Business

This is an article I’ve been waiting a long time for somebody else to write. Over the years, I’ve changed how I manage my online projects so drastically that I wished someone would come along and say, “Okay, Glen, this is how it’s done.” Sadly, that just never happened.

Instead of waiting around for some perfect solution – though there probably isn’t one – I decided to share with you all, the strategy which helps me to do what I do. Although my system is by no means perfect (and you should really just use the things you think will help you), it is the most effective I’ve found after years of running popular websites. Hopefully I can learn a thing or two from you all in the comments as well.

February 1st, 2009, was a very memorable day for me. It was the day I arrived back at my family home in Newcastle, England, to start working for myself full-time. I had just left a job which for the previous two years saw me working with companies like Nissan, Hewlett Packard and Land Rover as their social media manager. My position in the rat race was actually an awesome one, but it was nothing compared to being my own boss.

As some people here don’t care about making their living from the internet, I understand that this post will not be for everybody. However, if you’ve just made the leap to working for yourself, currently run your own business, or you’re looking to make your money online in the future, this article may be just what you need.

Note from Glen: At your request, I’ve added a Print option to the bottom of all posts. This post is quite long, so you may want to give it a try. As there are over 100 million active blogs online I think it’s safe to say that the vast majority of them don’t earn much money at all. I suspect a lot of blog owners can’t even cover their hosting costs. Whilst there are other benefits to blogging besides making an income, many people do aim to be financially rewarded for the efforts they put in.

If you don’t want to make money from your blog (which I totally respect) then this blog post is probably not for you. If you do want to get a return on the time and creative effort that goes into building a blog, then this guide will show you how to do just that.

I’ve written about buying and selling websites quite a lot here as recently, that’s how I’ve been spending most of my time. I browse the online marketplaces regularly not only to find sites I can purchase and improve, but to also get ideas for new websites, traffic sources, and ways to make money. 

It has been around three years since I owned a website where the main income source was Google Adsense, but I recently picked up a great site which was pulling in a respectable $50 per day from the service. I’m certainly no Adsense expert, but I instantly saw ways to increase the revenue and tested different strategies over a number of weeks.

Whenever I’m in “work mode” I spend most of my time looking for websites to buy. I genuinely feel that the internet is one of the best places to invest your money and get a great ROI if you know what you’re doing. Not only that, the simple fact of making money on the internet means you can run your empire from anywhere in the world.

Since December I’ve spent over $100,000 on purchasing websites and I’ve made a similar figure by selling the ones I’ve built so today I’m going to cover both sides of the process in detail. In short, here’s my position: I like to buy websites I can automate through outsourcing and I sell websites that I no longer enjoy running or have a desire to grow.

I’ve never really liked the question “What do you do?” It’s not the question that’s the problem, it’s just that I have yet to craft a response I’m happy with. I make money by creating successful websites and I’m currently buying lots more. After this year though I want my whole network to be running on autopilot, so it wont be something I’m doing.

I spend most of my time helping other people make money online; mostly through this blog. I could call myself a blogger but that suggests I make my living through blogging. To me, a blog is simply the medium I use to share my value.

I haven’t written about my $1M case study for quite a while so I thought now would be as good a time as any to give an update. If you don’t know anything about my attempt to build a $1M website in 12 months then read the first post here. I wrote follow up posts on buying a $550 domain and my CMS and content strategy.

A few months ago I decided it would be a good idea to hire a model to create videos that would add more credibility to the site. I ended up choosing a girl previously featured in FHM and shot footage (non-adult) of her last week.

Have you heard of Matt Wadsworth? Up until last week, I had no idea who he was, but now, he’s one of my favourite people online. Matt is someone that has managed to build a 7-figure internet business in the space of three years. That’s impressive in itself, but what’s even more mind-blowing is that Matt is blind. He has no sight at all.

I instantly like Matt not only because of his achievements, but he’s someone that – like me – doesn’t make a living online by teaching people how to make a living online. Instead, his lessons are of providing value, staying consistent, and focusing on what you love.