Have you ever read an income report from a blog or website that talks about how much money they make from advertising or other affiliate relationships?
Yes, some websites make six digits a month or more in gross income. Yes, I said six digits a month. If your website is not making serious cash each month, I’ve got something you’ll want to hear.
The truth is that is that there’s a formula to making serious cash with websites. And if you can find the formula, you can build a collection of money making websites for your passive income lifestyle.
Interested? Read on.
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Not Just One – But a Collection of Money Making Websites
The truth is that a lot of top website owners (the ones making at least $100,000 per year from their sites) own multiple sites.
Check out these examples.
- Darren Rowse from Problogger has his Digital Photography School website.
- Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income has his niche site Security Guard Training HQ
- Spencer Haws from Niche Pursuits has any number of niche websites; most notably the recent Best Survival Knife Guide he made in his public creation follow along series (a must read if you’re looking for practical tips on building niche sites from the ground up).
- My Money Design has his developing niche site IRA vs 401k Central
- And many, many more.
So as you can see, many powerful bloggers start by building one successful website. Then they duplicate their system on another site and work to increase their passive income.
Why More Than One Website?
The reason webmasters will own or develop more than one website is because with each site it increases the potential for more and more earnings.
Think about it – why not take one of your lowest risk passive income ideas and spread it out among as many separate residual income channels as possible?
For example: Suppose a potential advertiser wants to place a banner ad on your site. If you had two sites to offer him that were similar, that advertiser would probably take you up on your offer and you could make double the money.
Or another example: If people click on your ads and you make $500 per month, then why not create 10 websites doing the same thing and increase your earnings potential up to $5,000?
The possibilities are endless. The key is in finding the right sites to buy–and knowing what to do with them.
1. Find Websites to Buy
There are a lot of ways you can build a website that will generate an income. But to really put together a complete portfolio of money-making websites within a decent amount of time takes a little extra effort.
Here are some of the best ways to start websites:
- Buy dormant websites from Flippa where the owners stopped maintaining the site
- Buy expired domains from places like Go Daddy Auctions.
- Register a domain and have a VA set it up, create the content, etc.
- Register a domain that you will set up yourself, but outsource all the content writing
Once you find and buy the sites, you’ll need to spend time building them. If you buy an existing site, you’ll likely need to clean up, refine and modify the site to optimize it to rank in search engines like Google.
Be sure to choose topics you are familiar with when choosing your sites too.
2. Learn to Make Money From Your Websites
Now that you’ve created your collection of websites, it’s time to put them to work generating residual income. Here are a few ideas that people use to earn cash from their websites and have been proven to work well:
- Join an affiliate program such as Amazon affiliates, Swagbucks or others.
- Post direct advertising ads on your site from companies such as Google Adsense or MediaNet.
- Promote links for other bloggers. Fiverr is one place where you can post an ad and make a quick $5 for each link you promote (Only do this if the links are relevant for your site and its content).
- Host sponsored posts when advertisers contact you about doing a guest post that includes a link to their client or affiliate (Keep this to a minimum and be sure to disclose to readers when you publish a sponsored post–and again; relevant content!).
- Review products or talk about products or services that relate to articles you’re writing. Form affiliate relationships with the companies that own these products and services and include affiliate links within your articles.
- Build links to your other sites. This will increase the back-link profile of your own main websites which could influence their visibility within the search results and potential to create income.
- Keep your site and continue to work on building it and increasing income.
- Sell (or flip) the websites on a site like Flippa, Go Daddy Auctions, etc.
Keep doing what you need to do to publish great content, increase traffic and build a community. The money will follow if you do it right.
Know that gaining income from your sites will probably not happen overnight. Anything worth having rarely does.
Making money off websites is a “slow and steady wins the race” kind of adventure. Keep that in mind, and keep working daily on growing your sites.
Related: How to Make Money Writing Content for Blogs
3. Make Valuable Content and Authenticity a Priority
There are a lot of money making websites out there that make money by promoting hype and using misleading headlines.
This technique might work for you, but I promise you it will be short-lived success.
Instead, work to build a long-lasting blog community by providing valuable content and being authentic at every turn. People will see the authenticity, appreciate the value in your content and keep coming back for more.
Make it your goal to teach people–or share with people–valuable, usable information. Don’t waste their time by publishing sponsored posts with little value for a quick buck.
Instead, go for the long-term relationship with readers.
4. Keep Adding New Content and Refining the Style for Each Site
Creating and running a successful blog takes time and practice. One popular blogger, Deacon Hayes from Well Kept Wallet, started his blog back in 2010.
It wasn’t until 2016 that he started making any notable money from the blog. When he started to notice substantial increases in his blog income, he kept learning, refining it and tweaking it.
Related: How to Earn Affiliate Income Using Other People’s Websites
Today, his blog is a true passive income source that earns enough money that Deacon can retire if he wants to. Yep, early retirement–in his 30’s.
However, Deacon chose to hang on to his blog for the long term and not give up. Note: he’s also bought other blogs along the way. Some he’s kept and is making money off them.
Others he sold when he realized the site wasn’t quite what he was looking for. The point is that he kept trying.
5. Spread the Word About Your Sites Using Social Media and Guest Posting
So, you’ve created your great websites. Now it’s time to get the word out! Use social media to share your articles. If you’re providing valuable content, people will read them!!!!
In addition, see if other, more popular blogs will let you write a guest article for them with a link or two back to your site.
Be sure to choose topics that are relevant to the sites you want to post on, and be sure your guest article ideas will bring value to their readers. This is crucial.
Use the internet to get the word out about each of your fabulous websites, and then make sure you’re working to make those sites even more fantastic.
Be someone in the blogging community who has a goal to make a difference in the lives of others. Write guest posts for other blog owners, share other peoples’ articles on social media and be a giver in the blogging community.
If you do that, and ensure you’re publishing valuable content on your sites, income growth will happen. Anytime you’re looking to succeed in the entrepreneurial world, you’ve got to have a “giving” mindset.
Selfishness will be evident to everyone around you, and no one wants to work with someone whose only goal is to get–and not to give back.
Summary
You really can build a collection of money-making websites, but you’ve got to start with making one site an income-producing site first. Read our article on how to build a blog and make money from it.
Then get to work. Write great content. Include affiliate and other links. Share the content and build a social media following.
Over time, if you do things right the money will start coming in. Then repeat the process with other blogs you find that touch about subjects you know about or can learn about.
Build a system where you hire out for writing and management, and you’ve created a passive income empire for yourself. What are you waiting for?
