KaChing: How to Run an Online Business that Pays and Pays (3 page)
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Authors: Joel Comm,Mark Victor Hansen
BOOK: KaChing: How to Run an Online Business that Pays and Pays
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Today, WorldVillage is still going strong and continues to enjoy hundreds of thousands of visitors each month.
That’s one Internet success story. As you’ll see, it’s not without its stumbling blocks—no business story ever is—but it has two key components that are essential for understanding (and duplicating) online success. They sum up the opportunity that the Web has brought to anyone with even a hint of entrepreneurial spirit.
The first is that online business success is open to
anyone.
I am a shining example of this. I’m not an expert. I still can’t program. I still hire out the writing on many of my sites as well as their management to people who can do these things better than I can. I’ve always been interested in computers, but I’m not what you’d call a professional computer person.
anyone.
I am a shining example of this. I’m not an expert. I still can’t program. I still hire out the writing on many of my sites as well as their management to people who can do these things better than I can. I’ve always been interested in computers, but I’m not what you’d call a professional computer person.
The point is you don’t need to complete a course in advanced programming. You don’t have to know what HTML is, what a server looks like, or that Ruby on Rails isn’t the name of a grunge band. Knowing those things might help—at least on the technical side. But you don’t need to know them. I’ve met plenty of Internet millionaires who think that style sheets are programs handed out at fashion shows. It hasn’t stopped them from creating successful site after successful site.
The second key component to the story of my first online success is that I still play computer games. They’re fun. I might play them less now than I used to, but I still sit with my family sometimes in front of the screen as we battle monsters together. I am pleased to say that I am a Level 80 Warrior in World of Warcraft.
The reason the
Dallcas Fort Worth Software Review
and then WorldVillage succeeded was that I was doing something I loved. I didn’t set out to make money. I set out with the idea of doing something that I enjoyed. Because I enjoyed it, I was willing to put time and effort into doing it well. And because I put time and effort into doing it well, other people enjoyed it, too.
Dallcas Fort Worth Software Review
and then WorldVillage succeeded was that I was doing something I loved. I didn’t set out to make money. I set out with the idea of doing something that I enjoyed. Because I enjoyed it, I was willing to put time and effort into doing it well. And because I put time and effort into doing it well, other people enjoyed it, too.
When that happens, there’s always an opportunity to make money, especially on the Internet.
That’s what this book is all about.
It’s about what happens when you take a passion, place it on a platform that’s open to anyone who wants to climb on to it, and then plug in the pipes that bring in the cash.
The result sounds a lot like KaChing.
To someone whose only experience on the Internet is reading the news, checking the sports scores, or perhaps answering e-mail, the online world can look pretty daunting.
Telling an Internet user that there’s a fortune to be made online is a bit like telling a moviegoer that there are millions to be made in movies. Of course there are ... if you know how to handle a camera, write a script, find the production money, hire actors, edit the footage, and distribute the film. If you know how to do all that—and can make movies that people actually want to see—then, sure, you can make millions.
But creating successful web sites is not like shooting successful movies. Creating movie blockbusters is complicated. Creating Internet content is very, very simple. It was always meant to be simple, and today it’s easier than it’s ever been.
You can now be online with a new web site in less time than it takes to read this page.
And you can do it for free.
You won’t hear your first KaChing right away. You’ll still have to stock the site with content, plug in the systems that will pour in the cash, and let people know you’re around. That will take a little time. But it won’t require any skills more specialized than the ability to press a mouse button or choose an option in a drop-down menu.
It wasn’t always like this. Although the Internet was always meant to be a place that anyone could use and anyone could build on, for a long time that really meant anyone who had the patience to read a programming manual the size of a shoebox.
Today, the Internet really has met its promise of being a truly democratic space. Those with a desire to earn and a willingness to learn as they go can have the beginnings of a profitable online business in minutes.
Usually, that takes one of two forms.
The traditional method has always been to create a web site from scratch. You bought a domain name from a service like
GoDaddy.com
, rented space on a hosting service, and placed the domain on the host’s server. Then you used a special program to write the code and upload the pages. Whenever users entered the address of one of those pages in their Web browser, your page appeared on their screen.
GoDaddy.com
, rented space on a hosting service, and placed the domain on the host’s server. Then you used a special program to write the code and upload the pages. Whenever users entered the address of one of those pages in their Web browser, your page appeared on their screen.
This is still how most web sites work. It’s how most of mine work. Doing it all manually provides the greatest amount of flexibility. But it’s a little tricky, as it takes time to learn—or money to pay someone who already knows how to do it—and it’s no longer necessary.
Web developers have made complete templates available to anyone who wants to use them. The prices vary. Some companies offer them for free; others charge thousands of dollars for a template that’s unique, easy to customize, and filled with the latest Flash animation.
Whichever option you choose—and both types are no more than a quick search away—once you’ve bought your domain, all you have to do is upload the template and fill it with your content.
Alternatively, you can also use a content management system like Joomla! or Drupal. These are free programs that act as a kind of storage system for web site publishers. They sound frightening, but they’ve actually simplified web publishing enormously. Once you’ve taken the first leap of buying a domain and placing it on a server—a process that will take even the newest of publishers just a few nervous minutes—they’ll allow you to add articles and use modules and extensions to place all sorts of preprogrammed goodies, such as RSS feeds, sidebars, and automated storefronts, on your web pages.
The first steps might feel a little strange. But once you have even a basic web site up and running, you won’t be able to stop. You’ll be experimenting and playing, and in no time at all you’ll have become something of a web development expert simply because you’re enjoying it. It happens. And it happens because it’s now so simple.
Web site templates might have taken the sweat out of design, but there’s an even easier and faster way to get on the Web. When Evan Williams, who would later go on to help create Twitter, launched Blogger in August 1999, he continued a process of simplification that cracked the Internet wide open.
A
blog
(short for “web log”) is a very simple type of web site. Instead of having multiple static pages, the content on blogs is updated regularly and displayed in chronological order. That keeps readers coming back to see what’s new. Older content gets buried but can be recovered from archives and by using searches based on keywords and subjects.
blog
(short for “web log”) is a very simple type of web site. Instead of having multiple static pages, the content on blogs is updated regularly and displayed in chronological order. That keeps readers coming back to see what’s new. Older content gets buried but can be recovered from archives and by using searches based on keywords and subjects.
The benefit of blogs has always been their simplicity. While you can now upload all sorts of content, including video and real-time Twitter streams, writing a blog is not much different from writing in Microsoft Word, then saving it on the Internet so that everyone can see it. The attraction of a blog is always the content. If you can say something interesting—about any topic at all—you can build a successful blog.
Evan Williams certainly made a success of Blogger. Ten years later, Google bought the site for an undisclosed sum, and now Blogger is said to have 300 million active readers who consume the 388 million words uploaded through the service every single day (
Figure 1.1
).
Figure 1.1
).
Blogger, of course, now has plenty of competitors.
WordPress.org
provides a lot more flexibility. It’s open source, which means that anyone can build on it and create plug-ins that give publishers even more options. But unlike blogs on Blogger, it doesn’t come with hosting. Before you can use WordPress, you have to buy a domain name and place it on a host. You’ll then need to download WordPress’s blogging program from
WordPress.org
and upload it to your server. It’s not difficult, but it takes just a little effort.
WordPress.org
provides a lot more flexibility. It’s open source, which means that anyone can build on it and create plug-ins that give publishers even more options. But unlike blogs on Blogger, it doesn’t come with hosting. Before you can use WordPress, you have to buy a domain name and place it on a host. You’ll then need to download WordPress’s blogging program from
WordPress.org
and upload it to your server. It’s not difficult, but it takes just a little effort.
Figure 1.1
Getting started with Blogger is really easy and takes only a minute.
Getting started with Blogger is really easy and takes only a minute.
WordPress.com
, on the other hand (as opposed to
WordPress.org
), works exactly like Blogger. Your domain name will be [yourchosenname] .
WordPress.com
. It’s free, and you won’t need to fiddle around with a hosting service. But you also won’t be able to place AdSense, Chitika, Yahoo!, or text link ads on the site. As you’ll see in this book, that still leaves plenty of other options, but
WordPress.com
wasn’t really built for moneymaking, and the people behind it take a pretty dim view of revenue generation on these sites.
, on the other hand (as opposed to
WordPress.org
), works exactly like Blogger. Your domain name will be [yourchosenname] .
WordPress.com
. It’s free, and you won’t need to fiddle around with a hosting service. But you also won’t be able to place AdSense, Chitika, Yahoo!, or text link ads on the site. As you’ll see in this book, that still leaves plenty of other options, but
WordPress.com
wasn’t really built for moneymaking, and the people behind it take a pretty dim view of revenue generation on these sites.
The best option is to use Blogger just to get your feet wet. I like to call it “blogging with training wheels:” Then, once you have a handle on blogging, move up to
WordPress.org
or MovableType (
www.movabletype.com
).
WordPress.org
or MovableType (
www.movabletype.com
).
There’s a good chance, though, that you’re already online, either with your own web site or a blog. You may have created them yourself from scratch, or you may have paid a developer to create your site(s) for you. Both options are fine.
I’m not going to talk you through the first steps of launching a blog or creating a web site. That information is available everywhere (including in my previous books), and it really is so simple now that the best way to learn how to do it is just to do it. Go to
Blogger.com
, register, and start writing. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, and don’t be in too much of a hurry. Just enjoy the experience. That enjoyment will keep you moving forward.
Blogger.com
, register, and start writing. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, and don’t be in too much of a hurry. Just enjoy the experience. That enjoyment will keep you moving forward.
At the beginning of this section, I pointed out that while you can start developing web sites and blogs in minutes, it will take you a little longer to start earning money with them. That’s because you need
content and readers,
both of which take time to build.
content and readers,
both of which take time to build.
Installing a system that can persuade people to give you money on the other hand is now quick and simple.
Back in the old days, at the end of the twentieth century, there was a very easy and almost foolproof way to make a ton of money with a web site: You registered a domain, placed it on a server, and started writing.
You didn’t write content. You wrote a business plan, and in that business plan you included the word
advertising
about three times in each sentence. Then you bought a plane ticket to California, met with a venture capitalist, showed off your business plan, and waited patiently while he or she wrote a check for several million dollars in return for 1 percent of your new company.
advertising
about three times in each sentence. Then you bought a plane ticket to California, met with a venture capitalist, showed off your business plan, and waited patiently while he or she wrote a check for several million dollars in return for 1 percent of your new company.
For some of those investors, that actually turned out to be a smart move. The start-up would go on to attract lots of users and would be bought by an even bigger company, making lots of money for the developer and the investor. The company that bought it, on the other hand, was often left with a big write-off.
The problem was that while everything looked good on paper, no one had come up with a reliable way to turn lots of users into piles of cash.
It was as though someone had invented the shopping mall before anyone had invented the cash register. Lots of people were coming into the stores, but with no way to spend their money, they were walking right back out with it.
Google changed all of that. It did this in two ways.
First, it created a search engine that made finding content both easy and accurate. Before Google launched in 1998, Internet users searching for Web content through sites like Yahoo! and Lycos needed to either browse categories or check results based on the number of times a keyword appeared on a page. That didn’t always give them the best results. It meant that poor sites could game the system by stuffing pages with keywords, thereby sending the traffic and its benefits to the wrong people.
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