I’ve been busy over the past week or so creating and setting up a new website. Ok, so I didn’t create it per say, I actually bought a template from a well known company to sell their products. I added a logo to the site, re-input the prices in the hope that it is going to make me a profit, all I have to do is promote it.

The site is called Circus-Media.com in which I sell Domain names, hosting packages and various other products and services that encompass everything web based. The range of products is amazing. They include e-commerce shopping carts, secure certificates, email packages and much more. It includes a support system that is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The best thing is, all I have to do is promote it and it runs itself. It’s totally automated.

Of course, I have bought products from Circus-Media and got them at cost price. I’ve even called the customer support centre. The guys there are so good and professional and get the job done without a fuss.

The best thing is, that even though it’s 100% automated and I have a massive range of products that I can set the prices for, it only cost me $99 to set up. When you think of it like that, it’s good value. I also got a free credit of £100 to use with Google Adwords, a free traffic blazer, which submits the site effectively to all the most popular search engines, and a whole host of other benefits that I have yet to get to grips with.

On a different score, I have been creating websites for a while. They are simple, nothing amazing that is going to set the world wide web on fire, but are informative, aesthetically pleasing, effective, and easy to use. I haven’t got a clue about programming languages, php, asp, etc. but I am wanting to learn as I have a killer idea for a website that will make money while I sleep, so for the past year or so, I’ve been looking for a partner who can program, but some have been slow on the uptake.

I digress. I have a few websites that I have built and have been running for a while now. I’m currently getting about 700 visits per month to one of them, Matt Cardy Specialist Cars , but my enquiry rate is slow. I’m not surprised really. The fact is, I sell left hand drive cars to the UK market, which is right hand drive. Why? Because my market is to those people who are moving to, or live in continental Europe. It’s also slow because I sell top notch, high end cars, which I import and export all over the World.

So, if you’ve seen the site, you’ll know it’s white, clean, uncluttered and classy. I didn’t ever want to put an advert on it. Never did I want to do that. However, yesterday, I did. I succumbed so to my own pressure and added some adverts to just a few of the pages. I had signed up with Google’s AdSense. Basically, they put small adverts on your site that are tailored to the text you have on your pages. They are relatively unobtrusive and subtle, without being too cluttering.

Bearing in mind I put these on there yesterday, I signed into Google AdSense to obtain a further advert for a site I’m perfecting, and I saw the following.

Ok, so it’s only 51 cents, but within about 2-3 hours of putting up the ads on my site, I have earned 51 cents! I was so excited when I saw it because yes, it’s change, but in a year what do you think I’m going to earn from it? Well, guess all you want, but I’m going to blog it here, so you can see. I’m going to post it every month, so you can see what I’m earning and what I’m not. Remember, this is an experiment, so I’m going to show my results to you, so if you stick with me, in a year you’ll see what I have earned from it.

Of course, it’s not going to stop there. My current income streams are as follows:

My Blog– I have Google AdSense linked to it.

Circus-Media.com – Making profit for selling domains, hosting etc.

Matt Cardy Specialist Cars – Selling Cars and has Google AdSense on a few pages.

Top Ten Online – Not complete, In the process of completing, but have AdSense on it also.

Matt Cardy Web Design (I’ll be changing this site this weekend to accommodate my new special offer which gives you a 3-5 page website of your own, for free. Yes, free.)

So from spending a little over $99 and applying myself for the time it took to build the above sites, update them and implement them, which I have previously done, I’ve made 51 Cents.

Remember, a business is about making money. To make money, you have to work hard, be smart and trial and error. There isn’t some pain in the ass boss hanging over my shoulder all day paying me for my time. I don’t get paid every month, I don’t have a regular income, I am doing this for my own results. Therefore, I have to get to a point where I can pay myself per month. That means building my business from the ground up.

In fact, I’m in a hole. I’m still $98.49 in the hole. I have to make that back before I make a profit. From a business point of view, I’m in a good position. A lot of people starting out in business take out massive loans of $20,000 upwards to buy equipment, tools, etc. They have rent to pay on their premises, they have decoration to do, implement an advertising budget, put up signage on their store, stock the store, and work at it day and night to make it work. Above all, they have to convince the bank that they can pay back the loan.

I have a long way to go. I have to sustain myself and my family. Thing is, I have no shop to maintain, no building, no stock, no bank manager breathing down my neck and no loan. I owe myself $99 which is nothing in the grand scheme of things. I work from home and I work on my own time. I am committed and know where I want to be. I have goals, I have dreams.

Next time I post an update, I’ll set some goals. Until then, I have work to do.