Image copyright lunchtimemama, http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=896537

I'm not sure where people are getting their information. Is it "common knowledge" that you can start a website that nobody has heard of, sell some banner ads, and retire in the Bahamas?

If that's the case, the common knowledge is wrong. The only way you can sell banner ads is to have a wildly successful website. You know... tens of thousands of hits. That's a few more than your friends and family. It's very, very, very unlikely (like winning-the-lottery unlikely) that you will be able to have a successful, ad-based website right out of the gate.

If you're serious about going that route (and I really recommend against it), your first task is to create a "wildly successful" site. It has to be addictive, viral, fun, informative, or useful... a combination of these traits is helpful. The problem is that many first-time online entrepreneurs are thinking profits before purpose. How would our bumbling president say it? "That's like putting the cart before... I mean the horse before... It's just not smart with the horse and the cart, you know?"

The real shame is that most sites online that make a decent living with banner ad sales are accidents. The creators of the websites were just trying to make a good site and then their popularity sky-rocketed. It was only after they started receiving millions of hits that they started making good banner ad money.

So don't book that plane to the Bahamas quite yet. Go back to the planning stage and make a site that fills a real need in the marketplace. Banner ad profit comes only after success. No ideas? Make something with kittens or ninjas.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites