Expanding Your Horizons

> Eric: So, how's it been going? I've been peeking at your site
every once in a while. You've done a great job at filling
it with content.


> Claude: It's actually going pretty good. I'm definitely into
the updating stage, I'm pretty sure I have enough content
right now to keep visitors happy.


> Eric: So what are you going to do now? Let the site coast and
the money roll in?


> Claude: I wish! There's a lot of competition for the voice-over-IP
stuff, so I won't be buying a house in Bermuda
anytime soon. But I am making money, which is great.
And I have been looking at some other things. You mentioned
affiliate and referral programs and I got curious
about them so I did some research and what I found
out was surprising.

Claude and I met for lunch a few weeks later. I wanted to catch up on what he and his daughters had been up, but we didn't need our computers for that.

"So," I began, after placing the food order, "how's it been going? I've been peeking at your site every once in a while. You've done a great job at filling it with content."

"It's actually going pretty good," Claude said. "I'm definitely into the updating stage, I'm pretty sure I have enough content right now to keep visitors happy. Stef's also happy with her blog."

"Yeah, I can tell," I said, "I've been reading it on occasion. She's even talked about the process she went through to put up the ads and how easy it was." I laughed. "She's become an AdSense expert!"

"Yeah," he said, "she's definitely enthusiastic about it. Mind you, she's enthusiastic about everything she writes about in her blog. Too enthusiastic about some things, to my mind."

"Oh, don't be such a grumpy father," I said, "I'm sure if you were her age you'd be writing things your parents didn't approve of. How's Anita doing?"

"Well," he began, "obviously she doesn't have as much time as I do to work on her Web site. But I think it's coming along well. She's not out to make a lot of money either, so her goals are different."

"So what are you going to do now?" I asked him. "Let the site coast and the money roll in?"

He laughed. "Hah! I wish," he said. "There's a lot of competition for the voice-over-IP stuff out there, so I won't be buying a house in Bermuda anytime soon. But I am making money, which is great. I just can't retire from it."

"But you are retired," I protested.

"You know what I mean," he said.

"Claude," I continued, "now that you've been bitten by the AdSense bug, you've discovered you have an entrepreneurial side you never knew you had. Am I right?"

"Well," he said, somewhat sheepishly, "you're probably right. I have been looking at some other things."

"Setting up another site?" I asked.

"That," he admitted, "but other things, too. You mentioned affiliate and referral programs in our last group session and I got curious about them."

"Really?" I said. "So what did you do?"

"I did some research," he continued, "and what I found out was surprising. Did you know there are people out there who buy AdWords ads and don't actually sell anything? All they do is refer people to other sites and make money when those people buy something."

"That's right," I agreed, "it's strictly a numbers game again. If an ad costs you ten cents per click and you get five dollars every time someone buys the product or service you're referring, you come out ahead if at least two out of every fifty clicks leads to a sale."

"Yeah, and some people claim to do quite well at it," he said, "but it's kind of risky for me. You can spend a lot of money and not make anything at all. No, I'm not ready for that just yet! But I did sign up for Amazon's affiliate program."

"For the books, I take it?"

"Yeah," he said, "since I already had a list of recommended books on my site, it was a natural fit. Now, if anyone buys a bookor almost anything elseon Amazon because of me, Amazon pays me a commission."

"Was it hard to do?" I asked him.

"Hard? No. If you have a Web site already, it's easy to do. Here, let me tell you all about it." And he did.

But that's another story.