I love X when it comes to connecting with other like minded individuals. When I first started my blogging journey, one of the first things I did was start an X account.
One of the people I was able to connect with was Paul who is the owner of a business called Aoaku.
Paul has been involved in the online money game for 30 years (as you’re about to see below).
Because of this, he was one of the first people I wanted to add to my list to interview for this site. Luckily for me he accepted.
During our conversation, he talked about his income streams, a little bout them, amongst other things. Let’s dive in.
Short Introduction About Yourself
I’ve been building websites for over 30 years, starting in the early 1990s. Over the years, I have built and sold many websites for myself and worked in the corporate world, building websites for some of the largest brands in the world. I’m currently focused on managing my portfolio of websites (valued in the mid 6 figures) and expanding it further.
I have a technical background, so most of my sites are more programmatic. I focus more on websites that provide a service rather than just content. This, along with a strong focus on automation, helps me grow while maintaining low costs.
What Got You Into Making Money Online?
Back in the early 2000s, I was looking to expand my technical skills. I took on a side project for myself that ended up growing into a profitable website. At that point, the seeds were sown, and I was hooked on the website business world. Over the years, I have built websites, Facebook apps, mobile apps and other online ventures. I always build new things with a focus how it will become a profitable business as part of the foundational planning steps.
What Are Your Income Streams? – (By Order Of Significance) – you could do %’s if you’d like (no big deal either way)
Paid Memberships (60%)
Paid memberships are the most profitable and stable way to get revenue from a website. It can be challenging for pure content sites to break into the membership world and attract a paying audience, which is why I focus on programmatic sites.
Display Advertising (30%)
Like most content sites, display advertising is an easy way to convert website visitors into money. Even small sites can make money, but to get the big bucks takes time as you build up traffic.
Digital Products (8%)
Once you have a good audience, getting them to buy a digital product can be fairly easy. Most people will pay money for information/content they can get for free elsewhere if you have their trust and package it well.
Social Media Platforms (2%)
More social media platforms are starting to pay content creators for posting content on their platforms, and not just the video platforms. This is a great way to diversify your income streams and not rely on just your own website.
Paid Memberships Seem To Be Becoming More & more popular due to Skool, what is the best way to get people to sign up?
The best way to get people to sign up for a paid membership is to warm them up first. People will rarely join a membership site on their first visit to your site. Use inbound traffic sources such as social media and search engines to get people to sign up for your newsletter. Then use your newsletter to drive them back to your site as a repeat visitor. Once they get used to visiting and using your site, they will be more open to becoming a paying member and you can work on getting them to sign up.
What Is Your Process For Coming Up With Digital Product Ideas?
The best way I have found to come up with ideas for digital products is to listen to what people want. I get involved in the community for the given niche on other platforms. Over time, you get to understand what the needs are and the gaps out there. Coming up with your own ideas can sometimes work, but not nearly as well as listening to what people actually need. The products can often be surprising.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out with the goal of creating multiple income streams?
Most people fall into the trap of going down the SEO route first and trying to convert one-time visitors into money. That will only get you so far. Take the long-term approach and focus on building a loyal audience. Find out what will repeatedly bring visitors back to your site without relying on search traffic. That’s when you will be able to monetize your audience with multiple income streams.
There are many people out there who deal with Shiny Object Syndrome. How do you decide what’s worth your time and what’s not?
I rely heavily on planning. I have 3 levels of planning that help to keep me focused.
- 5-year plans – Each website has a 5-year plan. It includes features and revenue goals.
- 1-year plans – Each year I evaluate all of my websites and lay out plans and goals for the year to keep it on track with the 5-year plan.
- Monthly plans – Each month I set out the tasks I want to get accomplished for each site.
By having solid plans and sticking to them, I am able to maintain my focus and “mostly” avoid the lure of shiny objects.
Can you share a significant mistake you made while developing your income streams and what you learned?
Early on, when I started building websites, I was too impatient. I expected to see results quickly. When I didn’t get the fast growth I was expecting for a site, I would give up on it and move into building something else. In hindsight, many of those early sites would have done well if I had waited a bit longer and given them time to grow. Website growth is measured in months and years, not days and weeks. It can often take a full year to see any real growth and 1 to 3 years to make meaningful traffic.
Online Business Moves Fast. There are a lot of changes (Google updates, AI, etc.). What Would You Say Is The Best Bet In Terms Of Staying Ahead of the Curve and Ensuring Long-Term Success in Making Money Online?
Things will only get more challenging for website owners relying on a content-only/SEO approach. AI makes it easy to replicate good content for most niches, and Google will slowly chip away more and more at SERP traffic. Stay focused on providing value to your audience, creating stickiness and return traffic. The key is to build functionality that LLMs, such as ChatGPT and SGE can’t easily recreate. If you build something that can spread by word of mouth in your chosen niche, you are doing the right thing.
You Mention Creating Stickiness? Do You Have Email Lists For Your Sites and how do you acquire them?
I have email lists for all of my sites. I often will start building up the email list before I even launch the site. Prior to launching a site, you can just collect emails with a coming soon page. Drive people from the community to that page and you will often get a lot of email signups from people wanting to be informed when the site launches.
Once you have your site launched, the best way to get emails is using a lead magnet or gated content. Giving visitors something in return for their email address is very powerful. Don’t stick to just one lead magnet or offer. Have several to give you the best opportunity to get as many emails as possible.
What are your future business goals, and how do you plan to achieve them?
The next few years are going to be spent expanding my website portfolio. I’m building a versatile platform that can easily deploy websites for a variety of niches. The platform’s core has been built and the first website already deployed on it. This year is about launching other niches on the platform. After that, I will be focusing on building out the feature set of the platform and then launching the platform for mobile apps.
Where Can Everyone Find You & Learn From You?
I am most active on Twitter/X as @aoakudotcom and occasionally will post on my website https
://aoaku.com/
Lessons Learned From Pauls Journey
Create Content That LLMs and AI Can’t Recreate
Everyone is obsessed with the SPEED that a.i can give us. But no one pays attention to the value of the content. I wouldn’t be able to create these lessons from Chat GPT. This is in all aspects of creating online. People are looking to automate YouTube, blogging, amongst other things. The two things that could separate you from everyone today is attention span, and the ability to create DEEP and MEANINGFUL content.
Planning and Patience are Crucial
Paul emphasizes the importance of having detailed plans (5-year, 1-year, and monthly) and being patient for growth. Many online ventures fail due to impatience and lack of long-term planning. When you think about it, you’re trying to build a full time income from scratch. It shouldn’t be something that happens over night.
Value Over Volume
With AI, it’s easy to produce high volumes of content, but it’s not so easy to produce high quality content. With that being said, if you want to get ahead of most people, take the extra time to put together valuable content.
Email Lists Are Probably The Most Powerful Tool
Although email lists are extremely old, they are still the most powerful tool available when it comes to building an audience. You don’t have to rely on any type of algorithm to determine your success.
Always Create a Product Based On Your Audience, Not By Your Gut
A lot of people make the mistake of coming up with a product based on what they THINK would be a good idea instead of coming up with a concept based on what their audience tells them. Don’t rush to put out a product, take your time and see what peoples biggest problems are.
You Don’t Have To Reinvent The Wheel
When it comes to products, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Paul mentioned that people will be willing to pay for a product simply because of the fact that the information is packaged the right way (efficiently). Yes, people could learn certain skills by going on YouTube but it could be hard to find the information packaged in a concise, easy to implement, manner.
It’s A Must To Get Involved In Your Niche On Whatever Platforms Possible
Get on reddit, instagram, X, Twitter, LinkedIn, and any other platforms where your audience hangs out. This is extremely important when it comes to content creation and digital products. One good tool to see problems in your niche is Gummy Search. It takes a niche, gathers a bunch of subreddits in the niche, and then you’re able to go through the information. There’s a section it will come up with that will give you pain points from the audience.
Comments
One response to “How Paul, Owner Of Aoaku, Built Multiple Income Streams Online”
Your point of view caught my eye and was very interesting. Thanks. I have a question for you.