Aloha, I’m Joe Trent and I live here in Kailua Kona. I’ve been building websites that make money since 2006.
The first site I ever built was Konafriends.com and what a learning experience that was. It’s ugly, but it get’s over 700 unique visitors a day and makes about $300 to $500 per month on auto pilot as of the writing of this post. If I was willing to actively sell advertising to local business it probably could make a lot more. But I’m not. It just sounds like a lot of work. Work that continually has to be done over and over again. I’m not into that.
I’m into do the work once and then get paid over and over again business model. That’s what I love about affiliate marketing. Build a web page once and get paid over and over again for it. That is a beautiful thing.
During the day I own and operate Trent’s Automotive, a Kailua Kona auto repair shop. It was my auto repair business that motivated me to seek other income opportunities because of how difficult it is to find good employees. I built the shop website using WordPress. Not the prettiest site, but it matches our building’s color.
Websites are like cars, you want one that looks good, but you really want one that runs good and gets you where you want to go. Hence, some of my sites aren’t the best looking, but they kick butt in the search rankings because I’ve applied SEO techniques that I’ve learned over the years to them. It’s what’s under the hood that brings visitors to your website, not the way it looks. Looks are important for sales conversion, but you have to have visitors first.
One of the things that motivated me to learn how to make money online was that I’m not totally confidant that Social Security is going to be around when the time comes for me to retire. Now I don’t worry because I got this auto pilot cash coming in.
Hawaii has no industry left after the sugar plantations closed down. People here on the big island have a severe lack of opportunities to help them get ahead and the cost of living is enough to choke a horse. I know with what I’ve learned over the last 5 years, I can teach people, skills to build their own online businesses that could change their lives for the better. And give me some good karma in return. Helping others succeed in business is a good thing.
Do I worry about people I teach becoming online competitors. No. The Internet is just like the ocean. It’s huge and full of fish (dollars). You just have to know how to catch them.
