If you keep attracting the same type of client, and I mean that in a bad way, then maybe there is something that you are able to change on your end.  If you want the same small $100 freelance jobs here and there, then great.  We’ve all started there at some point.  But, f you want to attract clients with larger budgets then you have to stop thinking like the small motel and start thinking like the large hotel.

Wipeless Internet

The small details matter.  If you want to get into building a big business online you have to present yourself as a professional.  If you are going to do anything, do it right.  Here are a couple items you should take into consideration when trying to grow, or even just start, your own online business.

Get a good domain
When choosing your domain you want to keep it short and precise.  Choose a domain that represents either your company name or your company product/service.  Avoid over-complicating your domain by trying to stuff a sales pitch into it.  For example, let’s say you run a web design service in New York and each year you hold a convention to promote web services in the New York area.  Instead of dragging out the domain with something like newyorkwebdesignsummit.com, keep it simple.  Go with newyorksummit.com.  The shorter you can keep the domain, while still maintaining a relative domain name, the better.

One of the most popular domain registrars is currently GoDaddy.

Pay For Hosting
If you want to look professional, be professional.  Few things look less professional than a “free” hosted website (continue reading below to see what one of those other “few things” are).  Something like www.geocities.com/mybusiness.  If you are not willing to not spend a few dollars a month to increase your marketability by paying for a good host then why would a customer feel you are worth spending a few dollars on either?

“Real” Email Addresses
Part of a paid hosting account includes the ability to set up your own email accounts.  This is one of those “things” that look extremely unprofessional as well.  Have you ever started up a conversation with someone you meet at somewhere like a restaurant or bar and they talk themselves up as the next big thing?  They just started a business, have all these great ideas and talk of investors, etc.  An eternity later the conversation wraps up and you go to exchange information and they give you their email address of joeschmoe21@yahoo.com?  As bad as that sounds, you could be putting yourself in that position too if you do not host your own site to maintain your own “real” email address.

Business Cards
I will admit, I am guilty of this one from time to time.  Not that I do not have my own business cards, but sometimes I just don’t have them with me when I meet someone new.

What could be worse then exchanging contact information with joeshcmoe21@yahoo.com?  How about when joeschmoe21@yahoo.com writes his info down on a napkin?

Web Design
We’re moving along nicely.  You have your business cards and new web host.  Now you need to make your site look good.  Your fancy new business cards and “real” email address would be worthless if they direct people to an unprofessional website, right?  Just imagine how caught off guard you would be if your new contact spoke highly of himself, exchanged contact info with you and presented a flashy business card with a catchy website on there and you go to the site and it says “coming soon”.

Here’s where the fun starts though.  Now that you’ve given this person your info, presented a nice business card and they see your contact info they are probably going to check out your website at some point.  Make your site look how you want to be perceived.  If you want people thinking your a nice and quaint local business, then run with a clean design to represent accordingly.  If you run a “one man show”, but want to look like the CEO of a 100+ staffed operation then do it!  Build yourself a website that will display that.  Remember, you are as big as you make people think you are.

Over the years, this last year more particularly, I’ve noticed this trend in others as well.  I think sometimes we get so excited when thinking about the “dream” of working from home and/or being rich.  We get so focused on trying to accomplish that dream that we start cranking out ideas.  The more ideas you think of the more your thoughts expand and, then again, the more ideas you get.  This can be bad though.

I’ve seen many people in this last year trying so hard to find the right blog niche for them to blog about, the right topic to make a site about, etc. After spreading their efforts so thin all they are left with is 40 different websites, all of which are doing nothing.

If you want to avoid Entrepreneur A.D.D. I would suggest picking one idea and sticking to that one idea.  Find that best paying blog topic that fits you.  Blog about it for a few weeks and see if you like it.  If you don’t, there’s nothing wrong with minimizing your losses and moving onto another topic.  If you move on though make sure you actually move on.  Sell your old domain, or just get rid of it.  If you hang onto it you’ll come back to it after your next effort too.  It’s like when you break up with someone you immediately want to get in touch with the person you were with before them.  It’s a comfort thing.

Content is important.  What is equally important is how you display that content to your viewers.  Are you going to blog about something?  Would your site grow faster if you started it with a message board/forum?

Also, how much time do you want to put into maintaining the site?  With a blog you have to update it fairly regularly to keep your readers loyalty.  Forums are nice because, once they’re built up, you don’t have to do anything.  Your community members contribute new content daily.  The tricky part to that is it takes some time to build up a forum.  If you can go through the trenches for the first year or two, it’ll be smooth sailing after that.  Traditional websites are kind of a little of both of the above.  You don’t have to contribute as regularly as a blog or forum, but you can’t let it sit forever.  You will want to add some new content every once in a while just to keep the site “fresh”.  With a static site you should take your time and do it right.  If your site has really great, informative content then you can let that content cycle for months before having to do any updates.

Picture gallery sites are also popular.  They are easy to maintain and can bring lots of visitors.  However, people come to view pictures, not content.  So, there’s your con with photo galleries.  You can have thousands and thousands of views as people click “Next” hundreds of times to go from one photo to the next and you still haven’t earned a penny, because no one is clicking on your adspace.

Below is an example of a reader that sent us a screenshot of their high-volume gallery views, but low adsense return.

Gallery Adsense

To some, the ease of running a gallery for a couple dollars here and there is more realistic than having a lot of time to spend to try and generate more money with a content site.  When it comes to making money online, would you rather make 45 minute updates every week, or dedicate one full day to writing some great content and then not having to worry about it for quite some time?  The best decision depends on your circumstances.

The simplest way to think of how to find a high paying topic, or what to start your blog about to earn decent money, is to ask yourself another question.  What pay per click keywords are really competitive right now?  The more competitve the topic = the more potential money you can earn?  Why?  If you think about it, the ads that are displayed on your site are basically the same as Pay Per Click keywords that are displayed on the front of your favorite search engine.  People bid for their positions and placement.  They are doing the same thing for content ads (the ads that display on sites instead of search engines).

If you are also and advertiser you have an advantage.  You can easily log into your PPC advertiser account and play around with some words.  Go through the steps to set up a new campaign and play around with inputting some keywords.  How much does it tell you that you can expect to pay per click?  After you take off a random percent for what the search engine would keep for their profits, there you have a very vague guess on what a site with that type of keywords and content would pay per click.

Some of my favorite “hot” keywords are related to real estate, health and beauty and web design.  These are always competitive campaigns.  Everyone always wants to look good.  Real Estate ads have such a high ROI (return on investment) that advertisers are willing to bid high amounts.  Same with web design related advertisers.  I know of many web design firms that pay upwards of $10 per click.  That’s right… $10 per click.  That is insane, but they have huge ROI’s when you think about the thousands they’ll make by designing a high profile website.

So, there you go.  To find what blog or site topics you can earn big with, walk in someone else’s shoes for a day.  What would you be willing to pay a lot to advertise?  When you think of something that means that the same item would also have potential to earn a lot.  Now you have your next site topic.

Yes, it’s safe to click on.  Well, kind of.  Click at your discretion.  The great thing about this ad is that Diesel considered their consumer base.  This kind of ad worked perfect.  A few short weeks after it’s posting it already had over 5 million views.  That doesn’t count any other sites they posted it on either.

If your audience would laugh at the risque, then why not try.  The old saying is true, “sex sales!”  However, if your consumer base is not like Diesel’s and couldn’t laugh, then obviously this kind of viral marketing ad would not work.  Could you imagine seeing a Martha Stewart ad like this?  She might pick up a new customer here and there, but her big chunk of cash, her loyal customers, would be appauled.

Again, don’t be afraid to be different.

1. For an online journal
2. To make PPC income
3. To make some affiliate marketing income
4. To spread the word of a cause
5. Just because

The person in particular that had contacted me last wanted some passive income.  They had heard me speak of bloggers making $60K – $160K+ a year and they wanted a piece.  They had thought about it for a while and thought they had a blog topic

Here’s where we immediately get into the pros and cons of a domain… and, more importantly, blogging on a domain.  Yes, it’s a good idea to blog about something you are passionate about.  However… are you really going to love that one topic for more than a year or two?  Probably not.  There lies the problem.  You start this awesome blog.  You get tons of readers.  Then, one day, you wake up and you are exhausted on that topic

I was recently asked if it would be a good idea to blog about Scion xB’s.  xB owners are very enthusiastic about their cars.  The domain this person was thinking about was IlovemyxB.com.  It’s catchy and could be a great domain, but for a forum… not a blog.

Things to consider when starting a blog site.

1. Pick something you enjoy.  Otherwise, you will get sick of it and lose interest in blogging.
2. Pick something others will enjoy.  The idea is to build readership.  If you’re blogging about loving green shoelaces, chances are your blog isn’t going to take off, because not everyone loves green shoelaces as much as you do.
3. Pick something that doesn’t have a definitive ending.  At some point xB’s will stop being made, or you may sell your own, or you just may stop liking it because it breaks down all the time.  Who knows…?  If xB’s stop being made… what good is a blog about xB’s?

My point is…  blog about something you love.  This goes deeper than that too.  If you are starting a blog to make some sort of income, no matter how big, you need to blog about something that will last.  Blog about something universal.  Something that will last.  You do not want to start a blog about something that will make you a bunch of money for 6 months and then no one cares about that topic, or you don’t care about it yourself.

If you are going to blog for dollars, blog about something you can always blog about.  Make it something that won’t die.  Let’s make this a gravy train.  Fishing will never die… blog about fishing.  Entrepreneurs will never die.  Write about ways to make money doing things you love.

The bottom line is to blog about something you can’t stop blogging about.  Otherwise, what is the point?