This is why I suck at adult and IM in general...
 

Throughout the last couple years Ive tried to go from a zero Internet income waste to a killer whale affiliate signing so many checks my hand is damaged. Let me tell you that it didn't happen but I learned some things along the way. Here are the main reasons I failed:
Starting too many projects
Going for quantity versus quality
Switching methods and processes
Buying too many domains and not developing most
Not having a schedule or plan in stone
Not knowing how to drive traffic
Spending too much time on forums...

These are just a few of the biggest reasons. Since then I've come up with a plan and am focused on gettin things done period. I do not make a lot of money. Infact, I couldn't even pay my rent wih the money made each month. But I've learned a lot and will apply it and make more in the future if I stay on course I hope. Big thanks to vrocks colmike and MP for being helpful and supportive on the journey. This time I will focus and get shit done. Period. Hopefully it'll make me money now! :)

Well, at least you figured out what's holding you back. Now, just refocus on the things that work and replicate why they work and scale it up.

Have you let your unused domains go? That's one way to instantly bump your net.

thats the reason i let go domains, which arent developed.

I haven't. I decided to build out anything with an exact keyword 3 years or older. The rest will just expire as they go unnoticed..

hmm this is a problem for Paul Markham...

Bahahahah

Isn't saying that what got you in trouble in the first place?

Think of domains how you would crack. It's bad for you.

try meth

The only problem with this though is you have to carefully balance the cost of what you're paying for your meth and your actual online income. The easiest way to go about this is to manufacture your own meth so you make more profit from your mainstream/adult business. :pimp BUT more meth = more websites = hopefully more income as long as you don't get so high you create weird websites.

The best way to fail is to quit.

I don't quit nething.

Good :thumbsup

One thing that helped me out a lot is to write a daily to do list and follow it every single day no matter what with things like submit blogs to directories, blog building goals depending on handwritten or splogs or both, creating a gallery for TheHun, set up feedburner pingshot and socialize for you feeds(socialize is hidden these days), research, surf some porn and think about what you would buy and why, Linkspun stuff, etc. :winkwink:

Sounds like a good plan :thumbsup

Yep. There's no point in not repeating what is selling

you're doin it wrong
sell the domains if they aren't bad

Either that or park the domains with CPC or hosted tubes to profit a little before using them.

sometimes the smartest thing a person should do is admit to themselves that for whatever reasons they are not cut out for something, and to just move on to something else, or stop stressing about it and go be happy playing videogames or walking around the mall or something :2 cents:

Good god - You could be me......

Did I reg this nic when I was drunk or something?

Staying focused when the income isn't there and Life gets in the way is THE biggest challenge for anyone, especially a webmaster working in Adult in 2012. But here are some things that kept ME going during the first two years where I made almost zero in income:

Set Reasonable Goals - and check on them! Set 3 and 6 month Goals, then check to see if you're getting closer to them or further away.

Set a "Get Out' Date. If you're not making what you need to be earning after a long time period (say a year, or two, etc) then think about either getting out or focusing on mainstream with Adult being only a small portion of your income. Don't waste years if you're not getting any traction.

But if you ARE "progressing" then focus on what brings you money and forget about the other stuff you only THINK is important.

Work every single day.

Look to automate what you can, hire offshore employees to handle grunt work, build new traffic sources.....

Never stop (unless see above). Find other Webmasters who are doing similar work and try and mimic what they do until you find your own way.

On and on....but never stopping is the Key. That, and lots of luck. :)

Good luck man!!!

MrPeabody, great advice and I truly appreciate it. I'm on a focused tear now with a plan in place ready to rock and roll. The one thing I truly lack is the "traffic sources" aspect you speak about. I need serious help on this aspect. I don't mind paying for traffic either if this is the method you are referring too. It's just that everytime I buy traffic it does nothing. I send the traffic directly to sponsors and it just drains my bank account with no joins. Tried cpm, ppc, banners, text etc. The only thing I have not done is buy traffic to send to the blogs. Is this what you are referring to?

do you have any good blogs? pick your best one set up a toplist at the top like like milkmanbook.com or teentoko.com and buy traffic and send it to your blog. it would be just like a no-skim tgp but it would be a blog. that is one day to build traffic.

despite what markham says with no traffic there isn't even the opportunity to make sales. figure out how to get traffic from seo, traffic trades or even social media.

I have a couple ok blogs. Nothing major but 6k a month visitors on a couple. I guess that's a start. :(

Good. If you need moral support, just ICQ me. I'm all about supporting fellow strivers.

:thumbsup

SEO with keyword research to terms that a decent amount of people search to AND targeted niche/micro niche or paysite specific keyword works best for me. Even if the term sound nice on your blog or in your head, that doesn't mean people are searching for it. :2 cents:

some great advices here!

beks001 now all you have to do now is to condense all the valuable nuggets of wisdom posted here

Getting traffic is the #1 boondoggle we Webmasters face, and the frustrating thing is that no two webmasters, even if they promote the exact same content, sees the same results. But you can try what Porno Jew said and Colmike7 said. But SEO takes time....

And no, I wasn't referring to buying traffic. As an affiliate I think that's just throwing money away (unless you have some developed Blogs or have some custom landing pages that kill, more on that in a second). So what's left then is being creative with TGPs and free sites and building interesting Blogs you run yourself.....

BUT here's an idea: try building a simple landing page from one of your sponsers, like the one you see here:

http://www.erosexotica.com/index1.html

Obviously without the table of thumbs below the big content thumbnails. See if this works for you by going to Exoclick or some such site and laying down maybe $100-$200 on some (static) banners. Below the video or next to video is usually best. Monitor those clicks on a 15-minute basis! Your stats will be in relative real time.

Try designing differant banners until your funds run out or you hit on something that turns a profit. The rest is, I feel, pure luck (or the province of bigger advertising minds than mine, and I know they're out there LOL).

But I would seriously think about checking into mainstream affiliate programs, too, while you're at it. Best of luck man!! :)

Quality business post. The theme is too many projects, too many domains, too much quanity of everything. You only need ONE domain until you know how to make one cash flow. No point in many copies of lose.

First, build a site that makes money. Second, find the small adjustment that improves profit by 40%. Third, find the small adjustment that improves it by 30%. Fourth, and only then, when you know how to do something worth doing, do it five times.

With five sites / copies / sections generating cash, split test and figure out how to get 15% more cash from each. Do five more better ones. Split test again and improve by 15%, then do five more.

So in other words, always create a batch of copies that is better than the last batch, by testing and improving between batches.