The Times They are a Changin
Written by: Don Miller
Posted on January 10, 2008
Filed Under Starting your Online Business
I am noticing a trend recently that I think is interesting. There seems to be shift in momentum from the make money online niche. There is a reason for it. How many sites do we need to tell us how to make money online, generate traffic or sell us on the latest and greatest affiliate or widget guaranteed to make money . The answer for me is one is too many. Stop the madness , get off the train, jump ship, get the hell out Dodge, use whatever metaphor you like, but make a move, the times they are a changin.
Come gather round people, Wherever you roam, And admit that the waters, Around you have grown,And accept it that soon, Youll be drenched to the bone., If your time to you, Is worth savin ,Then you better start swimmin, Or youll sink like a stone, For the times they are a-changin. Bob Dylan
Niche marketing has come to the forefront in most of the well informed and the battle lines have been drawn. I think the winner has been decided, but there are many holding on. It does not matter what business you are in, you need to think about changing with the market, and that is exactly what will happen.
I personally do not care for John Chow or Shoemoney when it comes to content. My opinion is they add to their sites with filler. Chow’s best articles seem to be written by guest bloggers. They do have a cult like following and for that they get credit. I don’t suspect either will go out of business anytime soon, but they will adjust.
One of things I recognize about bloggers and blog site readers is they are smart, much smarter than people realize. That is what will cause the change. I took a look at some Alexa graphs today and noticed a trend in traffic for both Chow and Shoemoney. Drawing simple channel lines there is a discernible downtrend. Why is that ? Because people are getting smarter. They have learned following everything they suggest isn’t making money for them. There is no magic bullet. You will not get rich quick. They are looking at alternatives.
What you will see next is content starting to shift away from the make money niche and more towards niche marketing sites. Chow and Shoemoney will not sit back and continue to let their market share erode. Why? Because that is where the common man or woman can make money. It is the talk of the blog world. It works because it doesn’t rely solely on blog readers to make it work. It works because everyone knows something about something. Information is information and more people than bloggers are starving for it. There are more people who want to know how to fix a leaky faucet than there are people who want to make money online. There are more people interested in cooking heart healthy or losing weight than there are those who want to make money in sales. I have said this before and I will say it again. Bloggers will not survive in business off bloggers. I have seen it happen in many hobbies and that is what many consider blogging to be. A hobby. I want a home based business, a real home based business. That is what I will have.
The focus is changing folks. It has to change and so will all the make money online blogs out there. My Newsletter subscribers will receive an update later today of how I am developing niche websites and blogs. Below you will find a form to receive the Newsletter yourself. Simple fill in the e-mail address you want it delivered to, and make sure you verify your subscription. Yes the times are a changing. Are you changing with them?
Welcome feel free to look around. Subscribing to my Feed or Newsletter guarantees you don't miss any new content, give it two weeks, you will love it RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! Hope to see you again soon.
Tags:blogging, blogs, Get rich quick, niche, niche marketing
Related Posts
- Articles
If you like these Subscribe now, Fresh Content Added Daily The Times They are a Changin Social Media and the Power of Giving The Truth About Home Based Business Opportunities So When Do You Make Money Building Rapport and Relationship with your Readers Lead
MyBlogLog Become A Problogger Contest and a bit moreOkay so I didn't enter the contest until days after it started but since I was new to My Blog Log myself I was spending time, perhaps too much of it setting it up, cropping pictures and finding friends. I
Unique Article Wizard ReviewAs my newsletter subscribers already know I have recently become a big fan of Unique Article Wizard. My business requires article marketing. I use several services including Article Marketer , Ezine , Go articles and probably a few more I
BANS And Being De-IndexedA few days ago I was speaking with a friend about BANS. I told her I really needed to work on other sites, because you never know when BANS sites may disappear. Well as of yesterday around mid-day that happened,
Social Media Is Not Without FaultsThis week I read a post about lessons learned about communities and social media. It was typical of the quality I see on that site.. I commented about the way the author handled the situation which I thought was admirable.
Tools For SuccessAs I began writing this post it occurred to me that my recent posts involved more self-help types of topics than making money online. However, I sincerely believe these topics form the foundation for success in your online business, your
Content + Traffic + Pre-Sell = MonetizeOriginally I had planned to make this series a 6 part post. I have decided to combine traffic and monetization into one. Why? Because you won’t have one without the other. Your online business, and niche, simply will not function
Yankees are Home in OctoberFor the touch more than 3 years I wrote as a Fantasy Correspondent for ESPN. Yep that ESPN. Until now I have resisted the urge to plunge back into sports writing. As I was pondering ideas for my blog it
Comments
23 Responses to “The Times They are a Changin”
Leave a Reply
-
Subscribe in a Reader
-
Tools
The Times They are a Changin…
Are you starting to fell the migration away form making money online. Of course you are, its because that niche is losing momentum and market share. Not everyone can sit at home and make money online, at least not in that niche. leave that do the beach…
I’m partial to David Bowie’s Changes myself.
I compare Chow and many of the rest to Multi-level Marketing gurus leading a downline along the primrose path with hints of great wealth if they just do something else that lines the wallet of the guru.
I’ve noticed for a while that a ridiculous amount of bloggers were trying to make money telling people how to make money blogging. The circularity is too funny for words. Nice post.
Reminds me of a discussion I had with a friend of mine a few months back about how the information super-highway had become so cluttered with garbage that now it seemed more apropos to refer to it as the information super-parking lot.
I worked in IT from the mid 90’s to the late 2002 and used the Internet frequently in my work. In my absence from the business, I only used the Internet for e-mail and the occasional purchase of flow-blue off eBay. Not so long ago, I set out to help a friend with a computer problem he was having. I was astonished at how difficult it had become to find the information I was looking for (readily and freely available).
I say bloggers, pick up the torch and carry it boldly into the future and develop your “niche” as that is truly what made the Internet so great early on. You could actually find what you were looking for; expert information readily available from people who actually knew what they were talking about.
Great post!
Don,
I surely hope you are right.
I have two niche sites and these are how I plan to earn my income (but gee its slow).
The other problem with the blogging about blogging sites that turns people off I think is that they tend to quote each other a lot, and recycle particular topics. Eventually people get the idea that they’ve heard what there is to hear (it took me only a few months and I’m ignorant about both marketing and the blogosphere).
I will mention one noble exception. Caroline Middlebrook. She thinks about it and comes up with new and value laden stuff. She is developing niche sites though as her income source I think. So she agrees with you I think.
A well written post I think on a very important topic.
Frank C, well said I like Bowie too !
Tom, my point exactly, sadly there still lots of fish out there to fry
Linda, I wish you would comment more often, work on that site gal, your day is coming
Evan , I believe I am right, and I believe I will make money with my sites. Caroline discovered the same thing many others have, the make money niche is a tough nut to crack, she will overcome it, and yes I think we agree on niche sites,
Caroline Middlebrook is also clueless follow her advice on how to promote niche sites and you will end up priced with 5 cent clicks.
Don awesome article.
Kudos buddy look forward to taking some time to talk to you tomorrow.
This is probably one of the most truthful articles I have read, I currently have a make money blog. I recieve about 1078 hop link clicks a day and my earnings a rarely over $150 a day not even 1/300 people are converting, however there are certainiches within make money online that are profitable, you jus need a little research come visit and find out more!
I agree with you that Chow and Shoe’s site contain a lot of fillers.
Timmo, thanks for your attempt at spamming my post. I did come visit , how do you get 1000 clicks a day with no traffic, the truth , because you don’t.
Fantastic article Don. While I definitely agree with you points about Chow and Shoemoney, you gotta remember that they probably don’t care about their blogs that much. I think Shoemoney’s latest video blog said his blog made up for like 5% of his income or something like that. Just something to keep in mind.
Great article though, I am anxious to see where blogging will go in 2008.
Let’s hope this is the end of the annoying ‘make money on-line’ sites (no disrespect to you; this site seems honest), which tend to work like this:
Create a blog and spread the following information over 75 posts: get Google ads, create backlinks, game social media and start ‘expanding your market share’ (I love that one). Be sure to limit your posts to 20 lines, because we don’t want people to learn anything and we want to keep them clicking!
I guess these sort of sites can exist because people like to dream about six figure incomes generated from their site, but let’s face it: it’s not going to happen soon. You’d better bring something special (or something so bland no one can disagree).
Brian @ Elite; Oh they are about their blogs,complacency kills, that being said perhaps Shoe has changed his thinking already,
Bart; welcome I know the name would lead you to believe this is make money online site , but its not, I try to present home based business opportunities, and I plan to bring something special,the truth, I hope to see you again
That was a really well written post Don.
Excellent stuff.
Thank You Grizzly , and thank you for what you do to enlighten the masses about niche marketing
Like your article. You’re right.
About the only thing we can count on in the world and on the internet is change, so if we’re not used to it, we’d better get used to it.
Don,
Great blog you have going here. I agree with you that readers are smart. But also, there will always be groupies following rock stars.
I too have noticed that the traffic trends are down for some of the so-called ‘A-list’ make money blogs. I think there’s more competition giving them a run for their money.
Regarding the statement, “What you will see next is content starting to shift away from the make money niche and more towards niche marketing sites,” I don’t agree.
The make money niche will always be a hot one.
Hock, we can agree to disagree, no doubt people will follow the money, but telling people you make money by telling people how much money you make, well you get the point, in my estimation a shift in momentum is underway
Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes…
I want to believe that all you have to do to be a popular blogger is to provide creative, thought-provoking content.
But, hey, human nature is such that the most popular topics will always be sex and money. People kill for these, and this is what drives online growth.
Fortunately, the web is a big place and there is room for those with other interests.
I enjoyed your post. What you said is a wake-up call to all bloggers. Screw John Chow, Shoemoney and even the very nice problogger.net. Darren seems like a good guy.
Dont know any of them personally but I would choose Problogger well above the other 2
Don,
Great article. I’d like to make some comments as I have had an internet business (not a blog). I agree with you that you need a real business! You have to offer something of value. Blogging in general, is not a valuable product to me. Hoping someone clicks on a tab on your site is hoping (praying) that someone will actually click on it before they leave a boring blog. I would say to the bloggers, it is time to offer that valuable advice that people look for, so that you can go to the next level.
You (Don) are keeping your blog up to date and offering advice that makes sense for others. That is valuable advice, just like Heart Healthy Cooking and other topics. I would suggest to your faithful readers that they offer “value”. If the value they offer, turns the reader to click on a side tab, that is the Holy Grail! Don, your now adapting to the market with this latest article. Keep up the good work!
Very well written. I think we shouldn’t discredit Chow or Shoe too much though. Once we learn to make money from other sites we can head back to their sites to learn where to eat Surf n Turf and which UFC fighters to bet on