海角大神

I hear every single day from readers who want to know exactly how I鈥檝e made money with The Simple Dollar or how they can make money doing a similar thing, whether it鈥檚 starting a blog or posting Youtube videos or writing ebooks.

I鈥檓 going to spell all of this out in detail so that the reality of it is as clear as possible.

First of all,聽the only way to make money聽consistently聽online is to produce a lot of content on a very consistent basis.聽There鈥檚 really no other way to do it with any consistency. Sure, someone might throw a video up on Youtube only to see it go viral and get passed around like crazy, but that type of phenomenon is often completely unexpected and heavily based on luck.

The only way to make it work consistently is to produce content every day 鈥� or at least several times a week 鈥� and do it over and over and over again. You have to treat it like a second job.聽

Because you鈥檙e going to be doing it so often, you need to either be producing stuff you鈥檙e excited about or have an incredible work ethic. Ideally, you鈥檒l be doing both at the same time.

If you can鈥檛 do that, then anything you do online will be effectively like playing the lottery. You might randomly put up a hit every once in a while, but it won鈥檛 be sustainable in any way.

厂别肠辞苍诲,听if you鈥檙e concerned about earning money during the first year of putting in consistent effort, you鈥檙e better off spending your time doing something like聽.聽Mechanical Turk can earn you a few bucks an hour right from the start, so if you鈥檙e just wanting to earn a few bucks right now while clicking around, that鈥檚 probably a better approach for you.

So, why aren鈥檛 you going to earn a lot of money right away? It鈥檚 because there are a few rules that govern how people make money online. These rules seem to be true for聽everything聽that makes money online.

First of all,聽almost all money made online by content creators is either through advertisements or through selling the writing itself (as a Kindle book, for example).

The Simple Dollar is paid for by the advertisements that appear on each page, appear in the emails, and so on. That鈥檚 how the service keeps running.

The same is true for Youtube videos. Youtube sells ads on the videos that appear there and split the money between themselves and the creators of the video.

Generally, ads are paid for 鈥減er view,鈥� meaning that whenever you see an ad, the person running the site or the person that made the video or the person who wrote the article makes just a little bit of money (we鈥檒l get back to that in a minute).

Whenever you post something new, it gets a small burst of attention.聽That burst comes from your regular readers, which grow and change over time. When a new article appears on The Simple Dollar, regular readers usually read it within the next few days or so.

That burst of traffic grows over time as you build an audience. That鈥檚 why consistency is so important. People who find your stuff and like it are likely to come back for more, but if there鈥檚 nothing new for them to see, they鈥檙e not likely to come back. You need new stuff to get people to come back.

You also need to make sure other people see your stuff. That鈥檚 usually done by sharing it on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter or Reddit or on topic-specific messageboards. That鈥檚 how you pull in new readers for that initial burst.

The second source of income 鈥� and it鈥檚 often the biggest one 鈥� is what I call 鈥渢he long tail.鈥�聽Your article or video gets listed on Google and when people type in the right search terms, they find your article or video. This can go on for years and years and years.

Eventually, the 鈥渓ong tail鈥� becomes your primary moneymaker, no matter how popular you are.

Think of it this way. Let鈥檚 say for every 1,000 views your video or page gets, you earn $2. That鈥檚 an approximation of what you might expect from most ad networks that new video makers and writers would be able to get into.

If you have 100 people read each article you write, you get an initial burst of $0.20 per article. That鈥檚 not really impressive.

But, let鈥檚 say that each day, every old article you write gets 5 views. That鈥檚 enough to earn one cent.

So, you write an article, it gets $0.20 initially, and then you earn $0.01 per day for a long time afterward.

You write another article, you get that $0.20 initially, and then it earns $0.01 per day for a long time afterward.

Let鈥檚 say you have a daily schedule of this. Let鈥檚 look at what that鈥檚 like over the course of a month.

Day one, you earn $0.20 from that initial article.
Day two, you earn $0.20 from today鈥檚 article and $0.01 from the 鈥渓ong tail鈥� of yesterday鈥檚 article, totaling $0.21.
Day three, you earn $0.20 from today鈥檚 article and $0.02 from the 鈥渓ong tail鈥� of the previous articles, totaling $0.22.
鈥�
Day thirty, you earn $0.20 from today鈥檚 article and $0.29 from the 鈥渓ong tail鈥� of the previous articles, totaling $0.49.

You get the idea. It slowly builds on itself, though at this level, it鈥檚 still not impressive.

Over time, what will happen is 迟丑补迟听all of the long tails will get just a bit stronger.聽So many people are just wandering onto your site 鈥� and some will stay and click around. The more material you have to click around on, the longer they鈥檙e going to stay. This means all of your old articles will get just a bit more attention鈥� and then a bit more鈥� and then a bit more.

Each article won鈥檛 ever amount to a whole lot on its own, but if you have a thousand articles up there and each one earns $0.05 in ad revenue a day, you鈥檙e looking at $50 per day.

Now, ideally, that first 鈥渂urst鈥� is also growing, too. As you get more and more content out there, you鈥檒l gradually attract more and more people and those people will start visiting regularly. (Of course, there鈥檚 always a ceiling, as some people will stop visiting, too.)

So, if you write for three years and have a thousand articles, you might have 10,000 regular readers who read your newest article. Also, each article is garnering 25 views per day on the long tail. Here鈥檚 what聽迟丑补迟听month looks like.

On day one, you write article #1,001, which earns $20 from the initial burst, and the last 1,000 articles have 25 visitors each, which totals 25,000 views and thus earns you $50 from the long tail, totaling $70.
On day two, you write article #1,002, which earns $20 from the initial burst, and the last 1,001 articles have 25 visitors each, which totals 25,025 views and thus earns you $50.05 from the long tail, totaling $70.05.
鈥�
On day thirty, you write article #1,030, which earns $20 from the initial burst, and the last 1,029 articles have 25 visitors each, which totals 25,725 views and thus earns you $51.45 from the long tail, totaling $71.45.

That鈥檚 a little over $2,000 a month at that point.

狈补迟耻谤补濒濒测,听it won鈥檛 be nearly that smooth.聽Some days will spike and other days will seem lower than usual. Your growth rate might be a bit slower or a bit faster.

Still, regardless of all of that, the same principle holds true:聽you have to produce solid stuff consistently for a聽long聽period of time to earn money.聽It鈥檚 only when you鈥檝e produced a lot of it that it begins to earn money in a reliable fashion for you.

When I suggest to people that they should make Youtube videos or start a website to earn money online,I鈥檓 proposing a very long-term side business that takes very little initial cash investment, but a聽濒辞迟听of time investment.聽It鈥檚 also a side business that is going to have tiny returns at first and never go beyond that without a great deal of effort, but once the ball starts rolling, it builds on itself very nicely thanks to the 鈥渓ong tail.鈥�

This article almost perfectly describes my experience with The Simple Dollar. I have always pushed out more than an article a day and, early on, I produced several short articles each day. Still, for the first year or so of The Simple Dollar, I didn鈥檛 earn very much. It wasn鈥檛 until the second year when The Simple Dollar became enough of an earner for me to feel confident about focusing on it full time, and even at that point, it was due to having more than a thousand articles in the bank, accepting a significant drop in income,聽补苍诲听having faith that it would continue to grow for a while.

If this doesn鈥檛 sound like a good avenue for you, then online content production probably isn鈥檛 for you.聽Consider other avenues that link to more immediate income, such as a traditional side job or something that converts your time more directly into revenue like the aforementioned聽.

Earning money online from writing and making videos is聽absolutely聽possible, but it requires a聽lot聽of work at the start for relatively little return. It鈥檚 only when you break through that trend that you鈥檒l start seeing real returns on your invested time.

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