Thursday, February 18, 2010

Chapter one

Making Money with Google

Claude: Is it easy to build a Web site?


> Eric: Sure. You can find instructions on the Web. There are
lots of books about building Web sites, too.


> Claude: But can you make money with a Web site?


> Eric: Absolutely. And you don't even need anything to sell. I
do it with my own site.

Claude was visiting me one day. As an early retiree with two grown children, Claude has a lot of free time, and he spends a good chunk of it at his computer, talking to friends and acquaintances and trying all kinds of software. He isn't technical, but he's an expert computer userhe knows the applications he uses regularly far better than I do. He likes to buy electronic gadgets and computer accessories. When he has questions, though, he calls me up for help.

On this day, we were talking about Web pages and Web sites. "Is it easy to build a Web site?" he asked me.

"Sure," I said, "you can find instructions on the Web. There are lots of books about building Web sites, too." I offered to lend him some of the books I had.

"But can you make money with a Web site?" he shot back. Now we were getting to what he really wanted to know.

"Absolutely," I said. "And you don't even need anything to sell. I do it with my own site." Which was the truth.

"Is that why you have ads on your pages?" he wondered. (If you go to www.EricGiguere.com, you'll see text ads on the right side of most pages. See Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1. The EricGiguere.com Web site.


"That's how I make money with my site," I agreed. Now I knew what he wanted, but he was probably afraid to ask the obvious question: Can I do it, too?


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