There are lots of different ways to make money online, some just add more value to the user-base than others.  Made for Adsense sites, affiliate shilling, mediocre content blogs, etc. (all lower value) aren’t going away - these will continue to be ways to make some money online.  But what about people who are after big money - I mean, REALLY BIG MONEY online?

Looking at the trends established by some other successful sites reveals a roadmap for success in the future.  These are the opportunities that I see as substantial future profit makers (and in some cases, areas where I’m pursuing site development):

• Hyper-localization
• Authority Video
• Traffic Siphoning

Hyper-localization

Part of the reason why I believe Google became ubiquitous in the search marketplace was that they understood and effectively responded to the public’s need for localized search.  They do a really good job of presenting local listings when you search for “location search term” (philadelphia attorney, for example), particularly with their integration of Google Maps.

If Google and Yahoo! recognize the importance of localization online, so should we.  The key, in my mind, is to create authority sites that provide content that is even more localized - instead of just supplying city information, we can push information down to the neighborhood level… and it’s not just creating hyper-localized link directories, because I think that’s actually a low value proposition.  Sites that make an effort to create really valuable, unique content will be rewarded.

People want to know about the areas where they live… or are going to live.  Create an authority site on a community, with unique content describing the area, video showcasing local hotspots, user-generated reviews of local businesses, etc. and the monetization potential will be phenomenal.  Your traffic will be so targeted that you will be able to charge premium rates to local businesses to advertise on a site of this nature, since advertisers won’t be paying for wasted traffic.

Authority Video

First off, when I talk about big ideas, big sites, I almost always come back to the concept of authority.  The video space, I believe, provides a prime example of why I’m so big on this concept.

YouTube dominates the video marketplace right now in terms of overall traffic.  But would I go to YouTube if I needed advice I could trust?  Is YouTube where I would expect to find a how-to guide on something technical?  Can I augment my education with YouTube videos?

Not really.  YouTube is great for entertainment.  If I want to see a guy get kicked in the junk, I’m going to YouTube.  If I want to track down a funny clip of Ravishing Rick Rude (my brother just sent me one such clip last week), YouTube is the only spot I’d think to look.  But it’s NOT a source for authority video.

There’s a great opportunity to make a name for yourself by creating informative content in nearly any niche.  Consider Gary Vaynerchuk as a prime example. Gary is the driving force behind winelibrary.tv - which is, in my mind, a prime example of an authority video site.  Gary has a collection of almost 450 videos detailing various wines.  I know next to nothing about wine (I don’t drink), but I can instantly see the value that Gary supplies to the worldwide wine community.  Gary has appeared on national television and just authored a book - think life is good for Gary V?  Know it.  Create expert video content in a niche and reap the rewards on a MAJOR level.

Traffic Siphoning

Here’s a concept that I think has a ton of potential and is actually pretty easy to execute.  It’s basically a play off of something that took off in the 80s with 1-800 numbers.  Somebody acquires a great, memorable 1-800 number, 1-800-PAINTER, for example.  Then, they market the number through radio ads, newspaper, whatever, and siphon the phone calls off to painting companies that want the leads.  They charge the painters a pretty decent chunk of change for funneling the leads over (way more than they paid in advertising cost) and profit nicely for limited work.

The same potential exists for folks with some SEO skill.  Rank a site for some very specific buying terms that people will search for, then farm that traffic out.  You can do this by running a generic page that talks about the qualifications of all of the companies who are under the your-site.com banner, and automatically rotate leads from a contact form.  You could also actually setup a 1-800 number for the website and run the same call funneling that has been used for several decades.

Part of the beauty of this concept is that it creates a pretty easy sales situation for you going forward.  Your traffic is tracked and so are calls to your 1-800 number.  Pitching it becomes, “How would you like your share of x targeted online lead submissions, and y phone calls?  It costs you only z dollars.”  And trust me, ranking for a lot of specific buying terms is EASY.