I run Built With Bootstrap (http://builtwithbootstrap.com) that brings close to $2,000 on average each month in "mostly passive" income.
How? Here are a few things that have helped:
1) I got lucky - I jumped on something early and got picked up quickly and rode on the back of a giant gorilla as it kept getting higher and higher - right place, right time
2) I keep costs low - I use Tumblr (free) and cheap, pluggable services like Campaign Monitor, Wufoo, Buffer, and IFTTT to automate a lot of the process.
3) Don't be afraid to ask for money - I started doing this very early on, but even that wasn't soon enough! People will pay if there's a benefit, so don't be afraid to ask.
4) Keep it simple - I write brief emails, I don't respond to everything and I only spend a few hours each week on the site - updating content, checking stats, emailing etc.
5) Get multiple sources of revenue - I use a number of affiliates as well as offering traditional advertising.
6) Be social - Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Google+ - BWB is on all of these. I try to engage with people and respond to things
7) Start a mailing list - this is not to be overlooked!
I hope this gives you some helpful ideas :) don't be afraid to ask any questions.
It'll take some work. You'll need to put an interesting quote on each page and then some anecdote from the author's life that may or may not be related to the the point at the top of the page. If author does not have enough interesting stories to write up, they may have to borrow them from reddit or such.
Judging from the brevity and clarity with which the summary was expressed above I assumed that writing comes easily to the author. He could probably elaborate on each point (or maybe add a few more) to turn it into small case study e-book guide. This is just like social media presence and marketing. A byproduct that costs maybe $10 and at least pays for itself, but ideally drives even more traffic to the website and generates additional profit on its own.
might be a dumb question but how much time do you spend figuring out about these websites ? or do you have some sort of crawler ? some repo or something else ? I mean how do you have new content/week
Excellent point! I did "advertise" the site a lot to begin with - posting on HN, writing comments on related blogs, talking to people about it.
I have played a little with direct advertising, but paying for adverts that link to a site that sells adverts seems a little too much like a self-defeating loop. Normally paid ads are done during promotions.
How? Here are a few things that have helped:
1) I got lucky - I jumped on something early and got picked up quickly and rode on the back of a giant gorilla as it kept getting higher and higher - right place, right time
2) I keep costs low - I use Tumblr (free) and cheap, pluggable services like Campaign Monitor, Wufoo, Buffer, and IFTTT to automate a lot of the process.
3) Don't be afraid to ask for money - I started doing this very early on, but even that wasn't soon enough! People will pay if there's a benefit, so don't be afraid to ask.
4) Keep it simple - I write brief emails, I don't respond to everything and I only spend a few hours each week on the site - updating content, checking stats, emailing etc.
5) Get multiple sources of revenue - I use a number of affiliates as well as offering traditional advertising.
6) Be social - Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Google+ - BWB is on all of these. I try to engage with people and respond to things
7) Start a mailing list - this is not to be overlooked!
I hope this gives you some helpful ideas :) don't be afraid to ask any questions.