Welcome to the thread for discussions on the article Making Money With Your PHPNuke Web Site - Introduction. Feel free to leave comments, questions, or whatever on the introductory article of this multi-part series showing you how to make money with your web site.
Sorry persona_non_grata, but things have been a bit hectic in my personal life at the moment. Yes, I did get your message, and I have been thinking about it, but there's a couple of questions that I wanted to ask, but unfortunately, do not presently have the time to address the issue. I will respond through the business email account when I answer that message persona_non_grata. Unfortunately, I am not sure of exactly when that is going to be. Presently, I have the next part of the series to write here for Raven, plus I've got about 10 papers that are due for my present college classes, and a move that I must make real life. Needless to say, that has kept me a bit preoccupied, and my appologies for not getting back to you in a more timely manner. I've also been having problems getting into Raven's site, but that is something between my ISP and Raven's, NOT something that is Raven's problem. And thanks for the note on the link problems on the site. I need to do a COMPLETE overhaul, but with everything else, I've just not had the time.
Hello, James. It would be nice to share with us how much money do you make with your Nuke to append some credibility to your theoretical ramblings. So far I don't see anything Nuke-specific in the article.
For instance, we could discuss the question, how to make money with this or that module, say with Encyclopedia. Here is one possible money-making application of the Encyclopedia module:
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Joined: Aug 27, 2002 Posts: 14943 Location: Kansas
Posted:
Sat May 07, 2005 10:21 am
Imago wrote:
Hello, James. It would be nice to share with us how much money do you make with your Nuke to append some credibility to your theoretical ramblings. So far I don't see anything Nuke-specific in the article.
For instance, we could discuss the question, how to make money with this or that module, say with Encyclopedia. Here is one possible money-making application of the Encyclopedia module:
Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login to the forums!
Haven't seen you around in a very long time. How is that link an example of a "money-making application of the Encyclopedia module"?
Joined: May 15, 2004 Posts: 539 Location: http://tinyurl.com/2rxdv3
Posted:
Sat May 07, 2005 6:56 pm
There's no way to make a living of your nuke site unless you have something that attracks people enough.
Most websites that claim to raise enough money are based on "pyramide games".
This means you pay X ammount of money first and then let others pay you.
Since there are only a x ammount of people on the globe that will get trapped the change that you can make a living of it are limited.
Also if everyone does get trapped the income will be for a limited ammount of time, so how do you want to make a living after that period ?
The trick is to start a website that does get visited constantly year in and out.
Also decide what "kind" of income you want on the website.
This could be:
- let members pay to partisipate (bad idea cos there are other site for free)
- banners
- donations
- sell the content (let newspapers pay to use your survey results, etc.)
- sell products
- offer a kind of service
Keep in mind the web is to crowded already and make a good concept and put a lot of time and effort in it.
I could name few sites who are using nukes and picking up at least $3000 - $4000 a month. I agree with DJ, you must provide something unique than others and you WILL make money just like many other businesses. I mean sure you can provide exactly the same services as others, but offer it for less or offer deals.
I would like to know more on this subject from James if possible.
Well 3 websites are providing childred clothing deals, cupons and links to eBay auctions for a monthly fee. Each of them are making around $4000/month. One site is being used to broadcast On-Demand videos for a fee and last stats I saw were $3500/month, they do go up and down like 2 months ago, they made $8050 first time of the life of that website, which is only 2 years old.
I happened to know this becuase I use to patch these websites and upgrade Sentinel and stuff. I have stopped taking any new clients because for some reason, PHP-Nuke doesn't interest me anymore.
Joined: Mar 15, 2004 Posts: 638 Location: Waco, TX
Posted:
Sun May 08, 2005 3:56 pm
Sounds kinda like a pipe dream to me. No offense. I mean I am sure if you have something that is wanted, you can use nuke as the vehicle to make it available, but then again you can do that with plain html too.
But I may be misinterpreting the post. I do that sometimes. *LOL*
You are right Curtis, they could have used anything they wanted for the website but the reason why they went for PHP-Nuke was they wanted sections like forums, newsletter, sections for content and something they could use to charge users to signup as well. I think PHP-Nuke did a great job.
Interesting discussion, and I am not up for the amount tossing because that could imply that using my ideas, you should make that amount of money. I am not up for the potential legal issues arising out of such claims, but can tell you that I've been involved in web site design and entrepreneurship for over 10 years now. I've also been working on finishing up college degrees including my Associates in Business Administration with a minor in Marketing, and my Bachelor's in Visual Communications. That doesn't even account for my vast home library where I tend to read just about anything I can get my hands on when it comes to business, marketing, and web site design/promotion.
Am I a millionaire, not quite. Do I have an honest desire to try and help others make money from their web site, yes. What I offer are tried and true methods, but the work must start well before the first words of a site are even written. Why? Because failure to build your site in a credible way while adding customer value to your offerings will result in ZERO sales. That's right, failure to develop your site and use wording that shows your genuine desire to help out each potential customer will result in web site failure.
That is why this was an INTRODUCTORY article. Some of you are already started and have your own sites already. Others are just starting out and happened upon PHPNuke as an immediate solution to their web site design needs. All of you want ideas on how to improve your site to increase your sales, but NONE of you will gain that if you can not gain the potential visitor's trust. This is one of the major points I will be hitting on in the upcoming parts of the article. I'm doing it in sections from beginning to end, so that in the end, there just might be a new "how to" module for PHPNuke sites.
DJ Maze makes a good point. You can't make ANYTHING with your site unless you have something to draw potential buyers in to begin with. With some, it is free content and how to articles, yet with others it's free software or screen savers. You have to have something to offer freely that potential customers want, and then offer them things to buy that COMPLIMENT that content. It's called upselling, and it's a tactic that almost all brick and mortar stores use within their marketing arsenals. Sales is a numbers game, but sheer numbers aren't enough. You need QUALIFIED numbers to increase sales. This is something else that I will touch on in the series. Are there still any questions about my credibility or whether I know what I'm talking about?
In further answer to Imago, there wasn't anything nuke specific yet because the article was an outline, and in the end I hinted at the topics yet to come. I assure you that many issues will be addressed, and I will use specific modules available within the nuke community designed to help you make money with your site. Raven has the outline and knows the different topics I intend to address, but you need to have some patience while I keep working on the sections. I am doing updated research to ensure that what I am telling you is still available, or still works. You wouldn't want me to give you BOGUS information would you? That would just be a waste of our time wouldn't it? What I will deliver is information from credible resources compiled in one location with a PHPNuke slant that walks you from the beginning set up right through to the end.
This is an article series that will span weeks. It's not something that's already written or copied and pasted from other stuff available on the web. Some of it will be direct experience, while others might be new information and strategies I've recently learned in one of my classes. All in all, it's all usable information, that when followed, will slowly but surely get you to the point of making money with your site. I ask you all to please bear with me as certain life events have taken time from my writing. As soon as things settle a bit more, I'll be putting more time into the article sections, and I'll submit them to Raven for posting as they become available. Hang in there folks. There's a lot of information coming, but it's going to take time to write.
Thanks to Mesum and Raven for the support and covering. I've been having problems getting into the site, and although I've asked to be notified by email of new messages within threads I post to, I haven't been getting them either. I know it's on my end, but after this move, that will be done. I'm going to have cable Mesum, nice examples of Nuke sites that make some decent money, and yes, within two short years, it can be done. It's all in the process of the HOW it is done, and that eludes most people. Everyone please keep in mind that this thread is for comments and ideas on the INTRODUCTION article of the series. I will continue to add additional threads for each section as posted. Please confine your questions to topics covered in each section, and realize that this is the THEORY thread at the present Feel free to post additional areas you might want covered within the series though.
In reply to Curtis, you are entitled to your opinion Curtis, but a pipe dream? There are tons of sites out there that are making thousands and millions of dollars a year. Why should your site be any different? The only thing that sets you and others reading this thread apart is that you don't have all the secrets that those other sites have. Many might ask why I should give them to you? The answer there is simple. Most of you are not in direct competition with me. I do a number of things that the rest of you don't do, and one of those things is writing content, and another is web site design. These are tools and tips to help put you all on level ground with the competition. They are things that you can do to level the playing field, increase your web site visitors, and increase your sales potential.
If any of you came here looking for a quick fix or a get rich quick scheme, you're not going to find it in my articles. I warn all of you that these articles are going to require REAL work and effort. It's going to require HOURS of work to do the things I outline. You're going to have to look at visitor logs, trace where visitors come from, and do things to try and learn as much about your visitors as possible. This is called demographic research and it will help you identify what your potential visitors MIGHT want to buy. Once you can determine that, it then comes a simple case of finding the products/services that match what the visitors want. If you have established visitor trust, then your sales will be set to skyrocket, but if you have given your visitors reasons to doubt you, then your results will be little at best. The choice is up to you if you want this information or not. I'm just the writer attempting to point you in the right direction while using past experience and educational knowledge as the means to provide that information. What you do with it is up to you. If you need to question my credibility yet, then I suggest you ignore my writing.
And the final note on this LONG WINDED speach, my appologies to all for the length. My further appologies that I have not been able to get by sooner to answer this debate, and your questions. And lastly, a thanks to all who have taken part in this discussion. You are all entitled to your opinions. Do with the information what you feel you must. If you wish to read it and discard it, then please do so. If you wish to listen and put in the work needed to ensure a productive web site, then do that too. The choice is up to you.
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Thank you for the good read James, it's like someone has given my thoughts a language that everyone can speak.
I can't write long and informative articles like you have but will try to carry on this conversation a little more if it's OK with you.
Online business is just like any other business, you need to put a lot of hard work and time if you want it to be successful these day. Only difference might be that with online business you can (remember I said CAN) stay at home in your underwear and do it in your own time.
I am a Business major myself and have been with web developing business for sometime now. I may not be able to design something from scratch, but I sure can find resources to do so. Have I made any money using the WWW? I sure have!
1: I built websites on my own and then sold them after a little while to others.
2: Built websites with partnerships and shared the revenue with others.
3: Built for others.
2nd choice was the worst option I picked in my journey and I don't think I will ever do it again.
Now the good part about it is that I made most of the money using open source software. I asked for help and many helped me. I paid for some help and mostly I got it for free. I shared my knowledge as much as possible with others (minus some business secrets) and I believe we all are in a win-win position.
Now let's talk about what I think of so called "business" a person can do.
I divide them into 3 categories:
1: Employee: Where you work for someone else, you get a set amount of money of what you do and chances are your life will never improve.
2: Self Employed: You own a business and you make money but you will need to sacrifice a lot of time and social life if you really want to bank up some money. A small example could own a candy store. If you want to make money, you going to have to open your shop everyday from morning to night, if you decide to close the shop for a day, you won't make any money and chances are you might lose few costumers as well.
3: Business Owner: Now that's the option everyone is looking for. You own a business and have others working for you and making money for you, even while you are sleeping. You still do need to spend some time if you want you business to make more and more profit everyday but you have choice to have some time off whenever you like, take a vacation whenever you like and other social activities.
Making money using a website falls into somewhere in between being self employed and being a business owner. It depends on how much revenue you generate and how much you are willing to share it to get 3x more.
The hardest part of making revenue is to make someone visit your website at the first place and then have come back again and again. But how can I do that? I mean there are millions websites out there and chances are at least a 1,000 other websites who share the same topic and products as I do.
Well having an original idea is one thing and competing with others with same product is another. Here is what I would do to make it different than others:
Offer something else with the original product you are aiming to sell! Wouldn’t that be great if I was looking for a web hosting service for my business and I had come across a host who is offering not only web hosting but also web designing, upgrades (paid of course) or even articles on how one can promote his or her website?!
Or how about classifieds website where I was able to order a printout of a house ad for me to share with my wife or loan officer for a price with some extra information like 4 extra images of the house?!?
Maximize the revenue with related advertisements! If I am running an online shop of Chicago White SOX goods, I would like to show advertisement of a website or business that sells Chicago Bears good. I would also sell space to local newspapers and other companies who are targeting people in Chicago only. I mean if I am in search of some Reebok shoes, I might click on some advertisement that is promoting cheap socks instead of a really shinny blinking ad that tell me to click it because I am the 1 millionth user. Hey, I might click on some ad that is offering some great deals on shirts but sure enough not on some ad that’s asking me to shoot Osama-Bin-Ladin to win a free XBOX.
Make the visitor feel special! Tell them that you appreciate their presence to your site. Don’t force them to do anything. Let them feel like they are in control.
Let’s say, I have a site that’s selling shirts. I will give them option to add it to the cart and checkout without signing up for the site or newsletter. BUT! If they register, next time they shop, they will have free shipping or 5% off next purchase! But wait! This is not it, if you register now, you have option to order the shirt we are out of stock for now and we won’t charge you for shipping!
Now these ideas just came to my mind as I was writing this post. They may not be original but I sure do know they are effective. I am sure there are 1,000’s of other great ideas that people have but don’t have either time or resources to make them come true. Many might have tried them as well and failed but that’s life for you, you can’t always win. But HEY! That’s how every business is.
Now the post above doesn't targets owners of PHP-Nuke powered websites only but all website owners in general. I think I might be able to pitch in few ideas for PHP-Nuke powered website owners as well, seeing that PHP-Nuke has 1,000s of great add-ons under it's shadow but I want to read more from James and others who have been in WWW business for a while now.
Mesum, you are quite welcome to post your thoughts, that is what I write the articles for. The more views we can get from people who are making money, no matter how small that money is, the more ideas we will have of what works and what doesn't. Although I know that you are excited about this article series, keep in mind that we are now getting into the "how to" stage instead of theory You might want to save some of your thoughts for later article postings so that we aren't duplicating content between this thread and those, but your thoughts are welcomed and I can understand you just fine.
You don't have to be an article writer to communicate. The readers just need to have an interest and a base to understand your thoughts. Don't discredit yourself just because you aren't a writer. You still have valuable information for those looking to make money from their web site. Your concepts are on track, but you need to back up to the visitor and tailoring things to them.
You'll never be able to do that effectively unless you find ways to learn about your visitors' wants and needs. Once you can identify those, then you can offer them things that fulfill those wants and needs. Once you do that, then you will make money. And these are the kind of things the future article sections will get into. Thanks for your continued contributions to the thread.
Joined: May 15, 2004 Posts: 539 Location: http://tinyurl.com/2rxdv3
Posted:
Fri May 13, 2005 8:01 pm
whiteknight0571 wrote:
You don't have to be an article writer to communicate. The readers just need to have an interest and a base to understand your thoughts.
I don't fully agree with that statement.
There are way to many individuals that make use of the net, each person has his own way of speaking, iq, interest and so forth.
Shure your website should aim to the most breach of people, but "what is" the biggest breach and how do reach them ?
By providing high-tech material you will only recieve limited geeks and by providing the oposite you reach the lower level of community or kids which don't have money to spend.
The biggest trick is to find the correct level of approach and this also means a good communication which will be understood by the masses.
For example my thoughts will not be understood by most of the people unless i talk with geeks. So first i need to figure out a way "how" to explain it to the people.
There are many people with good thoughts but there's only 10% of them who can explain it to others.
Maybe I should elaborate a little more on the quote DJ. You don't have to be a writer to communicate. Now why do I say this? Let me give you just ONE example. A picture is worth a thousand words. That is not a writer, that is a photographer, and there are others who are not writers, but able to help a reader paint mental images that convey the meaning they wish to impart to those readers.
For the other sentence, I'll use your own words on the high tech people. The readers need to have a base to understand your thoughts. In this example, it might be a base understanding of the Unix shell. If your article is on that, and you use common technical wording, then this is the base on which you build your article, which leads to a better possibility that the reader will understand the thoughts you are trying to convey. Of course, neither of the situations take into mind language or cultural barriers.
We're getting a bit off topic though. I also tend to disagree that only 10% of people are able to explain their thoughts to others. There's just too many people out there writing articles that are readable and understandable for it to be only 10%. But then again, I guess the reason I have a problem is because I believe that all people have the ability. It's just up to them whether they choose to increase or improve that ability or not. I refuse to believe that I am any better than another. The only thing that makes me different is that I have chosen to take the time to learn and expand my brain knowledge. I didn't always write this way. It's been something that's years in the making, but I feel that ANYONE can do it. They just have to WANT to do it. And that's the same with making money with a web site.
Thank you all for sincerely sharing your thoughts and experience.
Most of the people that make money from business counceling are masters in producing nicely bound empty words concealing the fact that they have nothing to say. With the same success I could take an article of Derrida and replace all transcendental-philosophical terms with terms from the lexicon of a business paddler or comivoyager. The idea is to hypnotize the reader to the effect s/he reaches for his CC and makes the order of the e-book.
The only money-making module for Nuke so far is the NukeAmazon. But for some strange reason it is not being indexed by Google, so the effect of its deployment is zero. While using the combination of Nuke Encyclopedia and Mr.Rat APF4 produces enough pageviews from Google that provide the money for a nice TotalControl server fro ThePlanet.com
This is what I call Nuke-specific money-making application of the Php-Nuke modular CMS.
Using Nuke for selling coupons and other freebies and goodies does not pertain to such applications.
But there is another possible market for the Php-Nuke products, and this is the local CMS market. There are lot of companies in my country that still pay 12,000 dollars for getting a site possessing 1/10 of the Nuke functionality. When they get a fully functional, with lots of addons, hacked, optimized, properly localized and cotegorized for their specific needs, with free domains, professional design, multiple DBs and subdomains, 100 GB traffic and up to 5 GB HDD, support, personal care and personnel education, for only 5% of the above sum, they feel happy.
Joined: Mar 15, 2004 Posts: 638 Location: Waco, TX
Posted:
Sat May 14, 2005 9:37 am
Quote:
Most of the people that make money from business counceling are masters in producing nicely bound empty words concealing the fact that they have nothing to say. With the same success I could take an article of Derrida and replace all transcendental-philosophical terms with terms from the lexicon of a business paddler or comivoyager. The idea is to hypnotize the reader to the effect s/he reaches for his CC and makes the order of the e-book.
I disagree on your comment about Amazon being the ONLY money making module for PHPNuke. There is osc2nuke store front which is NOW in a module form, classifieds which can be turned into a money making module, all posters store, template monster, and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head. The other thing you need to keep in mind is that other modules, even though they might NOT offer ways to sell merchandise, STILL contribute to a web site's ability to make money. It's that little thing called content, and without the content that visitors want, then there are no repeat visitors. You have to look at the BIGGER picture.
On the rest of your post, you hit the nail right on the head when it comes to those in your area paying 5% of that sum. They have found something of great value to them at a reasonable price. That's just another part of marketing; adding value to your offerings to make them attractive to the potential customer while keeping the price affordable for your specific market segments. It is yet another part of making money with your PHPNuke site. Like I said previously, this is a MULTI-PART article. As the next sections are written, they will take a definite PHPNuke slant, but could be used by ANY web site owner as a means to make money from their web site.
On the quote mentioned above by Curtis, that is marketing and the intent behind anyone's words who is trying to sell something; whether that something is online or in a regular brick and mortar establishment. The thing is keeping it all ethical. The key to keeping it ethical is providing the complete facts to inform and educate the reader while giving them different potential options, or sides of the story. In the end, you inform and educate them so they can make their own informed decisions. That is ethical marketing. The ones you talk of are the ones that will say or do anything to make a sale. That is not ethical marketing, it is taking hard earned money from unsuspecting customers, and operating a business in that manner will lead to initial quick cash sales but lack long term sustaining loyal customers.
Again, thanks to all for the posts and the enlightening conversation. As soon as I get the move and some other issues taken care of, the next part of the series will be submited to Raven for posting.
Mesum, nice examples of Nuke sites that make some decent money, and yes, within two short years, it can be done. It's all in the process of the HOW it is done, and that eludes most people. Everyone please keep in mind that this thread is for comments and ideas on the INTRODUCTION article of the series. I will continue to add additional threads for each section as posted. Please confine your questions to topics covered in each section, and realize that this is the THEORY thread at the present