Website Name: The Bull Trader
Founder/Editor: Johns Wu
Website Link:
http://www.thebulltrader.com
Please briefly describe your ebusiness.
My e-business is a stock market blog that has been monetized with Google Adsense. I post up daily stock charts that I’ve analyzed, so that I can share my trading ideas with traders around the country.
Why did you pick this particular idea?
I wanted to create a stock blog because I really enjoy reading blogs. I think blogs have potential to replace mainstream media, and I want to be apart of the blogosphere.
Did you have any previous experience in this area?
No. I’m a college student learning stocks for the first time, and I am trying to build a strong passive income asset on the Internet.
How long did it take before you realized success or failure?
When I first started out on The Bull Trader, I had no idea that it would lead to the site that it is today. Initially, I was hosted on a free blogspot.com account. However, after just 1 month of blogging on that site, I already had a handful of loyal daily readers.
I realized that this was a great opportunity to build something successful, so I invested a small amount of money in hosting and moved onto my own domain with a WordPress backend. I also advertised my blog aggressively. Ever since that move, traffic and revenue have been increasing consistently.
Why do you think you succeeded or failed?
I was in the right place at the right time. When thebulltrader.com launched, there were only 3 other major stock blogs. Today there are over 150. The Bull Trader became known as a trusted and established blog because it was one of the first.
What things worked well?
Just a few weeks ago, I ran a giveaway sweepstakes. I convinced a book publisher to contribute some free stock trading books to the giveaway. I also got some stock newsletter services to contribute a few prizes. I then gave away the prizes to my readers, which gave my sponsors good product placement advertising while providing my blog with good publicity.
What things didn’t work well?
I tried launching a forum for my site a few months ago. It didn’t work out that well since most of the readers were not interested in contributing their ideas. Oh well.
What did you learn the hard way?
I learned the hard way that SEO is critical to a website’s success. I didn’t learn about SEO until a few months ago, and I regret that I didn’t start optimizing my site for search engines earlier on.
Did you find any particular person, book, or site helpful?
Not really.
What advice would you give to someone considering an ebiz today?
The Internet is just like real estate… except on the Internet, the land is free. You just need to have a great idea and the drive to develop your stake of land to have a booming online presence.