Your Portable Empire: How to Make Money Anywhere While Doing What You Love

Chapter 3. Automating Your Empire

For you to be successful, sacrifices must be made. It's better that they are made by others but failing that, you'll have to make them yourself.

—Rita Mae Brown

I sat down with Bill Hibbler, of www.gigtime.com fame, to discuss what components of Your Portable Empire could be automated. Over a couple of cups of gourmet coffee, we decided that almost every step could be automated.

There are many aspects of Internet marketing that are not part of the Portable Empire system. Adwords and adsense are good examples.

I've set up this system to be easy, quick, and consistent. Once you've got your Portable Empire running smoothly, you may decide to explore some of the more advanced marketing strategies. If it's fun for you, go for it.

ADWORDS AND ADSENSE—BUYING TRAFFIC

Some marketers use Google adwords, www.adwords.google.com, to attract customers. This is a "pay per click" system that allows you to bid on keywords that people search on. For example, you might bid on "golf clubs." You would be competing with all the other people who are also bidding on "golf clubs."

Let's say you bid 25 cents and win the bidding war. Google will feature your site when someone searches on "golf clubs," and every time someone clicks on your link, you pay a quarter to Google. The assumption is that the traffic you buy will purchase enough products to at least pay for itself. It's certainly automated.

However, I don't do this, and I don't recommend it. The rules are fluid and change ...