After observing many successful blogs and websites, I noticed that they all have key traits to make them successful. Here, I will share with you their money making secrets and ability to drive traffic to their site. The fact is, money making sites not only look better than other websites, they are better. Below I will share with you the key traits of successful websites and how the website owners are able to keep them successful.

1) Consistent Quality Content - Just look at the ProBlogger’s, JohnChow’s, and Shoemoney’s of the world. What do they all have that keep the readers coming back? Consistent quality content, or social replay value. What do I mean by social replay value? Content that the reader is satisfied with and content that keeps the reader coming back. Yeah, lately John Chow has been posting some delicious dinners on his site, but he also shares some of the latest monetizing strategies with his readers. If you think you can make it blogging without any quality content, or putting in half-hearted efforts you are definitely mistaken. All of the ads and “I easily earned 223,208.18 in 2 weeks online” stories are completely misleading. Yes, it is possible to earn large amounts of money online, but no one will ever do it “easily,” in fact, it will be quite a challenge!

2) Newsletters & E-Book Subscriptions - All big name blogs offer free newsletters that their visitors can sign-up for to receive the latest “money making insights” in their e-mail. Some of them even offer free e-books. By offering free newsletters & e-books, and having visitors receive them in their e-mail, it is nearly a guarantee that visitors will return to their site. I am currently looking to integrate a Wordpress “newsletter” plugin on this blog. So far I haven’t found any quality free one’s so I will probably purchase one. If for some reason I find a free “newsletter” plugin that looks professional, I will give a shout out to my readers!

3) A Customized Layout - A custom layout is definitely a huge key in creating a successful website. A custom layout is a large reason that people keep coming back for more. Quality content alone will do the job, but a high-quality layout can boost traffic significantly! Lately, I’ve been contemplating buying a custom blog design from UniqueBlogDesigns.Com, but it seems a little bit expensive for me at the moment. I know getting a quality, customized layout it would be a great investment for many blogs out there. Currently, my personal favorite layout is John Cow’s design with the cow-spotted Lamborghini’s in a farm field on the header. If anyone knows where I can get a high quality custom layout for AndrewPavelski.Com or would like to design a cool customized layout for me, let me know!

4) Large Amounts Of Traffic - Successful websites do a great job of promoting their name. If you type in “John Chow” on google, his site doesn’t even appear until about the 6th page, yet he still has a large reader base and his traffic keeps increasing. Why is this? He does a great job promoting his site in other ways. The man writes reviews, provides quality content, will use social media sites like Digg, Reddit, & StumbleUpon if he has to. He does whatever it takes and currently he doesn’t need to do much because people keep coming back. Why do they keep coming back? Because his website has all the traits of a successful website! Keep reading and discover what it takes to build a successful website.

5) The Ability To Generate Money - There are many common traits that big name bloggers share to generate money. Check out John Chow’s strategies for example:

1. The man has a drop-down MaxBlogPress bar above his header for which several people pay him monthly to put a link to their website
2. He writes reviews for other websites and is paid $450 for writing a fairly short, yet quality review
3. The 125 X 125 section of ads located to the right of his posts definitely make him some serious cash
4. He has a “featured sites” section for which he gets paid monthly by whoever requests to have their link there
5. He owns his own advertising network…(more $$$…)
6. He gets money from each click on the Kontera in-text advertisements
7. He advertises on his RSS feed
8. There are shopping advertisements at the end of each post
9. He advertises with a big “block / square” advertisement in many posts

There’s many more things that John Chow does to make money online. He is always one step ahead of most bloggers when it comes to the newest advertising techniques and latest trends (i.e. Entrecard).

6) The Site Is “Niche” - The truth is, you have a much better chance at winning the competition online when there isn’t any competition. To create a website with a “niche” that no one currently has is definitely key in attracting visitors. If you don’t yet have a website, I suggest thinking of a topic that is currently very unpopular, yet will be popular within the next 10 years. Let’s take Personal Development for example: there are currently so many good personal development site’s yet the most successful one is StevePavlina.Com. Now, Steve Pavlina agrees that site’s should be “niched” and have quality content. Yet, I check out his blog and there is a huge revolution going on and new “personal development” site’s are being born everyday. Dear newbies, you may have quality content to provide, but since Steve Pavlina’s website and other personal development website’s already have a large base of loyal followers and a shrine of quality information, wouldn’t you rather pick a “niche” where you at least have a chance to make money online?

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