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The Power of Small Numbers

29 May 2008 14 Comments

It seems with the birth of the John Chow fan club, thousands and thousands of new bloggers start up another MMO blog every day. They all dream of being the next guy or gal to pull in 30k a month from their blog. I admire their ambition and I applaud the effort but I have to think there is a better way.

Hail Mary

Too many of these new bloggers are expecting to hit it big quickly, they think that success is just a matter of timing and luck and in some cases they may be right. I would challenge you that if relying on luck is part of your game plan then you are truly destined to fail.

John Chow and most like him were a combination of right time and place and a few people do hit the lottery every day. Someone has to win Powerball out of the 10 million people who enter but it isn’t likely to be you. You are far better off developing a different game plan than playing the lottery.

Game of Inches

If you are looking to make money online full time then you need to understand that it’s a game of inches. Meaning your progress will come slowly most of the time but steady progress, over time, will still get you across the finish line.

Never underestimate the power of small numbers. I have no idea what the median income is of the people who read this site but let’s continue taking 40k a year as I did in this article. That means you need to make 835 dollars a week in order to produce a 40k annual gross income.

There are so many ways you could produce this income actually pretty easily if you were dedicated enough to do it. Let’s take an example breakdown.

  • Start 10 different product review blogs in various niches. Games, fashion, tech, etc.
  • Start 1 Flagship blog that is your personal brand blog.

It is not difficult at all to pick up anywheres from 5 to 20 dollars per day simply writing Payperpost or some other paid review type articles. Let’s say 10 dollars per day per site is the income goal we are going to set.  Ten dollar paid posts aren’t that difficult to come by so that would mean you need 10 articles per day.

(10*10*7) equals 700 dollars per week. You’re almost a full time blogger already.

Let’s say on these same pay per post blogs you mix in a mix of your own posts that contain paid reviews and affiliate links and maybe even some google adsense. 10 blogs would put you at only needing about 13 dollars per week in income from your other posts to get you to the finish line.

Is 10 articles a day realistic?  Probably not if they are flagship type content but paid posts are pretty easy to write and don’t require much creativity.

Reality

Is this realistic, yes and no at the same time. It is realistic if somebody actually took the effort to do it but it isn’t realistic for most people because they are lazy.

I used to run a pay per post affiliate banner on this site and had dozens and dozens of people sign up for the service using my referral link. Pay Per Post only pays the referral commission once that user completes their first paid post.

Out of over 200 signups….I have not had a SINGLE user actually follow through to completion. Not one person has had the tenacity to complete a single paid post. I am not even bothering to use affiliate links because it won’t matter, nobody is going to follow through anyways.

Maybe it’s Pay Per Post you might say. Maybe they aren’t paying or something silly like that. I don’t think so.

I also sometimes run a Deal Dot Com banner in my sidebar. In a nutshell this is a 2 tier affiliate program where you get paid commission from anything you sell to someone who buys from your link and you get paid a percentage of whatever anyone who signs up under THEIR link as well.

I have 65 people who signed up under me for deal dot com, how many commissions do you think they generated?

Zero.

How many people do you think they signed up under them?

Yep…..Zero.

I realize this is hardly scientific but it’s good enough for me. People are lazy and they expect to earn 100k a year with 2 hours of work a week. Simply won’t happen.

Conclusion

Making Money online is not terribly difficult if you are willing to actually work at it. There are so many different ways you can make a few bucks here and a few bucks there that by the time a 40 hour work week was over, you could fairly easily be making 40-50k a year.

The problem is that we are society that longs for instant gratification. People want immediate success and will often quit long before they should. Rather than 10 different income streams that make them a few bucks a week they want one that makes them thousands. You can’t blame them but reality is reality.

A small bit of effort and you could actually be a full time blogger if you simply stop trying to hit a home run. You can win the game with a whole lot of base hits just as easily.

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14 Comments »

  • Paul | UpperMoney.com said:

    I’d suggest it’s partly laziness, and partly a lack of focus. People in the “make money” field are bombarded with so many claims, that it’s easy to think that the current “system” they’re trying out isn’t working (because they aren’t instant millionaires), and so they move on to the next one.

    If you want to build a house, you have to build it brick by brick.

    Anyway, nice blog – and if you have a second, please hop over to mine and say Hello! :)

    .

  • Digital ADD (Digital Attention Deficit Disorder) - I has it. | Merlene - Everywhere said:

    [...] one in a tab. For example, since this is one of the tabs currently open, I have the post “The Power of Small Numbers” open. In a short time I’ll have a dozen (or at times several dozen) tabs open with articles I [...]

  • Tom - StandOutBlogger.com said:

    haha…dealdotcom… I actually checked their website the other day to see if they were still around!

    Tom – StandOutBlogger.coms last blog post..My Little Blog Is Growing Up!

  • KushMoney said:

    I got to agree with you. People think its going to be easy once they find out its not easy, they give up.

    KushMoneys last blog post..Competition Plans

  • Kyle James said:

    So it makes you wonder if out of 265 people and no converters how the hell do those businesses stay in business?

    Kyle Jamess last blog post..Links of the Week May 30th, 2008

  • Andy - Multivar.org said:

    I think there is a fear that your blog will lose search engine ranking if you write paid posts. That put me off doing it.

    Getting away from the MMO niche is a good way to MMO I think with multiple niches like you suggest.

    Andy – Multivar.orgs last blog post..Tracking Clicks On Landing Pages

  • Bill said:

    @Paul – No doubt and will do.

    @Tom – Yep they’re still there. I don’t try to promote them anymore because well it simply doesn’t convert. I keep the widget so I get the emails telling me what the deal for today is. I will admit they sometimes have some great deals……about 1 out of 30 or 40 times maybe.

    @Andy – Sure might be a problem for your flagship blog but these “niche” blogs are ones you would build purposefully for that. If you don’t like pay per post then there are a dozen other ways you could accomplish the same thing.

  • Passive Cash Machine Niche Sites | The Blog Entrepreneur said:

    [...] The Power of Small Numbers [...]

  • Tamera Daun said:

    You are so right.

    Tamera Dauns last blog post..One for the Gals. Connecting to a sense of inner-security.

  • Sunday Link Love & Announcements - The Net Fool Contest Ends | The Net Fool said:

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  • Puneet said:

    Nothing is easy in the world … and if someone wants to make a grip in the market then it needs hard work a lot.

    Agree with u frd

    Puneets last blog post..Ford Ranger sales slide along with bigger trucks

  • Pick Of The Week - 31st May 2008 | Dalton's RTFM said:

    [...] Blog Entrepreneur wrote about The Power of Small Numbers which takes a realistic look at how easy it is to make money online – I suspect many people [...]

  • Tari Conley said:

    Sounds like a frustrating way to make a living.

    Tari Conleys last blog post..Starting a Home Based Business – Remember My First Netflix Blog Post?

  • Pick Of The Week - 31st May 2008 | Business Opportunities And Ideas said:

    [...] Blog Entrepreneur wrote about The Power of Small Numbers which takes a realistic look at how easy it is to make money online – I suspect many people [...]

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