3 Killer Ways That Work To Build Your Online Empire
Over the past 2 years, I’ve seen a lot of people inspired by this blog and others trying to build their own online empire. I can say that I’ve built my own legion of little monsters that want to make money online through multiple sites instead of focusing on a single one. I’ve already mentioned that I would rather make 10 times 1K than 10K in one shot and still believe in my business model. But I can say that while many people who replicate part of my model and other bloggers like me who agreed on site diversification, they don’t necessarily operate the same way to earn their thousands of dollars at the end of the month.
The idea of this post came after my article on blog valuation where I mention that some people can get up to 4 times the annual revenue. It had generated some discussion on the site and via email about my aggressive buying strategy and how some people disagreed with my business model. Some of them are pretty successful through other business models and this is what makes the Internet so much fun in my opinion! I think there are a few killer ways to make a lot of money online and wanted to share them with you. And when I was saying killer ways I really mean it. Here are the 3 types of killer you can be:
The Sniper (Niche Sites)
A guy like Sunil from Extra Money Blog would be the perfect example of what a sniper is. A Sniper is doing one single thing but he is doing it so right that he is the best for miles around to do it. The sniper usually doesn’t work alone; he has people to provide him with specialized equipment, they monitor and assure his protection. During this time, he is doing absolutely nothing and he is simply waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
In comparison, someone building niche sites is very similar. You need to know a topic inside out and become the best resource around to make it. Most of the time, you can’t be good at everything and you have to outsource a part of your work. For example, Sunil outsources a lot of content creation in order to build his niche sites. He has developed a technique that serves him well and money is coming in from different sources.
As weird as it may seem, profitable niche sites may sound counter-intuitive sometimes. For example, his bamboo plant site! You have to find topics that are not overloaded already (yeah… sounds easier said than done!). But if you take the time to seriously do your research they do exist. Another avenue would be to pick a highly competitive market but that requires a higher level of knowledge (like my dividend sites for example). I started Canadian Dividend Stock back in November and already get over 4,000 visitors per month and 14,000 pages viewed per month (and growing). My success is probably related to the fact that I aimed at a specific topic with a higher level of knowledge required. Not many people are able to write about stocks, it gets even narrower when you talk about Canadian dividend stocks!
If you want to succeed as a Sniper, you don’t need much money. In fact, once you get your market samurai, a design and a resource to start writing (this can be yourself as well), you are good to go! But remember, you better be darn good at what you do, there aren’t many snipers out there that survive without strong skills.
The Assassin (Low profile empire builder)
The second type of empire builder is the assassin. Nobody besides his relatives knows him and nobody is 100% sure about what he does and how he does it. Did he kill anyone? Most people won’t suspect the true assassin of the murders unless he unmasks himself. That’s about the same thing for low profile empire builders.
You may know some PF bloggers who are “secretly” buying smaller blogs or running several other sites on the side without disclosing their income and how much they truly make. Some of them are really good at hiding while others just don’t confirm whether they make money or not. In both cases, you may have suspicions, but you will never be able to confirm how much they really make. For example, J D Roth from GRS stopped disclosing his online income back in 2007. Since then, we are all pretty sure that he makes quite a lot of money but we can’t tell for sure. Now that he has sold Get Rich Slowly, the truth is very well hidden.
I totally understand why people don’t share their best practices and how much money they make. By telling the world that you make money; other people will give it a try too! I was talking to Pat from Smart Passive Income and he told me how many “security guard training” niche sites exist now that he has disclosed how he makes a killing from Security Guard Training HQ. So if you have found a few profitable projects, you might want to keep them for yourself and keep raking in the coin. If you “kiss ‘n tell” (yeah… that’s a Ke$ha quote 
), you may get yourself into more trouble later on.
There is also another advantage to keeping your stuff low profile: you don’t have enemies. I’m not saying that I have “enemies” per se, but I sure have people jealous of my success. This could lead to some harm to our network.
The Conqueror (Make your empire obvious)
I’m not quite sure if I have to cite an example here… Me! I’ve been straight forward on every single thing in my life since the age of 20 and won’t stop now. Some people tell me I’m a very bad poker player for that reason. I surely don’t have a poker face, but when I go for the pot, you can be sure I have a great hand! Anyways, the most important part is that I win more often than lose .
Conquerors make their empire obvious for a few reasons: they want to rally some and establish themselves as references. This is exactly why I am called by bloggers who want to sell their blog; because everybody knows that I’m a buyer.
The main advantage to show other people what you do and how you do it is that you can make a lot of relationships and start bigger projects. For example, I am now managing advertising services for more than 50 sites (on top of mine). This has been a great addition to my monthly income report. Showing people how I run my online business has definitely helped me create this additional source of income. The best part is that I don’t spend more than 5 hours per week managing all advertisement sources (mine included).
I also like the conqueror model because it allows me to play on different fields: I do have snipers and assassins working for me (yup, believe it or not, I do have undisclosed side projects!). The additions of my niche websites along with other side projects that are not on the radar provide me a great source of income diversification.
If you were to build an online empire, which type would it be? From what I can see, there is no “secret model” that succeeds better than another. The 3 business models are very effective. I guess the secret is to be very good at what you do and do it “all in” style .<
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I started out as a sniper and actually make most of my money with those sites, however I got tired of constantly switching up topics and moving on to something new. I wanted something more complete and that’s why I’ve chosen to go more the empire builder route now. Of course in terms of building an empire my site is about the size of Liechtenstein, but everyone has to start somewhere