Why You Aren’t Making Money
There’s a question guaranteed to get the attention of a lot of my readers here … mainly people who are interested in learning how seniors and retirees can make money online.
Recently I had an exchange via comments with a nice lady who mentioned she was writing for helium.com, making very little money at it, and also that she had "tried making money with a website’ but had not succeeded.
I’ve been waiting for a response from her so I could possibly help in a little more detail, but nothing has come in yet. Doesn’t matter though, I can write up a couple very well-known and yet well ignored bits of advice that will help her and anyone else in a quandary over how to make money online, or even if they can make money online.
the short answer is, yes, indeed, you certainly can. You can also make money even if you have no money to invest. I have a number of affiliate programs that I promote here, and some are a very good deal … or I wouldn’t have them. But none are essential to what you need to do if you are serious about making a buck, online.
Here is a formula that will work, in a nutshell.
Find a problem and solve it.
Simple as that. Tons of article like this begin with things like starting a blog or joining an affiliate program or even writing for some site that may you a tiny pittance of what your work is worth ..after you make money for them, that is.
It all misses the point, however.
The single most important thing you can do is find a problem that people want to solve … nay, that people feel they need to solve.
Go to the free, no signup-required Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Remember that AdWords is the part of Google that makes their millions … that is, the advertising that they sell.
Now I could say I let my three year old nephew make the notations … the circles and numbers on this snapshot, but I’ll just say even a three year old can follow them … ignore the window dressing and let’s get to the meat:
- Make sure the results are tailored to your location and language. Use the US unless you have good reason not to, because US users outnumber all others by a huge percentage.
- Click the box to get words or phrases.
- Type in the words "how to", fill in the one-time "Captcha" spam prevention window. Then press the "Get keyword Ideas" button, and Google will search a few seconds and return a list.
- Select a currency and give an amount … $50 USD or more so you can see the highest-priced selections as well as the cheapest.
- In the drop down for columns, select the "estimated Average CPC (Cost Per Click) to display
Now, if you click on the CPC column label twice, you’ll see the results sorted in order of the amounts people are actually paying to advertise these words. Note that to get a top position in adverting "how to refinance" people are paying up to $14.47 per click. Do you think they are throwing that money away, or are they making more than $14.47 per click?
Scroll down the list. these are the top 200 "how to" items people are actually paying money to advertise. How many of them do you know "how to"? How many of them can you speak on or write a couple-hundred words on? There’s you problem to solve.
If you can’t find anything that catches your fancy in this list, repeat with phrases like "how to stop", "how to lose", "how to make", "how to win" or "how to succeed".
These are a thousand or more proven "problems" people have every day and search online for … and people make money, solving. Pick one that you know how to solve and then we’ll decide how to make money solving it.
Good way for an experienced senior or retiree to start learning to make money online?
A Few Words That Should be Said
Looking back a few of my recent articles makes me feel I have drifted a bit toward the money making side of things without offering enough advice on keeping and growing what we already have. After all, that is one of the primary ways strangers come to this site … one of my most popular search phrases connects with several articles about making money online when you have no money.
Well I just read this article and it does seem to me that some of my fellow retirees, seniors and near seniors are doing their best to insure they will need that advice … they are steadily taking what wealth they have and reducing it, for many spurious reasons. If you want to stay financially viable in this world, it is up to you to get you act together. It isn’t the responsibility of any political candidate, any government agency or any insurance company … it is up to you.
Looking at the US news from a distance it would seem to a stranger that the entire country is suffering a complete financial breakdown. A number of greedy people made mortgages they had no ability to pay, banking on the advice of a number of greedy people who advised them to "go ahead and do it", based on the speculation that the houses would continue their inflationary price spiral based solely on hype rather than any supportable measures of real estate value. Good for them, IMO. Such greedy folk deserve exactly what they got.
Fortunately, these are only a tiny percentage of the ‘real’ people in America … so the ’sub-prime’ bubble burst will pass, just as a dozen such storms of sound and fury have passed in my lifetime. Moral? Leverage is for people who move rocks with a crowbar. You should follow the principles you were taught at your mother’s knee and keep your spending within your means. No one deserves "money for nothing" and if you chase it, and fail to catch the brass ring, it serves you right.
I was prompted to write this article by a piece from Yahoo my dear wife forwarded to me a day or so ago. If I had hair, some of these revelations would have curled it for me:
The headline pretty much sums things up … (the full article is worth a read)
Survey: 1 in 10 boomers borrowing for everyday expenses
The economic downturn is hitting roughly one in 10 middle-aged and older Americans especially hard, compelling them to borrow money for everyday living expenses …
- Folks, this is wrong! dead wrong. It’s a dumb thing for a teenager to do, it’s even dumber for a 45 yo or older to be doing. This is like playing high stakes poker when you don’t know the game. Get rid of the expenses, first, especially if the"expense" itself is a debt repayment. Restructure, beg off, even default but don’t borrow money to chase a 3rd deuce" in the river when your opponent has already shown trip aces. It’s bad juju. You have a $700 car payment on a gas hog that is costing you a couple hundred a month to keep filled up? Then if there is no other way, turn the damn thing in and free up $1,000 or more per month to pay for real needs. An SUV is not an American Constitutional right, nor is it a necessity. Cut your losses.
… One-third of survey participants said they stopped putting money into their 401(k) or retirement account and 14 percent said they had cut back on their medications…
- Now this paragraph falls under the category of dumb to dumber. It’s one thing to have made a mistake in the past and bought too much home or too much automobile, but the years are slipping by. Soon, before you realize it, you won’t have the option to earn, and/or you’ll be ill with something that costs a fortune to pay for. Cut down on your ridiculous cable bill … you know, over the air TV is actually free? Lose the $100 plus per month cell phone package. By your kids $12 Wal*Mart sneakers and tell them to suck it up and help the family … but to ‘cut back’ by cheating yourself on your retirement fund or medications which your doctor says you need? Come on, you are smart enough to find and read this web page, you are smarter than 33 and 1/3% of the people in this survey. Pay yourself first, you absolutely can if you decide you must.
… "We have patients coming in fewer times," said registered nurse Tucky Franz of Salisbury, Md. "They’ll cut back because of the copay."…
- This bothers me more than any of the other items. Your health is the single most important thing you can spend money on. US health care costs are shocking and the health care system in the US is broken. But for the sake of Christ himself, what on earth can you gain by foregoing the copay of the expensive insurance coverage you already have in order to save, say, 10% of the cost of a procedure which you obviously need. If there is one expense you should not be cutting back on, it’s your health … if you really want to save money at all costs, get rid of the health insurance itself (note, I think that would be dumb), but to put off going to the doctor because of the tiny copay? Stupid. If you have a need, stop reading this very minute, make an appointment and follow up on what your doctor advises you to do. It makes good sense, and it makes good cents, prevention is certainly cheaper.
… The majority of baby boomers said they were finding it more difficult to pay for essentials and utilities, and six in 10 said they had cut back on eating out and entertainment….
- This is the most heartwarming part of the article. At least there are still a few of my generation and those slightly younger who still have a brain. You know, I love to eat out and I love many other forms of entertainment. But foregoing them to stay out of debt is hardly a hardship. It may be a momentary disappointment, but if you have lived 45 years or more, haven’t you made it though disappointment and even tragedy in your life already? You are a much stronger person than you give yourself credit for. Think of the rewards of not owing more money, not being deeper in debt and passing up those seats on the 50 yard line won’t feel nearly so bad.
OK, enough preaching. Living debt free is where it is at. If you’re reading this and thinking, "Yes, but, if I only had a way to make just a little more money, yo clean up debts and empower myself", then good, you’re the reader I want to come back.
I’ve already presented many ideas and I’ll write more … just don’t go any deeper in debt while you wait for your ship to come in, and you might want to subscribe to read all my columns in your RSS feed reader or. Subscribe to Retired Pay World by Email
Write Your Way Rich
ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
I’ve also written many times about my fellow blogger Darren Rowse, founder and a principle author of Problogger.net and one of the all-time "good guys" of blogging.
Darren monetizes about as well as anyone you can think of, and he does it cleanly and smartly … he’s always "white hat", his methods are above reproach, and he doesn’t have to resort to stupid tricks like "rick rolling" people and then writing follow-on posts about how he doesn’t care if people didn’t like his technique. You won’t get take for a ride with Darren.
What you will get is sound, useable information about making six-figures a year from blogging, and the nitty-gritty details of how to do it. Darren has a co-author on this book, Chris Garrett.
ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
I’m buying this myself because I always find it handy to have a written reference next to my desk, even though I virtually live on line. I don’t think you’ll go wrong on this one.
I’ve discussed here and recommended others who have expert views the advisability of self-publishing or going with an established publisher. I think in the long run it’s a good idea to get one book published "conventionally", just because of the market penetration and the authority it adds to your profile.
I do not recommend making a career or of writing books like this one … at $16 (already discounted) Darren and Chris will be lucky to share between them a dollar or so per sale … and they will wait a year or more before they ever see any real returns. And the $.99 "Kindle" version? Words fail me. I don’t know anyone out there whose specialized knowledge isn’t worth more than $.99 cents, no matter how "off the beaten path" it may be.
I highly recommend you go read my friend Jack Reed’s web site and buy his book, How to Write, Publish and Sell Your Own How-To Book. It costs more than $16, it won’t be available on Amazon’s ridiculous Kindle and Jack doesn’t even give me a commission, but I own this book and feel it is the tops in the field, bar none.
top sitting and start writing (message to myself as well as the rest of you still on the fence).