People are usually attracted to the idea of making money “online” because they know someone personally “offline” who has been successful. In my case, it was an associate of (again) my brother-in-law. My brother-in-law had listed his lumber business with someone who ran a online lumber directory. I can’t remember the exact figures but my brother-in-law’s colleague made A LOT of money from a small niche. I remember looking at the website, hearing about the sales numbers and thinking to myself, “I could totally do a online directory like this!” I mean, I can design websites right? Only one problem. The niche I chose, I knew nothing about…

I don’t know why but the idea of an RC Directory really appealed to me. Now I need to tell you something. The last remote control car I had was when I was 10. It was a “wired” controlled car supposed to look like a Ferrari Testarossa. I received it as a Christmas present in 1988 and it lasted until about March of 1989. But despite this complete and utter lack of knowledge about RC vehicles, I thought the idea of an RC directory was GREAT. I could have links to manufacturers and…uh…well….what else? Uh oh…I don’t know. I know, I’ll go buy a lot of magazines about Remote Control, that will surely make me an expert. That cost me about $30 and my understanding of the RC industry before and after was about the same. I’m surprised I didn’t go out and buy a $500 RC airplane just for research. Geesh.

And of course, I couldn’t use a free link directory script like PHP Link Directory. No, I had to use a premium directory script from Turn-k, that I believe cost me at least $140.

The result: A complete and utter traffic flop and about $200 out the door (at least for now…we’ll talk about this site later)

Lesson:

It is vitally important that if you want to create a successful website with traffic, incoming links, high natural page rank that you pick a site that you actually know something about. The sites that have been even a little successful have been the ones I actually have some experience in the subject area. That is why I think this site will do well because I have A LOT of knowledge in the area of losing money online! I know something about that!