two most common actions are sales and leads. For example, if you send a visitor to a software site and they purchase a product, you could earn a commission based on that sale. Likewise, if you send a visitor to a mortgage website and they fill out a form requesting information, you could earn a commission from that lead.

Is this a viable strategy for blogging for a living? Absolutely. If you choose the right commission programs and do a good job placing the creative components (banners and links), you could make a good living from this blog strategy. Best of all, you are actually helping your website visitors find the kind of products and services they're after. And if you choose commission programs for products you believe in -- which you should -- you'll feel good about the whole thing!

The Best Approach

If you are serious about blogging from home for a living, I recommend using a combined strategy. You could offer freelance services for blog setup, training or content development. You could publish a network of your own blogs, with a combination of advertising and commission-based revenue. And you can do it all at the same time.

In my experience, it's extremely important to diversify your blogging business by incorporating several different strategies. This will offer a lot more financial security than using one strategy alone.

Here's a real-life example of what I mean. When the economic recession hit full force around October of 2008, the client side of my business dried up to nothing. Nobody could afford to pay for freelance services anymore. If I had been relying entirely on the blog writing services, I would have been in bad shape -- and probably would've been forced to get a "day job" again. Yikes! But we managed to get by because I had other aspects of my Internet business that were generating revenue. I learned a lot about the need for diversification at that time, and I've been diversifying even further since then.

Blogging for a living is not a fantasy, but it does require a lot of hard work and a solid plan. If you love to blog, and you feel you're up for the challenge, you could some day have a home-based blog business that pays the bills. Good luck!