The Reality of Web Earnings

In some ways, the web is as much a mythical place as Camelot. And people tend to be as unrealistic about what

it is, and how to use it! Even smart people hear the myths so often, and they are perpetuated in such

in sidious ways, that it is VERY difficult to separate fact from fiction, and to know just what IS possible.

It took me 6 years to learn as much as I have about what is real and what is not. And it was not information that

was easy to come by, nor was it cheap. I have made my share of mistakes, and I've learned many lessons the

hard way.Some of the myths are perpetuated by web designers who are more concerned with getting the contract

than with taking the time to make it clear just what you are getting for your money. They like the myth that the web is your ticket to fortune, because that keeps their services higher priced. Sometimes it is difficult to know just what is true and what is not, especially when the issues involved are highly technical, and beyond the ability of a business owner (who specializes in their business  – and SHOULD specialize in that!) to fully comprehend complex web issues. You have no choice but to trust someone else to either teach you well, or do the job for you honorably. I get asked a lot, “How much should I expect to spend on a website?”. After years of working with shoestring startups, and seeing people with nearly nothing to invest get results from a website, I have come up with the following formula: If you want to earn $10,000 from your website in the first year, you should be willing to spend $5000 in marketing and web design combined. The next year, the costs for site design are reduced, unless you choose to expand. This formula is fully scalable, large or small. I've seen someone spend very little on a website, and when they earned only double or triple what they put into it that first year, they were disappointed. Spending more is no guarantee of greater earnings, but penny pinching with a website that you expect to be a major vehicle for bringing you income is rather silly. I fully realize that many business owners have to economize drastically just to get their foot in the door, and I'm not griping about that! It just bugs me when someone comes to me expecting to make a huge amount of money, when they are unwilling to pay a fair price for what they really want in return. You don't make a fortune from a $150 website. If you pay just $200 for an economy website, and you give it very little in the way of marketing (the great thing about marketing is that you can substitute effective work for monetary investment), then you cannot complain if you make just $400 from it the first year. If you want something that will return tens of thousands of dollars, then you need to be willing to invest in quality that can actually do that, or be willing to work hard and be patient while you substitute effort for monetary investment. Double or triple return on a website investment is very good, and smart business people will see that. And if a site is built well, with a good product or service behind it, and if it is promoted smart, it can easily do that (under the right conditions, our company even guarantees that, because we know it works when done right). A good designer will contribute hugely to your success, and their expertise deserves respect. So what is the truth that you most need to know? Earning online takes time. It takes time to build a good site. It can happen in a few weeks, but only if YOU have your part of the job • already done (you have to provide information for the pages, provide product lists or service lists, prices, contact and about info, approve the design and finished content, etc). Communication between site builder and site owner can take quite a bit of time, you can lose half a day here, a weekend there, etc, so that the progress is made more slowly than you thought it would be. It takes time to get a site indexed with search engines. It always takes at least 2 weeks, far more if you • are in a high competition niche, to get ANY search engine traffic at all – and the site cannot be registered until it is complete enough to provide useful information. Usually after it is registered, you'll get    a hint of traffic in about a month, but it can take many months to build up much traffic just from search engines. You have to promote your site to get traffic sooner. Even then, if you are using free or low cost methods, • it takes lots of time to build momentum, and you have to take action to make it happen. If you want traffic fast, you have to pay a lot. And then it still takes time to tweak the site to bring it to it's • best earning potential, and time to adjust and test your ads to make sure they are earning at their best. You have to maintain a site long term. This takes time or money. A good designer will tell you what will • be involved in maintaining your site long term – it differs depending on the site type and function. Traffic and income are two different things. GOOD traffic gives you money, poor traffic does not. • And the good news... If it is built right, and you give it what it needs, then it does build momentum, and grows over time. That is worth having patience with, and working for.