Hello Everyone

[Gio]

Hello to you all,

Firstly I would like to thank Clinton and the mods for making this forum what it is. I have been aware of this site for a while but it is only now that I have registered and made this post.

Here is a little bit about where I am at the minute and what got me into the whole "make money online" thing.

It started three years ago and I was doing the usual scouring of the internet with phrases like "make money online" and the like. Funnily enough the first route I took was the paid surveys route. Now I am not saying people can't or don't make money with this but for me and after two months of filling out about 10 to 50 surveys a day I had made a grand total of £2.63 and a free can of Lynx deodorant. Not to mention the fact that it was completely Boring. Yes capital B.

I then got into buying every make money online thing under the sun and It became a bit of an obsession/addiction. Now this says something about the quality of the copyrighting in that it completely brainwashed me or that my mindset needed a complete reprogram.

I would not say that the last three years has been a complete waste of time as I have learned things that can and will help me in the future from minor things like buying a domain to setting up a wordpress blog to creating a facebook page.

I know that Clinton and others here are mainly in the buying of domains business, I am interested in creating websites and having the sites become very popular in my chosen niche by creating really valuable and exciting sites.

Please let me know your thoughts,criticisms or opinions as they are all extremely welcome.

Thank you

Gio

[Slowdive]

Welcome to the forums Gio.
Although we do have some professional domainers here, most of our members are looking for exactly the same thing you are. A profitable business model on line that can be built up into a valuable .com and online business. Whether they buy those, create them and live off them or sell them later.
Its also great to hear you have learnt a bit from the easy money learning curve most of us went through. Your also right there are gems of wisdom in even the worst make money online course, even if its how not to do things. If you would like thoughts you may need to share a little on the niches you plan to tackle? Gambling as a niche is very different to say growing your own mushrooms Looking forward to chatting further.

[cash ninja]

Hi Gio,

Your experience sounds a lot like mine, except I am a bit too tight fisted to have paid for more than a couple of mmo offerings. I tried the survey thing too and nearly died of boredom.

I've got a couple of established websites and a few more that are in their infancy that I am currently developing. I haven't done any domaining or flipping of sites but I'm not averse to the idea of that either but my primary focus at the moment is to build some sites that bring me some income and keep a roof over my head.
I've already learnt a lot in the few days I have been registered on this forum so I'm sure you'll find it useful too.

Tim

[Gio]

Gambling as a niche is very different to say growing your own mushrooms Looking forward to chatting further.

It's funny you should say that as "growing your own mushrooms" was on my list of possible niches! I am also pretty knowledgable about making homemade wine as it was something I used to do with my Dad. Might get the chance to again with some consistent sun!

Also, Italian cooking is something I know a lot about and enjoy talking to people about.

Thanks for the reply.

Gio

Hi CAsh Ninja,

That's great that you have a couple of established sites. Glad that my message resonated with you.

Totally agree with the boring surveys line. Definitely not for me but good luck to the rest.

Thanks

Gio

[Kay]

Hi Gio

Welcome! I like the idea of home-made wine. In these times of austerity that could be popular. Do you know if there's a lot of competition in the niche. How would you plan to monetise the site? Perhaps by selling wine-making equipment?

A lot of people tend to think of wine as only coming from grapes. But for those in colder climates, such as where I come from, they make wine out of all kinds of things. My grandfather used to make elderflower wine.

[Gio]

Hi Kay,

Yes there is definitely competition in the niche but, I can position myself in there somewhere.

I was definiely thinking of the wine making kits idea.

I think you can make wine out of abolutely anything. People even make wine from honey! But any fruit will do the trick as far as I am aware. Only used grapes myself though.

Going to hopefully get my Dad into making some this year so I can video the process and get those on there for people to see how it's done.

Thanks for the reply.

[glideinyostride]

Hi Gio.

I too tried the survey deal for about a week and after waiting over a month for the check I think I made somewhere around $80 (but I think they went out of business).

I think Gary Vaynerchuck might have the wine review market sewn up but you could definately tap into the homemade wine recipe/equipment review market or some other specialty in the niche.

Kay,

I enjoy wine made from honey and spices like caraway and hibiscus.

[Kay]

The key to success will be finding a USP and creating your own space within the niche - doing something a bit different from how the others in the niche are going about it. I think it's worth having a go at it. My only concern would be being able to monetise it. Even assuming you could get the traffic, how easy would it be to convert?

I mean, why would people make their own wine? Two obvious answers to that as I see it. 1) They want to save money by making their own, and/or 2) they do it for the love of it, just the same as people enjoy cooking or any other hobby.

If the site attracts the type who wants to save money, then they may not be big spenders and could be hard to convert into buying customers. If they're the type who do it for the love of it, then maybe they'll already have their own equipment and will look at your site only for recipes and information.

Even if you sell wine-making kits, where would your target audience be? Wouldn't demijohns and the like be expensive to send through the post or by courier? I love the idea of home-made wine, but if this is to be a money making venture then you need to thrash out all this kind of stuff before you invest your time and money into it.

You could take the 'easy' way out and monetise it with AdSense. There has to be a better way! What about getting a bit more niche and selling corks for the bottles or something like that? What else could you sell?

Please send me a bottle of wine and I'll blog about it.

[JimWaller]

Hi Gio,

Welcome to the forum.

I'm a lot like you in that I tried the surveys thing. I did manage to get a few hundred out of it, but the boredom was horrid. I just felt like I was wasting more time than making money.

I'm also a home-brewer/vintner, in fact, I made all of the wine that was served at my wedding. I also made wine as wedding favors. I've made wine using both grape juice kits and from scratch using fruit. I even have a 6 gallon carboy with strawberry-raspberry wine just waiting to be bottled.

Between equipment, kits, bottles, and chemicals there is definitely an opportunity for monetization. The hardest part would probably finding the right affiliate supplier or drop shipper unless you want to stock a supply on hand. That's one of the harder challenges of physical products, storage and delivery.

Because regionality plays a part in the home-brew/ wine-making industry (at least it did for me due to convenience and speed of availability) it may be worth your time to explore a brick and mortar store, too. I'd just make sure I did my research to see if it's viable in your area.

You might also want to look into related fields like cheese making or vinegar making which also have their own equipment and chemicals but appeal to a similar demographic.

I hope this helps,
Jim